Outside the hospital, everything was hectic. Even with Momo’s super speed, it was four of them charging over a hundred of Chanmi’s brainwashed minions. Nayeon soon found herself lost in the chaos, swinging her baseball bat at anyone near her and rewinding time whenever she noticed things getting too rough.

Oddly enough, Momo was the one taking the most damage. Despite her speed and the amount of people she successfully tied up, more kept coming, and for some reason she kept getting knocked around. It finally made sense to Nayeon when she saw someone throw a knife at Mina, only for a blur to swoop by and snatch it. When Momo skidded to a stop, Nayeon saw that while she’d caught the knife, there was a small cut on her cheek.

The worst part was, she couldn’t even get annoyed at Momo for being overprotective. Mina couldn’t get hurt too badly since she was the only one who could neutralize Chanmi. So, when Nayeon saw Mina get punched in the face, she rewound time and pushed the guy in front of her into Mina’s potential attacker. Mina gave her an appreciative nod, a growing pile of slumbering bodies on the ground around her.

The battle raged on, and despite their superpowers they were slowly but surely being pushed back by the horde of bodies. Mina’s hypnotism worked well, but Sana and Nayeon could barely manage to fight back everyone that attacked them. Having the most useful power for fighting large numbers meant Momo kept taking more and more risks, and the injuries Nayeon had to rewind grew worse.

Maybe Nayeon should have seen it coming, but it still shocked her down to her core when she saw a knife go into Momo’s heart. A tall, bald man had been sneaking up behind Mina, and Momo had been the only one close enough to react in time. She’d been taking a breather after five solid minutes of zooming around the place, so when the knife came down Momo didn’t have enough energy to catch it, just enough to put herself in front of it.

Mina screamed. Sana screamed. Nayeon felt like she couldn’t breathe. The man turned towards Mina with a vicious grin, and the next thing Nayeon saw was Sana charging across to them faster than Nayeon had ever seen her run. The man barely had time to take two steps forward before Sana’s bat smashed into his skull. He fell to the ground unconscious, but Sana didn’t stop whacking him. She hit his head again and again while Mina cried out for her to stop. Again and again the bat came down, until there was nothing left of the man’s head but blood, pulp, and bone shards.

Nayeon finally remembered that it was her job to fix situations like this. With trembling fingers, she reached for her reversal light. She clicked it, and the world rewound.

The man was approaching Mina again, but this time Nayeon noticed him early enough to stop him without Momo getting involved. Nayeon ducked and weaved her way over, then pushed the nearest minion straight into him. They both went down, and she delivered a firm kick that knocked him unconscious.

Unconscious, but still very much alive.

Mina and Momo were fine, which was great, but three big burly minions were slowly starting to close in on Nayeon, which was not so great. She wasn’t sure if her bat would be enough to take them all on at once. She was still shaking from the timeline she had just fixed, but she held her bat out and glared defiantly at them. They stumbled forward like good brainwashed minions, and then suddenly all three went down, one after the other.

Nayeon saw a baseball bat hovering in the air above the body of the third one, and then the rest of Sana shimmered into visibility. She darted over to Nayeon, facing the opposite direction so that they were back to back against the minions who surrounded them.

“You ok?” Sana said, jabbing threateningly at a minion who got too brave. “You look kind of shaky.”

“Yeah.” Nayeon swallowed, pressing herself further into Sana’s back. “Bad timeline. I fixed it, but the memories are still in my head.”

“What happened?”

“Momo died.” Nayeon swung hard as the minions slowly started closing in. “Then you kind of snapped and killed the guy who stabbed her.”

“Oh.” If it wasn’t for the slight stumble in Sana’s step, Nayeon would have thought she was completely unbothered. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I already became a supervillain. If that had happened back in Japan while I was still a hero, it would be a hell of a complicated PR mess for the Trinity.”

“You mean their leader bashing a brainwashed victim’s head in because he killed Momo? Yeah, not a good luck for the heroes. It’s understandable though.”

“You think so?” Sana’s voice wasn’t quite as casual as she probably wanted it to be.

“I do.” Nayeon ducked as a glass bottle was thrown at her from the right. “If it were Jihyo or Jeongyeon, I would do the same.”

“Are you sure?” Sana glanced back at her for a second. “I can’t tell if it’s just the shock, but something seems off.”

Nayeon focused on swinging her bat left and right. She tried to make it seem like she was too busy fighting to answer, but Sana clearly didn’t buy it.

“Are you scared of me? Do you feel disturbed knowing I’m capable of that?”

