the city's mine, baby (2/2) [vixx, shinee] + notes!!
“How is it?”
“They’re making good progress,” Wonshik says, not looking away from the screen. Taekwoon has gotten ahold of Sanghyuk- the (by now unconscious) boy’s been slung over his shoulder, head lolling back and forth to the rhythm of Taekwoon’s feet as he hurries down the tunnel back towards the hatch.
Hakyeon comes over and gives Wonshik a light clap on the back. “Good,” he says, pulling on a headset. “Has he re-entered the hatch yet?”
Wonshik pretends not to notice how Hakyeon’s hand lingers just a bit too long, a warm steady presence upon his shoulder. “Yeah, he’s almost- wait- oh, shit-”
A different hatch, one that they have never, ever seen open before, bursts wide to Taekwoon’s left and men come pouring out in literal waves like...well, like ants. In less than a second Taekwoon’s been completely surrounded, and he has never looked small to any of them but now he looks awfully minuscule in a sea of guns and helmeted government men.
No amount of telekinesis will get him out of this unscathed.
“Shit, it’s a trap,” Hongbin groans from the other side of the room, just as one of the men in the very front pulls off his helmet and- “fuck,” Hakyeon whispers.
Kim Kibum is not an especially threatening looking man, but anybody who has ever lived after an encounter with him- well. No one ever has.
Taekwoon isn’t one to be terrified. He’s not one to tremble in the face of superiority, to go weak in the knees, to fall to the ground and grovel for his life.
So when the man in front of his pulls off his helmet, shaking out a head of silky pale hair, Taekwoon stands taller and stares steadily into the dark eyes of Kim Kibum.
Kibum turns to the man beside him and holds out a hand, into which the man places a manilla folder. He opens it, looks through its contents with quick sweeping gazes.
“Jung Taekwoon,” he finally reads into the silence of the tunnel. His voice echoes. “Twenty-three years old. Well-trained in combat and weaponry, can use the phenomenon known as telekinesis. A member-” he shuts the folder, looking up, “-of VIXX, the anti-government group with powers that oppose the natural law.”
He clicks his tongue in an irritated noise and hands the folder back to the man next to him. “Useless. That's all useless. What I need to know, Jung Taekwoon, is who are your friends, your closest allies, your loved ones?” With each word Kibum walks forward, until he and Taekwoon are a mere few inches apart. “It’s information like that, Jung Taekwoon, that will make a person break. When they see their best friend, or their sweet little sister, writhing on the ground, they will give in.”
Taekwoon doesn’t say anything.
For a long minute they stare at each other, until Kibum glances at the boy slung over Taekwoon’s shoulder. “Those with strange abilities are a danger to us all, Jung Taekwoon. You’re one of them. So's he. So I’d appreciate it if you’d give him to me.”
Taekwoon sneers a little, doesn’t move.
Kibum sighs and sets his helmet down on the floor of the tunnel, then straightens up. “You know,” he says, almost conversationally, “if you were anyone else you would be dead by now. But Captain Choi is so fascinated by your kind…wanted you in pristine condition…”
He raises a gloved hand and signals to one of the men in the mass. The man moves towards the back in the direction of the hatch Taekwoon was going to exit out of, and noises of a scuffle ensues. Taekwoon can’t see what’s going on but a knot of dread forms in his stomach, heavy and grim. He’s just preparing himself to use telekinesis (which he was stupid to not have done earlier) and lift Kim Kibum, drag him through the crowd, maybe, slam him into a few walls, when the men start clearing a line from the hatch’s direction to make way for-
Oh. Oh, no.
Hakyeon’s fingers are digging into his shoulder, hard enough to bruise, but Wonshik doesn’t notice.
There’s a clatter of Hongbin’s chair toppling over as he bolts to his feet.
Taekwoon isn’t one to be terrified. He’s not one to tremble in the face of superiority, to go weak in the knees, to fall to the ground and grovel for his life.
But when Jaehwan is dragged, lip bleeding, to the middle and thrown down at Kibum’s feet, he feels every protective barrier within him shatter, every fearless nerve dissolve.
