“Where are the others, Ariel?” Amanda asks frantically.

“They’re going after the armor! Alexa-unnie needs you! She’s going to the west entrance to Track 12 with Ashley-unnie! Go find her and she can tell you what you need to do for her!” Ariel says.

“But what about the others? Like Andrea?”

“They’re rescuing the passengers! Alexa-unnie says it will distract the bad guys!”

Amanda can’t even muster a word. She pauses for several seconds before taking a deep breath. “Alright, Ariel. Just give me a few minutes to prepare. Oh! And don’t tell them I’m coming! If you say that the girls are trying to distract the bad guys while getting to the armor, then I suggest we surprise them.”

“But shouldn’t Alexa-unnie know? She wanted me to tell her!”

Amanda has no choice. She often doesn’t win when Ariel is involved. She’s still a kid, after all. “Alright. But let me do it. I’ll tell them in time. I need to prepare to head back out.”

Amanda finds the spot where she usually meditates and sits down, crisscross-applesauce. Taking deep breaths, she begins to empty her mind. Ariel watches intently. Soon enough, the young one makes a discovery. “Unnie? What just happened?”

-

“Hey! What the-”

“Stop the- AAAHHH!”

“AYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYI”

One by one, Scorn grunts drop like flies. All thanks to three pre-adolescent children rushing them with their abilities as Adepts. Andrea continually blasts the grunts with her raging fire. Adele gives the grunts a shock with surges of lightning. Aisha snatches their guns away from the grunts’ hands while beating them down with their confiscated weapons.

Soon, the girls find passengers slowly moving onto the platform off the train. Adele recognizes one of them.

“…Key-oppa?”

“Adele?! What are you doing here?”

“You know this guy?”

“Key-oppa is my childhood friend! We came to rescue you guys, oppa!”

“How can we trust mere children?!” a passenger yells.

“They just took down all these grunts!” Key retorts.

Then a shot rings. The passengers all duck for cover, but Aisha quickly finds the shooter and sends the gun flying. The grunt, in shock, was still holding the gun and went flying as well. “AAAAAHHHHH!!!”

“Quick! We don’t have time! Adele, take them down the platform to the stairs! We’ll cover you!”

-

Meanwhile, Ashley and Alexa approach the stairway to Track 12, the same as the one Ashley had descended days prior, and the one opposite from where Adele had been attacked. Then, it’s in sight. They’re that close. Without saying a word, they charge ahead.

Then a cloaked figure jumps down and kicks Ashley away, ironically towards the stairs.

“Unnie!”

Before she could even move towards her fallen unnie, Alexa realizes she can’t move. She’s trembling, arm raised forward in the middle of a running stance.

“It surprises me that you really don’t think ahead. It looks like I now have the one who’s been thwarting me this entire time, and the one who allowed your puny friends to escape…” the cloaked figure says in an oily voice. It’s definitely her.

“Ergh… unh…”

“What is it? Can’t move? It seems my powers have exceeded yours.”

The leader now turns to the fallen Ashley, who hasn’t moved since being struck.

“And I guess she’s just a weakling accomplice… no matter. I will deal with her later. I must deal with you first.”

She snaps her fingers. Dozens of cloaked men arrive, assault rifles pointing at Alexa.

“You know, I don’t think I can stress enough just… how much trouble you and your putrid friends have caused… I had that little wretched girl at my fingertips. I read her mind and found that her brother had escaped from my own grunts… not like that really mattered for us, but what it did do was give me a bit of a headache. I tried to put her out of misery, but then that other insolent WASTE got in my way. NEVER… has someone laid a finger on me to that extent, so much that I needed assistance from GRUNTS of all people.” There’s a long pause. “But, then again, it seems that waste is gone. I must have did her in… fufufu…”

“UGH!!!” Alexa groans as sweat begins to drip from her chin.

“What is it? Cat got your tongue? No more words to fail?” she says. “No matter. Maybe this might help a bit.” She then allows some dark energy to slowly latch onto Alexa’s head. Alexa can’t even eek a sound, but she’s trembling even harder. She’s also sweating more.

“You need to die a slow and painful death for all you’ve caused…” she says, sidestepping away from Alexa. She then takes something from underneath her sleeve. The hilt of a laser sword. She then ignites it and moves the blade under Alexa’s chin. The hum of the blood-red blade sends shivers down Alexa’s spine. She’s trembling harder than ever.

