"THIS IS THE HDJ?!"

"Yup~. All of Ethora's heroes either work or live here~, or both~!"

"Is this where Johnny-hyung and the others used to live before they came to help us in the war?"

"Precisely~. But they like living with us more. They said that all of their rooms had to be the same. They weren't able to decorate them and express themselves. Well, except for Kun, he was fine with it since he doesn't really like to express anything, especially his feelings"

"Is he just that reserved?"

"I'm not sure. We never bothered to ask him. He gets kinda defensive if we try to pick him about it"

"I see... But what's with all of the ships?"

"Many heroes are from other worlds, universes, galaxies, and dimensions. They use these ships to carry out their duties in those said worlds, and return here to report and rest"

"And what's that large blue beam over there?"

Jeno asked curiously.

"That regulates the power flow for the HDJ, and it acts as a barrier from outside threats. I've heard that if it turns to a reddish purple, the barrier reverses"

"Meaning outside threats can get in, and heroes can't"

"Exactly Jaemin"

"But that won't happen right?"

"Oh of course not~. The leader of the HDJ is the number one hero after all~"

"SERIOUSLY?!?!"

We all shrieked.

"Yes~. You'll be able to meet him in a few minutes~"

-

In the HDJ

-

"Guys~, meet Iron Bolt, the lightning fist warrior~, and Ethora's number one hero~!"

Taeyong introduced enthusiastically, jazz hands and all.

"I'M SO HONORED TO BE IN YOUR PRESENCE GREAT AND POWERFUL SIR! WILL YOU SIGN MY FACE?! OH MY GOSH I CANT BREATHE HE'S SO AMAZING I-"

"DONGHYUCK CALM YOUR TITS!"

Mark slapped Donghyuck on the back of his head to calm him down.

"Thank you hyung, I needed that. Ahem- But yes. Great and powerful Iron Bolt, will you please sign this photo for me? It would be such an amazing honor"

He pulled out a small picture of Iron Bolt out of his pocket, and the hero happily signed it, making Donghyuck lowkey lose his shit.

"Anyways... What seems to be the issue?"

"Ah yes. Something has been brought to my attention. Multiple heroes have been reported missing, and it hasn't even been a week. That's why we called on Force 127 to help with this matter"

"Force 127...??"

I contemplated.

"Johnny-hyung and the others"

Taeyong informed.

"But it seems that they've all gone missing in action as well. No one has seen or heard from them in hours, which is very unlike them"

"I understand. What can we do to help?"

Taeyong seemed very disturbed, and I think Jaehyun is who he's worried about the most.

"I want you all to go undercover. Ask around, look for clues, and report back to me with anything you can come up with. Force 127 did highly recommend you all if something went wrong, so I put all of my faith in you. Good luck"

He worriedly walked off to go calm the minimal panic that was happening in the facility.

"You heard the man. We split up in groups. Mark with Renjun, Jaemin with Jisung and Chenle, Leiyong with Jeno, Suko with Donghyuck, Yoonho with Zuho, and Xuxi and Tingyou with me"

When Taeyong said Xuxi and Tingyou, they instantly reverted to their regalia forms.

Taeyong was serious now, and it's kinda scary.

"Regroup back here in thirty minutes. Now go!"

-

15 Minutes Later

-

Mark and I asked around for any info on Force 127, but no dice.

But we did find something.

Doyoung's steampunk goggles.

"What do you think happened???"

Mark inquired, as we made our way back to the rendezvous point.

He was holding on to the goggles tightly.

"Something bad, but I don't know what. No one has ever beaten Jack Rabbit before..."

"Don't worry Injunie. I'm sure everything will be fi-"

'WE NEED HELP!!! GET ALL OF YOUR ASSES BACK HERE ASAP!!!'

'CHENLE IS DOWN! HURRY THE FUCK UP!!'

Jisung and Jaemin screamed telepathically, and we started running back to the others.

Mark put the goggles on his head for safe keeping as we ran.

-

"What the hell is going on?!"

Mark asked in terror when everyone came running back.

"Iron Bolt suddenly attacked us. He went after Chenle first, but Jisung and I tried to fight him off. But..., he got passed us and knocked him out cold. Jisung rushed to him, and I did my best to fight him off with the keyblade. Then he just left without warning..."

Jaemin explained sadly.

