Chapter Text
The night is dark. The sky is not visible under the fir trees that surround Mingyu. No, all Mingyu has as he sits on his lone bench is a lamppost, weakly illuminating the empty park around him. Its orange light is the sole beacon of hope left inside him, hope that things are finally going to change.
Mingyu waits. The wind has stilled on this winter night, as if it knows what is about to come and it has to hold its breath. The light drizzle of the rain doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon, making the soil beneath Mingyu’s feet unsteady. Each droplet on Mingyu’s cheeks is nothing but liquid courage.
Mingyu stiffens as a figure makes its way between the trees. There is no mistake that it is coming towards him. The figure gets close enough that Mingyu can tell his idea was a success.
"I knew you'd find me here," he says, getting up himself.
"And yet you came all alone," the other's deep voice sounds. "That was your last mistake."
~~~
“Five.”
Mingyu moves his purple pawn a few squares ahead. “Your turn.”
“Light is a wave that can extract electrons from a metal.”
Minghao grabs the dice and shakes it lazily before throwing it on the table. “Three. Oh look at that, a ladder,” he smiles as he moves several rows up the board game.
Mingyu looks at him unimpressed, crouched on his chair with his cheek on his palm. It’s an uncomfortable position, especially since he is sitting on the Institute’s worst chair, but he can’t be bothered to change it now.
“The negatively charged electrons accelerate towards the positive voltage, closing the circuit.”
“Your turn,” Minghao passes him the dice.
Mingyu barely shakes the dice before he throws it again. “Four.”
Of course, because the universe always senses when one is not putting their 100% in a game of snakes and ladders, Mingyu ends up in the mouth of a snake. He sighs and drops nearly back to the beginning. “I’m not even mad at this point, just disappointed.”
“Hey, it could be worse,” Minghao says sympathetically. “You could be like Chan and Seungkwan over there.”
“Did I hear my name?” Seungkwan calls over the round table at the other end of the room.
“Seungkwan! I’m trying to explain the photoelectric phenomenon here!” Jisoo snaps his fingers in front of the other’s face.
“You mean you’re failing to explain the photowhatever phenomenon,” Seungkwan swats his fingers away. “I don’t understand this Jisoo! No one does!”
“I kinda was,” Chan kicks Seungkwan’s leg under the table. “Be quiet, let him continue.”
“Oh shut up Chan, there’s no point to this! What does electricity have to do with either of us? If anything, that’s Mingyu’s field, with all the photon stuff,” Seungkwan says, stretching backwards.
“That’s why I passed the test and you are still stuck here,” Mingyu calls over to him. “Get back to work and stop complaining!”
“And you get back to losing at snakes and ladders, photon nerd!” Seungkwan says back.
Mingyu sits a little straighter. “Get these photons,” he says and stretches his hand towards the ceiling. The familiar line of energy runs towards his target, its presence invisible until it’s not. The lamp above the round table flickers and turns off.
Minghao chuckles as Seungkwan glares at him.
“Mingyu!” Jisoo scolds him, much less amused than Minghao. “Fix that now! This is the lounge of the Spiral Institute, not a playground!”
“This is a circus, and he’s the clown,” Seungkwan huffs.
“You did not call our Institute a circus,” Jisoo directs his scolding back to his own table. “Do you have any idea where any of us would have been if they had not taken us in to train us? I’ll tell you. Dead is what we’d have been. Controlling our powers includes knowing exactly how they work, Seungkwan, and also when to use them, Mingyu.”
“Sorry,” Mingyu mutters, turning back to the board game. With a flick of his fingers, the flow behind the lamp continues, lighting the round table up again.
“But my powers-“
“Maybe your powers have nothing to do with electricity Seungkwan, but you never know when you face someone’s who do. Now be quiet and tell me what will happen if we reverse the position of this battery.”
Seungkwan’s face falls. As easy going as Jisoo is, he is always serious about their education. And he is right, of course. Everyone knows it. Having super powers sounds so cool in theory, but everything in their field sounds more fun in theory.
They’re not even that super of powers, when one thinks of it. The Spiral Institute was one of the first organizations to ever understand what actually happens when someone like Minghao makes a popsicle out of orange juice, or when Seungkwan stretches a couch in one direction so more people can sit on it.
“Five,” Minghao rolls the dice again.
“If you get another ladder, I swear-“
“Guys!” the double doors of the Institute burst open. Mingyu jumps in his seat. He turns around to look who has decided to join them so violently. It’s Jun, out of breath but still in his coat.
“Turn on the TV!”
“We’re trying to study,” Chan complains, the only one in the room trying to be productive apart from Jisoo.
“Turn it on, I’m telling you!” Jun says, almost crushing into a chair behind the kitchen bar.
“What’s wrong?” Minghao quickly grabs the controller, abandoning their game mid-way.
Good. There is no way Mingyu was winning that anyway.
“There was an explosion downtown! I was on the road, the whole ground shook with it!” Jun explains quickly.
“An explosion?” Jisoo hurriedly packs his books and joins Jun on the bar.
“We didn’t feel anything in here,” Chan says, approaching as well.
“Well, of course we didn’t in here,” Jisoo pulls a chair for the younger to join them. “These grounds are reinforced to hold back a nuclear attack.”
Minghao turns on the TV over the bar. The first channel that pops up is one with kids’ cartoons. Pink ballerinas and music box sounds fill the room, little girls’ voices talking about how friendship will make them get better at dancing. Everyone turns to look at Mingyu.
“What?” he asks. “It promotes teamwork!”
“Not only you are a clown, but you’re a clown on a children’s party,” Seungkwan says.
“Hello guys, huge explosion?” Jun claps to get their attention. “Put on the news, Hao!”
Minghao shakes his head in disappointment at Mingyu and does as instructed. They all huddle around Jun to see better. The lounge is a big area, with a shiny floor and an obnoxious orange carpet unrolled between desks with chairs for studying. A huge library covers one wall, with even more study tables, but everyone squeezes close together when it comes to watching news like this.
Minghao finds the right channel and a female reporter’s voice fills the room.
