"Eunbi-unnie! On your left!" Yuri's voice says into her head. When the leader turns, she sees her along with Yena, Minjoo and Chaewon hiding behind some boxes in the hallway. They were the last to arrive as Sakura, Hitomi and Nako had managed to group up with them a couple minutes before. She'd been informed of what happened to Chaeyeon and although she'd rather have her with them, she understood Sakura's worries. She gave a rendezvous point to her and Chaewon's clone for when the rest of them decided to get out of the labs, and she was hoping they'd make it out alright. Not only was Chaeyeon hurting, but she could tell Chaewon was overexerting her cloning. Nevertheless, they needed to find Seoyoung here and take her back. One of the files Sakura had scanned said she had her own special cell in here.

"Alright everyone. The guards are on high alert because they know we're here, but without their comms, they don't know when we'll be coming." Eunbi begins laying out the plan to the group. Sakura, Yena, Yuri, Minjoo and Wonyoung would plant a virus into the main server that would delete all of the syndicate's information. Eunbi, Hyewon, Chaewon, Yujin, Nako and Hitomi would find Seoyoung's cell and try to incapacitate her. The hope was that Yena's group would finish their side of the plan in time to help them with Seoyoung just in case she was too powerful. When she finishes, the rest of the group nods in agreement putting full faith in their leader. It was another reassuring moment for Eunbi, knowing they trusted her to make the right decisions. Now, all she's worrying about is executing properly.

"Okay, Yena. We need stealth. Lights out." She messages. And with that, Yena puts her hand on the wall, feeling for a current, and short-circuits it. The lights overhead begin to flicker randomly, giving just enough darkness for them to sneak by, but also just enough light to let them know where they're going.

The guards at the main entrance look at each other with confusion, gripping their weapons a bit harder, expecting an attack. It was of little use though as they are quickly taken down by Nako coming out from the darkness. From there, the group splits up once again.

~~~~

"Chaeyeon-unnie?" A voice calls out to her. She would've gotten up to check, but Chaeyeon was still a bit hobbled.

"Over here" She whispers. Eventually, Chaewon's head pops out from a corner, checking for the source of the voice, and when their gazes meet, relief washes over their faces.

"Unnie! Are you okay?" The younger asks, rushing over when she sees the cuts and bruises on her.

"Yeah...but she didn't make things easy for me." Chaeyeon jokes pointing her chin at Gaeun passed out next to her.

"Well, as long as I don't have to carry both of you, I'll be fine." Chaewon shoots back.

"Yah, you two! Freeze!" A guard's voice cuts in. Great... Chaeyeon thinks to herself.

"Hope you can still run, Chaeyeon-unnie!" Chaewon yells as she splits in two, grabs Gaeun from the older girl and runs. Chaeyeon looks at the guard, gives a taunting shrug and despite her injuries, easily manages to leave him in her dust, shutting a door behind her.

~~~~

"I think the main server room is close." Sakura says. The machinery around her was pulling her like a magnet, but she kept her focus on the largest one. The main server was most likely where they kept backups of all their files. Sakura suspected that their database might be so large that even the information they destroyed at the previous hideouts might still be in there.

"If those guards are any indication, it's gonna be behind that door." Wonyoung points at the end of the hall that seemed more guarded than the rest. The lights were still flickering on and off thanks to Yena, so the girls managed to find cover before being seen.

"How are we going to get in there?" Minjoo asks.

"Well, Yena-unnie already made this place look like a horror movie set, so maybe we can use that to our advantage." Yuri says with a mischievous look.

"Go on..." Yena responds.

"Don't encourage her!" Minjoo says jokingly, actually eager to hear what Yuri had to say.

