The second Chaeyeon heard that humming tune, her senses dulled. Her vision was blurry, and the sound of Yuri’s voice was unintelligible, as if she were underwater. She can feel herself moving forward towards the door even if she didn’t want to do it.

From Yuri’s perspective, she was panicking. She could see the masked singer was right outside the door with a pistol in hand through the cameras. Her voice had saved Yena from being hypnotized before, but it wasn’t working this time around. Instead, she decides to turn to Sakura who was still asleep.

“Kkura-unnie! Wake up! Chaeyeon’s in trouble!” She shouts in the Japanese girl’s ear. Compared to her efforts from earlier, these words seemed to do the trick as Sakura's eyes opened immediately.

“W-what happened? I remember hearing a song…” She says, feeling a bit light-headed.

“Chaeyeon’s under Yoo Eun-kyung’s spell. We have to snap her out of it.” Yuri says before running towards the aforementioned girl and blocking her path only to be knocked to the side in a flash.

Sakura’s brain begins moving a hundred miles a second until she gets an idea. The Japanese girl places her hands on Chaeyeon’s head and links their minds together.

“Chaeyeon-ah! Where are you?” Sakura whispers through the connection. Usually when their minds were connected, Sakura would be able to read Chaeyeon’s thoughts, but this time, it felt empty in there. There were no thoughts going on in the younger girl’s head as she walked forward like a mindless zombie.

In Chaeyeon’s head, through the sound of music, a familiar voice begins to seep into her mind. The cloudiness in her thoughts began to clear.

“Kkura…?” She mumbles, her hand now on the door handle.

“Yes, you gotta get your head back in the game. Please wake up.” Sakura pleads. It appeared to be too late though as Chaeyeon had already opened the door, revealing the masked singer with her gun aimed right at her.

Eun-kyung smiles and clicks the trigger, but at the very last second, Chaeyeon dodges the shot.

“What…” Before she could speak again, Chaeyeon attacks, striking her with a punch right towards her jaw.

“Sorry, girls… I don’t know what came over me.” Chaeyeon says, grabbing at her head now.

“You were hypnotized. Don’t worry about it.” Yuri says while getting up and dusting herself off.