“…right now at the sight of destruction. It is not safe to approach yet, neither from land or from air, as the first responders are trying to search for survivors. As of now, there is still no known cause of the explosion that rattled the entirety of Seoul to its core, its scale and range of destruction unheard for a residential part of the town with no factories or chemical warehouses anywhere nearby.”
Images of rising smoke appear on screen, followed closely by zoomed in shots of uniformed people running around the bottom of the block that has seemingly been completely destroyed.
“This is awful,” Jisoo says. “When you said big explosion, I didn’t expect it to be that big.”
“Shh,” Jun shushes him.
“Firefighters are approaching the scene, but it doesn’t look like there is a fire, despite all the destruction. The old apartment complexes of this block have long been abandoned by their owners, following a devastating earthquake a few years back. Electricity and old household appliances have long been taken away from here. The site has been a well-known place for homeless people to stay, despite multiple petitions to the mayor to take action and give them actual shelter.”
“Oh no…” Mingyu puts his hand over his mouth. “Were there people inside that?”
Jisoo places an arm on his shoulder. “Let’s hope they managed to get out in time.”
“Homeless people, really?” Minghao makes a face and kicks the carpet. “How do people have the heart to do things like this?”
“Well, they shouldn’t have been there in the first place, it was the mayor’s job to protect them. Maybe whoever did this, if it was a person that did this at all, wanted to send a message to the authorities,” Seungkwan says.
“By killing people?” Chan asks, as appalled as Mingyu. No one has anything to say to that.
“As the smoke clears up, we see that everything above the first floors has been completely annihilated, with debris dropping down from dozens of meters high and destroying the road below. Wait, what’s that? Oh. Um, it appears that our cameras are not allowed to film anymore as it appears that there are actually victims in this tragic attack and it might get too graphic for our audience.”
The images change again, showing pictures of the block before the explosion. It looked like it was barely standing even before anything hit it. And there were people desperate enough to find shelter under this collapsing structure? How could fate be so cruel to them?
“Oh god,” Seungkwan says, leaning on the counter for support. “Do you think we’ll be sent in?”
“It is odd that there is no fire. If there was an activated bomb, there would be leftovers from the combustion,” Jisoo replies. “If there is suspicion that super powers are involved, we’ll have to investigate.”
Mingyu looks at Minghao. They haven’t been partners for long. Mingyu never manages to stay with the same person for long, due to the weak nature of his power. Everyone always has a better match and sooner or later he is left behind.
But this… he’s never had to investigate such a horror with anyone before. If he goes through this with Minghao, he hopes they won’t have to separate later.
It is right then that Jisoo gets a call. His ringtone is inappropriately cheerful, considering the situation. Mingyu flinches away.
“It’s Seungcheol,” Jisoo says before picking up. He walks away to talk as the rest of them remain rooted in their seats.
“Guys?” Seungkwan says, his eyes worried. “Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?”
“And you were complaining about the photoelectric phenomenon before…” Chan looks at the floor, his arms crossed.
“Weren’t Soonyoung and Jihoon on patrol today? Have we heard anything from them?” Jun asks, more practical than the rest of them.
“You don’t think…” Chan gasps, voicing everyone’s concern.
Mingyu looks back at the TV. It has switched from live footage to commentary from various reporters and politicians, who have rushed to give as much explanation about what happened as they can.
There is nothing more dangerous for the public now than the debris still threatening to fall on anyone who approaches the sight of the explosion. With enough famous people on the TV and spreading awareness on social media, maybe they can be warned to stay away.
Too bad Mingyu is not part of the general public.
“We have our orders guys,” Jisoo returns, locking his phone and putting it in his pocket. “First responders said whoever did this is long gone, but even if they are there, they must be barely alive. There are hardly any survivors.”
“How many people were trapped inside?” Seungkwan asks.
Jisoo sighs. “We can’t be sure until all the body parts are sent to hospitals and get identified.”
Silence. It is one thing to apprehend criminals staging a robbery or threatening violence that they are not capable of, and another dealing with the people who actually are capable of violence. It only takes one look around him to see that the rest of them, freshly out of their training, are feeling out of their depth.
“Anything from Soonyoung and Jihoon?” Jun asks.
Jisoo shakes his head. “There is suspicion that super powers have been involved,” he says. “But even if there weren’t, we’re still called to help with the clean up.”
“I can’t come without Hansol,” Seungkwan says. “Compacting the debris will help, but not only in one axis.”
“Wait for him here then,” Jisoo nods. “The rest of you, get ready and meet me outside.”
Chan zooms out of the room before anyone else has a chance to react. He is back a few seconds later, his leather jacket and protective goggles on. “I’ll find Soonyoung and Jihoon,” he announces before he disappears out of the door again, leaving a gust of wind behind him.
Jun is the next one to hop off his stool and rush to the locker rooms. Mingyu stands there, looking at his retreating form until Minghao tugs his sleeve.
“We need to get ready too,” he says, pulling him away from the lounge.
Mingyu nods and follows behind him. The sunlit hallways of the Institute looked so warm and inviting in the morning, but if Mingyu looks outside now, he can see the white smoke that rises, spreading dirty dust all around the city. Has Seoul ever seen an explosion like this before? He can’t be sure.
Mingyu splits away from Minghao in the end of the long corridor, heading for his own stuff. He can’t do much in situations like these, he knows, but to just be there and help the others will have to be enough. Letting the rays of the sun shine a little brighter, a little longer, a little deeper, will maybe give the rescuers a chance to see someone buried under all the cement bricks.
He takes his fingerless gloves out of his locker, as well as a thermal jacket. The winter has just begun, and Seoul is a cold place to be, even with the sun shining. He doesn’t really need anything else, his power is a gentle one, both to himself and his surroundings. Even if he could summon enough light to blind people, his own eyes would be spared, so he doesn’t even need glasses.
Minghao on the other hand, has a whole lot of heat packs to stuff beneath his uniform, lest his body parts freeze along with any liquid he touches and fall off. Mingyu hurries a few rooms over to help him get out there a bit sooner. Minghao will definitely be more useful than him to any wounded people, freezing the blood coming out of open wounds until they can receive proper care.