"Okay, so here's how we'll do it..." And Yuri goes on to explain her plan.

~~~~

"Damnit, why do we have to be on duty at this time?" A guard asks the man next to him nervously.

"You signed up for this, remember? I thought you hated mutants." The man, probably his superior, chided back.

"Yeah, but I didn't realize we'd have to fight them. I thought those Japanese scientists were going to make them kill each other. Now, I find out that they're in this place and we're guarding the room they're probably trying to get into? Why wouldn't I be nervous?"

"Pull yourself together, soldier. They're still just kids. What could they possibly do?" And as he says that the lights begin to flicker more rapidly.

"What was that?" The man asks his superior, shakily holding his rifle.

"Probably some short-circuit-" The older man gets cut off as he sees a figure, a young girl walking towards them between the flickering of lights. One moment she'd be there, the next, she'd disappear.

"W-w-what???" The younger guard is definitely petrified now. The older man reaches for his gun, but turns in shock to see it floating in mid-air. The girl continues to move towards them, still disappearing and appearing randomly.

"S-s-stay back!" The older man yells, but it was obvious that even he was afraid now. Suddenly, the lights just shut off, and they hear the sound of their gun clanking back onto the ground. Silence engulfs the hallway for what seemed like forever, and when the lights came back on, they hear a whisper by their ears.

"Run..." A quiet voice whispers to them. The two men were happy to oblige as they bolted away, screaming in fear. On the other hand, Yuri just starts laughing uncontrollably, the others slowly joining in.

"See? I told you it'd work!" Yuri says between laughs.

"Leave it to Jo Yuri to make a completely overcomplicated plan that works." Wonyoung says with a smirk.

"Great plan, Yul!" Yena says putting her arm around the younger girl and hugging her tightly, causing her to blush at the sudden contact. Minjoo jokingly tries to cover Wonyoung's eyes.

"Alright Kkura." Yena continues. "Time hack that door, then we'll be home free!" Sakura gives a thumbs up, and gets to work.

~~~~

While those five were busy, Eunbi and the others continued their search for Seoyoung. There was definitely a more cautious disposition among them compared to the others due to the nature of their task, Seoyoung was not a regular guard they could mess around with. She had the power to defeat entire teams of mutants on her own back at campus, so with how much stronger the other girls they'd had to deal with on this mission had become, it was almost a certainty that Seoyoung would be the same. There was basically no room for error when trying to take her back. The group tried to use the stealth the dimmed lights provided more than actual confrontation with the guards to conserve as much energy as they could.

Eventually, after navigating several more hallways, one leads them out into an open room unlike the others. There was no other exit and the walls were covered with electric fencing. At the center of it, they see the person they came to rescue in what appeared to be a clear glass prison. Inside, Seoyoung was on the ground, motionless.

"Okay...simple enough, right? We just gotta break through that barrier, get Seoyoung, and we're home free." Yujin says.

"Way to oversimplify it." Chaewon says. "If that thing is made to hold Seoyoung, it would definitely take more than just one of Nako's punches to break in."

"What do you think, Eunbi-unnie?" Yujin then turns and asks to their leader.

"I don't like any of this." She begins. "It feels like a trap." She says, noting how there were no guards anywhere near this room. "We gotta work with what we got though. Hopefully Yena and the others will get here in time to reinforce."

"The first step is to secure the perimeter. Hii-chan, cover the walls with plants, we don't want to get electrocuted in here." Hitomi nods and goes to work. "Yujin and Chaewon, you two guard the entrance just in case someone shows up. Hyewon and Nako, try and get Seoyoung out of there."

As they studied the enclosure, it didn't appear to have any doors or access points. Because of this, Hyewon decides to blast some ice into a spot for Nako to punch through. Unbeknownst to them though, the prison begins to hum at every impact thrown to it. Nako tries her best to punch through the ice Hyewon had laid out to no avail.

"What's this thing even made of? We should've broken it down ages ago!" Nako says in frustration.

"It has to be some combination of rubber and another substance if it's resisting your punches and my ice together." Hyewon responds.

Meanwhile, Eunbi is having a telepathic exchange with the other groups for a status report.

"Chaewon, have you gotten Chaeyeon and Gaeun out of there yet?" She asks.

"That's Chaewon-four you're talking to, unnie! You have to be specific." The original Chaewon interjects out loud from across the room.

"Of course, Chaewon four, status update?" She says, playing along with her dongsaeng, who she's taken care of for over a year already.

"We're almost there, unnie! Chaeyeon's doing fine, but we've been chased around a lot. I don't think this is the best time." She responds. Eunbi could tell by the shortness of her breath that the amount of clones coupled with the distance has started to affect Chaewon a lot, and she was mentally kicking herself for that. Chaeyeon was hurt, and Chaewon was tiring, but she chose to let them go alone. She should've let someone else go with them. She was too focused on the mission to realize it. The original Chaewon was doing her best to make sure the others noticed, but it was becoming more and more obvious as time went by.

"Alright, take care, okay? We'll be as quick as we can." Is all she could say.

It's okay, unnie. It's my fault for forcing Chaeyeon to not join this last fight. Sakura's voice suddenly pops in.

"Yah, don't be like that. Let's just finish this mission as soon as possible so we can get out of here, okay?" Yena says in response.

"Yes, Yena's right. Are you all heading over already?" Eunbi asks, hoping that at least one part of the plan has gone accordingly.

