The Secret World of Kpop (with Seagirl)

Chicago
It was the second day of the new year, and already Xiao gets a call from abroad. It seemed word of the mighty Dragon Girl reached the Far East, and a special envoy had arranged for transportation to the Capital City immediately. It helped that Xiao's friend in AK2020 texted her the previous day to check her mail.

Australia
And not just Dragon Girl, but a similar offer was sent to Australia to the more famous and more controversial Seagirl.

To: Seagirl

The Government of South Korea would like to request your assistance and particular set of abilities in a matter of Korean National Security. Flight and Accommodations have been arranged for your cooperation, and a return flight should you refuse. Approach the South Korean Embassy immediately with this email to confirm your immediate travel to Seoul.

(The Korean officials secretly debated whether to include her or not, but having all the capable people they could was vital to this effort. There was a distinct scarcity of metahumans, and even more scarce were those with aquatic capability.)

For security reasons the details of the mission had to be done in person; the means of getting to the venue ensured a speedy, discreet and comfortable trip. Xiao flew on a private, supersonic jet surrounded by Korean officials, and was provided first class treatment in terms of food and winter clothes, while having to wonder what emergency warranted Dragon Girl's immediate attention... They didn't need a new member for their girl groups, did they?  

Sports, Talents and Arts Center of Korea, Seoul
1300 hours

There was precious little chance to go sightseeing as the limo was speeding to the Arts Center in the middle of Seoul. Dragon Girl and Sea Girl would only actually see each other at the Center, greeted by a 5'10", particularly pale, slim and prettified office worker in heels. There was no shortage of these kinds of ladies running to and fro offices. Xiao had come as herself, not as Dragon Girl, and yet she seemed to belong. Belonged, and a foot taller than anyone else.

Right as they disembark from their limos and meet in the Lobby, a bus had dropped of a batch of two dozen "raw recruits". Wearing sneakers, jeans, sweaters and other civilian clothes, there was little hiding these tall asian ladies destined for the Celebrity factory. They walked past Xiao and Seagirl, speaking in Korean. Xiao ignored their comments about "extra augmentation."

"Thank you for coming, Dragon Girl and Seagirl. Please walk this way." The lady said, walking in a way that was a bit too difficult to follow, the magnitude of swaying in her hips 30% more than was normal.

Now, the Center was not quite like anything else in the west. While American music groups would pride themselves on forming independently and rising from obscurity, Korean Pop groups were said to have been factory made- trained from a pre-pubescent age in large numbers, educated specifically towards the job, having harsh programs that weed out "undesirables", and even rumored augmentations. The Center was some kind of strange, eerie confirmation of all these rumors.

They walked past dance Studios, music Studios, modeling and recording booths, all filled with Korean stepford girls. There were actual lectures in classrooms about Korean marketing and sociology. There were open spaces for girls playing volleyball and football (soccer to you Yanks), and Dojos filled with pretty Asians with Black belts, Xiao's friend included. A teenage boy might think themselves in heaven, but anyone with a brain might think this was all way, way too creepy.

They were lead into secure areas, to an office guarded by an male soldier in a beret for a change. But the dude looked like Rain, and probably belonged too. Inside were a few older, important looking military officers. The military hiding inside a Kpop Center. The conspiracy deepened.

"Director Kwan, Generals, allow me to present Dragon Girl and Seagirl." The lady said in Korean, leaving the two superheroines with them. The old people looked very important, and were doing important military stuff, like reading maps and not paying attention to them.

Xiao took her seat and looked around. It was a cultural thing that youngsters don't interrupt their elders, so she remained quiet.

Australia needed to cool down a little. Hanna didn't even know you could tell tofu bacon from real bacon just by looking at it, but those animal's rights guys could spot it a mile away. Probably didn't help that the billboard of Seagirl spanned a major highway with a giant image of Hanna holding the imposter imposter bacon in full focus. In her defense, regular bacon was better and Hanna could be a vegetarian in between meals just fine.

But, Hanna might need a little better image control, so the best thing to do would be to listen to her publicist. Sadly, Hanna did very little listening and mostly talking. So much that her ever so bitter publicist decided to ship her off to Korea. Why Korea? It wasn't goddamn Australia.

Acting on behalf of Hanna as a covert agent sent by Bliss no longer worked so well, so Abby took on more of a personal assistant role. Most of the time she could use Hanna's dwindling personal funds and could even occasionally get money from Bliss (when Bliss remembered who Abby was and why she wanted Seagirl looked after in the first place). "I've got a ticket for tomorrow but it's pretty pricey."

"Too pricey, what about this one." The invasive finger of Hanna took Abby away from expedience and right towards efficiency.

"You're not really cold and efficient. When you want to save money, it's more just kind of sad."

"Would a sad person be drinking at ten in the morning..." Hanna lifted her drink and took a long sip before smacking her lips. "With a silly straw?"