(He was stupid, so so stupid, to allow this to happen.)
“Captain Choi told me to keep you two in mint condition,” Kibum says, watching Taekwoon’s face. “But him…”
He squats down, takes a fistful of Jaehwan’s soft, silky black hair, and pulls him up to eye level. “Lee Jaehwan,” he says, and there’s no file this time, nothing for him to read off of. He has this memorized. “Twenty two years old, can control electricity. Able to conduct it when in contact with another human.” Kibum releases him, kicks him away. “Well, you certainly won’t be in contact with anything.”
Jaehwan stares at him, seething, breath coming quick and shallow.
Kibum looks up at Taekwoon. “Well then, Jung Taekwoon, I’ll ask again- give me Han Sanghyuk, or I’ll kill this man. And don’t try to use telekinesis or he’ll suffer the same consequences.”
Taekwoon shifts, tosses his head. “Then, go ahead. I don’t care about him.”
Kibum just sneers, and takes the rifle of one of the government soldiers. Rising up, he levels it at Jaehwan’s head, and Taekwoon twitches, eyes growing darker.
“Hm, I think you do care about him,” Kibum says quietly, and Taekwoon looks away. “Tell me, who is he to you?”
He doesn’t reply.
“A friend, maybe? An ally? A sibling? Or a lover-” and again, Taekwoon’s expression gives it away (stupid, so so stupid), his jaw tightening, “-ah, I see.”
Kibum laughs, cold and delighted, and exclaims, “Isn’t that’s sweet, you’re in love! I-”
Abruptly he spins, leaping out of the way just as a crackling bolt of electricity shoots past him, into the crowd of government men. There are screams of shock and agony, bodies seizing up in pain as the electricity courses through their bodies, before going still and falling to the ground, twitching.
Kibum turns slowly to face Jaehwan, still on the ground, but there’s a glimmer and crackle of a spark in his hand. “Oh?” Kibum says, and there’s a terrifying look in his eyes. “You can do that too? Well,” he moves in a quick blur, too fast to see, and suddenly Taekwoon is on the ground, Kibum’s foot pressing down on his throat slowly.
“I'm changing the rules again- Captain Choi wanted these two, but I could always take Jung Taekwoon’s lover instead. So try that again, Lee Jaehwan, and he dies.”
Wonshik stands up abruptly.
“I’m,” he says, “I’m, I’m going to go-”
Hakyeon jolts to his feet. “We have to stay here,” he starts, sounding more like he’s convincing himself, and Wonshik shakes him off angrily.
“Then you stay here! Someone has to go, they’re going to die, Hakyeon!”
Hongbin suddenly interrupts. “I’ll stay.”
Hongbin’s face looks sad, a little, or maybe bitter, as he says, “I’ll stay here, you two go. I won’t be much help anyway, will I?”
“No-” Hakyeon starts, but Hongbin’s face twists a little and he gives them both a hard shove.
“Get out of here, hurry up!”
Wonshik bolts off down the hallway. Hakyeon makes to follow, but then he hesitates, hand on the door frame. He turns back- his eyes connect with Hongbin’s, because Hakyeon is the leader and it’s supposed to be him that sacrifices things.
But Hongbin looks back, unhesitant, and Hakyeon wavers, then races away.
Wonshik, Hakyeon thinks, is like a blaze; bold, explosive, wildly destructive, but essential to survival.
He’s Hakyeon’s right hand man, reliable in any situation, and he has the entire map of the Underground memorized. So Hakyeon watches as Wonshik walks along the wall of a path running parallel to the tunnel Taekwoon’s in, a hand splayed against the surface, knowing where to stop, where to hit.
“Here,” Wonshik says, and he steps away and glances to Hakyeon.
“Go ahead,” Hakyeon says. Wonshik looks at him for a moment longer (on the edge of the world, feet lined up against the cliff, ready to tip off into the air, and he jumps) and brushes the pads of his fingers to the cool metal of the wall.
It explodes.
