“Beta squad, Charlie squad, this is Alpha. Are you in position?” Saerom asks through her comm device. With fifteen of them for the mission, it was decided that there would be three groups of five. Saerom’s group consisted of herself, Jisun, Seoyeon, Kazuha and Yunjin.

“Beta squad, here.” Hayoung confirms with Chaeyoung, Nagyung, Liz, and Rei standing behind her.

“Charlie squad, here.” Gaeul says, her team being Eunchae, Leeseo, Jiheon and Jiwon.

“Alright, remember, this is a three-pronged infiltration. We all need to accomplish our objectives to succeed.” Saerom says before motioning for her squad to push forward.

~~~~

“Yah, who are you?” The guard at the front entrance asks when Saerom’s team shows up.

“I got some more mutants for you. They tried to escape campus.” Saerom replies, showing her badge and pointing behind her to Yunjin and Kazuha in handcuffs, or at least, that’s what Yunjin wanted the guard to think.

“Hmm, I don’t remember getting any notification from HQ.” The guard says back.

“That’s because they didn’t want any of the other mutants to intercept the signal. They sent us in discreetly.” Seoyeon explains. She’d always been one of the better ones in the group at making up alibis. The guard considers this for a second before nodding his head and opening the gates.

“Let’s make it quick then.” He says, ushering them inside.

~~~~

“They’re distracting the front gate, let’s move.” Hayoung whispers, leading her team to the west gate.

“It’s locked, should I take out my lock pick? Nagyung asks.

“No need, I got this.” Rei says before stretching her hand forward and willing the lock to break.

“Woah…” Is all Nagyung and Chaeyoung can reply with.

“No time to delay, we need to get to the security room.” Hayoung chides, reminding them that Charlie squad couldn’t make their move until they finished their objective. After looking around and seeing the coast was clear, the group rushes towards the main building.

~~~~

“So, how long has this place been running?” Saerom asks the guard to make small talk as they make their way through the hallways.

“Just finished last week. KYB helped fund this, you know? It’s basically guaranteed to keep any mutant contained.” He replies in a proud tone, as if this were something that should be celebrated.

“KYB, huh? Wouldn’t that make this place a conflict of interest? Those videos on the news looked pretty shaky to me.” Seoyeon says.

“Yeah, and those media members ate it all up!” The guard laughs, turning to look at Kazuha and Yunjin with a smug grin. “You monsters are finally getting put in your place.”

“The only monsters here are you guys.” Yunjin mutters back just loud enough for the man to hear.

“What’d you just say? I have half a mind to shoot you right here, or would you rather us hurt your friends instead?” The guard threatens, staring Yunjin down.

“Woah, woah, no need for hostilities here.” Jisun interjects, getting between the two.

“What do you know? Have you ever been discriminated for something you were born with? You regular humans are all the same.” Yunjin replies, tone as cold as ice. Jisun couldn’t tell if she was acting, but if she was, she was doing a really good job at it.

“Never mind any of that. We’re here at the cell block now. You can start yapping away once you're locked away.” The man taunts, pointing at a metal door just ahead of them.

“Hm? Where are those IZ*ONE girls?” Saerom queries once they were inside. There were many more metal doors with white walls visible behind them but no sign of their friends.

“None of your concern. Those girls are dangerous, so they have their own little area.” The guard replies. Saerom looks back at her team with an expression that asks, ‘What now?”. After all, it was Alpha squad’s objective to get to IZ*ONE.

It was at this moment that Jisun spotted a security camera above them, and from the lack of a red outline, she could tell that meant they weren’t recording anymore.

“How secure is this place, really? Are you sure there’s enough cameras to surveille the entire compound?” Jisun now asks out of the blue, putting emphasis on certain words to get the group’s attention. Yunjin follows the officer’s gaze until she gets what she was referring to.

“It’s state of the art. Of course, it’s secure. Why is that even a question?” The guard says. “Now, come on, you two maggots. Let’s get you into your cozy cells.”

The man reaches to grab Yunjin’s hand that still appears to be in handcuffs, but the second he makes contact, Yunjin grabs him and uses all her strength to flip him over.

“W-what?” He mutters confusedly before Kazuha walks up to him and knocks him out.

“Nice one, girls. Now to find IZ*ONE.” Saerom says, giving a thumbs up back to the camera.

“But unnie. This place is enormous. I don’t think we’ll have enough time to search the place.” Seoyeon replies.

“Who said we had to search everywhere?” The older girl quips as she grabs the police badge off of the unconscious guard’s body. Suddenly, his memories for the day flood her system, and she can just make out the path to where their friends are.

“Got it, let’s go.” She then says while Kazuha and Jisun were hiding the guard in one of the cells.

