Vernon collapsed in relief on the sidelines of the sand pit and didn't even mind that the scratchy sand scattered from his sandaled feet and splashed into the creases of his neon green joggers. His sleeveless white tanktop rumpled around his slim torso while the crackle of laughter and sunshine echoed off of his barely freckled arms.

"Phew!" Trying to make volleyball line calls on his over-competitive superior officers was mildly stressful work. Vernon rested his palms behind him, closed his eyes and leaned back to finally relax now that the games were over. After a few minutes, the bright young man felt a presence come up beside him. Vernon opened his amber eyes and looked up.

"Hey, ol' sport." It was Kim Taehyung, and he was smiling that starlight smile as he squatted down next to Vernon and sat down with a plop in the sand. Taehyung's yellow t-shirt was lined with rings of sweat, and his face had a fresh sheen that glowed in the sun.

Vernon had noticed that his inventory unit leader, Kim Taehyung, had been extra cheerful the past couple days. Tae had become this warm, warbling mystery unraveling and young Vernon was continually surprised by it.

"Nice game, Captain," Vernon said, extending a water bottle to his unit leader.

Taehyung just chuckled. "It really wasn't an even match. Bless her soul, but Shae is truly a terrible volleyball player." As Taehyung laughed so warmly when he said it, Vernon felt this shy sense that it was ok to laugh along with him. "She's proof that being a powerful mystical being isn't really the cure-all for the uncoordinated."

Vernon eyed his unit leader as Taehyung swigged back a deep gulp of water. Tae let out a relieved sigh. Then he said in his rich, jazzy voice, "You still don't trust me, do you Vernon?"

Vernon flinched a little at the question. "Uhhh..." He gave a vague shrug for an answer, his eyes still carefully watching the way that Taehyung's thick red bandana was pushing back his sweaty silvery hair from his gently pleased face.

Taehyung propped his arms up onto his knees, still holding his open water bottle casually in his left hand. He smacked his lips a moment... then stretched out that bottle and gave a soft 'BOOP' on Vernon's own knee. "Don't sweat it, kid."

Across the sand, Jungkook and Hoseok were both testing their reach over the net—each of them trying to jump higher than the other, neither of them satisfied when they were the one to jump and come out on top. Their laughs tumbled into each other along with their arms, and the boyish competition continued.

Off to the left of the makeshift volleyball net, Shae was laughing at something that Ava had said, the two young ladies doubled over and clutching at their sides.

Ava went on to say, "Now that's what I call 'hitting someone with a wet noodle.'" The comment made Shae laugh so hard she snorted reflexively through her nose.

After regaining her breath, Shae noticed how Yoongi kept looking through the net at Ava, and she got the inkling that the pale, grumpy looking young man wanted to say something to her best friend.

Shae could take a hint. She gave Ava's arm a pat, then turned and walked towards the far edge of the sand pit. Shae plucked up the sky blue towel she'd left lying on the sand and started padding at her sweaty skin. She turned to take in the sight of Yoongi ducking under the net to approach Ava, before he started toeing grumpily at the sand and Ava started mouthing off at him.

"You didn't have to spike the ball RIGHT IN MY FACE," Ava fumed.

Yoongi gave a vague shrug and failed to hide the smile in the corner of his mouth. "I wasn't aiming for your head."

"What were you aiming for, then?" Ava's eyes narrowed. Then she watched as Min Yoongi's quietly pleased dark eyes shifted from her face and then down to her overexposed, black bikini-clad chest.

His eyes lingered there as he reiterated, "I wasn't aiming for your head."

Ava folded her arms in front of her, only causing her curves to appear even more accentuated than they had a second before. She smirked deviously at the further uptick in Yoongi's little smile, then she said in a gleefully seductive voice, "Oh, Yoongles. You ever heard the phrase 'you reap what you sow?'"

His dark eyes finally flickered back up to Ava's lightly freckled face. "Of course I have."

Ava said so low that no one else could hear but Min Yoongi, "Because someone's sowing a whole lot of trouble for themselves."

At that, Yoongi just let out a raspy laugh.

Shae didn't hear the full exchange across the sand pit between her best friend and her best friend's not-so-over-crush, and Shae couldn't help but chuckle to herself as she saw Ava sliding her suave moves around on that shuffleboard of flirtation.

But then a hand brushed over her bare shoulder and Shae jumped, reflexively pulling her towel into her chest. A silky dark voice sounded next to her ear before she could even speak: "What a pleasant little picture you all make."

Shae turned.

Minghao's smile curled so delicately as he held out Shae's water bottle towards her. He let out a single, self-satisfied laugh as he watched Shae's blue eyes grow wider with the realization that just behind Minghao's sly eyes and shaggy black mullet of hair there stood five other fierce and fit young men, all of them suited up in battle gear and looking ready for a fight.

Shae quickly wrapped herself inside of her towel, her shyness overtaking her beneath so many fearless eyes. This only made Minghao laugh again before he crooned threateningly, "We're here to practice. Why don't you stick around and watch? You might find it enlightening."

