Despite the restraints, Taeyong remained suspicious.

They didn't have police handcuffs, and so had opted for one of Taemin's fancy gadget thingies that looked more like an eleven-year-old boy's playthings than grown (super) men's stuff. The bonds were thin and weak-looking, like a couple of wires threaded together and tied, binding the girl's wrists together.

"She could still kick out at us," the blue-haired man had said as Baekhyun finished tying the bonds around her wrists. "Would be better for us if we stuffed her into a body bag."

"We don't have a body bag, Taeyong," Baekhyun had said with the infinite, weary patience of a man who specialized in dealing with grown-ups with tantrums. "And it would be too difficult to lug her around."

"There's four of us."

"She's a living, breathing, conscious human."

"We don't know that for sure."

Taeyong had been about to explain that he'd been talking about her being 'human'—it was a genuine doubt, and they were better off treating everyone unidentified as suspicious figures after having found Supers in the basement. Supers in the basement. The phrase sounded so movie-like, so unreal, that Taeyong almost felt like he knew about what was happening.

Now the four of them (five if you counted their prisoner) were upstairs, on the floor below the roof. The place become more and more impressive as they progressed upwards, the floors of the building like layers to a cake. The creamy gold of the lower levels had solidified into a harder gray, not exactly a hotel color.

They hadn't been intercepted, and though they had used the fire escape, Taeyong wasn't completely sure about their safety. The whole ordeal made him skeptical to a point that made him forget he was a literal superhero with his face tucked nearly behind a mask.

He sure didn't feel like one.

At first, he had been more than a little annoyed by the mini tasks that Baekhyun and Taemin had set out of them, pairing them off and sending them on little missions like they were second-grade kids on a treasure hunt at someone's birthday party. Taeyong had joined mainly because he was broke, he accepted that, but he had expected a little more action and thrill during the job.

Even this felt hurried and mundane. The spark of real excitement he had felt when they had discovered the Super bodies was now gone, leaving him restless, bored, and maybe a little disappointed. Baekhyun had dismissed his suspicion of the girl—they didn't even know her name—and Taeyong couldn't help but chafe under the dubious authority.

"This is where we get off."

Taeyong blinked when he heard Baekhyun speak, finally noticing where they were. The floor they were at was the one just below the roof, the walls alternating between cement and glass. The group crossed the large glass doors, stepping out into the open, and Taeyong realized that this wasn't the fire escape. The hotel building wasn't a building, but buildings, two structures connected at the second-highest floor.

"Like twin towers," Mark commented, looking around in awe.

The roof they were on was lower than that of the main building, so they couldn't see anything that was happening over. Taeyong wasn't sure when Lucas had said 'roof', that he'd meant this one or that. This-or-that. He frowned. Now he was just confusing himself.

The air was chilly, the wind whipping through his air and making goosebumps rise on his bare arms. For a moment, he wished he had a full-body suit, but it would be unfair. Everyone else had short sleeves too—he guessed it had something to do with their powers again.

"This isn't the same roof," Kai observed, giving voice to the others' thoughts.

"This is where the heat signatures are," Baekhyun said. "That's what we're following."

Taeyong glanced back at the girl, out of pure instinct, like Orpheus glancing back to see if his wife was still there. She was still standing at the entrance, looking blank and a little out of it. He wondered if she had been drugged—but saying that would be admitting that she was indeed a hostage. He realized he had furrowed his brow, and relaxed it. The girl was getting on his nerves.

"How long have you been here?" Baekhyun asked, and Taeyong looked at him in surprise before realizing he had been talking to Taemin. The millionaire had shown up sometime when Taeyong hadn't been looking, unmasked, like a spectre at night.

"We came up here directly after entrance," Taemin replied, looking unruffled despite Lucas's chilling tone that had declared that she was here. Who 'she' was, Taeyong had no idea, but Baekhyun seemed to understand. Maybe his power was telepathy. "The casino is cut off from the actual floor plan, under this roof, and we didn't encounter anyone coming up here."

Mark looked surprised. "You guys entered this building?" he asked, eyebrows raised in curious surprise. "And you don't find that suspicious?"

"She expects us," Lucas said. Taeyong looked at him then; he had the completely neutral expression he always wore, like nothing had the power to affect him. He couldn't help but consider him a loyal dog type, always following Taemin, barely interacting with the others. "It's obviously a controlled environment. She wants us here."

