~ ♘ ~

Chansung looked down the wall to see Kass speeding back to Ω-point as soon as the sirens pierced through the cold night air. He should have realized sooner that Rai was not capable of maneuvering through such an intricate strategy by herself. She was incapable of taking instruction from him, how much more from Jinwoon with both Kass and Junsu on the other line? As soon as the static hissed through the ear pieces, it was all downhill from there, though he had somehow hoped for an incident of less magnitude than this.

Kass skidded to a halt at the the free wall and looked up, even from a distance Chansung looked like he was at loss at what to do, the seconds were ticking, and the more they remained at that spot, the more they were endangering themselves and what they worked for.

“Rai’s still down there!” Chansung said agitatedly, looking down at Kass and over at Junsu. “We have to get her!”

“Chansung, can you get into the house from the roof?” Jinwoon asked.

“What?” Chansung answered, disoriented by the sound of the sirens blaring in his ears. “Yes, I think I can, why? We need to get Rai!”

“Chansung, go inside the house and do what you need to, Rai can take care of herself. Nichkhun, Kass, and Junsu should be able to handle whatever security comes your way. Hurry!” Jinwoon added, the same agitation touching his voice.

“But-”

“Go!”

Unwilling as he was, Chansung knew that duty came first. Looking back down one last time, he panicked not seeing Rai, but the smell of blood irises in the air without the overpowering smell of blood put him at ease somewhat. He vaulted off the wall and sailed through the air, landing smoothly on top of the nearest roof with a soft thud. There was no point in stealth now that all the guards were alerted, and he pulled out his nunchaku secured on his belt. As with the rest of Hell, Chansung’s weapon was custom made for him. The two heavy hardwood sticks connected together with a short chain at both ends were made from the finest oak and perfectly balanced according to his specifics.

The roof was tiled with red concrete slates in a fish scale pattern and Chansung easily made his way up towards the nearest window. Under normal circumstances, he would have taken more delicacy in his choice of entry, but the circumstances were anything but. He kicked right through the window, seeing too late the reflection of a man behind him ready to strike a dagger into his back. He turned around in surprise, ready to duck, only for the man to suddenly drop dead in front of him, a bolt embedded on his back.

Chansung looked up, and back towards the hardwood tree. “Uh, thanks,” he muttered, scratching the back of his head and turning back to the window he just broke.

“No problem,” Junsu replied, “try to focus. More are coming.”

It disconcerted Chansung how serious Junsu could be once the older one found his nest. Down below it was chaos as several armed bodyguards filed in from inside the house and from the local security. There was still no sign of Rai, but in order for Chansung to get his work done tonight he pushed the thought of her away from his mind. At least for the meantime.

He slipped carefully through the broken glass and dropped down on the lushly carpeted floor on his feet. The interior of the second floor corridor was lined with several pottery and paintings of high value, and his fingers twitched with the sudden compulsive need to dismount them all from the wall and take them with him before leaving. Shaking the urge away, he cautiously tread the hallway, taking slow deliberate steps, nunchaku, swinging next to his leg, ready to strike at any given moment. According to Jinwoon, the master bedroom should be at the end of this hallway, with no more regards for stealth Chansung crossed the hall and into a lobby, where he wasn’t at all surprised to see three men armed with maces and clubs.

How primitive, he thought, eyeing the large burly men and the weapons they had in their hands. One of them rolled his shoulders and tapped the end of his club on the palm of his hand. He smelled like sweat and spoiled meat, and the scent went all the way into Chansung’s nose and down his throat, leaving him with a churning in his stomach. The first of them lunged forward, club above his head, and Chansung ducked just in time, ramming his shoulders into the man’s torso, pushing him back against the wall. Being that close to the man, Chansung’s nose was assaulted once again with the rancid scent, and before the man could attack him, Chansung stabbed the blunt end of his nunchaku on the man’s solar plexus. The first man reeled in shock and pain and dropped to his knees. With the man exposed and vulnerable, Chansung drove his weapon hard onto the man’s neck, severing his cervical vertebra, and left him to drop down on the floor.

The remaining two men attacked him at the same time and Chansung leaped back into a backward handspring, increasing the distance between him and his assailants. Using the angular momentum he gained from the first rotation Chansung ran forward, kicking up into the air as soon as he was in between the two men. Arching his back and twisting in the air at an angle, Chansung rotated upside down while kicking one man in the face and driving the nunchaku into the other’s. He landed forward, pivoting on his foot and hammering the hardwood dragon stick, the attacking stick, on their heads one after the other. Chansung didn’t even wait for them to drop down dead as he rushed towards his target’s room.

