Seonghwa had let himself down the vent, trusting himself in the knots he tied on some pipes on the roof. His holo was dimly lit as he listened to Yeosang direct him towards the part of the vent that wouldn’t be seen by the cameras in the room – though, it’s not like Yeosang wouldn’t shut the cameras down for him to nab the implant anyway. Yeosang was directing him, the only thing yeosang saying to the older man being “left”, “right”, and the occasional “stop’. Other than that – radio silence.
As he crawled around in this small metal maze, and finally made it to the room; he arrived a minute earlier than expected, so he continued to where the guards were about to go on break, watching their mannerisms, watching how they act and how they interact; Seonghwa was able to decipher how they would act if they were to find him. Hwa was confident that these two knuckleheads would act first think later – that is, if they were capable of thought. BioBastion Inc., behind the scenes, was given under-the-table funding from their government for military research and implant development. This research and development included everything under the sun; human testing, torture, and even going as far as to change genetic makeups to create compumania, which was a kind of cyberpsychosis.
Compumania is a more developed, parasitic form of cyberpsychosis, creating a whole new person through the use of implants. When someone replaces their entire body – no organic matter – with cybernetic implants, it rips them into bits and feeds off of what they used to be. While it is still a dissociative disorder, it also affects their physical.
Seonghwa had been caught up in watching the two before he realized it was a minute off from their break, so he slid backwards in the vent, happy he was flexible enough to get back to his original position. He watched how the guards checked the lock when they went back to their position at the door and he looked around, noting how silent the room was. Seonghwa was thankful he had an infrared scanner built into his holo, just in case – Yunho truly thinks of everything.
His H.U.D read 11:10 pm, and as he expected, he was able to get down with no trouble. He got the signal from Yeosang that all the cameras would be off for two minutes before their systems caught it – kind of pathetic coming from a multimillion-dollar company. Yeosang was just that good.
“Two minutes.” Yeosang said through the holo.
Seonghwa skillfully removed the cover without making a sound and was able to drop down, expecting the room to be empty.
It wasn’t.
Where the schematics said there was going to be a pedestal, but instead, there was a procedure chair that had a body on it. A frail, small body. The body of a young girl (around 3 years old) in a hospital gown. Near her comatose body, he saw notes from what he was assuming would be the head researcher and doctors. She had the implant already attached. Judging by the notes, she was completely artificial, except the rosy fake skin that covered all the mechanical parts they built her out of.
Usually, something like this would go back to Hongjoong, but he was unreachable. Then the command would go to Seonghwa. “What do I do…?”
Fuck, they needed this implant.
This was the only time Seonghwa spoke to Yeosang. “The implant is in the girl.” Because of the time constraint, he panicked.
“Your choice, Hwa, but if we don’t get this implant, it sets us back 6 months.”
Fuck.
“One minute, by the way.”
After looking over the notes and the girl, he made his decision. From what he could tell (again, thank you Yunho (who would ever think of something like this?)), she had no tracker in her. Seonghwa stuffed all the notes he could find into a discarded document envelope and picked up the girl – she was as light as a feather; must be some sort of magnesium alloy.
“Thirty seconds, Hwa. You need to get out,” Yeosang said through the holo, his tone getting more and more worried each second. And so, he did. Seonghwa managed to keep her from falling off his back as he jumped, lifting the two of them through the vents again. He had to scale up through the vents again, and he had to do it silently, while staying as flat as he could so he didn't do any harm to the little one on his back. She couldn't be more than three years old.
'Fuck. Shit. Ass.' He mentally cursed with every movement, and he hurried himself up with the countdown that was ringing in his holo. He managed to get to the rope he had to climb up, and he brought the baby in front of him as best as he could, grabbing it before he climbed up it, using his long legs to shuffle him up.
10.
'Fuck.'
9.
'Fuck.'
8.
'Fuck.'
7.
'Fuck.'
6.
'Fuck.'
5.
'Fuck.'
4.
'Fuck.'
3.
'Fuck.'
2.
'Fuck. I'm gonna have Yeosang's head after this.'
1.
At the last moment, Seonghwa pulled the two up and out, panting heavily as he scurried to his feet. "I got the implant. And a little extra. I'm gonna need help with the extraction." Seonghwa had murmured into his holo, looking over the toddler. He saw a marking at the side of her neck.
After a few days of straight planning, they finally had everything planned and ready to go. Seonghwa especially had everything sorted. Everything was placed where it needed to be. The way into the 5th floor was mapped out, and all they needed was to actually be on the road and get going.
Each one of the boys had their things ready to go; Jongho was to be stationed on top of one of the buildings, Wooyoung was to greet the man in charge, San and Mingi were there to make sure Wooyoung wouldn't get hurt, Yeosang would be in the van, making sure there were clear ways for them to get out, Yunho is driving the getaway car and Seonghwa would actually be grabbing the implant from it's stand.
Hongjoong made sure he would be nowhere near the site. He couldn't be seen out in public.
They all had their artillery set and ready to go, all suited up in their holotech undersuits (developed courtesy of Yunho - experimental, very dangerous) and whatever else they wanted to wear for this operation. The skin tight suits were perfect to keep them safe as they were near indestructible - keyword, near.
Each of them had been ready to get going and were sitting in their black van, waiting on the second-in-command to get there. It was silent besides San and Wooyoung whispering amongst themselves. Wooyoung, of course, was sitting in his lap. They must've been muttering about Wooyoung's partner, as when Seonghwa came out, Wooyoung was blushing and very audibly said an "I can't wait to see him after this."
Once everyone noticed the man standing there, looking between each of them silently, they all got into their designated spots. No words were exchanged between anyone as they mentally prepared for how intense this job would be. Seonghwa was the last one to get into the van, finally sighing before putting head against the passenger seat headrest.
"Let's get a move on." He murmured to Yunho, letting his eyes shut.
10:42 pm.
Seonghwa didn't open his eyes until the car came to a halt, and his holo acted as sunglasses, reflecting the shining ball of gas back out. The drive wasn't long, but they were getting ready. "Time to go, then." He said to himself, readying himself to go to the back of the truck and start the brief.
The brief was - well, brief.
It was enough to set everyone in motion to make it run as smoothly as possible, and each stealth member had to make sure Seonghwa could get in and out of the vents without being seen.
Everyone had made their way to their positions after the little meeting. Everything had to go perfectly to acquire this little piece of machinery.
At 11:00 pm, they'll make their moves. At this point, Seonghwa was fitted in his suit, and using the forged ID cards to get in, he nodded to that same receptionist who was macking on Wooyoung when they first planted the weapons. He made his way all the way up to the fourth floor, only to then take the stairs up to the roof, which was only three flights up. Through there, he would go through the HV/AC system and down into the ceiling. The workers usually take a break around 11:10, so getting in and out would be so simple when he can be alone; easy to grab the implant, put it in his bag, and get out of there.
He got the okay from Jongho, who was looking through his scope on a neighbouring building to start going down, so that's exactly what he did. He started lowering himself through the unit after connecting the rope to a side roof anchor.
