“Saerom, me, Rei, Liz, and Leeseo are here at Hanlim. No sign of the androids.” Gaeul says through her phone. After hearing the news of the impending attack, IVE immediately went out to the targeted areas they knew of.

“They’re probably not going to be that obvious. Just keep looking.” Saerom says before continuing. “I split Fromis squad in two to help out. My group is here at Namsan Tower while Hayoung’s is doing rounds near populated areas like Myeong-dong. I also just got a call from Yunjin that she, Kazuha and Eunchae made it to the Han River. I’ll co… you if w … fi… thing.”

“Saerom? Hello? You still there?” Gaeul asks, but all she got back was static.

“What’s wrong, unnie?” Liz queries, still trying to keep her eyes peeled for any suspicious activity.

“Someone just jammed our signals, which isn’t a good sign.” The older girl replies.

“It looks like we’re on our own then. Let’s try to blend in for a bit and see if the androids come out first.” Rei suggests, the rest of the group nodding in agreement before splitting up. Little did they know that some of the ‘students’ had their eyes on them.

~~~~

“How are we gonna be able to tell who’s a real person and who’s an android? We’re sitting ducks out here.” Kazuha says as the Le Sserafim trio walks along the Han river’s bank. It was a little past noon and despite the sun beating down on the city, many people were still hanging around the area.

“I have an idea for that actually. You just gotta give me a bit of time.” Yunjin replies, her eyes darting from person to person as they walk.

“And what do we do if we do find an army? There’s only three of us right now.” Eunchae asks. It usually took three of them to defeat just one android, so a huge group of those robots on the prowl would be infinitely more difficult to deal with.

“I-I don’t know yet. Our main goal is to lead them away from the populated areas, so let’s burn that bridge when we get to it.” Yunjin says.

“I don’t think we’re going to have to wait long… we’re being followed.” Kazuha replies in a quieter tone. Sure enough, when Yunjin glances behind them, she sees a couple high school students on their tail.

They’re androids alright… Yunjin thinks, not wanting to say it out loud. Instead, she uses her powers to reach out into the minds of civilians and get them to avoid walking near them.

~~~~

“What’s wrong, unnie?” Jiheon asks her leader after her expression shifted to one of confusion.

“Someone cut off the signal.” Saerom replies before talking a glance around. There were tons of tourists and visitors around Namsan tower right now, a perfect place for an ambush.

“What exactly are we looking for anyway?” Nagyung then queried. She knew that there was supposed to be an android attack soon, but they were all disguised as humans. Add that to the fact they didn’t even know who in the crowd was a mutant they would be targeting made this operation even more difficult.