“We need to find Yena-unnie. Tie her up, and let’s go.” She then says, pointing at Eun-kyung who was still knocked out on the ground.

~~~~

10 minutes ago…

“Still nothing…” Yena mumbles to herself as she tiptoes around the corridors. With all the lights turned off and her being alone, the atmosphere started to feel just a bit creepy.

“Hayoung? You there?” She then asks into the darkness before a sudden movement from behind catches her attention. When she turned though, no one was there.

“Yah, who’s there?” Yena asks again, charging her hands with electricity. Someone or something was scurrying around the hallways, and Yena was getting antsy. Still, there was no response.

“Alright then, Have it your way.” The duck then places her hands on the closest wall plug to turn on all the lights. As she does though, Yena hears the sound of a figure rushing towards her. Feigning ignorance, she waits a bit longer and turns just in time to smack her attacker in the chest with a thunder punch. This causes all the lights to flicker and reveal the figure for momentarily.

“Seoyoung?” Yena realizes when she sees a familiar metal-bladed arm.

“It’s been a while…” The aforementioned girl whispers, eyes full of rage.

“I guess they gave you back your memory. I kinda liked the new you better!” Yena replies, firing a beam of electricity that Seoyoung barely dodges.

“You thought you could change me, turn me into a weapon for your side. You were wrong!” She yells back.

“You act like we’re the ones who erased your memories. It was the same people you worked with who did that.” Yena argues, getting into a fighting stance.

“It was also them who liberated me from your jail that you try to call a school campus. I was lucky enough to be given a second chance to be free in the new world. You will not have the same fate.” And with that, Seoyoung camouflages herself and charges.

Yena calms herself, listening hard for Seoyoung’s movements, but her adversary was being a lot more calculated now. By the time she heard movement, it was almost too late. Seoyoung swings her metal blade at her, and though she manages to dodge a fatal strike, it still grazes her right shoulder just a bit.

I can’t let her take my powers… Yena thinks while gripping her bleeding shoulder.

“You can’t beat me one on one. Many have tried. Many have died!” Seoyoung says, going in for another attack. Yena was prepared this time though.

If I can’t see her, I guess I shouldn’t let her near me. The duck quickly places her hands down to create an electric current around her.

“Agh, that hurt!” Seoyoung complains, having stepped on the electro web. Yena turns to the sound of that noise and manages to hit her with a beam of electricity.

“If you won’t let me close, I guess I’m going to have to use my new skills then…” Seoyoung then says before summoning a ball of fire in her hand and chucking it in Yena’s direction.

“When’d she get that power?” Yena thinks while on the run.

“Went with an android on a test run and found an easy target. He didn’t put up much of a fight.” Seoyoung replies with a maniacal laugh.

“What? What do you mean, a target?”

“Oh, I guess you haven’t been told about water yet. Pity, because you’re never going to find out.” Seoyoung turns invisible again and this time, Yena was too slow because of her injury, and gets hit by a fireball.

“I’m going to enjoy having your powers. It’s been a while since I’ve felt it.” Seoyoung says smugly while standing over Yena.

As soon as Seoyoung’s hand makes contact with Yena, she begins to squirm, feeling her energy being drained. She wanted to fight back, but her attacker had morphed her other hand into a metal clamp that kept her in place.

I’m sorry… Yuri… Yena thinks, but at that moment, the sound of a bullet rings through the corridor followed shortly by Seoyoung yelping in pain and grabbing her shoulder. Looking past her, Yena sees Hayoung in the distance with a freshly fired pistol in her hand. It would’ve taken complete precision to hit a shot from that far.

“Yah! Who was that?” Seoyoung asks, clearly irritated, but with one of her hands gripping on her own shoulder, and the other still a metal clamp around Yena, the duck takes the opportunity.

Yena uses her free arm and grips onto the clamp before electrifying it with all her remaining power, causing all the lights to flicker again. Seoyoung was completely caught off guard, the metal only amplifying the strength of Yena’s attack even more. When the smoke cleared, Seoyoung was unconscious on the ground.

“Yena-ssi, are you alright?” Hayoung asks when she finally arrives in front of her, Jiheon right behind.

“Unnie, you know this girl?” Jiheon asks, still confused as to how Hayoung knew there was a commotion up here when they’d gone all the way back down to the sixth floor to patrol earlier.

“It’s a long story.” Is all Hayoung says for now while checking up on Yena’s injuries.

“Nice shot by the way. You saved my skin there.” The duck says, still feeling a bit woozy.

“Yena-unnie!!!” A familiar voice suddenly shouts from behind her. It was Yuri, Chaeyeon and Sakura. Jiheon, who was still a bit on edge, takes out her own pistol in self-defense.

“W-who are you people? Are you all mutants?” She asks warily.

“Woah, woah, Jiheon, calm down. It’s fine. They’re helping me out with that case I was talking about.” Hayoung says, getting in front of the IZ*ONE girls. “They’re good guys.”

“Apologies. We didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves. I’m Chaeyeon, and these are my friends, Sakura, Yena, and Yuri. We’re from PD campus.” Chaeyeon says calmly. This was probably a really confusing situation for Jiheon after all.

“We’re here because KYB has been developing androids that are hurting mutants.” She then says.

“Androids? I know this company does robotics, but how dangerous could they possibly be?” Jiheon asks, not totally convinced.

“Wait… I hear something.” Hayoung interjects. “We’re not alone.”

“How can you tell, unnie?” Jiheon asks again. It was actually fairly silent right now.

Without warning though, Hayoung dives towards her friend and takes her down just as an energy blast sears the spot where she’d just been standing.

“The androids are here…” Sakura murmurs, pointing towards the direction the attack had come from where two androids stood, cannons aimed right at them.

“We need to get out of here!” Chaeyeon says, but when she turns back to the direction where they’d come from, there was another pair of androids. In fact, every corridor was now being blocked by two of them. They were surrounded.

“Unnie, Yena’s still in no condition to fight.” Yuri says, noting the gash on her girlfriend’s shoulder as well as the residual effects of Seoyoung almost absorbing her life force just a moments ago.

“Nonsense, I can still, ugh…” Yena tried to get up, but quickly regretted the decision.

With their strongest member unavailable, the group’s prospects at making it out unscathed felt a bit bleak.

Chaeyeon was just about to suggest that she stay behind and cause a distraction, but it didn’t appear to be needed as one pair of androids was attacked from behind.

“Tomi! Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!” The feather girl says in a relieved tone when she sees Hitomi along with Chaewon and Nako fighting their way through to them. A couple seconds later, Minjoo appears next to them much to the surprise of Jiheon who was getting more confused by the minute.

“Hi, girls. Tomi and the others are clearing a path for us, we gotta go now!” Minjoo urges before cloaking Yena at Yuri’s request.

The rest of the girls run down the hallway, Hayoung shooting bullets at the androids chasing them. Every shot was on target, but they didn’t appear to be affecting them at all.

As soon as the group reaches Hitomi, she creates a thick plant wall to slow down their pursuers.

“We have the data, unnie. We gotta meet up with ITZY at the rendezvous point soon.” Chaewon says quickly.

“Wait, ITZY are here? Also, what about Eunbi-unnie and the others?” Chaeyeon asks, her thoughts moving a mile a minute.

“We gotta trust them. At least one group needs to get out of here with the data.” Hitomi replies, showing the USB in her hand.

“Fine, but we’re coming back if they’re not at the rendezvous when we arrive.” Chaeyeon says, and with that, the group makes their escape.

