Yena had been sitting in a chair trying to explain for the past half hour that they didn't mean to blow the place up to a detective who clearly wasn't believing her. The room wasn't that large, only having room for a wooden table and a couple of chairs. One-way mirrors were on the walls, presumably with more cops observing the scene.

"Listen!" She says urgently. "My friend was taken by those people! If you don't let us go now, they're going to kill her!" The man simply shakes his head in response.

"I'm afraid after the damage you girls caused, we have to let professionals do the job."

"Yah, if it weren't for us, you wouldn't even have known the Japanese were there!"

"Well, if your kind didn't exist, they wouldn't have a reason to be here." The detective mumbles.

"What was that?" Yena asks angrily. "We're not some pest that needs exterminating. Every ing country has people like us. We're people too." The man realizes he may have struck a nerve, and pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing.

"Look, it's better to send the police because they just might capture another one of you. How can we even be sure that you're telling the truth about that bunker?"

"Are you blind? Did you miss the Japanese characters on the monitors inside that place? Aren't you aware of the treaty made by Japan and South Korea? It was clearly a Trojan horse to get spies inside."

"Like your friend, Sakura?" He asks condescendingly.

"Hey, she tried to make up for her mistakes. At least she got the data back."

"But you girls destroyed any possible evidence we could use. Like you guys said, it was an old base. Who's to say the Japanese will accept responsibility?" Yena shrinks in her seat. All she wanted was to get out of there as soon as possible and find Yuri.

"You're lucky you're a part of the Produce program." The man comments. "Mr. Lee made it clear to us that we had to bring you all back." He gets up and walks out of the room, leaving Yena alone.

UNNIE! Yena shivers. Yuri's ear-piercing scream for help couldn't be answered. She should've known that Jurina would be in there somewhere, hiding in the shadows. Yena whacks herself in the head, thinking of where her friend might be.

~~~~

Eunbi finds herself in a private room similar to Yena's as she makes a phone call. Their little stunt had already made headlines across the country, "the mutants who blew up a forest in the dead of night".

"Sunbaenim, I can explain-" She begins but is cut off by the voice.

"Listen, Eunbi. We have the legal right to take you girls out of there, but didn't I tell you to not do anything too flashy?"

"Well, I didn't think Hitomi would cause a reactor meltdown. That was an oversight on my part, I'm sorry."

"When I assigned you to be the leader of this team, I wanted you to understand your members entirely. You should've made it clearer that it was a search and retrieve operation." The voice says sternly. "Now, one of your members has been kidnapped too."

"The police keep telling us not to be involved, but it's not like we know where to look." Eunbi sighs. It was her fault for not being more careful and observant. She'd let her guard down and all hell broke loose because of it.

"Sakura will know where to go. If she's smart, she'll have told them every possible location except for the one Yuri is at. I'll give you guys a chance to rescue your friend, and possibly collect more intel, but you must all return to the facilities first. More orders will be given then."

"Thank you, Mr. Lee." Eunbi nods. "We'll be on the way back soon."

~~~~

The rest of the girls are sitting in a holding cell waiting for Yena and Eunbi to return. Spending time in prison was not what most of them had envisioned happening when they embarked on this mission.

"Guys, if I call my dad, he could just pay for our bail!" Wonyoung says.

"Yah, why would I want to owe you something?" Yujin quips, causing Wonyoung to threaten to hit her.

"What are we gonna do about Yuri?" Minjoo asks. "If Jurina really took her, we have to save her."

"I tried explaining that to the cops, but they said they'd handle it on their own." Chaewon responds. "It's not like we've done anything to make them believe they could trust us, and the only one who can convince them, isn't here."

"I'm really sorry, guys. I didn't think the explosion would be that big." Hitomi pouts, clearly feeling responsible for what happened.

"It's fine, Hii-chan. I'm the one who forgot to close the hatch." Nako says.

Across the room, Chaeyeon, Hyewon and Sakura are huddled up discussing something.

"What'd they make you tell them, Sakura?" Chaeyeon asks worriedly.

"Obviously, they were mad about me being Japanese. It made me and the others look like terrorists. I basically told them about all the other bases the spies could be hiding at."

"I feel like there's a 'but' coming." Hyewon guesses. Sakura smirks.

"Except for the one I'm sure Jurina brought her to. We have to go there next."

"How do you know that out of every base, she'll be there?" Chaeyeon continues to prod.

"Because that's where they do most of the human testing." She replies ominously.

"Yah, what about that Korean woman, Sakura?" Chaeyeon tries to shift the topic. "Do you recognize her?" Sakura shakes her head at that.

"She might be their ally. Her actions suggest that she and her group hate mutants a lot more than they hate Japanese people. The Japanese are more about controlling their mutants, so I think they reached out to collude with anti-mutant groups because laws around mutants are more lax here."