~~~~

5 minutes earlier…

“Whew, that was a close one.” Chaeyoung says with relief after finally turning off the camera recording system.

Her group had quietly made their way to the security room undetected thanks to Hayoung warning them every time someone was getting close and Rei turning all the cameras away from them. Liz was actually the one who had found the room after phasing through several walls until she did. Rather than radioing in though, the sounds of a guard screaming ‘ghost’, was what alerted Hayoung and the others to Liz’ discovery.

From there, Chaeyoung began to work on deactivating the system recording functions while Nagyung flipped through the cameras to find Alpha squad.

“Charlie squad, we have commandeered the security room. You are now free to make your entrance.” Hayoung comms.

Thanks, on our way. Gaeul replied.

~~~~

“Where could all the vehicles be parked?” Gaeul wonders after her group had gotten in through the south gate. All she had to do was grab hold of the lock and watch as it crumbled into dust.

“I don’t see any vans around the perimeter either.” Leeseo comms from above. She’d flown around the compound a couple times to make sure, but no sign of anything they could use as their getaway vehicle. They wouldn’t exactly be able to fit everyone in only two vans after all.

“How about underground?” Jiwon suggests, pointing at some truck tracks in the dirt leading towards a brick wall. When she walked over and stepped on it though, she could definitely feel metal.

“Nice find! Gaeul-unnie, can you get us in?” Eunchae asks. The older girl nods, placing both hands on the ground until a hole melted to reveal a ramp.

“Okay… definitely not creepy at all…” Jiheon mumbles, shining her flashlight into the darkness.

“Let’s not waste any more time. Leeseo, come down and follow us.” Gaeul says before carefully making her way downwards.

~~~~

After about two minutes, they finally arrived at the bottom where an RFID gate was. Gaeul was just about to use her powers again to break through, but Jiheon stops her.

“Wait, it’s likely connected to an alarm sensor. We can’t just use brute force this time.” She says before taking out a laptop from her bag.

“Ooh, you’re about to see why she got promoted from intern to full-time at such a young age.” Jiwon says with a smirk as Jiheon plugs a cable into the monitor beside the gate. The younger girl then begins typing. After about a minute, the gate’s borders light up green and open.

In the garage, there were a couple six-seater vans, a handful of motorcycles, and a couple cars, but what caught the group’s attention was a large bus at the very back.

“Bingo.” Gaeul says, but as she begins to signal the group to move, a voice catches their attention.

“Excuse me, are you here on official business? I didn’t see your names on the manifest.” Stepping out of the darkness was a young man in a police uniform.

“Uhh, we’re here with these officers to do some inspecting, that’s all.” Gaeul says with Jiheon and Jiwon nodding in support.

“Still, that should’ve still been communicated. I was told to watch out for any suspicious activ-” Before he could finish his sentence, Eunchae came out of nowhere to swing a powered-up punch that knocked him down.

“Yah, Eunchae-unnie, that might’ve been a bit overkill.” Leeseo says.

“Well, we’re a bit pressed for time, right? We have to get that bus to the surface to get the others out safely.” Eunchae replies, urging the others to follow. Just as she was about to move though, she felt an iron grip around her ankle. When she looks down, she lets out an audible yelp seeing the guard clinging onto her.

“Judging from your actions, I must assume you are intruders.” The man says before his eyes turn red.

“Android… Yah, move!” Gaeul shouts as Eunchae is lifted up and tossed into one of the cars.

“Eunchae-unnie!” Leeseo shouts before trying to fly towards her.

“Jiwon, Jiheon. Start the bus, we’ll distract the tin can!” Gaeul orders as an energy blast whizzes by her ear. When the two remain in stunned silence though, she shouts again.

“Your guns aren’t gonna do anything. Leave this to us!” She says as Eunchae begins to get up behind her in avatar mode. “Eunchae, Leeseo, give me an opening!”

The two maknaes nod and go on the attack. While Eunchae would exchange punches with the android, Leeseo would fly by occasionally to slap the robot’s head and get its attention.

After Eunchae gets a good hit that sends the android crashing into a support pillar, Gaeul charges in and places both palms on its chest. She could see the cracks starting to appear on the android’s body, but before she could completely age the machine, its skin heats up to the point Gaeul had to pull her hands back. In the moment that Gaeul was blowing on her hands, the android launches an energy blast that catches her right in the chest.

“UNNIE!” Leeseo yells.

