Chapter Text
Prologue
Jeongin’s heart hammered against his chest, the sound overwhelming his hearing and taking over his senses. He loosened his grip on the huge gun in his hand, trying desperately to even out his breathing, and hide the inner horror he felt at wielding the weapon.
Jeongin was currently standing in the corner of a small room at the KEB Hana Bank in Seoul. He wasn’t the only occupant in the room, around ten to twenty other people were cramped into the room as well, though only two weren’t tied up and gagged - both stood at two other corners of the room and were decked out in all black.
Jeongin himself wore all black apparel consisting of a black sweatshirt, loose black pants, black combat boots, and an oversized black jacket as well as a black ski mask. Oh, he also held a gun that couldn’t be bothered to remember, or know for that matter, the type of. The other two men also wore very similar clothing and were also armed. One of them was shorter and more overweight, if Jeongin had to guess he was probably older then himself and the other male combined. Speaking of the other male, he was around Jeongin's height if not a few inches taller, he was much more muscular though, the black turtle neck sweater he wore barely did anything to conceal his bulging muscles.
For a split second, Jeongin asked himself why he was in this situation, to begin with. Why was he guarding a bunch of civilians taken hostage while a bank robbery was in progress? Why was he actively looking for trouble? Why was he trying to be something the universe obviously didn’t want him to be?
One look at the whimpering figures of the innocent hostages banished those thoughts from his mind. The universe be damned, he made a promise to himself to help as many people as possible, and he was going to stick through with that promise until the very end!
With newly regained determination and confidence burning inside of him, Jeongin took a silent deep breath, before making his way to one of the men on either side of the room; the chubbier one. He looked like he might be easier to take down, and that would certainly be helpful if something did go wrong which caused his little act to backfire.
“Dude, how long is this going to take?” He says, slurring his words and making his voice deeper. He needed to look and sound like he was one of them; a criminal.
“Don’t know. Just wait...we’ll be loaded after this!” The man replied, obviously annoyed at Jeongin’s presence but the thought of all the money they would surely acquire after this “mission”, seemed to brighten his mood.
Nodding his head in understanding, Jeongin continued talking to the male, speaking about how “freaking rich” he was going to be and how he would be able to buy “all the weapons” he wanted, along with some other inappropriate things, that he’d rather forget ever came out of his mouth. While talking, Jeongin brought his right hand behind his back, slowly slipping off the glove he was forced to wear by his “colleges”. Bringing his hand back in front of him, he immediately latched onto the wrist of the man he was talking to, his fingers lightly brushing over the small amount of skin peeking from the tiny space between the end of his long sleeve and the cuff of his gloves, right on his wrist.
“What the hell are you doing?!” The man’s voice rang a few seconds after, his tone low and threatening.
Pulling his hand back, Jeongin laughed nervously.
‘Damn it! He doesn’t have any powers.’
“Sorry man, though I saw a fly on ya” he explained, slipping out of character slightly due to his rampant nerves.
“Sure...”
The man looked at his with skeptical eyes, obviously not buying his lies but it didn't seem like he cared enough to try to find out the truth; as long as Jeongin didn't interfere with him getting his money by the end of the day, he couldn't care less - Jeongin could be as weird as he wanted. Then the chubby man's dark, beady eyes caught sight of Jeongin's bare hand. “Where’s your glove man?”
Panicking, Jeongin blurted the first thing that came to mind. “What?! I’m not wearing them? They must have slipped off! Darn it! I knew they were too big...hehehe...” By now the light skepticism in the man’s eyes had turned into full-blown suspicion.
‘I blew it!’
Jeongin quickly shuffled away from the man, saying he needed to get his gloves and not giving the other man a chance to answer. Standing in his original spot, Jeongin willed himself to ignore the man’s piercing stare - instead, rolling around different backup plans in his mind.
‘There’s still one more guy.’ At the thought, his eyes gravitated towards the only other armed man in the room besides himself and the man he had just spoken to. He seemed more relaxed than both Jeongin and the older guy.
