When Yujin’s eyes flutter open, she finds herself in a glass enclosure within an unfamiliar room. Her vision was a bit murky, but she managed to see lab equipment strewn everywhere from racks of vials of varying colors to advanced microscopes to other metal tools she couldn’t even name. Aside from that though, there was just something off about the place. 

Where am I? She thinks while stretching out her hand to touch the glass only to notice how the action felt slower than normal. It was as if she were moving through molasses.

Huh…? She tried to move her whole body this time, but a similar effect persisted.

“I see that you’re finally awake, Ahn Yujin.” A female voice cuts through the silence. It’s a bit warbled though, as if the noise was being distorted as it entered her cell.

“Please don’t bother talking. I won’t be able to hear you anyway.” The woman is now in Yujin’s line of sight. She had dark hair and was wearing a white lab coat with thick framed glasses. “Just stay still while I run some tests.”

Yujin watches as the woman walks up to a monitor and presses a button. Suddenly, Yujin’s cell turns a shade of blue, and that’s when she realizes why her movements were so slow- she was trapped in some kind of jello.

Jello has liquid in it though. Maybe I can control it. Yujin thinks, trying to shift the material around to no avail. Instead, the more she tries to control it, the more it constricts her. A couple seconds ago, she could at least move around, but now, her body was frozen in place.

“Hmm? If you’re trying to use your little water trick you have, don’t bother. It’s a new invention we whipped up.” The scientist says, typing something into the computer before grabbing one of the vials and walking up to the cell.

“Can you try controlling this for me instead?” The woman asks. Yujin would’ve been glad to oblige, but whatever substance was in the vial wasn’t reacting to her pull either. What’s odd though is that from her view, it appeared to just be regular water.

“Nothing? Good. That means you won’t be a roadblock to our plans.” The scientist says with a look of satisfaction.

What does that even mean? Yujin thinks to herself before the woman presses another button on the side. Slowly but surely, Yujin feels her surroundings becoming chilly until her cell starts to freeze. As much as she wanted to fight and break free, the liquid in the room just wouldn’t respond to her call. It was honestly scary, not having her power to use.

“I’ll be back in a couple hours to run some more tests.” The scientist says with a laugh before walking away. “Make yourself at home.”

Wonyoung… Wherever you are… Please come find me… Yujin thinks before completely freezing over.

~~~~

“Wait, unnie, stop here!” Hitomi says in Chaeyeon’s ear as they zoomed deeper into the forest.

“What is it? Do you sense something?” The older girl asks. Hitomi nods before getting off Chaeyeon’s shoulders and walking towards a grove of pine trees.

“The trees are angry…” Hitomi says as she places a hand on one. “Something is blocking off the water in the area. Their roots are feeling dry.”

“Water? But, I can definitely hear a river nearby.” Chaeyeon decides to scan the surrounding area until her gaze stops at something in the distance that looks out of place- a tall concrete wall. Chaeyeon slowly walks towards it, and with all her focus diverted, she almost loses her footing and falls into a ditch. Luckily, Hitomi had caught her shoulder before she did. Looking down now, the two realized it wasn’t just a ditch, but an empty river bank.

“There used to be water here that the trees liked to absorb…” Hitomi says as she touches another tree closer to the bank. “The water was cut off a few months ago… sealed off by-”

“-a dam…” Chaeyeon completes the younger girl’s sentence after putting two and two together.

“Do they even have a license to operate one here? I thought the reserve was a protected area.” Hitomi says.

“Depends on how much money you got, and it appears these people have a lot of it.” The older girl replies, pointing at the familiar KYB logo inscribed into the side

“This must be where Yujin is. We should call the others.” When Chaeyeon radios over to Wonyoung though, only static is heard. “Tomi, is yours working?”

To that, Hitomi can only shake her head.

“I think you should run back and get them then. It isn’t too far away.” The peach-cheeked girl suggests.

“And leave you here alone? I can’t do that.” Chaeyeon replies.

“Ah, don’t worry, unnie. I’ll just scout around. You know I wouldn’t do anything stupid, right?”

“Okay, fair point. Just… stay safe, Tomi.” Chaeyeon says, remembering that Hitomi had a little more self-control than some of their other members, before zipping away. Hitomi turns back around to face the dam and begins her search.

~~~~

After about thirty minutes, Chaeyeon returns with the rest of the group. The second Wonyoung had heard they found something, she immediately regained her energy and started running.