“I think they really need our help, unnie.” Jiheon says to Jiwon who was busy hotwiring the bus.

“Well, this is the quickest way to do that! Shine the light lower!” The older girl replies, and after a couple more seconds, a bright spark is followed by the engines starting to purr.

“Tighten your seatbelt!” Jiwon then says before hitting the gas.

With the android busy fighting off Eunchae now, it didn’t have time to react to the bus making a beeline right for it. At the last second, Jiwon begins honking the horn, signaling for Eunchae to get out of the way just in time for the android to get run over.

“Get in!” Jiheon shouts after the doors open. Leeseo picks up Gaeul and heads inside, Eunchae not too far behind. When they’re all in, Jiwon steps on the gas again, driving the bus up the ramp, alarms starting to ring behind them.

~~~~

“When are you going to stop wasting your energy, Nako?” Yuri asks while the short girl continues to bang her fists on the steel door to no avail.

“When we get out of here.” Nako replies through gritted teeth.

“Just wait a bit longer. You’re wearing yourself out.” Hitomi pleads, feeling equally crestfallen. The twelve girls had been locked up for over a day now, their spirits weren’t very high. They weren’t exactly used to all being on the other side of a rescue mission.

“If I stop, that means, we’ve given up, and I refuse to give up!” With her super strength nullified, Nako could definitely feel her fists becoming numb, but she couldn’t help it. She was stubborn to a fault, and with another strong wind up, she throws a punch that ends up pushing the door open.

“Yah, see? I told you I could do it!” Nako cheers until a voice speaks up from the outside.

“Uh, Nako, do what exactly?” Yunjin asks. Next to her was Kazuha who was holding a keycard she’d picked up from the guard earlier. Meanwhile, Saerom, Seoyeon, and Jisun were standing guard.

“Oh…” Nako mumbles, slightly embarrassed.

“What took you girls so long?” Yena quips while Kazuha goes to open up the other cell where Eunbi was. The second they stepped out, the members immediately felt refreshed and powered up again.

“Traffic, now let’s get you girls out of here.” Yunjin says with a smile just as an alarm begins to go off throughout the compound.

“That can’t be good…” Yujin says.

“I tried contacting the others, but our frequencies are getting jammed. Someone must’ve triggered something.” Saerom announces to the group.

“Do you know the way out?” Eunbi asks, and when Saerom nods, Eunbi gestures forward. “Then, lead the way.”

~~~~

“What happened? I can’t contact them anymore?” Hayoung asks Chaeyoung, who looks equally confused at why the alarms were starting to sound.

“I don’t know, but it looks like Alpha squad’s done their job. We should get ready to leave.” Chaeyoung says, seeing Saerom’s team running to the exit.

“Nagyung, do you see where Charlie squad is? They’re supposed to have the getaway vehicle.” Hayoung then turned to ask her other friend.

“No, I could’ve sworn they were just on the south side. Some of the cameras in sector 9 have stopped working, so maybe they had an altercation there.” Nagyung replies worriedly.

“Uh, guys, we have company!” Liz says from the door, shutting it before bullets end up peppering the outside.

“Come outside! There’s no way out!” A guard says while banging the door.

“I got this, everyone. Liz, get them to another room.” Rei says.

“Wait, what does that mean?” Chaeyoung asks.

“It means take my hand.” The blonde girl replies. Once they do, Liz leads them to the right wall and steps through.

“Woah, woah. You’re going to phase us through the wall???” Nagyung asks nervously. At this question, Liz pokes her head back into the room much to the Fromis members’ surprise.

“Yes. Now Let’s move!” Hayoung turns back to the door that was being unlocked and pushed open.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m not afraid of guns.” Rei says before shoving them through the wall.

“Yah, where are your friends? I know there’s more than one of you. Bring them out!” The head guard demands, his men lining up next to him, aiming their guns right at Rei.

“You’re just going to have to go through me.” The Japanese girl replies, getting into a fighting stance.

“It’s your funeral. Guards! Fire!” He orders but much to their surprise, when the bullets start flying, Rei holds out her hands and freezes them midair.

“What…” The head guard mutters at the display. Rei gives a sly grin, dropping on the bullets back on the ground.

