A/N
I've been gone from this story forever so please drop some comments!
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"We're surrounded." One of the soldiers that had scouted ahead shouted to Bambam.
"I see movement from back here too Lieutenant." Jackson shouted.
"What would Lisa do, what would Lisa do." Bambam chanted to himself.
Kiyoung came to as they shuffled down the corridor and passed the next pod. He wasn't all there. All he knew was that he was being carried on a young man's back, there were several soldiers trying to make the escape out of prison and the shots were getting closer.
He opened his eyes, he was seeing double but he recognized the boy that was literally about to be executed moments ago that he cut down from the noose. He didn't know how much time had passed, not with the ache in his head. Maybe it had been only moments, maybe it had been hours. Even without a head injury, it was hard to tell the time in a literal prison.
"Lucas how much ammo do you have left?" Bambam asked Lucas.
"Enough to take out a couple dozen, the problem is the hallways are too confined, they'll see me coming no matter how far I position myself."
"Vents." Kiyoung mumbled, trying hard not to pass out again.
"What if we use me as a distraction? I get on the intercom and lure them into the next pod, can you take them down then?" Bambam asked.
"I can get the first cluster that enters through the pod, before they catch on to my position." Lucas said confidently. "After that..." Lucas trailed off and refrained from saying they were fucked.
"Vents." Kiyoung said, a little louder this time.
Bambam snapped out of it, hearing the weak grumblings of the man that saved his life that was currently being carried by Wooyoung.
"Officer Kang, you're awake." Bambam said in relief. "Sorry, I couldn't just leave you behind. We're taking you hostage so you don't get blamed for this and get charged with treason. This should keep your family safe while we figure out a way to prove your innocence."
"It's just Kiyoung." Kiyoung managed to say, he lifted his head a little more and pointed. "Vents."
Kiyoung passed out again.
"Vents?" Bambam said, completely confused, then it dawned on him. "Lucas!"
"Way ahead of you." Lucas said. "Jackson, give me a leg up."
Jackson helped lift Lucas enough for him to be able to take the grille off and then helped him climb in.
"It's too weak to hold more than one person lieutenant, but I can scout ahead and take them out on the next grille, I see one about forty feet from here, the light is filtering in.
If you guys can just lure them into the hall I can take them from above and you can draw their fire and shoot them from the front. Ten more feet and I can probably get in touch with Teddy on the emergency frequency and have the guys rush from behind. They'll be funneled in, they'll be sitting ducks being hit by all sides."
"How long will it take you to crawl over there?" Bambam asked, motioning for one of the soldiers to come set a timer on his watch since all Bambam had was his prison fatigues and Captain Ri's stolen uniform.
"A minute tops. I can go faster but it's flimsy and loud, don't want to call attention to it."
"On my mark Lucas." Bambam said.
"Sir yes sir."
"Twin, Wooyoung, stay at the very back with Jackson, he'll cover you. I expect most of our resistance will come from the outside in, not the other way around. The rest of you, arms ahead. It's a narrow hallway so weapons tight, we don't need to add friendly fire to this shit show."
"Lucas, give em hell."
Lucas smirked from inside his little tunnel vent.
"Good to have you back sir." Lucas shouted out as he started crawling down the vent.
They heard the shots exactly a minute later.
"Charge!" Bambam shouted, and the soldiers wasted no time.
There was only so much field of vision Lucas could get from the top of the vent so once the rest of the guys caught up he kept crawling through the vent until he got signal.
"Teddy! Teddy, this is Lucas, over."
"Lucas what's the status, it's radio silence over here."
"Send everyone you can spare. The reinforcements are stuck between pod C and D, we're going to block them in on all sides."
"Affirmative."
Lucas crawled back and jumped out of the vent. Before he could even tell Bambam it was done they could hear the shots on the other side of the hallway.
"Got the bastards." Bambam said. "Push!"
It was chaos, and Bambam learned two things that day, either they were the luckiest mother fuckers on earth, or the least lucky.
Because for one, their sides were shooting on both ends and by sheer dumb luck they didn't accidentally shoot each other.
For two, they made it out with no casualties and rescued Bambam, only to lose one of their own again.
"Cease fire."
Bambam knew that cold voice. Her helicopter landed in the middle of the parking lot and she nonchalantly walked towards them.