“Leave that to me. I’ll have a look around. You girls just keep your eyes out for anyone suspicious. The androids will look like high school and college students.” Saerom says before disappearing into the sea of people.

~~~~

Truthfully, Saerom also didn’t know exactly what they were supposed to do against the upcoming threat. After all, their guns would be ineffective, and her powers didn’t exactly help unless the androids wanted to remember when their last oil change was. What she did know though is that she didn’t want anyone getting hurt, and that was enough of a reason for her to be on the front lines today.

Saerom continued to walk around with her thoughts, occasionally touching objects to get an idea of the kind of people who were in the area, until she came across a crumpled piece of paper on the ground that gave her some important information. It was an info card on the Pledis mutant facility, which meant that somewhere in this crowd was a mutant who could be in danger. Saerom closes her eyes to look back at the item’s history and sees the hand of a woman looking at the card. The one thing she hated about her ability was she could never see who the person holding an item was unless they were near a mirror.

You have a dangerous power, Gyuri. Please, just consider it. You won’t be able to hide it forever. A man says to a girl who Saerom assumed was named Gyuri.

Come on, dad. It’ll be fine. I promise to keep working on controlling it. Gyuri replies in a tone that sounded half upset and half disappointed.

Where do you think you’re going? Her father then asks as Gyuri appears to stand up and begins walking away, the lights flickering as she passes.

To Namsan tower. I’m meeting a friend there. I’ll be back by dinner. And with that, the memory dissipates.

Saerom opens her eyes and takes a look around knowing full well that she didn’t even know what this Gyuri girl looked like.

“I need to find her before they do…” She mumbles, but at that moment, a familiar voice speaks out. When she turns around, she’s face to face with Officer Hwang Jinseon.

“Saerom! Fancy meeting you here. I wasn’t aware you would be patrolling here today.” The chief says.

“Oh, apologies, sir. I was just… taking a breather. The city can get really cramped sometimes, you know?” Saerom replies.

“And your first thought was to head here where it is definitely not known for its solitude.” Hwang says, looking unconvinced, and when he notices Saerom’s expression falter, he chuckles.

“Listen, I’m going to cut right to the chase. I know what you and your team have been doing, and I’m going to give you one chance to explain yourself.” He then says.

“I should be the one asking you that, sir. We’ve heard about you colluding with KYB!” Saerom replies, putting as much bravado into her voice as she can.

“So, you admit to snooping around? KYB has been a big help for us recently. They even have the support of the district board. That confession of yours just put you and your team in a lot of trouble.” Hwang says before clicking a button. At this, several people in the crowd turn to face her, and Saerom could immediately tell they were androids.

“How many people in your team are mutants?” He asks.

“Why would I tell you anything?” Saerom replies through gritted teeth, looking around desperately for a way out.

“You would rather us hunt them down then? That’s not a very good decision for a leader of your caliber.”

“Yah, leave them out of this!” Saerom yells, the crowd starting to take notice of the commotion around them.

“You’re not giving me much of a choice. I leaked the information of the attack to see if you were really traitors, and I was proven right. It’s my responsibility to keep the city safe, and those mutants you contacted from PD campus need to be kept in check.” Hwang says.

“Those girls helped you out on more than one occasion. You’re the one who turned your back on them first!” Saerom replies.

“I do what I must. Your friends are walking into a trap, and you’ll probably meet them soon after we take you in.” At these words, three androids shift their arms into energy cannons and aim at Saerom. The crowd that had gathered was shocked, and immediately began to scatter. Saerom takes out her pistol, not knowing who to aim it at.

Maybe I can buy everyone time to escape… She thinks, but just as she was about to fire, another gun fires from behind her and strikes an android right between the eyes.

“Unnie! We’re here!” Chaeyoung calls, Nagyung and Jiheon right behind her with pistols drawn.

“No! Stay back! They’re not after you!” Saerom says, holding her palm out to tell them to stop.

“I’m assuming these three aren’t mutants then. Speaking of your team, I don’t see Hayoung around, so she must be one as well.” Hwang then turns to Saerom’s friends and continues. “You three, I’m willing to overlook your involvement if you forget any of this happened. We can appoint a new leader afterwards.”

Saerom wouldn’t blame them for turning on her now. There wasn’t really a benefit in siding with her given the situation. She might’ve even encouraged them to do it if Jiheon didn’t speak up first.

“Yeah, right. Do you have any idea how much Saerom-unnie and Hayoung-unnie’s powers have helped us solve cases over the months? They’re also our friends. Eat dirt!” The youngest says.

“I guess you’re all complicit then. I’m taking you all in!” Hwang yells before ordering his androids to fire. Given that Fromis’ team was the top squad in the station, they were skilled enough to dodge the attacks. They countered by firing their weapons, but as expected, the bullets just ricochet off the androids’ bodies. All around them, the crowd was in panic as stray shots would occasionally go their way.

“Hwang! The civilians! Are you crazy?” Chaeyoung shouts, and these words seem to finally get through to the chief. He takes a good look around for the first time, seeing the androids cause carnage.

“Wait, what am I doing… this isn’t what I wanted!” He says, pressing a button to shut down the machines, but it wouldn’t work. It appeared the remote control had already been overridden.

“I-It won’t work!” Hwang trills, shock written all over his face. While this is all happening, Saerom finally has a misstep and gets hit in the leg by an attack.

“Unnie!” Nagyung yells, too far away to help.

So, this is it? Saerom thinks, realizing that there wasn’t anything she could do as the android walked up to her. Her only solace was that the androids might leave her friends alone once she was taken out. She didn’t close her eyes and decided to stare down the android defiantly as it held up its cannon to her face. Just as it was about to fire though, a new figure jumps in the way and absorbs the attack.

“Who are you?” Saerom asks the woman whose back was facing her, hands emanating with energy. The aforementioned girl turns and smiles at her.

“My name is Jang Gyuri.” She replies before blasting the android with an energy attack of her own.