"And who exactly is 'she'?" Kai questioned, crossing his arms over his chest, looking a little hurt to have been left out of the loop. Taeyong was secretly relieved that he wasn't the only one.

Lucas gave him a look, as if the answer was obvious. "She's on the other roof," he said, dismissing the question, jerking his chin in the direction of the building they had just exited. "Ten is up there, listening in for anything we might find interesting."

Kai hooked a finger into the edge of his mask. "Isn't that kind of counter-intentional? Won't she be able to see him if he's close enough to listen?"

"Ten's power is invisibility."

"Oh."

Noticing that Mark looked embarrassed at the mention of powers, Taeyong stepped towards him, only restraining himself at the last moment from attracting his attention. He turned away, trying not to look at the young man. It was probably just his team instincts, he's been paired with Mark for some time, after all. No, Taeyong did not care about anyone in the team.

"If she's all-knowing, shouldn't she know about Ten being there anyway?" Taeyong asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Taemin turned his attention to him, and Taeyong felt his confidence shrink under the man's calm, piercing gaze. "She probably knows."

"Um, not to be like, rude or anything," Mark started hesitantly, "but isn't that like, what we're trying to avoid? Why are we letting her be near Ten, and how is she—why is she letting him listen in?"

Lucas shrugged. "It's just a formality. Genius needs recognition, even if it's by an enemy."

"How can she be that powerful?" Kai muttered. "How do you know so much about her?"

Taemin smiled slightly—it was a barely-there kind of smile, thin-lipped and quiet, like a whisper. It was the smile that made Taeyong uncomfortable, made his muscles feel detached from his bones. "What did you find in the basement?" he asked smoothly, pulling his mask back on. "A Super. Do you think a woman capable of something like that would be so careless as to let her guard down around another Super? If she can trap the man you saw in the chamber, can she not trap us?"

They fell silent. Who is she? Taeyong almost yelled. It killed him to have a reputation but not a name for 'her'.

"Alright, I got it." He flinched as Ten appeared next to him, as if out of thin air. The man looked dishevelled, not just physically, but emotionally. His mask was on, but Taeyong could see a bone-deep fear in his eyes, fear and disgust and disbelief. "That was...terrifying."

"What did you get?" Baekhyun asked, stepping into the light. His mask was back on, not that it mattered. The girl had already seen his face.

Ten shook his head, then glanced at the stranger. "Who's the hitchhiker?"

"Shao."

The corner of Taeyong's lips twitched in surprise as he realized it was the girl who had spoken. She still looked lost, expressionless and high on something. There was no desperation in her eyes the way there had been when she had pleaded with them to take her, which just worked to heighten his skepticism.

Ten's eyebrows raised. "Uh, great," he mumbled. "I guess."

"Now what?" Taeyong asked impatiently, looking back at Taemin, who was watching the exchange silently. He had just realized that the man had offered no reaction to seeing the girl with them, as if he had expected it. The lack of surprise irritated him.

"Now we leave," he answered simply.

"Leave?" Taeyong stared at him, aghast. "That's it?" His fingers had clenched into fists without him realizing it. "No confrontation, no revelation, no nothing?" He barked out a laugh. Anger had made him confident. "So we let a potential criminal walk away like that? I don't know, that seems kind of anti-climactic to me."

Mark glanced at him worriedly, but he was too upset to acknowledge his look. Here he was, disappointed by their usual tasks and hoping that this raid would get them somewhere, give them something important to do, and they were just walking away from the case.

"This, this psychotic lady just gets to go scot-free," he sputtered. "What kind of superhero team does that make us? What kind of superhero team leader—" he cut himself off, taking a deep breath when he realized everyone's eyes were on him. "Half of us don't even know her name."

"Irene," Taemin said, frank, and Baekhyun glanced at him, surprised. He adjusted his mask, and looked away from Taeyong. "Pack up."

|

HAPPY NEW DECADE Y'ALL

i'm so sorry this is late, but i was travelling and had nothing to write on (my phone kept acting up, i'm almost completely sure it's been possessed by a demon) but i'll make it up to you by updating again this week. that's my resolution: do more of what's good.

hopefully you'll stick around for it :')

love,
Manx.