"Oh, poor dear. Are we sure he's still alive. Check his pulse."
"Back the fuck up!" A female voice shouted. "Don't touch him."
Colonel Yu laughed as a small recognizable brunette got in between her and Haein.
"Ah, the world's most eligible bachelorette. Come to save your fiancé? I'm afraid true love's kiss doesn't work on bullet holes, and well, there's the matter of it needing to be true love, which you don't have do you?" Colonel Yu mocked Jisoo, who was beyond livid.
"What are you guys waiting for, take him to the suv and drive him to the chopper!" Jisoo barked behind her, not releasing eye contact from Colonel Yu.
"He won't make it."
"He will." Jisoo said, her voice wavering because no, he wouldn't, not in the state he was in. He looked beyond repair and if he wasn't in the hospital in the next two minutes, Haein was as good as dead.
She could hear Chaeyoung and Jennie murmuring to each other as they tried working over him, trying to do their best as Colonel Yu's soldier's surrounded them. They were trapped.
"He will, if you let me take him." Colonel Yu said with an evil glint in her eye, and an even more vile smirk.
"No, never." Jisoo growled. "He'd rather suffer than be taken in by you."
"So you'll just let him die?"
"He'll make it." Jisoo said with an unwavering voice, despite the words tasting awful in her mouth because no, at this rate he wouldn't.
Haein started convulsing, the boys tried to get him to stop jostling so much, listening to Jennie's instructions while she injected god knows what to get him to stop seizing.
"By the time you make it to your chopper, and fly him to a hospital, he's as good as dead. I'll take him off of your hands. Hand him over."
"You're not going anywhere near him. You'll kill him."
"You know I'm his best shot. Besides, he's dead either way isn't he? I'm the only chance he has. Hand him over and I'll forget the fact you're committing high treason, by colluding with Thai soldiers no less. Let me take care of my last bit of competition, and if he plays the good boy like I need him to, he might even live."
There was a painful gasp and Jisoo turned around.
"Jisoo." said a weak, strained voice.
"Haein!" Jisoo rushed to him.
"Youngro." Haein said, pulling his dog tags off and weakly handed them to Jisoo.
"Give them to her yourself Jung Haein!" Jisoo scolded him.
"Take me." Haein managed to say to Colonel Yu. "But you have to let them go."
A massive hemorrhaging of blood came out of his mouth and Haein looked down at his chest. It was over. He knew he was dead. The least he could do was get them out.
"No!" Jisoo shouted, draping herself over his body, drenching herself in his blood in the process. Haein managed to have enough energy to touch her cheek, leaving a bloody handprint behind before passing out again.
"You heard the man, take him. Let's hope he at least puts up a fight, otherwise, this will have been very boring." Colonel Yu told the rest of them.
"You're not taking him!" Jisoo snarled.
Jennie and Chaeyoung both rushed to grab Jisoo. Jackson and Lucas helped.
"You have to let him go Chu. It's his only chance." Jennie whispered.
"He'll make it baby. He's gotta make it." Chaeyoung said too, more to herself than to Jisoo. She was holding her from behind while Jackson and Lucas held each of her arms as gently as they could while keeping her in place. Jennie was in front of Jisoo, pleading for Jisoo to listen.
"We'll get him back Chu. We've gotten all of them back before, we can do it again." Jennie whispered, crying along with the rest of them.
Jisoo's eyes were watering but she shoved them back. She was sure the tears would fall though, when she got home and she had to tell Youngro she lost her future husband right as they were about to get their happy ending. They had already been planning their wedding. They wanted to waste no time and as soon as Haein was back they were going to get married within weeks.
"Why the long faces, I'm letting you go aren't I? I'm feeling generous today. Normally I'd have fighter planes swarm the place within seconds and you'd be halfway to oblivion." Colonel Yu said as she checked her watch.
"Well, of course I still did but I gave you a head start because I'm embracing my kind side. You have about ninety seconds left." Colonel Yu said with an evil grimace.
"Please tell me she's kidding." Jackson asked under his breath.
"Colonel Yu doesn't kid when it comes to violence." Bambam said. "Run!"
Jackson had to throw Jisoo over his shoulder. Chaeyoung followed him while Lucas covered her.