‘At least one of them has to have powers, and as far as they know I don't have any powers. They’d be idiotic to let a group of all powerless people guard the hostages...right?’
Jeongin wanted to contemplate his current situation more, yet he knew he didn’t have enough time to do so. Truth be told, he had already decided on a plan before entering the building; and so far everything had been going according to the original plan, he had made it this far after all - sure, it was unlucky that the first person he touched turned out to be powerless, especially considering that the vast majority of people have powers, especially criminals - however, he had accounted for that, what he hadn’t accounted for whoever was how bad of an actor and liar he was - that guy was bound to keep an eye on him now!
He had a choice, either risk it and grab the other man before he or the other criminal could do anything, or wait for the police to arrive and potentially risk being jailed...
‘Screw it!’
With that final thought he sauntered over to the last male, mentally trying to reassure himself that the gun-wielding male surly had a power, the villains couldn’t be that dumb - actually, they might be, the had let him - practically a nobody in the villain world - join the robbery, no questions asked, when he had just shown up, right as they were about to commence the mission...maybe this wasn’t worth the risk...
“What do you want?”
‘Too late now.’
Jeongin looked up, staring at the man while trying to process his questions. He was still distinctly aware of the other male’s gaze on his back.
“Nothing much, man.” Jeongin inwardly cringed, why do criminals have to speak in such a drunk and obnoxiously obvious heterosexual fashion. “I just heard from the other dude that we’re already bringing in fat stacks...” he continued, his eyes scanning the guy, looking for even a hint of revealed skin.
Brown doe eyes zeroed onto the man's neck where just slither of skin was peaking right beneath the ski mask. Mentally preparing himself, Jeongin kept talking before snapping his hand forward and pressing his fingers into the guy’s skin. Almost instantly, he felt a surge of raw, chilled, energy running through his veins.
‘Yes!’
The guy shouted, bringing the attention of the blindfolded hostages towards them, causing them to back away in fear. The other man was already approaching them.
The person who’s neck Jeongin’s fingers had briefly been wrapped around, was seething. His face was red and hot and his hands were clenching and unclenching tightly, he probably didn’t want to blow his chances at getting rich by starting a fight during the operation. Unfortunately for him, Jeongin didn’t feel the same way. Before the man knew what was happening, he was pushed so that he back fully met the wall. Before he could struggle or attempt to use his powers he found his hands and legs stuck to the wall pure ice shackling his limbs.
“What?!” He yelled out in bafflement. Did he lose control of his power? How the hell did that squirt use his own power against him?!
Jeongin didn’t pay the screaming man any attention, turning around just in time to see the other man aiming his gun at him. Quickly, Jeongin dropped to the floor - briefly he thanked the now immobile man for training his powers so well - before freezing the floor, using the water particles from the air to do so.
The man with the gun screamed as his flesh was frozen solid, somehow managing to pull the trigger amid his agony. Jeongin could do nothing but watch as the bullet soared towards him, his whole body frozen in shock - ironically enough. The bullet barely grazed his arm, thankfully, yet the injury still hurt badly. Jeongin bit his lip, containing the scream threatening to rise through his throat.
Giving the two men one last glance, Jeongin scanned the ground around him making sure none of his blood had touched the premises. After making sure the area was clean and that there was no trace of his him ever being there - though he couldn't be sure since his vision was already starting to blur from the pain - Jeongin dashed for the exit, kicking the now discarded guns further away from the villains. That shot had probably made the copes think that whatever agreement they had made with the bad guys for them to hold fire had come to an end.
As he ran out of the room, his other hand - which wasn't preoccupied pressing against the shallow cut in his arm - slipped inside his jacket, unhooking the white mask he had kept. With a sigh he brought it up to his face, struggling to tie it securely as he ran. There was absolutely no reason for him to don his signature mask at the moment, especially since he was already wearing a ski mask and he was in the midst of escaping - he probably won't run into anyone. However, if he did run into a hero, he definitely wanted the image of the white and red fox mask he wore to be burned into their minds.
"I am never doing infiltration missions again"