Where am I…? Yuri thinks when she wakes up in a glass cell where she was strapped to a chair. The last thing she remembers was… Oh yeah… Him.

Back in the KYB Science and Research center, she’d been ambushed from behind by that anti-mutant lobbyist, Hunter Geun. He’d used her as leverage to get Yena to come along without a fight. Once they got in his van, they were both gassed, and it was all darkness from there.

Now that the popstar is awake, several scientists begin to walk over to her cell with notebooks in their hands.

Yuri wanted to shout at all of them to let her go, but only realized when she tried that was covered, the sound of her voice not projecting. It wasn’t a normal piece of cloth that someone would usually use to gag someone either. It felt more like a mask. Though, the added weight told her that there was some mechanism attached to it.

“Subject Jo Yuri is awake. Vitals appear normal.” One scientist says as she scribbles something on her notebook.

Yah, I’m talking to you! Yuri tried to say again with more force, but it was no use. What she did notice during this attempt was an orange light being emitted on the borders of her mask as she spoke.

“Soundwaves are revealing a hidden pitch layered over the subject’s normal speaking voice. This might be what causes the hypnosis.” The woman observes while looking at a computer screen next to her.

A hidden pitch? Is that how my power works? Yuri quiets down and thinks for a moment. She’d never actually considered how her powers worked. They kind of just did. It was something she could usually just turn on and off, but maybe there was a lot more to it than that. Before she could contemplate more though, an electric shock ran through the chair she was strapped to.

“Keep talking, Jo. We need more data.” The scientist orders. “You are a very valuable asset to us right now.”

Great… It's always nice being wanted. Yuri thinks sarcastically, now wide awake from the electric shock.

Where’s Yena-unnie…

~~~~

Somewhere else within the hidden base, a blonde girl is firing off her own electric blasts into the cell containing her. She’d been trying to break her way out since she’d woken up earlier, but every time she’d shoot a bolt of electricity, the wall would simply absorb it, the borders emitting a yellow light at each attempt.

“I need to get to Yuri!” Yena shouts angrily. Though the scientists observing her knew they were protected on the outside, the duck’s outbursts did give them jitters.

“I’m afraid you’ll need to stay put, Ms. Choi. We still need your assistance with our plans.” A man wearing a labcoat responds.

“Fascinating…” He mumbles as he reads a chart. “You’re like an unlimited battery. You’ve been producing power for almost an hour, and yet your vitals have remained stable.”

“Yeah! And I’m going to break out of here soon and let you know how it feels. How about that?” Yena replies.

“Oh, by all means, keep trying. Your energy is providing us with a much needed power source for our creations. You’ve charged them at a rate that even our highest voltage transmitters couldn’t compete with. ” At those words, Yena quiets down.

Their creations? The androids?” She thinks. It was only then that she realized that her attacks weren’t just being absorbed and contained. They were being diverted somewhere else.

“Fine, I can wait then. You know my friends are coming to destroy this place soon, right?” Yena taunts, but to that, the scientist merely chuckles and pulls up a camera feed of another cell with a familiar woman in it.

“If you value your girlfriend’s life, you will comply with our orders.” He says with a smug grin.

“You really are heartless. That’s a celebrity singer, do you know what’ll happen if the public finds out about this?” The duck replies quickly, trying to hide the panic laced in her words.

“There’s always a new idol that debuts who can replace her.” The scientist says as he clicks a button, causing Yuri to shudder in her chair. Yena didn’t need to hear the audio to tell that Yuri had just been electrocuted.

“Okay, okay! I’ll listen. Just… don’t hurt her anymore.” The blonde girl pleads, immediately sending electric pulses towards the walls like she was earlier.

“That was too easy…” He says before placing his clipboard down on the table and leaving to get a coffee. On the front page was a picture of Yena’s face with a description on it.

Choi Yena… Ability: Energy Creation… Weaknesses: Foolhardy… Jo Yuri…

~~~~

“How’s it look, Miyawaki?” The voice of a scientist, who Sakura found out was named Doctor Han Seyoon, asks after opening the dark room and peering in.

