NeoSeoul Δ-II, 0120.

Chansung was early. This was how he wanted his assignments to begin, with enough time to re-scout the area before they exact retribution to those who deserved to die. There was no room for mistakes, and for Chansung, time was a matter of utmost importance in his line of duty. A second’s difference could tip the balance between life and death.

Ω-point was an entry point located in a park that lead to the middle of a well-manicured division of Δ-II, a suburban paradise to those who could afford it. Here, there was a taste of the Old Seoul where the atmosphere was free from industrial grit and grime. Inside the high walls were the residences of CEOs and other executives living the good life, all of which a product of many a lowly employee’s hard work. The crisp cold air whirled past the young assassin, bringing him a smorgasbord of scents to pick out the night’s conditions from. Chansung could literally smell success in the air tonight though it was stained with the smell of blood. He could pick that scent out from a mile away and at any concentration. The ferrous aroma was unmistakable, and Chansung could pinpoint to whom exactly this scent came from. He only knew one person to which the metallic smell of blood mixed with the scent of irises.

He turned to look behind him where Rai was sitting on the curb in her slim black hoodie, black leggings and tabi boots, and even without trying she already blended into the shadows. Chansung was certain she was hurt, but why she refused to tell him clued him in that the source of her injury was from one of their own. It was no secret that Rai wanted to kill Nichkhun, it had been the sole reason she had agreed to being a member of the group in the first place. From the moment Rai laid her eyes on Nichkhun she had wanted to kill him and she never stopped trying since then, the reason never made it past the two of them, but Chansung believed it to be dire.

Snapping on his gloves, Chansung re-assessed the building they were infiltrating that night. Behind the high concrete walls was a high two-storey house with tiled roofing and uneven architecture. Chansung smiled, he was going to have a lot of fun tonight. After securing his motorcycle behind a few bushes, he took a walk around the perimeter to make sure there were no civilians, even assassins had some form of honor and Chansung didn't feel right having to slay the innocent.

The walls were made of solid concrete with several levels of security, the first being the wall itself, and the second was its being tripped with a multitude of CCTVs, motion sensors, voltage traps, and several other forms of y traps such as spikes and arrows. Everything he needed to know was in the diagram Kwon gave him, and he, with the aid of Nichkhun, had already mapped out tonight’s strategy, one that required help from both Junsu and Rai.

Chansung crossed the boundary between the park and the wall- his nose twitched and he frowned: he smelled gunpowder in the air. “Jinwoon?”

“Yes?” came the computer specialist's voice and Chansung could smell him smiling too brightly for the occasion.

“I smell gunpowder.”

“Oh.”

“What kind?” This time it was Rai's who voiced the question.

“Police kind,” Chansung muttered, closing his eyes to get a better sniff of the gunpowder trail. It smelled like chalk and burnt paper and fireworks mixed together. The sulfur in the mixture permeated through his nose and down his throat, and Chansung winced at the bitter taste it left in his mouth. “I think they're here, or at least, they were here.”

“I always knew the police were cheap cowards. Resorting to guns now, are they?” Rai scoffed.

“Guns can be very powerful, even if they're looked down in this society. They were the prime reason we're all in the Unistate, and then the technology just went down from there. It's sad really. It's an interesting art,” Jinwoon replied.

Rai scoffed at the end of her line and both Chansung and Jinwoon smiled. “Well not everyone's a brave melee fighter like you Rai,” Jinwoon said in a sing-song voice.

Chansung's smile took a a nostalgic turn. He and Jinwoon were the first to be drafted into Staunton's team, together with an old Bauer who had unfortunately died in the line of duty a few months into the job. Nichkhun and Junsu came at the same time, and Rai was the last. Even then Jinwoon had always been comfortable around Rai, even though the girl sent off an “I don't want to be friends” vibe, revealing from the very beginning that the only reason she joined the team was to get the chance to kill Nichkhun. It didn't deter Jinwoon, and it didn't repel him either. Rai detested being treated like a normal human apparently, but Chansung and Jinwoon both managed to breach her shell somewhat. It was Junsu she utterly loathed, and Chansung didn't even need to ask why.

“Junsu and Kass are a few blocks away and Nichkhun should be there by now, I’ve already tapped into the security system, you’re all good to go if you want to.” The mood suddenly changed with Jinwoon’s announcement and Chansung ran back to Ω-point where Rai was waiting for him.