At that moment, Yena walks in along with Eunbi. Yena clearly isn't in the mood to talk about anything, and Chaeyeon feels empathetic towards her. If it were Sakura, she'd flip too. Wait, what? She thinks as her cheeks begin to flush. That doesn't sound like me at all.

"No need to pay that bail, Wonyoungie. Mr. Lee sent over some guards to pick us up. The cops can't legally keep us here forever since we're associated with Produce." The younger girls sigh at that new bit of information. The group files out, and is met by trainer Bae Yoon-jeong's disappointed face. This is gonna be a long car ride.

~~~~

"You all think you're a hotshot group just because you made it to the finals?" Trainer Bae had been nagging them the entire way back to the dorms.

"You all could've died! You should've notified us!" She went on and on. Despite her stern and strict expression though, she looks at them all sympathetically.

"Listen, everyone. I'm just saying you should've planned it out more. I promise we'll do our best to get Yuri back." She said compassionately as she continued driving back.

When they all got back, they were mobbed by their fellow trainees, bombarding them with questions. Where'd you guys go last night? Is it true you blew up a Japanese base in the forest? Where's Yuri? That last one struck a nerve with Yena who immediately bolted back to her room, Wonyoung and Yujin following. Minjoo, who wasn't used to all the attention pulled a Houdini and vanished. Chaewon was a bit irked by this, yelling. "GUYS! Can you give us some space for like, one minute?" The crowd settles down a bit after her outburst. Chaewon looks around, and eventually leaves to find where Minjoo scurried off to.

"Alright, everyone! You can have time to chat later, get back to training!" Yoon-jeong barked. The trainees grumble in disappointment, but scatter away, not wanting to get another earful from the strictest trainer. Eunbi sighs with relief. "Thank you, ssaem." She says while bowing.

"You're all still in a lot of trouble." Yoon-jeong responds. She then looks at the remaining group of girls. "All of you, head back to your rooms. We're giving you the day off to rest while the board discusses what to do." The other girls shudder wondering what punishment they're getting. Yoon-jeong turns and walks away, leaving the group to their own devices.

"Now that was a mess." Chaeyeon says.

"Tell me about it..." Eunbi has her head in her hands wondering what to do next. They had to go back for Yuri, but they needed a way better plan. "Alright guys, let's regroup for a bit so we can save Yuri. Go rest up in your rooms for now."

~~~~

When Chaeyeon and Sakura enter their room, Minjoo and Chaewon are already inside, but what surprises them is seeing Gaeun talking with them.

"Gaeun-unnie!" Chaeyeon greets. "You're back!" Gaeun shoots back her signature eye-smile as she gets up. It's been a couple of days since her injury, so she was still in a bit of pain while rubbing her shoulder. Nevertheless, she tried to keep the mood up.

"I told you to drop the formalities." She says with a chuckle. "Chaewon and Minjoo already filled me in. I'm sorry about Yuri. I'm sure we'll find her soon."

"Well, I'm sorry if Jurina caused you any trouble." Sakura says sincerely, bowing in apology.

"No need, Sakura. I should've seen it coming. At least you managed to retrieve what you took in the first place."

"What're we gonna do, Gaeun? Our faces are on every news site out there. They thought we were rogue mutants." Chaeyeon says. From what she'd seen and the radio broadcast they were listening to in the car ride, it seems like all of Korea is already aware of last night's not so subtle explosion.

"Seunggi-sunbaenim will release a statement clearing that up in due time. What you guys need to do is make a plan to find Yuri."

"But the cops said to leave it to them." Chaeyeon explains. Gaeun's expression turns serious at this. As if recalling a bad memory.

"All the more reason to do it yourselves. My only advice really is to trust each other. Eunbi's leading you guys, right? You have to place your trust in her." Gaeun says,

"Hey, guys!" Sakura interjects. "Jurina left some of her stuff behind," In her hands is a plain-looking notebook with Japanese characters covering it. "It has directions to some of the bases Japan has stationed in Korea."

"That's definitely going to come in handy, nice find Sakura!" Chaeyeon says.