“Are you really rushing me right now? After your people made such sloppy designs for supposed killer robots?” The Japanese woman replies only to get an electric shock in return.

“Yah, you are here to perform a role, not spew sarcastic comments.” Dr. Han says after lifting her finger off a remote she had in her hand. “Now, let me ask you again. What is the progress on android model 5?”

“It’s… going well. There’s just a few adjustments I need to make for the eye-tech, power sources, and internal defense.” Sakura mumbles back. Ever since she’d arrived at whatever base she was in, she’d been locked in this room with no light aside from the one being emitted from the computer they’d given her and the faint red glow of a security camera above her. The tech-girl had been forced to work for god knows how long, and without any windows, she wasn’t even sure how much time had passed.

“Again, do not try anything funny. Your friends’ safety is in your hands.” The scientist says before shutting the door and locking it.

What a load of garbage. If I perfect these androids, they’re going to use them against my friends anyway. Sakura thinks while typing some more. Of course, she wanted to plant some failsafe within her design so that her friends could fight them off. Unfortunately though, she realized through her scans that KYB had already encoded a lot of cybersecurity functions into their robots’ mainframes. Sakura could bypass them just fine, but she didn’t have the ability to leave any traps in the system that wouldn’t get flagged. She’d already tried and gotten a nice shock as a result.

These androids they were designing… they had the power to reassemble themselves after being torn apart, energy cannons, flight, and now the ability to scan… something. Sakura still wasn’t so sure. All she had been told was that they had to be built to scan for a type of metal.

Or a device… Her subconscious thinks, prompting a theory to pop up in her head

“Wait, that’s it… eyes that can scan for mutants.” Sakura mutters, recalling a gadget Hunter Geun had used months before to find Wonyoung and Yujin. It wasn’t exactly the same though. She remembered that it relied on facial recognition and a database from mutant facilities they’d hacked into. Maybe, this was some other variation of it because she was also sure she deleted the previous data.

I need to signal the others… She thinks, racking her brain for any plan until she has her eureka moment. The computer they’d given her was basically isolated because it wasn’t connected to the main system. They wanted to ensure Sakura wouldn’t be able to get herself in, but the idea had one oversight. Because of that setup, the only way Han and the other scientists could extract data was by plugging in a USB to download her progress every couple hours which was a method Sakura could exploit.

~~~~

“Yah, over here!” Chaeyeon whisper-shouts to two girls who were walking along the edge of the mountain road in confusion.

“Oh, there you are. Sorry, we couldn’t figure out where the entrance was.” Saerom replies before she and Hayoung follow the feather girl through the barrier.

“Woah, okay, this place is pretty cool.” Hayoung says, gawking at the view of the campus under the night sky.

“It’s great, isn’t it? Now come on, everyone’s waiting. You’re our midnight guests.” Chaeyeon says before leading them to the war room.

~~~~

“Alright girls, this is Lee Saerom and Song Hayoung, two police officers from the Seoul department.” The two aforementioned girls bow politely after Chaeyeon’s introduction.

“Yes, we’re both mutants and wanted to help you girls solve this case.” Saerom says.

“Did you find anything else since we left earlier?” Yunjin asks to which the older girl nods.

“I went through officer Hwang’s room in the afternoon while Hayoung was distracting him. He’s definitely involved with KYB.” She says before going on to explain. “They talked about his promotion several times, but whenever some important details came up, they’d be passed through an envelope that he never opened while he was at the station. Some other stuff we already knew like him visiting the jail to let out the criminals you girls arrested.”

“Okay, anything else?”

“Oh, what about that letter?” Hayoung suggests.

“Ah, right, there was this one envelope I saw which had the address kinda visible. It was from South Gyeongsang. I’m not sure what its contents are though, so it could be nothing.”