Bambam got into the SUV that Jennie and Felix had been in.
They all peeled out as Colonel Yu's helicopter shot at them. One of the SUV's got hit in the back tire and flipped.
"Stop! Stop the car." Jennie shouted. "We have to go back."
"We can't." Felix said with a shuddering breath. "I hear the planes. If they hit our car we'll take out half of Seoul, the cell is unstable."
Jennie punched the glass.
"What cell?" Bambam asked.
Jennie dove for the radio.
"Teddy? Teddy come in!" Jennie said frantically. "Wooyoung? One of you! Come in damnit!"
"Teddy here boss."
"Are you running?"
"Going south."
"Turn around, I think Wooyoung and his squad's SUV flipped. Cram them all in there with you. The fighter planes are almost on them. We can't turn back because we have the cell."
"Don't worry boss. We've got em. Plenty of room in here." Teddy said. "Turn this goddamn SUV around. No man left behind!"
Jennie heard the radio click.
________
They made it to the property again, one man gained, one man lost. They really couldn't win. They had no clue what happened to Haein.
Youngro was devastated. She hadn't left her room since they got back without him. Jisoo hardly went into the house because of the guilt, despite everyone telling Youngro that Jisoo was the one who tried not to let Haein go. Youngro was too catatonic to really say much to anybody. There was no blame being directed at anybody, no pointing fingers, just emptiness.
Jennie busied herself with the last of the cell, they were done now, as much as they could be with what they had to work with. Moonbyul and Solar had personally delivered the most sensitive last details, namely the uranium and the fuel. They were supposed to test it today, it was now or never. Jennie was thinking never might be the better idea.
"Is the fuel in?" Jennie asked, going through the checklist again.
"Yes boss." Jackson answered. "We pumped it in slowly just like you said."
"Did you check the Uranium density?" Jennie turned to Felix.
"Three times, and Ms. Kim checked after me." Felix answered.
"It's just Scarlett dear."
"Ms. Scarlett." Felix corrected himself, taking Lisa's idea of calling her that. He really couldn't drop the Ms.
"Junho, check those couplings again please. Make sure they're sturdy all the way around."
The twin was standing there, staring at the built cell in awe.
"Junho. Junho! Twin!" Jennie finally shouted.
"What? Oh, sorry boss. No one calls me by my name ever, I kind of forget that's what I'm called even though Junsu is gone, I'm still just the twin in here." He said sheepishly, pointing at his temple. "On it."
"Mommy, can you check to see the RPM of the centrifuges before we power them up?" Jennie asked her mom.
Scarlett did as she was told, they'd done it time and again but she knew her daughter was just nervous. It didn't hurt to check anyway. Any number of things could make this thing go south very quickly. Any single minute mistake.
Jennie checked everything again for the fifteenth time. It was time, but she was too anxious, so she checked five times more. If any single thing went wrong she could be responsible for single handedly wiping out all of South Korea in one fell swoop.
They weren't splitting atoms, so radiation should be minimal in theory, but if the machine didn't work and it malfunctioned in one of the thousands of ways they had already predicted were more likely to happen than it working the first time it was ever powered up, it could result in the same catastrophe as a nuclear reactor overheating and exploding and the damage could be devastating, for hundreds of years.
Not to mention if any of it got into the water supply they could screw the world, not just South Korea. Thankfully the Han river was fed by the sea and didn't empty out into the sea. Still, they were a small country surrounded by water on all sides. They could easily contaminate the ocean and sea life surrounding them.
"Hoyeoni, can you check if—"
"Oh for the love of God Jendeukie just turn it on already!" Jisoo cut in.
"It's not that simple Chu! I could kill everyone as soon as I turn it on, or worse!" Jennie snapped back.
"What's worse than death?" Lucas whispered to Jackson, who simply shrugged in response.
Jennie turned on him.
"Radiation burns, dying slowly and painfully. Spending the rest of your life not being able to breathe and coughing up blood, throwing up your food day in and day out, cancer! If this goes wrong we better hope the worst is that it kills us instantly."
"You're a little scary little doc." Lucas admitted.
"And pretty impressive, hey at least no matter what happens it'll stop the war." Jackson said optimistically.
"How is killing everyone stopping the war?" Lucas asked.