“Oh, and your other friends have been captured. I will deal with them later. They won’t be as lucky as you, though. They don’t get to die until tomorrow, after I have some fun with them... You are dying today, so you won’t have to suffer from seeing them go… fufufu…”

The dark energy retracts, then a gesture for a count. 1… 2… 3!

-

“Amanda-unnie… are you sure this will work?”

“I already showed you a bunch of times. It’s natural for me now.”

“So what exactly happened to you, unnie? Why were you glowing?”

“I was?”

“Yea! You were glowing white!”

Wow… what did I miss? Amanda thought. “Well, I was asleep, so I wouldn’t have known… but I guess my body healed itself…”

“But your arm! I healed it for you!” Ariel pipes.

“You… did? I thought…”

“I have powers too, unnie! Ashley said I’m a Water Adept!”

I really missed a lot! Amanda says in her head. “Wow! Very cool, Ariel! … I guess I should thank you for healing my arm!” Amanda says, scrunching down in front of the aspiring healer.

“You’re welcome!” Ariel says, grinning from ear to ear. She then hugs her unnie.

“Aww… you’re very sweet, Ariel,” Amanda says, patting Ariel’s head. She then gives Ariel a quick peck on the head. “I’m very proud of you.” She then has a short premonition of her conversation with her father, her heart jumping from the thought. “Anyway, I think it’s time for me to go.”

“Okay, unnie. I’ll keep an eye out for the other unnies!”

“You do that, Ariel! You’re doing well!”

-

“Follow me, everybody!” Adele yells.

“You heard her, now move!” Key yells.

Adele and Key frantically lead the surviving passengers out from the platform level, allowing all to hurdle near the stairs temporarily as they count everyone who made it. Andrea and Aisha continue to hold the Scorn guards at bay down below.

“Is everyone here?” Key calls.

“I count 70, Key-oppa!”

“That’s everyone! Now let’s go!”

“Wait! Just one last question before we go!”

“What needs to be asked? We need to hurry!”

Adele pauses for a moment. If her brother or family were there, they’d probably have recognized her by now. “…it’s fine.”

Key can tell something is bothering his friend. “No, seriously, what is it?”

“…it’s just… I don’t know if my family is here.” Adele’s lips begin to tremble.

“This is all of us, and nobody got killed,” a passenger says. “Your family likely got out!”

“Also, my new friends… they’re also looking for their families too…”

“Well, what are their names, young one?” another passenger asks.

“Ashley, Aisha, and Ariel.”

There’s a long pause. “Hmm… it doesn’t seem like those names sound familiar. Their families might have got out too.”

“Alright. Let’s bank on that and get out of here!” Key says. “Come on, Adele. Let’s go.”

Just then, Andrea and Aisha come rushing up the stairs. “WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING JUST STANDING HERE?! THERE ARE TOO MANY OF THEM! WE HAVE TO RUN!” Andrea yells.

“Shoot! Come on folks, let’s go!” Key calls.

Andrea begins to blast the oncoming grunts while Aisha tries to swat as many guns away. Adele and Key lead the charge away from the stairs as they make their escape with the passengers. They make a brief stop just minutes after.

“Ariel, can you see us? We’re near the food court!”

“I see you, unnie! The police is leading a group of people down your way! They’re very close!”

“Thank you, Ariel! Ok, folks, it looks like there’s policemen coming to rescue us!”

The passengers gasp in relief. They all begin to high five and hug each other. Just then, Andrea and Aisha come into view, with the former still firing fire jets.

“Hey guys!” Adele calls. “The police are super close!”

“Well, it’s about time!” Andrea yells. “Adele, give us some help here! There’s still too many on our tail!”

Andrea frantically places a fire wall up from the hall that she and Aisha came from before racing to another hall. “…hey Adele, do you know which hall the police are coming from?”

Soon enough she gets her answer. Several policemen race into the food court area with pistols drawn. “There they are! Secure the passengers!”

A policeman races to Andrea. “You alright, kid? Come with us, we’ll lead you to safety!”

However, a bullet comes flying in between them, leaving a hole in the wall. Andrea sends another fire ball in the direction where it came from, sending a grunt into a crowd of numerous grunts. Aisha quickly catches on and snatches all the guns away before Andrea sets up a fire wall.

“Alright! We have to get the passengers away from the fighting! Kids, come over here, I have a job for you to do!” The policeman calls, gesturing to Andrea and Aisha. Adele follows Aisha.

“What is it, officer?” Aisha asks.

