Lucid

Chapter 9

POV: Liz
We had just finished our samplings at 6 pm. Most of us agreed that "After Like" seemed the best, especially given the way our songs seemed to describe a romance in progress.
"What do you guys want to do now?" Asks Yujin. Everybody thinks for a moment, undecided. I chuckle, then offer "What about going over to the Han river? We haven't been in a while, it could be fun."
"That sounds nice." Says Gaeul, and everyone murmurs to agree.
"Alright, let's go." We all gather our various hats and masks, and head out. Taking the back door along with one of our managers, we start heading north to the riverfront. Once we arrive, I can hear Hyunseo and Wonyoung chatting excitedly, enjoying the view of the city. Rei and Gaeul are strolling silently side by side, and Yujin is looking at the people walking past. I hear a phone going off, but I ignore it. I move up next to Yujin, and she starts whispering about the people we past. I giggle, enjoying her humorous descriptions of people. Then, the manager with us moves up front. "Hey, I'm sorry but I just got a call, I have to go back to the building. You guys are alright by yourselves right? Just let me know when you're almost back and I'll have someone be with you once you leave the riverfront." I nod, and Yujin says
"Of course, we'll be fine by ourselves. There's plenty of people here." He sighs, relived. We'll be perfectly safe as the 6 of us in a public area. Even if we get noticed, we'll be safe.
"Text me If you need anything, or if anything happens." He walks off, back towards the company. We continue walking, enjoying the fresh air and scenery. After a few minutes, Rei comes up between us.
"I don't want to scare you, but someone's following us."

POV: Fixer
I had just left KRX, the Korean Stock Exchange, when I got a call. Once again, it was WM entertainment needing my help.
"Fixer. Talk."
"There's a problem. Some of our artists have resigned adjusted contracts recently, and RBW had paid off some of our contract specialists to include clauses about contingencies for RBW. If those stay, we could loose a bunch of our idols. I managed to catch one happening, but I think a few of our soloists have already signed. You'll have to cover that as part of our separation." Why did they... Not even worth it. Nevermind.
"Alright. I'll handle it. Get me a list of who you have that hasn't signed new ones and who has and I'll cover it. Understood?"
"I'll get on that immediately. Thank you. Do you have anything to tell me about how things are going?" I've made a decent amount of progress, yeah. But he doesn't need to know. Until my results are permanent, no point in talking about them.
"No." I hang up. That's better, finally a bit of time- and the phone is ringing again. Great. It was 18 hours ago that the biggest thing on my mind was- well, it was the beautiful girl taking her shirt off in front of me. But anyways, speak of the devil! It's her best friend, actually. "Fixer. What is it, Wonyoung." She comes over the line and I can immediately hear the fear in her voice.
"Fixer, I don't know where I got this number but I need help. I'm out with the others and there's a bunch of guys following us. They look threatening, and they've been surrounding us slowly." As I listen, I tap my computer to trace the phone call, and it tells me where they are on the river. I boost the turbo, and push the throttle to the red. My car lunges forward with a roar, and I travel east down highway 88, the Han River drive.

"Alright, listen up. How many are there, can you tell? Are they wearing baggy clothes? Do they have bags? Do they look nervous?"
"I think it's twelve of them, they're mostly in sweatshirts, some of them are carrying baseball bats, a few have duffel bags, and only one of them looks nervous." Alright, a crew, coordinated but probably not targeted. I can handle twelve.
"I'll be there in five minutes. Now, laugh like I said something funny." She laughs, and I have to admit that it's really pretty to hear. I push past 120MPH, as I slide between traffic like a knife though warm butter. "Talk in English, they probably don't speak English." Should have done that earlier. Not used to multilingual places.
"Alright. I'm smiling, we're all acting like we haven't noticed. I don't know how they realized who we are, we all have masks on."
"We'll deal with that later. For now, hang up the phone. I'm coming to get you."
"But- I don't know if they'll do something!"
"Just say goodbye and hang up. Trust me." Come on, hang up. Say goodbye and hang up. Any longer and they'll get nervous. Then, they move faster.
"Bye Oppa! See you tonight!" She says loudly, and hangs up the call. Alright, now just get there, 3 miles more at 160MPH, I'll be there soon girls.

