Song of the Day:
Singularity
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Seongmin had forgotten how much she hated fire drills.
A few moments earlier, she had finished talking to Reflection, who had thanked her and led her back downstairs. She had met back up with Rabbit and J, and was just about to head back to Hoseok and Jin's house, when suddenly the room they were in was plunged into darkness. The blue light above the entrance door lit up, and a blaring alarm sliced through the tranquility of the still air.
Seongmin looked around wildly, unsure what was going on or what to do. A deep seated fear rose up within her at the sound of the alarm, clawing at her chest. Ever since she was a kid, the sound of any alarm had given Seongmin horrible anxiety, not to mention the urge to crawl under a table and claw her ears off to escape the sound.
She suddenly felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder, and nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked over quickly, and saw J, a serious look on his face.
"Come with me, now," he said, voice slightly louder than usual so Seongmin could hear him over the sound of the alarm. She nodded, seeing his somber state. This must really mean something serious, she thought, a chill settling throughout her entire body at the thought.
J pulled her aside and had her duck down behind one of the empty display cases in the back of the room, gently brushing a strand of hair from her face and giving her a small, reassuring nod before rushing back out to join the two other heroes. Seongmin couldn't help but peer over the base of the case, watching tentatively through the glass.
The three heroes in the room were at the big screen in the front, and Seongmin saw Reflection zooming in on a flashing red dot on the map not far from their current location. J rushed over to a lever on the wall, switching the sound of the alarm off, though the room remained dimmed and lit only by the emergency lights.
A few seconds later, camera footage from the outside of the hero base flickered to life on the screen, and Seongmin watched a dark blur flicking in and out of existence on the sidewalk outside. The screen suddenly flashed green, gray and white in a glitch-like pattern, before the image returned covered with a spiderweb of cracks.
"Damn it!" Reflection shouted suddenly, slamming a hand down onto his desk. "He's back, the little-"
Whatever choice words the hero was about to spit out were cut off suddenly as the screen inside the room burst open with a flash of light, the smell of singed wiring, and the sound of breaking glass. Seongmin ducked down behind the case again, covering her head like she would in an earthquake, only peering through the glass again when the sound dimmed.
Standing on top of the hero desk was a man Seongmin had never seen before, wearing red pants and an open leather vest revealing a highly toned upper body. Dark, narrow eyes looked around the room, a smirk plastered on thick lips. Black, slightly disheveled hair fading into a dark golden color at the tips was swept to one side so his forehead showed. His hands seemed to be flickering in and out of existence with the same glitch that had flashed across the screens, and Seongmin figured out his power pretty quickly as a result.
"Hey there, boys. Glad to see me again?"
"Celestial," Reflection growled from the floor, not sounding glad in the slightest. "What the hell are you doing here again?"
Celestial, as he had been called, placed a hand over his heart in mock offense. "How rude, Reflection! I've only come to say hello to my old friends, of course!"
Rabbit grunted as he pushed himself off from the floor, and Seongmin's eyes widened at the sight of a large shard of glass buried in his arm. "Somehow this seems a less than friendly welcome," he said sarcastically, gesturing with his free hand at the glass scattered on the floor.
Celestial smirked. "Just a friendly reminder of the power you could've had."
"More like another reason to kick you out again," Reflection spat back, clearly angry. "Or have you forgotten what happened last time you broke in here?"
Celestial flinched, almost unconsciously brushing his side with a hand. He regained his composure just as quickly though, chuckling. "You're gonna make that threat while you're without your leader and without your best fighter? Bold move, Reflection."
J suddenly groaned on the floor, and for the first time, Seongmin noticed that he was bleeding badly. Rabbit noticed too, his eyes widening, and rushed over to him. Reflection refused to take his eyes off of Celestial, but Seongmin noticed him tense at J's sound of pain.
Celestial's smirk grew, and he jumped down from the desk to lean against it, lounging in a relaxed position. His open vest slipped to the side, revealing a jagged scar that looked like a lightning bolt, maroon in color and contrasting sharply with his tan skin. Seongmin shrunk back further at the sight, wondering if that was the aftermath of the last time Reflection had mentioned.