"No more South Korea means Thailand wins and the war is over." Jackson reasoned.
"No wonder Jisoo calls you dopey." Lucas said. "Shut up, you're making the little doc nervous."
"Just turn it on Jendeukie." Jisoo said again.
"I can't. It's too much pressure, this is a bad idea." Jennie said nervously. "I messed up somehow, I can feel it. I can't do this. Who told me I could do this!" Jennie panicked.
"Lisa and Haein didn't both turn themselves in to their own sides that want to kill them just for you to chicken out now!" Jisoo said with a bite.
She was still upset about Haein. She didn't know if he was alive or not, which frayed her nerves even more about Lisa because it had been radio silence since she left. They hadn't heard from Ryujin either since she landed in the UK. They got a quick coded message that Felix and Teddy translated when she got there that said she was okay and that she had retrieved an important asset and was heading back to Thailand, but that was all there was to it.
They had no clue if everything they were doing was in vain right now and Jisoo was over it. She couldn't just stand there and sit and wait, they needed to do something before she went crazy.
Jennie had the project to occupy her mind, she hardly slept. Chaeyoung had occupied herself by making sure everyone stayed healthy, nursing Kiyoung back to health and all of the guys that were slightly wounded when Wooyoung's car flipped.
Jisoo had nothing to do except trying to legitimize her start up with Jennie's energy project but most of that was paperwork Irene had to fill out and file for her. Jisoo was out of her mind. She finally understood Lisa's impulsivity.
"You've been working nonstop Jennie. Felix, your mom, Hoyeon, anyone that knows what any of this means are all on board and they all agree its safe to test finally. You can do this. You've got this wifey." Chaeyoung said encouragingly.
"I so don't got this." Jennie said, feeling the sheen of sweat coming on. Why was Lisa always taken away from her when she needed her the most.
"Where's the on button?" Jisoo asked, looking at the control panel that was being fed from the cell. They were about a hundred meters away from it, at the edge of the tree line behind some concrete walls the boys built that admittedly were there more to trick their brains into thinking they had some semblance of protection than actually having protection if the worst happened.
"I don't know Holy Jisoos, maybe that big switch there that says on?" Jackson offered helpfully, with a teasing smirk.
"Shut up dopey." Jisoo said with a scowl. "Hey twinsie, get back here, behind the wall!"
Junho sprinted to them and jumped over the five foot concrete wall. Jisoo took one more look around to make sure everyone was behind it and flipped the switch to on.
Jennie had been too busy panicking to realize Jisoo had the control panel.
"No Jisoo! Wait!" Jennie shouted.
Too late, they heard a low rumbling sound start emitting from the cell.
"Tesla coils." Felix said in awe as he saw the multicolored sparks that looked like mini lightning rods emit from the middle of the cell, getting bigger and bigger each time.
Then the sound grew louder and louder too and eventually it reached its max. They heard a sonic boom, which radiated in waves. They could visibly see it coming towards them as dirt exploded up and grass blew violently, then it got to the edge of the tree line and the force of the sound and the energy bent the trees back so far they almost snapped.
Eventually the wave hit them too and it was so strong it knocked them all back and they landed in the ground in a heap several feet back with loud grunts, getting the wind knocked out of them.
Jennie landed hard on her back and leaned up on her elbows as soon as she caught her breath. She could barely breathe but she had to watch. She watched as the multicolored tesla coils shot out from the round cell and found home in the nearest receiver, Jisoo's mansion.
"Felix, check how big the magnetic field is." Jennie managed to croak out.
"Whoa. This is impossible." Felix said in awe as he looked at his gauss meter, which essentially measured the strength and size of a magnetic field. The stronger it was, the wider it was, the more the power would travel from the coils to power any electric device near it.
They watched as all of the lights of Jisoo's mansion slowly started powering on despite them being off. They started shining brighter and brighter. Every single electric device turned on, they could even hear the radio from here.
"Oh no, not good. Too much power." Jennie said, scrambling up to turn the machine off but it was too late. The light bulbs and windows shattered, too much power was being received at one time and the electric wiring in Jisoo's mansion couldn't contain it anymore, the only way for it to release was it escaping, hence, all of the light bulbs, t.v's, and radios exploding.
