Super

30. scream

The scream was distant, desperate, and distinctly feminine.

Lucas winced, shoulders hunching at the pure noise of the sound. It was fainter because of the distance, but the sound was nauseating and made him uncomfortable. Next to him, Ten was scrunching up his nose. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who found the scream discomfiting.

The scream was drawn-out, but it only lasted for a few second before it was cut off abruptly. Taeyong was on his feet before it even ended, face pale and worried.

"Shao," he said, in such a small voice that it seemed like he hadn't meant to say it out loud, and took of running in the direction of the voice.

"Wait up!" Ten called after him, but Taeyong was already disappearing around the corner of the broken wall. Ten sat back down with a sigh, shaking his head. "We have to break the door to the basement first."

"Break it?" Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's been frozen shut," Ten replied, then got up. "Come on, we don't have much time."

Lucas dragged himself to the door after Ten and tried the handle. Yup, definitely frozen.

"It's more brittle," he said, scrutinizing the lock. "It'll be difficult to make any progress pushing against the ice, but once we get a breaking point amount of force, it should be easy enough to get through."

Ten seemed pale. "You mind?"

Lucas kissed his teeth, surveying the handle for another few seconds before sweeping his leg back. He raised his foot to kick, and just as his foot was about to make contact with the door, it opened.

Lucas's eyes widened, but his foot was already in full swing, and it hit the side of the door with bone-shattering force. The person who was standing behind it was hit with the full force of the front kick, and didn't even get to see his assailant before he flew backwards, right into a surprised Baekhyun's arms.

One quick glance was enough to tell that Chan's nose was broken.

"Come on!" Jae exclaimed from his position a little farther down the stairs, an expression of utter disappointment on his face as he looked at his apprentice. "You guys are pretty bad at being superheroes."

"We're trying our best, Jae. And we only became superheroes a few weeks ago, and it's hard," Ten said. He glanced at Chan again, who had blood streaming from his face. Fortunately—or unfortunately, it depended on how painful the injury was—he seemed to be awake and conscious. "Also, sorry. Though it was Lucas's fault."

Lucas didn't bother glaring at him, knowing that it was, in actuality, his fault. "Sorry about that," he muttered, and Chan made a gurgling sound that seemed to be his voice modified by the effect of having a mouthful of blood. Lucas pursed his lips, then tore his gaze away from the kid and towards Baekhyun. "How did you open the door?"

"Zapped it," Baekhyun replied, raising his hand and snapping his fingers, creating a tiny spark between them. His mask was off, and his expression was disturbingly pleasant for someone who had just seen a kid getting his nose burst open. "We figured it was frozen shut, and heat works well against that kind of thing. Sorry Chan had to be in front of the door when you kicked it open."

"You don't have to apologize," Lucas said, shaking his head. "Did anyone else hear that scream?"

Baekhyun nodded, frowning lightly.

"You were literally buried underground, and still heard it," Lucas said gravely. "That means something is wrong. Were you nauseous when you heard the scream, Ten?"