“Are you ready?” Minghao asks when he sees him, strapping a heat pack to his right palm. It won’t last him long, but it’s better than nothing.
Together, they make quick work of the rest of Minghao’s uniform and they leave the lockers. Every useful room in the Institute, the classes, the lounge, bathrooms, lockers and meeting rooms, everything is on the ground floor for easier access. Very few of them are allowed on any levels above that, much less to the top, where the superiors reside.
Only Seungcheol ever goes there, working as the bridge between them and the management. He is the one receiving orders and relaying information, much like he is doing right now, standing outside the main entrance with Jisoo.
“Oh good, you’re here,” he says as Mingyu and Minghao approach. “Chan found Jihoon and Soonyoung. They’re fine, but they were the first ones to arrive at the sight and began following some leads. We might have more news later.”
“Did they see who did it?” Minghao asks.
“I have no idea,” Seungcheol says, cracking his fingers to relieve his stress. “I need you out there to find out more. Oh good, Jun’s here too. Go guys, go,” he all but pushes them out.
“I’ll keep you updated,” Jisoo calls over his back as they board the Institute bus.
The thing about a city like Seoul is that one can’t realistically understand its scale. Be it because of technology and the news and images traveling at the speed of light, everything feels closer than it actually is.
Well, for once, this explosion really is as close as it feels. They are off the bus barely fifteen minutes after they boarded it, a few blocks away from where the damage on the road begins. They are provided with breathing masks and other protective gear from their driver, but after that, they are alone.
They all follow behind Jisoo quietly, even though their surroundings are anything but quiet. Loud sirens are going off in the distance, whirring helicopter blades above. Shouts and screams and radio communicators going off and then suddenly shutting down. Mingyu starts chickening out when the huge cracks on the road appear.
Before he can turn back though, a man in a hazmat suit approaches them and speaks in his radio. “Institute team here, I’m sending them over.” He then turns to Jisoo. “I need the ice guy to the ambulances at once. Water guy and light guy can head straight in the wreckage, they can help with the diminished visibility. You make damn sure we’re not in danger of suddenly catching on fire. Everyone’s expecting it to happen any moment now.”
Jisoo nods and turns to the rest of them. “You heard the man,” he says and well, so much for not separating from Minghao. His ice makes Mingyu’s light reflect and become brighter, stronger. Without it, he is even more useless.
“Come on,” Junhui pulls him along, several water canteens strapped on his waist.
Mingyu keeps walking, but his steps stutter as the fateful block comes into sight. It’s so much worse up close than the TV. Entire floors are collapsed on one another, walls and ceilings vaporized and turned to dust, as if they were never even there.
“How is…” he begins saying, but Jun doesn’t stop to listen. He unscrews his canteens and pulls the first wave of water out. Even if there is no fire to extinguish, it still does a great job of trapping the dust inside it, cleaning up the air faster and better than any other human can. Once the first wave turns black and murky, Jun grabs the next one. If he runs out, the firefighters should be able to provide more.
Jun can only control clean water, pure H2O between 0 and 100 Celsius degrees. The less pure it is, the harder it is for him to move it, until it becomes impossible. Still, the dust he will save the people from having to inhale will be crucial for any survivors.
The smashed surfaces of the wreckage itself look precarious at best to approach, let alone explore for any survivors. Red and yellow tape surrounds the whole square, as cement blocks and metal rods haven’t stopped falling. The people who go in there are the true heroes, and Mingyu needs to do his best to aid them.
He opens his arms, palms upwards towards the sun, and tries to make as much commotion in the tiny particles that float around as possible. Their teacher used to tell him that what he actually does is move photons around faster without letting them escape, therefore creating a source of brightness seemingly coming out of nowhere.
The more photons Mingyu can hold on to, the more light can shine through cracks for the rescuers to see where they can go and where it is dangerous. It’s nothing a good flash light can’t do, actually, but as he takes a step forward, a woman pats his shoulder in thanks and continues ahead.
That makes everything worth it. Helping people, having their gratitude, saving lives. This is what makes them heroes, what keeps them all at the Institute, despite the dangers. It has always been enough for Mingyu to look forward to the brightness he creates and find comfort in the fact that he is doing the right thing.
An abrupt shove to his middle knocks him out of his thought.
“Out of the way!” a huge man yells, a black plastic bag thrown over his shoulder.
It must be heavy to carry, because even a man of his stature wobbles around as he tries to move. It must be too heavy in fact, because when the man trips over a crack on the road, the bag falls to the ground and bursts open.
Various exclamations of horror sound around him, as the contents of the bag spill to the road.
“Don’t look Mingyu,” Jun tries to steer him away, looking horrified himself, but it is too late.
We can’t be sure until all the body parts are sent to hospitals and get identified, Jisoo has said. He has warned them. Mingyu knew in theory what he was shining his light on, but he wasn’t prepared to see it with his own eyes.
He averts his eyes back to the collapsing building, and this time, he forces himself to look. Just a few moments ago, he could have sworn its color was gray. But the truth is, it is far from it.
There are all kinds of colors and objects mixed in the rubble. There is the faint pink of a kid’s room wallpaper, a blue rusty cooking pot. There are green blankets, ripped and hanging lifelessly from some protruding objects. There are copper coins laying around, the little money homeless people have managed to gather before catastrophe struck them. There are colorful toys, old, dirty and blown up, the heads of stuffed animals separated from their bodies.
And there is red. A lot of it. The more corners Mingyu directs his light to, the more he sees. He sees evidence of life, of a poor, hard life and when he shines his light on it, it turns to evidence of death.
He abruptly lowers his hands, the light going with them. He turns to look at Jun, wondering if he sees it too, but Jun isn’t looking. Mingyu is pretty sure he’s still seeing gray.
“Light boy, we need you up in the crane,” a different woman tells him, pulling him towards the small barricade a bunch of heavy work machinery has made.