"Why don't you go tie yourself to railroad tracks or something? I'm busy booking a plane." It wasn't until after the mouse click Abby saw the accommodations come through. She turned to mention something to Hanna, but decided to go ahead and keep this one a secret. Her inner debate moved to the side as she witnessed Hanna stuff a bag full of food. "The plane ride isn't that long."

Hanna turned an orange over in her hand to check for bruises before throwing it in the bag with reckless cause. "They don't have food in Korea; I don't wanna starve over there."

"You're going to South Korea."

"How many countries are in Korea?"

"Um, two? And South is the one with food. And Internet. And K-Pop stars who need your attention. How do you not know that? Don't you read those books on your bookcase or are they just for show?"

"Um, I read them all. Do you want to have a discussion over Marxist theory? Because we can have..."

"No. No one every does."

"Proletariat moron."

"Using your bourgeois credit card number."

"I just hope they don't plan on having we go to one of those working people camps, because I just got my nail game on." Hanna flashed her nails towards Abby, furthering resolving the red headed English girl's firm belief charging Hanna for a plane ticket she would never use was soaked in justice.

"You're going to be the Dennis Rodman of South Korea."

"That might get rid of those bacon haters."

"I'm positive it would give everyone something new to talk about."

"Exactly. Maybe you should be my publicist from now on. See, these are the things I need to know, like which Korea is the bad one and which flight saves me 5 bucks."

"Yeah." Abby began to dread buying the second plane ticket now. "These are the things you need to know."

The plane landed in South Korea. Hanna stepped out with a designed pair of boots  running up halfway along her calf. Her short sided prediction of Korea always being hot did not bode well for her choice of a skirt or the white blouse. She tucked a sweatshirt in her bag somewhere beneath all the carry-on for ice cream eating in the hotel room, but for now, she would soldier on into the harsh elements of an airport terminal, then a taxi, then check in with the hotel, and finally to the agency. All in all, she spent about ninety seconds in the harsh elements. An unforgiving ninety seconds. Unforgiving of Seagirl, not for.

A giant familiar girl stepped out to meet Hanna. "Hey, you're not joining these creepy robot girls are you?" Before Hanna could get too involved in a conversation, a well to do attendant came to escort her back to meet with the top brass of the not-bad-Korea.

Xiao remained quiet while the director and his generals continued to study a map. Hanna remained on her feet, peering over to look at the map. "So, I didn't think it would be this cold since it's supposed to be the South Korea, so do you guys have any clothes to change into..." Hanna shook her head as no response came to her. "No? Just harsh looks. Okay. I can't imagine what the bad Korea looks like."

Big hearted Xiao smiled when she saw Seagirl and waved, then coming over and giving her a hug and a peck on the cheek. "Seagirl! No, I can't stand being that glamorous. It's nice to see you again. How are you?"

The heroes' warm reunion was cut short when the lady led them to the room full of stuffy old Korean dudes. Once they notice Seagirl talk to them, they also stop their discussion and sit. They put paperwork in order and begin, having one officer speak in English as the others spoke in Korean.

"Welcome, heroes from abroad. We have asked for you in particular to help us with a matter. Should you choose to accept we will be glad to compensate you as the Government will allow." They look at each other then at the heroes with a brief pause.

"Now... the mission we have in store is a delicate one. We lost contact with a group of South Korea's own... metahumans... while on their mission trying to infiltrate Island 121... 10 miles off the DMZ coast. We are afraid the North Koreans may have captured them somehow, based on the final radio and video transmissions we received from them." Then they paused to put forward some folders containing relevant data.

"Now, these four South Korean metahumans are designated Red Heron, Iron Monk, Fox Girl and their leader, Hwarang." They passed to Seagirl and Dragon Girl file folders containing pictures of the Korean heroes, sporting uniforms that were mostly white, with red and blue accents, more Korean than USA in scheme. Wind Dragon and Fox Girl were the females, a short, bob cut adult woman and then a small child with long pigtails, while Iron Monk seemed to be a traditional Buddhist monk... and Hwarang was this generic male hero with wild hair.

"They are the Government's top agents, and we simply do not have any other metahumans in the country capable of dealing with what the Korean squad cannot. Your reputations from your respective home countries are what brought you here... and we need your help. We will equip you with all you need as well. Will you accept this mission on our behalf?"

Dragon Girl looked at the file folders as she listened. Her eyes lingered on Fox Girl, who couldn't have been teen age yet."...Why did you send a child on a hostile mission? Do you have any idea what she must be going through?" she said in Korean, her tone quite displeased.

"...Fox Girl is more capable than you'd imagine. She completed basic training and is capable of defending herself." They answered simply.

"That's not the point! She's still a kid... And if she's caught by bad people she's going to be afraid." Xiao protested, then stood up. "Where is it? we are going immediately!" She said with all the righteousness of a hero.

"We appreciate your concern. We would also prefer if you stayed for the detailed briefing of the Island's layout and nature as well." They said, trying to calm Xiao down.

"Well... that seems to be a yes from Dragon Girl. How about you, Sea Girl?"