POV: Leeseo.
I don't know how the others are staying so calm. I feel like my heart is going to burst. Someone knowing where our dorm is is scary, so is when they try to see us arriving or leaving our stages. But here, we're all alone, and there's so many of them. A few of them have been glancing at each other, and I can feel them looking at us. I grab ahold of Liz's arm and whisper to her,
"Unnie, what do we do?" She puts her arm around me, and responds
"Don't worry. Just stay with us, keep walking. Someone will help us, I'm sure."
"But..."
"Just stay calm a little longer."

POV: None
The girls talked quietly to one another, stressed and afraid but trying not to show it. The gang slowly widened, behind them and slowly encroaching on both side. Then, after getting a nod from the eldest, one of them walked faster, closing the gap to the 6. He reached out, about to grab Gaeul's arm, but suddenly can't. He collapsed to the ground, spinning as he falls, a vibrant red splash of blood where his hand previously was. Dropping off the highway overpass above, Fixer does a half flip as he falls then lands on one knee, his arms out to his sides. He stays kneeling a moment, positioned between the 6 girls and the 11 remaining followers. Then, he looked upwards, a violent glare visible in his eyes, his mask affixed to cover his mouth in a snarl.  "You picked the wrong day."

He rose to his feet. Drawing his arm back, he then threw a knife concealed in his hand. It struck the one in front of him in the shoulder, and he stumbles backwards, clutching at the embedded blade. The others panic a moment, before one dashed towards Fixer, swinging his baseball bat loosely at his head. Before he had even reached swinging range, however, Fixer swung his other arm, leaving another 6 inch knife buried in his throat. "One more chance." He said, before reaching back above his head. Grabbing ahold of two handles sticking vertically from his backpack, he pulled them upwards, revealing two long, single-edged swords, silver blades with a glowing orange shimmer across the cutting edge, and a black handle. He spun them to hold backhand, and struck a dueling pose. "Who's first?" He said, the smirk obvious despite his covered face. They exchanged glances with each other, readying themselves for a fight while also eying an escape plan. Fixer, seeing their fear, stood upright again, lowering his swords. "You don't have the nerve. As I expected. You only prey upon those who won't fight back. But I have no mercy upon your kind."

POV: Fixer
I was disappointed, really. A dozen young men, armed and energized? But I shoot one, maim a second, and kill the third, and then they all loose their nerve. Now, they're all torn between fight, or flee. They should flee. But I want them to fight. But here comes one, his decision made. The wrong one for him, the fun one for me. Will it be his last mistake? I decide no, it won't.
I sidesteps his tackle and grabs ahold of the gang member, spinning him around and slamming my elbow down on his T10 vertebra, causing him to loose control of his abdomen. His face leaves a bloody streak across the concrete sidewalk as he collapses, still moving. He'll walk again. In a year or so.

The next one to try me swings a baseball bat again, this time going for my stomach. I block his swing with my right forearm, as my armor takes the hit and dissipates it across my arm. That would have broken his arm had I done it to him. I drop to the floor and swing my leg under his, as he falls down and slams the back of his head against the ground, leaving him with a fun little concussion. To demonstrate the effects of his bat, after standing up I aim a kick to his arm. It produces an unpleasant snapping sounds that will probably take a little while to fix. Finally, they split. Two of them come towards me at once, while the others scatter, probably realizing that if I kick a person while they're down, what will I do to one who attacks me. But these last two were too slow to realize that lesson, so I'll have to teach them myself. One swings a fist at my head, while the other reaches into his bag and pulls out a knife. A kitchen knife, but a knife is a knife. I duck low, and the fist fighter winds up with a punch to the stomach and abdominal bleeding. Then, as he doubles over in pain, I stand upright again, putting my full force into my armored knee, which then goes into his nose. He also collapses, unsure which bleeding, shattered ligaments to hold first. The last one shifts side to side, trying to see how to approach me. Bored of this, I reach behind my hips and grab ahold of my sidearm, and point it at his head. "You want to bring a weapon to a fight? Make sure it's a weapon that guarantees you win." With this short lesson in power over, I gesture for him to run. He bolts, dropping the knife and sprinting for cover. He doesn't make it in time, and will have a hole in his bicep for a while. Turning, I face the girls again.
"Sorry about that. You six alright?"