Of course, Mingyu goes. That’s why he is a hero, isn’t it? To protect people, to lead them to a brighter future. This has always been enough, so it has to be enough now. Even if the way he points his light to is not the future he has envisioned, he has to force himself to keep looking, because that is what a hero does. Right?
Before he can reach the barricade, he feels another arm pulling him in a different direction.
“A survivor is able to speak,” a person with a hard hat says to the woman dragging him along. “We need one of the Institute guys to ask him for presence of super powers.”
The woman sighs. “Give me flashlights then.”
The other nods and turns to Mingyu. “Go by the ambulances, you’ll see the old guy there.”
“W-what if he can’t talk? After all this, he might be in shock…” Mingyu says, sweat gathering in his palms at the thought of speaking to a survivor.
“We can’t care about a random homeless guy’s mental well-being now, not when a bomber of this caliber might be on the loose! Find out whatever you can, it’s your job,” the person says, pushing him towards the direction of the ambulances.
Right. They must be right. In a daze, Mingyu rushes over to where he was pointed at, quickly locating the screaming old man.
Is that what they meant he can speak?, he thinks appalled. Mingyu looks around him wide-eyed, seeing mostly pedestrians occupying the ambulance stretchers. These people were just walking around when the explosion happened. Almost no one is here from inside the building. They must all be in the black bags, his brain unwittingly provides.
Dashing around the stretchers with a concentrated look is Minghao, the pads in his hands already frozen. He only exchanges a brief look with Mingyu before he is rushed away by yet another nurse.
“Hey,” Mingyu says, finally reaching the old man. “I-I have to question him,” he says to the man that is currently stitching a nasty cut on the grandpa’s forehead.
“Go ahead. If you can,” the other replies through gritted teeth.
“Not another one of you! No one approach me, no one else! It will blow up! It will blow up!” he keeps screaming in a hoarse voice.
If this man survives… what kind of life is he going to lead? Will he ever be okay in the head again?
“Sir,” Mingyu tries to keep his voice gentle. “I’m with the uh, the police,” he says. “I need to ask a few questions.”
“The police? THE POLICE! They’re coming, everyone scatter!” the other screams at the top of his lungs.
Mingyu gapes at him. Aren’t the police supposed to be helping homeless people? Why did merely the word earn such a reaction?
The nurse shakes his head disapprovingly, but says nothing. It’s not his job to intervene, just like it isn’t Mingyu’s job to question the police. All he needs from here is information.
“No, not the police,” he quickly corrects himself. “I’m here to catch whoever caused the explosion.”
At that, the man starts crying violently. He almost breaks free from the nurse’s hold, one of the stitches coming undone it the process.
“He looked so harmless!” the old man lurches forward, grabbing Mingyu’s hand in his own.
Mingyu tries not to flinch away, but he fails. “He? Who’s he?” he asks.
“He looked so innocent, always curled up in his corner… It would have been so easy…” he starts sobbing.
“Sir, you know the person that did this? Did he use super powers?” Mingyu asks again.
“So, so easy, but maybe we shouldn’t have done it, maybe we shouldn’t…” the man keeps sobbing, snot and tears starting to run down his dirty beard.
“Can you tell me what he looked like?” Mingyu asks urgently. “Or how he did what he did, anything will be helpful.”
He gets no reply this time. The nurse tries to stop the blood from flowing down his forehead from the ripped stitches, but it doesn’t look like the old man reacts to the pain.
“Sir?” Mingyu snaps his fingers in front of the other’s face, trying to get his attention back. “Any information will be useful, please.”
“Don’t you think he gave you enough?” the nurse glares at Mingyu as if he was the one to hurt his patient in the first place.
Mingyu raises his palms up in surrender. “I’m just trying to figure out-”
“Find another way. You broke this one,” the nurse says bitterly.
Mingyu stares at him in shock. “I… I’m just trying to help the people…” he says.
“You’re not helping this one. Go, please, you’re interrupting my job,” the other replies, and that’s the end of it.
Mingyu takes a few steps back, trying not to feel defeated. He gained some information at least. That has to count for something, right? And the old man… well, he can’t think about that, not now.
He takes a few aimless steps, trying to organize his thoughts in the chaos that is unfolding around him, but he is interrupted once again by Minghao and Jisoo this time.
“Mingyu!” Jisoo calls him over, Minghao trailing behind him. “We got new orders. We need to leave, now, it’s dangerous.”
“What? Why? Are we going to leave everyone alone?” Mingyu asks bewildered.
“I don’t know Mingyu, Seungcheol sounded really nervous! He said the order is directly from the superiors.”
“What…?” Mingyu is left speechless. “But we only just-”
“I don’t know either, okay, we need to go now!” Jisoo is the third person to drag him along someplace Mingyu is not sure he should be going to.
They quickly retreat back to their bus, grabbing Jun along the way.
“Jisoo,” a very wet and disheveled Jun says. “If it’s dangerous, why are we leaving everyone to fend for themselves?!”
“Jun, it’s either be back in the Institute in twenty minutes, or get booted from it altogether,” Jisoo says, equally as frustrated. “I have no idea what is going on either!”
“What…?” at least Minghao is as lost as Mingyu himself.
They all stuff themselves in the bus as quickly as possible, not even bothering to take off the masks. Everything feels so fast to Mingyu, the scenery passing by the window, his thoughts fighting for dominance in his head with his emotions. The entire earth feels like it’s spinning too quickly.
“Mingyu, are you hurt?” Minghao asks from next to him, grabbing his hand in his own frozen, bruised one. Only now Mingyu notices that his hand is stained red from when the man touched him. Red, and not gray. Uncomfortable instead of inspiring.
“I’m fine,” Mingyu clutches his fist shut, not wanting to look at this stuff for a second longer.
~~~
It is a long day at the Institute. The first few hours, Mingyu refuses to get out of the lounge, watching the TV like a hawk to see if anything ends up happening to the rescuers at the explosion sight.
One hour passes. The rest of them shower and change into their everyday clothes, scattering around the multiple desks in the lounge to write their reports. Not Mingyu, at least not yet. His worry doesn’t let him take his eyes off the screen.