“Hmm, we’re going to need a tighter connection than that. South Gyeongsang is really far, so we’d need to be absolutely sure something’s up there before splitting our resources.” Eunbi says, still blindfolded. Saerom actually wanted to ask what that was about, but eventually decided against it.

“If that agenda’s done. Can you help me out, unnie?” Wonyoung suddenly asks. “Your power is psychometry, right?

“Yes, sure. What is it?” Saerom asks back to which the bunny responds by taking a blue scrunchy out of her pocket.

“This belongs to my friend, Yujin. She was captured, and we found this at the scene.” Wonyoung says before carefully placing the hair tie in the older girl’s palms.

Saerom then closes her eyes and focuses, looking for a memory attached to the item. She sees fire… a lot of fire. What follows is a huge explosion that even manages to cause her to shudder. A couple of seconds later though, the eyes of who she assumed was Yujin opened slowly. She was being dragged away by a soldier, but just had the presence of mind to take off her accessory to leave as a clue. Little did Yujin know at the time how big it would become.

“Jirisan… she was put in a truck that had Jirisan on it.” Saerom says after opening her eyes.

“That’s near South Gyeongsang.” Gaeul realizes, eyes widening.

“We need to leave as soon as possible!” Wonyoung said eagerly, causing Eunbi to have to step in.

“If Yujin’s there, it might be for a different part of KYB’s plan. I doubt they’d be building the robots over there. I still don’t think it’s wise to send everyone there given how big Jirisan national park is in the first place.” She says, something within her feeling that wasn’t the entire picture. “A letter being from South Gyeongsang and a truck that says Jirisan doesn’t mean that the two are automatically connected.”

“We should still send a big enough strike force to fight just in case the androids are already there defending the place. It’s the best lead we have so far.” Chaeyeon counters. For all she knew, Sakura could be there too, so she wanted to be able to come along as well.

“Fine, I can send you, IVE, Nako and Hitomi, but everyone else has to stay. We don’t know when another attack can happen here in Seoul, or when new information will pop up.” Eunbi replies, finally relenting and helping them plan their logistics for the trip.

~~~~

After about thirty minutes, Eunbi decides to adjourn the meeting, seeing that it was already late. Everyone had left the room already except her, Hyewon, Saerom and Hayoung.

“There’s just something that isn’t right…” The IZ*ONE leader mumbles.

“Yeah, I feel it too. There’s too much going on that I feel like we’re missing something that ties it all together.” Hyewon replies before asking a question to the two police officers. “Is there anything else? No matter how insignificant, anything could be useful”

“I tried touching everything in the chief’s office. He’s really meticulous about how he’s playing this.” Saerom says, shaking her head glumly.

“Ditto for me. Whenever I listen in on him, he’s ranting about paperwork.” Hayoung adds.

“We could tail him though, if you’d like.” Saerom suggests suddenly. “We can keep tabs on him and communicate with you guys if he does anything fishy.”

“Wouldn’t that risk you girls getting fired if he finds out? It could be dangerous too.” Eunbi replies. If Hwang was involved with KYB, there’s no telling what he has up his sleeve.

“It’ll be fine. We’re cops. We’re trained to be lowkey.” Hayoung reassures.

“Thanks then. We’d really appreciate it. I really must ask though. Why are you both going at such lengths to help? You both seemed to be doing fine at the station.”

“Aside from it being the right thing to do?” Saerom says with a chuckle before giving her real answer. “Beyond our jobs, we have a duty to help mutants out. During our tenure, we’ve seen many be discriminated against and accused of crimes they didn’t commit just because they were mutants. People think that just because they have powers that they can protect themselves when they’re probably the ones who need our assistance and support the most. Whatever is going on right now with KYB is going to hurt a lot of mutants who didn’t do anything wrong.”

Eunbi and Hyewon nod their heads at this explanation. They’ve both seen this happen as well. Many mutants go rogue as a result of being ostracized and abandoned. Chaewon was a prime example of this, going from a regular street thief to a debuting idol. All they needed was a little support.

“Thank you… we need more people like you two in the force.” Hyewon says, getting up and extending her hand for Saerom to shake.

“We’ll keep doing our best. We appreciate what your team is doing too, though slightly out of the jurisdictions of law.” Hayoung jokes before she and Saerom tidy their things and make their way out.