Jennie shut the machine off just as Wondeok ran out of the house, looking confused rather than panicked like Jennie expected her to be.
"Wait wait wait, stay back oma!" Jennie shouted. They were already exposed but it couldn't hurt to keep her far back in case they had been mistaken and released radiation.
"Quick, hand me the dosimeter." Jennie said urgently, holding her hand out and not talking to anyone in particular.
"This thingy?" Lucas asked. He was sure he had heard Jennie call it that before.
"Yes, that. Thank you Lucas."
Jennie checked around and breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's the best we could have hoped for but it's not ideal. There's some tweaking we have to do because there's some residual radiation. Your buffer attachment worked mommy, it looks like it captured most of the decay and fed it back into the mixture. I'd say Jisoo only cut our lifespan short by like a day with that attempt. I can live with that." Jennie said with a glare to Jisoo.
"What did I do?" Jisoo said with a scowl.
"You can't just turn something that's been untested on like that all willy nilly! You guys should have at least been in the cellar considering its under piles of concrete. Or at least the lake! Water hinders radiation! You cut your chipmunk's lifespan by like a week by the way! She's more susceptible to radiation than the rest of us." Jennie scolded Jisoo.
"She is not." Jisoo said with narrowed eyes, trying to challenge Jennie.
"She worked with Dr. Song on stomach cancers with those radioactive pills the patients have to swallow to detect them, of course she's more susceptible. She's already been exposed in her every day job." Jennie challenged back. "You remember that don't you?"
Jisoo paled.
"Come on chipmunk you're going inside." Jisoo said, grabbing Chaeyoung by the elbow.
"Too late Chu, she's already been exposed, just don't touch the damn machine again." Jennie said sternly.
Chaeyoung walked towards Jennie and whispered under her breath while Jisoo lost her shit and yelled at 'dopey for telling her where the on button was and not stopping her like an idiot.'
"That's not true is it?" Chaeyoung asked Jennie with a giggle.
"Of course not, but she doesn't need to know that. While I do appreciate that she took the leap of faith for me because I probably would have never turned it on, I need her to stop now because it really could get dangerous from now on. We have to be careful moving forward. The time for brave mavericks like Lili and Jisoo is over. At least with the energy cell, we have to tread carefully."
"You're a genius wifey. This means it works right?" Chaeyoung said happily. "Congratulations. I knew you could do it."
"But everything blew up." The twin said, scratching his head. "That's not supposed to happen is it?"
"There's too much power coming from the cell for one house to feed off of. Once there's more capacitors the electricity will divide itself between each place evenly." Jennie offered. "There could be a way to temper it so that it doesn't use its maximum energy all of the time but that would take months of research. The best we could do right now is feed as many capacitors as possible and use the cell to its full potential and power as many places as possible."
"So what's next little doc?" Lucas asked. "Now that you made the invention of the lifetime, how do we use it?"
"We don't. We're still screwed, with Haein out of the picture we can't speak to the president. Even if he was still with us, Colonel Yu is in his head. She's about to make history and get her coveted promotion.
He won't speak to anyone else. Teddy reached out to his old superior and he's high up in the ranks and he can't get an audience with him either. He said no one but Colonel Yu and her associates can." Jennie said in frustration. "We need Lisa. She would know how to get around this. I miraculously managed to make the cell but I'm still failing her."
Jennie wanted to tear her hair out. The boys reached out sympathetically to pat her on the back. A very battered Bambam joined them a second later.
"Bammy you're supposed to be resting." Jennie said exasperatedly. "Go back to bed please. I can't take having to worry about you too."
"I've been cooped up in a cell for god knows how long little doc, I'm going to go insane. Especially now that the power's out." Bambam reasoned.
"You just need new bulbs." Jennie said grumpily.
Now that the excitement was over the rest of the soldiers went to go replace them, knowing it was the best they could do while their leadership figured out where to go from here.
"So, it works?" Bambam asked proudly.
"We have to tweak it a bit, but yea, it mostly works." Jennie mumbled.
"Then why the long face noona?" Bambam asked, using the term of endearment he always used on Jennie now that he was out of that hell hole. He couldn't wait until Lisa got back just so he could tease her and call Jennie noona but not Lisa, he knew it would probably irk her.
"What's the use of having a working machine if you can't tell anyone about it." Jennie said in frustration.