"You guys should get some rest." Gaeun advises. "I'm pretty sure you'll all be called into Mr. Lee's office soon." Chaeyeon thought she was too nervous to fall asleep and wanted to stay awake and think, but her body betrays her as she feels her eyelids slowly crash down on her.

~~~~

The next day, the eleven girls were called into the director's office. Eunbi's been in here enough to remember every detail of the place. The room itself was quite plain-looking, just the director's table with a plaque stating Mr. Lee's position. It felt quite spacious when she went in here alone, but now that Eunbi had ten other girls with her, the place started to feel pretty cramped. The highlights of the room were hanging on the walls, the previous directors along with their final teams, I.O.I and Wannaone. They had some pretty famous members, trainees who went through the same rigorous training they had been going through. They looked strong, intimidating, unbeatable. Yet, the reason they were here right now was to continue the work they left behind. Eunbi knew there was a lot on her shoulders from her talks with Mr. Lee, and looking at those portraits with her friends around her, waiting nervously for the briefing, she felt an even heavier sense of responsibility in helping these girls reach their potential.

"Alright." Seunggi begins, quieting down the group. "You girls caused quite the mess a couple days ago. You're lucky they didn't decide to shoot you on sight." He says sternly. Eunbi sees the younger girls, Wonyoung and Yujin shudder.

"I'm sorry for causing you all so much trouble, Mr. Lee. I want to do my best to make up for it." Sakura says suddenly, bowing apologetically. Sure, she may have been Jurina's accomplice, but it felt wrong to pin the blame solely on her.

"It's alright, Sakura. What matters is that you came back." He says back. "We managed to gather the security tape, or what was left of it from the scene. I'd like to say I'm impressed with your efforts." That surprises most of the girls, who'd been expecting him to chide them to no end.

"With all due respect, sunbae, why are you congratulating us? We did sneak out in the dead of night." Chaeyeon speaks up.

"The first part was a test. Do you think you'd be able to sneak out that easily?" Seunggi's words surprise the group once again. How did he find out about their plan, and why'd he let them go through with it?

"The best training is real-life training. Your skills and potential were made very evident while you were out in the field. Future members of I.O.I and Wannaone had similar excursions as well. We allow trainees to pursue their self-imposed missions if the pursuit is noble and can help them grow."

"So what now?" Hyewon asks questioningly. "Was this all some elaborate plan for you to see who had potential or not? Did you even care about the data that Jurina stole?"

"Of course, we did. That's why we let you guys sneak out in the first place. You all have the makings of a great team, but you still need to work on some things." He says as a matter of fact.

"You mean the new group?" Chaewon asks. "Are you saying we're in?"

"Not exactly. I'm saying you are all on the radar now. Trainees like the ones from Gaeun's team could easily get in if they showcase growth and development as well. For now, I'm going to allow you girls to go on another mission to find Jurina and bring her back for questioning."

"What? Why do we have to go and do that?" Yena asks, clearly not a fan of running another errand.

"Because she's the key in understanding what the Japanese are up to." Sakura answers for him.

"Can't we just get that from you?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm normally just the tech girl. They rarely ever tell me the big details." She responds, shaking her head. "I have a list of possible locations she should be at, and she should probably be somewhere here in underground Myeong-dong." She says, bringing out a map of Seoul and a pen, encircling the location of the secret base in question.

"Wait, that means Yuri is there too, right?" Yena comments, desperately wanting to know the location of her friend. When Sakura nods, a smile breaks onto Yena's face.

"That's great! We have to go there as soon as possible!" She says, changing her previous tone and looking very energetic at the bit of good news, but it's all wiped away once she hears Seunggi's next words.

"I'm afraid not." He says.

"What? Why? We have to save Yuri!" Yena exclaims.

"You have to plan this out in detail. Need I remind you about what happened when you went to fetch the stolen data after a day's worth of time?" At this, Eunbi feels a pang of embarrassment, recalling how she thought how solid their plan was when in fact, there were so many holes.

"Eunbi-ssi, I'd like you, Sakura and Chaeyeon to lead the planning with the others over the next three days." Seunggi announces.

"Are you kidding me?!?" Yena is fuming right, the others can feel static building up around her. "Who knows what they're doing to her right now! Why are we just going to sit around planning when we got what we came for just yesterday?"

"That lack of planning was what got Yuri captured in the first place." Seunggi says flatly. "You all should've planned for Jurina being there, but you clearly didn't."

"Maybe he has a point, Yena." Eunbi begins to say.

"No... not you too." She shakes her head, clearly frustrated. She then looks at Sakura. "You said the base was in Myeong-dong, right? I'm going there right now, with or without you guys." Yena then turns and walks away, slamming the door on her way out. There was literal and figurative electricity in the air.

"Yena, wait-" Eunbi begins to say when she's stopped.

"No, let her go, Eunbi." Seunggi says. "She won't listen to you anyway. Fine, I'll give you today and tomorrow to plan at the minimum, then I'll send you over to Myeong-dong to complete the mission."

"What about Yena?" Chaeyeon asks.

"If she's as determined as she looks, she'll be fine. At least you girls can focus on the mission without getting side-tracked. This is an important mission, everyone. One that could greatly help your chances of making the final team together." When the girls nod in response, Seunggi sends them off. "Eunbi-ssi, another word before you go." He says.

Eunbi turns to her friends and motions them to go ahead without her. "Alright, sir."