~~~~

“Wonyoung? What’re you doing here? It’s late, and we have to wake up early for the trip.” Chaeyeon says, surprised when she’d heard a knock on her door a little past 2am.

“Unnie… can I sleep here with you tonight?” The bunny asks quietly. Without Yujin, Yuri, and Yena in her room, she’d expected to be able to sleep lighter given that there’d be less noise, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. The night before, she had nightmares that kept her awake, and tonight, with the upcoming mission, her inner voices only became louder.

“Sure, make yourself comfortable.” Chaeyeon replies, seeing the tiredness on her dongsaeng’s face. The older girl may have been taking the loss of Sakura hard, but at least she knew the tech-girl was alive. In Wonyoung’s case, she witnessed a warehouse explode with her girlfriend. That’s the type of stuff that can traumatize a 16 year-old, not even knowing if your loved one made it out alive.

“Unnie, I’m scared.” Wonyoung says after plopping onto one of the free beds. In truth, Chaeyeon was also thankful for the company given that Yunjin was staying in a room with Kazuha and Eunchae tonight.

“We have a lead, Wonyoung. I believe Yujin’s alive. That dog never gives up.” Chaeyeon replies, but Wonyoung shakes her head.

“No, it’s not that. I believe Yujinnie’s alive too. What I’m scared of… is what I might do if she’s hurt or if I find who’s in charge of this whole mess.” The younger girl says while hugging her knees.

“What do you mean?” The feather girl asks, taking a seat next to Wonyoung and patting her on the back.

“What if I lose control? It’s almost happened twice already…” Wonyoung then goes on to explain how she’d almost suffocated a scientist back in Busan two years ago and how she almost did the same thing to the masked singer a couple days ago. Wonyoung usually had a poised disposition, but with Yujin’s well-being on the line, she didn’t know what she’d be capable of.

“It’ll be okay, Wonyoung. When you start getting angry… just breathe. Breathe slowly and count to ten. We have to control our emotions, not the other way around. I know it’s hard, but I know you can handle it. You’re a big girl now.” Chaeyeon says before ruffling the younger girl’s hair.

“Thank you, unnie. I needed that. Just in case I start to lose it tomorrow though-”

“-I’ll make sure to hold you back. You have a team with you, Wonyoung. Don’t you forget that.” Wonyoung smiles at the older girl’s words just as a yawn escapes .

“Sounds like you’re all tuckered out. C’mon, get some rest.” Chaeyeon says, but just when she was about to head back to her own bed, she felt the bunny’s hand hold onto her.

“Can you just sleep here, unnie?”

“Alright, maybe you’re still our baby after all.” Chaeyeon chuckles before laying down next to her dongsaeng who immediately falls asleep.

Some things never change…

 

A/N: Hi everyone! I got back from my trip yesterday, so here's the next chapter! 

Here we see some of what's going on with Yulyen and Kkura, but still no sign of Yujin. Will they all be in the same place or not?

Aside from that we got clues from Saerom and Hayoung about where Yujin is at the very least. It was fun writing about psychometry since I liked the kdrama, "he is psychometric" and more recently, "behind your touch". This won't be the last we hear from the Fromis duo though as they have the dangerous assignment of tailing officer Hwang.

Finally we have Wonyoung showing up at Chaeyeon's room, afraid of losing control of her powers of she get's too angry again. We'll see in the upcoming chapters if her temper holds.

Anyways, thanks for all the support! I really appreciate you all! It's a lot of effort to plan these out, but I enjoy it a lot! 

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