~~~~

“I hear something…” Hayoung says. She and her group had been scouring Myeong-dong for any sign of the upcoming attack until Hayoung heard the faint sound of motors humming and gears calibrating.

“Androids?” Jiwon asks.

“Yeah, they must be scanning the area for mutants.” The older girl replies.

“We need to get their attention away from this area.” Seoyeon says, gesturing to all the people around them. If the androids scanned a mutant near them, they might cause a lot of chaos. Hayoung thinks before her eyes land on a convenience store near them.

“No, unnie. Don’t do what I think you’re going to do.” Jisun says after following Hayoung’s gaze.

“Trust me. It’ll be fine.” She says before running in and buying a bottle of Jirisan Spring water. The second Hayoung took a sip, she could tell something about the water was different. There was a metallic tang to it that stuck out compared to a regular bottle.

“I think it’s working…” Jiwon whispers, noticing a few sets of eyes turn towards Hayoung. They all matched the description they had to watch out for- high school to college aged looking people.

Hayoung heard the energy blast coming from behind her and immediately ducked, leading to the attack striking a gas pipe. The crowd was now in a frenzy, shocked from the explosion that was just caused.

“Girls, you lead everyone away from here! I’ll keep the tin cans preoccupied!” Hayoung says.

“Unnie, are you crazy? You’ll be killed!” Seoyeon says, baffled by the very suggestion of splitting up.

“They’re only after me. Just trust me. I’ll be fine.” The older girl says, not sure if she was trying to convince her friends or herself.

After another energy blast blows up a stall near them, Jisun heads over to help the injured stall owner. It looked like there were other mutants in the area too with how some of the androids began wandering off towards other people.

“You better come back alive.” Jiwon says before following with Seoyeon. Hayoung takes a deep breath and begins waving her arms.

“Hey! Over here! Come and get me!” She yells. The androids turn back to her and seem to take the cue and begin chasing her. There were many twists and turns in Myeong-dong, and Hayoung knew them well enough to stay just a couple steps ahead of the android army that was building up behind her. The androids were spread out all across the area, and whenever Hayoung would see one trying to attack a mutant, she’d run in its way to grab its attention.

Her luck would eventually run out though as after exiting an alleyway, she found four androids already there waiting for her. Behind her were six more, meaning she was officially surrounded. Her back was now against the wall of a store called SaiDa’s Sounds and Records, and Hayoung was internally apologizing already for the skid mark she was about to leave after she was blasted to bits.

“Yah! What’s going on out here?” A new voice interjects, the sound of a bell chime echoing throughout the streets. The androids' heads turn to face a woman with her arms crossed. “We were having a very important meeting inside.”

“Ma’am, I need you to run. This is police business.” Hayoung says, hoping the woman would take the hint and bolt. Instead though, she gives her a curious look.

“Nonsense. You clearly need some help.” She says before poking her head back into the doorway and calling someone. The androids, not knowing what to do with that information, turn their attention back onto Hayoung. One was about to fire its energy blast when in the blink of an eye, its hand was redirected towards another android, blowing it up. Shortly after, another android is lifted into the air and tossed across the block. When Hayoung looked back, she saw a short-haired girl waving her hands in the air the way she’d seen Jang Wonyoung do when she was using telekinesis.

Hayoung’s mind was going a hundred miles an hour trying to process what happened before she felt an invisible hand tug on her arm.

“Come with me, I’ll get you to safety.” A high-pitched voice says.

“What is going on???” Hayoung asks.

“Oh, sorry! I always forget about this.” And at that moment, a Japanese woman materializes in front of her. “You’re invisible now too. That’s why you can see me. Let’s move.”

As Hayoung was taken into the store, she decides to glance back at the androids she’d just walked by without being noticed and sees a taller girl in hand-to-hand combat with one of the machines and winning.

“Have some tea. It’ll help calm you down.” The girl from earlier says. Hayoung swore she must’ve been hallucinating though because another version of the girl had just come out of a back room with a few more new faces.

“Hello, my name’s Park Jihyo. I assume you’re a mutant too?” A woman who Hayoung assumed was the leader asks.

