Hits Fast Like a Panic Attack

“You’re late Wolf, where have you been?” Fox asked irritably, he was sitting on top of the upstairs balcony closest to the centre stage of the seemingly abandoned theater they used as a secret base. 

“Seriously, what is it with Asians getting into my business lately?” he mumbled to himself, shooting the japanese boy; Fox, an annoyed glare. 

“Geez, how do you do that, I can tell you’re glaring at me even though you’re wearing your mask” Fox scoffed at him. Pig stood by the main door, guarding it from intruders while talking to Cat, they were discussing a scuffle that had apparently taken place on their turf between some of their lower ranked members and some unaffiliated punks. Wolf spotted Tiger sitting on a throne prop at the centre of the stage looking mighty and as theatrical as always. 

“Did you find who you were looking for last night?” Jackal asked while approaching him. 

“Hey Jack, yeah we found him, he was in the bathroom” Wolf replied cheerfully when he spotted his childhood friend María whom he and Jinsu had met at Club 4Play where she worked as a bartender. 

“So, d’ya fuck that girl?” she asked loudly so that everyone could hear. 

“Oh? Tell me more” Rabbit made his way over to them for the tea that was about to be spilt. 

“Must have been pretty hot if Jackal was into her too then” Fox chimed in from his perch up top. Wolf told them to back off, he hadn’t gotten any last night… or this morning. 

“So she’s gay then” Jackal did a little fist pump in the air.

“Nah, well I don’t know actually, I know she sleeps with guys at the very least. Apparently she doesn’t do commitment” he replied. Jackal thought that they were perfect for each other then since neither of them were interested in romantic feelings. Vulture clapped her hands to get their attention.

“Enough gossip, we’re already off to a late start.” The bunch of them quieted down and looked over at the centre stage where Vulture had appeared behind Tiger. “Alright, this is all regarding the message that was sent. So far no clues as to who the sender is but Fox said he might be able to track it but it might take a few days so for now it’s a dead end.” Fox nodded and explained to them that he was currently running a program that was trying to pinpoint where it was sent from. So far it seemed like it wasn’t sent by a burner phone which was why he was even bothering to follow up on this lead. 

“It’s also come to my attention that the major crews have become aware of the list which was to be expected but it happened a lot sooner than I thought it would. We should consider their informants to be good at what they do since it seems like the message was sent to the heads of groups that are clearly opposed to the ruling crews which should have slowed down the spread of information yet they’re already taking countermeasures, Cat can you tell everyone what you saw?” Jackal asked for Cat to make his way up on stage. The silent prowler slinked past Wolf, Rabbit and Jackal who had been blocking the path to the stage. Cat began recounting the events he’d witnessed this morning in front of the main house where two of the targets Dorotea and Pyotr Popov live. Apparently the guards were being dealt some heavy firepower to guard the house from any intruders and he’d even seen one of the Chernyshevsky brothers standing guard at the main entrance. 

“And while I was trying to track down the sender I saw traces of someone else doing the same thing, it’s someone from Sato Inc. since that’s where the traces lead back to. Those bastards are so confident that they don’t even care if they leave trails back to them, they’re being incredibly brazen” Fox was clearly irritated by how blasé Sato Inc. could be in comparison to their ragtag group. 

“Guess they’re also concerned even though none of their members are on the list since whoever is targeting the crews’ families it will impact them as well.” Jackal appeared to be concerned by this since Sato Inc. often allied themselves with the armed P.Is who had proved to be trouble even for the Popov and Cardinale family in the recent past despite only consisting of two people. Vulture turned to Wolf and asked him if he had any more information about Jinsu Song since she was aware that he’d met her a few nights ago. 

“Yeah, I have a deal with her to help us take down El Culebrón but we’ll see how that plays out now that she’s being targeted by just about every non-major crew’s gangs. You know that was her you met Jack; the girl with me at the bar” he’d decided to be honest about the deal he’d meant to bring it up yesterday but things got in the way of their meeting. 

“Really?! That’s Jinsu, damn… You really should be careful, her father’s pretty scary when you mess with her since he dotes on her alot which is why she’s called the Princess of Tae Shin-Hanguk.” it was rare for anyone to say the full name of the organisation and usually just shortened it to Shin-Guk or Tae Shin. 