~ ♙~

Kass was bored. It was almost a mission too easy for all members of Hell to even be present for, but a job was a job, and she figured she could always have fun annoying the life out of Rai. It wasn’t even hard. It was almost too easy getting the blueprints of the house they were infiltrating that night. People were so easy to manipulate, men most of all. All it took was a little look and slight touch, and she had the head of security dancing on the palm of her hand. Kwon and Min, however, did not seem impressed when she delivered the prints to the main office. Neither one answered her questions regarding the office specifics either. Was it so bad she wanted to know if Staunton could be found there? She was a curious soul by nature, nothing wrong with that.

Being literally benched was the worst part of the night, and she crossed her legs only to re-cross them as the minutes flew by without so much as a drop of a pin. Did these people really work like this? Personally, they were taking too long and the kid in the wheelchair was getting on her nerves with his babble. Yet she was curious to see just how good Rai was out in the field. The last mission was an insult to her, and she reckoned even Rai was bored with it. Something exciting had to happen tonight, otherwise it would just be another waste of time for her.

It came sooner than she expected.

As soon as the sirens went off, adrenaline rushed through Kass’ veins and she waited for the first wave of security to arrive. Just as she anticipated, two men walked right into her line of sight, both carrying cudgels, polished wood clubs, as they ran towards the wall Chansung and Rai just scaled. Kass suddenly wondered if they knew about the entrance point, but she gave it no further thought as the two men slowed to a halt directly in front of her.

“Hi there,” she said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “What brings you here?”

The two men looked at the leather-clad red-head in front of them, surprised to even find someone in the area. Two pairs of eyes roved over her form, and Kass drank all the attention up as if she were parched from the desert heat. One man his lips, and Kass rolled her eyes. “Can I help you?” she asked.

One of them cleared his throat, “We’re just looking around. The alarms went off, you didn’t happen to see anyone here, did you?”

Oh, have I, “No, just lil’ ol’ me here.”

“Miss, it isn’t safe here. Allow us to you back to where it’s safer.”

“Oh, it isn’t safe alright,” Kass purred, taking one step forward, eyes falling down to her heeled boots. She sashayed towards the two of them, swinging her hips slightly and looking at each man in the eye from under her lashes. “Not safe at all,” she breathed. “Not for you.”

Kass threw her arms around one man’s neck, smiling seductively at him. Trembling hands made its way to her waist and Kass smirked, “Goodnight.” Kass extended both her arms drawing her limbs away from her body, and a long thin wire gleamed under the lamppost as Kass stepped backwards, letting the man fall flat on his face and dragging him backwards until he stopped breathing.

The remaining man took one look at the maniacal smile on the woman's face, and he raised his cudgel with a shaking hand. “What- what are you?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to find out?” Kass answered as she took a few steps towards him and her leg flashed, her knee raised and her foot extended outwards as she snapped it in a large arc removing him of his cudgel with a hook kick.

Her face was the last thing he saw.

~ ♕ ~

It was silent except for the rustling of the leaves and the whistling of the wind across the open area. Nichkhun was stationed by the main gate, his point of entry when Rai disconnected the security circuits on the main gate. If it were completely up to him, Rai would not be his first choice for the delicate role of infiltration, that was what Bauers were for, but seeing as he didn’t trust the new Bauer either, he just prepped himself for the worst. He listened closely to the conversation the others were having, and already he could tell that nothing good was going to come out of it. Of course, he didn’t actually care. All that mattered to Nichkhun was getting this assignment done and moving ahead one step closer to his real target.

One thing bothered him however, and it was along the lines of Rai’s earlier declaration that something didn’t feel right. It was quiet, and perhaps it was too quiet. Outside the sound of the conversation in his ear and the sound of the environment around him, Nichkhun didn’t hear anything indicative of standard security. Usually there would be a faint beeping sound and several footfalls of roving guards, but the whole area was dead silent almost as if it were a predator lying, waiting for its prey.

Scouring the front gates, Nichkhun was surprised to find it empty, only a light from the guard house illuminating the otherwise dark grounds. Just as he was about to ask Chansung about the gunpowder the younger had picked up earlier, an ear-splitting cackle of static burst in his ear and Nichkhun pinched the offending bud off. Not a moment later, the alarm siren went off, and he finally heard the sound of feet stomping on the ground getting progressively nearer him.