Jisung was holding onto Chenle for dear life. Chenle was definitely out cold, but he was breathing heavily, and there was a huge hole in the middle of his shirt where he got hit.

I put my hand on his chest and healed him, but he's still gonna be out for a while.

"Guys, what was different about Iron Bolt?"

"He had this dark, smoke-like aura around him, and he was definitely stronger"

Jisung stated.

"And he had a mask on too. I don't mean a mascarade mask either. I mean a full fledged mask. And my precognition is telling me that someone is controlling him, and the missing heroes, and some have masks just like his"

"And that someone is a bad guy right?"

"Yes. A very powerful bad guy. I don't think we can take him on our own. And without the others, we won't last long..."

Jaemin's precognitions have never been wrong.

If we could die trying to fight this battle now, it won't be good for the rest of Ethora.

But if we don't flee now, who knows what might happen...

"...Taeyong-hyung, do you know how to get to the ships? We need a really big one, to regroup and prepare somewhere far away from Ethora"

"Sure. The ships are kept in the big floating circular level above us. They don't have ceilings there either, so the ships can depart easily, so that shouldn't be an issue"

"Good. Let's go"

"But Injun, what about the others. They gotta be in danger right?"

"They are Jeno, I know they are. But if we make a reckless attempt to rescue them without a solid plan, we could end up getting killed. And if that guy managed to control Iron Bolt, he could've managed to control the others too. We don't have the strength, stamina, or strategy to fight them off if we go after them now"

"I guess... But what about Ethora? And our home..."

"I don't want to leave either. I want to fight for our home just as much as you do, but we can't. We don't have a choice but to make a tactical retreat"

"But we fought just fine in that war"

"This is different Donghyuck. We had the strength of our twins back then, and we still barely made it out alive. Even with our new fusions, we still won't stand a chance"

"..."

"Look, I know it's hard. I know you want to stay and fight, but we just can't risk our lives this recklessly. We just need to make it out of here and find another world, galaxy, universe, or dimension to reside on until we have the power to fight for our home. I just can't lose you all here... I refuse to see you all put yourselves in danger... If not for me..., do it for Chenle... He didn't deserve any of this, and he definitely didn't deserve to die here..."

They all fell silent, but soon agreed.

"We do this not only for Chenle, but for the sake of our family. You all are my responsibility, and I will do anything to keep you all out of harms way. Follow Renjun's orders and let's move. We don't have much time"

Taeyong ordered, and we all made our way to the ships.

-

"This is the biggest one they have Renjunie"

"Thanks Taeyong-hyung"

We all got aboard the ship.

The first thing we did was strap Chenle in a seat belt, to insure he didn't suffer any further injuries.

I started up the ship and started up the system, since I'm the tech genius.

"Jisung. Contact Bleddyn and Grover and tell them what's going on. Tell them to take our companions and The High Five to the heavenly domain they came from, and not to forget to take Hiss and Levi with them. SPECIFY Hiss and Levi. And see if they can put a barrier around our place"

"Got it!"

While he did that, I finally got the system running.

But what I saw in the map system was just mind blowing.

"What the...?"

"What's wrong hyung?"

Jeno asked, coming to my aid.

"Every single world in our star system is being taken over! There's not a single safe place!"

"WHAT?!"

They all shrieked.

"We have no choice. We have to go to either a different galaxy, universe, or dimension"

"But which one?"

"I don't know. Pick one real quick Jeno"

"Universe I guess"

"Alrighty. Let's see then"

I scrolled through the many universes, until I found one that suited our needs for the time being.

I set a course for that universe, and we started to take off.

"GUYS!!! TAEYONG-HYUNG!!! PLEASE WAIT FOR ME!!! I'M COMING!!!"

Good lord almighty.

I opened the hatch to see if my eyes were deceiving me on the monitors, but I was wrong.

I wasn't seeing things.

It was Jaehyun running towards the ship.

That wasn't even the only issue. He looked injured, and all the others were running behind him. But, they were being controlled. They were trying to attack him and capture him.

But instead of a mask, they all had the black smokey aura, but with reddish purple glowing eyes, and they looked very mad, and determined to catch Jaehyun, who was on the verge of tears as he ran for his life.

Taeyong and the others tried to encourage and chant for him to hurry up, but then he tripped and fell. It didn't look like he was going to be able to get up either.

