It took the three some time to find the others, but when they did, they found them relatively unharmed—that is to say, alive.

Baekhyun was supporting a staggering Lucas when Taeyong came across them. He was bleeding badly, but there wasn't enough blood loss that he needed to be rushed to a medic immediately. Shao and Mark were in the parking lot, both knocked out and tied together, but it didn't take long to rouse them from their slumber.

"I can't believe I fainted," Mark said miserably, rubbing the bump on his forehead as he sat on the sidewalk, his other hand dangling lifelessly between his knees. "Before the fight even started!"

"It's not your fault, kiddo, someone attacked you," Taeyong reminded him with the gentleness of a mother hen, ruffling his hair as he finished tying a tourniquet to Lucas's arm. "Did you see who it was?"

"No, they were really fast," Mark said, a pout still resting on his lips, seemingly without permission. "And they came from, like, behind me, so it was a sneak attack more than anything. So I can't even say it was cool."

"It was very cool," Shao said. She had a cut on her temple from when the same person smashed a hard object over her head. "I mean, being hit over the head and tied together with someone? That's like, my childhood dream."

"It wasn't cool," Mark said, sounding upset but not convinced by his own conviction.

"Are you kidding? It was totally cool." She grinned. "They always take out the coolest people first because they're the hardest to defeat."

"I'm not a kid, you can't convince me with that logic," he said, but he sounded significantly brighter.

"I think I have a concussion, though," she said, frowning. She brought a hand up to the wound on her head, not quite touching it, but letting her fingers hover just in front of it. "I've never had a concussion before, though, so I can't be sure."

"Feeling disorientated isn't the same thing as having a concussion," Taeyong replied dryly. "Sit down, Shao."

"I am sitting down," she said with a scrunch of her nose, then got to her feet unsteadily. "I think I'm gonna fall if I take even a single step."

"Too bad, because you're going to have to," Baekhyun said as he entered the parking lot again, this time holding a piece of paper in his hands. "Ten borrowed the van, left a note saying that Chan was bleeding all over the place and needed to be taken to a hospital immediately."

"What?" Shao exclaimed.

"Who's Chan?" Mark mumbled.

"We could just take a cab," Taeyong said, shrugging.

"I think even a cab driver would be reluctant to carry six bloody adults around the city," Lucas said, then shook his head. His face had lost its color, but it had more to do with the amount of injuries on his face than emotion. "We'll have to walk."

"No need," Taemin said, looking up from his phone. He had a gash on his leg, too, but no one was attending to it, probably because he didn't exactly look approachable. The only acceptable candidate was Baekhyun, and he had been out van scouting. "I called Doyoung. He said he can pick us up, but that he'll be calling the police about this area soon and it's better if we get to a safe distance for the pick-up."

"Great. That's great," Shao said, but her sour tone didn't match her words. She threw up her hands in the air for a dramatic effect, then leaned against Taeyong. "Taeyong, carry me."

"No."

"Baekhyun, carry me."

Mark widened his eyes at Taeyong, trying to gesture to him in some cryptic sign language, but Taeyong wasn't looking. Baekhyun, not having the heart to say no, let Shao lean against him as the seven set out into the shadowy streets.

"I snuffed out the lamplights for a couple of blocks so we aren't seen, but no more," Baekhyun said. Shao had refused both piggybacking and princess-carrying, and was now just leaning heavily against Baekhyun with her arm around his shoulders as he tried in vain to support her weight. Dizziness had made her walk especially wobbly. "The police might connect it to the diner incident if the lights around it stop functioning, but any further blocks, and we'll pretty much be leaving a trail for them to follow."

"Still cool," Mark said. He was walking by himself with occasional help from Taeyong. One could say it was because of the nature of his injury wasn't as serious as Shao's, but not everyone agreed to that hypothesis.