~~~~

"I'm sorry about Yena, she gets touchy around the topic of Yuri." She begins, but Seunggi waves her off.

"It's to be expected given her background. You really need to get your group together. I need to know that you can lead them. You were almost caught when you tried to sneak out of the facility, and I'd already given you the knowledge to plan for it the first time."

"Yes, I understand." Eunbi responds, nodding. It was easier said than done to create camaraderie with a group of twelve people.

"Listen, you wanted a way to prove yourself. This is it. I admit, I was surprised that our background check on you wasn't thorough enough, but the fact that you're still here competing with everyone else despite being normal makes you very special. Try your best on this next mission. I assume it'll be more dangerous now." Eunbi nods again and heads out.

When she's gone, Seunggi sits back in his chair, deep in thought. The team is coming together quite well, but they need to work harder.

~~~~

Eventually,  Eunbi finally catches up to everyone who'd found a table at the cafeteria. It felt strange now that there were currently ten of them, but they had to come up with a plan as soon as possible.

"Hey, guys! Where'd Yena run off to?" She asks.

"Oh...about that." Chaeyeon begins to say, trying to beat around the bush.

"She ran." Hyewon interjects. "She just ran towards the garage again and hot-wired a motorcycle."

"Yeah, it was pretty cool, to be honest." Chaewon says, nodding along. "She didn't even care about the guards in the way, and bullied her way inside. She must really like Yuri."

Yujin hums at that. "Mhm, Yena talks about Yuri-unnie all the time. I have no idea how she's so blind."

"Which one?" Eunbi asks.

"Both of them." She says with a chuckle, Eunbi rolling her eyes in response.

"I give her a 10% chance at breaking Yuri out successfully without being captured herself." Sakura says jokingly.

"Uhm, you don't really mean that, right Sakura-unnie?" Minjoo asks nervously.

"Oh, I was just guessing, but no, she'd probably get herself killed. The base they're taking Yuri to is a hell of a fortress compared to the last one." Minjoo almost faints at that. Sakura then brings out a device from her pocket similar to a phone.

"This is technically not allowed to be brought out outside of training, but this little thing works like a  Swiss-army knife but for gadgets. Works like a usb, a regular phone, an emp device, you name it. I designed it myself. The Gameboy mode is my personal favorite. Anyway, never really found a use for it while I was here, but take a look at this." Sakura sets the device on the table and an image is projected from it, an underground lab in Myeong-dong.

"Is this the base we're dealing with?" Hitomi asks.

"Yes, I managed to get some extra data from the base we raided and put it together with Jurina's notes. I could only find the blue prints though, not the exact location. This is where the Japanese have their mutant experiments."

"But why in the middle of a populated place like Myeong-dong? Wouldn't they want to be more...discreet?" Nako queries.

"Oh, I see." Hyewon begins to say. "A populated area like that has to have plenty of rogue mutants running around. If someone goes missing, it'd pretty hard to find them." 

"Yes, that's correct. Anyway, the base is located somewhere in the heart of the district, but it's going to be hard to navigate without proper knowledge of the area." At this, Eunbi looks at Chaewon who rolls her eyes. Eunbi glares a bit more and the younger girl finally concedes.

"Fineeee, I'll be your tour guide." Chaewon says reluctantly.

"Huh, why's that?" Sakura asks.

"Long story..." Is all she says. The others besides Minjoo and Eunbi just nod, not knowing what she meant.

"Alright, so what do we do about Yena?" Eunbi uses this awkward silence to carry the plan along.

"Yeah, we can't just let her go alone." Chaeyeon adds.

"She doesn't know the exact location of the base either, so I assume she's going to be running around Myeong-dong way longer than us." Wonyoung guesses. "Why don't we send a couple people to go look for her while the other eight focus on the main mission?" The others were surprised at the youngest's compelling idea.

"That's a good idea, Wonnie!" Yujin says enthusiastically.

"I can do without the patronage." She responds, rolling her eyes.

"Speaking of blind love..." Nako mumbles to herself. She'd been unlucky enough to be sitting between the two giants and their daily squabbles.

"Looks like we're settled here." Chaeyeon clasps her hands together, ready to end the meeting until Eunbi speaks up.

"Actually, there's something I need to discuss as well." She says, grabbing the attention of everyone at the table.

"We can't just leave the plan at that, 'Split up to find Yuri and Yena,' then 'Go find Jurina'. It's the same type of hollowed up plan that got us into this mess in the first place." The other girls slowly nod in agreement

"What I'm thinking is sending Chaewon and Hitomi to look for Yuri and Yena when we arrive if we find out Yena's already found the base." At this, Minjoo's expression sours.

"Not that I mind working with Hii-chan, I mean, she's adorable and pretty strong, but don't I normally work with Minjoo?" Chaewon comments.

"That's the problem. You heard Mr. Lee, right? We can all make the team if we improve. We have to learn to work with each other instead of with who we're comfortable with to learn about the other girls better."

"That makes sense." Sakura says. "Like I told Chaeyeon before, team chemistry increases the odds of accomplishing the mission significantly."

"I'm glad you agree. I'm thinking of sending you in with Nako, Yujin and Hyewon to collect more data, find out who that Korean woman was at the Japanese base, stuff like that. Yujin and Hyewon had some nice combos the other day, and Nako can be your muscle since you have difficulty in close combat."

"That leaves me, Chaeyeon, Minjoo and Wonyoung to look for Jurina." She concludes.

"Don't you think we're gonna need more muscle if we're going after Jurina?" Chaeyeon asks worriedly.

"Don't you trust Wonyoungie? It'll be fine." Eunbi says to reassure her. "Okay girls, I think that covers everything. I'm sure you may not know each other's strengths and weaknesses that well, but this is a chance to do so. I know we can do this." Eunbi places her hand in the center of the table, urging the others to do the same. Slowly but surely, they do, and they cheer.

"Alright everyone! Let's work on more of the plan as the day goes on, but we're leaving for Myeong-dong at 12 noon tomorrow." The group nods to each other and go off on their own to either train or rest more for the upcoming mission. I really hope this works. Eunbi thinks to herself.

