Part 1: Ascension

 

South Bay Station, April 2029 AD.

Thousands of people frequent this major station. Commuters say it’s People Mountain, People Sea, 24-7.

Today, Amanda Park finds herself traveling with her Hapkido team to a tournament. She has her usual white shirt with red sleeves on along with pink gym shorts. Her hair is tied up in a small ponytail just below her crown, as it almost always is. She’s also got her beloved pink sweatband on her wrist.

Interestingly, she’s not competing this time, however, as she’s merely accompanying her team as a coach. She’s already won so many trophies. Her matches often turned bloody, especially against her rival.

Her.

They always laid it all out on the mats. They took trophies from each other. Not once did they ever see each other as anything but an obstacle to victory. This happened for 8 years. Until last year when Amanda won her final trophy. That was it for her. She didn’t want the pain anymore. She retired to become a coach for her father’s dojo.

But little did anyone know that Amanda is a Light Adept, just like her father.

She secretly trained with her father to master the techniques. She often felt she hit her limits. Trying to turn invisible. Attempting to lift objects. Reading people’s minds. It was very hard. But her father did his best to encourage her.

“You have so much potential, my dear Amanda. You can do it!” he would often say.

Nonetheless, she is now her father’s pride. She needs to help lead the next generation of Hapkido talent.

Accompanying her is her childhood friend Lee Changsub. Even though he doesn’t practice Hapkido, he often travels along as he gets enjoyment out of the matches. Plus, he also has friends who practice and cheers them on.

“Hey, Amanda! Mind if I go check out the convenience store? I want to buy some snacks and drinks for the train ride.”

“Sure, Changsub. Just meet us back at Track 12 by 4:30. Remember, we’re boarding at 4:45 and I don’t want any of us to be late! Plus, it’s Friday, so you know how crowded it gets at the start of rush hour!”

“Oh, don’t worry about me, Chorong-ie. I have our tickets, so you won’t be able to leave without me anyway!”

“Wait, what?!”

“Bye~”

The nerve of Changsub, sometimes, Amanda thought, rolling her eyes with a smirk. They often poke fun at each other and have a good laugh about it afterwards. Changsub enjoys teasing Amanda by calling her by an amalgamation of her middle name, Chorong.

“Hmm… I better meet the team as we agreed upon. Track 12.”

Amanda looks up at a clock. It’s 4:15. She decides to slowly make her way over. She wades through the crowds of people, weaving through them with ease, even though she’s carrying a giant duffel bag on her back.

-

On the other side of the station, Andrea Yoon makes her way to Track 12. She’s got her black gym shorts on, red hockey jersey, gold sneakers, but most importantly, her favorite red baseball cap. Andrea excels at sports, and aspires to be an athlete one day. She already practices Taekwondo and won a plethora of trophies. Her team is off to a tournament. Yet she’s not travelling with her Taekwondo team today, which came as a shock to her teammates. She’s just stopping by to send them off.

Andrea glances at a clock. 3:45. She diverts toward the convenience store to grab some snacks to enjoy before she goes to where her team is.

At the convenience store, she spots her favorite drink and bag of chips. Unfortunately, there’s only two of each left. A girl about her age grabs one of each. Well, at least there’s still one of each, Andrea thought.

As she goes to grab the last bottle, a hand comes in as if to grab it. Her arm flinches.

“Oh! Sorry, was I in the way? I meant to grab THAT bottle right there.” It’s a boy a bit older than her pointing to the adjacent aisle of drinks.

“Oh, no! It was me who misunderstood.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

She happily grabs her drink and her bag of chips and goes to the counter. The girl from earlier is in front of her.

“Oh, no! Where did I leave my bag of change?!”

Andrea noticed a small pouch on her way to the counter. It might be what the girl is looking for.

“Is this it?”

“Oh! YES! Oh, thank you! Thank you!”

“No problem!”

The girl happily pays for her snacks. “Ohhh I get to enjoy the best snack ever!”

Andrea is surprised that someone else shared her opinion. “You have good taste, there. Best combo, am I right?”

“Why don’t we enjoy it together?”

“Sure!”

-

As Amanda nears the track, she glances up at a clock. 4:20.

“Huh-huh-huh… 420 huh-huh-huh…” she hears from two boys about her age snicker in the distance. She quickly glances at them before rolling her eyes.

BANG!

The crowd all of a sudden begins to stir and scream. The boys that Amanda heard are running for their lives with the crowd. She stops momentarily to find out what’s going on, running to a wall to do so. She sees men dressed in black cloaks approach menacingly towards the crowd and realizes that that’s who she should be running from.