~~~~

Back in the ballroom…

The crowd was in chaos fairly quickly. Turns out that unleashing a murder-robot in a crowded area was a bad idea.

Without any regard for the guests, the android fired an energy beam right towards Wonyoung and Ryujin. Luckily, Yuna appeared just in time to teleport them out of the way.

“You girls okay?” She asks as many guests run towards the exits.

“Oh, come on, folks! This is a live demonstration!” Yong-bum says with his arms raised in confusion as if this was something he didn’t expect.

“Fine, I’ll send you all some calendar invites then for an online bidding.” He mumbles into his mic.

From across the room, Eunbi and Hyewon look stunned at what just happened.

“Mutants? What are mutants doing here? We have to leave right now!” The man at their table shouts.

“Oh, please. The mutants here are the last thing you should be worried about.” Hyewon says before standing up and shooting an ice blast towards the android that freezes it on the spot.

“Wait? You two are mutants too??? What about the Busan company?” The man’s wife asks, equally panicked.

“Only her, actually. I’m just her girlfriend.” Eunbi says, taking out a pistol and loading it up.

“You guys are psychos!” The couple yell before joining the other guests in the mass exodus.

Hyewon was just about to use another ice attack until a large figure in a metallic suit jumped in the way to block it.

“Ugh, not this guy…” Hyewon mutters at the sight of Hunter Geun.

“KYB said to not take any prisoners today, so I can go all out…” The man says, his suit beginning to glow. Eunbi shoots her pistol at him, but the bullet didn’t even make a dent.

“You must be the regular human. I have no use for a traitor like you, so run while you still can.” Geun threatens.

“Yah, I’m not going to just stand around while you hurt my friends.” Eunbi says back.

“Then you will die with your friend here.” Geun replies before launching an energy beam in their direction. In one swift motion though, Hyewon summons a large wall of ice thick enough to take the hit.

“Eunbi, I’ll hold him off. You go for KYB!” Hyewon says while Geun tries to smash his way through the barrier.

“Alright, just be careful.” Eunbi nods and makes her way to the stage.

Meanwhile, the android had broken out of the ice, and recalibrated its aim. It didn’t take long for it to spot Wonyoung whose head was sticking out just enough from a table she was hiding behind with Ryujin and Yuna. The three barely manage to roll away before their cover is blasted to bits.

With most of the crowd cleared out, they now stood out like sore thumbs in the center of the room. The android speeds towards them and Ryujin makes the mistake of trying to take a swing at it.

“Agh, stupid metal skin.” She says, shaking her hand. For some reason though, the android focus was solely on Wonyoung, not even acknowledging the shapeshifter’s hit. At the same time, Wonyoung sees Eunbi get on stage to face KYB who was laughing to himself and gets an idea.