“Yeah, I’m from the Seoul Police Department. We got word of an android attack this morning and went to investigate with some of the PD campus girls.” Hayoung replies. Jihyo stares at her intently, as if her gaze was piercing into her very soul.

“Your story checks out.” She suddenly says before turning to the cloning girl. “Dahyun, those are the girls you and Sana mentioned, right?”

“Yeahp, it seems the plan they mentioned is in motion. You said the PD campus is also involved, right? We can send some help to them. We have some friends stationed in the city already waiting for the order.” Jihyo says before a red-haired girl with a fancy looking pen suddenly speaks up.

“Oookay. I just came from the future, and we should all duck right now!” She yells as a projectile blast hits the front of the store, breaking the glass and instruments in its vicinity.

“Are you kidding me? I just had this place renovated!” Dahyun complains.

“We’re going to have a lot more company soon. There are also more androids all over Myeong-dong looking for mutants. We have to split up.” The red-haired girl continues, ignoring Dahyun’s whining. “Chaeyoung, Tyuzu, Momo and I can hold here. The rest of you should head back to the main square.”

“Alright, Nayeon. Jeongyeon, Dahyun, Sana, Mina, you girls are with me and Hayoung. We need to help the civilians.” And with that, they were off.

~~~~

“Isn’t it crazy how just being a mutant can keep you from doing so many normal things?” Liz comments, her eyes wistfully glancing to all the students in Hanlim uniforms going about their days. She, Rei, and Gaeul were also just regular high schoolers less than a year ago. Now, they were in a battle between life and death.

“Yeah, these people will never know what it’s like…” Rei replies bitterly. The group of four had just regrouped and were currently watching the crowd from one of the benches scattered around the perimeter of the school. Given that they were in casual attire, the students would give them the occasional questioning look, but no one ended up bothering them.

“I know it’s hard, girls, but our powers are also a responsibility. These students don’t really know any better. Of course they’d be afraid of things they don’t understand.” Gaeul says, which surprises the two younger girls. They’d expected that Gaeul of all of them would be the one most upset because of how she was ostracized from their old high school’s community for being a mutant. “We just gotta show these people that we’re not the threat.”

This would’ve been a pretty deep reflecting moment for the group if it weren’t for the sudden shriek that echoed throughout the campus grounds shortly after.

“What was that?” Leeseo asks nervously, eyes already darting around to see where the sound had come from.

“It might be the androids. Let’s move-” Gaeul was about to take a step forward, but before she could, a laser beam sears a horizontal line in the ground in front of her.

“Oh yeah… we drank that water too.” Liz realizes as four androids now stood in front of them. They were dressed just like a normal Hanlim student, but the energy cannons for hands were a pretty big giveaway.

“Gaeul-unnie, you should go with Leeseo and check out what’s happening on the other side of campus. Me and Liz will hold here.” Rei says when the screams in the distance only grow louder.

“What? No, we have to fight together!” Gaeul tries to argue.

“We don’t really have much of a choice. Leeseo can only carry one person at a time, and we won’t be able to get to the other side quick enough on foot.” Liz replies before ducking behind a tree to dodge an android attack.

“She’s right, unnie. Let’s go.” Leeseo then says, not leaving it up for any more debate. The maknae floats over to Gaeul, picks her up, and flies away fast. The androids tried to follow, but Rei uses her magnetism to keep them in place.

~~~~

The other side of campus was in chaos. Students were running in all sorts of directions, and in the middle of all the action was a familiar foe- Park Seoyoung. Next to her was a collapsed student, likely a mutant from the looks of it. Gaeul and Leeseo drop out of the sky and land right in front of her.

“Yah! Pick on somebody your own strength!” Gaeul yells. This seems to get Seoyoung’s attention as she turns towards them and laughs.

“If I wanted a challenge, I would’ve followed the IZ*ONE girls. Your powers will be good additions to my arsenal though.” She says before revealing a new ability, raising a chunk of earth and tossing it towards them. Gaeul stands her ground though, holding out her hands. When the rock makes contact, it simply crumbles into pebbles. Unfortunately, this seemed to be a diversion as she was struck in the back by an energy blast.