"You said we needed Lisa didn't you little doc." Jackson started. "Well, in the spirit of our lieutenant not being here to come up with a plan, I kind of have a really awful, crazy, illegal, probably doomed to fail idea that would be right up her alley."
"Please, don't try and sell it so hard dopey, we're at the edge of our seat here." Jisoo said dryly.
Jackson simply shrugged.
"Well, we're kind of running out of options so lets hear it." Jennie sighed.
"Teddy's our most decorated soldier so it makes sense that he makes one last ditch attempt to contact the president to tell him about Haein or at least clue him in to what we're holding.
Then we disable the power grid to Seoul, leave them without power for an hour or so. Enough to scare them but not long enough to get anyone hurt, or I guess for however long it takes you to set up the cell and then turn the power back on for them with your energy cell. They'll be under our control after that even if the president isn't on board."
"That sounds like a terrorist plot. I like it." Jisoo said approvingly. "Good job dopey. I take it back, you're not a complete idiot."
"Thanks but, I don't mean it like that. I meant it more like a positive reinforcement kind of thing. I don't think we should threaten them with shutting off their power because we'd have all the control and they'd be at our mercy at that point, more like, we're the answers to all of their problems?" Jackson said sheepishly. "They've been threatened enough with this war and the energy crisis and the government. I think good news is what the people need."
"Right, like giving them incentive to drop their electric companies and go with us, but giving them the choice to do it on their own for once instead of being coerced like they have been for the last couple of decades." Chaeyoung added, her gears turning.
"Jisoo still needs to make a little bit of money at first before it's completely free, and people aren't dumb, they'll be wary if we just give out free power right away anyway. Nothing in this world is free and they know it. Especially after what happened to them in the last year alone, they'd be skeptical and we'd lose our chance.
They were offered free rations from the government and then got slapped with massive taxes for taking them. We can charge them at least ten percent of what they were paying before with their old companies as a sign up incentive so they believe there's no ulterior motive in us asking us to drop their old companies.
They'll just think we're trying to win them over but they'll take the deal. There's no reason for them not to cut themselves off from the official power grid with those rates." Chaeyoung reasoned.
"My intentions were to give civilians free power and corporate buildings would need to pay. I guess I can start on a sliding scale based on income for civilians for now and start cutting down their costs the more corporations join us." Jisoo said, getting on board with this business plan.
Chaeyoung was right, she couldn't just jump in and give free power right away. They needed a bit of capital to pay for labor to make more cells before they completely commercialized it.
"Okay okay, that sounds all great in theory but what happens when the electric companies pressure the president to shut us down. Most of them are foreign held entities where a lot of our foreign interests are held. He'll cave immediately.
They'll go bankrupt if we offer this to their customers. There's no way they'll take this sitting down. They'll be desperate and everything we're doing here would be illegal. The patent hasn't even been approved yet. It'll be easy for them to convince the president to at best dissolve Jisoo's company and at worse throw us all in jail for terrorism." Jennie jumped in.
"That's where chipmunk comes in. She can figure out a way around it, she's the people person." Jisoo said confidently.
"A campaign asking for the people to join together and pressure the president to keep this technology wouldn't be hard to sell. Everyone would be winning, less costs on the people, the president could even slightly raise taxes now that more capital is available. Both sides would win.
The problem is reaching out to so many people in so little time, but the biggest problem will be the loss of jobs from the electric companies. It'll be devastating to the economy and nothing kills new technology faster than the poor losing their jobs over older, less efficient technology. The executives will be fine even if the companies go bankrupt, it's the poor that lose their pensions." Chaeyoung admitted in worry.
"I've got that covered." Jisoo said. "What other problems do we have?"
"Wait, how?" Bambam asked.
"Acquisitions." Jisoo said simply. "I'll buy them out. It's all about timing. We're ahead of the curve knowing what we know and as long as I strike at the right time they won't have time to do their usual tricks.
This technology came out of nowhere, they'll be out of their element completely, especially since this is a start up and the patent hasn't even gone through. They have no clue, if we strike right when the patent gets approved I can blindside them completely and get out from under them easily and they'll cut their losses."
"Meaning?" Bambam asked.