~~~~

True enough, the van was ready to drive off at 12 o'clock sharp. The girls had eaten a heavy breakfast, gotten in some training and gone over the plan one more time in order to be ready for the mission. As they get ready to leave, they attract a little send-off committee. Gaeun and some of her teammates had shown up to wish them luck.

Minjoo is seated by the window glancing out at them wondering once again why they couldn't go instead of someone useless like her. Chaewon, who's seated next to her, seems to pick up on her mood and places an arm around her shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll do just fine. Besides, this will help us improve. All we gotta do is trust each other." She says to assuage Minjoo of her pestering doubts.

----------

The night before...

"Unnie, can I talk to you about something?" Minjoo had asked shyly. Chaewon and Chaeyeon were still out training, so she wanted to use this time with Gaeun to ask for some advice.

"What is it, Minjoo?" Gaeun responds, a worried look appearing on her face.

"Well, I don't really know if I'm good enough to be on this mission. Why can't someone strong like you go instead?"

"Are you afraid?"

"A bit, yeah, but I think it's more of me thinking that there's someone who can help out more than me. I mean, you're a veteran with almost full control over her powers. Wouldn't you be more useful out there for everyone than me?" Minjoo tries to avoid Gaeun's gaze. She felt a bit embarrassed for admitting it, but she really didn't think she helped anyone the other day. She just did some reconnaissance. It wasn't anything that special.

"Listen, Minjoo. You may think little of yourself, but you have more potential than you think you do." Gaeun says encouragingly. "There's a reason why Mr. Lee told the same group to go on this mission. It's partly training for you all to get better. Besides, aren't Yuri and Yena your friends? You have to at least try to save them."

"But why can't you come along too?" At this, Gaeun's expression darkens.

"We still have Seoyoung here, you know? We can't just send all the firepower away. She may be in a cell right now, but she's still dangerous. She's also scheduled to be transferred sometime within this week. It's just precautionary measures." Minjoo flashes back to how scary that girl can be. If she can single-handedly put Gaeun and all her teammates in the infirmary, she's someone they have to keep track off.

"If you ever feel scared, rely on your members. Eunbi, Chaeyeon and the rest will be there for you. Don't be pressured too much, it isn't solely up to you anyway. It's a team effort." She adds.

Minjoo nods, contemplating all of this. "Yeah, thanks Gaeun-unnie! I'll keep what you said in mind, but changing habits is still pretty difficult. I don't want to let the others down."

"Trust me. You won't." Minjoo was thankful for the reassurance, but those doubts still buzzed around her head all night. Little did she know that Chaewon was just about to enter the room before she heard the two talking. It hurt her to hear Minjoo sound so crestfallen. The mission hasn't even begun yet she feels she's already lost. She really has to help Minjoo with her self-confidence.

----------

"Thanks, Chaewon-unnie. I'm still just a little worried is all. I hope you and Hitomi find Yuri and Yena safely."

