Chapter 7 - Leader and Private

Yong Guk peeked from the corner of his eye to spot Zelo ready to fire. Kang Ta casually cracked his knuckles before he suddenly projected a purple beam towards Yong Guk. He rolled to his right as he saw the beam landed on one of the capsules. The impact melted the capsule and burnt the corpse inside while the liquid substance spilled from inside. Yong Guk took out one of his guns from his side belt and started to fire from the rows. Zelo followed suit on the opposite side of the room with his built-in laser rifle.

Somehow, Kang Ta was calmly standing still and unaffected by the weapons firing. His lips curled slightly and opened his palms to emit poisonous smog into the room. Cursing under his breath, Yong Guk whipped out his red mask and strapped it to his face. While continuing to fire bullets at the creator, Zelo’s body had gradually gotten slower in movement. Violet splotches of rust were visible on his artificial skin.

Yong Guk tossed away his first gun and pressed a button on his knuckle brace to circulate energy into the metal and increase his power. He ran towards Kang Ta from behind and attempted to land a punch on him. To his surprise, the creator sharply turned around to catch his fist.

“Too slow,” he taunted and palmed him in the chest. He crashed into the desk behind him and winced at the large splinters in his arm. The world was spinning around him as Kang Ta prepared for a finishing blow. Zelo resorted to the cannon and fired at the creator before he finished off his maker. The ambitious man dangerously growled as Zelo repetitively fired and stuck out his tongue.

“Target locked. Firing at will,” he robotically reported. Yong Guk roughly ripped the wood out of his skin and held out his second gun to the back of his head.

“Too slow,” he ironically commented behind his mask.

“I wouldn’t be so sure, because I had just finished my next level of androids while we were engaged in this meaningless combat.”

Several alarms buzzing around the three men as the liquid substance took shape around each corpse and clothed them with cybernetic armor. The capsule glasses lowered and freed the new androids. Yong Guk swallowed and gritted his teeth. He and Zelo were outnumbered with no reinforcements at his control yet.

Him Chan was getting tired of skipping and ducking each laser that slid towards him. Some of his clothes were torn off from the light.

“Hey, Computer Hermit! Hurry up and put your back into it!”

“Why don’t you break out of there and put your back into this?” Young Jae exasperated as his fingers rapidly typed on his computer to shut down the defense system where his comrade was trapped. He could still hear heavy knocking and slamming on the door where androids were anxious to eliminate their intruders.

Him Chan prepared for another assault with a line of the laser approaching him.

“Piece of cake,” he said. His face fell, however, when it suddenly changed into a grid.

“Oh God,” he cursed out loud. He staggered until his back hit the door, awaiting for his humiliating death. Young Jae finally pressed the last key and let out a heavy breath of relief. The grid of lasers suddenly stopped one centimeter in front of Him Chan and disappeared. The doors on both sides opened and the trapped member fell on his back with a thud. He nearly wet his pants when he was almost sliced into many pieces.

“Ouch,” Young Jae muttered.

“Not compared to what could have happened if you didn’t shut it down in time,” he retorted. “I couldn’t bear to face Hyo Sung with a body part severed.”

“Shut up, you narcissist. Let’s get in there before these pests get in,” Young Jae packed up his computer and they both ran inside the generator chamber. He took out his computer again and connected it to the generator to find the secret to shut it down. Time was passing as he typed away, but he swore and said, “This is such a pain in the . The system is like a jigsaw puzzle that keeps reshaping.”

“You got to hurry nonetheless because I don’t think the other door is going to hold up for much longer,” Him Chan pressed.

A loud boom from Dae Hyun’s cannon shot out the bullet and pierced it through another android. It fell to the ground with static emitting from the body. Jong Up broke another’s neck and caught up with him.

“We got a problem.” Dae Hyun gravely said.

“What is it?” Jong Up anxiously asked.

“I’m keeping a monitor on one of the security cameras that watch the barricaded androids. They’re using their brute force to take down the debris and come after us.”

