As they made it back to the mansion, there were only a few people left in the dining hall and lounge, most students running off into various directions of the academy in order to get to their class.

Minho followed everyone else to the main staircase, but instead of continuing onto an upper floor, they went around the side. The brown haired boy was extremely confused until he saw a door located underneath the steps.

"Where are we going?" Minho asked only to see everyone glance around at each other in response.

"You'll seeeee," Felix said mischievously as Chan opened the door to reveal steps leading downwards.

Minho was a bit unsure what to think of their sudden mysteriousness, but soon enough all eight of them disappeared down the stairwell, Jisung taking up the rear.

"Hurry up, scaredy cat," the squirrel boy added before running after everyone else. Minho didn't appreciate being challenged, so in a huff he followed down the stairs as well.

Since the staircase wasn't that large, it only took Minho a few moments to descend until the stairs opened up into a larger room that had concrete floors. At first, it just seems like some sort of basement space, but as Minho left the alcove that the stairs created, he got a better look at the extensiveness of the room. His eyes went wide as they traced up the sides of the walls, which were lined with various training and fighting equipment, to the abnormally high ceilings; not to mention the fact that the room itself seemed to be the size of four gymnasiums.

The new kid was completely thrown for a loop as he looked back between the staircase and the ceiling, the staircase was considerably shorter than the ceiling allowed for. The rest of the Stray Kids members all laughed at Minho's reaction to the main training center, them understanding the shock that came with seeing it for the first time.

"Welcome to The Basement!" Chan said enthusiastically. "This is where all Gifted App classes are held along with most Team Building lessons and anything else that requires gifts or a large space to operate."

"But... h-how? The ceiling alone should be going through at least the first two floors of the academy."

Jisung laughed at the older's fascination. "Someone used their gift on the room, of course. JB hyung's gift is to expand and constrict space. He is probably the most powerful Rank 4 at the academy and the only reason we can accommodate for all the students we currently have."

"Huh?"

"Oh, you haven't been to the fourth floor before, have you?" Felix asked Minho.

"No, why?"

Chan stepped in to explain, "the entire fourth floor is about three times the size of all the other levels of the academy. Jaebum used his gift to make space for more rooms on that level, so rather than having to expand the mansion, the mansion expands for us."

"I was questioning how all the students I saw outside managed to all fit at the academy." Minho was in awe yet again. Everything about the academy fascinated him.

Their attention was pulled to the matted space just a few meters from them when someone cleared their throat. Minho hadn't noticed him standing there before because he was distracted on the physics behind The Basement, but now he could see Jae standing at the edge of one of the four large mats in the room.

"Yes! We have Jae hyung teaching our Gifted Apps today!" Seungmin said enthusiastically while Hyunjin moped.

"Bummer. I was hoping it would be Jinyoung hyung. He hasn't taught our class in a while," pouted the taller boy.

Minho shifted nervously, being faced with the celebrity for the second time. "No Normie teacher this time?"

"Nope, the older hyungs and noonas who have been on a team for at least a year rotate teaching Gifted Apps," Jisung explained something to Minho for about the tenth time that day. "Normies don't have gifts, so they wouldn't be very effective in teaching this particular subject. It requires first hand knowledge of applying one's own gift in order to advise someone on how to effectively."

While their conversation was going on, all nine of them made their way over to stand in a line in front of Jae. Chan counted to three and everyone bowed, Jisung putting a hand on Minho's back, signaling for him to bow too. Jae looked to them all with a big smile on his face.

"Congrats on becoming a team finally!" he said to all of them before he focused in on Minho. "And with a new member, no less. Care to introduce yourself and your gift?"

Minho stepped forward and bowed again before raising his head and saying, "My name is Lee Minho. My gift is Rank 2 and I can create forcefields that also hold healing properties when they are wrapped around someone."

"So you're a defensive and healing type. Do you have experience with using your gift in combat?"

Minho nodded confidently in response.

"Well, I would love to see your skills in action since you seem so self-assured. Felix is a Rank 2 as well, so why don't y-"

Before Jae could finish what he was going to say, Minho interrupted by saying, "I've actually already had a chance to spar with Felix the other day and it just ended in a stalemate. It was without gifts, so it could turn out differently, but I was hoping to test myself against someone else. No offense, Felix."

"None taken."

Jae raised an eyebrow curiously, "did you have someone in mind?"

"I think Jisung's gift would be a fun challenge for me to fight against."

Jisung was taken aback, Chan had a knowing smirk on his face, and everyone else looked around at each other confused. Once the initial shock of being called out was over, Jisung put on a determined face and pulled his shoulders back.

"You sure you want to fight me? I would hate to embarrass you. I'm a hard guy to beat."

"Then why is it you always lose to me?" Changbin interrupted Jisung's boasting.

"That doesn't count because your gift is like a direct opposite to mine. Not to mention freezing me before I get a chance to do anything is totally cheating," the younger snapped back.

