Hell and Back (EXO x Reader)

The Offer

[HEY! This story was written before the Kris scandal. Unfortunately, it's over 200 pages long and the formatting doesn't really allow me to just remove him, so please be aware that he's a character. (Spoiler alert, he's not endgame, so don't worry about that). SO sorry!]

Chapter warnings: none

Word count: 1496

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Y/N was sick and tired. Her everyday life was boring. Not the type of boring that everyone else had to deal with, though. Rather, she was faced with true, mind-numbing monotony on a daily basis. Of course, much of this was self inflicted. From a very young age, Y/N had convinced herself that her life was basically meaningless within the big picture. Thie was due to the nature of the world around her.

Everybody around her possessed abilities. Many fell into the same categories, like fire or water. Some people could move small objects with their minds, others could solve intense math problems with no calculator. No matter how trivial, everybody had one. Everybody except for Y/N.

Her family had always tried to convince her that this was what made her more unique than anyone with special powers. Of course, she never believed them. Surprisingly, uniqueness did not make it any less cool that the kid sitting next to her in class could summon hurricanes at will, or the kid playing on the seesaw had the strength to launch a plane into the sun. It just made her feel stupid, inadequate, unable to compare.

Thankfully, there was one respite from all the crushing weight of the world: EXO. At least, that's the dumb name her ridiculous group of friends had chosen to give themselves. It's what they wanted their band to be called- if they ever managed to become a real band with a real record label. For now, they were stuck just dreaming, constantly bringing up what they would do if they were famous.

Now, unlike Y/N, each of them had their own abilities, although some were more impressive than others. Suho, the sort of impromptu dad for the group, was able to control water to a certain extent. Similarly, Sehun was able to mess with the wind, Kyungsoo with the earth, and Chanyeol with fire. Moving past the four most common elemental powers, Baekhyun was able to control light, Xiumin had ice-like powers, Chen could use a lightning-like electric power, and Lay could heal. Out of all of them, though, the last few had the rarest and arguably most intriguing abilities.

Kai was able to quite literally teleport. He hadn't quite figured out exactly how far, but his range seemed pretty serviceable. Popping out and back into existence at will, he could be anywhere at any time. Luhan was able to move things with his mind. While this wasn't necessarily uncommon in terms of the greater population's powers, the extent to which he could perform with it and his precise abilities were what made him unique. Kris had the ability to fly, although no one quite knew how. He could both levitate and practically soar, likely using some form of energy or magic. He had never enlightened the group on the true nature of his abilities.

Finally, there was Tao. His power was practically unheard of. Not in the sense that it was rare or few people had it, but in the way that no one thought it was actually possible. He didn't know a single other person with his capabilities, and he tended to keep them under wraps. He quickly realized when he was younger what an asset he would be for testing, or the use he would provide to someone with less than pleasant motives. Tao could control time.

Forwards, backwards, pause, play, fast-forward, rewind- he could do it all. Life was his VHS player, and he could move around freely no matter what state time was in. Many people just didn't believe him when he did finally mention it. Thankfully, after a few proofs to his friends, they all seemed more than willing to accept his abilities. It was an unsettling talent that even he regretted possessing. He tried not to use it if at all possible, but it could be addicting at times. Still, he was unaware of the side effects, so he was mostly conservative with its use.

Surrounded by all this power, Y/N was understandably a bit frustrated at times. Everyone had some cool unique defining factor of themselves that she'd never understand. It was infuriating. Still, it didn't stop her from being friends with them. As annoying as it could be at times, they tried their best to never make her feel inadequate- at least for the most part. All in all, they were actually fun to hang out with.

They were always talking about their band. They were dead set on becoming famous for their little group. They even had all the positions picked out. Honestly, she thought they were all capable of filling out every position, but she wasn't going to argue. It was hard, though, as none of them had any audio-related or mind manipulative abilities, they were at a heavy disadvantage in the industry. They still had hope, though. They had offered her a spot into doing whatever she pleased, but she had politely declined, making up some crap about how one girl in a boy group was strange. Insisting that she be involved, they decided she would be their manager as soon as they made it big. Laughing, she agreed, convinced it was a pipe dream.

As she walked home from one of their ridiculously random band practices, she looked at her phone. Suho had offered to walk her, but she politely declined. She needed some alone time to think. Occasionally, someone would float overhead, or race by with their super speed, causing her to sigh. It really was awful. She tried not to be so cynical, to avoid thinking about it, but once she was no longer busy, all the thoughts came flooding back.

She had to avoid her mental marathon, so she pulled out her phone, scrolling through to clear notifications. She checked her social medias, text messages, everything with the little red bubble next to it. Seeing the boys still spamming their group chat, she smiled lightly and put them on mute. She'd go read through it later. Finally, she opened up her email.

Scrolling past all the promos and flyers from various products or companies she'd interacted with, she saw a few more interesting emails. The first was a jpeg that she had requested from Chen. It was a silly picture from practice. He was more outdated in technology than the others, so she just had to settle for an email rather than a text or an airdrop. She was just lucky he didn't print it out. Second was an email from an application for a new job she had applied for. They were still in the interview process, so it wasn't a decision. She would answer it later.

The last email was the strangest of the bunch. Opening it up, she thought it was spam at first. It was lined with black with an elegant silver logo located on the top. Written in clear white letters, there was a singular question with a text box below it.

What do you wish for?

Underneath the space to enter what she assumed was a wish, there was a brief explanation.

You have been given the opportunity to make a wish. The wish can be anything, quite literally. Do not underestimate our capabilities by making a trivial request. If we so choose, you may be invited to earn this wish. You are under no obligation should your wish be selected. You may only wish once.

"This is so stupid." She muttered, looking at it with a bit of annoyance. This was some sort of crappy prank, it had to be. Still, it couldn't hurt. As long as she didn't clink any links, she wouldn't get scammed, so she might as well. Whoever had sent it to her probably already knew what she wished for. Typing in quickly, she wrote, I wish I had superpowers.

After hitting the enter button, a buffering logo appeared for a moment, with a 'please hold' notification underneath. She watched with curiosity as it faded away, leaving a new message in its place.

Congratulations! Your wish has been selected. Please prepare a team to complete the trials. You may have as few as one person (yourself) or as many as fifteen. You will be contacted shortly to provide the details of your team. Thank you for your patience.

And with that, the entire email disappeared, completely gone from her inbox. She would be able to compete to gain superpowers? This could change everything for her! Not only that, but she had the perfect team backing her! But... would the boys be willing to help her with her wish? She had just made it for herself... They were always looking out for her, she was sure they'd be fine with it. Her heart rate increased as she jogged the rest of the way home, already texting the guys and asking for another group hangout the next morning.