PERSONA ✓

40.

Hoseok could feel his heart beating out of his chest. They'd just gotten inside the Skyscraper---Taehyung and Jin had struggled to get a path open for them without harming the innocent citizens, but they'd made a narrow opening. Hoseok, Namjoon, and Yoongi took that opening and got in as fast as they could.

Huffing, the three of them straightened up. Yoongi glanced at the wall, which held some information about the building. "Oh, you're kidding---100 floors?" He aggressively pressed the call button to the elevator, but it never came. It seemed the building's technology was all going haywire due to whatever Doyoon was doing.

"We can fly," Hoseok reminded him. "No need to climb stairs."

"There's probably mind controlled people inside, too," said Yoongi. "That's what I'm worried about."

"We gotta get past without hurting them." Namjoon looked down at his hands. "No lasers for me, then."

"No swords for me." Hoseok sheathed his sword.

"No Iron Man cosplay for me," Yoongi added weakly, glancing at the blasters on the palms of his suit. The blasters powered down, their lights dimming.

"Let's get going then." Yoongi began walking forwards. "If we see too many citizens, I'll handle it. Getting you two to the top is more important, 'cause you've got more fighting experience, or whatever."

"I'm sure Jungkook and Jimin will arrive soon enough, and if we need backup, we can call them," Namjoon assured.

The three of them began clearing floors. It was when they reached the end of the 32nd floor that they ran into trouble.

A group of citizens, maybe 15 in total, were running at them. Hoseok cringed at the sight.

Yoongi took initiative first. He stepped forwards and wrestled with one of the citizens before bringing down his hand on their shoulder in a chopping motion. They collapsed immediately. He did this with a few others. Namjoon and Hoseok took care of the rest of them, punching a few across the jaw or on the back of the head to knock them out.

The heroes glanced at the fallen citizens.

"This is an ugly sight," said Yoongi. "Damn, I really, really miss basketball."

Hoseok perked up at the sounds of more footsteps. A larger group of mind controlled citizens turned the corner and charged at them.

Namjoon cracked his neck. "Ready?"

Hoseok and Yoongi nodded. Together, they charged.

-

Taehyung was ready to throw down with a mind controlled toddler if he had to.

Seokjin had shaken off the toddler that had latched onto his arm, but Taehyung was still worried---Jimin and Jungkook weren't here yet. The mind controlled citizens could easily mob them as more and more joined the crowd. And they couldn't even hurt these innocent citizens, so they wouldn't be able to defend themselves either.

Taehyung pushed someone out of the way and blasted himself upwards with his jet boots, hovering in the air and away from the mob. Seokjin followed, gasping.

"There's too many of them!" he said. "How are we supposed to... to win this?"

"Doyoon has an army," Taehyung muttered. "We have only 7. I'm not sure what we can even do..."

Seokjin looked down at the crowd of people. They were all reaching upwards at the sky, but Taehyung and Seokjin were hovering too high for them to attack again.

"At least the children who were at the wrong place at the wrong time aren't being trampled," he observed. "It seems that even under mind control, the citizens have some weird remnants of their usual human behaviour."