Two hours pass. The TV channels sensor too much. No wonder he thought the color of the explosion was gray before, this is what all the reporters with their cameras show to the world. No blood allowed on the TV apparently during the middle of the day. Mingyu feels it’s not fair that the rest of the world will never know what it was to actually stand before the death of countless people.
Three hours pass. They’re still counting bodies, and they will for a long time, news anchors say. Even if they do manage to pull all the bodies away from the debris, homeless people are notoriously hard to keep track of. Some of them will be dead, and their families will never know.
The others have finished with their reports by now. They come and go, sometimes sitting next to Mingyu to see the latest updates, but more often than not just playing games between them to pass the time.
Four hours pass, and Minghao must finally decide that Mingyu has been sitting idle long enough, because he approaches him with a glass of water. His hands are bandaged, but frostbite is nothing new to Minghao.
“Come on, this is not healthy,” he says, not unkindly. When Mingyu doesn’t reply, he continues. “Go take a shower and finish with your report. Seungcheol has called a meeting at 8.”
Mingyu nods. He knows. He got the same message as the rest of them. That’s the whole reason he is still here and not at home, trying to sleep his shock away.
“I need to know,” he tells Minghao. “I need to know if anything happens. If… if we left all those people to die.”
Minghao sighs. It weighs on him too, of course it does, that they left so abruptly. The people there could have used their help more. What in the world were the superiors thinking? Mingyu won’t rest until he makes sure everyone is okay.
“I’ll keep an eye on the news,” Minghao pats his back. “Go change Mingyu, you have dried blood on you.”
Reluctantly, Mingyu goes. He doesn’t feel like he deserves a warm shower after today, but he gets one anyway. He gets fresh clothes too, and the luxury to write about his experience in a well-heated room. None of the people who died today had any of these, yet he is here and they’re not.
Mingyu writes his report as quickly as possible while trying not to miss anything that happened, especially his interaction with the old man. When it is lunch time, someone plops next to him with a warm bowl of ramen, distracting him from his writing.
Mingyu looks up only to find Jeonghan, smiling at him sympathetically.
“Rough day, huh?” he asks, inviting himself to sit at the opposite side of Mingyu’s desk.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Mingyu murmurs.
Jeonghan uses his power to push the bowl closer to Mingyu without lifting his arms. It pushes the report out of the way, which is kind of annoying, but Jeonghan won’t go away until he eats. So Mingyu sighs and takes a bite.
“Everyone is back, just so you know. All unharmed, including Soonyoung and Jihoon,” Jeonghan informs him. “Seungcheol is… on various meetings, upstairs,” he points towards the ceiling. “By the end of the day, we’ll know everything there is to know.”
Mingyu nods. “Someone did this, Jeonghan,” he says seriously. “I got the proof. Someone killed all those people. I’ll never forgive them, whoever it was.”
Jeonghan smiles again. “I don’t think any of us will. What kind of heroes would we be otherwise?”
Mingyu nods, taking another spoonful. Jeonghan turns his eyes to the report Mingyu was writing, and it slowly makes its way towards his hands. “Do you mind?” he asks.
Mingyu shakes his head and Jeonghan skims over the paragraphs. “You got a witness. That’s something,” he says approvingly.
Mingyu bites his lips. He’s not good at keeping things bottled up. It’s not his nature to keep quiet for long, and Jeonghan has always been the best listener among them.
“I think I hurt him,” he confesses. “We are supposed to keep people safe, but by asking him those questions I think I made things worse for him mentally.”
“Oh, Mingyu,” Jeonghan reaches over and grabs his hand. “It doesn’t look like you had a choice. It’s unfortunate this happened, but we must look out for the greater good, don’t we? That’s why they call us heroes.”
“It’s hard looking out for the greater good,” Mingyu averts his gaze, feeling so tired all of a sudden. “I thought it’d be simpler.”
“Making choices is never easy. One can only look back at the ones they have made to figure out if they were correct or not, and even then, it is never with certainty,” Jeonghan says.
“Do you think that when the time comes, I’ll make the right choices?” Mingyu looks up at him.
“Of course you will. That’s what being a hero is all about.”
Mingyu swallows another spoonful. Yeah, he likes to think of himself as a hero. He has trained for this. Surely everything he has been taught must have prepared him to make the right choices. “Thanks, I guess. For the food and the company.”
“It’s okay Mingyu. I’m just making sure everyone is doing alright,” Jeonghan pats his hand one last time and leaves.
There are a few hours left to unwind after he finishes his report, so Mingyu seeks out Minghao again. Together, they flip through channels on the TV, listening to anything new that there is to listen. After a while, there is nothing new. Nothing that has released on the press at least.
That is why Mingyu finds himself among the first to arrive at the meeting room, the biggest room apart from the lounge. All its space is taken up by an oval table, able to seat at least fifteen people. There is a projector set up, pointing right at the board. Mingyu sits right at the center to get the best view.
Minghao sits beside him a few moments later, and then, one by one, they all start to filter in. Jisoo, Jun, Soonyoung and Jihoon are some of the first ones to arrive, as they have been more intricately involved with this case already. They are all dying to know what is going on.
Hansol and Seungkwan are a little behind Chan and Seokmin, all of them curious to see what is going on, but not as tired as the rest of them. Finally, Seungcheol comes inside and Jeonghan closes the door behind him before he too takes a seat.
“Thank you for being on time, everyone,” Seungcheol says, dark circles under his eyes. He sounds as exhausted as he looks, but he still determinedly fights with the computer for a while to turn on the projector without asking anyone for help.
When it is apparent that he will fail, he rubs his eyes with his hand. “Chan?” he calls, and the boy quickly comes to his aid.
“Alright,” their leader claps his hands. “As long as this is getting fixed, let’s begin.”
He exhales once, his cheeks puffing up before he nods to himself. “So, you all heard, an explosion to an abandoned apartment complex has taken place this morning downtown. First responders, as well as later scientific diagnoses all agreed that the explosion itself was not made because of any combustible material, or any other natural or unnatural chemical reaction.