He stashed the earpiece into his pocket and whirled around to face a hoard of guards heading his way. Seven armed men approached him, and Nichkhun smirked in anticipation as they drew their swords. His fingers itched by the sheath of his Krabi and his hand grasped the cool handle, one foot slowly sliding backwards. They came at him at the same time, crowding each other, and Nichkhun slowly drew his sword. The full length of the blade gleamed under the torch lights overhead, the carvings more pronounced as it awaited to be stained by blood.

Nichkhun took slow deliberate steps towards his attackers, not showing one hint of fear or hesitation, his eyes focused on only one thing. Nichkhun was surrounded, but not once did he flinch or show any form of panic or agitation. They came at him all at once, and in a split second, Nichkhun easily slipped through their line, passing the two attackers in front of him and making a wide arc with his sword as he spun around to face them. The edge of his sword slashed the two men at the same time, and they staggered forwards before they could even process what happened. The remaining men froze in their tracks as Nichkhun whipped his sword to the side, sprinkling the ground with blood. A dangerous light shone in his eyes as he suddenly lunged forward, too fast for any of the guards to react. It was over in less than a minute, and Nichkhun wiped his Krabi clean on one of the guard’s jackets before sheathing his sword and quickly making his way to the entrance of the house.

~ ♖ ~

Rai pressed her body tight against the shadows that fell on the wall behind her. The sirens were blaring in her ears, and the sharp piercing sound digging into her brain was causing her to lose control over her better senses. Granted, she was aware that she wasn’t the best when it came to concentration, but that hardly mattered in real life applications- or so she believed. She inched towards the side of the house where the shadows fell, but suddenly, all the lights were switched on and she was trapped with no easy way out.

The reopened wound from earlier that day was still nagging at her, even more now after she had fallen into the lawn. She took a slow step to the side gauging how many enemies were going to be coming her way, she could feel a large group through the vibrations from the ground, but it wasn’t enough to tell her if it was a large group of mid-sized men, or a mid-sized group of large men. She wasn’t sure what she preferred, especially when the sound of a gunshot rang through the open area.

Rai looked up at the wall above her, the rope still dangled freely, slowly moving sideways as the wind picked up. She could attempt scaling the wall, but the lights everywhere would have made her an open target and already she could hear Kass’ quips. She unsheathed both short swords from the small of her back, both blades straight and only centimeters longer than the length of her forearm. The handle was tightly bound in leather twine, each curve a custom fit to the contours of her hand. She held both blades along the axis of her arms crossing them in front of her as she stepped into the light and rushed forward before the enemy reached her first.

The first wave arrived from the corner of the house and before they saw her, Rai bolted towards the wall of the house, jumping towards it, landing her feet and pushing off the wall and into the air. She twisted into a backward aerial, legs in a forward split, and stabbed the edge of her sword against the first guard, severing his carotid artery on his neck. A spray of blood stained her face and arms, and she wiped it away on her clothes as she eyed the other large guard that was making his way towards her.

He ran towards her with a large two-handed club, a kanabo, over his head, swinging the metal-tipped spiked wood club towards the ground where Rai stood. The earth beneath them shook from the force of the crash, and Rai stumbled backwards as she avoided getting hit. The vibrations of the blow crept up her feet, and she staggered for a moment as the man recovered from his first swing and heaved the weapon high up in the air again. Another blow, and this time Rai barely managed to escape being mauled, throwing her body towards the sides and rolling on her shoulder to get away.

The man chased after her, releasing a howl of amused laughter as he violently swung the kanabo around as if to demonstrate his superior advantage. He was twice her size, the club nearly as big as she, but Rai didn’t see him, or his weapon, as a threat at all. With another savage swing, Rai side-stepped towards the left, and before the man could pull out the spikes buried in the ground, Rai jumped on top of the large club and used it as a bridge. Running towards the man’s head with her swords crossed in front of her, Rai dived forward aiming for the neck. She used the man’s shoulders as a leverage as she sprung off, landing behind him just in time to see a bloody head, its eyes opened wide, roll on the ground next to her.

~ ♘ ~

Chansung wasn’t surprised to find the door to the master bedroom locked, however he was surprised to find that instead of an electric lock, a regular mechanical lock was installed on the door. Dropping down to his knees, Chansung pulled out his Swiss Army knife and picked the lock with ease. Hearing the sound of the gears clicking open sent him to a new high, and he smiled to himself as he stood up and opened the door.

Even in the darkness of the room, Chansung already could tell.

The room was empty.

[A/N]:           This is me blackmailing people to comment hah. Comments are love, and love = the cure to writer's block =]