"Yeahp, it was actually pretty easy. I have all their data now for sure. I also planted the virus I was talking about. All their intel should be gone in 60 seconds." Sakura reports.

"Okay, I assume you already know where we are then since you got their information. Try to get here soon because we're having trouble opening Seoyoung's prison up."

"Oh no! Wait, that's what I was supposed to say first. Please don't tell me you had Hyewon and Nako team up to try and break it open by force." Sakura says urgently.

"Wait...how did you know?"

"It's the most likely combination I figured you six would've tried, and from the data I got, I can tell you right now that it's a horrible idea." Just as she says that, Eunbi feels the floor rumbling beneath her.

"Eunbi-unnie! I think we finally made some progress!" Nako cheers as a crack appears on the wall she'd been punching for a couple minutes now.

"Unnie! Get the girls out of there right now!" Sakura shouts through her telepathy, but it was too late. The doors suddenly close shut, Yujin just narrowly avoiding being caught in between.

"Yah! What just happened?" Yujin asks in shock. "Nako! Hyewon! Behind you!" She then shouts as she sees a figure begin standing up in enclosure behind them. Seoyoung was awake.

"You little girls thought you could accomplish something, didn't you?" A voice begins to boom into the room through a speaker.

"Wait, I recognize that voice..." Eunbi mumbles.

"When you captured me, I realized that we had underestimated your group. Not this time though."

"It's Park Eunseo! She's the one who hit Chaeyeon with that prototype weapon!" Hyewon realizes.

"Yes, child. I'm glad you remember me because it's going to be the last memory you ever have. You may have defeated the other enhanced mutants, but this is the end." As she says this, the cracks on Seoyoung's prison begin to spread until the whole enclosure breaks open. Like the others, her eyes were red, but she still had the same emotionless expression she held during their capture the flag missions.

"Good luck..." Eunseo says with a laugh. The whole group quickly spread out to surround Seoyoung, waiting for her first move.

"Seoyoung! We're not gonna hurt you. We just need you to snap out of it and come with us!" Eunbi tries to reason fruitlessly. All that did was get her attention as Seoyoung turned and bolted towards her.

"Yah! Pick on someone your own size!" Yujin yells as she summons water and blasts it towards her. To her shock, Seoyoung counters with an ice blast that nullifies Yujin's attack.

"What the..." Yujin looks at Hyewon who was equally baffled.

Nako takes that chance to attempt a sneak attack on Seoyoung, but as if she had eyes in the back of her head, she turns right in time to block Nako's punch, then grab and toss her across the room. If it hadn't been for Hitomi's plant walls, Nako would've been electrocuted.

Eunbi suddenly remembers Sakura's warning and how Hyewon and Nako had been the ones trying to break open the prison. It wasn't a prison, it was a chamber to harness powers.

"Sakura, I hope you get here soon, because we're gonna need all the help we can get!" Eunbi messages, and jumps into the fray before she gets a response.

"Everyone, try to attack at once!" She says, but it was all in vain. Yujin and Hyewon's water and ice combo that worked well before didn't stand a chance as Seoyoung simply brought up a stone wall from the ground to block. Hitomi's vines were eviscerated by a super sonic screech. Nako, Chaewon and Eunbi couldn't land a single physical hit either as Seoyoung knew where everyone was at once. She had all of the other captured girls' powers as well as Hyewon and Nako's powers in addition to the ones she had previously. It felt like she was unstoppable. The group was just getting beaten around like rag dolls, and there was nothing they could do.

Out of frustration, Yujin decides to rush towards Seoyoung recklessly but gets knocked to the ground easily. Seoyoung's arm then turns into that metal blade they'd seen her use before as she prepares to finish the job.

"NO!" Eunbi yells, but right before the blade can connect, a strong force blows Seoyoung off her feet and sends her crashing into a wall.

"Wonyoung!" Yujin shouts when she sees her friend appear at the doorway along with Sakura, Minjoo, Yena and Yuri. Sakura had just managed to hack into the door as they saw Yujin on the ground about to be killed. Wonyoung's quick reaction time had saved her.

"Reinforcements have arrived!" Yena says as the five of them move in to check on their friends.

"Are you okay, Yujin?" Wonyoung asks when she got over to her friend, giving her a big hug.

"Yeah, thanks to you..." Yujin says with a smile. "That's the third time you've saved me today."

"Well, let's try not to make a habit of it." Wonyoung laughs.

"Enough with the pleasantries, girls. She's getting back up!" Eunbi alerts. Sure enough, Seoyoung is back on her feet, and she didn't look happy at all.

