“I got a signal!” Youngjae shouted from the control room, his fingers flying over the keys and his head turning rapidly from screen to screen, the multiple chords plugged into his neck snapping wildly. His data stream was moving at a dizzying pace past his eyes.  “Almost… there.”

“What’s going on?” Himchan burst into the room before the others, Zelo bringing up the rear.

“Ha-ha!” Youngjae cried and triumphantly pumped his fist in the air.

“What’ve you got?” Yongguk popped up next to him, leaning over Youngjae.

“I found her. I found her!” The boy laughed triumphantly and ripped all the chords out of his neck simultaneously with a sickening crackling sound. Yongguk winced.

“Seriously?” Himchan bent forward to examine the screen. “Location… coordinates even. Yoo Youngjae, you’re a genius!” The Commander immediately put his friend in a headlock, playfully wrestling with him around the control room.

“Let’s suit up and check it out.” Yongguk smiled, shooing the kids out of the room. One by excited one; they skipped out of the room and back to the living quarters. Before the control room doors closed, the General snatched Daehyun’s arm and held him back.

“Bring as many Medical Cubes as you can.”

“You think we’ll need all of them?”

Yongguk nodded grimly. “I know we will. Visi don’t just let people find them like this. We should come prepared.”

“Yes sir.” Daehyun saluted slightly and left Yongguk and Zelo alone. Bang released a heavy sigh.

“Zelo, put your function 22 on standby. We’ll be needing it.”

“Function 22 on standby, sir.”

Youngjae’s tracker led them to an abandoned parking garage. The squad climbed to the roof, watching as their ascension did nothing to decrease the height of the buildings rising up around them.

“So?” Daehyun turned to raise his eyebrows at Youngjae, his voice slightly patronizing.

“This is it.” Youngjae shrugged.

“This place is practically abandoned.”

“Perfect for a ransom meeting, no?”

“That’s terrible strategy.”

“How so?” Yongguk grinned. He always enjoyed his brothers’ arguments. Daehyun crossed his arms and sighed.

“If you want a ransom meeting, do it in a crowd of people. In big cities, people leave you to your business so you blend in more than in an abandoned alley or parking garage.” He gestured to the lot around him. Zelo seemed to be soaking everything up like a sponge. Jongup suddenly stood at attention, his eyes wide.

“Viceroy!”

The boys’ heads immediately snapped up to see their soon-to-be-governor kneeling at the edge of a roof, her hands tied behind her back and gagged with a cloth. Someone had their foot planted on her back, ready to tip her over at any second.

“It’s him,” Yongguk gestured to the black-clad figure. “It’s Bi.”

Bi. The Visi warlord responsible for Viceroy Hyosung’s kidnapping. It figured that he would refuse to take on an Earthling name. The fact that he was even wearing a human skin suit was suprising in itself. He finally seemed to notice their presence and smirked, removing his foot and appearing in front of them on the garage below the Viceroy’s roof.

“I was wondering when you’d bother to show up. Your precious leader is waiting for her knights in shining armor to save her.”

“Let her go quietly and I won’t rip you to shreds.” Yongguk spat through his teeth. Truthfully, he couldn’t care less about Hyosung. It was Bi standing in front of him again that made his blood boil. I hate Visi.

Bi smirked. “You really think I would just hand her over to you? You’re not as smart as you think, you know. I practically gave you our location.”

“What do you want then? To kill her in front of us?” Youngjae spoke surprisingly evenly.

“What am I, stupid? I wouldn’t be demanding ransom from your thick-headed Governor if I was just going to kill her anyway.”

“Then what do you want?” Himchan, like Bang, spoke through gritted teeth. He hated when people beat around the bush.

Bi gave them all a once over and sneered. “You Matokians disgust me. Such valour! Such camaraderie! You even go so far as to wear the disgusting human skin suits and parade around like one of them.”

Yongguk steeled himself from throwing punches. “It looks to me like you’re doing the exact same thing.”

“Because I may be Visi, but my pride is not so great that I will compromise our entire cause just for my own good. My brothers on the other hand, well… they refused.” His grin was enough to send goosebumps down Jongup’s spine. He raised his hand above his head, snapped his fingers, and gave a shrill alien call. Within minutes, the Visi were surrounding the Mato warriors.

The lizard-like creatures hissed and started a slow, circular movement around their leader and his prey. Their talons clacked against the cement, their forked tongues making grotesque noises every time they darted out and back in. Their two fangs and readied claws were already dripping with venom. Visi are always eager for a fight. Automatically, Daehyun’s nails started to tear holes in the synthetic skin on his fingers, his low growl muffled by his mask. Himchan held out a hand to silence him.

“Not yet. Don’t blow our cover.” The Commander was surprisingly calm, all his attention focused on Bi.

“According to my knowledge, you’ve found the energy source you were looking for.”

“What does that have to do with you?”

Bi stepped forward until his snake-green eyes were boring into Yongguk’s own. “What was it? Hmm? The screams of excited and overjoyed Earthlings?”

Bang didn’t offer a response.

“Wrong. The best form of energy isn’t one you can harness and take back to a planet. No, you must feel it in person to be revitalized. The best energy is the piercing scream of absolute terror,” Bi stepped back, his smile stretching even further across his face and peeling back to reveal his Visi fangs. “I will bring this planet to its knees. But first, I need to get rid of you.” He laughed and vanished with nothing more than a blink.