“Unnie!” Leeseo shouts. Looking around, the two girls were now surrounded by a group of androids.

“The boss said I could take all the powers I wanted as long as I left some mutants alive to take in. I’m just going to have to omit you two from the report.” Seoyoung laughs, her hand shifting into her patented metal blade.

Leeseo was in a tough spot. If she tried to take to the sky with Gaeul, she’d easily be shot down, but if she didn’t move, she wouldn’t stand a chance against Seoyoung.

“It’s over.” Seoyoung says right before taking a fireball directly to the face. When Leeseo looks over to where the blast came from, she sees Yeji and the members of ITZY who had teleported right to them.

“You girls, okay?” Yeji asks as Lia and Yuna distract the androids.

“Yeah, thanks for the assist.” Gaeul replies through a cough.

“That’s good to hear because we have a lot of cleaning up to do.” The ITZY leader says as an android flies across the field. Rei’s handiwork, Gaeul assumed.

Meanwhile, Chaeryeong was checking up on the mutant student that Seoyoung had drained. When she got closer though, she realized the girl looked familiar.

“Kyujin?” Chaeryeong asks, remembering the name of one of her dance studio’s students.

“Chaeryeong-sunbaenim? What’re you doing here?” The young girl asks back, still a bit groggy.

“Tsk, you should’ve told me you were a mutant too. Let’s get you out of here first.” Chaeryeong replies, picking Kyujin up and zipping to safety while energy blasts and fireballs are being thrown across campus.

Back in the main scuffle, Seoyoung was back up and trading blows with Yeji and Ryujin, Gaeul was aging every android she could touch, and Leeseo, Yuna, and Lia were carrying students away from danger. Rei and Liz had also finally made their way to the group, the former throwing androids around like rag dolls, and the latter walking right through them and coming out with their energy cores. The tide finally seemed to be turning, and Seoyoung could tell.

“Enough!” She yells before pressing a button on a remote in her pocket. The remaining androids then began emitting a loud screeching noise that caused everyone to begin grabbing at their heads in irritation, even herself.

“W-what… is this…” Yeji struggles to say.

“Our secret weapon…” Seoyoung says, also visibly in pain until she covered her ears with plugs.

Yeji and Rei managed to take out a couple more androids, but they also eventually succumbed to the pain and fell to their knees.

“Like I said. It’s over.” Seoyoung says with a triumphant grin.

~~~~

“Okay, looks like we have our audience.” Yunjin announces, noticing a group of around twenty androids behind them.

“Are you sure they’re all androids?” Eunchae asks, getting a bit antsy about the upcoming fight.

“Yes, I can only use my abilities on human minds, and none of these people following us had a consciousness I could tap into.” The older girl says before finally stopping in the middle of a bridge over the Han River. “I’ll keep the civilians away. You two do your best.”

It was chaos from the start as Eunchae activated her avatar form and began bashing through the army of androids. Kazuha’s approach was more calculated as she airified and began oxidizing the machines she blew by. Still though, they were clearly outnumbered. For as many androids Eunchae ripped apart, the same amount would reassemble themselves. On Kazuha’s end, the androids figured out her strategy and began heating up their bodies so that the Japanese girl couldn’t get close.

“Look at you mutants, struggling so hard to fight a losing battle.” A new voice says from the other side of the bridge- Hunter Geun. With Eunchae and Kazuha occupied, Yunjin was left alone to face him, and the one leg up she had was that he was human.

“The return of the lackey. How many times do we have to kick your before you give up?” Yunjin taunts, already planting mental suggestions and illusions in his mind.

“Yah! I consider KYB an equal to me. He isn’t my boss!” The burly man replies angrily.

“I didn’t even mention him. Must have been a force of habit for you.” Yunjin teases some more.

“You just signed your death warrant.” Geun grunts before charging his cannons and firing… right towards the androids.

“Oh… so close! How about over here?” Yunjin calls from his left. Geun fires another volley of projectiles, but once again, they only hit the androids.

“Alright, that’s it!” He yells in a frustrated tone before launching stun grenades all over the area. With such a wide radius, Yunjin couldn’t avoid this attack and got hit, the illusions around the bridge dissipating. The civilians walking along the river paths were now witness to a spectacle of explosions and projectiles.

“I’ve had enough of you.” Geun says, now standing over Yunjin. Eunchae and Kazuha were also finally overwhelmed and knocked down. “All mutants will be under our control soon enough.”

As Geun prepared to swing his fists down onto Yunjin, the aforementioned girl suddenly disappeared into a shadow. In his confusion, Geun didn’t have time to react to a stone fist striking him right in the back through his armored plating.

“Who dares?” He asks, turning to face a group of nine women. Standing directly in front of him was the one who’d just struck him, Im Nayoung.

“We dare.” She replies before swinging again.

