The young police officer slapped the two ceramic pencil holders together with a loud clank that reverberated around the room. The loose papers and pens that had been swept into the air in the attack, all fell to the ground simultaneously, sending everything into silence.

The other officers froze in their retreat, eyes wide as they stared at YooJin and the young policeman, whose own eyes were nearly bulging from their sockets as he held the viciously shaking mugs out in front of him, as far as his body would allow.

YooJin couldn’t believe it. It had worked.

“Wh-What is this?” the policeman asked in a trembling voice.

YooJin shook his head. “I don’t–” he began to say when he was interrupted by one of the older policemen.

“So it was you!” the man growled, he had been the one standing next to the owner and barking out orders for his arrest. “How else would you know how to capture one?”

YooJin stared at him in disbelief then cursed himself. Of course, this was how it would end up. He was a fool for not having seen it. 

“Arrest him!”

Several of the policemen stared at their commanding officer for a moment before slowly making their way toward YooJin.

All of a sudden the officer closest to him was thrown to the floor. YooJin turned, only to see another officer crashing to the ground with a heavy thud.

“Another attack!” someone shouted as panic erupted amongst the men.

The commanding officer stepped in and yanked the bat from YooJin’s hand.

“Grab that ceramic cup!” he yelled at one of his men as he placed himself in a batting stance. He then ran up to the ‘ghost’, only visibly by the loose papers and post-it notes that swirled within it and swung the toy bat in its direction only for the bat to go clean through.

Baffled, the old officer looked at the toy before swinging it again and again. But the outcome was the same each time.

“Why doesn’t this stupid thing work?” the commanding officer yelled in frustration, slamming the toy against YooJin’s chest. “Capture that thing!” he demanded.

But YooJin simply stared at him. “Why should I?”

“What?” the commanding officer’s face was starting to turn red.

“Sir!” one of the policemen yelled and YooJin turned to see the ‘ghost’ chasing several more of the men but it was moving much slower than it had previously, almost like it was playing a game…

“Catch that damned thing!” the commanding officer yelled again at YooJin.

“I will,” he replied slowly, “if you remove all charges against me and have one of your men take her to the hospital immediately.”

The commanding officer’s expression turned even more angry. “Why the hell should I—” he sputtered. “How dare you! An omega like you dares to order me a—”

“Sir!”

They both looked up to see the owner of the ‘Omega’ club who had been mumbling quietly to himself on the ground was now floating up in the air. “-ive me, forgive me,” he said softly, his voice growing louder with every word. “No– N-No proof that the omega brought this on us. A lie– A lie… a lie.”

YooJin stared at him in surprise. The timing was just too perfect… He then turned his surprised gaze back to the officers.

They now had no leg to stand on.

“Un-n-Under duress,” the commanding officer stammered. “We can’t take that as a confession, he had said it under d-duress!”

“Sir!” yelled the young officer, who was still holding onto the ceramic cups tightly. “This is not the time for that!”

The commanding officer’s eyes widened for a moment, staring back at his men who were running and shouting, with no direction or means to fight back. Finally, after too long a moment, he nodded, a tired look in his eyes. “Fine…” He turned back to YooJin and his gaze was still full of contempt but it looked as though the old, stubborn man was trying to fight it. “If you… help us, all charges will be dropped, we will forget that you were the culprit.” His chest suddenly puffed up as he met his eyes, “Now – hurry up!”

It didn’t escape YooJin’s notice that the commanding officer still refused to admit his innocence but he decided to look past it considering the gravity of the situation. However, there was one thing remaining that he refused to budge on.

“The old lady—” YooJin began.

“Fine!” he bellowed with barely concealed irritation. “Lee, take the old woman and her children to Temple Hospital now!”

YooJin took only a second longer to watch the officer nearest the children pick up the old woman and hurriedly make his way toward the exit. He then turned back to the old commanding officer and gave him a single nod of understanding before turning back to the scene before him.

There were now several ‘ghosts’, moving about, chasing the officers and disrupting the air about them, loose toys, papers, and even some small kitchen supplies from an aisle away twirling about in midair. And despite knowing the terrifying potential of the ‘ghosts’ attack, YooJin was again struck by the strange sense that the creatures were playing a game.

But a deal was a deal.

“You, over there by the pot, grab that and hold it open,” he said to an officer standing several feet away from him.

The man looked at him in confusion for a moment before spotting the ceramic teapot on the shelf next to him and like the younger officer had done earlier, held it open as YooJin began to run at the ‘ghost’ nearest him.

YooJin swung with precision, the bat glowing faintly as it connected with a burst of light, sending the ghost spiraling into the awaiting teapot.

YooJin grinned widely, adrenaline coursing through his system at another successful hit.

The officer who had caught the ‘ghost’, a bespectacled older man in his fifties, also broke out into a wide grin. For a moment, when their eyes met in their excitement, it felt to YooJin as though instead of a fight, they were simply playing a game of baseball.

Suddenly a holler rang out and YooJin turned to see all the other officers calling for him, holding out their own teapot or cup holder or whatever else they could find that could capture the creature in its ceramic body.

“Omega!” they called loudly, almost ecstatically when a ‘ghost’ came near them and YooJin swung the toy bat and met his mark each time.