“What? No!” Nayeon risked turning around for a split-second so Sana could see how sincere she was. “It was a shock, but what you did wasn’t the disturbing part. I just told you I would have done the same thing, didn’t I?”

“Then what’s up?”

Nayeon turned back around, jabbing a woman in the chin with the handle of her bat. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like they were going to run out of opponents any time soon, and Sana seemed determined not to change the subject.

“If you’re not scared of me because of what I did, then…what exactly do you feel about it?”

Nayeon gulped, because Sana was far too intuitive for her own good.

“Wait… Oh wow. Oh my God.” Nayeon cringed, knowing that Sana had figured it out. “Were you… did you think it was hot?”

Nayeon didn’t answer, choosing instead to hit the nearest minion straight in the stomach.

“You did!” Sana squealed in delight. “Aw babe! If I’d known that smashing a guy’s head open with a bat would make you thirsty, we could have done so much more in the bedroom! We could have gone full , maybe I could have topped for a bit, heck we should have broken out the knives. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you were into this kind of stuff!”

“I’m not!” Nayeon protested. “Or at least, I didn’t think I was. Look, can we not talk about this right now? Yes, I’m , but I have limits.”

“True, but apparently your limits aren’t as clear as you thought.”

Nayeon’s next swing was a tad bit overly aggressive. Sana just giggled. She reached over to kiss Nayeon on the cheek, then faded out of visibility. The confused minions stood there blinking for a few seconds, and then they started falling as Sana’s invisible bat took them out one by one.

Nayeon focused on clearing her own half of the circle. She didn’t move as quickly as Sana, partly due to her lack of invisibility, and partly due to how distracted she was. Sana killing a man had made her feel… things. Nayeon had been well prepared to shove those embarrassingly feelings into a box in the darkest corner of her mind, but no, Sana just had to figure it out. If only her girlfriend wasn't so perceptive, but then again, Nayeon loved that about her.

She was almost grateful that more and more brainwashed civilians kept joining the fight. Almost being the key word, because while the distraction was great, they kept getting pushed back towards the hospital doors and Momo was running out of rope to tie people up with. None of them had even been able to get a good look at Chanmi. She was surrounded by too many minions, and at this point their main goal had gone from getting Mina in front of her to simply staying alive against the mass of people swarming them.

“How does she keep getting more minions?” Momo yelled, kicking two of them away from Sana.

“Civilians come running to see what’s happening, then she them in.” Nayeon whacked one who grabbed Mina’s arm. “I’d say she’s up to three hundred by now.”

“Well that’s-” Sana brought her bat down on another four. “-great! I don’t think we can keep this up for much longer.”

“I’d suggest reasoning with Chanmi, but I don’t think she’s a very rational person, and that’s coming from me.” Nayeon sighed. “What’s the plan boss?”

Sana seemed to glow a little at the title, which Nayeon thought was adorable, but again, not a good time for that.

“I think our only option is to retreat to the hospital and try to barricade the doors. Momo, can you get as much stuff as you can to put against the doors? Mina, you need to create an illusion to buy Momo time.”

“Sure thing, Leader.” Momo grinned.

Mina nodded and closed her eyes. Seconds later the minions in front of them began to scream and scramble backwards. The four of them used the chaos to run towards the hospital entrance. By the time Nayeon slipped inside, Momo had already began to barricade the doors with chairs, beds, desks, and even a few wheelchairs.

“Maybe if I pretend to cry she’ll get distracted gloating, and the rest of you can ambush her.” Nayeon suggested, pushing another table up against the doors. “I don’t mean to brag, but I’m a pretty amazing actress.”

“I think we’ll stick with fighting her, but it’s always good to have a few back up plans.” Sana smiled at her, before grabbing the wheelchair Momo chucked at them.

Mina’s illusion seemed to have worn off, because Chanmi’s army began to charge over, slamming themselves against the doors of the hospital. The barricade held, but there was a tiny gap between the doors that was slowly widening. Nayeon, Sana and Mina targeted anyone who managed to squeeze through the gap, while Momo kept finding new furniture to strengthen the barricade.

“How many spare beds does this hospital have?” Nayeon couldn’t help but ask, after Momo threw another one against the doors. “I didn’t realise it was this empty.”

“I explained it was an emergency, and some people were willing to give their beds and double up.”

“You stole beds from sick old ladies?” Nayeon faked a dramatic gasp. “What kind of hero are you? Did you toss people out of these wheelchairs as well?”

If Momo wasn’t so busy trying to keep the four of them alive, she’d probably stop to yell at Nayeon. As it was, she just glared at her, and then zipped off to grab another desk.

