“For someone who has claimed to have done stuff like that a lot, you’re really acting like this is the first rush you’ve had.” Moonbyul said from the driver seat glancing over at the beaming girl in the passenger seat, clutching her code breaker like it was a life support.

Solar’s face immediately fell, obviously offended by the comment. “I’m just happy to finally have one of my most helpful tools back. I’ve done plenty of high stake…,” Solar paused, unsure of what word to use. “Operations...” She hesitantly settled on. Moonbyul smiled amused at Solar choice despite her careful consideration. “Whatever, I have nothing to prove to you.”

“Of course not.” Moonbyul relinquished. “Your work speaks for itself,” she admitted.

Solar tried to suppress the pleased smile that usually comes from the appraisal of her work, but why shouldn’t she enjoy the feeling after all the hours of labor she put in?

“So…” Solar said trying to move on, knowing full well that Moonbyul saw her bashful smile. “Are we going to do something with these tonight? I mean, we really don’t have any time to waste.”

“I suppose right now is a good time to…” Moonbyul’s expression suddenly turned grim. “I just don’t think it’s safe bringing y-“

“Stop right there-”

“Look Solar, sometimes I can barely get myself out. How am I supposed to watch out for you as well?”

“Listen, Moonbyul, I get that, okay? I know I’d just be a burden in a fight, but we’re not going in guns blazing. We’re just doing recon, ain’t we?”

Moonbyul kept her eyes on the road, seemingly unmoved by Solar’s words.

“Moonbyul?” Solar pushed for a response.

“Recons can get messy, you know.”

“I know, but we’ll be at a distance. Isn’t that why you got that shotgun microphone?”

Moonbyul simply rolled her eyes and pursed her lips as if she had to force herself from arguing back. She knew she had no chance in changing Solar’s mind. Who was she to really try anyway? They weren’t dating. I mean they were barely even friends yet.

“How did you find this place?” Moonbyul and Solar were atop a building full of BTS members. Moonbyul had never come across it before, and she was impressed.

“I told you I knew almost every territory for every gang in the city, didn’t I? Maybe you outta stop trying to convince me to walk away, and actually listen to all the useful information I have.” Solar sassed.

“Alright. Alright. I get the point.”

She shifted her head closer to Solar’s trying to catch whatever was coming through the earphones Solar was wearing. Taking the shotgun microphone was definitely a good idea, it’s just unfortunate there was only one of them.

“Are they saying anything interesting?” Moonbyul asked a bit restlessly.

“Shh. Let me listen and I’ll let you know.”

Moonbyul sighed and turned away feeling like there had to be something better she could do while Solar listened in.  She needed to do something. Standing around really just wasn’t working for her. So she walked over to the edge of the building and looked down, scoping things out.

There wasn’t anything but the dirty ground to see until someone burst out of the door of the building, coughing roughly. It was a wet cough, thick with some sort of liquid.

“!” He cursed after looking at his hand which he had used to cover his mouth. Moonbyul could barely make it out, but there was definitely some residue on it from his coughing fit. “It ing isn’t worth it. Jesus!” He closed his eyes and turned his head up to the sky, luckily not in Moonbyul’s direction. He grumbled something else to himself, but this time it was too soft for Moonbyul to hear.

He turned back to the building, lifting his hand like he was going to take the handle, but after a moment of hesitation he dropped his hand and turned away. Instead he turned up his collar and walked away from the building. Moonbyul had some sort of feeling about him so she turned back to Solar, who was intensely listening in on the others, and said, “Stay put. I’ll be right back. There’s no time to explain. Just keep listening in on them.”

Moonbyul looked away before she could a response and took out her mask from the inside of her jacket, put it on, and stealthily jumped down to the fire escape. This wasn’t a situation where she could leap from building to building. They were just too spread out. This place only had one main tall building and several of smaller factory buildings. She was going to have to get to the ground, which would definitely be a risk, but she had this feeling in her gut that she had to follow because if Solar’s work was any indication of how well that worked then she should definitely follow it.

When she finally touched ground, she had to jog a bit to catch up. She was really lucky no one else came out of the building just then because there would have been no cover for her. Moonbyul was beginning to think that the risk was all for nothing because he, at first, seemed to be walking aimlessly but just before she was just about to give up on following him, he started walking a more determined path.

He started walking away from all the buildings and moved towards the unlit dark field in the back. It looked like some junkyard for the old work they used to do here. It definitely wasn’t being used for that now. Instead of being dumping grounds for unused parts, it was the dumping grounds for bodies. If it wasn’t for the full moon, Moonbyul wouldn’t have been able to make out that all of them were charred like the ones found around the city.

Moonbyul had to physically cover so she wouldn’t gasp out loud and give away her position.

“Looks like I’ll be joining you lot pretty soon.” He coughed hard into his hand. “!” He wiped his hand on his pants. “Yeah, pretty soon I’d say.”

Moonbyul knew that he was part of a gang and probably did some pretty shady stuff, but she couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy. He sounded defeated, like he had just given up to this fate.

“All this for what?” He reached his hand out to ground and Moonbyul, unmistakably, saw a rock come to his hand. “So I can move a couple pounds of rocks.” He threw the rock at pit hitting one of the charred bodies. “Sorry.” He whispered to the bodies below him, just barely loud enough for Moonbyul to hear.

But Moonbyul was hardly listening now. Her mind was reeling at what she just saw. The experimental element was being used to try to make more conduits? Not only that because it got worse. The conduits would all be members of gangs.

“Holy …” Moonbyul finally managed to breathe out. She couldn’t let that happen. Solar’s gonna want to hear about this.

She saw him groan as he sat himself down at the edge of the ditch. I don’t think he’s going to be of any more use. I better get out of here while I have the chance.

She stepped out of the shadows of the old crane and jogged back the main building with an electric spring in her step to help boost her speed and quiet her foot falls.

When Moonbyul made it back to the roof, she saw that Solar’s eyes were wide with shock and Solar didn’t waste any time to get to Moonbyul. They met each other half way, both wanting to reveal whatever info that they had found. When Solar got to her, she grasped Moonbyul’s arms and squeezed due to her excitement. Judging from the bright look in Solar’s eyes, Moonbyul’s guessing she must have heard something good too.

“You go first.” Moonbyul said looking down at the shorter girl, who was now in such close proximity Moonbyul’s every breath was full of Solar.

“Some lady is in charge. Someone said something like, ‘how are we supposed to be stronger than ever when most of us are dying? That is going to kill more than half of us before the boss stops her.’ I don’t know what they were talking about though. What’s the woman doing that’s killing them, and why are the bosses letting her?”  

“I can fill you in on that.” Solar’s hands got impossibly tighter around Moonbyul’s arms. “They’re using the element to make conduits, but it still seems to be in the beginning stages. The consequences being that most of the gang members turned subjects are dying. There was so many, Solar.”

“You saw them?” Solar’s eyes now held a hint of concern.

“Yeah.” Moonbyul affirmed, ducking her head slightly to avoid the intense gaze. It was a startling scene to see, but she didn’t want to think about that now. “Listen, we should go. It’s late, and we don’t want to push our luck.”

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If you live in the US and like both Mamamoo and Red Velvet message me cuz i might want to give away some stuff i got