There were no gas leaks, no dynamites, no ticking time bombs or any other childish things our imagination is currently coming up with as a way to comprehend what has happened. Right under our noses, might I add,” he glances at Soonyoung and Jihoon as he says that.
“Hey! We have only two eyes you know!” Soonyoung complains.
“Between you two, you have four eyes,” Seungcheol points out.
“Even if we had a hundred, since you say there was no bomb to detect, what exactly should we have been looking out for?” Jihoon must be annoyed as well to make an argument at this point.
“Good question,” Seungcheol points at him. “Chan, is this thing done?”
“Yessir,” Chan presses a button and a moving image comes up to the screen.
It is the rough lines of the apartment complex before its explosion. In slow motion, a black dot appears from around the third floor and it slowly expands, wrapping the building around itself then blowing it all up.
“That’s how it happened, according to the experts,” Seungcheol says, the progression of the image playing on a loop behind him. “Nothing to look out for per se, but plenty to be observed after.
The air inside and around what remains of that building has no traces of anything unnatural, not gasoline or gunpowder or whatever. It appears as if in one moment the building was standing, and the next the third floor decided to compulsively self-destruct. Interestingly enough, the explosion has a pattern. It begins from the inside and releases energy outwards, like any other exothermic reaction would. Only, there is no reaction that we can observe.”
“Seungcheol you’re losing us,” Hansol says, Seungkwan nodding vigorously next to him.
Seungcheol’s eye twitches. “Whatever made the boom went poof!” he makes a vanishing gesture with his hands.
“You mean that we have a reaction that somehow produced 100% energy? No residue? That’s impossible,” Jisoo frowns.
“Mmm at least for the general public,” Jeonghan hums, fiddling with his hair.
“So it is a superpower,” Mingyu pipes up. “There is a guy out there that can release 100% energy or whatever.”
“Exciting, huh?” Seungcheol sits on his desk, on the verge of tears.
“If it’s a chemical reaction, I can slow it down,” Seokmin says.
“If it’s a chemical reaction, it can be neutralized,” Jihoon adds.
“You’re not hearing me guys. It’s not a chemical reaction. Jisoo is right. You can’t get 100% energy out of a reaction that involves matter,” Seungcheol says. “Our powers don’t come out of nowhere. There is always a physical explanation about what we do that can be studied and replicated by science. That’s not it,” he pauses for dramatic effect. “The truth is… we don’t know what this is.”
A collective groan echoes in the room.
“What we do know,” Seungcheol talks over them, “is that there is a man responsible for this. According to a witness,” Seungcheol nods at Mingyu, “a guy has been staying long enough with the homeless people and he somehow decided to blow them up. It is more probable than not that this man has superpowers, therefore, as the Institute representatives, we are going to follow the investigations closely and contribute whatever we find ourselves.”
Various murmurs spread in the room, some in agreement, others in complaint. One in whining. Twelve people talking over one another can have a chaotic effect, even in a room like this.
Minghao raises his hand above the noise. “Seungcheol? If it is indeed someone with superpowers, don’t the superiors at least have a suspect? I was under the impression that they keep files on people like that. Like us.”
“I thought so too,” Seungcheol says, a bit of strain making its way to his voice. “But they are very adamant at keeping their mouth shut on this one. Perhaps even they can be clueless sometimes.”
Mingyu and Minghao exchange looks. Something’s fishy here.
“Seungcheol?” it’s Mingyu’s turn to raise his hand. “Why did they pull us back so suddenly in the morning? I’ve been watching the news. Nothing happened after we left. There was no danger.”
Seungcheol’s smile is as strained as his voice. “They refused to elaborate on that too.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Jihoon reaches over to say to Mingyu. “They won’t share the important details with us unless they have a reason to. That’s how it’s always been.”
“Surely not when human lives are on the line?” Seokmin says appalled. “Why would they keep secrets now?”
Jihoon shrugs.
“You two were out pretty late,” Jeonghan points out at Jihoon and Soonyoung. “Found anything interesting?”
Jihoon glares at Jeonghan. “No,” he says. “We would have shared. Right Soonyoung?”
“Yeah, right, of course, that’s why we are a team! All of us I mean, not just Jihoon and I, even though it’s mostly just Jihoon and I that go out on missions together, right? Weird, huh?” Soonyoung laughs.
“Okay,” Seungcheol claps once. “This is all I wanted to say, I’ll see you tomorrow. Try to get some rest.”
And with that, the meeting is adjourned. Mingyu is still left with various questions though.
Seungcheol won’t say any more than he already has. As he picks up his items from the desk to leave, he drops his keys, and then his wallet, and then he would have dropped his phone too if Jeonghan hadn’t gravitied it back to his pocket without him noticing. Yeah, Seungcheol is tired, probably more tired than all of them combined. So Mingyu lets him be.
“You should get some sleep,” Minghao says when they leave the room. “Who knows what awaits us tomorrow.”
“Hopefully nothing worse than today,” Mingyu mutters. “Do you want me to drop you at your home?”
“Sure, if you want to.”
Mingyu’s house is not far from the Institute and Minghao’s is even closer. They all spend so much time in there, sometimes the Institute feels more like home than Mingyu’s second floor condo.
Mingyu parks his car outside Minghao’s home and bids him goodnight before reversing out of the parking lot. He is never that excited to return home after a long day at work, especially since that means he will be all alone in there. He is never alone in the Institute.
He climbs the stairs up, internally cursing the lack of an elevator in the old building. His house is just as he left it, clothes folded on the clothes chair, laptop open to calming mountain sounds for sleep, his bed unmade. It looks messier than it actually is, but that is always the case with single-room studio apartments. They get messy fast, and they get cleaned up even faster.
The familiarity soothes him. He thinks about making a sandwich before he turns in, but he is not really hungry. His twin bed looks too inviting under the window. He doesn’t have much of a view from the second floor, but at least when he lies down he can look at the starless sky.
