Military headquarters, somewhere in Seoul, South Korea.

6:16pm

*Boing*

Kyungwon watched the ball bounce away from the wall before catching it.

“Hundred and one…”- She mumbled to herself as she throws the ball again.

She had been at it for hours, bored out of her mind as the only thing in the room, besides her, was her computer – which, by the way, had limited access that prevented her from accessing almost any place in the internet – and her desk, devoid of anything since Kyungwon didn’t usually keep around tools nor she had a lot of paperwork.

The ball returned and she caught it again. The tediousness of the supposed form of “entertainment” already catching up to her.

“Hundred and two…”- She said tiredly, already sick of the damn ball. Sadly, it was the only thing she could do to pass time in the personal hell she called office.

Why? Because the access was restricted, why was the access restricted to her? Plain and simple.

The government didn’t like a genius hacker surfing around the web freely, even when they had her under control.

‘Marvelous’ she thought.

Kyungwon huffed as she remembered the life she had before coming here, too engrossed in remembrance to notice that the foam ball was already bouncing back to her. Kyungwon flinched, getting annoyed with the ball and throwing it aside towards the farthest corner in the room, hopefully it wouldn’t bounce back to her again.

There was not a day in her life she regretted being caught. She would have preferred to be in jail if she knew beforehand what the implications of working for the government were.

She was Kang Kyungwon, a renowned rogue hacker that had managed to elude the authorities from the time when she was seventeen years old. A genius ever since she was little, as soon as she entered highschool she was already self-teaching her the arts of computer programing, by the end of it she was capable from doing everything from a simple virus to a nigh unstoppable program capable of getting her the entire list of bank’s clients, their balances, and best of all, their passwords.

Yet, unlike those who actually believe in humanity’s good nature would like to think, Kyungwon saw in this knowledge an easy way to live. She would oversaturate the bank’s systems capacities by transferring minuscule amount of money from random accounts to others, overcoming the processing capabilities of the computers systems to keep track of everything just by the sheer amount of transactions.

By the end of it all, she’d have redirected a large sum of money to her own account in the form of transfers of 1 pound or less. By the time the authorities got to the account after uselessly tracking the other thousands of transactions, that account would already be closed and Kyungwon would be laughing to herself from the comfort of her own house.

She had never told her parents and she never would, they just thought she was living off what she earned as a programmer.

Still, doing that wasn’t as easy as it looked, it required for her to get a little bit too much involved with some shady business, fake documents were only the most basic things, evading taxes was something a little bit more difficult.

The problems of doing it eventually outweighed the perks of being able to do it. Her own arrogance caught up to her as her identity was discovered by the government after she failed to evade the national tax organization once.

The inconsistencies of her speech gave out instantly that there was something wrong with the way she earned her money. It wasn’t long before she had the police at her doorstep and, once they realized who she was, even representatives from the government.

Yet, even when she had accepted defeat and was already foreseeing spending a life sentence in her probably uncomfortable prison cell, life gave her another chance by some sort of miracle.

Instead of sending her to jail, the government representatives offered her a deal, one that she absolutely could not refuse. She’d work for them in exchange for remaining free. Kyungwon, cornered, accepted without a speck of doubt.

The only problem with it was that she absolutely did not expect to be confined to an office the whole day, acting as a messenger between the government’s facilities. She had anticipated something a little bit more adventurous, like hacking into an international database or anything roughly similar to that.

Being the way she was, she just couldn’t put her soul into that kind of work, when she was not hacking she got irritated as she had already assimilated it as part of her life. Being in front of a computer without being able to even use internet was utterly annoying and demoralizing, as if she was a fish with the ocean in front of her but without enough might to reach it.

Sure, every now and then someone would appear to tell her that she was needed to get into different places – which she presumed were North Korean most of the time, with a few Chinese high security systems thrown in from time to time – however most of her time was spent on picking up routine calls and just taking care of paltry chores in general. She was in charge of monitoring the communication lines between the different facilities the government had and the headquarters where she was currently in.

Oh, and by the way, whenever she wasn’t in her office she was to stay in the military dorms, so it was, in a weird sort of way, a domiciliary arrest. At least she had a few luxuries she wouldn’t have if she had been sent to jail so, as bitter as she was, working for the government was still her best option.

But worst of all, something she absolutely hated, was the way it hurt her pride the fact that they were wasting her incalculable skills in something as inadequate as this…

Kyungwon huffed, looking all over her desk for her foam ball before remembering that she had thrown it aside, too lazy to move she just decided to stay there and look at the ceiling. It wasn’t like there was anything else to do besides that.

Three minutes passed but the ceiling still looked as dull and gray as ever.

If this were an RPG game, her ‘entertainment’ and ‘will to live’ stats would be at 0% already.