"I'm pretty excited to be honest. Hitomi's powers are super cool. Maybe I won't even have to do anything at all." She jokes. "Just stick to the others, okay? I won't be there all the time to save you." Minjoo feels like she just went on a roller coaster of emotions. She was honestly pretty jealous that Chaewon couldn't be her partner this time, and her giving so much attention to Hitomi didn't help. It's not that she disliked Hitomi, no one could. It's just that she wishes Chaewon looked in her direction more often. Aish, why does she keep playing me like that. She thinks to herself in frustration. As the van gets moving, Minjoo just settles into her seat and slowly drifts away into sleep facing away from Chaewon.

~~~~

"So, where in this place could they be?" Chaeyeon asks Sakura. The van had dropped them off in the heart of Myeong-dong, one of Seoul's busiest shopping districts. It was a little intimidating for the others, being in such a large, bustling area. It would be very difficult to aimlessly walk around the place hoping to get lucky.

Sakura shakes her head glumly. "Not exactly. I'm trying to sense a large amount of technological activity, but it's being hidden by everything around us. It's a bit of sensory overload."

"Any ideas on where to look then?"

"Hmm, it would have to be some place where you wouldn't expect them to be. There's so much going on around here, the base entrance is probably in plain sight." Sakura surmises.

"I have an idea of where to look then." Chaewon speaks up. "This is my territory after all."

"Didn't know you'd be the type to rob people in broad daylight, Chaewon-unnie." Yujin says, but the tone of her voice leads her to believe it was a jab. The girls were definitely surprised to find out about Chaewon's past as a thief. It definitely juxtaposed the perfect princess image she always seemed to exude.

"Aish, well, it's helping us now, isn't it? I've been around this place a lot." She bites back. "Which reminds me..." She says as she takes out a mask from her bag and puts it on. "Can't have people recognizing me, can we?"

"Yeah, maybe I should wear one too. People might recognize the commercial star." Yujin responds, and when the group doesn't react, she speaks again, "What? Everybody knew who I was last year. I was everywhere, I swear!" The girls just roll their eyes at her. Wonyoung suddenly taps her shoulder and points in the direction of a billboard. "Wasn't that one of your brands before, unnie?"

Yujin turns and is quite hurt seeing that the new model for the lens commercials she loved doing was on her billboards. Oh yeah, they replaced me. On the inside, she felt crestfallen, but she refused to let it show, letting out a laugh. "That girl? She isn't even doing it as well as I did. Her poses are all so basic." As the group begins to move, Wonyoung again taps her shoulder, but this time looking at her with sympathetic eyes. "It's okay, Yujin-unnie. You don't have to pretend all the time." Wonyoung could always tell when Yujin was putting up a front, and she'd caught her once again. Yujin looks back resentfully one more time before moving on to catch up with the others.

~~~~

"Woah, this place is amazing!" Nako yells. "It reminds me of the big shopping areas in Japan!" Nako is running around like a little kid, gawking at all the novelty items and food vendors.

"Keep your head in the game, Nako! We can buy food after we save Yuri and Yena." Chaeyeon scolds. Nako feels a bit disappointed at that and keeps moving, but before she could get too far, Eunbi gets her attention, handing her a cheese hotdog. Nako's eyes widen, but Eunbi gives a small smile and urges her to keep it a secret.

"Thanks, unnie!" She whispers gratefully.

"Hey, Chaewonnie! Try to look for clues that Yena's been here too if you can." Eunbi says. The group then begins asking the vendors and shop keepers they pass by if they'd seen a blonde-haired girl pass by since yesterday. Most of them just blew them off, heckling them to buy something first. That was the common theme as they were all led by Chaewon to the place she had in mind.

They soon arrived at the base of a large church in the middle of a square. The architecture definitely didn't fit in with the modern, urban, surroundings, with its old medieval look. It looked a couple decades old, but it was still impressive to look at.

"A church?" Minjoo asks curiously.

"Yeah, this place is definitely the sort of place someone would hide a base entrance." Chaewon responds. "Nice place to look at. Nice place to take pictures of tourists then swiping their stuff." The last part gets her questioning looks from the others. She shrugs. "What? I had to do what I had to do to live."

Sakura perks up as she gets closer to the place. "Yeah, I'm detecting some radio frequencies from underground now." She'd managed to isolate a frequency due to the church's lack of technological advancement. I guess that's why they built it here too. She thinks to herself.

"Guys!". Wonyoung says to get the attention of the others. "I asked a lady over there if she'd seen someone like Yena-unnie, and it sounds like she did."

----------

Wonyoung and Yujin had wandered the perimeter of the place to check for signs of Yena when a random street vendor called their attention.

"Excuse me, miss! Are you Ahn Yujin?" The old woman had asked. Yujin turns swiftly and heads in the vendor's direction, dragging Wonyoung along.

"Y-you recognize me?" She asked.

"Yes, of course! Ahn Yujin, child model, ambassador for all those glasses commercials, right?" Yujin excitedly nods at this. Someone had actually recognized her when, for the past year since discovering her powers, everyone had pretended like she'd never existed.