"Okay, so it's dangerous, but I'm the hero right?" Hanna breezed through the mission briefing quick enough to understand the mission while giving herself time to come up with possible headlines for herself. "Would you consider saving this team more news worthy than eating bacon on a billboard for tofu bacon?" No response came from the tension between Xiao and the military attendant. "Okay. No news is good news, so I'll just have my publicist run some headlines by you and we can just see what makes it look best."

The tone of the conversation took a more confrontational tone filled with dragon fire. "I was a young superhero who wound up in trouble and it turned out just fine for- yeah, we should probably try to help her. Who knows, maybe I can give her some advice." A harsh line of glares washed over Hanna. "Or, the name of a good therapist." If looks could kill, Hanna would need a 20 durability to survive those rays. "I can- well we can do this mission. It seems like a scenario with objectives. Here's a map." Probably of the mission success began lowering just through a slew of misplaced words. "I feel good about this. So are we taking a boat to the island? I hope it's not too windy out there. I kinda want to stay dry. You know good skin doesn't grow on trees."

After learning of the island and the situation at hand, the invisible girl who hopped a plane to South Korea and stayed close enough to activate the walkie talkie function on Hanna's phone stumbled into a brier of good and bad ideas. If Abby started now, she could probably make it to the island before the aquatic duo and get some good reconnaissance. This mostly assumed Hanna would slow down the process with a slew of ideas and explanations clearly missing any points, but could also be held up due to Hanna messing up any other forms of the actual mission. If Abby were skilled and competent, she would get all the information the group needed and report back with no trouble.

Abby was not competent.

Once the two aquatic heroines gave their clear agreement to take on the mission, the officials continued speaking. "We thank you for your cooperation in this matter then."

The english speaker addressed Seagirl's question about reaching the Island. "No. It is far too risky, considering you are within North Korean territory. The Island will likely have defenses. We were thinking you could approach the Island underwater. A Sub will bring you to within four kilometers of the Island, then you'll have to swim the rest of the way. This is why we needed capable aquatic heroes."

"Also... about the dangers of the Island, we are afraid the North Koreans may have contracted a foreign metahuman to train a new batch of fighters. The video feed also indicates North Korea's Major Gas is on the Island."

"Major... Gas...?" Xiao asked, with the video feed from the Korean team showing their surroundings slowly being filled up with gas, a dark silhouette standing in the toxic fog.

"Yes. He is one of their more visible agents. He is also their most dangerous, as he is an expert in Chemical warfare, and very likely used his gases to overcome agents. He is nothing short of a monster, having been hired out to conduct raids on villages in China and South Korea."

Xiao looked at the video stunned. Something about that roiling fog of green gas stirred painful memories in her. She snaps out of her stupor. "...So he can create chemical weapons that work on metahumans?"

"Yes, and Worse. He seems to possess telekinetic control over it. We will have to equip you both with anti-gas protection, despite your enhanced physiologies."

"If there are no more questions, we will launch this operation tonight at midnight. We recommend you prepare and rest. You have the run of the facilities and may go about as you please. at 11pm we will move you both to the Naval Base and then depart for the Island. Good day, Dragon Girl and Sea Girl. We will be counting on you." the officials depart the office, leaving the two heroines with all the intelligence they could provide.

Xiao sat there, quiet and rather anxious. Major Gas. why did she feel so unnerved?

"I think I'll go for lunch. You want to come with? They have great food here in Korea. Have you tried Bulgogi?" Xiao offered Seagirl, keeping up that cheerful demeanor. Like on any important mission or endeavor, Xiao was worried, and she tried to overcome it with the knowledge of a scared Fox Girl was waiting for her to save them.

Xiao homed in on the Center's well equipped and pristine cafeteria like a bloodhound. There, a whole bunch of male and female popstars in training were eating their measured out food.

CAFETERIA

Xiao ordered at the cashier then took a table with a built in grill on it. They started the course with appetizers, both girls each getting up to six small bowls filled with appetizers like cold kimchi, cold picked vegetables with chili, sliced tofu with chili, dried fish with chili, a salad with chili sauce, and some soup, which also contained chili past. In fifteen minutes the servers brought out the marinated strips of beef sirloin to be grilled in front of their eyes. The meat was garnished with Chopped onions and smelled divine. The grill also had sweet corn and whole mushrooms on it. If Hanna ordered anything else, it would also be on the table. And yet, for all the wonderful food in front of her, the normally big eating Xiao had no appetite, her mind wandering elsewhere. The sight of Major Gas seemed to have put her in some kind of heroic doubting mode.

"Oh. You need me because I can swim." Hanna's delight soured. "I'm going to need a meta suit. An aquatic one. Don't want to make this a bikini episode. I'm sure one of the secret agent wet suits you give one of these models will fit me perfectly. They stretch right?" Even though Hanna misinterpreted the overall goal, means, and methods of this operation, she still remained ascertain that this would help her image greatly. "Lunch? Bolgogi? Sounds like meat."