*Riiiiiiiiiiiing*

“Jesus!”-Kyungwon jumped a little, alarmed by the sudden rattling of the phone. It was ringing for the third time in the day and Kyungwon instantly knew that it was, most probably, another routine check with the headquarters. She looked up, gazing at the circular clock that hung in the middle of the wall right in front of her desk. The needles marked the 6:23pm; it seemed to be too early for that kind of call, or at least she didn’t remember getting any around that time ever since she arrived at this place.

She didn’t mind the thought too much as she reached for the ringing phone, picking it up and answering as uninterestedly as she always did, or at least she planned on doing it, since she was interrupted before she could even talk.

“Hello?! Hello! T-thanks god someone picked up!”- The voice of a desperate man came through the phone almost instantly, making Kyungwon flinch at the volume of it as she moved it away from her ears just a little - “Please! W-we need help! I-Ibis Island is…!”

“Whoa wait a second, kiddo if this is a prank call let me just tell you…”- This was a first; never had anyone called sounding so distressed, and Kyungwon sincerely did not know what to do or who to call.

“It’s hell! Something happened! I don’t know what! The generator exploded and created a breach, a portal of sorts! A jungle replaced the entirety of the island except for this facility and now we are trapped here with those… with those beasts! Please, you have to send someone, anyone, please just get us out of…...”- The man continuing, paying no mind to her skepticism.

However, before Kyungwon could answer back, the line started distorting before going completely mute. She remained in her seat, shocked, as she tried to process the information that was given to her.

Her usually boring day suddenly turned upside down in the blink of an eye.

The malfunction of a generator? What was that man talking about? Kyungwon remained seated, thinking about the recent call. The name Ibis Island seemed familiar, she remembered it from her days of searching through the government files. However, she couldn’t actually collect any information about it, since the level of security surrounding the place seemed to be extraordinary even for her, and she wouldn’t have dared to cross that line nevertheless. What was even stranger is that no one had ever called from that place, was the facility excluded for having to provide a daily report?

The urgency of the call finally caught up to her, making her remember that it wasn’t actually the best time to have an inner monologue about what she knew of that high-security facility in the middle of the ocean.

“Holy… …”- She rose slowly, picking the phone again, before punching in the numbers clumsily – her hand was actually shaking- and someone picked up the call almost immediately – “Ummm… Minkyung… we have a problem…”

***********************************

Military headquarters, somewhere in Seoul, South Korea.

7:52pm

The door to the meeting room opened with a loud bang, making Kyungwon jolt her head towards the noise as she observed the two newcomers. Tall, refined and gorgeous looking women had made their appearance.

“Sup’!”- Kyungwon greeted them with a peace sign, not the best form of greeting towards a military officer, but they were accustomed to her bratty antics by now.

“Hey girl!”- The first one to answer was Kim Minkyung. Only older than Kyungwon for a couple of years, the brunette woman was actually the first friend she made when she arrived. – “How did you manage to up this time?”

Minkyung chuckled, mostly entertained by the thought that I wasn’t actually Kyungwon the one who ed up, at least not this time. Usually a flirty, witty and charming girl, Minkyung was a part of the Echo division of the KCTU.

The Korean Counter Terrorists Unit. A really respected organization that consisted of eight divisions, Echo was the fifth one, being mostly used for search and rescue operations.

The other girl was Im Nayoung, Minkyung’s… fling? Something? Oh, and the leader of that same division. Someone that Kyungwon would never want to anger in her life for she was nothing like Minkyung, stone-faced, focused and distant, the workaholic girl usually locked herself with her paperwork for hours whenever she wasn’t assigned to any particular mission.

Which was probably the reason as of why they didn’t interact that much, although it wasn’t like they would get along even if they interacted.

Nayoung nodded at her as a greeting, her eyes always seemingly squinted as if she was analyzing her very soul, a feeling that Kyungwon did not like at all. The three of them then took a seat at the round, glass table.

“I swear it was the weirdest ever”- Kyungwon saw the look on Minkyung’s face and instantly knew the girl was awaiting a detailed explanation - “I was just randomly staring at the ceiling and then somebody calls screaming for help, got me really creeped out.”

“Oh please! Send help! Our math formula did not give us the correct result! We are doomed!”- Minkyung answered back with a nasally voice, mimicking what a nerdy scientist would sound like and causing Kyungwon to let out a roaring laughter to Nayoung’s exasperation, who didn’t seem to like Kyungwon’s constant loudness. – “I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the reason they called at all!”

Minkyung joined in the laughs as she finished saying that.

“I wouldn’t laugh if I were you two”- The leader, already annoyed by their comments, growled at them keeping a low voice but clearly reprimanding them for their behavior. - “This is serious, and the fact that the higher-ups called us here is even more concerning”

Kyungwon swears that Nayoung was probably going to die young product of a stress-induced heart attack or something, that girl took her job way too seriously to the point that it was actually starting to become annoying to Kyungwon too.

“Aw babe, come on, I’m sure it’s not that important…”- Minkyung, sensing Nayoung getting worked up, tried to extinguish the fire a little - “Right? Kyungwon?”

