Super

61. credit where credit is due

There was another long silence.

The group and the girl faced each other, neither side having anything to say. Baekhyun had made his feelings pretty clear before zapping her with a few dozen watts of electricity, but the rest weren't as eloquent. Even Taeyong, who had once been a master of expressing his distaste for Shao, found himself at a loss for words.

Mark's lower lip jutted out slowly as he took her in, but he was too preoccupied with the news that the very ground they were standing on was in danger of immediate collapse to feel anything too strong at the sight. Lucas simply didn't want to say anything, feeling that there were much more important matters at hand. Ten had fallen silent after his initial greeting, because, well, he was working with Jeonghan and was supposed to be the more accepting one in the group.

Jeonghan, of course, had nothing to add to the general silence except silence itself.

Then a cry of "There!" exploded amidst the Supers, and everyone turned first to look at the source of the sound—a very agitated Baekhyun—and then to the place he was pointing. Shao turned, confused as to why they were all staring behind her rather than at her, and was greeted with the sight of a very annoyed-looking Jisoo.

"Are all of you just going to stand there?" the girl asked, tossing her purple and raven hair over her shoulder and crossing her arms over her chest. She gave every single one of the Supers their own individual stink-eye before settling on Baekhyun. "Fat lot of use you are for someone supposed to be a superhero. Can't even see an opportunity to fight when I throw it in your fuckin' face."

"I—" Taeyong started, then knitted his brow, cocking his head in confusion. "What?"

"I'm tired of how slow you are," the girl continued, and rolled her eyes. Shao took a step towards her, but she cut her off with a withering look. "Not you, too. Both of you, so boring. 'Irene manipulated us, we're so pathetic and good', yada yada bullshit. Stick to the fucking plan, it's not that hard!"

The rest of them collectively hesitated, and Jisoo took the moment of indecision to scream. Unlike all the other times, this was a concentrated blast of sonic waves, hitting Taeyong square in the chest (he wasn't sure why it was always him, maybe it had something to do with his looking like an easy target). He flew backwards with a surprised exclamation, hitting the wall a few feet behind them and collapsing once again.

"Taeyong!" Ten exclaimed, looking at their fallen friend before facing Jisoo. "You—er, you're going to regret this...?"

"Oh, come on," Jisoo muttered, and screamed again—a staccato scream, like someone had pulled the plug on a speaker moments after playing something.

The building rumbled once again. The Supers glanced at each other nervously, wide-eyed and unmoving, while Taeyong groaned perpetually in the background. Then the floor fell through, taking most of the company along with it to the floor below.

Taeyong, because of the stroke of luck that had kept him at the edges of the room, stayed on the little unbroken parts of the wooden flooring that hadn't collapsed. Shao was there too, standing at the edge of the staircase, and so was Jisoo, which led him to believe that this was all part of the plan the screamer girl had mentioned.

"Deal with him," Jisoo told Shao frostily after casting a dry look at Taeyong, then jumped over the edge—landing, no doubt, without a scratch. There was something different about these Four, which Taeyong had noticed earlier but failed to recognize.

Apart from their usual abilities, they all seemed to be much more durable than the average Super. The worst hits didn't seem to break their ribs, or even bruise their skin a little. Something was...off.