Hunks of meat stacked up before Hanna before she finally piled a large stack in her mouth. "Yeah, I'm trying to be a vegetarian for health reasons..." A couple of pieces of meat slipped from Hanna's mouth as she continued to eat and talk. "And because it is so sad how the animals are on farms." She sighed a sign of affirmation at the pleasure of the meat. "So, good. Oh, and creatures on farms live in cages and I'm sure that's not what it's like for Fox Girl with Master Gasser. No, no, no..." A buzz from her cell phone shook the table out from Hanna's diatribe. "So, my new publicist is this girl from England, and she can turn invisible..." Hanna kept reading as her face started to change from pleasure to concern. "And she is sneaking towards Island 121 to investigate the disappearance." Holding the phone in one hand and her utensil in the other, Hanna moved the food around her mouth while her eyes shot up to try and wind up her brain. "I don't know what this on the menu is, but bring me what I'm pointing at." A waitress peered over her shoulder and headed back to the kitchen. "I'm sure she'll be fine. She found a black market boat that travels between these two Koreas and hid on the boat. Pretty good plan. Hey, maybe she'll find Squirrel Girl and solve all the problems and I won't have to go swimming."

After finishing off gejang, crab, samgyeopsal, and a serving of jokbal, Hanna picked up her purse and got up. She felt light headed from the gluttony she just displayed, but felt her duty as a vegetarian pull on her. Pulling a pamphlet detailing the atrocities of the meat industry, Hanna dropped it on the table and turned to leave with Xiao. "Okay, so when we get there, you just turn into a dragon, then fight Master Gas, then we grab those people, come back and do a press conference. Okay? Okay." Something felt off about the time they spent eating. "This shouldn't be that tough. I'm pretty sure we just ate more in that meal than everyone in North Korea did all last year." Hanna made her way through the security checks of the naval base before waiting for the submarine to surface for them. "Oh..." Hanna dug into her bag. "I forgot about Abby..." Holding her phone up, Hanna surveyed the bad news. "Looks like my phone is dead. But, I'm sure she's just fine. She sent me a text that said she made it to the island a few hours ago."

"I hope your friend will be alright. If four of South Korea's strongest heroes were caught, I can scarcely imagine the trouble your friend is in."

Once Xiao realized there was little food left, she found the strength to eat the vegetables, but she couldn't touch the delicious beef grilling in front of them. Sure she took some corn on the cob and some mushrooms, and finished both of their chili laden appetizers. She then excused herself to go get some sleep, as a mission at midnight was no good for a growing half dragon.

LOCK AND LOAD MONTAGE
Seagirl's request was eventually processed and she was permitted access to the armory at the Center. the attendant who brought them here guided Seagirl through the inventory of American and Korean made weaponry. Guns, gadgets, devices, apps and wetsuits were all made available to her, all waterproofed for their inevitable task of infiltrating Island 121.  The military grade diving suits were generously padded with thermal padding as well, and with the aid of a nano-circuitry machine the suits clung to the heroes very tightly, yet breathed like silk. Definitely not for people with body image issues.

Xiao sleepily listened as the computer engineers uploaded useful mission apps to her mobile device, helping them with any technical or software obstacle they'd need to overcome. Dragon Girl took a full suit as well, but took no weapons- her fists were of course, going to be enough. She also packed the gas mask that would help against gas attacks.

NAVY BASE, Midnight

Winter at midnight near the water was about as cold and frigid as one could expect. The truck ride was brief and bumpy, and there wasn't much of the base to see. The South Korean Submarine accepted the heroines with little word or fanfare, and they were off into the vast darkness of the Sea of Japan.

NORTH KOREAN WATERS AROUND ISLAND 121

"We are within target range. Prepare the heroes." The pretty Captain onboard said, commanding her disciplined sea men inside the sub with clear authority.

Aboard the cold, sterile and well lit sub, an officer leads the heroes to the torpedoes tubes where they would deploy. Xiao looked at the cramped tube, mumbling as she climbed in and the hatch closed.

"Goodluck." The officer said.

Very, very cold sea water flooded the tube immediately, and Xiao could feel some pressure behind her as she was launched into the sea. It was dark, pitch black now, and her other senses would begin taking over. The lights on the heroes' suits would help them keep track of each other, and the water proof gps on their arms aided in navigation. It would be a long swim, but swimming fast what these two heroes were supposed to be good at.

Approaching the Island, danger became soon apparent as Soviet era underwater mines showed up on the sonar, and later visual range. Xiao slowed to a careful swim around the devices, knowing that setting one off would likely sound the alarm. If that wasn't bad enough, there was also the presence of a weird glowing hammer head shark, its rough hide bursting at the seams as its muscles were clearly engorged by mutagens.

Xiao tried to make gestures to warn Seagirl, to be careful. She swam very slowly, hopefully not alerting the mutant shark.

"So no send off or press meetings? Do people even know I'm..."

