“Freak!”

“Monster!”

“Murderer!”

“Gragh!”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung wakes up in panic, sweating all over her body.

She grabs a syringe, stabs it into her left wrist and pushes the blue liquid into her body.

As she feels it flowing inside her, she lies back onto the bed, succumbed back into the slumber.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Waking up before a yawn, she looks around her room.

The room has so many blue colors on it, as if she is entirely obsessed with it.

But the room looks messed up, with stuff everywhere.

She looks sad, “What happened to me? Why is this thing always happening during this time of the day?”

“Jiyoung, wake up!” a female voice is heard from the other side.

Jiyoung shouts at the door, “Five more minutes, mom!”

“Mom? I’m not your mom! I’m Han Seungyeon!”

Wait, what?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung suddenly pulls her head up, still dazing with a drool on her lips.

Her head turns toward her right, looking at Seungyeon, Nicole and Hara looking at her.

“Eonnie…” she is still sleepy.

Seungyeon smiles faintly, “You have been sleeping in here a night.”

Jiyoung turns her head to what she sleeps on. It is a bed with Gyuri on it, closing her eyes in a deep slumber.

Ah, now she remembers what had happened. Gyuri-eonni is still mad at her and Hara messing up the last mission with the Uec. And then she suddenly faints, still not waking up.

The doctor said it is because she got electrocuted too much that her body gets the side-effect for having too much electricity inside her body.

It will take a while till she regains her consciousness.

The youngest of the team feels so much guilt because of this. If she actually braves enough to shoot the Uec, their leader won’t be at this state right now.

Jiyoung just stare at the sleeping beauty, hoping for her to at least wake up. It’s okay if she is still mad at her, it’s good enough to see her still able to move around.

“Jiyoung, the captain is calling us into the meeting,” Hara speaks.

She just nods, following them from behind.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The now four-member team enters the meeting room, with Kyu look at them with a serious face.

He sighs a long sigh, “Let’s cut to the chase. You all need a new leader, so I’ve decided to appoint Seungyeon as your new leader.”

“B-but…” Seungyeon stutters as she tries to object, but he interferes, “You are the second most experienced member that has gone to a lot of field, with the exception of going far away from the border. Nicole is another choice, but her experiences are mostly on the sea and also due to her inability to properly communicate with you guys, I am unable to appoint her. So, Seungyeon, you will have to bear the duty for a while, okay?”

But then she looks sad, “Yes, sir…”

He then walks out of there, but turning toward them first, “Jiyoung, I would like to meet with you for a while. Come to my office after this.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Come in.”

The door opens up, as Jiyoung enters the office with a down look on her face.

“Sit down.”

She obeys his order, sits on the seat as he mutters, “Jiyoung, I know it is hard for you to face such situation, but if you fight in this condition, you will endanger not only yourself but your teammates as well. You do realized what are you truly capable of, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then, for today I want you to have a day off till your head cools down. It is better not to worsen the situation. I have invested a lot to build this team, even giving you guys Pandora, which a newly-built team should not even have in the first place. I had argument with other captains about this, so I hope you guys do a good job even if you are short one person.”

She bows at him, walking out of there as the door closes.

Kyu stands up, rubbing his head as he stands up, looking at his back.

A woman walks out of a shadow at the back, smiling at him, “Are you sure about them?”

“Of course. I am 100 percent sure I can trust them, even if I am forced to join in the fight as well.”

“You are not allowed to fight on the battlefield, Colonel Han. You know that, right?” she seductively wraps her arms around his waist from the back, hugging him from behind.

He just smirks, “One day, I will do that for sure. You can’t hold me back forever.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung is strolling through a park, still looking sad with her walk indicate on how she has no clear destination on her path.

She then looks at her hand, showing some blue line on it, “It’s that time again.”

Xxxxxxxxxxx

A middle-aged woman enters her room, shock to see her room filled with blue colors.

“What’s all this, Jiyoung!? Why is your room blue? It was supposed to be yellow!”

She then slowly moves her fingers onto the blue ‘wallpaper’, feeling something on it, “A liquid? Jiyoung, what is this?”

“I don’t know, mom! I DON’T KNOW!”

Shouting out her tantrum, she quickly runs out of the room, running away into somewhere else.