"JAEHYUN!!!"

Taeyong nearly jumped out of the ship, but Mark and Donghyuck stopped him.

Thankfully though, and somehow, three of what seemed to be Jaehyun's guardian angels came and rescued him.

Well, not angels.

One was a ninja, like Jeno.

One was a knight.

And one was an assassin.

The ninja and knight started fighting the others to hold them off, and the assassin picked up Jaehyun and started running with him to the ship.

But, the possessed Sicheng came charging at them, and was about to use his tail to attack them. But Jaehyun and the assassin worked together to stop him. The assassin sprayed something behind them so Sicheng would run into it, and Jaehyun used his Solid Air to stop him in his tracks. The spray must've been pepper spray, because as soon as Sicheng ran into it, he closed his eyes shut and bumped into the glass, falling and rubbing his eyes while screaming in pain.

Jaehyun and the assassin made it into the ship, but Jaehyun was now out cold like Chenle, except he had tears dripping down his face.

The ship was lifting off, but I can't just leave the other two here.

I ran to the door of the ship and yelled out to them.

"Come on! Fall back! Fall back!"

They each did one last attack and started running to the ship. The knight used his spear-like staff as a javelin and propelled himself into the ship. The ninja jumped off of the other ships to propel himself towards our rising ship.

But then, the strangest, most epic, and scariest things happened.

Kun had turned into this big ass beast. Like a mix of a bear and a wolf. Then Yuta used his warp gate to teleport Kun from him to us. And Taeil was speedily dashing towards us with his stupid leg engines.

Jeno had got in front of me with his buster sword in hand, ready to defend us and the ship. He looked really scared, but he was determined to fight them off.

A warp gate then opened up and Kun came through ready to claw at us, then Taeil suddenly appeared beside him, ready to attack us with his greatest and fastest kicking attack.

The Recipro Turbo.

But, being faster than both of them, the ninja threw a smoke bomb their way, obstructing their view. Then Jaemin suddenly moved the ship higher up to avoid us from getting hit by the incoming attacks.

Smart move.

The ninja blocked both of their attacks with his two katana blades, and propelled them back with all of his strength. But, he can't propel himself up to the ship now.

As if on que, the knight jumped out of the ship to the ninja, and the assassin grabbed the knight by his legs. While he held onto his legs, the knight extended his staff out for the ninja to grab, and he did successfully.

Now they just have to get into the ship.

"Guys! Help them up! Jaemin keep the ship steady! And Donghyuck, fire the weapons on that control panel over by Jaemin!"

They all nodded, and quickly went to their stations.

While the three strangers were trying to get on the ship with the help of the others, I decided to help defend them.

"Yoonho! Zuho! I need you!"

They flocked to me, and I started making an energy ball with my decomposition.

They immediately understood the plan and helped out. Yoonho added his light energy, and Zuho added his dark energy, and we created a very powerful energy ball.

"Brother, it doesn't look stable..."

"It looks weak..."

Yoonho and Zuho worriedly complained.

"Trust me, it'll work. Hold onto me, I'm gonna launch it at them"

They complied, and held onto my chest and waist.

I took a deep breath, and launched it at our possessed friends, and it did a great deal of damage! Donghyuck was shooting at the other possessed heroes who were way far behind.

Taeyong and the others finally got the three strangers inside, thankfully.

"All of you hurry and buckle up! Jaemin and Donghyuck stay and help me out!"

"Got it!"

Donghyuck continued to shoot while Jaemin activated the shields. And I got the ship ready to blast off.

"Hyung! We're almost out of our first round of ammo!"

"And those guys are getting ready to fire a big ass laser canon at us!"

"I'm working on it!"

I set the accelerator to go at a fourth of the full capacity of speed, and I put the ship's tracker on incognito mode.

That way, they won't be able to track us in any part of any star system.

The one fourth of acceleration power is more than enough to get us out of our world, far away, and enough to reach the end of our galaxy, which is great for now.

"Renjun! Any time now would be fantastic!"

Taeyong complained.

"I got it! Everybody hang on to something! And someone hold on to Chenle and Jaehyun! It's gonna be a bit rough!"

Jisung and the assassin held on to Chenle, while the ninja and the knight held on to Jaehyun, who was now strapped in a seatbelt like Chenle.