“Girls, I’ll distract the android! You help, Eunbi!” Wonyoung shouts while dodging another attack. She then uses her telekinesis to lift the android up and toss it towards a wall. Ryujin clearly didn’t want to leave Wonyoung alone, but she was right. They couldn’t let KYB get away.

“Wonnie!” A new voice calls from the kitchen, and when Wonyoung turns, she sees it was Yujin.

“Where have you been???” Wonyoung asks confusedly.

“Found a clue. Sorry, I left you alone.” She says apologetically just as the android recovers and starts charging its cannons again.

“It better be good then. Let’s take this tin can down!” Wonyoung replies, giving the puppy a knowing look.

“Ooh a combo. I gotcha!” Yujin says and begins sensing around for water pipes. The second she does, she causes them to burst and send a torrent right for the android. At the same time, Wonyoung forces the robot to stay still midair, which keeps it from dodging Yujin’s attack that ends up trapping it in a water bubble.

Yujin then condenses the water together, increasing the pressure on the android that was trying to blast its way out. It was a futile effort though as Wonyoung would mentally flick its arms in different directions away from them. Eventually, the pressure was too much, and the android was crushed into a metal ball.

~~~~

“You think I’m afraid of the cold?” Geun taunts as he smashes another ice spike Hyewon had launched at him. It appeared the burly man’s suit was even better than the one Yujin had described back then.

They probably integrated some of the android tech into it… Hyewon thinks while dodging a table thrown her way. With everyone busy with their own battles, it looked like she was going to be on her own with this.

“I don’t need you to be afraid. I just need you to stay frozen!” Hyewon says back, managing to get a clean shot at Geun, freezing his shoulder. Much to her shock though, the man simply laughs it off.

“I apologize then because that isn’t going to happen.” He replies as his suit begins to glow again, causing the ice to melt off. Without warning, Geun then darts towards Hyewon and throws a punch. At the last second, the brunette manages to create an ice shield that barely holds it off.

“Yield!” Geun yells, putting more pressure on Hyewon’s shield. She was trying her best, but she could definitely feel it cracking now.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a burst of flames hits Geun from behind. This weakens him just enough for Hyewon to roll out of the way and freeze Geun’s legs. When Hyewon looks over, she sees Yeji and her friends.

“Perfect timing. Thanks for the assist.” She says.

“No problem. Couldn’t let you girls have all the fun, right?” The ITZY leader replies.

“More mutants? That’s just more trophies for my collection then.” Geun says after breaking free from the ice, now surrounded. He then clicks a button in his suit that makes it glow a dark red. “No more playing around.”

Geun’s movements are suddenly way quicker than they already were. None of their attacks could land the mark. Even Chaeryeong was having trouble keeping up with him, eventually being hit by a strong energy blast when her guard was down. Lia tries to wrap him up, but he simply grabs her and throws her into a wall.

Hyewon scans Geun for any possible weakness. His suit just seemed too powerful. It enhanced his movement and strength as well as absorbed any energy attacks thrown his way. That’s when she realized something. There was one spot that was exposed.

The suit has a strong defense. Geun himself on the other hand…

“Yeji! Distract him, I have an idea!” Hyewon says. Yeji nods and launches a huge fire blast right towards Geun.

“As if anything you could think of will work. This armor makes me invincible!” He replies with a laugh, blocking the flames with an energy shield.

“Then maybe you should’ve invested in a helmet…” Hyewon mutters as runs in from behind and grabs Geun’s head.

“Yah! Get off of me!” He shouts.

“I thought you weren’t afraid of the cold?” Hyewon whispers before blasting him with ice at close range. When the mist cleared, Geun had collapsed on the ground, his head frozen in a block of ice.

“Nice work, Hyewon. What about the others?” Yeji, who was helping Chaeryeong and Lia up, asks.

Hyewon finally looks at the stage for the first time since the fight began and she couldn’t believe what she saw.

~~~~

“Yah, Kim Yong-bum! You’re gonna be coming with us!” Eunbi says to get the man’s attention.

“Oh, you. I see you’ve managed to get that lens out of your eye. How was it? I was pretty proud of that idea.” He replies with a laugh that causes Eunbi to grit her teeth.

“You and I believe in the same things.” KYB continues.” Humans and mutants can coexist. Imagine how the public perception will change if they’re put in positions to actually use their skills for something useful?”

