"Well, that was an epic fail," Shao said, munching on a chicken wing as she reclined dangerously low on a pilot's chair. "Can we do something like that again?"

"No, I don't think we will," Lucas muttered. He was flipping through a manual with a frown of concentration on his face, the pile of un-flipped-through files very close to slipping from his lap. "Why would we ever pursue a failed mission course again?"

"Don't ask her things like that," Taeyong said, waving his grease-coated fingers in the general direction of the girl. "It's like waving bait in front of a fish. She'll grab on to it and won't let go, and this isn't a situation where you can sell the fish in the fish market."

Ten raised his eyebrows. "Going a bit far with the analogy, Taeyong."

"Sorry."

"Did you just apologize? Is this the nice clone I'm talking to?"

Taeyong glared at him, but there was none of the old seriousness in his eyes. Kai smiled to himself as he realized the subtle change. It brought a major change to his face. He looked much more...likeable, Kai thought.

"Don't be so mean to him, you guys," Mark said with a pout. He had opted for the fries instead, and was in the process of single-handedly cleaning out the large bucket. "He literally came back to life, like, a few minutes ago."

Kai frowned. "Pretty sure that was more than just a few minutes ago, Mark."

"Maybe the out-of-body experience has made him realize a few things about being nice to people," Shao suggested.

"Like Scrooge," Kai added.

"Okay, that's enough," Baekhyun said, not turning. Kai had the vaguest idea that they were really high up in the sky and going somewhere he didn't know, but nothing beyond that. Nor was he interested in knowing. "I can see you're slowly pissing Taeyong off again, and like it or not, he almost died, so you'll have to leave him alone for some time."

"He's eating my chicken wings," Lucas pointed out. "I don't care if he just died, no one eats my chicken wings."

"I just died, Lucas," Taeyong said. "I need to restore my health."

"Oh, I'll restore your health—"

"I have to admit," Baekhyun said, grinning. "I missed this. You might not be the most professional team on the planet, but you make up for it by pretending you are."

"We stopped pretending a long time ago," Ten said, and then, as an afterthought, added, "Karen."

"Did you just call me Karen?"

"You can't call anyone Karen unless they're being offensive," Shao said, waving her drumstick at Ten. "That's a slang rule."

"He was being offensive to me."

"Not really."

"I can do whatever I want," Ten said, taking on a more defensive stance when he realized there was no hope of continuing with his previous agenda. "You can't stop me."

"All right, guys, can we focus?" Lucas snapped, having redirected his attention to the manuals a few seconds after sticking the chicken wing accusation on Taeyong. He held up one of the manuals now, face-forward, and pointed to a picture of a badly-photoshopped alien. "Look at what I found?"

"What? What is that?" Kai squinted at the manual, only to realize that it was actually one of his conspiracy theory magazines. "Oh, it's the conspiracy crap again. I swear you're getting addicted to the stuff."

"But—"

"Lucas, bro, I love you—no homo—but we've got a lot of more pressing matters to worry about than your crackpot magazines," Kai said before he could say anything. Lucas frowned, opening his mouth to counter his words. Kai noticed, and hurried to change the subject before he could say something else. "I think we should talk about what happened to Taeyong, or something cooler."

"Cooler?"

"You know what actually concerns me?" Shao asked, putting down the wing bucket in her lap and placing her sauce-stained hands on the armrests to pull herself up, making everyone grimace. "That you guys only searched the place for five seconds. No wonder you didn't find anything of interest. You should've stayed a little longer to look about, especially now that the police are going to paw through everything."

"The police were the reason we had to leave so abruptly," Taemin said. "We can't afford being caught. The media exposure was bad enough; if your screen time wasn't so limited, you would see how we're plastered all over the media." He removed the earpiece cord hanging around his neck and rolled it up. "I thought it would die down, but apparently, we had witnesses. The reporters are going to have a field day with the videos."

Taeyong looked up with wide eyes, already beginning to feel up his pockets for his phone. Kai thought he saw guilt in his expression, but it was gone before he could analyze it further. "There are videos?"

"A short one, but that's more than enough," Taemin replied. His expression was neutral, but Kai could see the care it took to maintain it. Maybe the guy wasn't so impossible to read, after all. All that was needed was a push in the right direction, or a rub in the wrong one. "We have to be more careful from now on. Stealthy."