Taemin was up front, trying to maintain a tough-guy look despite the six-inch gash on his leg. The cloth was torn through cleanly, and the skin inside was an angry red. Everyone tried not to look at it, and Taemin had refused all advances of help, saying that he healed fast. Which was true, apparently, because already the bleeding had stopped, as unusual as that was. Speed powers ostensibly weren't limited to fast running.

Lucas was able to carry himself after a boost from Baekhyun, though his injuries were still hard to look at. He looked brooding and silent as a spy who had been double-crossed and was plotting bitter revenge. This look invited many admiring glances from a still-slightly-delirious Mark.

Kai was strangely less chatty than possible, which might have had something to do with the fact that he was being choked just a few minutes ago. He kept glancing at his hands with a queer look in his eyes, but stayed away from the heart of the group.

Baekhyun and Shao, despite their glorious beginning, had slumped to the end of the group, and were no trailing behind the others with a good distance of ten feet between them and the group. Shao was abnormally quiet, and Baekhyun glanced at her every few seconds, looking like he was working up the nerve to say something that might piss her off.

"Earlier today," he said, finally, and she glanced up at him inquisitively. "Back in the airship, when you said you felt a spark when you touched my hand, were you...were you really flirting with me?"

She frowned. As it might have been with most other people, the question didn't make her awkward—in fact, Baekhyun felt she sagged even more into his side—and cocked her head thoughtfully. "No," she said. "I felt a spark—like, a literal spark, like static electricity. I only pointed it out because it was so much stronger than that. And it makes sense, with your powers and stuff."

"I see." He nodded slowly and deliberately. Unlike her, the interaction had left him flustered. Despite how much Baekhyun layed into the others about team building and the importance of conversation, he liked sticking to impersonal topics because he was easily embarrassed.

The duo lapsed into a thoughtful silence again. Baekhyun's arm was growing tired looped around under Shao's arms, and he was beginning to lose feeling in it.

"May I ask you something?"

Shao looked startled, as if someone had just roused her from a fever dream about unicorns. "Yeah, sure. Go ahead."

Baekhyun licked his lips, and after a moment of hesitation, posed the question that had been on his mind for a long time. "How did you get your scar?" he asked. "I know it's childish of me to be so bold about my curiosity, but—"

"It's not that big of a deal," she said with a grin, and elbowed him in the side with a miscalculated amount of force that left him wincing. "You're always so chill and laid-back, I admit it's funny seeing you so awkward."

"Pained to hear that."

"No, you're not." She flashed him a smile, and he smiled back, set at ease by her nonchalance. "I got the scar because I used to work at a circus."

His eyebrows jumped. "This will be interesting."

Shao opened her mouth to delve into the tale once again, but before she could, Taeyong called out to them from a few metres away. "Are we going too fast for you two?" he yelled, an unimpressed look set into his features. "Pick up the pace, pansies!"

Shao pulled a face at him, but Baekhyun only chuckled. They had already reached their designated pick-up location, a turn in the road. They had been walking past rows of similar-looking single-storey houses, probably part of a colony, and the turn led from the thin road they were walking to the main road, and was hidden from sight. There were tall walls on either side of the bend, and the exit was like an open gate nestled in the middle, hidden by a thick curtain of vines.

Doyoung was already waiting for them by the sidewalk, leaning against the side of the car. He glanced up when they came close enough for sight, and pressed his lips together as a sign of his annoyance at being called for a favor at such a late hour.

"You owe me a week of free dinner," he said to Baekhyun with a look that matched his tone, pulling open the door. "I don't know if this thing is big enough for seven people, so you better grab your seats soon."

As Kai shot towards the shotgun seat, Mark hot on his heels, Shao turned towards Baekhyun with an apologetic single-shoulder shrug. "Pity I couldn't tell the juicy story," she said.

He responded with a single-shoulder shrug of his own, and a tired smile playing on his lips. "Eh, stuff happens," he said. "But you'll have to tell it to me later."

She detached herself from him and began limping towards the car, only turning momentarily to point a finger gun at him. "I promise."