"Meaning, if the patent was approved today and we cut the power off immediately and we were to manage to do this today, by this time tomorrow their stock would be worth next to nothing.
They'd be desperate to sell before the plunging stock prices ate at their own precious holdings. I'd give them a generous offer, they'd think I was desperate since my father didn't hand over the company after all and not look much deeper than the scandal of their company being sabotaged.
They'd want to wash their hands of it and instead of doing research on how any of it was possible they'd run for the hills. I'd let them retire in peace and take over all of the employee salaries they can no longer afford to pay and we'd announce to the world the rebranding of the company with Jennie's energy cell once they were all ousted."
"Can you afford to pay that many employees though?" Bambam asked skeptically.
"Just for a little while, but that's all we need. We'll have the workforce we need. Skilled workers to build more cells, salesmen to make calls to get more customers and keep existing ones, delivery men and women.
The structure is already there, we just need to tweak it and with a looming lay off over their heads they'll work diligently and follow the new company vision and we'll make a fortune in a week. It's a win win for everyone."
"You make it sound so easy." Bambam said, scratching his head nervously.
"It is, I've been in this world all my life. I can do this with my eyes closed. I'll do the restructuring later and show them I'm not a shark that's come to take everything from them.
They'll get back on their feet and I'll treat them much better than their old company but for the time being, at least in the very beginning they'll need a little fear to accept the terms and so we can stop this goddamn war already. I've got all of that covered. Leave that part to me, you guys focus on sabotaging the power grid and getting our own tech in there." Jisoo replied.
"Even so, there's millions of people in Korea, even with thousands of employees at your disposal, it's a lot. Plus training on how to set up and build the cells would take weeks. So far only Seoul will have a working cell, how do we convince the people to push for a vote so this gets legalized." Jennie asked worriedly.
"Seulgi." Chaeyoung said, getting a sudden epiphany.
"What?" Jennie asked with furrowed brows.
"Seulgi works for the most reputable newspaper in Korea. She can run an article. Jisoo can be the face of it. She can give an interview about her new start up and how her goal is to give free clean energy to civilians and that she needs their help to do it.
Jisoo is already well known and respected, they won't find this far fetched considering she's part of the most prominent family in Korea. It's like Jisoo said, the timing has to be perfect but if she runs it right after she buys out one of the companies we're set, the others will follow.
She just needs to get one of them to cave, and with everyone in Seoul corroborating the fact the cell exists we'd win the people over in no time." Chaeyoung said. "The president will be forced to allow the project through. Unless he doesn't want to be reelected. He'd be an idiot not to let it pass."
"One problem, Seulgi's editor is an ass." Jennie pointed out.
Chaeyoung smirked.
"How much of an ass can he be once we offer his building free energy for as long as he lets Seulgi run whatever she wants to run from now on, and when his newspaper is the first to break such a huge story.
He'll probably get a promotion. Not to mention, while the other newspapers will probably run panicked articles about the Thai's sabotaging the power grid, his will be the only one lauding our new heroic philanthropists for single handedly funding the solution to our energy crisis.
The media is all about who gets the best angle in the story with the most truth they can prove, he'll have the only true one, people will be flocking to buy it and the other papers will be ashamed for running the same lame story. They'll start trusting only Seulgi's newspaper for getting the story right from now on." Chaeyoung said.
"You're a genius." Jisoo said.
"I think that's you and Jennie." Chaeyoung said. "Which, by the way, I think you'll have to be in the article too."
"Oh, no thank you." Jennie said nervously.
"They need to understand the science behind it. New is scary, you have to do it sweetheart." Scarlett said.
"If I'm going so are you and Felix and everybody that's had a hand in this project. We all contributed, they should talk to all of us then. You especially mommy, you're the founder."
"You finished it sweetheart. This is all you."
"Okay, so we're doing this?" Chayeoung asked excitedly..
"That's not what I said." Jennie said. "You guys go. I'll keep working on this."
"Lot's of planning to do." Bambam cut in. "Soldiers, on me. Unless the little doc needs you, lets get to work on how we can best disable the power grid without any casualties. If we can keep the stoplights on that would be ideal. Anybody know anything about power grids? Like, is it an actual grid?"