It’s been so long since he’d actually seen the stars. Born in a big city with so much light pollution, he sometimes forgets how many things he is unable to see in the darkness. But even if he can’t see any stars, the vastness of the dark sky is enough to let his mind drift away, and eventually lead him into dream land.
~~~
“To your right, Minghao!”
Mingyu tries to shine all his light to the thief’s car mirrors so he can’t see where he is going. He doesn’t have to do much though because it rained last night and the wet road is full of puddles of water.
Minghao instantly freezes the road in front of the thief’s car, causing its wheels to spin helplessly as it gets derailed.
Ah. It’s one of those days that Minghao doesn’t need him. Mingyu smiles, letting the light return back to normal.
The thief clumsily tries to get out of his car, but he has nowhere to go. The police must have surrounded the block by now.
It’s in moments like these that Mingyu questions himself, and how good of a team he actually makes with Minghao. Sure, they have their moments, but Mingyu also had his moments with Seokmin, where his friend slowed down the reactions of the enemy attacks and Mingyu altered their products with excess light.
It worked sometimes. Well… it had worked twice. That was until the superiors figured out that slowing down Jisoo’s low-plasma attacks could lead to way more flames, therefore taking Seokmin away from Mingyu.
He had tried going on some missions with Jeonghan too. Admittedly, there is never anything much to do to help Jeonghan, who can alter the gravity of masses just enough to stop people from moving. But well, Mingyu could at least shine his line in distraction.
That’s all Mingyu is ever good for. Causing distraction until someone more capable arrives. He tries to not let it bother him, that no one on their team seems to be as compatible with him as they are with someone else.
No one would even think to separate Seungkwan and Hansol at his point, whose powers are practically the same, only working in different directions. Enlarging and compacting things is the easy explanation, expanding and diminishing distance between cells in different axis, is the complicated one their teacher gave them.
But Mingyu is alone with his light, mostly using it to shine on the others’ achievements.
Mingyu takes off one of his gloves, prepared to wrap things up here and return to the Institute.
And then he hears it.
BOOM!
It’s just as Jun described it. The ground shakes so much, Mingyu has to crouch down to retain his balance. Some crows start cawing and flying away ominously, the color of the sky suddenly flashing brighter before it returns back to normal.
Mingyu quickly turns to look at Minghao, who is frozen holding on to a streetlamp. The thief is less stunned than them, getting the chance to slip away, but it is the least going through both their minds right now.
There has been another hit.
“Are you okay?” Mingyu rushes over to Minghao.
“I’m fine. What happened? Is anyone on patrol?” Minghao asks, still gripping the streetlamp tightly.
“I think Jisoo and Seok-“
He doesn’t manage to finish his sentence and another loud explosion drowns out his words. The cars around them go wild, horns and sirens almost as loud as the explosion itself. Mingyu closes his eyes and grabs onto Minghao and the lamppost too, letting the earthquake blow over.
“Two of them?” he looks up at Minghao terrified.
“W-we need to go see what happened, we are pretty close,” Minghao says. “Maybe there are people hurt.”
Mingyu bites his lips. Minghao is right, they should go find the source of the explosions. If they are early enough the bomber might still be there.
Then his phone rings, changing everything.
“Seungcheol? Did you hear that too?” Mingyu hurriedly picks up.
“Yes, Mingyu, I’m pretty sure all Korea heard it,” the leader says. “I need you and Minghao back to the Institute right now!”
“What? But we are so close, maybe we can-”
“Superiors’ orders Mingyu, you mustn’t stay out there a second longer!”
Seungcheol sounds so urgent, it is impossible to disobey him when he gets like this. Mingyu looks up at Minghao.
“Okay, we’re coming back. But what about the people that might be hurt right now?” he says and Minghao tsks in disappointment.
“Don’t worry about that, I’m handling it, just get your asses back here where I can see you!” Seungcheol says and hangs up.
Mingyu looks at the ended call screen in his phone unsettled. It’s a weird order to return to base when they are so close, but do they really have the time or the guts to question it right now?
“So?” Minghao asks. “We’re leaving?”
“Back to the Institute, yeah,” Mingyu pockets his phone and grabs Minghao’s arm, leading them back to his car.
“But why though? We could have gotten valuable information,” Minghao slams the door shut.
Mingyu doesn’t reply. He looks up from the window as he reverses. The previously bright sky is being taken over by the familiar white dust. No smoke. Probably no fire again. Proof that this is indeed the same person who has come back for a second round.
Seungcheol is waiting for them outside the gates of the Institute. The moment they get out of the car, he looks at them both up and down and quickly calls someone on his phone, not saying anything else as he walks away.
Mingyu would pity him if he could understand him.
“Lounge, TV,” Minghao says, not even bothering to discard the multiple heat packs strapped on to him.
Mingyu doesn’t need to be told twice. They rush to the kitchen bar and turn on the TV to the nearest news channel.
“…for the second major destruction in Seoul in just a week. This time the ministry of Environment and Energy has been hit just a few moments ago, with not only one, but two major explosions causing parts of its structure to completely crumble. The scale of the attack is not as large as the one of the previous week, but it is clearly targeted.”
“A ministry building? That’s way too different from homeless people,” Minghao says, absentmindedly picking at the pack in his hand.
“Maybe not,” Mingyu hums. “There are kind of political beliefs out there to connect the government with society’s shortcomings.”
“Like last time, the number of victims remains unconfirmed, but the number will be more than zero since there are reports of a meeting with various officials taking place in the affected room of the building. While we do mourn the loss of our fellow humans, we have to wonder what is the government doing? What are they doing letting precious members of their party get so violently attacked in the broad daylight?”
“Oh shut up about the government already, get to the live footage!” Minghao complains. “Why do they have to turn everything political these days?”
“A government building was just attacked, cut them some slack,” Mingyu elbows him.
“Our reports have just gotten to the scene, as close as they are allowed so their safety is guaranteed. Let’s go to them. Hello, can you hear us?”