He found her in the same spot as before, but this time with her head in between her knees and both her bare hands flat on the ground. Rai came without her clawed gloves tonight, and Chansung warily eyed the two short swords next to her. Only Nichkhun would ever contest that Rai was a deadly dual wielder, at least in terms of speed and agility; damage and defense however were her weak spots as proven by Kass’ counterattack that nearly cost them Rai’s life.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” she said, lifting her head to face him.

With her hood over her head, all Chansung could see was darkness from under it, and even until now it disconcerted him knowing she was there but he was unable to see her. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “I don’t like it.”

“Scared already, girly? Fun hasn’t even started yet.”

Instinctively, Chansung stepped in between Rai and Kass as the latter arrived together with Junsu. Rai was already up on her feet, hands fisted in front of her, and Kass only laughed at her. “Girly, I think you forgot something.”

“I did,” Rai answered, steadily holding Kass’ gaze, “I forgot to kill you when I had the chance.”

“You can kill each other later,” Chansung sighed, nodding towards Nichkhun as the designated leader arrived. “It’s almost time.”

Nichkhun took one look at the high wall and turned to Chansung. “You know what to do, secure the perimeter first then we’ll follow. You’re sure you want Rai with you?”

Chansung nodded, glancing back at the mercurial girl still in a staring competition with Kass. “Yeah, besides, she’s the only one who can slip through the main circuit breaker in the master bedroom without tripping the alarms.”

With another slight nod from Nichkhun, Kass broke off the stare battle first and walked towards her starting position while Chansung took his cue to commence breaking into the house. “Junsu, are you ready?”

“Just about,” he replied, reaching behind him and showing off a medium-build alloy compound cross-bow strapped to his back. He looked up, assessing the grounds. He was given a schematic on all the nesting points in the vicinity, but Junsu preferred choosing his location at the given instant. It all depended on wind speed and direction. He sighed, finding the perfect spot. “Do you really need me to do this?”

Chansung rolled his eyes. “Just do it.”

Junsu sighed with much more fanfare this time as he turned to the left and right, looking somewhat at a loss. “Hey,” he said to Chansung, “give me a boost up this tree.”

With a heave, Chansung pushed Junsu up the hardwood tree, the older one’s legs dangling for a few moments before disappearing completely into the foliage. With his eagle eyes, Junsu watched as Chansung and Rai approached the high wall. From his vantage point a few feet up, he could see the whole of his team, as well as into the house directly next to the wall. Kass was innocently seated on a park bench acting as tonight’s look-out, and Nichkhun was waiting next to the main gate. “Jinwoon, motion sensors are all off?”

“Yup, the only thing I could shut down without it being too obvious. I can only do so much. I’m still trying to isolate a larger area on the wall, but it’s not as easy as I’d like. Did I mention I hate series circuits?”

“It’s okay Jinwoon, I got it covered,” Junsu answered, balancing on a thick branch and stabilizing himself. Once certain he wasn’t going to slip off and hurt himself, he pulled out his cross-bow strapped to his back and began assembling the mechanism for the stock- the main shaft of the bow. With a little effort, he pushed down the limbs with both hands on either side until the slots clicked indicating they were locked in place.

Unlike regular cross-bows, Junsu’s was custom made using his own designs. The limbs, or the main body of the traditional cross-bow, were stiffer than the average bow, and thus maximizing energy efficiency. The issue that came along with it however was the difficulty in the pull-back of the string mechanism giving him difficulty in bending the limbs during a draw back of the string- bending increases stored energy in the system and creates more force when the arrows are released. To remedy the issue, Junsu designed a pulley with two cables that would draw back both the strings and the limbs, giving him maximum efficiency at the same time giving him enough leverage so he wasn’t pulling against the maximum draw weight of the strings as he aimed. Something that came at the cost of a sight lens, but Junsu didn’t need the accessory to gauge his target and range.

He plucked out a short heavy metal bolt arrow from his vest pocket and carefully mounted the projectile on the quiver of the riser. He drew back the strings, locked it in place, and waited for his moment.

Chansung looked up at the high wall, it wasn’t as ominous as it had originally appeared to be in Kwon’s diagram. It was about nine meters in height and a meter in width designed to keep people like them out- Chansung shivered in excitement at proving them wrong. This wall was not unscalable as boasted by its designers. “Ready when you are, Junsu.”

