Vernon eyed the playing cards fanned out in his hands, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth as he thought long and hard about his next move. The rolls of his baggy purple sweatshirt were curling up over the side of he counter in front of him as he leaned in closer to peer down at the cards that had already been played.

Vernon and Shae sat leaning over the front counter of the main storage bunker. Shae was in the cozy swivel chair, wearing a chunky mustard sweater, grey joggers and socks with little pink cat faces on them. Her feet were tucked under her where she sat.

The boyish Vernon shifted on the rickety stool across from her, plucking at a card that he was almost sure he was going to play next.

The two of them were framed in a fanning of yellow light that beamed down from the overhanging bulb above their heads—the only light on in that cavernous storage facility.

Shae sipped at a porcelain mug of hot chocolate that she was cupping in both hands, waiting. Her own cards rested face down on the counter in front of her.

"This game is hard," Vernon whined.

"But you won the last set," Shae answered, pure amusement.

He sighed and lay his hand face-down onto the table. Then he leaned back on his stool, making the legs stand up and rocking back and forth slightly.

"I did. But now I'm bored. Let's play a different game! I wish Taehyung would hurry back from training with Jungkook so we could have a little more competition."

Shae lay her cards face-up on top of the counter and Vernon peered over them like a proper snoop.

"I knew you were gonna clean sweep me," Vernon muttered.

She rolled her eyes. "That's why you want to play another game, isn't it?"

He flashed a boyish grin, giggling. "Of course."

"You're as bad as..." she was going to say 'Hoseok' and then stopped herself. Throwing his name out so casually felt somehow... uncomfortable. She cleared her throat instead.

Vernon didn't even notice. "I'm gonna go digging for a different game."

He got to his feet and wandered back into their living quarters, where he had his games and old action figures stashed neatly away inside a giant treasure chest-like box.

Shae got up as well, taking her now-empty mug towards the small sink along the side of the room. She turned on the faucet and started humming to herself as she rinsed it clean.

"Lovely."

She froze.

That wasn't the sound of Vernon's bubbly young voice somewhere just behind her.

"When I say down, you get down. Hands over your head, onto your knees. Okay?"

She didn't move.

"...DOWN."

Shae obliged, crouching down, hands over her head and bracing into her knees.

At the same time, she heard over her head...the sound of gunfire. An automatic weapon.

It was coming from outside.

She glanced to one side, and whoever had been standing behind her wasn't there anymore.

The firing rattled on...until she heard a rattle of metal, a human groan, and someone scream at the top of their lungs.

Then the firing ceased.

A few seconds later, the main door burst open. And there stood Minghao with a single long line of blood tracing down his left cheek. Otherwise, his all-black flowing ensemble and perfectly shaped black mullet remained spotless.

Minghao sheathed the small knife in his left hand into a black leather holster at his hip. Then he reached down a hand towards where Shae still crouched low. She took it. He pulled her to her feet.

There was that same dark amusement in his eyes he always wore. It hadn't left.

She wasn't any less terrified of Minghao than she had been before. But she was also...grateful.

"Thank you."

There was a groan from the next room.

"VERNON!" Shae ran for the sound of that groan, forgetting Minghao completely.

She discovered Vernon laying on the floor and grasping tightly at his side. Muddy red was staining his shirt from the inside out. She didn't stop to think, didn't question, simply fell to her knees and peeled back the fabric so that his wound was exposed.

Shae pushed his hand aside and pressed her own hands down over the bullet wound, hard. He let out a heart wrenching cry between heaving breaths.

"It's okay, Vernon. It's not that bad. You're gonna be ok, just keep breathing. Okay?"

The young man only gasped in response.

"Just stay with me, okay?"

Shae closed her eyes.

C'mon, kid, stay with me. Until Minghao gets back with help. You'll be ok. You'll be ok. I will make sure you are okay. You have to be ok. You—

Shae opened her eyes. And gasped.

Electric blue warmth, like fire, was blazing from her hands and swelling around Vernon's torso. But it wasn't burning him.

His groaning and flailing was calming more and more until eventually he sighed... in relief.

Soon the blue flames dissipated. Shae pulled her hands away. Where beneath Shaw's hand there hand been a bullet wound...instead, a single metal bullet rolled from Vernon's stomach and onto the hard floor with a metallic clank. His abdomen was smooth, albeit covered in blood.

The shaky young man looked down at the bullet on the floor. Then up at Shae's face in shock.

"Vernon?" Shae felt a pang at the fearful look in his eyes.

Then Vernon fainted, his whole body falling limp into the floor. His breathing was slow and steady.