“Last chance while I’m being nice.” Rei says. Unfortunately, the guards don’t listen and aim their guns again. Rei sighs and magnetizes the weapons out of their hands to her side. This finally seems to get her message across as they all begin to run out.

~~~~

“Where could Gaeul’s team be?” Saerom wonders after not seeing them anywhere once they got outside.

“Maybe we can just let them catch up.” Seoyeon suggests to which the leader shakes her head.

“We can’t leave anyone behind.” She replies as new voices begin calling them from behind.

“Girls! You’re all okay!” Liz says, running up to Yujin and Wonyoung to hug them. Not far behind her was Rei who quickly joined them.

“I’m so proud of you girls.” Yujin says, ruffling their hair.

“Is Charlie squad still not here?” Hayoung asks her leader.

“No, did you not see them on any of the cameras?” Saerom asks back.

“Yeah, they were just in sector 9 then disappeared shortly after.” Nagyung replies worriedly. That’s when Hayoung holds her hand up for everyone to quiet down.

“I hear something…” She mumbles, hearing the faint sound of an engine revving.

“It’s coming from there.” She then points at an empty area with what appeared to be a hole in the ground, and at that moment, a huge bus busts out of the earth.

“Everyone, get on!” Jiwon says after opening the doors. “We’re being followed!”

The group does as instructed, and by the time everyone is on, a figure flies out of the ground into the sky.

“An android???” Yuri says incredulously while staring out the window.

“Book it!” Eunbi yells.

“No need to tell me twice.” Jiwon replies and drives the bus away. The android tries to follow, but Rei does her best to hold it in place.

~~~~

After about half an hour of driving and no sign of anyone following them, the group finally breathed sighs of relief.

“Thanks for saving us. I knew I could count on you girls.” Eunbi says with a bow.

“Any time, Eunbi.” Saerom replies with a grin before asking the question on everyone’s minds. “What’s next?”

“I think we have to split up from here.” Eunbi says after some thought.

“Wait, what? Don’t you think that we’ll need everyone to take down the base at Ulleung Island?” Gaeul asks, clearly not a fan of the idea.

“I know. This isn’t an easy choice, but I think it’s the best one. The attack will be on Saturday, right? That’s less than two days from now. We can’t just put all our eggs in one basket. ” The older girl says. “Just trust us.”

“Eunbi-unnie is right. We need to leave people to protect the campus or any other problems that might arise while we’re gone.” Yujin says, putting a hand on Gaeul’s shoulder to reassure her. “Just like Eunbi-unnie is saying to trust us, we also trust you to keep the peace while we’re gone. Besides, you look hurt.””

“Alright… but if anything goes wrong, just contact us. We’ll try to be there as fast as we can.” The short-haired girl says, still rubbing her chest where she was struck by the android.

After a couple more minutes, Jiwon pulls the bus into the rest station where they’d kept their vehicles.

“Good luck.” Saerom says, extending her hand to Eunbi.

“Same to you. I’m glad there’s some law enforcement that actually cares about our cause.” The older girl replies, taking Saerom’s hand and shaking it.

“Well, someone’s got to, right?” Fromis’ leader says with a shrug.

“By the way, you might need some supplies, so here.” Saerom takes out her wallet and hands Eunbi some cash.

“Appreciate it. I’ll make sure to pay you back.” Eunbi replies with a smile before getting onto their bus and driving away, Fromis and the members of IVE and Le Sserafim going the other direction.

“So, what’s the plan, unnie? We can’t exactly get ferry tickets without attracting attention.” Chaewon says, reminding the team that they’re on the run, and that the compound they come from will surely alert the authorities.

“I’ll contact Seunggi about it. For now, let’s just find a way to one of the ports. We still have time, so we should also rest a bit. I’m sure you girls are hungry.” The leader says, noticing some of the members’ stomachs rumbling.

“Maybe some samgyupsal? It’s been over a day since we’ve eaten after all.” Hyewon suggests, the other girls nodding in agreement.

“Alright, samgyupsal it is then.” Eunbi chuckled at the group’s immediate shift in energy once food was mentioned. With what they went through the past 24 hours, it was nice for everyone to be happy and laughing.

We have to stop KYB once and for all. She thinks, keeping both eyes on the road.

 

A/N: Hii! Welcome back to another chapter! The combination of FromIVESsera managed to get IZ*ONE out of the compound and are now on their way to Ulleung Island. I hope y'all enjoyed these two chapters as it was pretty fun for me. 

Looking at the final arc timeline I have set up, I'd say we have around 4 chapters left. It's wild to me how we're almost there, but I hope instead of feeling sad, we can all enjoy these last few missions!

Apologies by the way if there's anything wrong with this chapter as I was a bit sick while writing. Didn't think i'd catch the sick bug twice in two weeks, but i'll try my best to rest up so i can make higher quality chapters again.

Thank you once again for all the love and support! It always means a lot to me.

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