Because Jinwoon refused to further breach security in fear of leaving evidence that could jeopardize the crew, Chansung and Rai had to rely on their more natural abilities. Junsu lifted the cross-bow to his cheek, feeling the cold air-craft grade material on his skin. His breathing rate began to slow down as he concentrated on his target. The tension multiplied ten-fold in his fingers and he felt every torsion and heard every whimper of the string as it collected potential energy as Junsu drew back the strings one more time. His eyes zoomed in on the wall, the gray concrete growing larger in his mind’s eye until he saw every crack and every trip wire. Jinwoon secured him only less than a meter of the wall, but that was more than enough. His thumb grazed the notch that released the trigger mechanism, and with a release of his breath the projectile sliced through the air rotating and wobbling until finally piercing the wall with a muted thud half a meter above Chansung’s head. Junsu continued firing shots, one arrow lodged at a regular distance above the other until he reached the edge of the wall and he considered his work done. “Well,” he breathed, “my work here is done. Your turn.”

Chansung glanced over to his direction and gave him a mock salute before turning to Rai and putting his hands flat together facing up, creating a foothold for her. Not needing any more instruction, she bounced on her left leg before running the small distance towards Chansung and vaulting off his hands and on to the first handhold Junsu made for them. Swinging her body, Rai pulled herself halfway up the arrow, locking her elbow and reaching out for the next, unfortunately, her hand only grazed the tip of it, and before she could even further process that, another arrow whizzed right past her hand digging into the concrete and giving her a start. Grabbing on the the arrow before she fell off, she snapped her head towards Junsu, and she vowed to make him pay when she heard his low laughter from the earbuds.

When Rai was halfway up the wall, Chansung followed her, climbing up with much more ease and grace than Rai could ever be capable of and he reached her even before she could make it to the top. Careful to not make any contact with the wall outside Jinwoon’s scope, Chansung pushed Rai’s foot up until she clambered on top of the wall, and another arrow suddenly shot in between her knees. It took all the effort for Rai to not jump back down and kill Kim Junsu, but mostly it was Chansung’s stern gaze than glued her to the spot.

The house was right next to the wall, give or take a few meter’s distance. “We’re up the wall,” Chansung said into the receiver of their communication devices. “Rai’s going down now. Jinwoon, you’re up.”

“Got it,” Jinwoon beamed from the endline, “the main breaker before we can get to the master breaker is behind the guardhouse. There are a series of motion sensor lightposts around the perimeter, once the halogen lamps catch even just a bit of you the whole alarm system is triggered and you have about 15 seconds before you’re gunned down or attacked by several large men.”

“How reassuring,” Rai muttered, securing a rope around the last arrow Junsu shot.

“Rai, you just need to time-”

“I know that, you don’t have to tell me over and over again,” she snapped, looping a rope on her foot and using it as an axle lowering her down the wall at every release of the rope in her hands. Her soft tabi boots designed to keep her footsteps silent were not much protection from the thick fiber rope. It dug into her foot as she used herself as a pulley to safely land her on the ground. The friction was already wearing out her feet, and without thinking, Rai let go of the rope. She dropped to the ground on the balls of her feet and knees, hands touching the grass beneath her, rolling towards the sides a few times before regaining her bearings. “I’m in,” she whispered.

Crouching low to the ground, Rai watched as the beam fell across the lawn at regular intervals. Several white spotlights over a meter and a half in diameter that overlapped in the middle with others reaching the very edge and even up the wall where the main gate was located. There was a small margin of unlit areas, most of which spaced too far apart to run across. Rai frowned, this was going to take more concentration than she was willing to expend.

“Each beam crosses the lawn at an interval of a minute and a half, I’ve computed-”

“Jinwoon,” Rai groaned, “shut up.”

There was a snicker at the end of the line, and Kass suddenly spoke, “Aawww, girly doesn’t like the numbers? Don’t get killed now.”

Annoyed, Rai pulled out the ear bud and smashed it against the wall with her fingers, breaking the delicate instrument into pieces. A piece of chipped off concrete on her head caused her to look up, and she barely made out Chansung waving at her. Rai pressed her hands on the wall, and the vibrations from Chansung’s tapping formed the words in her head.

Dammit, static hurts like hell. What are you doing?! What are you going to do without Jinwoon?

Rai knocked on the free wall they had, but before she finished her first word, the alarm went off, sending a loud shrill siren blaring across the area. Panicked, Rai whirled around to look for what had caused it, and she groaned audibly into the night air. An earbud piece lay almost innocently on the grass, the very tip of the light beam grazing it by the very edge.