Like the PD campus, JYP’s school for mutants was located in a dense forest area on the outskirts of Seoul. Unlike the former institution though, people were aware of where it was located. It had been a safe haven for mutants in the country for a while before more facilities were created, so to hear that someone was crazy enough to attack the place made Chaeyeon worry. There were some very strong trainees there after all.

The feather girl had been running nonstop for about ten minutes, blowing by crowds of people and speeding cars on the way over. Given that PD campus and JYP were across town from each other, she was making good time. Eventually, the concrete city blurring by her as she ran began being replaced by green plants and trees which indicated that she was almost there.

“Okay, this should be it.” Chaeyeon thinks, coming to a complete stop to where the school’s gates were only to find that they’d been broken open.

“Oh god…” The courtyard that was always well-maintained and beautiful was a mess of rubble and potholes. Scattered around were many unconscious students who had tried to fight off the attack. Chaeyeon wanted to check on them one by one, but the sound of explosions coming from the garden behind the main building caught her attention. There were still people holding on.

When she zips on over, that’s when she sees a group of students standing around a large birch tree in the center of the garden. It was a mix of guys and girls, and they were surrounded by six androids.

“Chaeryeong!” The older Lee yells, recognizing her sister’s face from afar, battered and bruised from the fight. The younger girl looks over in surprise seeing her sister standing there all alone.

“Yah! Tin cans, over here!” Chaeyeon shouts to get the androids’ attention. One of them turns at the sound of a new target and fires an energy blast right at her. The feather girl easily dodges the attacks, running in a zigzag pattern towards the robot. Once she’s close enough, she increases her speed even further and runs around the birch tree to form a tornado with the students in the eye of it. The wind wall was enough to push all the robots off their feet and create some distance between them.

“Chaeyeon, good to see you.” Yeji says with a nod, grateful that someone had come to help them out.

“Who is this?” One of the guys asks with a deep voice, mist emitting from his hands defensively.

“Chill out, Felix. She’s from PD campus to help.” Yeji replies.

“Yes, I’m Lee Chaeyeon. Chaeryeong’s sister. I came with some advice on how to beat these robots.” The feather girl says as the androids begin to get up again and set up for another attack.

“Guys, cover us so Chaeyeon can have time to explain.” Ryujin yells as she jumps out of the way of another energy ray. She’d tried her best to fight these things, but with how solid their armor was, she couldn’t do any damage. Her fists were already bleeding from the effort.

One of the guys, Changbin, nods and creates a force bubble to shield the girls while the others launch a counterattack. Just like before though, every time an arm or leg would get separated, they’d just magnetize back to the robot.

“The soft spot is located at the upper right of the androids’ backs. You gotta hit it precisely.” Chaeyeon says as another student is thrown past them.

“Alright, everyone, distract the robots. Get me, Chan, and Felix open shots!” Yeji orders. Chaeryeong and Chaeyeon nod to each other before dashing towards the androids and spinning around them to get them facing away. ITZY’s leader blasts a fire beam right at the area Chaeyeon had mentioned and unlike before where her attacks didn’t seem to affect the machine, a hole is now burned right into it. The android’s eyes go dim as it falls to the ground.

For another robot, Yuna teleports around to get its attention which allows Yeji to fire another killshot. Finally, Lia uses her elastic arms to hold the android’s limbs down. Though it tried to fly up in the air, Lia’s arms stretched to keep it from gaining altitude. Ryujin helped out by holding on to the older girl’s shoulders to keep her from being pulled into the air. Yeji focuses her aim and fires one more shot that knocks the android out of the sky.

The male students they were with see ITZY’s display and suddenly regain their own confidence, using their abilities to hold the robots in place for their elemental users to take down. The boys named Chan and Felix launched their own projectiles of energy and ice at the weak spot they were pointed to and the other three androids easily fell.

With all the androids now defeated, some of the students collapsed on the ground in exhaustion while others began running back to the main building to check on the injured.

“You got here just in time, unnie.” Chaeryeong says, giving her older sister a tired smile.

“What can I say? I like to make an entrance.” Chaeyeon quips back before turning towards Yeji.

“Can you explain to me what happened here? These robots… it’s not the first time they’ve attacked. Nako and Hitomi just returned to Korea after a similar one. It seems these were produced somewhere in the country.” The older Lee says, recounting the other important information she’d gathered from her meeting earlier.

