"Oh, great," Baekhyun muttered.

The moment Irene finished speaking, the three were on their feet, simultaneously reaching behind their heads to draw the masks over their faces. The waiter gasped as Baekhyun stepped forward, and the girl next to him pressed the mouth of the gun against his temple.

"One false move, and I blow his head off," she said. Her voice was less sweet than Irene's, as blunt and effective as a rusted knife. It could give you blood poisoning. "Take another step. I dare you."

"Oh, Jisoo, honey, you really need to work on your language." Irene tutted, then turned to Baekhyun with a gracious smile. "Thank you for leading us here, we truly appreciate it. And do forgive the disturbance, it's nothing personal." She lifted a single shoulder in a graceful shrug. "I see not all of your little team is here, which is sad. I would have liked to see Taemin again."

The rest of his face was covered by the mask, but Ten's wide eyes betrayed his shock. "You know Taemin?"

"Of course! We're old friends." Irene raised her eyebrows. "I'm sorry to see he hasn't told you about me. I'll make sure the introductions are proper the next time—but for now, it's better if you step out of the way and let us do our job."

"What are you going to do, kill these guys?" Ten asked. "Because if that's what you plan on, then I'm sorry to say we're going to have to stop you."

Jisoo laughed. "You can try."

"Wait a second," Jae said. He sounded breathless, the kind of breathlessness with which you can't tell if one is fearful or excited. Ten glanced at him uncertainly, only to see his eyes were shining. "Bae Irene?" He laughed, apparently in delight. "I've followed you for years, and I have to say, it's amazing to finally—"

"Are you kidding me?" Ten exclaimed, and at the same moment, the waiter kicked backwards. Jisoo let go of him, more surprised by the fact that he was brave enough to try to fight than the kick. The waiter started forwards, but ended up tripping down the stairs, and Lucas charged forward before he could hit the ground. Jisoo raised the gun, rolling her eyes, and shot in his direction with an almost bored look on her face.

"Chan!" Jae cried out.

"I have him!" Lucas grunted, pulling him up with effort. When he turned the boy over, he found that Chan was gritting his teeth, and his face has lost all its color. A better look told Lucas that he had been shot in the leg.

"Oh, god, that hurts," the boy moaned, before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.

"Protect the files! That's my life's work and probably what she wants!" Jae yelled, and Baekhyun's eyes turned a solid gray as he began to float a few inches off the ground. The air around him crackled, and Jae stepped back as he heard a distant rumble.

Lucas realized what was going to happen before the others did, picking up Chan and moving quickly. "Take cover! He's going to blow the roof!"

Ten rushed towards Jae, tackling him and rolling under a reinforced table in the corner. Lucas dropped Chan off next to them and stood as near to Baekhyun as he dared as the hum in the air became stronger. There was a crash and a burst of light as the roof was torn away, chunks of metal and debris falling everywhere. The lights went out in a shower of sparks. Lucas closed his eyes to concentrate, opening his hands and baring himself to absorb as much power as he could in one go.

Irene and Jisoo had run up the stairs for cover, and Lucas followed them as Baekhyun gasped and dropped to the floor, somehow managing to stay on his feet. Ten gritted his teeth. "Put pressure on the entry wound," he told Jae, gesturing to Chan who was still out like a light. "Don't move unless you see something. If you do, call for help."

Jae had gone white around the mouth. He nodded, obeying his instructions as Ten turned away and ran to Baekhyun.

"You think you can handle more?" he asked the orange-haired man worriedly. Baekhyun had already overexerted himself with the blast from the bar, and now he had to do it again. "I'll call for backup."

"You do that," Baekhyun rasped, breathing heavily as he pulled himself up with difficulty. There was blood trickling from one corner of his mouth. "But don't count on help from outside, all right? I'll be fine. The other two are probably outside. Go help Lucas. Distract the Four for as long as you can before someone arrives."

Ten nodded, leaving Baekhyun reluctantly before he followed Lucas up the stairs. Thankfully, the roof in the hole wasn't too big, and the debris hadn't been enough to crush someone. Unfortunately, a bookshelf was completely buried in the rubble. All he could be thankful for was that they already had the data they needed out and safe.