Her mom rubs some of the liquid out of the wall, looking at the blue goo slowly falling onto the ground from her fingers.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung has already hid herself in the bathroom, combining both the shower and her tears into one.

Her mom enters the room, walking toward her, “Jiyoung? Are you there?”

Crying.

“You… have no idea what just happened, right?”

Still crying.

“I think… I know why…”

She quickly turns toward her, “Really?”

“It’s that time of the day again…”

“Mom, I already had that day happened last week.”

“I’m not talking about period. I’m talking about you being a Raijin.”

“Raijin?”

“Let me bring you to a good friend of mine. She knows quietly of what happened.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back to the present, Jiyoung just looking at sleeping Gyuri at night in the dark. She then turns around and walk out of there.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The ward then shines with light, as Seungyeon, Nicole and Hara walk into the place.

Hara looks around the place before turning toward Seungyeon, “Where is Jiyoung?”

“She’s not in her room?”

“There’s no one in there.”

“You know her password?”

Hara nods.

Seungyeon sighs, “Then where is she?”

Nicole has her eyes wander around the place, before looking down toward the floor.

There’s a blue liquid on it.

She then squats down, looking at the liquid, “What’s this?”

Seungyeon hears her words, turning toward her, “Nicole, what are you looking at?”

She points toward the liquid as Seungyeon takes a look at it closely, “What do we have here?”

Hara asks the two, “Shouldn’t we search for Jiyoung first?”

“Then you can go out and search for her. I will pay some time to this thing for a while.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung is again strolling at the park, with no clear destination whatsoever. Her eyes are blank, not showing any emotion.

Her mind is still blank, but then she stops, looking at a woman feeding a cat an ice cream.

The woman sees her, standing up and walking toward her, leaving the ice cream for the cat to feast.

“Good morning, fellow Raijinian,” the woman mutters as she moves near her.

Jiyoung’s face turns serious, “Who are you?”

“Just another fellow Raijinian walking by among the crowds of Outliver, just like you.”

“I am not a Raijin.”

“Sadly, you cannot lie to me. All Raijinian able to tell each other apart. Tell me, how do you live with the human without the need of killing any of these poor creatures.”

Jiyoung just stares at her.

The woman widens her eyes, “Ah, I see. You are one of those traitors?”

Silenced.

The woman turns toward the cat, as he still enjoys the melted flavored confection on the ground. She then looks back at her, “I normally would not harm cute creatures like that cat, but traitors are needed to be killed on sight.”

Her right hand suddenly flashes lightning as she shoots toward the cat, with explosion occurs afterward.

Jiyoung startles, looking at the cat before jumping away from the woman, “A Uec?”

“Loro Partor, a merely observer of Outliver. But like I said before, a traitor must be killed on sight.”

The woman has lightning surrounds her body, which dissolves to show her new self mirrors a bird, complete with a pair of wings on her back and a parrot hat on her left hand, “Show your true self, fellow Raijinian!”

Jiyoung shouts, wearing her gloves, “I am a HUMAN!”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The big screen back at the base suddenly turns on, as Kyu stands up, “Girls, we got issue on sight. Jiyoung is currently against the Uec.”

Hara walks to the front, “Isn’t she is given a holiday.”

“Talk about that later. Right now Uec’s threat is far more important.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung aims her gun toward Loro, shoots her with her gun repeatedly. But with her skills she can only reaches the center of the target, which has the parrot head acting as a shield. All her other shots are completely missed.

Loro charges forward, shooting out lightning, causing the youngest squad member to jump out of the way.

The woman laughs out loud, “What do we have here? A traitor with no clue on her own ability?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“How come a Raijinian like you did not use your own power? You could have absorbed that last shot as your own.”

“I said, what are you talking about?”

But Loro just laughs, “Seriously, you are one peculiar Raijinian.”

The head is then enveloped within a ball of lightning as she charges forward once again and about to hit her, but then got hit by a ball, causing her to roll sideway to the side.

She then looks around, shouting, “Who is that!?”

Nicole grabs her ball back as she along with Seungyeon and Hara reach Jiyoung.

Hara turns toward her friend, “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

“I’m fine.”

But it seems she is unable to stand up, seemingly exhausted.

Seungyeon walks toward her front, “You may rest now. Let us three handle her from now.”