"Oh, Reflection, Reflection." Celestial stretched himself out like a cat, eyes glinting and fixed on the hero in front of him. "You know you can't do anything to me. I know you want to. I can see it in your eyes. But you don't have enough power to take me on. All you can do-" he snapped his fingers, "-is vanish and reappear."
Reflection looked livid, seemingly barely holding himself back from lunging at Celestial. Rabbit looked up at him, a look of warning on his face, but not moving away from J's side. Seongmin looked over at J again in worry, noticing how he was seemingly barely able to move, and that's when she leaned a bit too far above the base of the display case.
Seongmin had barely noticed the fact that she was leaning higher over the base to see J, nor did she make note of the fact that Celestial had taken his eyes off Reflection and was now pinning her under his catlike gaze. Not until he spoke again did she realize her mistake.
"Well, boys, you didn't tell me you had a pretty little angel hiding in the back," he said, stretching himself up to see her better in mild interest. Seongmin froze, her blood running cold.
J suddenly groaned more loudly as he attempted to sit up. "D- Don't touch her..." he said weakly, before collapsing again. Rabbit went back to tending to him, and Seongmin clearly saw for the first time what was wrong.
Where Rabbit has merely gotten his arm nicked with a glass shard, J was curled up around a much larger shard that had sunk straight into his abdomen. The wound was bleeding profusely, but Rabbit didn't dare pull it out for fear of making it worse.
Seongmin was unsure what to do. Everything was happening so fast, and there was really no point in hiding anymore, after Celestial had spotted her. He was still watching her intently, though he chuckled at J's weak protest.
"What are you gonna do to me if I do, J? Bleed on me? Lucky for you your little angel isn't the reason I'm here. Though I must say I would hate for such a pretty face to end up as... collateral damage, shall we say?"
J whimpered again, a tear rolling down his cheek from the pain and helplessness he was clearly enduring, and Seongmin suddenly couldn't stop herself from moving over to him. She walked quickly to his side, doing her best to ignore Celestial's dark eyes pinned on her, and dropped to her knees beside J to wipe away his tears. J looked up at her through a haze of pain, begging her silently to go back to hiding. Seongmin gently shook her head. You're more important now, she tried to say with her eyes, as Rabbit stood up to face off against Celestial with Reflection.
"What do you want, Celestial?" Rabbit said, clearly more than a bit upset at this point. He'd pulled the glass shard from his arm, and it was bleeding a lot, but he was seemingly either numb to the pain with adrenaline or didn't care enough to find something to fix it with. Celestial grinned in a catlike manner.
"Oh you see, boys, I hear you have some information on a little gang group that I've been looking for. I came to get that information from you, as well as intel on the girl they're tracking."
Reflection scoffed. "Not a chance, idiot. That's private information for only this hero league to hear about."
Celestial's grin turned into a sneer. "Hero," he growled. "That's all I wanted to be, but what did you say to me? You denied me, that's what you did. I just wanted to work alongside the 'greatest heroes in Seoul-'" he put this part in air quotes, "but you turned me down. Kicked me to the curb. And for what? What your little mind hero thought he saw in me. 'Dark intent' and all. If the little idiot hadn't said that, I wouldn't have ever turned to villainy. I hope he's happy that he's the reason one of you is dying."
Rabbit growled, taking a step forward. "Don't you dare insult Singularity. Don't you dare."
"Aw, is the wittle hero protective of his wittle boyfriend?" Celestial pretended to gush, speaking in a childlike voice. "How sweet."
Rabbit lunged at Celestial suddenly and without warning, but crashed into empty air in front of the desk, as Celestial vanished with a glitch seemingly into thin air only to reappear underneath the blue light by the exit. He laughed like a child playing a game of tag as the furious hero stood up again despite Reflection's protests. Rabbit lunged again, and this time, Celestial rematerialized right beside J, travelling through the wiring in the wall as seen by the smoking crater in it behind J and Seongmin.
Like an idiot, the latter jumped back, instantly regretting the movement as Celestial grabbed J and yanked him upright, causing him to cry out in pain. The villain grabbed the glass shard protruding from J's stomach, not pulling it out but looking around in a clear threat at each person in the room.