But this is the basement, Ten thought as he ran up. How did Baekhyun get the lightning to work down here?

All he could do was grasp at straws for the answer, and the closest he could come to a concrete solution was that he had charged the circuits to maximum power before blowing them up.

Upstairs, the situation was even worse. The mainframe must have been completely fried by Baekhyun, because the lights were all out. The fight had moved outwards. Ten sent out a quick signal to the others, hesitating only a moment before running out to check out the state of affairs.

Lucas had taken on fighting what seemed to be a giant wolf. His shirt had been torn off, and he was bleeding from a massive cut on his arm, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. His suit underneath was untouched, probably because of the material that it was made of—it must be pretty sturdy to deal with his power absorption. His eyes were swirling like flames as he fought the wolf, but he was growing more and more tired with every punch he threw at its snout.

As he looked more closely, Ten realized that it wasn't an ordinary wolf. Its eyes glowed green, and there was an evolved intelligence in them. It was much bigger than an average wolf, too—Ten had enough reason to believe that this was a shapeshifter. There weren't many wolves in Capitol City.

Ah, he thought. This must be our fox guy. Who is actually a wolf guy.

Ten made to go to Lucas, but something held him back. How long would it take for the others to show up? Taemin was fast enough to be here any moment, but the others would be at least ten more minutes. Baekhyun was down, Jae and Chan were no help, and Lucas didn't have much of an energy reserve left. And Ten? Invisibility was great when it came to eavesdropping on top-secret conversations and snooping around, but during combat, his ability was practically useless. Even his sessions in Nova Tower couldn't have prepared him for something like this.

The diner was in a very remote location, too, which meant there weren't many buildings around. No buildings meant no civilians, which meant no one to report the problem, which meant that no help was coming.

They were seriously outnumbered, and he couldn't do anything to help. He had never felt so useless before.

"Come on," he muttered to himself, trying to organize his thoughts, going into battle mode like Baekhyun had taught him, but it was no help. "Get a grip on yourself."

Irene and Jisoo were nowhere to be found. Two, and if the wolf was the third... Ten's senses sharpened. One of them was missing. The Ice Angel. Ten wanted to believe that he was somewhere out in Malibu, working on his cold problem, but he knew he was just deceiving himself. But if the guy wasn't out here, he was either hiding, or back inside the diner.

And he had no reason to hide.

Ten spared Lucas another agonized glance before turning on his heel and running back into the diner. Through the broken glass of the doors, he thought he saw a spark of electricity streak past—but that was impossible. He shook off the thought and made his way towards the door of the basement, the one that said staff only, and found it shut.

He frowned, and tried the handle. It was cold, which meant that no one had used the door's handle recently. On the other hand, he thought, narrowing his eyes as he touched the handle again, it's too cold.

The door had been frozen shut.

Ten smiled, resisting the urge to laugh aloud. He knew he didn't have any reason to be happy, with two civilians and Baekhyun trapped inside, but he couldn't help but be proud that he had actually figured something out on his own.

"I didn't take you to be the hides-in-the-shadows type," he said aloud, grinning as he turned away from the door. "Aren't angels supposed to shine like beacons of hope?"

For a few seconds, he stood in silence. Then a shadow rippled, and a man stepped out into the light of the moon. He was tall, pale, and just as statuesquely beautiful as Ten remembered—high cheekbones, white-blonde hair, ice-blue eyes, the only color on his face the bloodred shade of his lips.

"Well, I suppose you're right," the angel said, a hint of elegant amusement quirking one corner of his mouth. "But to tell the truth, I prefer snowstorms, when you can't see the light. Shining becomes tiring after a while."

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i've been waiting to write the upcoming chapter for so long you have NO IDEA how excited i am for this

honestly, i've always believed Super is my best work on here so far. there's more clarity of thought when it comes to the characters, and the developments make sense. but you probably don't want to hear any more boring writer shizzle so i'll stop lol

but !! as long as we still have time before the identity reveal, who do you think the fox/wolf guy is?

love, 
Manx.