The three engages in a fight against Loro, as the latter screams in frustration, “Don’t get in a way of a fight of two Raijinian, you meddling beasts!”

Jiyoung, who is sitting on the ground, takes out one of her grenades and throws it toward the Uec but it got hit by Hara’s shield toward somewhere else.

Loro suddenly has her attention toward the grenades, muttering, “Oh no!”

She quickly pushes Nicole out of the way, running toward the grenade and covering herself from the impact of the explosion.

Smoke coming out on her back as she turns toward Jiyoung, “You’re lucky today, traitor!”

She then disappears away with a flash of lightning blinding their eyes.

Jiyoung looks around, searching for the disappeared enemy but then turns below her, feeling something rubbing her leg.

A small hairy puppy is looking at her, barking cutely.

“Hey, what’s with that cat?” she heard Hara’s voice and turns toward one spot.

The cat earlier unexpectedly still alive, but under a blue dome that soon disappears.

Seungyeon wonders, “Is that a barrier? But who made that?”

Only Jiyoung knows the answer, and it is an unexpected answer.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That night, Jiyoung is still recovering on her bed.

Hara feels her forehead, “It’s hot! Do you have a fever or something?”

“Nah, it’s just that time of the day?”

“You mean, that? But since when does it ever involve a fever-like temperature?”

Jiyoung ignores her, turning around and closes her eyes.

Hara sighs, standing up, “Well, I hope you would get well soon. Leave the Uec’s case with us.”

Walking out of the room, she leaves her friend alone in the room.

She keeps trying to close her eyes, but failed to do so.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung and her mom enter a house as they sit in front of a man.

The man smiles, “So, this must be Park Jiyoung? She surely have grown.”

Her mom whispers something at him as he nods, “I see, so you have that kind of problem, huh?”

“What problem?” Jiyoung asks him impatiently, “What is happening to me?”

“Whoa, no introduction first? You cannot simply meet me, asking me without knowing who I am. Do you know how difficult it is to write a story with just the word ‘that man’ or ‘the man’ all the time? I try not to piss off someone, so why not I tell you my name first before anything?”

Jiyoung is dumbfounded, turning toward her mom as she smiles awkwardly, “He does this a lot. Don’t you worry, okay?”

“First of all, you can call me Zero. Second of all, you are a hybrid of Raijin and human, or what those thing called Outliver.”

“What?”

“Raijin is a mysterious humanoid creatures secretly living somewhere outside the barrier made up of electricity.”

“Isn’t that’s what the government called as Uec?”

“They called themselves Raijin, and they call us human Outliver.”

“What about what happened to me in my room this morning?”

“That’s the Raijin version of female period week. Rather than having blood, you’ll have blue liquid instead. Consider those your Raijin blood.”

Jiyoung then turns toward her mom, “Mom, how am I a hybrid? What about dad?”

Zero answers instead, “Obviously your dad isn’t really your dad. Let’s not talk about human relationship for now. I am also guilty of cheating my own girlfriend occasionally with tons of girls, so I rather not even hearing you arguing to your mom about her wild lifestyle. My biggest concern is how you will have to cope with such body of yours.”

“Cope?”

“During your growth, you will start shooting electricity at some point and you will also able to take hit from Raijin a lot better than members of Buster Squads after taking their immunity serum. And depend on what kind of Raijin you are, you may be able to turn into something inhuman.”

Jiyoung turns worried, “What should I do?”

“Just cope with it. A curse can be a blessing in disguise. If you want to hide yourself better, I recommend join the Buster Squad. I have a friend there that will help you hide yourself, so don’t worry about unable to make yourself uncomfortable in there. You are not the only one who is able to shoot lightning in that squad.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Still unable to get some rest at midnight, she decides to take some air, walking at the balcony part of the building.

The location is situated on top of the Buster Squad Headquarter, right above the fifth floor, the highest of the building. The place is pretty huge and it is a place for them to have some fun there.

But since it is past midnight, nobody is seen in that place.

Jiyoung takes this chance to rest on the bench, looking at the star.

“Can’t sleep?”

She turns around, sees a girl walking toward her, “Hi, we have never spoke before but we met at the meeting room. I’m Han Sunhwa from Secret Buster Squad.”

“Park Jiyoung, Kara Buster Squad.”

They bow at each other as Sunhwa politely speaks up, “May I take a seat beside you?”