Finally after several minutes of running and a little over a half a dozen closed ceramic containers, YooJin stopped, staring all around him for any additional signs of the creature.

"That was unbelievable!" the young officer said with a wide grin, his voice tinged with boyish excitement as he walked up to YooJin.

“Well done, omega,” said another officer. He was the older bespectacled man with the ceramic teacup. He held out his hand to him and for a moment YooJin stared at it before placing his hand in his firm grip.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline still running through his system but he felt a sense of camaraderie with these police officers, men who in his past he would always avoid due to negative experiences.

He slapped the young officer in the back. “Well done,” YooJin said to him, grateful for the role he had played in defending him as well as taking charge of the ceramic holders that still held the bodies of the ‘ghosts’.

The young man returned the smile when a voice came through the commanding officer’s radio.

“What?” the old man yelled gruffly into it before turning to his men and yelling. “Outside. Now. There are more of these—air–wind–creature things.”

He then turned to YooJin as his men began to run toward the exit. “I’m going to need your help again, omega,” the commanding officer growled, his tone gruff.

“YooJin,” YooJin replied and the old man stared at him with stony eyes before giving him one single nod.

“Mr. YooJin.”

YooJin’s face broke out into a grin as he shouldered the toy bat and quickly followed the officers out of the building.

The scene that met them outside was nothing short of complete chaos.

Civilians screamed, cars screeched to a halt, the very air seemed charged with terror.

Several bodies floated high up in the sky, held clearly by some invisible force, while others lay on the ground, mumbling incoherently or weeping. Children, who were notably untouched, stood next to the either fallen or floating bodies of their respective adults, crying loudly, terrified, into the chaos.

The officers immediately began distributing whatever ceramic cups or pots they had been able to find from the department store to the other officers outside and YooJin, without waiting for a command, began to play his promised part.

Several minutes into the fight, he felt a presence to his left. 

YooJin turned to see TaeHyun, the alpha, running beside him. He opened his mouth in surprise when the alpha yelled a warning before pulling out a nondescript sword and producing a small gust of wind that propelled a ‘ghost’ that had been right next to YooJin, who had ducked just in time, into a ceramic vase held by a tall man in glasses.

YooJin turned, grabbing onto the Alpha’s shoulder for purchase as he leapt into the air to swing at a ‘ghost’ who held a young woman several feet off the ground.

The young officer, who had been following YooJin all this time, caught the creature in a bright pink ceramic teapot as another officer ran in just in time to catch the young woman.

“Where—” YooJin began to say as his feet touched the ground and he turned to look at the alpha when something small but fast suddenly launched itself into his stomach.

He grunted then looked down to see the top of a badly cut mushroom hairstyle that he could recognize anywhere.

“EunHa!” he yelled as he dropped the toy bat in his hand and scooped his sister up into his arms.

The child began to sob and hit him repeatedly with small fists. “Where were you? Where were you?” she cried, and YooJin held her tighter.

YooJin set his sister on the ground and knelt beside her to wipe the angry tears from her cheeks. “Are you okay?” he asked her, his eyes roaming every inch of her small body for any marks, bruises, or scratches.

EunHa suddenly grabbed his hand and bit the skin beneath his thumb hard enough for marks to form but not hard enough for it to hurt. Her little face contorted in anger. He sighed internally, but did not pull away. It was a bad habit that she had to break but for today, he would let it be.

Then, when she finally released him, EunHa wordlessly raised her arms up to him. YooJin pulled her up into his embrace and she placed her head on his shoulder and her thumb into her mouth.

He internally sighed once more. It had been nearly six months since she had stopped that bad habit despite already having been too old to be doing so. He was briefly worried that it would restart the habit that had been so hard to break but again, he left it alone.

Holding his sister in his arms, YooJin turned but then paused in surprise when his gaze met the alpha, who had been watching him curiously the entire time.

“How did you find her?” YooJin asked. “What happened to her?”

TaeHyun shook his head. “She and the other children were safe. They were all asleep.”

“Was she on that island?”

The alpha shook his head. “No, it disappeared from my sight as soon as you released me.”

“We never found those children you guys saw,” interrupted another voice and YooJin turned to see Nao walking up to them. “Thankfully, they weren’t children from Sunnyday but we’re not sure of much else, they may not even have been children. We, that is Sera and I, never saw anything ourselves. We found your sister and the other children sleeping in a cave a little ways away from the lake. Thankfully no damage was done to them.”

He then walked up to YooJin and smacked him on the arm. “Damn, why didn’t you say you were a wizard? An omega wizard too, hot damn! I can’t believe you can use mana on a weapon so quickly, though –hahahaaa– I hadn’t expected a toy bat.”

YooJin opened his mouth to respond when suddenly his right pocket vibrated. Maneuvering his sister to his left arm, he pulled out his cell with the other and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“YooJin!” came a frantic voice from the receiver.

He froze. “June? What’s going on? What happened?”

“It’s boss—boss he–he–urt,” the voice replied but YooJin could only hear bits and pieces, the line was breaking up.

His blood ran cold. “Liam? What happened to Liam?”

“Attacked in— Hosp– Temple.” The line suddenly died but it didn’t matter, he had heard what he needed.

He looked up and met TaeHyun’s eyes, knowing that the alpha could help him despite not wanting to owe the man anything. “I need to get to Temple Hospital now.”