Shae reached out a hand to check is pulse and his breathing.

Minghao's dark, amused voice interrupted her panic, "He's fine now. Thanks to you."

"GHA. I forgot that you were here," Shae looked up at Minghao, where the dark figure stood casually leaning into the doorframe into the bunk room of that storage facility.

"Forgot that I just saved your life? So soon?" Minghao mock-frowned, lifting one of his pale hands to his chest. "I'm devastated."

Shae could hear voices coming from somewhere behind Minghao. One authoritative tone in particular stood out.

Minghao said, amused, "He's not going to be pleased."

"Who? Jungkook?"

"No. Jung Hoseok. Your big dog on a short leash."

Shae stiffened and Minghao laughed.

Instead of acknowledging the statement, Shae said, "Thank you for saving my life, Minghao."

He slid out of the door frame, his only answer a minxy dark smile.

In his place, Kim Taehuyng, Jeon Jungkook and Jung Hoseok all charged into the room at once.

"Are you hurt?!"

"What happened?!"

"Is Vernon alright?!"

Shae's eyes traveled to where Minghao stood in the next room, gazing in at them all with satisfaction.

"He saved us," she admitted softly. The Noon Moolites all turned and looked at Minghao in surprise.

"And then Shae...saved Vernon," Minghao finished mysteriously.

The three young men of Noon Mool exchanged shocked looks.

Then Hoseok started barking orders: "Tae, take Vernon to the medical bay. Immediately."

"Rodger." Taehyung bent over and started slugging Vernon's frame onto his shoulders to carry him along.

"Minghao, go tell Yoongi what's happened. Immediately."

Minghao nodded, his dark smile falling onto Jungkook with a superior taunt just before he slipped into shadow and was gone.

"And Kookie." Hoseok sighed. "Take Shae to my bunk. Nowhere else. Stay there until I come. Got it?"

"Got it." Jungkook's Shae-safety radar was going haywire. He pulled Shae up from the ground and wrapped an arm around her shoulder in brotherly protection. "Let's go, Shae."

Hoseok clarified as Jungkook and Shae stepped through the doorway and bank into the open, dark space of the storage unit, "Take her out the back, Kookie. I don't want her to see it."

Jungkook nodded and did as he was told, guiding Shae out the back hidden entrance and towards Hoseok's tent in a rush.

Jung Hoseok sighed. "I knew this was going to happen." Then he stepped out the front door and looked down, shaking his head at the dead body that lay there on the ground. The young man had been slit clean across their throat, fast and strong. It was a face Hoseok vaguely recognized. One of their own.

"Minghao is good at what he does." Woozi's small voice echoed out of the dark as the small young man stepped from the shadows and up to Hoseok's side. The pixie-like man nudged at the dead man's head, shifting the corpse for a better look at the damage. "Very good at what he does."

"I know," Hoseok answered, somewhere between fear and satisfaction. Then he stated, "Your pal Vernon got shot. But Shae... saved him. I think he's going to be ok."

Woozi's features shifted through a kaleidoscope of emotion. "Where is he?"

"Tae just took him to the medical tent. But," he put an encouraging hand on Woozi's shoulder, "he's going to be ok, kid."

Woozi shrugged him angrily off, and ran with all his might towards the direction of the medical tent to see for himself.

Another shadow shifted in the dark. Minghao appeared again, but Hoseok didn't jump when he say those dark eyes rose up out of the shadows.

Hoseok asked, "Did you tell Yoongi?"

"Oh, I found him. But he was a little tied up."

"With WHAT?!"

"With a woman."

Hoseok groaned.

Minghao answered deviously, "It sucks when your friend is busy getting some, and you can't have any. Doesn't it?"

Hoseok looked like he was about to punch that sly little smirk right off of Minghao's face. He restrained himself, but his shoulders seemed to widen and his height swell a few inches taller as he said, "I'm thankful you were here. That you saved Shae and put this trash out of their misery so that I didn't have to. But don't... ever... address me in that manner again. Or you will regret it. Got it, punk?"

Minghao was still smiling, but he answered, "Yes, sir."

Hoseok's tongue felt all twisted in his mouth. He managed to get out the words, "And one more thing."

"Yes, Commander Hoseok?"

"Good work." Hoseok gave a curt nod, his eyes narrowed.

Minghao gave an overly deep bow. "Thank you, sir."

Hoseok barked, "Now scatter, and see what you can find. We need to know who this attacker really was."

"Yes sir." In moments, Minghao slithered back into dark silence and was gone.

Hoseok stormed off in the direction of his quarters... with Minghao's taunting words still burning inside of his skull.