“This is exhausting.” Nayeon whined at Sana, shoving another man away from the doors. “Is this what being a hero is like? No wonder you quit! I haven’t been this overwhelmed since the time rabbits took over my secret base.”

“Rabbits did what now?”

“Back when I was still figuring out what I wanted my supervillain image to be like, I tried to train an army of rabbits to use against Tzuyu, but they got free somehow and swarmed my base.” Nayeon explained. “I fought back, but they won the war, mostly because I couldn’t bear to hurt them. In the end I surrendered the base to them. It’s over on the other side of Seoul, so I haven’t been there in a while, but they’re probably still knocking around in it.”

Sana laughed, while Mina looked confused, probably trying to figure out if Nayeon was serious or not. Nayeon just winked at her, then went back to smacking a guy’s arm with her bat.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound. Momo skidded to a stop next to them, and all four of them looked around, trying to figure out what was happening.

“It sounds like footsteps.” Sana said. “But how-”

Nayeon looked over to their left, and saw a bright red door with a green sign above it. The emergency exit.

“Shoot.” Nayeon sighed. “Did anyone remember to barricade the other doors?”

Three pairs of wide eyes pretty much confirmed her fear, but she only had a second to kick herself over such a rookie mistake before the red door burst open, and more minions charged through.

Honestly, at this point it was pretty obvious that they were going to lose. Nayeon felt she deserved some credit for not dropping her bat and running away, but all her bravery got her was three minions slamming her up against the wall while she struggled to grab her reversal light from her pocket.

“Don’t let her grab her time stick!” Nayeon finally got a good look at Chanmi, who looked exactly the same as always apart from her glowing green eyes. “If she gets that she can rewind time and stop us from getting in!”

“It’s called a reversal light!” Nayeon snapped, as the minions struggled to keep her against the wall.

The object in question fell out of her pocket as they shook her around, and another brainwashed civilian quickly reached down to snatch it up. Another three minions had grabbed Sana, while twenty more kept Momo pinned to the ground. Mina lay next to her, unconscious. All in all, things did not look good for them.

There was no other option left. It was time for Nayeon to bust out her acting skills.

She started to cry, and while the minions looked slightly uncomfortable, Chanmi just stared at her, unimpressed.

“Are your fake tears supposed to make me feel bad? You’re a terrible actress.”

“Excuse me!” Nayeon gasped, immediately switching from sad to offended. “I am an incredible actress. I once made Tzuyu believe I only had three days left to live, and I was so convincing she even got the chief of police to pardon me!”

“That’s because the Hulk is a naïve little girl with a pure heart.” Chanmi smirked. “It’s the only reason you’ve survived this long Nayeon. But now that a real supervillain is here, your time is up. I’m going to defeat Tzuyu, kill Jihyo and the rest of your friends, and then I’ll have some fun with you and your little girlfriend.”

“Don’t you touch them.” Nayeon growled as Chanmi began to walk away. “You hear me? You lay a finger on any of them and I’ll kill you myself, you sick, twisted psycho!”

Chanmi froze, and Nayeon realised that she was probably going to die now. That belief got stronger when Chanmi turned to face her with a sadistic smile on her face.

“You know what? Bring all four of them along. Let them watch as I kill their friends.”

Well, that was better than immediate death. Still, Nayeon kept quiet as they were dragged along, not wanting to push her luck. That didn’t stop her from struggling against the minions who were gripping her arms tightly. Unfortunately, it looked like Chanmi had brainwashed a whole gym of bodybuilders on her way here, because neither Nayeon, Sana or Momo could break free.

More brainwashed people ran ahead of them, and hospital workers came running out to join them as Chanmi waved her hands left and right. Suddenly, up ahead of them, Nayeon heard the sound of yelling. She assumed that meant they’d ran into Tzuyu, but Chanmi continued marching forward, unbothered.

When they finally reached the ward, Nayeon’s heart sank at the sight in front of her. Tzuyu was slowly but surely being pushed into a storage room by over fifty of the biggest, beefiest minions. They piled onto her, and for every one she shook off two more took their place. She made eye contact with Nayeon, and for once there was no animosity between them. They were both panicking and trying their best to break free, but neither of them could succeed.

Chanmi continued walking down the hallway. Chungha’s room was located at the end of it, and through the window in the wall Nayeon could see Jihyo, Jeongyeon and Dahyun trying to keep everyone else calm.

“This is just too easy.” Chanmi laughed. “All your powers just can’t beat the sheer number of people I can control. Is there anyone left to stop me?”

“Me.”

Everyone turned to look at where the new voice had come from. Chaeyoung stepped out from Chungha’s room, and walked up so that she was in front of them. Nayeon could see that she was shaking, but she kept her head up and glared at Chanmi.