“KYB Holdings? We’ve actually been investigating them for a while. That’s what our gathering was about today. We heard from a reliable source that their CEO, Kim Yong-bum, was connected with Ahn Joon-young. Before we could discuss more though, we heard explosions up front. We thought they were just rogue mutants since they looked like regular teens, but we soon realized that they were androids.” Yeji replies.

“Ahn Joon-young…” Chaeyeon mutters to herself, remembering the man who was in charge of the cloning project a year and a half ago. There was so much more to this mystery than they initially thought.

“Yeji! Jihyo-sunbae said to meet her in the office now.” The boy from before, Chan, calls the ITZY leader.

“Listen, I hope your investigation goes well. I’ll contact you with anything I know as soon as I can.” Yeji says to Chaeyeon before running off. Most of the other students followed until it was just Chaeryeong and Chaeyeon left in the garden.

“I always did say that we should try to relocate to an actual hidden base like you guys.” The younger Lee eventually says while looking around at the area that was once a beautiful resting ground for the students. Now, the flowers were crushed, picnic tables were broken, and stray flames burned in the distance.

“I get why they wanted to stay though. This place holds a lot of memories.” Chaeyeon replies, putting her hand on the tall birch tree that has stood in the garden center since before she left JYP.

“I know. Jihyo-sunbae and her team basically grew up here, but most of her members are now spread out around Seoul. I think a new place would do well for ITZY and SKZ, the group of guys who were fighting with us earlier. There’s also a lot of younger mutants joining our school, so I just feel it would be safer that we move.”

“Well, that’s something you might want to bring up with Jihyo-sunbae then. I’m sure she’ll understand.” Chaeryeong nods at this before approaching her sister and giving her a big hug.

“Thank you again for coming, unnie. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you.”

“Aish, I know you would’ve figured something out. We share the same brain cells, don’t we?” Chaeyeon says with a laugh before her gaze meets the empty eyes of one of the androids on the ground.

“I’m going to assume you guys will be studying these androids, but can I request one to be sent to us? Sakura might be able to compare them with the original one.”

“Sure, unnie. We’ll send one over tomorrow. For now, I think you should go meet up with your team now. They’ll need you.” Chaeryeong replies after seeing the sun had finally set above them.

“Stay safe, Ryeong…” Chaeyeon says, hugging her back one more time.

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?”

“Well, you always seemed to get yourself into more trouble than me.” Before Chaeryeong could rebut, the older Lee zipped away. She wanted to stick around and help out the wounded at JYP, but her sister was right. Her friends needed her.

~~~~

“Okay girls, we’re here…” Eunbi announces to her team consisting of Hyewon, Yena, Yuri, Nako and Hitomi when she spots the building of KYB Science and Research. The group quietly filed out of the van they’d parked a couple blocks away and began moving towards their destination. At first glance, it looked like a regular corporate building about 25 floors high.

“Please tell me there aren’t 25 floors going down either…” Yena mutters after looking up at how tall the structure was.

“We won’t know until we go in.” Yuri replies. Though inside, she also wished it wasn’t the case. All the underground bases they’ve been to over the years have started to give her claustrophobia.

After a couple minutes of walking, the group finally arrives at the alley next to the building. Eunbi looks at Yena and signals towards a security camera right above the side door. The duck nods and shoots a small bolt of electricity that short circuits it.

“Locked…” Hyewon says after trying to open the door.

“No problem, unnie. Step aside.” Nako steps in and uses brute strength to turn the doorknob until the lock is broken.

“What happened to subtlety?” Eunbi asks the short girl who was now holding the doorknob in her hand.

“Come on, unnie. They won’t even know the difference.” She replies with a forced laugh while trying to reattach it. Hitomi could only facepalm.

Once inside, Yena goes to the closest outlet and places her hand on it to get into the electrical system and shut down the security cameras.

“Okay, good news, it doesn’t seem like any electrical power is being diverted far below ground which means there isn’t some hidden base. Bad news, they have a backup generator, so the cameras will be back up in twenty minutes unless I can reach it beforehand.”

“Alright, that means you and Yuri go for that. Meanwhile, Nako and Hii-chan will go to the labs and Hyewon and I will investigate the head office. If anything goes wrong, use the comm devices. Are we clear?” The members nod at Eunbi’s instruction and split off.

~~~~

Because it was already past working hours, there weren’t many people still working. Yuri and Yena managed to slip by rather easily with the younger girl’s charmspeak convincing everyone they did end up meeting that they were just mechanics looking to perform maintenance.