“That’s impossible,” he whispered and took a look at Dae Hyun’s watch.

“We must hurry and take out any stray androids before we have to deal with those.”

“Right,” the Argent agreed and he had a sudden pulse in chest that didn't feel right. Dae Hyun caught onto his action and worriedly asked what was wrong. Jong Up shook his head.

When they ran into a new hallway they haven’t covered yet, There were two rooms across from each other that were locked shut. Without a key or a code, they walked passed it before they heard voices they never thought of hearing.

“Someone! Help me!” said a familiar woman.

Jong Up whirled around and knocked on the door with his fist.

“Ji Eun! Is that you?” he yelled through.

“Mommy!” a child wailed behind them. Dae Hyun rushed to the door across from Ji Eun’s captive door and called out to him.

“Min Soo!”

“Jong Up! Thank goodness! Is Yong Guk or Ja Young with you?” she frantically asked.

“Don’t worry! We’re gonna get you and Min Soo out of here!” Jong Up reassured as he gathered his defensive strength into his arm and tackled the door down in two tries. Dae Hyun pulled out his gun to break the lock and open the door.

A flustered Ji Eun and a worried Jong Up met in the middle. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“The androids intercepted us on the road and brought us here,” she explained.

Dae Hyun revealed himself to Min Soo, who cried and embraced his waist. “Uncle Dae Hyun! Where’s my mommy?”

“It’s okay. I’m going to take you to her right now.”

Before both B.A.P members emerged from the locked rooms, an emergency door slid down in front of them to prevent their escape. Jong Up slid the cannon to the crook of his arm and fired two bullets, but they didn’t leave one mark on the surface. Dae Hyun told Min Soo to cover his ears as he also took out his cannon to fire at it. Like Jong Up, there was no impact to build up on.

Ji Eun suddenly yelped as the walls on their left and right started to close in on them. Jong Up pushed on one side and told Ji Eun to push on the other to try and delay the movement. The pulsing in his chest gradually intensified to the point where he couldn't ignore it anymore. 

“Uncle Dae Hyun,” Dae Hyun turned his head to see him shivering and his breath visible. He realized that the room temperature had plummeted. He also felt a sudden chill through his thick clothes and kept the little boy close to him to share body warmth. He could only hope for Him Chan and Young Jae to dismantle the generator and free them.

“Are you hurt?” he whispered. Min Soo fervently shook his head while his teeth were chattering.

Yong Guk slid back after blocking a simultaneous attack from two androids. He was fervently blocking and attacking six strong androids that were nearly impossible to attack their weak spots. Zelo wasn’t any different because the poison that seeped into his system was weakening him while looking out for his maker.

The leader finally decapitated an android that controlled sound waves but he was slammed in his side by another with a stone-covered body. He spat out blood from his lips before he could recover from the shock factor. He rolled away when it smashed his fists onto where he used to be.

Yong Guk was human, and his breathing was getting heavier and raspy. His reflexes failed him when he saw a hand that morphed into a sharp blade about to impale him, but the attack didn’t touch him.

Zelo scrambled to move his slow body to shield his master from the sword. It pierced him through his artificial heart that brought Yong Guk nearly to tears.

“Leader,” Zelo said as his speech was malfunctioning.

“No! Zelo!” He cried as the robot was tossed away into an empty capsule. His system had shut down with him closing his eyes and twitched one last time. Yong Guk was now left alone. Memories with Zelo he fondly treasured flashed before him at his death. It was as if he had lost a child because he was created immediately after he lost his twin brother in war.

With no will to continue, the same android that tore Zelo apart raised its blade to deliver the finishing kill. Yong Guk closed his eyes and awaited his death, whispering to himself, “Ji Eun, Min Soo, I love you.”

Again, the impact didn’t come. A loud punch in the head followed his whispers and the android flew into the wall that mangled the body. Yong Guk raised his head to see a familiar sword in front of his in one of her hands.

