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Exactly one week after his university graduation ceremony, at precisely 10:30am, a thick white envelope fell onto Park Jimin's doormat with a dramatic 'thwap!'. He'd graduated at the top of his class, biochemistry and experimental medical science, and was expecting to go into a paid internship at a well-know pharmaceuticals company. This envelope, something seemingly so normal held within it a future that the young man couldn't possibly have even dreamed of. It was A4 size, much bigger and heavier than any bill or advertisement that usually came through his door, and the noise it made hitting the mat was loud enough to draw his eyes away from the window he was gazing out of while waiting for his coffee maker to finish.
The coffee maker made a soft beep as Jimin opened up his new path in life carefully, making sure not to tear the crinkling paper in case it was as important as the 'IMPORTANT: PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL' printed in pitch black ink stated.
[That was how the recruitment happened. A new initiate was told, in no uncertain terms, that they were going to become a part of the Otherworld Containment Program, and given no choice in the matter. Well, there was a choice - but it was comply or have yourself and your close family erased from existence to preserve the Program's secrets.
Taking their new job in their stride, new recruits found themselves free of financial burden and heavily rewarded for their efforts towards maintaining the order of the known world, as the work was hard, terrifying in the difficulty it presented.
The desire to study the unnatural, understand how to defeat an enemy that wasn't bound to the same laws of reality that humans are, had only been moved into a research branch of the Program in the past fifty years or so, making the 'dark sciences' still a very new and obscure field.]

Jimin was wondering if it was worth it, a year later, hunched over a (much higher quality than in his old apartment) coffee maker in the communal area shared by the live-in research staff where he was currently stationed. He hated the early morning starts, especially when his fascination with the work he did kept him up far longer than was healthy.
I've got to get more sleep, he groaned inwardly, no matter how interesting the new project they bring in today is.

[The Program, the collective term for the people fighting to keep the supernatural out of public eye, has been around since the formation of an organized government system, has representatives in every major city, and traveling teams to monitor rural areas too. It also consists of secret research facilities scattered across the most remote parts of the globe, housing the researchers and scientists that, arguably had an even more difficult job that the unnoticed soldiers. Fighting and killing cryptids and demons of all kinds is one thing, containing and studying them is entirely another.]

Lifting the steaming mug to his face, Jimin let the steam from the strong black coffee drift into his face. As a scientist, he knew it was impossible to absorb the caffeine through his face, but it wasn't going to stop him from trying to while he waited for his piping hot drink to cool.
 Outside, the view was also very different to the window next to the coffee maker in the apartment that he'd long since moved out of, and would likely never visit again. It didn't stop his from comparing the bustling city streets, the comforting ambience of the place he'd grown so comfortable in with the white blankets of thick arctic snow and howling wind outside the thick, thermally insulated glass. He'd been flown out to this specific facility in the middle of the frozen tundra of the arctic about six months ago, right after he'd finished his training period with the Program, and after he'd acclimatized to the realization that monsters existed, and most of the things he'd learned about science were lies. It had taken a lot of getting use to, and when they were presented with extremely odd creatures and happenings on a daily basis, he sometimes still wondered if he was dreaming. Some of the other, equally new recruits he'd met constantly had a look of vague disassociation about them, like they were constantly wondering the same thing.  He was the least experienced member of staff here, with the top secret facility housing only five other researchers - they did all their own cooking and cleaning, asd were trained in defending themselves against any unruly test subjects. The less people know, the better, is one of the main unspoken rules of the Program.