“Please do so.”

She then joins her in star-staring activity.

Sunhwa then speaks up, “I heard that your leader is in coma. What happened?”

Jiyoung looks down, quickly alerting her, “Ah, I am not supposed to ask that question, am I?”

“It’s okay. It’s all my fault after all. I failed to follow her order.”

Silenced.

Sunhwa then speaks up, “You know, you are so lucky to be able to work alongside the living legend like her.”

“Living legend?”

“You didn’t know? She is said to be the fiercest of all women in this organization, truly one woman nobody dares to speak to. She only listens to one person only; that is your commander, Colonel Kyu. So to say, she follows almost no order and still able to get into the Uec territory and managed to get out of there unharmed. It is said that her first mission ended up with only her alive in one of the biggest Uec’s nest. But somehow she never wanted to talk about Uec’s true nature.”

“She is so strong, so independent and capable of doing things by her own; a one-man army indeed. All of us felt a bit jealous to see two newbies quickly put under her for her own team.”

Jiyoung looks sad still, “Yet I am the one who hurt her… I am a legend killer then…”

“You are indeed a newbie.”

She looks at her newly made friend, “What do you mean by that?”

“Park Gyuri is said to have been dead numerous time due to her recklessness in fight, and during those occasions she will somehow raise herself from the dead in time of need, able to defeat a horde of Uec and goes back to sleep after that. And then when people asked her about it, she seems to have no recollection of the memories of the fight.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Rumors due tend to be exaggerated. But that probably because she never really stops doing her job no matter what situation she’s in.”

Sunhwa then yawns, “Well, I should go to sleep by now. Good night!”

She waves her goodbye and walks away from there.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The morning shines again, shining Gyuri’s face.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jiyoung is seen steadily walking on the park, looking at a morning exercise made by a group of people.

“Ah, how my luck seems to have run out, meeting a traitor like you in the morning.”

She turns around, looking at Loro in her human form.

“Say, the likes of you…Raijin isn’t it?”

“You spoke of that as if you are not one.”

“I’ve told you before, I am a human.”

“Whatever. I am totally not in the mood to fight. Do you have anything to speak to me?”

“Yesterday, you put a cat in a barrier. And during the fight you saved a dog from my grenade. Why is that?”

“Well, that’s a bit offended. Isn’t it natural to save such lives?”

“Then why did you attack me?”

“Because the likes of you are a traitor, need to be killed on sight.”

“Am I a traitor because I was born as a hybrid?”

“What are we, mindless racist? Unlike Outliver, we do not easily discriminate those who have a blood of our enemy. But for those who live with them without any feeling of hatred onto them, they deserve to die.”

“Why did Raijin hate human so much? Why are you guys attacking us every day?”

“We attack you? That’s golden, considering human attack our home every single day. Even right now kids are dead because of you guys.”

“But we tried to communicate with you before. You killed the mediator.”

“No, human are the one who killed the mediator, resulting in a war.”

Silenced.

Loro then speaks up, “That was weird. Human are the one that take arms against us. But I do heard from other people that Raijin attacked some part of the city. What could it be?”

But then something came out of her chest, right through her. A fist is then pulled out of her, as she fell onto the ground.

Virgo is standing behind her, smirking, “Low life Observer, you are as good as this traitor.”

“What?” Loro struggles to speak, “But I am just an Observer. I was told to observe human without making any alliance with any of them. How am I treated as a traitor?”

“Don’t know. Our new lovely prime minister said so, so I just follow her order.”

“No way… Gyuri… betrayed us all?”

Jiyoung quickly runs between the two, “What are you doing? Why did you attacked your own comrade?”

Virgo smirks, “From now on, all Observers are our enemies. They know too much about human that most actually learn to become one. Both Raijin and human are enemies, so such objective can never be supported.”

“You are not getting away with this! Buster Assign!”

Wearing her suit, she takes out her gun and shoots the lady, but her skill is still lacking that she easily avoids her and simply kicks her away.

Virgo then walks toward Loro, “Now to finish you up.”

But then a small explosion occurs, flinching her as she turns toward her side. Jiyoung has thrown a grenade toward her.

“Fine then! I will take your head first, then I’ll kill this puny Observer!”

She slowly walks toward the girl, with her fist filled with electricity.

