Capitol City was a beautiful place.

It was a diverse city, filled with wonders both artistic and technological, some of which one could see walking down a street. Oftentimes Mark had seen three-dimensional billboards and holographic advertisements around the inner city, and he was one of the few people who had been around to see the hover-train still in the process of being constructed. In fact, the place was so beautiful that a stranger would never be able to guess that the city was surrounded by a desert.

Despite its slightly hard-to-access location, the city was home to many famous people—artisans, tech moguls, and athletes. One of these people was Lee Taemin.

Nova Tower, home of the most successful tech giant in the country, was right in the middle of the city, accessible only to a select few, and Mark was one of these few. Sometimes when he looked out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, he marveled at the glass domes, metal spires, and the hover train track ringing the building like an orange peel, as if seeing it all for the first time.

The tower was one of the tallest buildings in the city, the electric blue logo visible high over other, more mundane structures. People knew and respected Nova Enterprises, and they had seen and been in awe over the Nova Tower. What they didn't know about was another hidden lair constructed by Lee Taemin, buried deep in the desert.

When Mark first found himself in the lair, he was speechless for a good few seconds. AEOLUS (Aerial Operations and Logistics Unmanned Ship) had brought the eight (seven superheroes, and one unsuper) to the lair, and Mark had pressed his face to the glass front to watch a hatch half the size of a football ground open up in the middle of the desert and swallow them up.

"This is so cool," was the first thing he said, grinning wide from ear to ear as he spun an unsteady circle and surveyed the area with insatiable interest. "I can't believe we haven't been here sooner!"

"And there's more to it than just looking cool." Taemin winked at him as the walkway extended before them, tubes lighting up on either side of them as soon as he pressed a hand against the top of a podium.

"Can we see it right now?"

Baekhyun laughed, patting his shoulder as he walked in front of him. "All in good time, kid."

The rest of the Supers didn't proclaim their impression verbally, but Mark could tell they were all just as awed as him. Even Taeyong, grumpy as he had been after being assigned the duty of bringing Shao down the airship, had his mouth half open as he studied the interior of the structure with growing concentration. Shao, trailing behind them with a poorly done blindfold over her eyes, was pouting sadly.

"Why don't I get to see?" she asked, hands out in front of her, still tied together with something that looked like common picture wire but was actually an extremely advanced device specially designed to slow down the reflexes of the wearer. "Is it because I'm new? Are you guys calling me a noob behind my back?"

Taeyong rolled his eyes, touching her elbow ever now and then to keep her moving. "You're not new, you're an accident."

She made a noise at the back of her throat, a cross between amusement and frustration. "Are you going to make a condom joke? Because those are getting old."

The blue-haired man threw his head back in a sudden burst of annoyance, and poked her back a little harder than necessary. "Stay quiet and keep walking."

Mark was too invested in the building to look at her, but he admitted that he had been curious about the teardrop's-path scar on her face. It was a thin white line that was so perfectly shaped that it looked almost like it had been drawn on, but the more mottled scar tissue under her jaw told him it was more than that. There were a few marks on the base of her throat, too, and the insides of her forearms—he would usually have thought of something else, but they were too close-set and regular to be slashes. They looked more like claw marks, which just made him more curious.

"Are we there yet?" Ten asked, hands clasped together in front of him. Mark noticed that he looked uncomfortable, and felt almost sorry for him. The ravenet had a big job ahead, briefing them on the plans. It would have been easier without Taemin watching.

"Yes." They reached another podium with a sloping, oval top with the impression of a hand imprinted onto it. Taemin placed his hand on the imprint, and the wall slid away to reveal a hollow place.

Mark stepped in carefully, looking around the room. They were cloaked in utter darkness, and he couldn't guess the dimensions of the room at all. He couldn't tell if it was big or small, square or round, or what it contained. After all of them had stepped into the room, the wall slid back silently into its original position soundlessly, plunging them in the dark.

"Where are we?" came Ten's small voice, and Mark blinked, trying to adjust his sight to the darkness, but he couldn't see anything at all. Is this what being blind feels like? He started panicking a little, but he heard the sound of a flicking switch, and stopped short. Even Shao had fallen silent.

On the floor, a large circle of electric blue lit up. From the floor, a hologram of a place rose—Mark thought he could recognize the spires and tracks—bathing them in a shallow blue light. Taemin stepped into the center of the circle, and the rest followed him hesitantly, Taeyong guiding Shao. Some of the holographic structures were as tall as them, some taller, impressively detail-oriented and accurate.

Mark knew this place. It was Capitol City.

"Why do I feel like we're summoning a demon?" Kai muttered.

"Oh, now you're just flexing," Taeyong muttered, and Mark thought he saw a ghost of a smile on Taemin's face.

"This is the Blue Room," Taemin said, and Mark watched, hypnotized by the way the hover train's circular track curled around him like a snake. "I'll input the rest of your biodata in the security inlet, and this will be accessible by everyone later. We'll be carrying out our briefings here."

"Got to admit, it sounded a lot more impressive when you were describing it," Baekhyun said.

"More impressive than this?" Mark's eyebrows rose towards his hairline.

"Ten," Taemin said, and Ten stepped forward hesitantly. The hologram around them spun, and zoomed in on a pair of buildings which Mark recognized as the Cirque Hotel & Casino. "What did you hear?"

"Not a lot," Ten started, brushing his fingertips against the fringe of his black hair. "There was a woman—I'm presuming Irene—and a man, very pale, with white hair that looked surprisingly natural. He had high cheekbones, like arches, and a very fine bone structure—"

"Ten. The conversation, please."

"Right. Sorry." Ten's face had a bluish hue because of the light, but Mark suspected that he was blushing. "Anyway, the helicopter blades were rotating, so I couldn't get a lot, but they were talking about a virus. The man said something about freezers and Supers—it cut off here."

Lucas's brow furrowed. "You were up there for at least ten minutes—that's all you heard?"

"I told you, parts of it were inaudible." Ten frowned. It was a nice frown, strangely, Mark thought sometimes that everything Ten did was elegant and deliberate, like the movements of a dancer. "They also talked about the four—I don't know. Four something. Maybe it was a code."

"Foursaken," Mark whispered, before he could stop himself.

Taemin glanced at him sharply. "What did you say?"

He blushed in spite of himself, looking down at his shoes and shuffling. "Nothing. Just a, uh, just something I saw somewhere. It's probably got nothing to do with this. I don't know."

"What is Foursaken?" Taemin asked again, more intently this time. Mark felt everyone's gazes on him, and felt himself bending under the weight of them. He glanced at Taeyong helplessly, and the man gave him a reassuring look.

"I read an article on this, like, this gang a few weeks ago," he said suddenly, raising his shoulder awkwardly, and laughed a little, but it sounded stiff. "It was on like, this conspiracy theory magazine, so it's probably just some crazy dude writing."

"You read conspiracy theory magazine?" Kai asked, amused.

"It was online!" Mark exclaimed defensively. "And I wasn't looking for it or anything. I just found it, like, randomly."

Kai snorted. "Okay."

"What else did this magazine say?" Taemin asked, not paying attention to anything else. "Why did you think of this article, Mark? You wouldn't have mentioned it if there were no other similarities."

Mark shrugged slowly. "I don't know. Just, maybe...the pale man, he was in the article, too."

The blond man's face turned grave. Mark looked at Baekhyun, who seemed a little less confused than the rest, but confused nonetheless.

"What is it?" Baekhyun asked.

Taemin turned to look at him, and Mark saw something silent pass between them, like a radio wave. "I think I know who he's talking about."