There was the sound of a door clicking and sliding open, revealing the most senior member of the research team, who was currently in charge of the site. He a very old German man, but there was a strength about him that prevented him from really looking as aged as he was. The short white hair and greying stubble framed his face in a way that suggested he was probably handsome in his youth, but years had etched a scowl into his face that refused to allow it to be seen. He wore th same clean yet comfortable white lab coat that all the staff wore, and held an ipad-esque tablet in his hand that was displaying his emails. He greeted the people in the room gruffly, seemingly uncaring that he was late to a morning briefing session that he himself had organized. Dr Towens was an incredible academic, but a very bad socialite.
'As you all know,' He paused, glancing around towards the two scientists sharing breakfast at the small dinner table provided for those who chose not to eat in their rooms, and to Jimin, who stood next to the window at the side of the room where there was a high-tech kitchenette, and to the last researcher, sat comfortably on a couch infront of a gas fire. 'Our new research project arrives today.'
Jimin swallowed a mouthful of coffee nervously, and Dr Towen continued 'It's huge for us, this is the most dangerous creature the Program has ever allowed to be contained for study, and i want to make sure you're all prepared for it.'
'What even is it?' Interjected one of men seated at the table. Dr Kim, who Jimin knew to be a few years older than him, one of the people he got along with well here. 'What is so secret that we aren't even allowed to know what it is until it comes?'
There was a slight burst of tension in the room. There has been an argument the night before between Dr Kim and Towens, over the stupidity of needing to keep the details secret until the last possible moment, and Jimin cringed inwardly, knowing that the disagreement was still an open wound between the two of them.
Towens sighed, bristling like he was going to invite his college for round two of their shouting match, but  deflated as the sound of a helicopter rose out of the roaring wind. Five faces turned towards the window, even though the snowstorm outside revealed nothing to them.
'looks like it's time to spill my metaphorical beans, then, as one might say.' Muttered the old man, and any remarks about his bad choice of expression were quickly forgotten in favor of finally learning their mission out here in the eternal winter wasteland. 'We're being delivered a class-zero humanoid, the only one that has ever, in recorded Program history, been captured.'

Several overlapping gasps rang out and a clatter sounded jarringly as Dr Kim dropped his spoon onto the table. Demonic entities were classed in accordance to their level of power and influence over the natural world, with four being the least troublesome and one being potentially catastrophic to engage with. Class Zero was a label given to a being of incomprehensible darkness, an absolute death-sentence given physical form. So far, there had only ever been ten or twenty creatures that had been called this, as the more powerful and intelligent demons usually chose to live their immortality out undisturbed, lurking within crypts long forgotten, and forests where human feet never touched. The Program generally allowed this type to remain alone, and only engaged with them when they began to post a threat to human lives. To try and kill them was a huge task, requiring immense manpower and a large amount of sheer luck, but to subdue and contain one? Jimin shuddered to think about how many lives must have been lost in trapping an entity of that amount of unreasonable power. He'd get to see it, study it in person, a chance that no other before his team had ever had... something both terrifying and pioneering, and Jimin couldn't wait.

 

.;.

 

For an ageless, immortal being, time has very little meaning at all.
However, removing the ability to move or speak made Jungkook feel like what could really only have been half a day stretch out endlessly into the dark, all encompassing abyss. Confined to an iron box, an iron coffin, his strength was slowly leeching away, leaving him half conscious and numb. The metal chafed uncomfortably against his skin, leaving a stinging sensation - since it's ability to nullify all types of supernatural power was discovered by the earliest societies, iron has been used by the Program to detain and control all types of otherworldly entities. It hurt, and if it wasn't for the roar of helicopter blades filling his head with uncomfortable thrumming, the demon could have fooled himself into believing that the whole world outside his prison had disappeared.
if only, he thought. Humans are filth this world doesn't need. How dare they destroy this world and then call my race the monsters?
Jungkook had been at peace when he had been discovered living deep in the mountains and forests of northern Europe. Minding his own business, being at one with the nature around him - when a group of human loggers had broken his perfect home. He'd killed them all, doing what came most naturally to him, without realizing that their deaths would alert a group of very angry and powerful humans to his location.
The vehicles, with their noise and smoke and foul acrid smell had descended upon him like hornets from a kicked nest. He'd had an iron collar clamped around his neck and been stuffed into a specially made box, barely an inch of free space at each side of him - he'd hardly have room to breathe, if he needed to.
Trying to focus and think for more than a few moments at a time was becoming more and more exhausting with each passing moment.
Where am i right now?Where am i going? An emotion Jungkook hadn't felt in centuries began to gnaw at the edge of his consciousness. Worry, doubt. Were they going to leave him here until his life force was drained away completely by the metal that bound him? It was the only way that a human would be able to kill him, seeing as though their mortal weapons posed no threat... The thoughts were coming more slowly, turning into thick syrup inside his mind, until he faded to an uncomfortable half-sleep.
The armored helicopter continued on through the sky as the sun came up over the horizon, leaving the snowy wasteland below looking like fields of molten lava. It's cargo, and the creature within was silent, unaware that it's destination had come into view way out in front, silhouetted against the growing light.