A Surge of Power | NCT

XLV

"What are we going to do?"

A heavy silence fell over the room as the boys all sat scattered around the living room. Taeyong had called a group meeting, detailing all the boys to meet at his house urgently and to not tell Sooyoung.

"Are we overreacting?" Johnny spoke quietly, almost to himself in a way.

"I don't know... should we tell Mr.Kim and Dr. Lee?" Taeyong questioned.

"Maybe... but what if they say something?" Doyoung said skeptically, "We can't just tell them to keep it a secret."

"And you're sure you couldn't read her mind?" Kun asked, turning to look at the mind reader.

"I'm positive... it was just like... radio static... nothing going on." Ten waved his hands around, not knowing how else to put it.

"If she knows how to do that what else is she learning and why didn't she tell us?" Jaehyun asked from his spot on the floor.

"What is she hiding?" Ten mumbled as he did his best to think of something. Anything.

"I have no idea," Taeyong said as he began to pace. He wracked his brain, trying to think of anything that Sooyoung had told him in the past that could give anything away. He kept walking until he came over to the oversized lounge chair in the corner of the room. "Yuta? Are you ok? You're awfully quiet."

Said boy looked up at Taeyong and nodded, "M' fine... just worried... like all of you." Yuta continued to stare straight ahead after that, not fooling Taeyong for a second. Yuta hadn't been downstairs the other night when Sooyoung had been over, but he definitely heard Ten's rambling after she had left.

"Maybe I should talk to her-" Taeyong started, making a move to the door without looking around for anyone to give confirmation that his idea was good.

"No... then she'll know somethings up. We need someone she won't suspect." Taeil stood and walked over to where Taeyong was standing, "Someone who could innocently ask what she's been up to without it seeming suspicious."

"I can do it," Hendery said cautiously, "I mean I don't talk to Sooyoung as much as you all do so maybe I can talk to her." The boy sat

"That might not be a bad idea... today during practice you can hang around her and see." Taeil said.

"Ok, we'll start with that. Along with keeping an eye on her as much as we possibly can. If and when she leaves, we need know." Taeyong said sternly.

"And if you can think of anything else that could be useful please say it." Taeyong said after a moment of silence. "I don't how long we have until she does something irrational." All the boys nodded at the leaders words, "and I don't want to wait around to find out."

•

"With that being said, your next mission will be in two days."

The agents all sat around the familiar meeting table, countless papers and files spread around them.

"We originally thought we had the location of Yo Sangki's hideout but when we sent an agent out to scope it out, there was no visible building there."

"But we did however find this," Dr. Lee clicked the button on his small remote, causing the screen to play the next slide.

"Is that-" Sooyoung squinted her eyes, her brain trying to process the almost fictional looking image.

"A portal... it's incredible, really." Mr. Kim said with a small grin. "I have no idea how they've managed that but I must say, I'm impressed."

Your next mission will be focused around finding out everything we can about that portal. How they opened it, what it's made of, and most importantly," Dr. Lee pointed the remote up again, turning the screen off. "Where it leads."