“Hello? Can you hear me?”

"Chen, you're literally right beside me," Sehun deadpanned, a hand pressed to the earpiece in his ear.

Chen rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, but then turned to jog up the stairs. Once he was out of sight, he tried again. “Peasants, heed the summon of your King.”

There was no reply.

Puzzled, he lifted the collar of his shirt so that his lips were right next to the tiny microphone. He pressed the button in his ear to activate it. “Hello? Peasants?”

There was still no reply. Brain already working a mile a minute to think about possible issues with the earpieces, Chen bounded down the stairs to meet the rest.

“You guys didn’t hear me?” he asked once he reached the bottom of the stairs, one hand pointing to his ear.

Sehun looked up with his usual blank expression. “Oh, you were talking to us? I didn’t realise, because I’m not a peasant.”

Chen heaved a sigh of relief. “What the hell, I thought something went wrong! Ugh, you peasants, how dare you do this to me.”

“You’re the peasant, Chen, remember? You pledged to serve me, your Queen,” Amber patted his head as she passed. “Well, at least this is working, so that’s good.”

“Don’t forget to press the button on the earpiece when you want to speak!”

“Yes, Chen, we knew that already. Now, are you guys ready to go?”

Silence fell over the room. Krystal knew her heart was pounding loudly in her chest, but she forced herself to take even breaths and remain calm. The boys said nothing. They were already used to dangerous missions, dressed in all back with low baseball caps shielding their faces. While the boys and Amber had no need for extra weapons due to their powers, the taser resting against Krystal’s hip felt extra heavy. She shifted her jacket so that it would cover it properly.

“Right. We’re all 110% sure of the plan right?” Amber asked, receiving nods from all around the room. She nodded in satisfaction, then looked to Kai.

Taking the hint, he stepped up and held out his arms. The rest of them all linked hands. Krystal closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she was back in the alleyway in Sokcho. It was somewhere between 3 or 4a.m. in the morning, and the streets were dark and quiet. The glow of the flickering street lamps didn’t touch the alleyways, leaving them shrouded in darkness. The stillness of the air seemed to add to the overall eerie atmosphere.

Krystal took another deep breath.

Amber was the first to step towards the big metal door. She twisted the doorknob hesitantly, but as she expected, it didn’t budge. Fishing a bobby pin from her hair, she began to pick the lock. Seconds later, she raised the pin in victory, twisting the knob successfully.

“You’re way too experienced with picking locks,” Chen commented quietly.

Amber only shot him a grin, before she stood up and used her body to push against the door. It didn’t budge. She tried pulling at the door instead, but it did not move either. “That’s strange, I’m pretty sure I unlocked the door.”

“We’re wasting time here,” Sehun said, pushing past Amber and Chen and standing in front of the door. He held out his hand, and Krystal felt herself stagger at the sudden rush of wind from behind. Kai grabbed onto her arm to steady her, and the door was literally ripped from it’s hinges as it flew inwards from the strong wind. Surprisingly, the whole ordeal was quieter than she expected.

“By manipulating the air molecules, he can reduce noise,” Kai explained, as they all began to step through the threshold.

The reason Amber couldn’t open the door presented itself, as large cupboards were being blown about by the wind. A vein was visible in Sehun’s forehead as he set down the cupboards and the door gently. The corridor was empty, as they had expected.

Little pulses of electricity ran along Chen’s fingers, and he directed them to the security cameras. Instead of being turned off, the red recording light continue to blink. Krystal looked at Chen questioningly. He sent her a wink. “I manipulated the cameras so that it will show the same image of the empty hallways instead.”

“Smart,” Krystal nodded, impressed. They continued down the corridor, rubber shoes silent on the cement floor. The back view of a guard came into view, and Yixing sneaked up to him and touched his neck. The man slumped immediately. Yixing caught his unconscious body and lowered it to the ground.

The abilities of these men were honestly starting to creep Krystal out. They made it into the Arena unharmed and undetected, with Chen constantly causing the security cameras to glitch.

Soon, they were standing in the circular fighting ring.

Goosebumps rippled across Krystal’s skin as she remembered the screams and the blood from the fight that had occupied this very arena.

“We should split up,” Suho said, thankfully interrupting her train of thought. “Sehun, Lay, Amber, and I will go this way, while Kai, Krystal, and Chen will take the other entrance.”

Krystal recalled the conversation that had occurred in the afternoon of the previous day, when they were discussing the plan.

(“Since Amber’s forcefields can be altered to provide a warped reflection of the surroundings, we can hide under it and be almost invisible,” Suho had said. “So in order to avoid the security cameras, we’ll need Amber on one team and Chen on the other. Both Lay and Kai are experts at taking out people silently, so we’ll need them on separate teams as well.” )

It had dawned on Krystal then just how familiar the boys were with infiltration operations and, quote, “taking people out”, with how naturally they were just going over the compatibility of each of their abilities.

“Good luck, guys! See you on the other side!” Amber waved, and Krystal felt herself being pulled into the entrance on the right.

She tried her best not to look terrified as they entered. Kai stood in the front to face any guards, while Chen stayed at the back to guard the rear from surprise attacks. That left Krystal sandwiched between them, and she honestly felt more relieved than annoyed that they were protecting her.

“Hey! Who are y—”

The burly man that walked out from the darkness was silenced in the next second, as Kai teleported behind him and knocked him out with a hit to the back of his head. Kai’s eyes narrowed as he turned at squinted into the darkness. Then, he disappeared once more, and Krystal could only hear a few more soft thuds; the distinct sound of bodies hitting the ground.

Kai reappeared in front of them a few minute later. “I’ve taken out at least 5 hostiles,” he said. “This corridor splits into a few hallways. I’ve checked all of them briefly. There are people held in what looks like jail cells—I’m assuming they’re the fighters. None of them look like Chanyeol, but there’s a door with a handprint scanner at the end of one hallway. We should go check it out.”

Kai grabbed both their arms and teleported them to the end of the hallway, which Krystal was thankful for, as it meant she didn’t need to see the state of the fighters who were held in jail cells and treated like slaves. The hallway was dark except for the glow of the handprint scanner on the door.

Chen bent down to have a closer look. “This looks easy,” he mused. He held out a hand over the scanner, and electricity sparked directly into the scanner, overloading it. It fizzled until smoke was coming out of it, before it died out completely, and the hallway was completely black.

Krystal reached into her jacket pocket for a flashlight, her hand brushing against a paper card. Agent Lee’s name card... she thought to herself. She was wearing the same jacket as the one she wor