"No." A young naval officer pushed Hanna towards the submarine. "Quiet missions. Quiet."

"I can be quiet. I wanted everyone to talk about me." In half a fall and half a calculated non-flight flight, Hanna found herself on the ground, looking up to the hatch. "Can you at least get a before op picture?"

The silence said 'no', but the hum of machinery within the sub said 'get to work'. So Hanna got to work. Not a whole lot to complete, but a lot to prepare for. The wetsuit fit her snuggly in all the good ways. No bikini adventure. "This will be a fine way to look when we return. So am I going out a hatch, or a ladder, or a..." A hand pushed Hanna towards a small tunnel. "A tunnel? And this leads to the ladder?"

"No. Put your arms across your chest and cross your legs."

"Cross my legs? Is this a slide of some- oh shit." And then Hanna heard nothing but ringing for the next two minutes.

Those sneaky Koreans tricked Hanna right into a torpedo tube for the third time in her life. Once she spun out of her spiral a light flickered off in the distance. Ir grew closer with each passing breath Hanna didn't need to take. Xiao sent her a message, warning of a flying creature, or a flailing jelly fish, or possibly a human bird hybrid. Before Hanna could decipher the code, a shark snapped its massive jaws directly by her arm. All those times of being Seagirl kicked in just fine as her toned body and government wetsuit moved her quicker than she ever moved before. Dolphins! Dolphins! She sent out her long since used telekinetic waves to try and communicate with any viable sea creatures near her.

"We can hear you. Stop yelling." Two dolphins swam up beside Hanna to answer her call for help. Neither expressed much joy.

Oh, man. I forgot dolphin, um...

"Just talk with your thoughts. We all hate it when you make the 'eeee eeeee' noise. It's very condescending to us."

The second dolphin swam around Hanna to get closer to talk into her ear. "Yeah, 'eeeeee eeeee' is our word. You don't get to use it."

Okay. Can you help me with this shark.

"Which shark. It's an ocean and believe it or not, I don't know every shark in it."

It's the shark that is glowing.

"Well, if you're going to be Japanese about it, we'll just leave."

No, no, can you just help me fight this shark. It looks unnatural.

"That is incredibly speciest of you to make judgments over what is and is not natural to a shark."

"Well, now that she mentions it, the shark is glowing."

"Yeah, I guess they don't normally do that. Jolly well, swim in circles and hit him in the gills with our noses?"

"Sure."

And swim in circles and hit the shark in the gills with their noses they did. They pummeled the shark until little remained of the aggressive shark. While the dolphins performed the actions down below, Hanna would one day take credit for dispatching such a malevolent creature. She really hoped Xiao didn't see anything so she would take absolute credit for everything. If Xiao didn't make it back from the mission, Hanna would take all the credit. While the dolphins spun off, gears begun to spin in Hanna's meticulous head.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! What did I do?! Leave me alone, can't you see I'm not well? Racist dolphins, always attacking us innocent sharks!" The sharks thoughts went someway like that, before the harassment caused it to swim away from the mine field and into open water. The dolphins though, would likely start feeling nauseous as the water around the Island was definitely tainted with something.

"I feel sick. And angry. and I wanna bump Seagirl with my nose."

"Yeah, me too. Man let's just go home."

Wearing protective suits, the tainted water would not affect the heroes. Xiao lost sight of the shark, and gestured Seagirl proceeded to swim towards the Island. The underwater mines were no trouble for expert swimmers like these heroines.

It had to be snowing, and the shore was partially iced up. Xiao punched apart the ice and made landfall, turning down the lights on her suit. The facility itself wasn't too secretive as spotlights scanned the beaches and the skies, high-lighting its perimeters. Chain link fences abound on the island, not to mention k-9 patrols and armed sentries. There was no way to reach the facility without serious stealth, and stealth was not Xiao's specialty.

And so, like a good girl scout, Xiao checked her GPS. It led them to a large sewer tunnel, likely connected to the facility. There were raised walks on both sides, while a stream of glowing filth and waste flowed directly into the open sea. A giant mutant rat the size of an attack dog hissed as they approached, then fled into the tunnel.

"Looks like this is our way in to be undetected. Say, Seagirl, you mentioned a friend came to the island before us. Have you heard from them yet? Is there a chance they might have been caught?"

What a win for Seagirl. That is what she would say when interviewed when she ended this endeavor. Oh man, everyone would probably love her so much- well so much more than they did now. She could be the biggest hero in all of Korea if this went right. She would be the best in the good Korea. She would definitely leave out the rock she just ran into, but that shark fight. Wow. And all these toxic chemicals were probably doing wonders for her skin. What wasn't to love about this horrible, iced over, heavily fortified compound full of angry people with guns, and a freelance meta villain holding several hostages of certain power.