“I’m sorry for earlier by the way.” Yena suddenly says while the two were walking along an empty hall following the building map that showed where the generator was.

“I get you were upset at Kkura-unnie, but there are better ways you could’ve gone about it than calling her out in front of everyone.” Yuri replies as she peeks around a corner. She was well aware of the duck’s fiery side, and how she sometimes let those emotions consume her.

“I-I was worried not just about me, but for the others, especially you. Remember that fansign a couple months ago? What if Kkura’s data had gotten into the hands of someone who wanted to target you?” Yena says, referencing an event where an anti-fan had gotten in and tried to attack Yuri. She ended up being fine, but it certainly didn’t help the older girl’s paranoia.

“I can take care of myself just fine, Sparky. Besides, if I ever need help, I know you’ll be there anyway. You yelling at Kkura-unnie wasn’t going to magically get the data back. All we can do is stay vigilant and prepared.” Yuri replies, giving the older girl a playful punch on the shoulder.

“You’re right. I'll apologize to her properly when we get back.” The hamster was wise beyond her years, and just always seemed to know what to say to Yena. It’s no wonder her fans praise her for her personality on top of her vocal skill.

“That’s good. Now, focus up. We’re here.” Yuri says as they reach a red door labeled ‘generator room 2’. When the two enter, Yena immediately feels something is wrong.

“I can’t feel the energy here…” The duck says as she looks at the backup generator that was booting up. She looked at her palms and tried to make a spark, but nothing came out. She then puts her hands on the generator, and that’s when it hits her.

:”Rubber insulation. Yuri, we have to contact-” When the duck turns around, she sees a burly man covering her girlfriend’s mouth and pointing a gun at her.

“You? Aren’t you supposed to be in jail?” Yena is shocked as she recognizes the man- Hunter Geun.

“Let’s just say I have friends in high places.” He says with a chuckle. “Now, come along quietly before this singer loses her career.”

~~~~

“You found anything, Hii-chan?” Nako asks from the other side of the lab. The duo were currently on the 10th floor after figuring out that most testing and data on prototypes were stored there. Luckily for them though, this branch of the building was already empty aside from two guards that they easily took care of.

“Hmm, so far it’s just tests for their new water brand. Nothing on robotics.” Hitomi replies while sifting through computer files. Before they left, Sakura had given everyone a decrypting key that could give them access to PCs without triggering any security measures which was proving useful now.

“Wait, I think I found it.” The short girl calls her partner over to show her a file with a fake name that the decrypter flagged.

“Oh, that's it alright.” Hitomi says. It looked exactly like the schematic Sakura had shown them except instead of an actual metallic robot body, it was a figure similar to the androids they fought in Japan. Nako transfers the file over to a USB, and was about to shut down the computer until another folder caught her eye.

“Yujeonja Tech? That’s Ahn Joon-young’s company. What are they doing with their data?” Nako wonders.

“Maybe they’re connected? That would be really big. We should contact Eunbi-unnie.” Hitomi activates her comm device, but is surprised to be met with static. The duo’s worries spike up even more when an alarm goes off in the building.

“Huh? I thought Yena shut down the security system. This isn’t good.” Nako says, looking around the room and seeing the camera’s red light back on.

“Nako, watch out!” The peach-cheeked girl says as she pushes her partner out of the way of a needle that barely misses her.

“Put your hands up!” A guard’s voice says. Behind him were four more armed men aiming what appeared to be special rifles at them. Hitomi turns to see the needle that had lodged into the computer screen next to them and recognizes them as tranquilizer darts.

“Nako, don’t let those hit you.” She says.

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” The short girl replies before flipping a table over to use as cover. Hitomi looks around at some of the office plants in the room and tries to control them, but for some reason, it wasn’t working. Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t even sense them.

“The plants, they’re fakes…” She realizes.

“We have to go, Nako. The others need our help.” Hitomi says as the soldier’s footsteps get closer. Her partner nods before shoving the table forward and knocking the men over. The two then run to the stairwell and lock the door.

“You go look for Yena and Yuri. I’ll go to Eunbi-unnie and Hyewon-unnie. Meet back at the entrance, we already have what we need.” Nako says quickly before running upstairs. Hitomi glances upwards at where her partner was heading, an ominous feeling starting to build.

How did they know we were coming?

~~~~

“Alright, let’s see what we have here.” Eunbi says as she begins searching through one of the computers in the main office on the top floor.

“Unnie, is it just me, or was this a bit too easy.” Hyewon says while looking around the room for more clues.