The Visi surrounding the remaining squad stopped their circling. Their hissing rose in volume.

“T’sook!” Himchan cursed under his breath. Daehyun clenched his fists.

“I hate Visi.”

Yongguk’s war cry competed against the Visi’s screeching as both sides leapt forward. The Mato warriors brandished their concealed weapons and Zelo launched into attack mode, hacking and slicing mercilessly. If he hadn’t been so concentrated on surviving, Youngjae would have shivered. But there was no time to be frightened by his new brother. They had to get Hyosung and get out.

“Jongup! Viceroy!” Daehyun yelled over the chaos and pointed towards the still-crouched girl, just in time for a young Visi to bite down on his arm and yank him off balance. Jongup grit his teeth and darted in between battles until he was close enough to launch himself onto the roof. Thank God for weird Earth-gravity…

“Viceroy, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, thank you. What about your team?” Hyosung rose to her feet once her gag and binds were undone, trying to restore her dignity. Jongup’s eyes scanned the battle. He flinched as a Visi ripped a large chunk out of Zelo’s side, revealing sparking circuits and gears. The robot never stopped, though. He fought back with seemingly no notice of the gaping hole in his side.

“Jongup!” Bang called out. He was standing just below the building, looking up at his younger and frantically waving his arms. “Get out of here! Take the Viceroy and go!”

“No! What about you, Hyung?”

“We’ll find you back at the ship later! Just get going! Send a message to the Governor. Tell him-“ He didn’t get a chance to finish. Jongup flinched, but grabbed the Viceroy and dragged her away from the carnage anyway.

Bang’s bloodcurdling scream echoed off the rooftops. He acted on instinct and desperately stabbed and clawed at the Visi currently biting into his neck in an attempt to release as much venom as possible. The poison burned at Yongguk’s blood. Once he killed the blasted thing, his vision was too blurry and blackened at the edges. He clutched at his bleeding neck and sank to his knees. Searing pain shot through his body.

“General look out!”

He didn’t hear Youngjae’s warning in time. Another two ambushed him, clawing and biting at his sides. He cried out again and desperately swung the long metal pole still clutched in his hands, bashing one head in. Zelo launched forward and took out the other before helping his maker to his feet.

Daehyun’s energy sword clattered to the ground just out of his reach. The fighter frantically began searching for any other weapon on him, but he found nothing by the time he was back-to-back with Himchan. He was desperate.

“Still think this isn’t a good time?”

“Go for it.” Himchan was already transitioning. The familiar Mato language rolled off his tongue and mixed with the Earthling language.

Daehyun smirked and threw his mask aside. His eyes burned a bright blue colour. His teeth changed into rows of shark-teeth and his nails ripped through the skin suit. A rippling growl tore through his throat as the sharp metal spikes tore their way out on his back as well. Even if it was only partial, it felt good to break out of Earthling skin for a fight. Behind him, Daehyun could hear Himchan sigh nostalgically. The two struck out, fighting their way through the lizard-like race until they reached Youngjae and Bang.

Zelo’s battery had died. The robot lay unconscious at his General’s feet, his side and arm still sparking now and then. Bang groaned in frustration, unable to get off his knees. They were vastly outnumbered, and he was sure this would be their day to die. He never thought he’d go out surrounded by Visi stench.

Without warning, the Visi halted their attack. They clutched at the slits that were supposed to pass for ears on the side of their heads, screeching in their language. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard to the Matokians. One by one, they cleared the battle site, whimpering and growling in pain. Whatever they heard, it wasn’t pleasant to them.

Youngjae released a loud groan when the pain finally caught up to him. He was more beat up than Yongguk – his hair matted with his thick, black blood. The entire left side of his shirt was soaked, his eyes blue and puffy. How he was still alive was a bit of a wonder.

“Daehyun…” Yongguk moaned, his voice heavily laced with pain. “Daehyun!”

“I’m on it.” The younger fumbled on his belt for the Medical Cubes. He held them up to his General.

“Use them on Youngjae.”

“But Bang-“

“Heal Youngjae. That’s an order, Dae.”

Despite his rebellious tendencies, Daehyun never went against Bang’s orders. He crawled to Jae’s side and began pressing the Cubes into his wounds so they would dissolve and begin healing. Himchan slowly made his way to the General and Zelo, shaking his head.

“You need them, too.”

“I’m fine, Himchan.”

“Really?” The Commander nudged Bang with his foot, eliciting another pained groan.

Yongguk scoffed, a bit more blood bubbling around his neck. “No, not really, but Youngjae’s more important to Daehyun. I don’t want the kid getting torn.”

Himchan nodded in understanding. “Those two are practically like twins. What are you going to do with this thing?” He went as if to lightly nudge Zelo with his foot, but Yongguk’s glare stopped him.

“Once we get back to the ship and I get the chance to, I’m going to assess the damage and repair it.”

“Is it really worth it?”

“You saw him in action. I believe he actually saved your sorry hide for a moment there, before you and Dae transitioned. Your ears and ribbings are still showing, by the way.” Yongguk gestured towards the metal spikes still protruding from Himchan’s back and his ears poking through his blood-matted hair. Himchan cleared his throat and concentrated on sewing his skin suit back up. Yongguk forced himself to his feet and grabbed Zelo’s remains.

“Once Youngjae’s up for it, we’re heading back to the ship. I need to make a call.”