Now, it was Yena's turn to go on the attack as she shoots bolts of electricity towards Seoyoung, but it was once again met with a stone wall. Minjoo tried to sneak up on her too, but was easily detected and knocked aside. Yuri steps up to charm speak her, but was counteracted by a sonic screech. Again, it felt like they weren't making any progress. Wonyoung tried to levitate Seoyoung into the air, but she was prepared this time, transforming into a falcon and flying around Wonyoung- not letting her focus in on her- scratching and clawing at her.

"Okay, maybe this is gonna be a bit harder than we thought it'd be." Yena says between breaths.

"Oh, you think?" Yuri responds sarcastically. There didn't appear to be anything any one of them could do at least tire Seoyoung out. It looked like she could still fight all day while everyone else was already breathing heavily. Sakura, the only one without much combative experience then speaks up.

"Chaewon-ah! I have an idea!" She says, calling the younger girl over. Since she couldn't rely much on her physical abilities, she focused on dissecting Seoyoung's movements and looking for weaknesses, and she just might've found one.

"What is it, Saku-chan?" Chaewon asks. "Honestly, any plan right now would be good." When Sakura proceeds to explain though, she retorts.

"Yah, wait, there's no way that's gonna work, is it?" She says skeptically.

"You got to trust me. It might be our only chance, especially with how much stronger she's become. My only question is if you have enough energy left to push through with it." Sakura responds to which Chaewon nods.

"Alright, girls, clear the way!" Chaewon yells as she begins charging towards Seoyoung splitting herself into as many copies as she could. Many of the clones get tossed aside, and with every hit, the original Chaewon grimaces, but she kept pushing. Eventually she managed to get right in front of Seoyoung and land a punch. Visibly confused, Seoyoung just grabs onto Chaewon's arm and squeeze it, attempting to away her powers, causing her to scream in pain.

"Wait! What was that plan?! Saku-chan?!" Minjoo shrieks as she sees Chaewon being leeched. That was probably the most emotional that Sakura had ever seen the younger girl, and she was sorry for that, but this was their only chance. When Seoyoung was finished, she lets go and Chaewon crumples to the ground, unconscious, her clones all disappearing around her. Then, before anyone could react, as if it were a nightmare, Seoyoung begins splitting herself into clones. The others look at Sakura as if she was crazy, but she held firm, thinking Gotcha.

There were now five Seoyoung clones in the room, and it was starting to get a bit cramped. Sakura stays composed though, and sends a mental message to everyone.

"Alright everyone, Seoyoung won't realize it until it's too late, but these clones split her power up a lot. With the amount of energy she consumes with her attacks, she's gonna tire quick. The key is to beat all the clones as fast as possible."

"And what if you're wrong? What if she stays as strong and she beats us all?" Minjoo says, concerned.

"I'm sorry again, Minjoo, but Chaewon knew that it was a risk we had to take." She responds.

"Okay. I trust you. Let's do this!"

The first step was getting Chaewon to safety. Wonyoung manages to lift her up and over to Sakura while the others began the fight.

"What do we do now, unnie?" Wonyoung asks the Japanese girl.

"We wait and see who needs your help the most." She responds.

Eunbi and Minjoo went close combat with the first. With all the individuals now present in the room, Seoyoung's internal radar became a liability. Every time the clone would turn to hit something, it would be a target further away. Minjoo used this to her advantage, getting in some good blows while Seoyoung was disorientated and busy fighting Eunbi. The leader had no powers, but still packed a strong punch.

Seoyoung number two was going up against Yujin and Hitomi. This time, the stone wall she'd been using to block was blasted through by a torrent of Yujin's water. Hitomi would send vines from every direction to entangle the clone. It turned out that the addition of Yujin's water gave the plants more strength and durability that Seoyoung-two couldn't break out of.

Across the room, Yena and Yuri were also having way more success than they did earlier against Seoyoung-three. Rays of ice clashed with bolts of electricity as it was now a much fairer fight where Yena could hold her own. The stalemate of energy blasts gave Yuri an opening to sneak close without the clone noticing and screeching like last time. By the time Seoyoung-three realized it, Yuri put her down with a word. Sleep.

"Works every time!" Yuri says with a laugh.

"Yah, I'm the one who did all the hard work!" Yena whines, but is happy to see Yuri feeling accomplished. She made sure to get in some extra zaps on the sleeping clone while Yuri's back was turned though, just in case.