"Yah, Yujin-unnie! We have a job to do here." Wonyoung says sternly. She then asks the old lady about Yena. "Excuse me, ma'am. We're looking for a friend, average height, blonde hair, and a face that looks like a duck's. Have you seen someone like her?"

"Oh, you two know that girl? It was late last night, and she'd looked dead tired, like she'd been on the move the whole evening, so I invited her over and offered her some food. She said she was looking for a friend too, but didn't have any leads. I told her all I knew about Myeong-dong." At this, she turns and faces the church. "I told her that I'd recently seen some Japanese people going in and out of the place through the side. At first, I thought it was just because it was a tourist spot, but it became too frequent. The girl just thanked me and ran off to the place."

"That's her, alright." Wonyoung says. "Thank you, ma'am. It was great information." As the two walk away, the old lady calls out one more time.

"Be careful, kids. Mutants have been targeted around here and disappearing lately." She warns. This recaptures the duo's attention, causing to turn back in disbelief, and approach again.

"H-how did you know?" Yujin asks curiously.

"Well, I know you're a mutant, and that girl from yesterday was one as well, with how she had energy emitting around her, so I assume your friend here is a mutant too."

"And you don't hate us because...?" Yujin was starting to get increasingly confused.

"I said I remembered your commercials, right? Well I also remember the news treating you like as a monster after they discovered your powers. I thought it was unfair how they just cut you and replaced you in such short amount of time." The old woman explains. "I felt bad for you. It wasn't like you'd destroy the whole city, right? You may not be a star anymore, but you can definitely get it back. I'm sure that your mission here is important, and I hope you all get what you came here for." The old woman bows respectfully and Wonyoung and Yujin return it.

----------

"It's gonna be somewhere around here." Wonyoung says to the group as they've gathered around the side of the church.

Sakura places her hand on the brick wall, feeling for an opening. "Found it!" She announces. "There's a door somewhere here that leads to an alcove, but I believe it also has a secret area." Eventually, Sakura feels a button and leads the group to it. When she presses it, a locked door to their right slowly opens up, leading to an elevator at the end of the hall similar to the one they'd used in the previous base

As they approach, Nako feels something crunch under her shoe. It was a broken light bulb. "That explains why it was so dark." She mumbles. The group then notices shards of broken glass littering the floor, sparks indented in the ground.

"Well, now we know Yena made it in." Chaeyeon says. When they reach the elevator at the end of the corridor, they see a fingerprint scanner that was clearly short-circuited by a certain blonde friend of theirs. Sakura puts her hand on the scanner, and wills it to activate, the elevator now opening up.

"Alright, let's head in there." Eunbi orders. "Remember our groupings, girls."

~~~~

The group descends for what feels like hours, the ride painfully long. Just when they thought they'd be stuck in there forever, the elevator slows down and stops with a clunk. When the doors open, they see three different hallways similar to the last base they'd infiltrated. There were clearly signs of a struggle with marks on the walls, most likely from Yena's electical bolts. "Well, I guess we're just gonna have to follow the trail, Hitomi." Chaewon jokes.

"You sure you two will okay?" Minjoo asks concerned.

"Aw, Min, don't worry about me, I have Hitomi! She's all the muscle I need." She responds, clapping her hand on Hitomi's shoulder. Minjoo scoffs. "Oh, alright then." And she walks off to Eunbi, Chaeyeon and Wonyoung without another word.

"Huh, what was that about?" Chaewon asks her partner next to her. Hitomi only shakes her head, internally face-palming.

~~~~

"So, what exactly are we looking for, Sakura?" Yujin asks curiously.

"The labs. We need to gather as much data as we can to figure out what they're planning." She whispers back. Their group had separated first and headed north of the elevator. It was a rather large facility with seemingly endless hallways that they could've easily gotten lost. Because of this, Hyewon decided to place little icicles on the ground to mark their path. Eventually, they come across a locked room labeled "Data Storage".

"Jackpot..." Nako says. Sakura places her hand on the door, and they suddenly hear a satisfying click, letting them know the door's been hacked. When they get inside, they see rows and rows of servers, each probably holding hours and hours of data.