Jae then pulled everyone's attention back to class by saying, "Minho and Jisung it is! Take up positions opposite each other on the sparring mat, and the rest of us will observe from the sidelines. Watching new people's patterns and style of fighting using a unique gift can always help to give you ideas for new applications of your own."

Everyone did as they were told, Jisung taking the left side of the mat and Minho taking the right. Jisung looked at the other's blank expression trying to determine why the other had challenged him to a fight but was unable to read anything from the older's face. The truth of the matter was that Minho wasn't completely sure why he had asked to spar Jisung. It had been a very last minute decision that he, himself, was trying to figure out why he made.

"Impress me, new kid," was all Jae said before he waved his hand down to signal the beginning of the match.

Immediately Jisung was a blur and was heading right towards Minho, but the older had suspected this tactic and thrown up a shield all around him the second Jae's hand dropped. Jisung barely managed to stop himself before crashing into it and let out a loud sigh of relief when he realized he almost just crushed his body.

"Smart move, but you can't stay in there forever," Jisung called out. The only response he received was a shrug as Minho stood there continuing to do nothing.

Jisung clicked his tongue in annoyance at being ignored before proceeding to spin in a circle around Minho in order to create a vacuum. He doubted even this would do much because of the shield completely surrounding him, but he hoped the winds would be enough to weaken Minho's shields.

"Nice try, but -" Minho started to say before he summoned a smaller forcefield just above the ground within Jisung's run path. Jisung tripped, and before he could return to his balance, Minho's giant forcefield was down and his leg, reinforced with a small forcefield, was heading right towards his stomach.

The leg made contact, and Jisung fell to the floor. He managed to roll out of the way before another kick landed on his head, yet when he moved to get up and run away, there was a forcefield surrounding him this time. It was smaller than the one Minho had used to surround himself and was slowly shrinking, so it became difficult for him to move around. It wasn't long before it was squeezing his sides uncomfortably and he let out a small squeak.

Jisung was about to surrender when the pressure around him suddenly stopped, and he looked up to see a shocked expression on Minho's face. He wasn't sure why his opponent stopped, but he took to opportunity to quickly tackle him to the ground in a flash.

Jisung smiled widely at having able to turn the match around until he realized that during the tackle, he had somehow managed to end up straddling Minho's waist. He had also pinned the older boy's arms to the ground, next to his head, so that he wouldn't be able to fight back.

That whole situation was an odd position to be in, but there was a different reason Jisung stopped.

His eyes. Both their faces were just mere inches away from each other, and Minho was looking up at Jisung with the widest, most beautiful eyes he had ever seen in the world.

The entire world froze again.

His eyes were lighter than most which was very welcoming. They seemed to suck Jisung in and give him a warm feeling of closure.

"And that's the match!" Jae's voice could be heard somewhere off in the distance, Jisung didn't really care enough to figure out, but the sound did stop his trance. All of a sudden the world was moving again. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and could hear his own heartbeat again. And he could faintly hear Minho's as well.

Minho cleared his throat and let a sheepish grin, "I guess you are a hard guy to beat."

That damn smile! It just made Jisung want to melt during all the rare occasions when the quiet older would let it show.

Jisung stood up quickly after that, hoping that he didn't let his thoughts show too clearly on his face. His mother used to tell him that he was an open book when it came to how he was feeling, but he was praying that no one could notice. Which he almost got away with if not for a certain know-it-all leader who Jisung managed to make eye contact with, but then avoided when Chan raised a knowing eyebrow.

Minho got up shortly after using the fancier method of rolling onto his back and then jumping up from his previous lying position. After that, both of them came to stand next to each other in front of Jae, the rest of their team standing to his side. There was a moment of awkward silence as Jae looked between the two boys he had just seen sparring.

"Well first off," Jae finally said, "good job Minho on reacting before Jisung had a chance to rush you with his power. It was very forward thinking of you." Jae then turned to Jisung, "I think you could have come up with a better solution to his defenses. It is never smart to run in a predictive pattern for you, Jisung, because that takes away the spontaneity of your gift which is its greatest strength."

Jisung nodded in understanding, and then Jae turned back to Minho. "I was very impressed with your ability to realize this fact and take advantage of it, Minho. Your execution after you threw your opponent off balance seemed precisely planned and executed flawlessly. I was so impressed, I was a little delayed to call the match over, but then you froze and released before I got the chance. What happened?"

"Uh, right. I-I guess my energy wasn't one hundred percent restored since last night and summoning that first big one took most of the energy I had left. I was just surprised and froze in shock when the one I had used to contain Jisung, failed," he explained as he scratched the back of his head.

"Hmm, I see. One of the biggest aspects of Gifted Applications is knowing your own gift's drawbacks. Be sure that you are constantly aware of your limits, and use your gift and your physical abilities as best as you can to overcome them," Jae instructed before turning to the rest of the members. "Hyunjin, I remember you having a particularly innovative method to overcoming your gift's weakness?"