"You so much as take a step towards me, I rip this thing out and leave your little friend here to bleed to death," he said. "Now give me the information I want and I let him go and leave you all alone."
Rabbit was just as livid as Reflection now, hands trembling in anger. Seongmin made eye contact with J, who had tears of pain pouring down his face now, and was surprised to feel her own tears of anger and fear welling up in her eyes when he weakly reached his hand out toward her. Celestial had gotten them between a rock and a hard place, with no way out of giving him what he wanted without possibly killing J.
The heroes and Seongmin remained frozen for a moment longer, none of them quite sure how to proceed. Then, suddenly, the smirking villain's face twisted, first in confusion, then shock and a look that was almost fear. Seongmin was confused for a moment, but quickly noticed why.
His hand looked like it was being peeled off of the glass shard in J's stomach with an invisible force, and then a moment later that same force caused the villain's arm to snap up into the air beside his head, holding it there as effectively as if it were tied with a rope.
Seongmin heard a sound from Rabbit, and turned, noticing him grinning widely. She was initially confused, but then followed his gaze to see a new form standing in the room.
A man wearing a black suit and pants with golden buttons, an emblem colored in white in the form of the letter S but swirled in a fancy way to resemble a galaxy woven into the shirt, stood in the corner of the room. Six white masks floated around him, and he was wearing a seventh which was cut in half so that his lips and nose showed. Strands of his dark brown hair fell in front of his mask, the rest forming a mullet behind his head. Black boots reaching almost to his knees completed the look, and Seongmin remembered what Celestial had said.
"Your little mind hero."
Singularity.
The seventh member of the hero team, the one Reflection had said was in Daegu. For whatever reason, he had suddenly returned, maybe coincidentally getting back at the same time this situation was unfolding, but his power was practically radiating through the room, and Celestial looked like he was genuinely afraid for the first time.
Singularity raised his arm in front of his face. His masks swirled around him, and Celestial fell to his knees, his other hand flying into the air with the first. J gently was lowered back down onto the floor with the unseen power holding back the villain behind him, and Seongmin instantly respected the new hero. He was clearly powerful, multitasking with his ability while never missing a beat. He stepped forward, standing in front of Celestial, who looked up weakly.
When he spoke, it was in a voice that was deep and rich, but cold as ice. "Hello, Celestial."
Celestial bit his lip in obvious discomfort. "Hey there, Singularity."
Singularity leaned forward until he was nearly at eye level with the villain kneeling against his will on the floor. "Get out. Now."
Celestial suddenly crumpled, released from the invisible hold, and scrambled backwards, disappearing with a flash back into the singed wiring of the wall. This time, he didn't reappear.
Singularity spoke again, but this time, the ice in his voice was completely gone, replaced with a completely opposite tone of warmth and worry.
"What happened to J?" Singularity asked. "He's lost a lot of blood. And I assume this is Seongmin? Hey there. I'm Singularity. Sorry for the short introduction, but I need to fix this."
"It's okay, but... what can you do? With all due respect, of course, he needs a hospital or at least a doctor's attention."
Rabbit chuckled behind her. "Watch and learn, Seongmin. Watch and learn."
Seongmin looked back at him, and he placed a finger to smiling lips, nodding at J and Singularity. Seongmin questioned how happy he looked in her mind, but didn't bother to ask, instead turning around to look at the fallen and new heroes.
Singularity gently removed the glass shard from J's stomach. Seongmin nearly yelped in protest, seeing the blood flow rapidly increase, but then a moment later her eyes widened as the wound miraculously closed on its own, the blood flow stopping instantly. A look of peace flooded J's face as the pain ebbed away, and Singularity helped him up.
"Reflection, will you take him to his room to rest? He needs it badly and I need to clean up down here."
Reflection nodded, clearly happy to see Singularity as well but still dampened by Celestial's jabs at his power. He helped J drape an arm over his shoulders, the shapeshifter suddenly looking dead tired, and led him away to the stairs.
Singularity raised his arms, and suddenly all the glass and wiring and debris flew back into its original place as if by magic, the big screen flickering back to life and the original fluorescent lights switching back on in place of the emergency lighting. Seongmin looked over at him in awe.