“Wolf, tell us about her, how easy or difficult would it be to kidnap her for the reward” Tiger finally spoke out. Wolf smiled behind his mask. 

“Impossible, she’s a capable girl even if we set her family aside she seems to be affiliated with someone close to one of the Chernyshevsky brothers. I saw him leave her place just this very morning which is why I was late. Can’t be too mad about that right? You wouldn’t want the Vodianoi to follow me here right?” he was revealing this information to make himself seem as honest while he was hiding the fact that he’d been the one to leak the bounty information to Jinsu. But it had told him that she was far more involved in the group than he’d imagined considering how fast all the groups had been informed after he’d told her about the list. There was the possibility that she’d just called her brother who’d reached out from there but his gut told him that Jinsu had been the one to reach out. While he’d helped her with Matt last night he’d found Matt’s wallet which contained a photo of Dorotea Popov, the daughter of the Russian mob and Jinsu had been standing next to her with Kateryna Yvanov one of the most infamous and reliable information brokers in the city. He’d also found a business card belonging to Daniel Chang, the son of Mr. Chang of the Chinese mafia Qīnglóng. The widespread information about Jinsu was that she was a party girl who was spoiled rotten by her family but that really wasn’t the impression he’d gotten from spending time around her. 

“Thank you for informing us Wolf, for now we’ll just keep tabs on her, make sure she isn’t taken by anyone until we’ve used her to take out the cartel, they’re the biggest obstacle between us and taking control of the slums.” Tiger ordered Wolf to leave immediately after the meeting was over. 

“But why were the bounties even released in the first place? I mean we’d already been given the information about Jinsu Song a few days prior? And who leaked the information to those three who tried to kidnap her as a way to get into our group?” Rabbit asked quizzically. It was true that only the people in this room were aware of the bounty on Jinsu’s head yet those bottom feeders knew about it. 

“Right, about that” Vulture held her hand up to signal that she had something to say. “Apparently someone out there is impersonating me and she was the one to give them the information. It’s true that they came to us to join our group. Some of our members even saw them hanging around the day of their alleged meeting with me. I don’t think that they’re lying about it since they seemed very confused when they saw my mask and build. Apparently my impersonator’s mask was far more complex looking and detailed, as for their build she was taller, more muscular and she had a huskier voice, almost male. It’s even possible that my imposter is a man.” She seemed almost a little embarrassed that someone would mistake a man dressed as her as the real Vulture. 

“I mean you do wear a huge ass trench coat that covers most of your femenine features so it makes sense why someone who’d never met you make the mistake you know. Especially if this guy had a higher pitched voice than most men.” Rabbit was trying to salvage the last of Vulture’s feminine confidence to no avail. 

“Don’t worry Vul, we’ll find this imposter and beat them up for you. How dare they pretend to be you, the absolute audacity, the gall!” Jackal knew just how to hype her up again. 

“Thanks Jackal, I appreciate that but please be cautious about approaching them, we don’t know who they are or what they want. We also don’t know where they got the information on Jinsu Song’s bounty but it’s possible that they’re working with or even is the person who published this list.” 

The DTA’s are a very large group and are divided and commanded by subgroups, every member that is currently in the room are the commanders. Each of the branches specialise in different things but ultimately are split into defence and offence oriented based jobs. The offence oriented commanders are Wolf, Vulture, Cat and Rabbit. Wolf leads the punishment division, they’re like the avengers of the group and are known to brutally deal with their enemies in brawls. They have a certain notoriety for being bloodthirsty and violent. Vulture and her flock gather and spread information on the street. Cat and his group specialises in surveillance, infiltration and spying. They sometimes even assassinate specific targets but they have yet to take down anyone significant like the boss of even a small time group. They’re also known to hunt down bounties and earn a fair amount of the group's money. Then there is Rabbit whose division is the second half of the avenger division and is known to be equally bloodthirsty and even more volatile. They were split up when the group grew bigger and impossible for one person to manage. 