“I’m going to leave some of my group here to hold the perimeter. I need you three to help my group while I bring the passengers out. I’m only taking two of my group with me while the others stay here with you three. You three seem pretty gutsy to pull that off. Think you guys can do it?”

“Mhm!” Adele says enthusiastically. “Thank you very much for your help, officer!”

Just then, a voice cuts into Adele’s walkie-talkie. It’s Ariel.

“Uhh… unnie? Ashley-unnie and Alexa-unnie are in big trouble! It looks like some hooded lady caught them!”

The three girls’ hearts sink. “No…” Andrea mutters. “It can’t be…”

-

Alexa faces certain doom. She’s trembling and sweating harder than ever. She can’t even move an inch. She’s still in that same pose when she got caught.

“Why haven’t you fired?!” The leader yells.

Alexa winces. What?!

“I ordered you to fire!”

But the guns never get their chance to fire a single bullet. The leader realizes this and turns to them, finding that the guns are now floating in the air. She gestures for them to return to her men, but the guns stay floating. Then, her men are suddenly rising from the floor by their cloaks. They desperately try to take them off to no avail, and they’re now being spun like they’re in a washing machine. Soon, they crash to the ground with a loud thud. The guns are now pointing at them, firing at their feet. The men scramble and run away, now terrified at what’s happened. The leader can only watch in horror.

She then turns to Alexa, who is still in the same spot, sweat still dripping from her chin. But Ashley’s body suddenly disperses into a pool of dark energy that seeps into the shadows. Realizing she’s been fooled, the leader then charges at Alexa and prepares to cut her down. However, the leader gets flung several meters, as the real Ashley kicks her away as she leaps from Alexa’s shadow. The ruse worked to perfection. The two girls coolly high-five each other.

Then, Amanda appears out of the blue, with the Scorn leader having landed at her feet.

“Unnie?”

“You- you’re okay!”

Amanda nods, rushing to their side. “I hope I’m not too late,” she says with a smile. “And, yea. I dealt with those ninnies.”

“You finally… mastered invisibility…” Alexa says.

“Yea, you can say that I di-” Amanda’s cut off as she’s then greeted with a hug by Ashley. She’s so startled that it takes her a moment to slowly move her arms to reciprocate. But they can barely move since Ashley is hugging her so tightly.

As such, she doesn’t get the chance. Ashley quickly lets go and steps forward towards the leader, who is now getting to her feet. “Unnie, go with Alexa. Protect her while she goes to the hangar!”

Amanda jumps for a second. Did I just hear that right? she splutters in her head. “But what about you?!”

“I’ll be okay, just go!” This is the most confident that Amanda has heard Ashley. She’s so confused as to what could make her this way. But then, Amanda notices something in Ashley’s hand and realizes that she means business, for real.

“She’s right. We have to go,” Alexa says.

“Alright, Alexa. Let’s go,” she says, holding Alexa’s hand.

The leader all catches this as she glares at the three of them, her eyes blood-red and twitching. She then points the blade at Amanda, realizing she’s what caused her men to retreat like cowards. “YOU…”

But she can only see Amanda slowly give a smirk before disappearing like thin air. Alexa simultaneously vanishes.

“No… No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

The Scorn leader hastily fires a blast of dark energy towards where they once stood, but Ashley conjures a dark void in front of her, funneling it into her hand.

It’s now just her and Ashley, staring each other down. Ashley sees the Scorn leader’s eyes now turn full blood-red. It’s a terrifying sight for any normal person, but to her, it isn’t. In fact, it’s quite familiar.

“I guess you’re the one who’s behind the escape all those days ago… and now you’re responsible for letting my prey go… you are going TO PAY!!!”

Ashley must now face her biggest test. She can’t run away anymore.

Ignition.

KRAAAAAAAAAAK!!!

-

Will the passengers make it out alive as Team Fire and the police hold off the grunts? What will Alexa and Amanda find? Just what thing allows Ashley to stare down and face the Scorn Leader? Find out next chapter!

-

A/N: Chorong is back in action and saves Yookyung and Naeun but now it's Naeun who must hold off the leader of all people while Chorong and Yookyung solve the mystery... I'm curious as to who picked up on Hayoung's discovery and correctly predicted that it was Chorong turning invisible.
Also, Key makes an appearance! Some WGM throwback for you guys.
The leader's "cat got your tongue" line is a direct quote from Frieza in DBZA. Although the cirucmstances there were much more comical...
Hope y'all are enjoying reading!

Playlist: Hangarmageddon by Evil Horde (cover of E1M1 from Doom)