"So this major beat four superheroes. So they are sending in two for a rescue mission? I'm glad it will make the press conference smaller, but it will be a great- oh, idea, maybe one of the heroes can die, and then..." A light brighter than the searchlights skimming the river shone in Hanna's eyes. "I can cry at the press conference and show people how sensitive I am over death, and when people Youtube 'Seagirl Crying', it won't be detrimental to my self esteem. Oh, who Abby?" Hanna brushed off the useful comment while setting out which member of the hero team she thought would make her tear up the most. "She's invisible. Probably just running around the island having a good time. We're going into the sewer now right? Of course we are. God this island sucks."

"There are no Americans! There is a big Asian girl and an Australian!" A towel came off of Abby's head, dripping with water. Her eyes passed over to the prison guard filling up the bucket of water while she tested the restraints holding her to a table.

"You lying, American?" A cigarette lit up the darkness around a man's face.

"I'm not American! Americans don't have English accents!" Abby struggled in vain while her interrogator stood up.

"I don't believe you."

"Why? I really don't want you to waterboard me again and will tell you anything to make this stop. Seagirl is an idiot. You can probably trap her by holding an island wide talent contest and putting good publicity as the main prize."

"So water based heroes. I can pass that information on to the Major, but first we need to see how valid this information is." He grabbed the towel and tossed it over Abby's head while his underling stepped forward to pour the water into her mouth.

"Probably having the time of her life. Being invisible is a pretty cool power." Hanna crawled into the sewer drain after Xiao. The subterranean complex ran the course of the compound, but finding a direct way up would prove problematic. "There was an episode of "Seagirl: Best Girl in the Sea" where I once ended a robot invasion by finding a secret door next to a restroom. It smelled terrible because the producers didn't want to spend money on CGI so we filmed in a sewer, so if we just follow the worst smell, it will lead us to where the restrooms are and there should be a door to a maintenance crawl near by." Hanna perked up. "Did I just have a good idea? Wow, I need to remember that for the press conference."

"Okay then. I hope we'll run into her soon, we can all go home together." Xiao said, as she turned on the flash light on for their benefit. The Sewers were cramped and Xiao had to crouch most of the way, and she'd break apart chain link fences than crawl in the gunk flowing right below them.
Xiao listened to Seagirl's advice, regarding the senior hero as someone to look up to.

"Okay. Good idea. We'll find a layout of pipes that looks like a bathroom." Xiao agreed with Seagirl's idea, as the base's sewers were a labyrinth of large and small pipes carrying a wide variety of awful substances. Now, Xiao had been wearing her suit all this time as well as her own gas mask. Someone with a heightened sense of smell could scarcely stand a place like the sewer.

Standing beneath the large pipes, Xiao would hear alot of machinery and noise above, guessing that they were laboratories or industrial areas. She looked for the much smaller pipes that would lead to a bathroom, probably one that was small and had little foot traffic.

Once she found what she was looking for, Xiao put her ear to the concrete and listened. "Music?" She muttered, hearing some kind of classical music playing above. There were few footsteps.  

" Okay, I think we're near somewhere with fewer soldiers. Let's go up." She said, using her fists to smash through roughly 300mm of concrete and rebar, to reveal a... swanky looking toilet that wouldn't seem out of place at a five star hotel. Xiao jumped up and helped Seagirl up after her.  

The toilet was lit with a soft yellow light from a hanging golden chandelier, the pipes gold plated and the counter top was dark marble. A large, silver framed mirror hung to show the heroes in all their glorious, smelly, sewer stained mess. The bathroom was generously equipped, and this being the bad guy base Xiao picked up a towel from the rack, soaked it in expensively bottled soap and water, then washed herself off. She offered Seagirl the same. All the while, waltz and other classical dance music played outside.

Xiao took a careful peek and saw that it was a moderately sized ballroom with equally lavish appointments, as well as a small orchestra of formally dressed North Korean women and children playing instruments, while a well dressed man performed a waltz with a younger partner wearing a bejeweled golden dress. They all seemed like they'd undergone the Kpop augmentation, as there wasn't a malnourished, squinty eyed Asian among the bunch, save perhaps for the pale skinned man dancing with his young partner. "Uh... aren't we supposed to be at a North Korean military base? not... the mansion from the beauty and the beast?" Xiao commented to Seagirl.

This younger partner, on closer inspection, wore an ornate mask, had fox ears on her head and a tail underneath the balloon skirt. Fox Girl! There was a full, professional film crew recording this dance with modern equipment, while the far wall had a giant North Korean flag hanging over the door, as well as the portraits of the Dear Leaders.

"I heard stories about North Korea... but this..." Xiao mumbled. Righteous anger began swelling in her, apparent from how she was slowly crushing the door handle to the bathroom.

All this wandering around in a gas mask did nothing for any of Seagirl's natural abilities. Sure, breathing underwater and talking to sea mammals helped, but a good complexion did her so many more wonders, and now she was expected to traipse through these dank sewers with nothing more than a giant tour guide. The sooner they found those hostages, the better. But, in the mean time, this music really seemed out of place. "Am I hearing noises again?" Pulling the mask from her face, Hanna felt like the air around her clogged her throat. A loud coughing shot out from her throat as she put her hand against Xiao to brace herself. "I think... I think there's something in the air..." The air cleared up, but her throat remained on fire as she tried to regain her composure. "Yeah, this will probably be a good enough place to enter through."