"I don't think a massive airship the color of coal blocks is the biggest stealth move," Ten observed, cocking his head to the side smugly.

"Not when it's the color of coal blocks, no." Taemin smiled his barely-there smile, and Kai felt like someone had walked over his grave. It was hard being a team player when the leader was a snake on all levels except physical.

Kai blinked, then glanced back at the way the blond's eyes were narrowed. Yeah, maybe including physical.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Mark exclaimed, getting up a little in his seat. His eyes were rounded, the brown of his irises which otherwise would be so monotonous sparkling in excitement. "Are we—is this—" He clenched his fists, moving to the windshield and pressing his nose against the glass. "Are we, like, invisible? Holy mackerel!"

Shao narrowed her eyes. "I know he did not just say 'holy mackerel'."

"Oh, shut up. There's nothing wrong with saying that, you're just mean," Kai said with a frown, then turned towards Mark, interest sparked. "What do you mean by invisible?"

"Well—" Ten started.

"Reflective plates," Mark answered with a smile the size of the universe, and in a similar fashion, ever-expanding. His hands were still flat against the glass, fingers splayed outwards, and he seemed to be vibrating with the pure force of his excitement. "The people outside can't see us."

"Wait, no shit?" Kai sat up in his seat. "We're invisible?"

He got up, moving towards Mark, and looked out the windscreen for a whole three minutes before he realized that it wasn't really going to help him see anything different. The view was beautiful, though. They were flying high above the buildings, past arches and parks and train tracks that weaved through the city. Kai knew Capitol City wasn't perfect—in fact, he was one of the people who knew the innermost flaws in its society—but at that moment, it looked beautiful.

"Like you'd want to save it, right?" Mark spoke up softly, and Kai glanced at him. The boy was staring out the window with a whimsical look, forehead pressed against the glass. "When Baekhyun first took me to Nova Tower, that's what I thought. The view makes you wanna be a cool super-dude."

Kai stared at the side of his face for a few more seconds before looking away silently. Mark was right. Kai didn't consider himself a savior, but inspiration could do wonders.

"Wait, where are we going?" Taeyong asked. Kai glanced back, and saw the blue-haired male squinting out the screen. "We're reaching the city limits."

"Our superhero lair, if you will." Baekhyun smiled, but it was tense. "That's our best bet, and we still have a time window on our fox guy. Unless, of course, he can teleport."

"Do we know that these Foursaken guys are Supers?" Shao asked. "As far as I know, you guys found frozen Supers in the basement of that casino, right? Wouldn't that mean that they're, like, anti-Super or something? Non-Super?"

"We have no idea," Taeyong said, then glanced sideways at Taemin. "Since the only person who might know something about them seems to have no intention of sharing such...somethings."

Ten sighed heavily. "We have no other leads left."

"Actually," Lucas spoke up. "We do."

Ten raised an eyebrow. "We...do?"

"No matter how much you judge me about reading these conspiracy theory magazines, they're helpful, and I have proof," Lucas said, holding up the same magazine he was looking through before. "This is where I first saw a sketch of the fox guy, and this is where we first found the term 'Foursaken' being mentioned," he said. He flipped over a few pages, and tapped a picture. "I bet that's the 'angel' you saw," he said to Taeyong, and held out the magazine to him.

"That's him," Taeyong muttered dazedly, taking the magazine. "The picture is a little blurry, but I'm pretty sure it's the same guy."

"And if that's our angel, then I have a pretty good idea who the person behind him is," Lucas said.

Kai stared at the photograph. It was glossy and focused on the angel guy, but when he looked more closely, he realized there was someone behind him. It was woman's face, partly covered, with long black hair and sunglasses covering her eyes. "Is that..."

"Yup," Ten said, sounding sick. "That's Irene."

|

if you're confused about how ten can recognize her: he saw her when he was eavesdropping on her conversation back in the cirque hotel. also we have a lead. YAY.

this quarantine would bore the hell out of me but i'm always locked up inside my house like the 97% introvert i am so it's pretty normal so far........my life is sad

how are you guys holding up? hopefully the update can entertain you for a little while! wash your hands for twenty seconds and carry masks and handkerchiefs and just generally stay very very safe. or i'll go baymax mode.

love, 
Manx.