“That’s not coexisting. You just want to save profit!” Eunbi replies angrily. “Mutants should be free to choose what they want to do without discrimination.”

“Hmm, I see you’re still clinging on to your naive fantasies. You’re not thinking big enough, Kwon! These mutants have so much potential. It’s a waste not to seize that.” He says just as Ryujin and Yuna arrive on stage.

“Give it up. We will not allow you to do that.” Eunbi takes out her pistol and aims it at KYB, but he doesn’t seem fazed at all.

“I see. Well, if we can’t see eye to eye, I guess I’m going to have to eliminate you all.” He says, and to the trio's surprise, dashes quickly towards Eunbi and smacks her before she can even react.

“What in the world???” Ryujin reacts.

Yuna then teleports close to KYB, but the man easily blocked all of her attacks.

“I thought JYP was renowned for their combat training?” He taunts before hitting Yuna with a counterattack. Ryujin jumps into the fray, but KYB was quicker still, turning and dodging her punches without breaking a sweat.

“Ugh, what was that…” Eunbi mumbles as she gets up. That punch did not feel like one that came from a middle-aged man. Now, he was taking on Ryujin and Yuna at the same time, still not showing any signs of tiring. Eunbi picks up the pistol she’d dropped and takes aim again at KYB’s leg.

“Girls, out of the way!” She shouts once she sees an opening. The two nod and jump away just as Eunbi fires her weapon. KYB sees this though and smirks. Eunbi watches in shock as the man crouches down and catches the bullet with his bare hand.

“Are you ready to reconsider?” KYB asks.

“N-never!” Eunbi yells before charging only to be knocked aside easily. KYB picks up Eunbi’s pistol that had clattered off next to him and walks towards her.

“It’s a shame. You won’t be around for this new era then.” He says, glowering over her. Just as he loads the gun and points it at her though, an ice spike suddenly sprouts from his chest.

“W-what…” Eunbi mumbles as KYB’s eyes go dim and his body falls down. Behind him was Hyewon, hands still emitting frost after her projectile attack.

“Are you okay?” The brunette asks after rushing over to her.

“Yeah… did you really just kill him?” Eunbi asks, still in disbelief. Hyewon shakes her head though and points back to KYB. There was no blood on the ground. Instead, the sound of sparks from broken circuits fills the room.

“I had a hunch… and it looks like I was right.” Hyewon says. She hadn’t been completely sure, but Eunbi’s life was on the line. It was a risk she had to take.

Eunbi stays silent for a few seconds before the sound of sirens ringing in the distance finally snaps her out of her daze.

“We have to go. Now.” She says.

“Chaewon’s group went up to help Chaeyeon’s earlier. I told them to rendezvous at the park.” Yeji informs as the sound of someone entering catches their attention.

“Hey! Are you girls, okay?” Saerom asks, looking visibly tired. The Fromis leader had gone to get Seoyeon and Jisun out of the place Hitomi had locked them in only to come back to chaos. She wanted to help inside, but with the crowd stampeding out, she had to follow her duty as a police officer to make sure the civilians got out safely.

“For the most part. Can you cover for us here?” Eunbi replies. Saerom takes a look around the room for the first time since entering and winces at all the damage.

“I’ll try. Hwang is going to be really upset though…” She says with a nod.

“Thanks… if anyone begins suspecting you, head to PD campus. We’ll take you in.” And with that, the group makes their way out from the back exit.

 

A/N: Greetings again! I think this is the longest chapter so far haha

Here, we saw the fights of the last two groups between some old foes. When I first wrote Secret Files, a moment like this is something I had in mind, building up a group of villains that band together to fight our protagonists. I hope all the fights where exciting. With that being said, the head honcho villain was revealed to be an android the whole time. In the next chapter, our heroes will be trying to find KYB's real location.

We're actually heading into the final arc of the story, and it's kind of crazy how quickly all of this has come together. It's like I'm not ready to let go of the story yet lol. The final fight is approaching, and IZ*ONE is going to need everyone's help, and I mean everyone's.

Thank you once again to everyone who's liked, commented and supported this series. I hope I can write an ending that'll satisfy everyone.

Have a nice day, and I'll see y'all in the next one!