blind star // txt taegyu

starlit

"Three, two, one, release. There we go. Now tense your arm — slowly. Three, two, one. Ooh, there was a spark there. Release. Three, two, one."

Beomgyu sighed heavily as he released the pressure in his bicep. "What are we even doing? I've just been flexing my muscles for you for ten minutes now."

"We're trying to activate your style," Soobin answered, looking up from his clipboard. "This testing chamber can detect Scher energy, and yours is pretty low right now. We need to stimulate the energy to grow active."

Beomgyu scoffed, looking to the side. "Taehyun would've demonstrated it better…"

"They told me you'd be difficult," Soobin sighed, putting his clipboard down. "Your boyfriend is in another testing chamber. He'll be here later. For now, I need you to co-operate and follow my instructions."

"I don't want to! I didn't eat breakfast either, so I'm hungry," Beomgyu muttered, crossing his arms. Soobin sighed, rubbing his temple with his forefinger in irritation. "I don't want to activate my style, anyways. I don't want to fight."

"The point isn't to make you fight, it's to make that new gene within you active so that your body can adapt to your new energy," the doctor said. He flicked his hand to the side and his eyes glowed neon blue. "My style is ice-based, but I'm pretty weak. It's too difficult to manage this style with my body type. But let me demonstrate."

He knelt to the ground, touching the floor with his hand for a split second. Large shards and spikes of ice protruded from the ground, growing in size the further they got from him. However, the shards stopped growing at about a metre and a half. Beomgyu yelped in surprise, eyeing the ics in shock. "H-how did you do that?! What the heck?!“

"It's nothing much," Soobin shrugged, dusting hus hands. "I hope to actually get stronger, because Schers are getting rowdier these days. Soon, it'll be all hands on deck."

"Being a good Scher sounds tough."

"A good Scher?" Soobin asked, a chuckle escaping his throat. "From either end, we think we're the good guys. A Scher thinks their actions are completely valid — we consume for survival, of course. A human thinks it's incorrect for a Scher to consume whoever they want. As a Scher that works beside humans, we see which Scher are out of hand and regulate them."

"Wait, do you regulate them here at the labs?" Beomgyu suddenly asked, his eyes widened. "M-my friend got taken away recently…—"

"No one besides Lee Minseon is allowed to make close contact with pending regulation Scher," Soobin said quickly as he deactivated his stule. "You can't see him."

Beomgyu was quiet. "What does regulation entail, exactly?"

"Well talk more later, but for now, we need to awaken your style," Soobin said quickly, "but you're taking too long, so we'll have to do some manual activation."

"Manual? What does that mean…—?"

"Captain," Soobin said, speaking into the watch on his wrist, "send in a trainer to train with the Subject. I have more work to do with Kang Taehyun."

"Hey, why do you call him Kang Taehyun but call me a subject?"

"'Hey'? I'm older than you, you brat," Soobin glared, picking up the clipboard. "Just wait here for the trainer. Don't die during the fight. If you awaken the style, don't kill the trainer. Good luck, I'll be observing from afar."

"D-die?!"

•

The room was quiet as another person finally stepped into the chamber, her steps slow and sluggish. Beomgyu seemed nervous, unable to control his erratic breathing as he bowed nervously. "U-uh… hello…"

"You're the new Pseudo," the girl said, "but you have almost no Scher energy. You'll be easy to beat."

Beomgyu laughed nervously, raising his hands in defence. "L-listen, I'm not here to fight. I don't even know my style. This is the first time I am a Scher—"

"Then fight and find your style."

The girl activated her style, a neon yellow sledgehammer forming in her grip. She ran towards him, swinging the weapon in Beomgyu's direction. Beomgyu fell to the side, nsrroely avoiding the weapon. The sledgehammer lodged in the ground, sparks of neon emitting from it.

She gritted her teeth in annoyance before lifting the wepaon again. "Fight back already…!"

"I don't know how!" Beomgyu yelled, rolling onto his stomach to avoid another slash of the hanmer. He jumped up, running to the other side of the room.

"You can't run forever!"

"You'll get tired eventually!"

The girl ran towards him, pausing just before him while raising her sledgehammer. Beomgyu widened his eyes, not knowing what to do. It was too short a timeframe to escape, and the hammer would probably quite injure him, even if it was just concentrated Scher energy.

He raised his arm in front of him in a futile attempt to defend himself, but was met with a surprise when the hammer faded immediately, clipping right through his body. The girl yelped in shock when she found her hands to be empty. "Wha…?"

Beomgyu moved his arm slowly, seeing the faint purple glow in his hands. His breath was heavy, confused about what he had just done. He held his hand out, slowly clenching it into a fist. She yelled out in pain, clutching her head and hair as she stumbled away from him. Beomgyu stopped quickly, running over to her. "A-are you okay?! I didn't mean to—"

"Never mind me, this is your testing chamber," the girl said, her tone weak. She looked at the glass window in one of the walls, glancing at her reflection. "Do it again. They need results."

Beomgyu was quiet, holding his hand out again. The girl tried to form a sledgehammer again, but when Beomgyu clenched his hand, the weapon diminished from reality. Beomgyu clenched his hand entirely and she fell to the ground, her eyes falling closed.

"Her Scher energy level is running at 10%! Remove the subject from the test chamber immediately!"

The door suddenly opened and a man with a gun by his side walked in, running over to the girl and picking her up. Beomgyu was confused as he watched her get taken away. "What's happening? What did I do?"

"Interesting." Minseon's voice spoke ober the speakers this time and the opposite side of the mirror revealed itself to Beomgyu, revealing Soobin and Minseon. "The longer you did that, the more her power depleted. Her energy was… being seeped from her body, but yours didn't increase."

Soobin looked at Minseon with widened eyes. "We've made the Herrscher of Binding."