Project IZ*ONE: Secret Files

Cat and Mouse: Part 4

"Goeun!!!" Chaewon shouts as she runs to their fallen ally. The brunette was in very bad shape with bruises all over and a large gash on her forearm. Luckily though, she was still breathing.

"Goeun, can you hear me? What happened?" Sakura asks, trying to awaken the girl by splashing some water on her face while Chaewon and Yunjin tended to her wounds. Suddenly and much to the group's relief, Goeun began to stir.

"Sakura-unnie...?" She asks through a cough.

"Yes, it's me. We're here to help." The older girl replies, but Goeun shakes her head.

"Seoyoung...it's a trap..." She whispers just before an invisible force sends Eunchae flying from behind them. Kazuha's eyes widen, twisting just in time to deflect another invisible attack. Without even blinking, the Japanese girl quickly launches a kick into the air that manages to connect with something. To the group's surprise, a blonde girl with a pointed chin begins to materialize in front of them.

"You're good." Seoyoung says with a menacing smile before shifting her arms into her patented metal blades.

Kazuha though is unphased and charges directly towards the rogue mutant. Sakura was just about to tell her to stop until the younger girl's body began to shimmer and disappear into thin air. Seoyoung looked around confused until a strong gust of wind smacked her right across the face. The air then rematerialized behind her into Kazuha's form who sweeps her off her feet with a low kick.

"Sakura, get the others out of here." She says as she dodges another swing by Seoyoung. Kazuha's movements were graceful and smooth, and Sakura couldn't help but think it was connected to her ballerina training.

Meanwhile, Chaewon had sent a clone over to check on Eunchae who had fallen into the river and was now spitting out water.

"Not fair! She caught me off guard." The youngest girl complains.

"You think you're ready to fight?" Chaewon asks, noticing how Kazuha wasn't making much progress against Seoyoung. She had to spend so much time dodging her metal blades that she couldn't get off a counterattack.

"I thought you'd never ask, unnie." Eunchae says with a smirk before placing her hand on her chest and focusing her energy. Slowly but surely, a golden light began to emit from the blonde girl's body until she was at the center of a fifteen foot avatar. Sakura sees this unfold, her mouth hanging open as Eunchae runs up to Seoyoung and lands a powerful punch while she was preoccupied with Kazuha.

"Yah, Kkura, we have to go!" Chaewon says, snapping the older girl out of her thoughts. She then runs to catch up with Yunjin who was trying to block her and Goeun from Seoyoung's sight with an illusion.

With Chaewon and her clones joining the fight, Seoyoung looked like she was on the ropes, but that's when her eyes landed on Sakura.

"You're not getting away that easily!" She says as she camouflages and disappears from the group's sight.

In a flash, one of Chaewon's clones is struck down causing all of her copies to fade away. The short-haired girl clutches her gut which despite not having any visible injury, was causing her immense pain.

Eunchae is the next to be attacked as Seoyoung stabs her metal arm right into her avatar's leg. This causes the younger girl to stumble and lose control of her fighting form. When she looks down, she sees blood dripping from a cut that was in a similar area where her avatar had been attacked. The trio were being picked off one by one.

With Kazuha now standing alone, she tries to focus on her surroundings, sensing for Seoyoung's presence. A sudden disturbance in the air behind her causes her to turn and strike, but it proved to be a fake out. Seoyoung then appears out of nowhere and lets out a supersonic screech, no doubt stolen from Goeun. Kazuha tries to shift back into her wind form, but it proves to be useless. You couldn't dodge a sound-based attack by shifting density. Now that Kazuha was on her knees in solid form again, Seoyoung walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, stealing her power as well.