Before Shae could stutter out a reply, she felt a familiar presence come up next to her shoulder.

It was Ava, and she was frowning. Ava bent over and snapped her own towel up off of the sand, her lips pursed like she was unimpressed with the rugged young men in front of her who were oogling the two of them.

"As much as I do love a good show of man meat and summer heat," Ava started, taking a step closer to worm her way pointedly into Minghao's space, "You know, I just... I really..." She shook her towel out and sand shot from it right into Minghao's face. "I don't..." Ava shook it again and watched as Minghao slowly blinked the scattering sand out of his eyes "...like you." Then Ava dramatically snapped her towel over her shoulder, gave a dramatic pivot of her hip, and started walking across the sand.

Shae rushed after her best friend, quiet and thankful.

Minghao's dark smiling eyes stalked after the two young women.

And across the field, Yoongi, Hoseok, Jungkook, Vernon and Taehyung watched the tense moment unfold.

Taehyung twisted the cap of his water bottle a little too tightly back onto his bottle.

Vernon winced a little at the final snap of Taehyung's water bottle lid like he was expecting something more violent.

Jungkook started to take a hurried step past the makeshift volleyball net, but Hoseok's heavy and threatening hand landed hard on the fit young man's shoulder to remind Jungkook to keep his cool in front of their unit.

Yoongi's eyes flickered from Shae and Ava, and rose to meet Minghao himself. He muttered under his breath, "Douchebag." He resisted the urge to fall in step next to Ava to make a possessive point--as he still didn't want everyone to know of their attachement.

The sound of Jung Hoseok's voice finally broke the tension, as he shouted, "Well look at that. You idiots are early for once."

Hoseok kept his hand on Jungkook's shoulder and barked in an authoritative voice, "Alright, get your asses over here and draw lots. Looks like you half-wits are ready for dueling day."

The gang of burly young men all gave a groan as they shuffled in line around where their red-headed special opps unit leader still stood with his hand resting heavily on Jungkook's shoulder.

One of the young men looked like he was about to ask a question and Hoseok intercepted it by saying, "And no, you can't trade lots and switch partners. That's like lookin' for the easy way out, and you guys don't get easy ways out."

A rumble of groans passed among the young men.

Hoseok smiled, but it wasn't with the reckless abandon he had amongst his friends. His smile and his eyes glinted with a kind of paternal superiority. "That's what I like to hear. Now draw your lots and pair up."

He spoke, and they all responded instantly. Hoseok was this sweaty, bare-chested beacon of power in the middle of a manly swarm.

Shae and Ava were standing over next to Vernon and Taehyung now, and they were watching Hoseok dictating his unit around the sandy sparring pit.

Shae whispered so that only Ava could hear, "Alright, I have to admit... Bossy Hoseok is kinda hot."

Ava smirked. "The fact that he's all muscley and bare-chested certainly doesn't hurt, does it?"

Shae tilted her head to one side, considering the view.

Ava admitted, "God, I can't believe I just said that out loud about Hoseok."

Then Shae admitted brightly, "You do have a point, though." Then she gestured vaguely with her hand and noted, "Especially with alllll that sweat."

Ava's feminine brown eyes narrowed. "Yes, my friend, let the seeds of forbidden seduction germinate and grow."

Shae smacked her friend hard on the arm. "Seeds of seduction. What is this, a Harlequin Romance novel?"

Ava threw back her head and laughed. "No no. We're far too interesting."

--

A weighty metal door screeched open into a heavily secured, small square room. The red orb-prison inside of it glowed like a wet eye as light from outside of the dark box-like room spread in from the open door.

The shadow of a bedraggled woman shifted from within the red orb.

Petra.

Her body and face remained hidden, but her voice was distinct. "You keep coming. But I keep telling you... that I don't know where the artifact is."

The short young man standing in front of her orb-prison tilted his head back and looked down his nose at her with disgust. He delicately parted the pink hair on his forehead, exposing his boyish pale face.

Woozi's chest heaved beneath his white collared shirt and he sighed out of his nose. "You keep lying, and we keep doing this same little dance again..." The heavy metal door creaked dramatically shut behind him, and the fanning of light from outside began to narrow. "...and again..." Then the light narrowed into a thin sliver, and with the heavy clank of the metal door closing shut it disappeared completely.

Petra's voice came out in an animalistic growl, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT?!"

Woozi could feel Petra's presence shifting inside the orb, even in the darkness. "Until either you confess... or you die."

"You can't kill me," she said through a petty laugh. "That's the beauty of me being a Satoor Ai. You've said so yourself."

Woozi's thin, small mouth showed no emotion. He folded his delicate hands together in front of his white shirt and confessed, "No. Not yet. But sometimes... conquering the impossible is really only a matter of changing your vantage point."

Petra screamed, but it wasn't in fear. It was in anger.

He started slowing circling around her prison in the darkness. "I think things are starting to look clearer and clearer."