“I had twenty-four hours to regain your trust right? Could I regain it in the last minute before due?” Ja Young asked. Her voice was slightly muffled with her own icy blue mask to filter the poison smog in the lab.

“Hong Ja Young,” he muttered in disbelief.

A dark snicker echoed in the room as the remaining androids withdrew to make way for Kang Ta.

“I have been waiting for you, Hong Ja Young, Seeker of the New World.”

With a straight face, she replied, “You know me? I’m honored, but I actually don’t know who you are.”

“Of course not, but every Argent in this world does, including all my androids, which by the way are such a magnificent creation, are they not?”

“Shut your damn trap,” she snarled. “You made me lose my trust to my leader, and by killing you with my hands, I may just be able to gain it back.”

“Perhaps, if only you had your abilities, am I correct?” Ja Young narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. “Oh, yes. Word had reach to me that you had save our kind at the cost of your abilities. How heroic and noble, but the time has come to face the consequences of your frail human state.” He eyed on one of his androids to make a sneak attack but before it landed, Ja Young drew her sword and severed its head without taking a step.

“Is that all you got?”

“We’ll see.”

“Ja Young,” Yong Guk spoke up for the first time during their exchange of words, but was interrupted by her.

“Yong Guk, do you mind taking the androids first while I deal with him? Just so you can avenge Zelo?” she sensitively requested. He paused and pulled a determined expression with a nod.

“But I deliver the finishing blow on him. Understood, Private?”

Ja Young smirked and said, “Roger, but I’ll say this once. My name’s not Private. It’s Hong Ja Young.”

They split and took on their opponents. Yong Guk fired his cannon, now that his other weapons were disposed. He threw occasional kicks and punches to dismantle some attacks but somehow, with Ja Young’s presence in the room, he grew stronger and more nimble.

Ja Young sheathed her sword and charged towards Kang Ta with her fists. They , kicked, blocked and dodged. She inwardly scowled at his reflexes, as expected of an Argent. She only had some background information about him from Young Jae earlier today, but it proved to be not enough to come close to defeating him. With all her might, she used every technique Tao had taught her years ago that she honed on her own. She desperately looked for an opening with her strikes and found it when she pushed him backwards for a second.

“Right there!” She shouted out and threw a powerful punch at his exposed chest. He inaudible gasped and stumbled backwards, holding the wounded area.

“Just as I thought. You have so much potential that it is such a waste.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Kang Ta dusted himself and continued. “We are so alike in many ways.” He revealed his branded arm with his number that made her blood run cold.

“You’re a death camp prisoner,” she identified.

“I was, but you had freed us with that famous Origin Arm given to you by the society.”

“How do you know that?”

“While you were presumably dead for one year, I had tried to explore my new ambitions with the given freedom, but unfortunately, that scum Kim Jong In, along with your beloved faction you were a member of, had meddled in my way and named me a criminal.”

She quickly punched him in the face to shut him up. “That’s a lie.”

“I’m afraid it isn’t.” He smirked and grabbed her wrist to twist it behind her back.

“Don’t you want to know the truth behind human-born Argents? How they weren’t so easily trusted in the society? How Faction Twenty Four had hesitated to recruit you when you severed this arm four years ago?” He whispered in her ear and nudging on her captive arm.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please, I can help you. To tell the truth, they may have already forgotten about you, now that you have become human. I can give you back your monstrous strength if you join me.”

“Never!” At her refusal, he ruthlessly broke her arm. She cried out in pain. Yong Guk, who had taken down all the androids that attempted to kill him, rushed towards her with his cannon, but Kang Ta outstretched his hand to shoot out a poisonous bolt into his body. He froze in his tracks for three long seconds and slumped to the ground.

“Yong Guk!”