“Tomi! Where are you?” Chaeyeon calls when the younger girl wasn’t where she was when she’d left. After a couple seconds, Hitomi’s voice responds from above.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Hitomi says from above the canopy. It proved to be a good vantage point to observe the area.

“You find anything?” Nako asks as Hitomi lowers herself back to the ground.

“Yes, the river seems to be diverting inwards into the mountain. I counted a couple guards patrolling the dam as well. There’s a service entrance over the west we can use to get in.”

“Well, what’re we waiting for? Let’s get in there and break Yujin out!” Wonyoung says, but before she could rush off, Chaeyeon places a hand on her shoulder.

“Remember what we said about control?” The bunny’s shoulders slump at the reminder, ultimately choosing to listen and let Hitomi and Chaeyeon lead the way.

~~~~

Getting in was easy. Gaeul had simply melted a small hole into the eastern dam wall to cause a leak. It doesn’t take long for a guard patrolling the walkway above the dam to notice the water seeping out the wrong side.

“Yah! There’s a leak! Get someone over here to clean it up!” He radios over, causing several soldiers to grab some tools and run over, away from their posts. This gives Wonyoung and the others an opening to sneak in through the service door on the opposite side without being much resistance.

“Alright, girls, remember the plan. Me, Wonyoung, Liz and Rei will look for Yujin while Nako, Hitomi, Gaeul and Leeseo go look for details on whatever is going on in here.” Chaeyeon says.

“Got it, unnie. We’ll meet you back outside the riverbank after we’re done.” Nako says with a salute before leading the others down a path that the maps said led to the admin area. Meanwhile Chaeyeon and her group head to where the labs are located.

~~~~

Quick as a blur, Chaeyeon knocked out guards and scientists that they’d come across and dragged them out of sight while Rei would hold the rotating cameras in place.

“You see anything, Liz? Wonyoung asks after the blonde girl phased out of another room.

“Nope, still just storage. It feels like this place wasn’t always a research station though. A lot of the rooms I’ve gone into look old.” Liz replies.

“Hmm, it could be another abandoned military base they commandeered.” Wonyoung wonders to herself before Chaeyeon calls them over.

“Girls, put these on.” The older girl says while tossing them some lab coats and army fatigues. “Best camouflage is in plain sight.”

From there, they didn’t need to do as much sneaking around. Every time they’d pass by a new group of guards, they’d just smile naturally and let them pass. While they did get the odd stare given how young they looked, most of the guards decided not to question and go about their duties.

“We’re close.” Chaeyeon whispers as she points to an area where the old gray corridors transition into shinier white ones. It definitely looked like it was constructed recently.

The group keeps walking until they reach the end where they were met by a sealed metal door. Unlike previous labs where all they needed was to scan an ID though, this entrance looked to have a retina scanner instead.

“Liz, can you phase to the other side and see if you can open it from there?” Wonyoung asks. Liz nods and does as instructed, but only a couple seconds later, she comes back, shaking her head.

“The scanner goes both ways. Maybe Rei can try opening it instead?” The aforementioned girl looks at Chaeyeon first for confirmation. After all, the older girl had mentioned not wanting to do anything that would leave a trace of their presence, and breaking the door would certainly fall under that. Given that there weren’t many options though, Chaeyeon eventually gives the Japanese girl the okay.

Rei focuses her energy on the hinges and inner mechanisms holding the metal door, slowly trying to turn them until she hears a satisfying click. The door opens, and for a second, there’s silence as the group wonders if an alarm would get set off or not.