“What do you mean? I’d say our espionage skills have improved in general over the past few years.” The older girl responds, skimming past emails about a new water brand the company was helping develop until she found one with a peculiar subject line from last year- ‘Eye surveillance tests successful’.

“Nako just broke the door on our way in minutes ago. I just think that for a company we’re suspecting of creating killer robots, there should’ve been more security.” Even at the entrance of this room, there wasn’t anyone there.

“Eunbi? Did you find something?” Hyewon asks again when the leader doesn’t respond.

“Not about the robots, but about some other tech. It’s a type of lens you can place on a subject’s eyes fitted with micro cameras that could help you see what they were seeing.” Eunbi says.

“What about it? It does sound a bit suspicious. Maybe they attach them to the androids to see through their eyes?” The younger girl guesses, but Eunbi shakes her head.

“I don’t know… I feel like there’s something I should be remembering…” Those words activate Hyewon’s warning senses immediately, flashing back to the mission before everything had calmed down.

“Unnie, when Sohye held you captive before, how long did she have you with her?” She asks which confuses the older girl.

“I’m not sure… I just remember getting knocked out and waking up later when she confronted you girls.” At this, the puzzle pieces begin to fall together for Hyewon.

“Sohye, that damned bi-” Before she could finish her sentence, an alarm began ringing throughout the building.

“Wait, what’s happening?” Eunbi asks as a TV that was hanging on the room’s wall turns on, revealing a middle aged man with parted black hair and glasses..

“What happened, Eunbi, is that you’ve played right into our hands.” He says.

“Kim Yong-bum. So it was you after all.” Hyewon says with a sneer.

“Oh, I wouldn’t take credit for all of it. We have many outstanding scientists and developers at our company. I’m especially thankful to Ms. Kwon here for her contributions.”

“No…” Eunbi reaches for her face, starting to understand what the man was insinuating.

“You and your little team have been interfering with my plans for too long, and I believe it’s time to put an end to it. Want to see?” The screen suddenly changes to show several camera feeds. One is of Yujin and IVE walking through the repair shop. Another featured Le Sserafim with the members surrounding Chaewon who was down. The next feed showed the aftermath of the attack on JYP, rubble everywhere and smoke filling the air. Finally, there was also footage of PD campus’ holding cells that were now empty.

“I like that look on your face right now. That’s how I felt for the past year and a half because of you. Now that you know though, I’m afraid it’s time for you to meet your end.” Yong-bum says with a hysterical laugh. Eunbi was shattered. For the past six months, she’d been a puppet, spying on the team’s every move.

“Enough!” Hyewon shouts before freezing the TV. The younger girl immediately runs to her girlfriend who had forced her eyes shut.

“Eunbi. Eunbi, look at me, it’s going to be okay.” The brunette says, not noticing the temperature in the room slowly rising.

“No…this is all my fault. Everything is ruined because of me…” The older girl mumbles.

“It’s not. We can fix this. We just have to get out of here and find the others.” Hyewon picks Eunbi up and carries her to the door, but as soon as her hand touches the handle, she recoils in pain. She then tries to freeze the door handle, but her ice would immediately melt on contact.

“What the…” Hyewon looks around the room and finally feels the heat.

“Eunbi… it’s going to be okay…” She tried to say, but the temperature seemed to be affecting her quicker compared to the older girl.

“Hyewon-ah? Hyewon?” Eunbi asks when she hears a thud. She wanted to open her eyes, but the thought of the spy lens terrified her. Just as she was about to succumb to the heat herself, the sound of the door being broken open fills the room.

“Eunbi-unnie! Hyewon-unnie! I’m here! We have to go!” It was Nako’s voice. A couple of seconds later, she feels her body weight get picked up, and after that, it was nothing but darkness.

 

A/N: Okay, i'm not gonna lie, i have been on a writing binge lately HAHA. I know i just posted chapters on back to back days but here's another one! again i'm open to holding off posting these right as i finished them. just say so!

Moving on, I think this might be my favorite, if not top 3 favorite chapter i've written for the series. Eunbi has secretly been under surveillance the whole time without knowing it, and now everyone is in danger. How will the others respond to the traps laid for them, and what happened to chaewon? You'll find that out in the next chapter but i don't think it'll be finished by tomorrow lol. i'm just lucky to have had a bunch of time this week.

Anyways, once again, I appreciate everyone who's supported this series! Y'all are the best!

Have a nice day, and see y'all in the next chapter!