“In a few minutes, that weak human will die, along with your friends who also infiltrated into my lab. I may be able to save them with my research if you turn yourself in because,” he paused and snapped his fingers to reveal two screens. One with Jong Up and Ji Eun pushing away walls that were closing in, and another with Dae Hyun and Min So violently shivering in a cold chamber.

“No!” she cried. If Yong Guk and his family were to die at the moment, Ja Young wouldn’t forgive herself for making the same mistakes again. She already lost her biological family to Daemens, so she couldn’t lose her next family to this mad man of an Argent.

“Your life as a human isn’t as you are born to be. You should be reborn as an Argent and together, we can rule all Argents in the world. You see, human-born Argents have more stamina and power than average. That is why we have such quick reflexes and sharp senses. What do you say?”

“I’d rather die with everyone here than join you, you bastard! I have no intention on betraying my friends who raised me in my parents’ place! I’m not going to put my death to waste!” She elbowed him and freed herself but barely. Kang Ta mercilessly sent rapid punches to her prone body and held her neck against an empty capsule.

“Behind you is your capsule. You can choose to hibernate for one week in there or die a foolish death with your friends.”

Black spots were appearing in front of her as she was slowly losing her only option to breathe. She eyed on Zelo on a broken capsule and Yong Guk barely breathing on the floor. She could numbly feel the band of the ring on her fingers and the second ring on her left ring finger. Memories played before her again, as if she was reliving the moment she was fighting her sister’s Daemen form. This time, she was resisting against death unlike before when hope was almost lost.

Ja Young knew that hope was there. Her friends had taught her to continually believe in a miracle that could possibly happen when she least expected it. She was human, and initially didn’t want to believe. After three years of denying that she was living just fine, she had accepted the fact she truly wanted to find a way to regain her abilities. She didn’t have anything to protect but herself, and she wanted to regain her dignity.

The reason was that she was weak compared to those she knew. They all had some form of strength, but Ja Young had always relied on her physical strength instead of her emotional strength. With minutes left to live at Kang Ta’s mercy, she barely mouth out a name she plucked the courage to call out.

“Kai...” she said.

Kang Ta was perplexed for a moment before tightening his grip on her neck. “Such a waste,” he clucked his tongue and hastened her death.

“Kai,” she repeated louder.

Kang Ta scowled and screamed, “Silence! I will eliminate you if I must!”

“Kai!” She rasped. “Lu Han! Lay! Tao! Anyone! Help us! Help me!” she begged.

Angered and soaked with insanity, he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Then die as you wish!” He furiously tossed her into the capsule, breaking the glass and into the substance, staining her clothes. The pain wasn’t as painful as she subconsciously expected. Strangely, her life didn’t feel like it was drowning in an ocean like she experienced before. Something was flowing into her body that she couldn’t understand nor identify.

Her delusions were gently broken when she felt like she was in someone’s strong arms and her head on a firm chest. She unconsciously breathed in a familiar scent she deeply craved to smell. A warmth embraced her like a fur coat as her consciousness was slowly resurfacing, and she heard a voice she longed to hear.

“You were gone for three years and this is how you take care of yourself?” he sarcastically scolded but his tone was light.

Ja Young lifted her heavy eyelids to readjust the blue lights above.

“Shut up,” was the first thing she mumbled, but it came out as if she sounded very drunk. She tried to move but a large hand held hers.

“Don’t move until Lay gets here.”

Lay, she reprocessed in her mind. By the time her eyes were fully open, a tan neck was the first thing she saw. She followed the jawline and the cornrow hair she spotted. Aside from the new hair she wasn’t used to seeing, Kai’s eyes, nose and full lips hadn’t changed a bit.

“Lay? Here?” she repeated.

“Just count to three and they’ll all arrive here,” he casually reassured as a light gust engulfed the room. “You see? We didn’t have to say goodbye, Hong Ja Young.”

At the recognition of Kai’s presence, she buried her head in the crook of his neck, in which he kissed her forehead in response.

“I guess you’re right,” she muttered, seeing all the members of Faction Twenty Four ready to fight.