Kyungwon was about to answer with a simple “of course it’s not” but her mind betrayed her. The way the man screamed was still lingering in her ears and didn’t seem to be so kind to disappear anytime soon, truth be told, she was actually worried sick about what could have happened, as what she heard coming from that phone could be nothing else but terror incarnated.

“I… ummm…”- Yet, fortunately, she did not have time to answer as the double doors opened once more, leaving the path open for an elegantly-dressed middle-aged man to walk inside the room, marching firmly towards the girls.

Nayoung got up immediately, offering the man a formal salutation and prompting Minkyung to do the same. Kyungwon just remained in her seat, waving towards the guy that she always recognized bitterly as her “captor”, more specifically the one that was in charge of making sure she didn’t get access to the net.

Oh boy, how much she hated that man was surreal.

“At ease, soldiers”- The man gave a salute of his own before dismissing both members of the KCTU - “I bring news, not necessarily good ones. We have lost contact with Ibis Island around two hours ago, approximately around the time Miss Kyungwon here received the S.O.S. call and all attempts to reestablish connection were futile. I’ve discussed this with the higher-ups from the intelligence department and we have reasons to believe that North Korea may be involved in a raid against the facility.”

“Sir! With all due respect, sir! You don’t have to say anything more”- Nayoung chimed in, saluting again by protocol and keeping her gaze down, looking at the table, as she addressed her superior - “My team and I will take care of it”

“I know you will and that’s precisely why I called you here”- Her senior answered back before continuing- “There is something wrong in that island, our radars cannot pick up any movement from the surroundings so it’s likely that they arrived with a specialized transport. That facility holds crucial experiments for the future success of both the nation and the world, if North Koreans were to get their hands on that it would be catastrophic.”

“When are we leaving sir?”- It was Minkyung the one that spoke this time.

“In an hour. Once you arrive you’ll join a team from the United States, if there was an attack then there is a high likeliness of an hostage situation”- The officer sighed, gathering his breath before he kept going. -“The first part of the Echo division is already on its way under you second-in-command Sowon to secure the ground levels and aid the American team in sweeping the facility.”

“May we know, sir, why you sent the rest of the team first?”- Nayoung looked confused.

“We needed time.”- The bureaucrat looked at her, causing Kyungwon to shrink under his stare - “She will be an important part of this mission if the enemy team managed to override our security. The systems on that island are the best of the best, to the point that even a genius will have a hard time cracking them open”

Being showered with compliments, it was no wonder that Kyungwon felt her ego raising by the second. About time they let her out of that cage to do some proper work.

“Yes! Finally something good for once bro! I was starting to get bore…”- She couldn’t hide how overly excited she was, at least not until she noticed the officer boring holes in her with his stern gaze. She straightened in less than a second, even throwing in a little salute of her own which the representative appeared to find funny, as he grinned - “I mean! Thank you sir! I’ll work hard to help the team!”

“You’ll be taking her along with you, the KCTU doesn’t have anything to deal with the threat you’ll be up against”- The officer turned his head back to Nayoung, the grin vanishing just as fast as it had come, clarifying Kyungwon’s presence. - “Still, one won’t be enough. Come in please.”

The man raised his voice, looking directly at the double doors behind them.

And the doors opened for a third time in less than ten minutes and a girl walked through them, slightly bowing to the four people in the room once she had arrived at the edge of the table.

“Who is she?”- Minkyung asked the officer, still not being able to comprehend.

“My name is Park Siyeon, a professional hacker”- The girl didn’t wait for an introduction and presented herself to the group. Until that point, Siyeon had been sporting a small smile which transformed into a full blown smirk once she saw Kyungwon, leading the blonde girl to believe that she was in front of a fan for a moment. - “I think I know about you, you are that hacker that got caught for being stupid, right?”

“EXCUSE YOU?!”- Kyungwon’s felt her confidence shatter as the stranger, out of practically nowhere, had thrown the most aggressive shade she had ever received in her life.

“Silence”- The official quickly grew tired of them, interrupting what was about to become a rant - “Miss Siyeon here will provide for another remarkable individual and aid Kyungwon if the need to get inside the security systems arises. I believe that these two should be enough”

The word “aid” was enough to let Kyungwon rebuild her confidence in a flash.

“Well, I may agree to help you with the hacking if you ask nicely!”- She taunted the newcomer, raising her eyebrows suggestively as she did so, probably to try and add insult to injury, yet the girl seemed to remain unbothered by her rather bland try at an underhanded insult.

“Oh? Is that so? Are you sure you are not going to be the one asking for help?”- Siyeon’s smirk remained unalterable as the girl got closer to Kyungwon, whispering directly to her ear. – “Do me a favor once we get there and let the adults like me do the work…”

“You…”- Kyungwon managed to croak before she was interrupted once again, this time by Nayoung.

“Enough chit-chatter