But then she got shot by three beams, turning toward the other side.

Nicole, Seungyeon and Hara are pointing their guns toward her.

Chuckling, she mutters, “You human can never stop, even when one of you are already down.”

She then shoves her hand forward, with Tundos appearing out of the ground and attack the three.

Virgo turns her attention back toward Jiyoung, dueling against her.

In a fight, she manages to grab both her hands, letting electricity flowing through her body, making her shout in pain.

Virgo just laugh, “You must be wondering, why on earth am I able to hurt you when both of us are Raijin? Well, there is this thing call short circuit. Even if you are a Raijin, it is not hard to hurt each other when you know how.”

She keeps on electrocuting her, making her scream in pain.

But then she feels a pain on her back, forcing her to let go of her grips.

Jiyoung takes a look at her savior, but then shocked.

“Eonnie?”

Gyuri in her suit is standing there, impaling Virgo with her needle as she holds her with her left hand.

The Uec turns toward her, shouting in pain, “How dare you still alive!”

She in turns grab the hand, electrocuting her but Gyuri just stand there, not doing anything.

Jiyoung takes out her grenade, filling her fist with electricity and punches her fist piercing the body and pulls away her hand, jumping away from there. Gyuri does the same thing.

Virgo is petrified on her spot, with blue blood flowing out of her body, “I… lose? By a traitor?”

She then explodes, blowing up with her blue blood splatters around the place.

Jiyoung quickly runs toward Loro, who is struggling to breath, “Hey, are you with me?”

Loro grabs her, pulling her closer, “We are both now traitors, so I will tell you this… The Raijin’s community… is far more complex than you human ever thought… If you want to fight them… remember that we also have families back home… you are the proof of that… never… forget…”

Eyes closed.

Slowly, she turns into electricity, flowing into her body.

She then looks around her, not seeing Gyuri anywhere.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kyu is watching everything from his office. The woman before is standing behind him.

“Colonel Han, your team is the most impressive team I have ever seen fighting against Uec. I can see why you care for them all.”

He then stands up, looking at her, “Of course, they are dear to me. Each of them is special to me in any way whatsoever.”

He then rubs his thumb onto her cheek smoothly, “That is why I will never let myself living in this building with you any longer, Warrior Han. I will join those girls one day, no matter what it takes for me to do so.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The scene shifts into Gyuri’s ward, apparently still sleeping.

A conversation is heard nearby.

“I’m telling you! This patient suddenly wakes up and walks out of there. Minutes later she lies on this bed and sleeps like nothing happened.”

“You are watching too many horror movie, nurse. Go get some rest for today, okay?”

In a flash, her eyes open up, showing white eyes in it. There is some kind of fight on the reflection on her eyes. Gyuri is seen with a short hair, shooting down Nicole.

And the story ends with a cliffhanger.

Can anyone speculate what had happened to Gyuri? How is she able to wake up and save the day and then sleep back in her ward? And what is the reflection really is?

Jiyoung is a hybrid of Uec and human, meaning her dad is Uec/Raijin. And she is capable of using electricity like the rest of Raijin.

Next: Nicole’s backstory, following her life as a marine on the sea at the border of the small country called Korea under a dome and the outside world filled with Uec. Learn how and why she didn’t speak as much as some other people in this story. Also, introducing three-member Caramel Buster Squad, along with her best friend, Im Jin Ah ‘Nana’.

Thus, a sneak peek on Hero Bank:

Seungyeon is walking in a bleeding factory, looking around. She then rolls sideway, nearly getting hit by a spear.

She takes a look at the attacker, startled, “What now?”

Nicole, with her head upside down, is seen crawling on the floor, with is bleeding like a leaked dam, “Kill…”

“That is really messed up!” she shouts, taking out her gun and shoots the enemy on the head, making her fell on the floor.

But then she is lifted upward, showing another woman underneath her, stuck on Nicole’s body as she stand up, smiling wickedly toward her, “Die…”

Seungyeon is flinched, “There’s no way I am fighting that thing!”

“We are now looking at a new fight! Han Seungyeon of Bridge MLDY Versus JuRyu NicHwa of Bridge-DIE!”

“Owh, come on! This isn’t a Resident Evil game!”

The abomination of NicHwa charge forward, still smiling at her as Seungyeoun takes out her cane, ready to fight.