“I think we’re clear… hurry in and close the door, Rei.” Chaeyeon says when she begins to hear the sound of another platoon coming by.

~~~~

“Unnie! Come quick!” Wonyoung calls over from the room at the end of the hall. The group had split up to sweep the place quickly knowing they didn’t have much time. In Chaeyeon’s room, all she could find was bits and pieces of metal within plastic containers. There were some petri dishes under microscopes as well, but Chaeyeon decided she'd check back on them later.

When Chaeyeon arrives, she sees Wonyoung in front of a button console pressing random things on it in a rush.

“What’s wrong? What’d you- oh no…” That’s when Chaeyeon realizes the button console was connected to a glass enclosure next to it, and on the inside was Yujin, frozen in place.

“Ice? Doesn’t Yujin have the power to melt ice back into water?” Chaeyeon asks.

“I-I don’t know. Maybe this isn’t any normal liquid. We need to get her out of there!” Wonyoung stammers, continuing to mash the buttons in front of her.

“Wonyoung-ah, calm down. Let me take a look.” Chaeyeon walks up to the younger girl and gives her shoulder an encouraging squeeze before scanning the panel in front of her.

“Hmm? There’s a password. I think we need to put it in before we can use it.” The older girl says before spamming all the combinations she could, eventually landing on the right one- 1208. The control panel now lights up, Chaeyeon eventually settling for pressing the big red button first. At this, the enclosure lights up a shade of blue and Yujin’s eyes begin to twitch.

“Yujinnie! It’s us! We’re here to save you!” Wonyoung says, tapping the glass to get her girlfriend’s attention. When Yujin doesn’t respond, she places both hands on the glass and forces the barrier to break.

~~~~

For a while, Yujin had thought she was dead. Her vision was dark, unable to even open her eyes, and the only thing she could feel was the intense cold. What had transpired just before she lost consciousness felt like a nightmare- trapped in a cage, alone and unable to use her powers.

Suddenly though, the temperature begins to rise just a bit. Her limbs slowly shift, not locked in place like they were earlier. Then, she begins to hear a voice… a familiar voice.

“Yujinnie! Please wake up!” And that’s when the loud shattering of glass fills the room. Yujin feels her body get carried forward until two hands are on her. When she finally manages to open her eyes, Yujin sees the concerned face of Wonyoung looking down on her.

“Is… is this heaven?” She mutters only to be fully woken up by a finger flicking her forehead.

“Yah! Ahn Yujin! Why do you keep scaring me like that!” Wonyoung chides, her voice strained from yelling.

“I… I’m alive?” Yujin asks aloud before Wonyoung’s arms envelop her in a big hug. The puppy’s skin was covered with a strange blue goo that made it cold to the touch, but it didn’t matter to Wonyoung.

“Yes you dumb dog. I thought for a second that I lost you. Don’t you ever do that again!” Wonyoung whines, now cupping the puppy's face in her hands to examine the scratches she had on her face, most likely from the explosion a couple days ago. Yujin just stares in a daze until she finally notices Chaeyeon behind Wonyoung.

“Glad you could finally join us, Yuj.” She says with a smile as she picked out an empty vial and scooped some of the residue up. Rei and Liz join soon after hearing the commotion, and the group begins hugging it out.

The reunion though would be short-lived as a knocking sound is heard coming from down the hall.

“Cracking the glass must’ve caught their attention.” Chaeyeon says, scanning the room for another exit.

“I already looked, unnie. That’s the only way in and out.” Liz says.

“Yujin, can you fight?” Chaeyeon asks. Yujin tries to stand on her own, but quickly collapses again, having to lean on Wonyoung’s shoulder for support. She'd been running on adrenaline the past few minutes, and only registered now how much her body parts ached. If she looked under her clothes, she was sure she'd see burn marks.

“It’s fine, Wonnie… I can help.” Yujin tries to say, still trying to act strong.

“No, you’re in no condition.” Wonyoung replies sternly as the sound of a buzzsaw begins cutting through the main door.

“Looks like we’re going to need to fight our way out. Girls, find a spot to hide. We can ambush them when they enter.” Chaeyeon says, but before she could move, Yujin calls their attention.

