└ Downtown

[ starter for sehun. cannot tag, not online. ]


“Track him down, Seer. That’s your job.”

So what, she’s a tracker now? As far as Krystal could remember, they used her both as their protection and their eyes. She couldn’t hide her irritation upon her new assignment—sure, it wasn’t something she cannot do. But it wasn’t something they would ask her to do—not on a regular basis. It made her wonder whether they were losing agents to do their bidding. The superior himself should know better than to order her to leave the premises of their hideout so as to convince someone to join them. Knowing Krystal, she never veered this far away from ‘home’.

It was already dark, and she could feel the evening breeze even through the leather jacket she wore. The wind blew by the skirt of her red cotton dress. The heels of her boots clicked against the pavement as she walked through the dark alleys, keeping her senses alert. He could be anywhere. Her irises glowed faint red as she tried hard to actually ‘track’ him—through the minds of other people, through what they saw and what they’re currently seeing. Much to her disappointment—and apparent irritation—she saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. And her superior said he could be lurking in these areas, like the ghost of a man he is. Where could he be?

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

If he was as smart as they told her, then he might be playing with her; concealed and laying low, for all she knew. There’s no way he could possibly escape her abilities (admittedly, she held pride for her mutant abilities—it wasn’t one any mere human, nor fellow mutant, could escape from). He was past her radar, and it felt infuriating.

Stop hiding, Hoax. One could never hide for so long.

The bright lights coming from the street lamps was what welcomed her as she walked out of the dark alley she passed by, and even with the fact that it was already late at night, civilians passed by her, unbothered by her existence. Her eyes wandered around the streets, shifting from one boutique from another, from one face to another, from one mind to another.

Where are you?

@Mun Junghyuk It was already hard enough to avoid being impaled by the spikes—Sunggyu couldn’t hold himself up in the air for long, and he had already had to touch ground when he pushed the older away from danger. Suddenly the spikes came from every direction, and though he was still fast enough to clear them out of his way before he got impaled, he still had to touch them.

And the combination was deadly.

There was an explosion shortly afterwards; the male was blasted a few meters away to the side, and suddenly everything else went silent, except for the sound of running water and the sparks of electricity that was still around them. Parts of his outfit got burned, and he laid there, looking haggard and wasted. Still. Not moving at all.

Even his heart had stopped beating.

‘Sometimes, things just go wrong at the wrong time… and by then you can only rely on miracles.’

It began to rain after, the drops of water wiping away the dusts on his face, but Sunggyu didn’t feel anything. He’d died once, more than ten years prior, and it took a miracle for him to live; perhaps, this time, it would take more than just a miracle.

All just because of one wrong move.

@Kim Sunggyu "Quit trying to make it sound like I'm so old!" Eric complained, almost stomping his foot like a child. However, he didn't when he noticed that Sunggyu was on the run again. Whipping his head around he tried to predict where the other would go. That wasn't his field of expertise though. Probability stuck with math most of the time, not biology and chemistry.

Cursing under his breath, he jumped away from his spot and decided he might as well use what he had been thinking about before. A trap of sorts he hadn't used until now.

He used his powers to bring the ground up in spikes, changing their chemical composition into different metals. With the water from the street, he made spikes of ice over top of the metal ones, both pointing outward as a shield of sorts so enemies wouldn't dare to get close. Before he could finish constructing it all the way around him though, he was suddenly thrown to the side by an invisible force. He already knew who it was though.

Having his concentration stolen, his hand made one wrong movement as he tumbled to the ground, and the spikes veered off in every direction.

He groaned and opened his eyes as he pushed himself up from the ground, only to watch in slow motion as the electric cable swung towards Sunggyu dangerously, right between the other and the spikes.

"No!"

He tried to get up but wasn't quick enough, not was he fast enough to wave away the deadly sculpture of ice and metal points. Eric already knew that both water and metal were conductors, and who knew how much electricity ran through that cable? He wanted to turn off the electric current, change the metal and rubber of the cable to fabric and wood but he just wasn't fast enough. All he could do was watch.

@Mun Junghyuk If there's anything Sunggyu hated being confined in, it's got to be water. Not because it soaked his clothes (it's easy to dry when you can run faster than the speed of sound, honestly), nor because it slowed him down, but simply because he embraced air wherever he ran towards—feeling the liquid suddenly all around him, panic quickly rose inside his system.

Though the next moment he was free.

The two stood face to face now, Sunggyu still half-wet from the sudden attack, and slightly panting though he didn't let it show.