~~~~

“You okay?” A familiar voice asks Yunjin, who was now leaning on the bridge’s fence.

“Wait… you???” Yunjin ends up saying when her eyes finally focus again. It was Matsui Jurina.

“That’s not the ‘thank you’ I was expecting, and to think I came all this way to help.” The Japanese girl chuckles before helping Yunjin up.

“What’re you doing here?” Yunjin asks confusedly as the battle raged on behind them.

“I booked a flight to Korea with some of the AKB girls, and by the time I arrived at campus, you were gone. I ran into those I.O.I girls though and decided to come with them to find you girls.” Jurina replies, and to Yunjin’s surprise, it sounded sincere.

“Well, thank you then. We should wrap things up over here before-” And before Yunjin could finish her sentence, a loud explosion rocks the area. It wasn’t from the bridge though. When Yunjin looked over, she saw smoke and fire near Namsan tower.

“Oh god. Saerom needs help.”

“I can send some of my members over, but I don’t know if we’ll make it in time.” Nayoung says.

“Don’t worry, I can shadow travel them there in an instant.” Jurina replies.

“Alright then. Sejeong, Chaeyeon, Mina, Jieqiong, go with Jurina. We’ll handle things over here.” Nayoung orders.

“Yah! No one’s going anywhere!” Geun growls, but his words are cut short by one of the I.O.I members hitting him with an electric shock. Given his armor’s properties though, the attack is simply absorbed. That only proved to be a ploy to grab his attention though as the second he turned; his eyes made contact with another member.

“Sleep.” She says, and Geun’s eyes immediately slam shut.

“You couldn’t make him do anything funnier, Doyeon?” The electric girl asked.

“You and your flair for the dramatic. It’s been a while, Yoojung. Cut me some slack.” Doyeon bickers back.

“Well, you got your distraction. Go!” Nayoung says to the aforementioned girls who break off their fights and rush to Jurina.

“It’s going to be a rocky ride, so hold on to your lunches.” The Japanese girl says with a sly grin before taking them into the shadows.

It was now an all-out brawl against the androids on the bridge. Kazuha and Eunchae, who were both healed by the girl named Kang Mina, were back to full strength and running through the androids. Yoojung continued sending electric shocks as well while Nayoung, using her stone fists, and a girl named Somi, using what appeared to be super strength and agility, punched through the machines. Finally, Yunjin, Chungha, and Doyeon spent their time dealing with the civilians who were getting a bit too close to the battle for comfort.

The androids seemed to be on the brink, but that’s when they all took a step back to regroup. They then began melding themselves together until they were one big android that was even taller than Eunchae’s avatar. Instead of launching energy blasts though, the large mech begins emitting a horrible screeching noise that echoes throughout the city. The group at the bridge as well as some bystanders, who were likely mutants as well, all fall to their knees, covering their ears,

All around the city of Seoul, a similar thing was happening. The androids placed in some areas combined together to become some kind of large speaker to catch all the mutants off guard.

Well girls… we bought you as much time as we could. Yunjin thinks.

Please end this soon.

 

A/N: Hi and welcome back to another chapter! Though this one didn't have the members again, I hope y'all still enjoyed the perspective of the Fromivessera members + the cameos from IOI and Twice I promised! They all tried their best, but the androids seem to have the advantage again. It's up to IZ*ONE in the penultimate chapter to finally end things. I hope y'all are excited for it!!!

Again, because of work, next chapter might come next weekend again, so please stay patient! 

Thank you once again for all the support! I always enjoy reading through comments especially about what people think of the story. Seeing your reactions make my day!

Have a wonderful day, everyone, and I'll see y'all in the second to last chapter!