"My time to shine." The twin said. Bambam raised a questioning eyebrow. "My twin and I were notorious for cutting off the power to our school when we didn't want to go. We didn't want to disappoint ma though. They caught on so we got better about disabling the other blocks first and then the school. I know a thing or two."
"Perfect."
"Alright, I guess I have work to do too. I'll call Irene and have her draft up contracts for our future customers, on the future acquisition and to see how that patent is going." Jisoo said more to herself than anyone else.
"I'll call Seulgi and pitch the article idea." Chaeyoung said.
"I need a nap." Jennie said, her head was pounding.
"Go rest little doc. Your mom and I got it from here. We'll adjust everything we can right now and do another test tomorrow." Felix said gently.
"It's okay. Everyone is working. I need to keep going too. Lisa must be close to the prime minister now. We need to finish the second cell for when she needs it." Jennie said stubbornly.
"Go Ruby Jane, you're exhausted. You pulled an all nighter, Felix and I both got sleep. Don't make me ground you." Scarlett said sternly.
"Mommy you can't ground me."
"You're barely five in my eyes Ruby Jane. I can ground you if I want to ground you. Are you going to disappoint your mother?" Scarlett asked with a challenging look.
"No." Jennie pouted.
"Upstairs. Bed. I'll wake you up for dinner."
Jennie sighed and shuffled to her room. She grabbed Lisa's pillow and pressed it to her chest.
"I miss you baby. Guess what. we finally did it. Mostly. I'll bring you home soon. I promise. Stay safe for me Lili. Just a little bit longer. Just a little bit and we can be together again and we can finally get married and have our happily ever after. Please come back.
I don't know how Youngro is doing it right now, not knowing about Haein. Wondeok has helped me hide the headlines from everyone, but it's only a matter of time before they all see it. She's going to be devastated when they read them, they all are."
Jennie reached in between her two mattresses and pulled out a newspaper, staring at the headline.
BREAKING: NEWLY PROMOTED MAJOR JUNG HAEIN, HEIR TO THE JUNG CONGLOMERATE WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD AT SEOUL'S MILITARY HOSPITAL DUE TO MULTIPLE GUN SHOT WOUNDS
There was a soft knock on the door and Jennie scrambled to hide the paper.
"It's just me."
Jennie breathed a sigh of relief.
"Come in Hoyeoni."
Hoyeon sighed as she saw what was in Jennie's hand, she sat on the edge of the bed.
"How long are you going to keep it from them?" Hoyeon asked.
"As long as it takes." Jennie whispered back.
Hoyeon reached out and gripped Jennie's hand.
"You're doing the right thing Jennie." Hoyeon said encouragingly.
"I hope so. I need this nightmare to be over with already. Thanks for your help, if it wasn't for you and Wondeok I would have broken long ago."
"And to think the most I was worried about a month ago was that my idiot resident might kill someone if I left him alone for longer than thirty seconds." Hoyeon joked, but it came out hollow.
"We just need a win already." Jennie said exasperatedly.
"It's the home stretch Jennie. It's a miracle we've even made it this far. We might actually make it."
"Come on. Sleep, you're exhausted too." Jennie said as she tapped the spot next to her.
"I'd rather not be in bed with you and have your future wife catch me here. It would just track that we'd get through all of this and then I'd wind up getting murdered by a jealous Manoban."
Jennie giggled.
Hoyeon found it in herself to laugh as she plopped down on the other side of the bed anyway and stared at the ceiling.
"She'll make it back Jennie. I've never seen anyone more stubborn than you, except her. She'll definitely make it back like she promised."
Jennie held out her pinky.
"You really believe that?" Jennie breathed out.
Hoyeon linked her pinky with Jennie's.
"If she doesn't I'll help you figure out a way to bring her back to life." Hoyeon joked. "I was always fascinated with Dr. Frankenstein's work."
Jennie let out a laugh and slapped Hoyeon on the shoulder.
"We have to do better than him though, I either need her personality or her looks at least, preferably both." Jennie said, managing another giggle.
"You're getting a little greedy Dr. Kim." Hoyeon said, laughing too.
They were both so exhausted they fell asleep within a minute of them quieting down.
Scarlett walked in the room and covered them both with a blanket. She found the newspaper and hid it where she knew Jennie always hid it, sighing to herself, then went to go speak to Wondeok in the tea room.
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