The tunnel's in pandemonium, shots firing left and right, bodies lifted in the air and thrown down again, explosions every few seconds like cannon fire.
Jaehwan lunges forward before Kibum can react, shoves the gun barrel aside with an open palm and slams a hand already crackling with electricity into Kibum’s chest.
The man freezes, chokes, gasps, but then somehow (and Jaehwan supposes he really shouldn’t be surprised, because this is Kim Kibum) rips himself away from Jaehwan-
Wonshik comes careening out of nowhere, suddenly, and slams into Kibum. They tumble away and Jaehwan hesitates, should he go after them, but he tears his eyes away and looks around.
He can see the bright red of Hakyeon’s hair, and the tightly wound coil inside him relaxes, and he sinks to the ground.
Hakyeon’s here, he thinks, it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.
The room is a blurry mess of brown and black, everything mushing together into unfocused blobs. There’s a bright splotch of red hovering above him (he’s guessing it’s hair, though who would dye their hair such an obnoxious color is beyond him), and when his eyes open- burning with pain- the splotch moves closer and there’s a voice saying, “Are you alright?”
“I,” Sanghyuk says (god his eyes really fucking hurt). “I, yeah, I’m fine.”
“Do you remember anything?” the red splotch continues, and suddenly the pain searing through his eyes disappears as Sanghyuk flies upright, senses ringing as everything comes back because,
“Mom,” he gasps, “my mom, is she-”
The red splotch pushes him back down but he struggles, what happened is my mom okay where am I, until the splotch says, very quietly, “I’m afraid your mother is dead.”
Sanghyuk stops, falls back. “Oh,” he says. There’s a stretch of silence as he stares, blank and disbelieving, at the blurred ceiling, and finally the red blob stands up. “I’ll leave you alone. Do you need anything?” it- he?- says.
Sanghyuk doesn’t say anything for a beat but then blinks a few times and mutters, “Do you have any contact solution?” He’d like to know where he is, first and foremost, but his eyes are stinging and that’s all he can really think about at the moment.
“My contacts were still in before I, uh...before I got wherever I am now, so I can’t really see shit right now.”
The red splotch considers for a moment, then says, “I think Hongbin wears contacts, he might have some. Can you walk?”
“Probably?”
“Then follow me,” the splotch says, and he fishes Sanghyuk’s hand out from under the covers and takes it to pull him along.
“Wait,” he starts, “where am-”
“I’ll explain everything afterwards,” the splotch replies, giving his hand a little tug. Sanghyuk stares at him for a second, then gives in and follows him out the door.
(And it’s a little strange, but somehow he feels safe for the first time.)
← part 1
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this is so late oh m y god ;_____; i'm so sorry to anyone who was anticipating this (ok lbr probably no one) because omg i've made you wait for like 7 months or something, i am trash
i had a big writing slump as well as a vixx slump in those 7+ months, in which all i wrote was tiny lame drabble things, so i was planning to just declare this discontinued. but my friend bugged me about this a ton and i felt rly guilty so i managed to claw my way up from the depths of hell and write the above abomination ??? it's really gross for which i am sorry, but it's pretty much my attempt at closing up things.
there's still several loose ends, like minho and hyukbin and navi, so umm you'll have to imagine for yourself how they end up? fml a thousand apologies to anyone who came here for those two pairings, it was supPOSED TO HAPPEN.
on their powers:
- taekwoon had the power of telekinesis and jaehwan had electricity manipulation
- hakyeon had the power of time control, which was why jaehwan was so relieved that he was there; their chances are dramatically increased with the control of time on their side y'know
- i mentioned it really briefly in the first part, but hongbin had memory manipulation.
- in case you didn't catch it, wonshik could make things combust when he touched them. (idk ??)
- and originally, i had planned for sanghyuk to be able to mute other's powers. this is why both the government and VIXX have had their eye on him; the government because they'd like to use him against the people with powers, and VIXX mostly to prevent the government from getting him instead.
if you have any questions about this that i didn't cover in this note, then by all means ask in the comments or @ my ask.fm !!
(also lj is dumb so if there's any spacing issues then OTL i tried)