Carrying her duffel bag, she attempted to sprint full speed, but couldn’t with all the people in front of her. As she’s running, she notices something peculiar out of the corner of her eye: it’s a young child hiding behind a book rack. Without hesitating, she scrambles to the child and squats down.

“What are you doing here?” Amanda asks in a gentle voice. Her face, however, spoke otherwise.

“Oh… I’m kind of lost… I was coming to find a book for my mom, but then I heard that big explosion, so I decided to wait here for her and my dad.”

Amanda was kind of shocked to hear this child’s answer. She didn’t seem all that scared. Her expression was blank.

“What’s your name?”

“Uh… my mom told me not to trust strangers…”

“Don’t worry! I can help you find them! Quick, before the cloaked men find us!”

Now, Amanda was hearing gunshots. Without hesitating, Amanda grabs the little girl by the hand.

“Sorry, we have to go.”

Amanda begins running away from the crowd onto another hall. Luckily, no cloaked men were in front of her. Soon, Amanda finds an empty handicap bathroom and locks herself inside with the little girl.

“There. Let’s catch our breath before finding a better hiding spot.”

“My feet kind of hurt…”

“Oh! I’m so sorry if that was too fast for you! Honest!”

“Well, at least we didn’t get shot.”

Amanda once again is taken aback by the girl’s response. She then begins to guess how old this strange girl was. She was quite tiny, barely up to Amanda’s chest. Short, dark brown hair, a yellow t-shirt with a big, black stripe around the torso. She had matching shorts with some spunky sneakers. But what was most astonishing were these big, thick-framed glasses.

“So… what’s your name? And how old are you?” Amanda asks.

“Well since you helped me, I guess I can tell you. My name is Ariel Oh. I’m 9 years old. I’m turning 10 in July.”

“I see… well, my name is Amanda Park. I turned 15 last month.”

“Oh! May I call you Amanda-unnie, then?”

“Err… sure! Why not?” This girl seems like she’s going to be a handful… Amanda thought.

-

Andrea and the girl find their way to some stools in the store.

“My name is Andrea Yoon. What’s your name?”

“Aisha. Aisha Kim.”

“Nice to meet you, Aisha. How old are you?”

“I’m 11. My birthday was four days ago!”

“Wow! Happy Birthday~”

“Thank you. How old are you, then?”

“I’m 12, but I’m turning 13 in August.”

“I guess you’re an unnie to me, then!”

“Hmm, I guess so!”

The two girls slowly enjoy their snacks. They go on and on about how their snack combo is underappreciated, even though their friends also seem to enjoy it. Soon the convenience store is filled with their laughter.

“Wow… I get to meet a buddy who gets my vibe…”

“Yea…”

“Well, there was one other person. Someone I met in summer camp. Her name’s Adele. Adele Jung. She’s only five days younger than I am. She also thinks this is the best snack combo.”

“Aww… I was hoping I would be the only one…”

“Oh, don’t pout about that! The three of us could be a trio! I should have you meet her sometime!”

“Hey, that’s a great idea!”

“Hmm… what time is it?”

Aisha looks for the clock in the store.

“Looks like it’s 4:20…”

BANG!

“Wh-what on EARTH?!”

Soon, floods of people are running for their lives.

“What’s going on?”

A passerby dashes into the store.

“Quick! Get out of the station! There are hooded men with guns! They’re also detonating smoke bombs and spraying tear gas! RUN WHILE YOU CAN!”

“We better get out of here…” Andrea mutters.

“But to where? Maybe they’ve surrounded the station! I’ve seen movies like this on TV and that always seems to happen!” Aisha sputters.

“Hmm… perhaps we could use the underground mall to sneak past them. You know how big it is, right?”

“I’ve never been down there…”

“REALLY?” Andrea yells. “If we’re quick enough, we can use the system to run past them! Then we can find a phone and call our parents to tell them we’re safe!”

“I really hope you’re right, Andrea-unnie…”

-

Just what kind of explosion happens at a train station? Who are these mysterious hooded men and why would they commit such a crime? How will Amanda and Ariel escape? Will Andrea and Aisha make it out? Find out in the next chapter!

-

A/N: Yes, I did some slight tweaking of names, so here is a reference in case if some folks are disoriented:
Chorong -> Amanda
Bomi -> Andrea
Eunji -> Adele
Namjoo -> Aisha
Hayoung -> Ariel
And yes, as Changsub hints at, their Korean names are their middle names in this AU. You'll get to see that on display later on. On the story, Naeun and Yookyung will make their appearance in due time, as well as Eunji as she's only mentioned here. Hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter!

Playlist: Enter Sandman by Metallica