“I hear you, here from in front of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, where another bomb attack has literally shaken us all up. The smoke hasn’t cleared enough yet for us to get clear pictures, but it looks like super powers are definitely involved this time. Spiral Institute agents are arriving as we speak, but we have no knowledge whether the culprit is still-”
The broadcast breaks suddenly, static briefly filling the screen. It quickly switches back to the studio, where both presenters from before are caught out of guard, looking shocked at their monitors.
“Umm, it appears there has been a connection issue. Please stand by as we try to reconnect with our reporters.”
Minghao quickly changes the channel to the next news broadcast he can find. Luckily, they find someone else reporting live from the Ministry.
It looks far more chaotic than it did before, with gusts of dust swirling and obstructing much of the view from the camera.
“…just a moment ago, a bunch of our colleagues were knocked out, but the heroes from the Institute are here to apprehend the attack! Point to them, go on,” the dude says to his cameraman.
“What does he mean apprehend the attack?” Mingyu looks at Minghao alarmed.
Before the other can reply, loud crushes sounds come from the TV.
“The suspected bomber is still in the building, the police is ushering everyone away,” the reporter yells while walking, his voice a bit breathless.
The camera shakes so bad, but the scene unfolding before it is still visible. There is fire alright, but not the kind that spreads after an explosion. It’s Jisoo in front of everyone, pushing plasma flames ahead to clear a way in the building.
Chan can be seen in and out of frame, dashing around and removing people from harm’s way, because the flames are not the only source of danger. From the smoke, Mingyu can see a figure retreating further inside, extinguishing Jisoo’s flames by exploding smaller parts of the remaining building right in front of him.
His retreat is not fast, as Jeonghan is right behind Jisoo, a vein visible in his head from the effort to keep the figure from leaving. The problem is he doesn’t have a clear vision of him, so he is not as effective as usual.
Seokmin brings up the rear, a bit lost as he tries to slow down the explosions. It’s a bad sign that he can’t seem to understand what kind of reaction he is slowing down. Seungcheol had warned them that this is nothing they have encountered before.
The explosions do take more time to activate thanks to him though, giving Jisoo enough room to advance forward and hopefully capture their assailant, especially with Jeonghan slowing him down.
It’s a collective effort, teamwork at its finest. Mingyu stands on the edge of his seat, part of him excited to watch all of them work together like clockwork. For a bit, it makes sense that he and Minghao were called back, it looks like their friends have it covered.
But then, the enemy lunges forward, the cameras catching a brief glimpse of his hair. Jeonghan’s gravity pulls him directly towards their middle and both Mingyu and Minghao gasp.
The man’s target is not Jisoo though. A chain of blasts begins from the other end of the road, right in front of the cameras where all the survivors are gathered.
Dust and screams fill the screen and for a while they can’t see anything.
And then, it’s Chan that appears on TV, falling to the ground from very high up.
“Oh no!” Minghao stands up and Mingyu holds his breath.
The boy seems unconscious, limbs flailing lifelessly as he falls. He can’t slow down his acceleration like this. Mingyu’s eyes widen as he disappears in the smoke, no trace of what has happened to him.
“No, no, no, no, no!” Mingyu yells, standing up as well.
“We have to let him go!” he hears Jisoo yelling from the TV. “Seokmin get Jeonghan!”
Another blast of fire clears the dust a bit and Mingyu sees not only Chan lying lifelessly on the ground, but also Jeonghan with blood running down his nose and ears.
“He must have tried to stop Chan’s fall,” Minghao says.
Mingyu can’t stand this anymore. Why would Seungcheol pull them back when they were clearly needed fighting the man next to the others? Jeonghan’s gravity control is not that strong, he has never been able to completely break a person’s fall before, let alone from the height Chan was launched at.
He can’t overexert himself either, gravity is not a joke. He has been warned multiple times than he can crush his internal organs if he is not careful, and just now, Jeonghan was not careful.
Mingyu paces around with the heavy feeling of not knowing if two of his closest friends are alive, or if they died in front of his eyes as he watched on the TV.
“The guy’s gone,” Minghao says, his eyes still glued to the events. “Ambulances are arriving. Seokmin and Jisoo do not look okay Mingyu, what are we going to do?”
What can they do with direct orders to remain inside?
“Everyone, it’s all under control now!” he hears Seungkwan’s voice from the TV, directly in front of all the microphones. Mingyu looks back at the screen only to see Hansol and Jun rushing behind Seungkwan who is answering as many questions as possible for all the live broadcasts, aiding wherever they can. Jeonghan and Chan are put into stretchers.
“Oh, so everyone got called but us,” Mingyu comments bitterly.
“They’ll be bringing them here,” Minghao says, turning off the TV and making a beeline towards the door. “We have to talk to Jisoo and Seokmin.”
Mingyu follows behind him.
~~~
The room is dark except the stage lights pointing directly at Seungcheol and the clicking of camera flashes. The rest of them are gathered in the back, letting their leader make the Institute’s statement.
“We here at the Spiral Institute have always wanted one thing, and one thing only,” Seungcheol says, his voice loud and clear. “Our goals are like a spiral; in the center lies the greater good, our wish to offer the best we can to as many people. The expanding lines are all the different ways we work to achieve this goal, some coming shorter than others, but all originating from the same desire to train people with abilities in order to protect you.
After the attack at the Ministry, I know all of you are expecting answers, a reason for why this is happening. Unfortunately, lately there has been a person who, while he shares our powers, he doesn’t share our ethics.
We have done extensive research and have finally come to a conclusion regarding his identity. We want to keep the trust we have built with the public strong, so today we want to share who this person is with the world.”
He stops at this point and with the click of a button the projector behind him turns on. A picture pops up.
Mingyu leans forward on his seat.
Brown hair, tight, unsmiling lips. Eyes looking to the side, away from whoever took his photo, and a frown.
Mingyu sees him now. He sees the man responsible for hundreds of deaths. The man who dared hurt some of his closest friends. The man who he is never going to forgive.
Seungcheol steps aside to let every reporter from every channel, newspaper and radio station take a good look. Then, he brings his microphone to his lips once again.
“His name is Jeon Wonwoo.”