"Alright, guys, cover me for a bit." Sakura takes out the little gadget she'd shown the girls before and attaches it to the closest server. As the files are being downloaded, Sakura glances at some of the names and starts to get antsy. Power nullifier. Mutant D.N.A. Weapons. Test subjects. She stops on that one as she places her hands on the server and jumps in. Sakura stares down the list of people until she reaches a file named 'Jo Yuri'. Gotcha. She thinks, making sure that file is deleted permanently. As she skims through more files, she notices a folder labeled 'Security Footage'. Sakura enters that one to check how Yena managed to get in, and rewinds the footage to around 1 am last night. She sees Yena seething as she gets out of the elevator, zapping everyone within a 10-foot radius. "Where's Yuri!" She seemed to be yelling. Yena was bulldozing her way around the facility with no intent on stopping. Hmm, maybe she's already gotten Yuri out. Sakura thinks, but as the footage plays on, she sees something horrifying. A new soldier came around a corner with some type of weapon. He takes aim at Yena and shoots at her. A tiny ball lands at her feet unimpressively, but then it explodes into a ball of gas, and Yena starts to cough. She throws her hands forward, but no lightning appears. Eventually, she's on her knees, now surrounded by soldiers. A man in a lab coat walks up to her with a device in his hands. When he clicks it, Yena's writhing on the ground in pain, but none of the soldiers seem to be affected. They pick up her unconscious body and bring her away.

Suddenly, the video pauses and a loud ear-piercing alarm is played. A giant red warning sign materializes in front of her. "Virus detected! Virus detected! Activating fail-safe." It blares into her ears. Sakura witnesses all the files being deleted one by one, and she couldn't do anything about it. At that moment, she was grabbed by the shoulders shaken out of her trance. She's now back in real life, and the alarms were actually sounding around her. Sakura reaches towards her usb and pulls it out before it could get corrupted.

"Sakura-chan! What happened?" Nako asks over the red alarms.

"I got a lot of data, but we need to get out of here, soon." She says worriedly.

~~~~

Ugh. Where the hell am I? Yena thinks to herself. Knocked out twice in the same week? Real professional, Yena. She shakes her head, trying to get her bearings and recall what had happened. That gas and that horrible noise. "YURI!" She yells out loud.

"Yah, I'm right here dummy." A familiar voice says near her.

"Oh my god, Yuri! Are you there?" Yena tries to move, but her arms seem to be bound together. It's only then that she realizes she's wrapped with insulating rubber. Are you kidding me? She stares out towards nothing in particular. "Yuri! I'm here to save you!"

"Looks like you're doing a great job so far. I'm to your left." Yena can hear the sarcasm laced in Yuri's voice, but it's a welcome one. She then looks over, surprised to see a wall. "No, your other left. I swear, I need to do everything for you."

"Yuri!" Yena shouts, turning in the right direction to see her friend in a cell next hers. She wasn't restrained like her and was just sitting on a bed. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine right now, and I'll explain more later." She answers. "Where's the cavalry?"

"Uh, yeah. Thing is...I came here alone." Yena swears she hears Yuri facepalm.

"You're joking, right? You mean you broke your way in single-handedly and tried to break me out by force this late at night?" Yena simply nods. "You realize this would've gone a lot smoother if you had some help. What happened to the super serious Yena I saw during the missions?"

Yena just hangs her head, disappointed at her rashness. That really wasn't like her. "I'm sorry, Yuri. Director Seunggi said we needed to spend three days to plan so we wouldn't have a repeat of last time."

"So your response was to just leave alone without any plan at all?"

"No, I just didn't like how they were treating you like an objective in a mission. You're our friend, I couldn't just stand by and let them experiment on you or something!" Yuri sees Yena quietly sobbing in her cell, and becomes disappointed in herself for her assumptions. Yena cared enough about her to put everything aside.

"Hey, it's okay, Ducky. Thanks for trying. I'm sorry for snapping." Yuri tries to cheer up her friend who only seems to get sadder.

"No, Yul. I went in here thinking I could do everything myself. I should've brought some help, but now we're both stuck here. Now the others are missing what I could've done to help. This is all my fault." It broke Yuri's heart to see her like this. Yena was always loud and bubbly, and this wasn't a side she was used to seeing.

"Yena, it's going to be alright. The others will probably be here soon too."

"But what if they just use the same weapons they used on me?" They finished making those already? This is bad. Yuri thinks to herself.

"Then it wouldn't have mattered if you were there or not. We just have to trust them." When she doesn't hear a response, Yuri takes a deep breath and quietly sings a song she'd been writing for a while in her free time at the facility. She'd never been able to sing it, but now felt right.

Someday, our night will pass too~

Even when the endless darkness comes, I will never be scared again~

Let's hold each other's hands tightly~

And I will walk the ends of the dark together with you~

When she stops, Yuri can see that Yena had fallen asleep with a smile on her face. That idiot probably went all night looking for me without taking a rest. Yuri looks around her cell again deep in thought. She didn't show it often, but she appreciated Yena's presence. The older girl would always laugh at her jokes, and always partnered up with her for training whenever she had the chance. As she's looking at Yena's sleeping figure, she sighs. This duck really got me. Yuri then decides to lay down on the bed she'd been sitting on. Although it was stiff and uncomfortable, it was better than nothing. I really hope the others get here soon.