"Right. Since I need water for me to be able to do anything with my gift, I carry two packs of water on a belt, and in situations where I don't have those, I can pull a limited amount of water from the air like so," Hyunjin explained and then held out his hand to form a ball of water about the size of a person's fist above his opened palm. He then turned towards the wall of the gym that was lined with practice dummies and sent multiple disks of the water to slice throw the dummy closest to them.

"Very good. One should always look for abstract applications of their abilities. Think outside the box. Learn to use your gift beyond its description if you get what I'm saying," Jae gave one last bit of teaching before clapping his hand together. "Alright, for the rest of class, everyone will be fighting against the dummies. The catch though is that the dummies will all be fighting back." As he said that he held both his hands in front of him and aimed at the hundreds to dummies lining the entire right wall of the gymnasium, all of them suddenly coming to life. "Good luck."

Over the next hour, all nine of them were struggling against the army of fake soldiers. They ended up having to resort to pretty unique methods to keep the dummies at bay since no physical attack would slow them down since they didn't feel pain. There was also the fact that even if one of the dummies was cut in half, the two halves were still very much able to move. It was like fighting an army of the undead.

For the most part, the dummies managed to surround each of the members, leaving them to fend for themselves, but there were cases of people managing to meet and team up. Woojin had rammed his way through the dummies surrounding him to help out Chan who was having to merely fight against his opposition using martial arts since his gift lacks any offense. They tag teamed: Woojin serving as Chan's tank and Chan alerting Woojin to any attack.

Changbin had temporarily frozen all of the dummies around him which ended up affecting the dummies surrounding Minho, Jisung, and Felix. The four of them formed a mini team that consisted of Changbin freezing dummies, Jisung getting ahold of a machete from a stock of weapons to the side of the training mats and was using it to shred the frozen dummies as fast as possible before they unfroze, and then Felix taking the disassembled parts and teleporting them to a makeshift forcefield prison that Minho had created.

Jeongin, Seungmin, and Hyunjin were fine each fighting on their own. Hyunjin had gotten the water belt he had talked about beforehand which had two intricately detailed leather pouches filled with water that rested comfortably against his hipsㅡit was honestly a bit of a fashion statement一and was using the water as blades like he had demonstrated before, Seungmin was controlling various weapons, which he had gotten from the same stockpile as Jisung, to dismember the dummies that came at him, and Jeongin was focusing his screams to the point that any dummy in his path would blow up from the inside out.

When Jae finally deanimated the dummies, they had fifteen minutes left of class and too many dummy parts to count scattered about the room. Jae let them know that he would have another group of students clean it up tomorrow as a lesson about using gifts for 'damage relief' or something like that. No one really cared to listen to the specifics. Everyone just wanted to take a nap.

When they got back to their dorm rooms, everyone made the game plan to shower, nap, and then get ready to go into town because, despite their exhausted state, Minho still needed his own stuff because he had been borrowing everything up to that point.

And even more importantly than that, nothing would keep any one of them from having a chance to go to town and let loose for a night. It was their chance to officially celebrate becoming a team. 

*********

Guess whosseee aliveeeeee.

Jk Jk. I was only gone for a week, but it feels like longer because I got sooooo sick this past week.

I am better now though, but as soon as I did get better and I tried writing this chapter, I just had insane writers block, so thats why it took me a full week to update. (I'm happy how it turned out though, so lets hope I get over it completely because I am getting so excited for whats comin up)

Also on top of being no longer sick, I just feel on top of the world because 1) school is almost over (THANKKKKK GOOOOOODS)  2) I get to see Skz in less than two weeks ahhhhhhh and 3) I'm no longer a single pringle sooo I am super happy and giddy about that

I will cry. Like actually sob at this concert. Which will be nice because I don't cry often and it will be happy tears and if you gonna cry why not cry happy, if ya know what I'm saying.

Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be? (I can't believe I haven't answered this question yet considering I'm writing a superpowerau. I feel like I've done y'all a disservice.)

So fun fact: the gift I gave Chan is actually my dream superpower. I have thought about this for a looooong ass while, and that is the power I came up with for myself., so when I was picking power for Skz I was like, "gotta give Chan the best of the best". It is also my one wish I would ask for if I had the question 'if you had one wish what would it be?'.

To understand and be able to speak any language in the universe is how I would phrase it.

I could go anywhere in the world and not have to worry about not being able to communicate (I want to travel a lot in my life), I could talk to animals and be an actual Dr. Dolittle (my parents call me Dr. Dolittle all the time because I love animals and they love me), and finally, if we ever invaded by aliens, I will know what they saying. Not sure how handy that will be, but at least I'm a lil less clueless than everyone else.

Thank you as always my wonderful people!

~Shadow