Area One

30

The following weeks were so different from those before their meeting that Junmyeon sometimes caught himself thinking of them as a bad dream. The other guys all managed to move into the building he lived in and Sehun was staying in his apartment now. Even though Chronos obviously wasn't happy about it, they hadn't done anything to stop them.

After a few conversations with Sehun, Junmyeon managed to ask for news about Luhan's father.

"We searched for him everywhere in the City and the closer villages, but didn't find him. I am very sorry, but it is most likely that he has been killed." Ms Han seemed to feel genuinely bad for him, so Junmyeon didn't enquire further. It might be possible that he had escaped and gone back home after the chaos in the City and hadn't heard about what had happened. In that case, it would only be a matter of time for him to hear the news.

He had also asked her when they would go public with what the Red Force had done and he and the other guys all received the same answers: "I am afraid we can't do that as long as we are still investigating. Please also keep in mind that revealing to the world that people with superpowers exist might be a risk for your own safety as well."

Junmyeon didn't care about his safety. Ever since Sehun had moved in, they had started exercising together and training with their powers again. It was more for distraction and fun than anything else and he sometimes still got flashbacks and bad dreams, but they were somehow more bearable now. He had listened to Yixing and opened up to Sehun, and he didn't regret doing so. The pain didn't lessen, actually his bad dreams had gotten worse at first, but it didn't feel as lonely anymore.

They all met every few days now, mainly talking about their progress with the news-subject. They kept asking Chronos about their investigations in the test area and reasons why they still didn't want to publish them. And apparently, they had been successful. One day, Baekhyun stormed into Junmyeon's apartment with his laptop and his mobile phone in hands, only minutes after having messaged everyone to switch on their TVs.

"... apparently, the biggest Chronos test area was turned into a facility for human experiments and torture. We have received video footage that shows how cruel..."

"They actually did it." Junmyeon nearly couldn't believe it. They had hesitated for so long that he had already started thinking they didn't have the intention to make it public at all.

"I really hope everyone will see this," Sehun murmured.

The others were one by one entering the apartment now, all euphoric over the good news.

Junmyeon patted Sehun's shoulder. "Don't worry. I don't think it will be possible for anyone to miss it, those reports must be airing all over the world right now."

As good as this news seemed, a glance at Baekhyun showed him that something was very wrong. He was hunched over his laptop, typing and scanning the screen with a concentrated face which was turning darker by the minute.

"What's wrong?" He went to see what Baekhyun was doing. There were several little windows of news programs open, like the one they were watching now. He couldn't hear anything, but the pictures they were showing had nothing to do with the test area at all.

"Why are you looking at that?" Minseok asked.

Baekhyun clenched his jaw and didn't answer. "Switch the channels," he said.

Not quite sure what he was getting at, Junmyeon grabbed the remote and switched between a few channels. All were showing similar pictures, speaking of the same topic.

"That's what we wanted, isn't it?" Namjoon was as confused as the rest of them. "What happened?"

Baekhyun closed his laptop so quickly Junmyeon feared he had broken it. "They're trying to fool us. This is a scam. I've been looking at news reports from all over the world now and none are showing these pictures."