Poking her head through the entrance next to Xiao, Hanna gave her blood shot eyes a chance to survey the blurry scene. "Oh yeah. This was a pretty good spot to come up. Did I do this? Wow, I'm on a roll." Feeling overcome with confidence, Hanna gave a once over to the room and decided her next course of action. With the film crew taking stock of every piece of action in the room, Hanna could show off a little as she pulled Foxgirl and the others to safety. No one would ever dispute her heroism with live footage going. "We can take these guys. Most of them are kids or feminine guys. We got this." Throwing her mask on the ground, Hanna walked over and grabbed Foxgirl by the shoulder, pulling her around. "Don't. Worry. Fox. Girl. We. Are..." Before Hanna could finish her terrible English yelling, Foxgirl grabbed Seagirl by the forearm and flipped Seagirl onto her back.

"Don't worry Seagirl, we'll take care of you." The man escorting Foxgirl in her dance looked down on Hanna as she sat up to rub her back. "Foxgirl, tie these intruders up."

"Wait a minute. I think we're being hasty here..." Seagirl tried to stand to her feet, but her foundation arm was swept out as Foxgirl dropped to the ground and performed a swift kick at Hanna's wrist. "What is your problem kid?"

Foxgirl looked at Hanna and Xiao and cracked her knuckles.

Xiao watched as Seagirl suddenly broke out of their concealment and tried to retrieve Fox Girl. And fail miserably. Or rather, found out for herself why Fox Girl was in South Korea's top metahuman team. When the Renaissance Man told Fox Girl to tie them up, Fox Girl's tails began to grow an animate, and soon Seagirl was raised into the air, bound by the fluffiest- and quite strong- tail she'd yet to encounter.

"AAaaah so here come the heroes that my guest mentioned! I am quite honored..." The renaissance man deliberately ignored Seagirl, and walked over to Xiao, who had emerged from hiding.

"...to finally meet the Dragon Girl." He said, switching to Korean, hands spread out in a mock welcoming gesture.

"Who... who are you?" Xiao asked, being able to answer him in the language.

"Allow me to Introduce myself. I am Major Baek Jan Gyun. Chemical weapons expert of the North Korean army. you may have heard of my nome de guerre, Major Gas." He curtsied. The vile name coupled with his vile tastes made Xiao visibly cringe.

"You won't get away with this. I will free the Korean heroes! Let Seagirl go or I'll..." She raised her fist to intimidate him, but he turned the tables on her.

"You'll what, Dragon Girl? turn into a dragon? hurt the children? Like Shanghai?" He said, with a disturbing, intimate knowledge of her history abilities. The way he talked, the way he looked at Xiao creeped her out big time. Dragon Girl's courage wavered. The painful memories of putting so many children in the hospital surfaced, making her doubt her heroism.

"How do you know me?" She asked, though she was going to regret hearing it.

"Stupid brat. Your mother was about to sell you to me when she backed out and fled your stinking village-" Unfortunately Major Gas had no consideration of how Xiao's temper worked. To imply that her good Buddhist mother who raised her singlehandedly on a farm house to adolescence, would ever sell her out was not a good idea. Gas's body vanished from where it stood, with the audible sound of bone being crushed, and reappeared again, smashing into the window of the Ballroom and landing outside. Xiao stood there, fist extended and bloody, having connected with Gas's chest, now reduced to a pulp.

The Major's influence gone, the orchestra and film crew flee. Little Fox Girl blinked a few times, confused, looking up at Sea Girl. "Who... who are you? Why am I holding you? Why am I wearing this dress?" She asked Seagirl in Korean.

Xiao meanwhile, breathed steadily, frozen in place. The horror of this place had been too much, the Major's knowledge about her terrifying. She broke out into a cold sweat.

But worst of all, It had just dawned on her that she may have just deliberately murdered a human being.

"Yeah, listen to the Dragon. We can talk this over. We haven't even told you about the backup invisible girl we brought with us..." Before Hanna could interject anymore into the conversation, Xiao ejected everyone, including Major Gas literally, from the conversation. "Woah, you have a temper. And do not like talking about the past; I'm not a therapist, but I have been through enough sessions to know that what you did is called negative reinforcement. Like when directors don't return my calls, so I text their wives we're having an affair. It works, but it probably shouldn't."

The little hero still held Hanna in place when she came back into her own state of mind. "Where are you?" Hanna suddenly realized the cameras would destroy her already fractured hero face. "You got in my way, and kept me from saving the day. You're lucky I don't hold grudges and we took control of this situation, otherwise, this entire failure would be your fault. You should thank me." Shaking her arm loose from Fox Girl, Hanna stood back to her feet as the auditorium dispersed, leaving Seagirl, Dragon Girl, and Fox Girl all alone in their sisterhood of people with the last name 'girl'. "It looks like we broke up the party a little too early. I kind of have some expertise here, so just like any time that happens, you gotta dog the host. I guess Fox Girl can help us look for the rest of the heroes we need to rescue."