The last two clones were up to Nako and Hyewon who were eager to give some payback after having their powers leeched. Seoyoung four and five charged straight for them, but Nako wasn't afraid, holding her ground. By the time they got close, Hyewon shoots some ice on the floor, surprising the first, who slipped right into Nako's fist. It was all combos from there as Nako, like a professional fighter, didn't give Seoyoung-four a chance to counterattack. Every punch was followed by a jab, then a kick, until she was out cold. The other clone managed to avoid the ice, transforming into a falcon at the last second, but it was easy target practice for Hyewon, who shot her down easily. When the clone transformed back. Nako was right there to knock her out.

Every fight was over and done with as Sakura had asked- as quickly as possible- except for the first. Not having any elemental or combative powers for that matter caused Minjoo and Eunbi's fight to take a bit longer, and unfortunately, seeing the other clones getting knocked out around her made Seoyoung-one begin to fight with a lot more desperation. After Minjoo got another sneak attack in, Eunbi tried a roundhouse kick in an attempt to finish Seoyoung off. She had anticipated it this time though and uses her remaining strength to grab a hold of Eunbi's leg, and throw her into Minjoo who had reappeared for a split second. Seoyoung then grabs Eunbi and Minjoo, getting ready to bash them together until Sakura points Wonyoung in their direction.

"Wonyoung, Eunbi and Minjoo need help!" Sakura says, and the youngest uses all her mental strength to hold Seoyoung still and pull her friends away. Seoyoung writhed and struggled trying to get out of Wonyoung's mental grasp to no avail. The rest of the group begins to gather around, panting from the effort they just put in. All the other clones were either restrained or incapacitated.

"Seoyoung! We're here to save you, so calm down!" Yuri tries to order, but Seoyoung was resisting as much as she could. "We've beaten you already! Just give up!"

"Guys, I don't know how much longer I can hold her!" Wonyoung warns, beads of sweat falling down her forehead. That's when the unthinkable happened. Wonyoung lets out a loud gasp, a metal blade protruding from her shoulder, barely missing her heart. She falls, losing control on Seoyoung and dropping her to the ground. Everyone turns to see another clone rematerialize in front of them. Minjoo's eyes widen in shock. In the short moments that she was in Seoyoung's grasp, her powers were leeched.

Yujin reacts first, yelling defiantly as all the water pipes around the room burst, the water funneling right towards the two clones and consuming them. Yujin continues to manipulate the water, trapping her targets in their own liquid bubbles. The two Seoyoung's struggle and gasp for air, but they weren't given any mercy. There was a fury in Yujin's eyes from seeing Wonyoung hurt that the others could just sense. She was radiating anger and channeling it into pummeling Seoyoung.

"Yah! Yujin-ah! Get a hold of yourself!" Yena runs over and gets Yujin's attention. "We need Seoyoung alive! It's over already!"

She just manages to get Yujin to release control of the water before Seoyoung could drown. The clones begin to dissolve all around until there was one left. Yujin walks over and places a finger on her forehead, willing the water out of Seoyoung. She'd live, but she was now unconscious.

"You're lucky we have to bring you back..." Yujin says under her breath as she goes over to check on Wonyoung who was being tended to by Sakura and Yuri. All her anger dissipates when she sees the younger girl. They'd managed to stop the bleeding by using some of the medical supplies they'd brought, but they had to get her to trainer Hongki. Overcome by emotion, Yujin weeps. She couldn't remember the last time she did, but the fear of losing Wonyoung, the person in the group she'd known the longest, scared her immensely.

Minjoo was going through a similar phase. Unlike Wonyoung, Chaewon didn't have any physical injuries, so it may have been more of a case of exhaustion and fatigue from being leeched and cloning excessively. Regardless, Minjoo was also afraid. Chaewon had comforted her ever since they'd become roommates. She came to the Produce program all alone, but she found a friend in her. She pauses on that thought.  Friend didn't even begin to describe Chaewon because Minjoo felt so many emotions around her. This couldn't be the end.

"Guys, we can't stick around for long. We gotta go." Eunbi relays. The guards would be here any minute, and the whole group was battered and bruised. She knows that everyone was tired, but time was of the essence. Especially with Wonyoung and Chaewon hurting, they needed to get out of there. Hitomi used her remaining plants to form a sled big enough to carry Seoyoung, Chaewon and Yujin. Nako had no problem in pulling it along. It was only then that a damning realization dawned on Eunbi.

If Chaewon was knocked out, and all her clones disappeared...Chaeyeon... She thinks. Sakura's eyes widen with worry as she realizes it too. The sense of urgency just spiked up, and they begin to run.

~~~~

"Well, Chaeyeon...we meet again." Jurina says with a smile as she blocks Chaeyeon's path to the elevator. The younger girl could only glare back, preparing for another tough fight.