“Unnie, wait… we need to bring one of those…” Yujin mutters, pointing towards another rack of vials on one of the tables. “They’re important. I know it.”

~~~~

Over on the other side of the complex, Nako and the others had also opted for the strategy of borrowing uniforms. Unfortunately, they had to ditch it rather quickly. Turns out, it was much more difficult to explain the presence of a thirteen year-old girl to a group of soldiers. Though to be fair, it was Nako who the soldiers thought was a thirteen year-old, and the Japanese girl made sure to hit them back extra hard in response.

Nevertheless, with Hitomi blocking all the cameras with vines, the four eventually managed to make their way to the admin room without any more trouble. Gaeul bypasses the retina scanner by simply aging the door until it rusted enough for Nako to punch through.

Once they’re inside, Leeseo flies over to the closest security guard and knocks him out swiftly. From there, Hitomi uses her vines to snare and hold down everyone else in the room.

“Okay… let’s see here.” Nako says while plugging in Sakura’s decryptor key into the closest PC. Though, what she sees, leaves her with more questions than answers.

“It’s just a bunch of marketing and sales stats on their new water product.” She says in a confused tone. “They just released it a couple days ago, and this is where they package and ship them off.”

“New water product? You don’t mean the one Wonyoung had bought from the store, right?” Gaeul asks, taking out a water bottle from her bag and showing it.

“Huh, you’re right. It’s called Jirisan Spring Water. All the nutrition facts seem normal though.”

“Maybe it’s just a front? To hide some other experiment here?” Hitomi guesses, suddenly feeling a bit uneasy.

“Wait, what about that file?” Leeseo points towards one labeled ‘inbound deliveries’. Nako decides to click on it, and this time, finds something odd.

“Why are they getting so many shipments of steel and iron?” The short girl mumbles before an alarm begins to blare throughout the complex.

“The others must’ve found Yujin. Nako-unnie, just download as many files as you can then let’s head to the rendezvous point.” Gaeul suggests.

“What about the others? What if they need help?” Leeseo asks, not wanting for anyone to be left behind again.

Hitomi thinks for a second before walking over to the unconscious guard’s walkie-talkie.

“Emergency here in the admin room. Four mutants just attacked and took over the area. Please send some backup immediately!” The peach-cheeked girl says into the device with a deeper tone to try and sound like a guard. A couple seconds pass before someone replies saying they’ll split the forces to head that way.

“That should make it easier for the others to escape.” Hitomi says. “Now, come on. We gotta go too!”

Nako pulls out the USB now filled with data on the water bottle and follows along with the others, Hitomi making sure to keep the walkie-talkie with her to be able to keep tabs on the enemy’s communications.

After fighting their way through a few platoons, the group manages to make their way out with a bunch of soldiers still on their tail, bullets whizzing past their ears.

“We need to shake them!” Hitomi says while using roots to trip some of their pursuers. Gaeul glances to her left and suddenly gets an idea. As they run next to the concrete dam wall, the blonde girl extends her hand and drags it along the wall in order to cause the structure to collapse under the now aged support base. Water begins pouring out behind them, creating a stream that the soldiers can’t cross without being swept away.

“Good thinking, unnie. Helps out the environment too!” Leeseo cheers as she flies overhead.

“Alright, tell us if you have visuals on Chaeyeon-unnie and the others, okay?” Gaeul says as they continue to run into the dense forest of Jirisan mountain.

~~~~

Thirty minutes later…

“You made it, and in one piece too!” Yujin greets when she sees her four friends finally arrive at their meeting spot.

“Unnie!” Leeseo says, immediately flying towards the puppy and hugging her. “I thought you really died.”

“Aw, Leeseo, you know it’s gonna take a lot more to do me in.” The older girl jokes through a cough, still having to lean on Wonyoung for support.

“You find anything important?” Chaeyeon asks Hitomi and Nako while the members of IVE have a moment.

“Yeah, but I don’t know how useful it’s gonna be. Apparently KYB was producing their new water product here, Jirisan Spring Water.” Nako reports.

“Isn’t that-” Chaeyeon begins to speak at the mention of the name but is cut off.

“-the drink we bought at the convenience store? Yes. I didn’t drink it though. Only the IVE members did. From what we saw, it doesn’t appear to have anything in it, but that’s only at first glance. We need to check back on campus.” Nako says.

“That’s gonna be a problem because our comm devices have been blocked. We’re going to need to call in our ride once we get into town.” The older girl replies, staring back the way they’d come and seeing helicopters now flying in the late afternoon sky.

“Girls, we gotta move!” Chaeyeon then announces to the rest of the group. The members nod and begin following her lead with Hitomi controlling the trees to hide them from sight.

 

A/N: Hiii, so turns out I did have one more chapter in me before Christmas HAHA

Here we have IVE infiltrating Jirisan mountain and finding out about a water product KYB has been developing. They're still not sure exactly what they do, but if you remember the events of the previous chapters, the answer is there. 

Aside from that, the more important part, Yujin is alive! We have our puppy back in the fold for the upcoming fights. Now, all that's left is Yulyen and Kkura.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the longer chapter because I'm off until after Christmas. Thank you all for the support! That is the best gift I can receive from y'all!

Merry Christmas, and I'll see y'all in the next one!