“You’re going to leave us alone now. Go home, get some help, and let these people go.”

“What is she doing?” Sana hissed. “Does she have a secret superpower that I don’t know about?”

“No.” Nayeon felt her stomach sink. “She doesn’t.”

Chaeyoung walked closer, and Chanmi laughed.

“You expect to stop me?”

“That’s right.” Chaeyoung’s voice was as shaky as her hands, but she still kept walking. “Because you’re attacking my girlfriend, and my best friend is in the room behind me and you’re probably going to hurt her too. Not to mention, nearly everyone else here is a good person who doesn’t deserve to be hurt by you. Heck, even Nayeon and Sana aren’t really that bad.”

Chaeyoung was now face to face with Chanmi, and Nayeon was struggling hard to escape. If she could just reach the minion holding her reversal light…

“So walk away.” Chaeyoung stared straight into Chanmi’s eyes. “Now.”

Chanmi stared back. She smirked.

Then she smacked Chaeyoung’s face with the back of her hand, and Chaeyoung fell to the ground.

A sudden hush filled the hall. No one spoke, and not even a heart monitor beeped. It felt like every single person in the ward was holding their breath. No one knew why, but everyone could tell that Chanmi had just done something very, very wrong.

From behind them, Nayeon heard someone growl. A deep, terrifying, angry growl.

There were screams, and she whirled around to see all fifty of the minions keeping Tzuyu in place go flying. Tzuyu raced past her, and before Nayeon could blink she had grabbed Chanmi and slammed her against the wall. Chanmi screamed, but Tzuyu only pulled her back and slammed her harder, causing Chanmi to completely smash through the wall.

Then another wall.

Then another wall.

The men holding Nayeon stumbled, and she found that she could easily break free. All around her, Chanmi’s former minions were dropping to the floor, unconscious. Nayeon scooped up her reversal light, then ran over to Sana and Momo, who were checking on Mina.

“She’s breathing. I think they just knocked her out.” Sana sighed in relief. “She should wake up any minute now.”

“Tzuyu! Hey,Tzuyu!” That was Chaeyoung, who appeared completely fine apart from the blood on her lip. “Babe, I’m ok! You can calm down now!”

Tzuyu had stopped slamming Chanmi through walls, and was now slamming Chanmi’s head against the floor. Chanmi was very much unconscious at this stage, but Tzuyu didn’t show any signs of slowing down.

“Tzuyu we need her alive!” Nayeon yelled. “All the brainwashed people fell unconscious at the same time she did, which means if Chanmi dies so does everyone under her spell!”

Tzuyu stopped then. She let Chaeyoung pull her up off Chanmi, and Nayeon was able to see properly just how terrible the supervillain looked.

Nayeon thought about all the times she’d deliberately pissed Tzuyu off, and then she thought that if she’d pushed too far, maybe that could have been her on the floor. Tzuyu did threaten to shove Nayeon through walls a lot, but this was the first time Nayeon had seen what that would actually do to her.

It wasn’t pretty. A lot of blood, definitely a few broken bones, and Chanmi’s face was a mess. It was a good thing they were in a hospital, because Chanmi would need a lot of doctors to help to fix her… everything, really.

Nayeon gulped. Maybe after this she should give Tzuyu a break, go bother another superhero for a while.

“Mina’s awake!” Sana cheered.

Mina got to her feet and immediately ran past Nayeon, jumping through the Chanmi-shaped holes Tzuyu had left in the wall. She crouched down beside Chanmi, grabbed her head, and closed her eyes. After a minute, she stood up and nodded.

“That’s it?” Nayeon looked around. “Well that was anticlimactic.”

“Two mind powers fighting each other isn’t exactly a very flashy battle.” Momo rolled her eyes. “The important thing is that Chanmi can’t use her power anymore.”

“And how do we know that Mina’s magic actually worked?”

As if on cue, Chanmi’s minions started waking up. Some looked shocked, others seemed sleepy and a few were blinking really fast. They all looked very confused, which Nayeon assumed was a good sign.

“Hey random citizen!” Nayeon yelled, and the man closest to her jumped and looked over. “You don’t feel like attacking us to assist a woman named Chanmi, do you?”

“Uh, no?” The poor man looked even more confused. “What’s going on? What happened here?”

“Long story. Someone else will tell you.” Nayeon smiled and reached out to grab Sana’s hands. “Well, it looks like the day is saved and our work here is done.”

“Go team!” Sana cheered.

Then her face went pale, and before Nayeon could reach out to catch her, Sana crumpled onto the hospital floor.