Yongguk shivered a little and followed his brother down the steep concrete steps through the heavy metal door at the bottom. He pulled off his jacket and looked around the now-familiar entryway, taking in the way the fluorescent lights cast a bluish glow over the un-tiled floor and pale green walls.

“Do you… do you want to train together?” he was sitting on the bottom of the bunk-bed he shared with his brother, staring at the ground through his loosely interwoven fingers.

Yongnam turned from his desk, “What do you mean?”

“Just… train together again one last time before…” Yongguk trailed off and took a deep breath, “You know… before…”

After a beat of silence, “Yeah, sure,” his brother answered quietly, “Of course.”

“Oh, good,” a gravelly voice broke into Yongguk’s thoughts, “KUAN needs some help.” Csp’s round face was poking into the entryway from a hallway, his glasses flashing in the light.

Yongnam was the first to speak up, “KUAN is here? He’s never here though.”

The older man gave an exasperated growl and stepped into full view, waving a hand in dismissal, “You just never know that he’s here… That guy keeps mostly to himself so even the rest of us forget he’s here sometimes.”

“What does he need help with?” Yongguk had finished taking his jacket off and had slung it over his shoulder.

Csp cocked an eyebrow and gave him a look that suggested mild annoyance, “KUAN only does one thing and one thing only. What do you think?”

Yongguk looked to his brother who only shrugged in response.

“You guys done, yet?”

The two of them nodded.

“Good… now come on.”

Yongguk was at a complete loss for words as he gazed about KUAN’s lab… or operation room, as the other man liked to call it.

Compared to the upper levels of their basement headquarters and indeed everywhere else underground here, it was a piercing brightly-lit room. The special-order fluorescent lights reflected off of every clean metal surface and the pristine tile floor.

Csp cleared his throat and shifted a little on his feet, “KUAN, I got you a few hands to help.”

“Good,” the voice seemed very small and far away. The man in question straightened from where he had evidently been stooped over among machinery and parts that seemed to sprout from the floors in great pillars of wires and shrapnel. He pushed some bizarre looking goggles out of his face and scrutinized the two brothers.

Despite all the time that Yongguk and his brother spent at the headquarters, they had only heard brief mentions of the mysterious member here and there. It seemed that the lab hidden down below along with its owner tended to unnerve even the most experienced members.

KUAN was surprisingly young… he didn’t appear to be much older than the two of them and yet the fact that he had been designated an entire floor of their basement hideout to himself…

“I guess you two will have to do… Lord knows I can never get any of those other guys to come down here,” KUAN waved them over, “Get over here and don’t touch anything on your way.”

Yongguk picked his way towards KUAN, weaving through piles of springs and wires, ducking under mechanical arms with flashing lights and squeezing between whirring machinery. He turned to see if Csp had been following him only to find that the other man had already disappeared, presumably back into the lift and up to more familiar areas.

They came to what looked like a large metal table with several blinding overhead lamps pointed at the tabletop, upon which…

Yongguk heard his brother give several gurgling coughs and felt his own stomach lurch into his throat, “What happened?”

“The usual… I get stuff like this all the time. Someone wasn’t looking and then they run over some stray animal and then I find it and bring it down here,” KUAN slipped the goggles back over his eyes and was again bent over the small mangled body on the operating table, “Well, don’t just stand there.”

Yongnam appeared to swallow forcefully and asked in a croaking voice, “What do you want us to do?”

“It’s not so much what I want you to do as what this little guy here needs you to do,” KUAN answered, “Whichever one of you can guarantee that you won’t pass out on me come over here, and the other one go to the TC downloader.”

Yongguk had been about to take a deep breath and head over to the table when his brother shot him a look that said You stay. Secretly glad for Yongnam’s selfless sacrifice, he ventured to ask, “TC downloader?”

Without looking up, KUAN gestured in the air with a pair of tweezers, “Temporary Consciousness… It’s that thing over there with the four floaty-lookin’ screens and a keyboard.”

He made his way over to the machine and watched as his brother turned an ever-alarming shade of green the closer he got to the table. Yongguk studied the piece of equipment and noted the wires that extended up out of the central apparatus to thread itself through cable-ties attached to the ceiling before descending to the middle of the operation table. Various figures and diagrams swiveled and scrolled across each of the four screens and Yongguk saw easily that he had absolutely no idea what to do.

“You…” KUAN looked up.

“Yongnam.”

“Yongnam… I’m gonna need you to hold this little guy down alright?” KUAN scowled a little, “Come on now man, don’t look like you’re gonna to turn into a head of lettuce on me would ya? Just put your hands here and here and keep them there.”

Yongguk came to the conclusion that his brother was a decidedly braver man than he ever would be.

“Yongnam number 2.”

“What?”

“You’re twins, so I only have to remember one name... less of a hassle that way.”

“His name is Yongguk,” Yongnam managed to choke out without his breakfast coming up.

KUAN tsked, “Whatever, it’s not like you guys are ever gonna come back down here anyway.” He directed his attention back to Yongguk, “You just do exactly and whatever I tell you to do alright?”

Hours later, KUAN finally straightened up and yanked his goggles off, rolling his neck a little, “You can let go now. Trash bin is over there.”

Yongnam sprang away from the table as though electrocuted and stumbled few steps backwards before his knees gave out and he sat down hard on the cold tile floor. He was about to rub his hands over his face before thinking better of it and placing them on the ground next to him instead.

Yongguk looked over from the screens he had been meticulously monitoring to the operation table. The small body, now no longer the mangled mess it had been, lay motionless, wires still connected to the machine.

“Yongguk,” KUAN’s voice rang out through the silence, “Do it.”

He nodded and wordlessly hit the bright button that said “SEND”.

“Now what?” Yongnam’s hoarse voice came from where he had collapsed.

“Now we wait,” KUAN was back to leaning over the table, watching the small figure intently.

Yongguk stepped out from behind the machinery to get a better look. A few green lights flickered here and there in the metal followed by the telltale hum of a small motor. One glowing red eye and one bright amber eye opened at the same time. Blinked once, twice. Shut again. One small furry paw stretched out next to a shiny metallic one. Slowly, the creature raised its head, both ears, furry and metal swivelling around to get its bearings before rolling itself upright.

KUAN reached out and gently disconnected the wires from the base of its skull and stepped back.

The grey cat blinked and turned its head to gaze at each of them individually, seemingly amused at Yongnam’s slack-jawed expression and Yongguk’s bulging eyes. Satisfied, it stood and turned towards KUAN before letting out a tiny meow.

The twins let out simultaneous sighs of relief and bewilderment at the sound.

KUAN gave a small smirk, “Congratulations you two, you just helped save a life.”

Yongguk