"For your information, we have agents over 40 still running around, and they're still faster than you," he retorted before again disappearing in a flash of blue. Sunggyu could still see everything Eric does in perfect clarity, not to mention in slow motion—though then something else caught his eyes.

Electricity. The ice Eric had made earlier had apparently brought down a few electric poles, and the district was experiencing a blackout... only that a sparking cable with a frayed end was heading straight towards him.

Sunggyu didn't intend to capture him, true, but he literally did—by pushing the older male out of harm's way.

Sometimes it's that easy to be misunderstood.

@Kim Sunggyu Groaning when the other went straight over the ice, Eric had to remember that Sunggyu wasn't stupid. However, he was able to predict what would happen next and skidded to a stop in the middle of the street. Panting, he quit with the ice, and for a split second he could see the other before only his voice was carried along with the wind.

In the next moment, he was behind him, and Eric flipped around quickly, bringing his arms up.

"Maybe, but experience comes with age."

Jumping back, he looked through the air around the other, knowing he would start running again in just seconds. At least it took less than a second to use his ability.

With a snap of his fingers, the air around Sunggyu turned to water. No above him or below him, the air touching his skin. Now Eric was just guessing here, but he hoped the water resistance would slow the other, or maybe his clothes would be too soaked for proper movement. That, or he could just turn it into honey.

He never shifted Sunggyu's actual atoms. To change a person's chemical make-up was just...disturbing on so many levels. It's like, 'look! who wants to play God?', and that thought alone made him shutter.

Letting the water around turn back to its original form of air, he put his hands up and shrugged his shoulders.

"Or maybe I am too old. I bet none of your agents are over 30."

Even though it looked like a surrender, Eric had one more trick under his sleeve.

@Mun Junghyuk Actually, with Eric, it was always a special case.

Sunggyu's speed made everything play in super slow motion in front of his eyes; he righted the said display before the owner managed to actually touch it, and ran past the horde of people going against his direction, though he kept in mind that he could never go too fast. His objective was not really to capture the guy; Eric has escaped every single time, and as far as it went, they had let him. Only that he always shows up again, quite persistently, and Sunggyu knew that it wasn't really his person that he needs to catch.

"Tch," the male snorted at the taunting yell. It bore him, to be honest; with the speed he could run at, he could catch the other male in mere seconds and get done with it for the time being, until he escaped again. It was tricky, though, given Eric's ability—Sunggyu always made sure he wasn't being too threatening, because he knew just one mistake could be the end of his life. Eric was a good guy, bar the times when he was cornered.

Just a little bit more with this boring cat and mouse play...

The water hadn't been the least challenging; Sunggyu sped on the ice without so much of a slip—mainly because he chose to walk on air for a while. Not for very long, though.

The brown-haired male smirked as he blurred past the other male, stopping 20 meters in front of him before another second passed.

"Really, now?"

And again, only a blue trail remained, a shift in the air on the place where he stopped—the next moment he was right by Eric's back.

"Sorry, but you're the one getting old."

@Kim Sunggyu "Hey! Watch where your going!"

"Sorry!" Eric yelled over his shoulder after knocking over a display in front of some random shop he couldn't remember the name of. While the owner of said shop got to work on righting the rack, Eric rounded the corner of the street, almost running right into a group of teenagers before veering off to the side. He cursed under his breath as he dodged the onslaught of citizens, wondering why he ever decided to go against the flow of the crowd. It was hard enough to do that while swimming.

Behind him, he could hear people yelling and crying out as something blurred past them and he shook his head. He knew he couldn't outrun his follower, but here he was, somewhat trying to. Really, he was just playing around on the streets with him.

"You're getting slow Chaser!" he yelled, turning left onto a deserted street. Even though it was empty, he kept running. He passed rundown businesses and caved-in buildings. One was just a hollowed, black shell of what it used to be before a fire destroyed it. For a moment, running down this particular street, he knew he was going to get caught. That is, until his foot made contact with water running along the middle of the open street.

Towards the end of the way, a broken fire hydrant was gushing forth water than crawled along the street. He smirked as he watched it flow, before his eyes adjusted to microscopic levels. Atoms floated before him, each one an H20 molecule just waiting to be shifted.

With a wave of his hand as he kept running, he turned the water into a solid. Sheets of slippery ice ran along the road behind him. He hoped it would make the other slip. While he kept running, more ice that was created just barely bit his heels but didn't make him slip like he wanted the other to.