While the others would go off looking on their own, Hanna decided to check the stairs to see what laid on the upper levels of the complex. Someone would need to disable the defenses the North Koreans put into place and keep the alarms from rounding out in the dark. Hurried footsteps shuffled along the hallway only a few feet away. Two guards rushed by, caught unawares when Hanna leaped out and grabbed the rifle away from one of the men. A quick turn of the rifle impacted against the jaw of the second man, knocking him to the ground. A pair of arms wrapped around Hanna, holding her from attacking either of his sides. Hanna flipped the rifle over her shoulder and hit the guard she disarmed square between the eyes, knocking him out next to his counterpart. "Not so tough. This is almost too easy."

A trail of blood lined the walls leading to a sliding door. With the lookouts less than objecting, Hanna pushed through the darkened corridor until she found a set of doors flanking both sides of the walls. None of the first rooms hosted any inhabitants, but contained a very sterile atmosphere. Some kind of odd examination room of sorts; Hanna took the signs of the corridor as a clear sign of a place Major Gas would have taken the heroes after captivity, but the rooms remained clear of any toxic fumes.

A muffled sound came from behind a closed door at the end of the hall. Hanna passed another blotch of blood along the wall with no hesitation in her wake. The door slid open to reveal Abby in her current predicament upon an examination table with her hands and legs restrained and a piece of tape over her mouth. "Hey, did you text me you got to the island?" Hanna looked down to check her phone, before realizing a torpedo tube put enough pressure on the device to make it implode upon itself. "So, I got a good idea." The smell of foul gas rose from the hall as Hanna stepped towards Abby to tear the tape from her mouth. "I can't kill Fox Girl because it would make Xiao go crazy, so I'm going to..."

"No, you're not killing me!" Abby shook her restraints to try and dislodge herself from the table.

"As my publicist, you should be all on board for this. And I'm not killing you, I'm just making you look a little more distraught before letting you go." Grabbing a large metal bar from the table, Hanna began to raise it over Abby's head. "Wait, I can't look at you while I do it. That would be terrible." Reaching for the towel, Hanna tossed it over Abby's face before getting back into her stance. "Okay we're good."

The iron rod hit Abby square across the forehead with a loud thud. "Oh my god! You psycho bitch!"

"Don't worry, it will be over in a little bit and you'll forget all about..." The gases now seeped directly into Hanna's lungs through a rag draped across her mouth and nose. Instinctively, Hanna grabbed his hand, but the lightheadedness did her no favors in fighting off the villain behind her. Beneath her, the lightheadedness let her feet deliver a massive blow to the foot of the man assaulting her. Wedging herself free of his rag did her massive favors for staying awake, but she still saw a prismlike appearance for whomever came at her. "Abby, go get help."

"I can't." From beneath the towel, a flurry of red hair shook her veil off. "I'm strapped to a table, and you did nothing to help me other than give me this bruise."

"Okay." Hanna surveyed the room. "I'll go get help."

The villain closed in, wondering if Seagirl would enjoy being fish food.

As Seagirl turned around to see the one doing the chloroform, it was a man in shredded formal clothes, broken skin and shards of glass in his body. He was slowly regenerating back his skin, appearing as a bloody red fiend grinning with his teeth on display, his eyes wide open with a barely hidden mania.  He drops the rag and opts for a different tactic.

"Interesting... more competent that I'd expect. You know Seagirl, we could always use aquatic heroes on our side. Please, stop this foolishness. Work for us! I can offer you anything. You will find our leader can be very generous to his friends and allies. Think on it carefully... or I will have my Storm Guard deal with you."

Meanwhile, the base's alarms had been sounded, and soldiers were rushing to Major Gas's aid. Two soldiers, a male and a female, assumed fighting stances beside Gas. They looked like they belonged at the Kpop star center, but were a good foot shorter and slightly malnourished. Their uniforms had a distinct lightning bolt badge on the arm. Storm Guard indeed. The lady wore glasses, wore some kind of gauntlets with wires, connected to a retro looking backpack, while the male Storm Guard... drew a knife, and flipped it back and forth between his hands.

Back in the ballroom, Fox Girl used her extending super tails to shut the doors and barricade it. She was trying to make Xiao budge. Given how small she was, tugging on her arm wouldn't arm do it.

"Big sister! Major Gas has a healing factor! You didn't kill him!" She pleaded to Xiao in Korean, causing her to snap out of it.

"Oh..." Xiao felt a tinge of relief that she was wrong. But she didn't feel comfort at how easily she was provoked at attacking. The barricade eventually failed, and a dozen Storm Guard with a variety of powers and pre-ass kicking poses threatened Xiao and Fox Girl. Xiao stepped forward, putting herself between them and Fox Girl.