Perhaps the most surprising thing for her, however, was when the hero turned to Rabbit, a smile stretching over his face for the first time. He cupped the other man's face in his hand, leaning forward to press a tender kiss to his lips. They broke apart after a long few moments, and Singularity looked happily at Rabbit.
"I missed you, you know," he said softly, and Rabbit's face nearly split with the grin that formed on it.
"I missed you too," he replied, and Singularity pecked his lips again, smile just as soft as his voice, before turning to Seongmin.
"Sorry about that," he chuckled. "It's been a few weeks since I left."
Seongmin laughed. "Don't worry, I understand."
Singularity grinned, bowing to Seongmin. "Singularity here. Hero of the mind, as I'm called by Seoul."
Seongmin bowed back. "Pleasure to meet you, Singularity."
Singularity stepped back to stand next to Rabbit, wrapping his arm around the other man's waist. Rabbit rested his head on Singularity's shoulder, smiling softly. Suddenly, however, the new hero looked up, noticing Rabbit's arm still bleeding profusely.
"You idiot," he scolded. "Tell me you're hurt before I kiss you next time! You need to be fixed too, you know!"
Rabbit just laughed. "This? This is nothing. I haven't seen you in almost a month, Singularity!"
Singularity gave Rabbit the look of a mother who was scolding her child after they did something stupid, before reaching out and tracing the wound with his finger. The scratch closed and stopped bleeding, and then Singularity sighed and nuzzled back into Rabbit's hold. Rabbit smiled softly, happier than Seongmin had ever seen him, and her heart warmed. After a moment, however, he looked up again, smile fading.
"Shoot," he said, "we need to get you back home, Seongmin. However, with J out..." he trailed off, and Seongmin got the dilemma.
"Is there any other way to get back? In terms of transportation, I mean. I mean I'm cool with whatever way I get back to the house, but I'm guessing I'll need to wear the blindfold thing again."
Rabbit nodded. "Yeah. I wouldn't make you if I didn't have to, I trust you enough, but it's leader's orders."
Seongmin nodded. "Of course, don't worry about it. I totally understand."
Singularity looked like he was thinking deeply. "You could use Reflection's motorcycle, but I think he'd kill you if you touched that thing without telling him. Maybe I can stay with J while he takes her home?"
"Nah, he doesn't know the address. I'll take her on the motorcycle, I'm sure he'll understand. And if not, I'll take the blame." Rabbit laughed, Singularity smiling brightly at him.
"You sure? I don't want you to get in trouble," Seongmin started. Rabbit waved her off, however, chuckling.
"Meh, wouldn't be the first time I've been in a scuffle with Reflection. He's easily irritated but he's a big softie at heart. I'll be fine."
Seongmin laughed. "Alright then, if you're sure."
A few moments later, Seongmin was given the helmet with the blindfold inside after Rabbit had retrieved it from under his segment of the long desk. The hero turned to Singularity, leaning in to kiss him once again.
"I'll be back soon, love," he said when he pulled back.
"You are cuddling with me when you get back," Singularity said, brushing the tip of his nose against Rabbit's before pulling back and looking at him with innocent eyes. Rabbit just laughed, nodding. He pressed his forehead to Singularity's one last time, before turning and leading Seongmin to yet another level of the building, a lower level she hadn't noticed before.
The next minute, the blindfold was on and she was mounted on a sleek black motorcycle with the same emblem as Reflection's cloak, a shimmering grey cat. Rabbit revved the engine, and the two of them zoomed out into the biting November air, Seongmin's head spinning with the events of the chaotic day and Rabbit humming a happy tune the entire ride home.
.....
A/N is short today I don't have much to say but I'm uwuing cause I'm weak for romantic stuff 🤣
...okay was I too obvious with Singularity lmbo I didn't really try with the secretism on that one 🤣
Sorry for the wait on this chapter, I did intend to put it up sooner but this has been a very chaotic week. I do hope you enjoyed, however!
Have a great day, my fellow humans. Feel free to leave any comments down below, and I will of course see you all in the next chapter!
Byeee!
~ MineCat57 🌺