Donghyuck and Jaemin strapped into their seatbelts in two of the three commanding chairs. I strapped into the captain's commanding chair, and accelerated us immediately away from the danger, and our friends...

The laser shot immediately shot too, but I came to realize it wasn't aimed at us. They were aiming at the barrier beam, and they succeeded in hitting it.

The blue beam became a reddish purple beam, just as Taeyong said. Now any threat can get in, and Grover and the others can't send anyone to take it down now.

Our mission just got a whole lot harder....

- 

Planets Away From Ethora Later

-

We're moving farther and farther away from our now endangered planet, and things couldn't get any worse.

"That's the first time I've ever seen Kun express anything... But I never thought the first thing he'd express would be rage..."

"We'll get him back hyung, all of them. Right now we have to worry about our two unconscious hybrids"

Taeyong looked very saddened, but he nodded.

I healed Jaehyun's injuries, and there were plenty, but like Chenle, he still needs time to recover.

"By the way, we must thank you three for saving us and our friend"

"You're very welcome young hero. It's the least we could do"

The ninja bowed respectfully.

"We suspected something was up at the HDJ, so we went undercover as well. No one knew we were there, except for Force 127"

The knight informed.

"When we saw your friend was the only one out of his comrades to not be possessed, we kept a close eye on him. He barely escaped with his life. We followed him when he started to run away, looking for all of you. When he found your ship, he started running faster, but his body was too weak to make it there. So we decided to help him get back to you"

The assassin stated.

"We owe you our services and our lives for saving us, and allowing us to board your ship"

"We'd be happy to help in any way we can"

The ninja and knight added.

"It was no problem at all. You all saved our friend, so we saw it fit to save you~"

I smiled.

"Oh. All of you must be wondering who we are right?"

The assassin inquired, to which we all nodded.

The ninja then took off his mask and revealed his identity.

He was quite handsome and had a very serious, but friendly expression.

"I'm Xiao Dejun, but the name that I go by is Xiaojun. I'm from the Shadow Ninja Clan"

"Really??! But, that's my clan...!"

Jeno suddenly exclaimed, shocking us all.

So that's the clan he came from that day!

"I ran away when I was very little, but I still became a master of ninja arts, somewhat. I'm not as good as you though"

"How convenient~. Surely you know you have a lot more to learn, isn't that right?"

"Yes. Would you teach me?"

"Of course~. I mastered everything you have missed since you've been gone, and I'll be happy to teach you, my distant brother~"

He complied, gently petting Jeno's head.

Next, the knight removed his helmet to reveal another handsome face, yet this one looked friendlier.

"I have two names, Wong Kunhang and Huang Guanheng. But I prefer to go by the name Hendery. I myself am from a different dimension, a dimension currently set in medieval times. I'm the strongest knight in my guard. Well, I was, until I left to find a better life"

"Wise choice"

"Also I got tired of the overpopulation of dragons"

"Oh... I hope you don't mind, we have two of our own, but they're very docile and friendly"

"Any friendly dragon is a friend of mine~. I bet they're way better than what I had to go through~"

He chuckled.

That's a relief.

Finally, the assassin took off his hood and mask to reveal yet another handsome face. This once was extremely cute, and looked even friendlier.

"I'm Liu YangYang, but just call me YangYang or Xiao Yang~. I'm from another world near Ethora~. I became an assassin to get revenge on the man who killed my parents"

"Did you succeed?"

"Yes~. After that, I moved to Ethora to become a vigilante assassin to fulfill revenge wishes, and I ended up with XiaoXiao and Dery~"

Wow...

He's a deadly type of cute. I like him already~.

-

An alert suddenly appeared on the monitors.

We're getting close to the end of our galaxy.

'Now leaving: Corona Galaxy'

The computer lady stated.

We all saw a spirals of stars and multicolored lights, meaning we just left our galaxy.

It looks so pretty, but it makes me somewhat sad.

'Fifteen million kilometers until destination is reached'

"Fifteen million..."

Jungwoo and Lucas sighed.

"...Everyone to the sleeping quarters... We've got a long journey ahead of us..."

Everyone sighed and wearily went to their own separate quarters, except for me, Mark, Jisung, Jaemin, and Taeyong.

The three of us stayed in the ship's infirmary with Jaehyun and Chenle.

I hope they're ok...