The defence oriented groups consist of Tiger, Pig, Jackal and Fox. One group is led by Pig and they’re the ones who do the grunt work in contrast to Fox, who leads a bunch of hackers and tech nerds who protect the group's private information and work the dark web. Jackal handles business deals and negotiations, she mostly works in the frontlines and is considered one of the three faces of the DTA’s and is one of the founding members. She’s basically the big sister who does damage control after her younger siblings get into trouble with other gangs. Tiger ensures order and structure in the group and enforces his rules and keeps the group in line. He will punish those who break the rules or betray them mercilessly. Tiger also has the final say in the matters concerning the group and the power to veto. 

In the end after some debating the conclusion they reached was for everyone to do their usual jobs but had Cat hold off on taking any of the mentioned bounty jobs and simply stick to information gathering on the major crews and their movements. Jackal was to team up with Vulture to reach out to their contacts and either steal or trade for relevant information. Rabbit would be taking command of some of Wolf’s subordinates to shake some trees to see what they find and chase down the usual suspects and bring them to Vulture and Jackal. And Wolf was yet again stuck on babysitting duty but this time with some of his guys. “Take care of my guys, while I’m out, let them know that your orders are mine and if they disobey you they’re disobeying me so just take them straight to Tiger if they give you trouble” Wolf tapped Rabbits shoulder as he called his closest guys to assist him in safe-guarding Jinsu from afar. 

Jinsu fell to her knees the moment she closed the door to her room, her instinct was to run and after regaining some of her strength she began packing a bag despite knowing that it was impossible for her to make it past Tae Min who was in the living room. Tears began welling up in her eyes but not a single one fell, they were all bottled up in her glassy eyes that had seen far too much over the past twenty or so years. “Fuck!” she yelled, throwing a t-shit into the bag in frustration. She just couldn’t understand why she was unable to fight back against Tae Min, all she could do was throw snarky remarks at him to try and delude herself that she had any form of control over him. She could still feel his touch lingering on her body, she felt dirty and greasy. She ran her fingers through her hair roughly so as to avoid wanting to claw at her skin. Her body was trembling and stiff. The ruckus she’d caused prompted Tae Min to open the door without knocking. He immediately spotted her sloppy, half packed bag and realised what she was trying to do. 

“Just last night I warned you” his voice was stoic and his face so void of emotions it resembled a mask. 

“I-I wasn’t going anywhere, well I was but I thought I’d go to Jisuk-Hyung. You know I haven’t seen Subin in a while either, I mean what place would be safer than with my brother and her, right. You’ve been working hard lately so I thought I’d go to them and let you have a night off” she began scrambling her brain for excuses to get away from him. A few minutes prior to this panic attack of hers he’d simply placed his hand on her shoulder while standing behind her and that had been enough to set her off. 

“You’re staying here, it’s better if you do not impose on your brother.” 

Jinsu then suggested going to Taeyun and Daehee or even Gijeong but her stressed words just infuriated Tae Min more and led him to activate his power. Instantly her head began to hurt, it felt like her skull was about to rupture and caused her to let out a blood curdling scream only nothing came out but a hoarse croak. Tae Min walked up to Jinsu who was now on the floor, holding her head and gasping for air. 

“Your brain is rattled so you can’t activate your power to stop me, I can keep this level of power output for days. Though it could lead to barotrauma*” Jinsu tried to crawl away, he was one of the few people who knew about her ability and he was the worst match-up against her since she needed great focus to use it which had become impossible with her brain being suffocated like this. 

“Please, please stop” she propped herself up against the wall in the corner of her room. Tae Min did what he had done yesterday and held her head up by the chin. 

“Listen to me closely, I made it very clear that you weren’t going to cause me any problems. So behave” he warned, it was no longer a threat since he’d already begun to torture her with his wind attribute* which he used to cause pressure in her brain to stun her. He watched as life drained from her eyes and in turn he released his power over her. She looked like a lifeless doll on the ground and had clearly completely dissociated* herself. This was the state he wanted her to be in since she was easier to control. “Very good, now will you obey me and not run away?” he asked in a manipulatively kind voice. 

“I will, I promise. I’m sorry for being difficult, I don’t know what came over me” she let out a laugh that sounded and looked natural if it wasn’t for her dead eyes. “I won’t run away, don’t worry.” She was treating him the way she used to when she was younger, with kindness, warmth and reverence. He led her out of her room by the shoulder and showed her the lunch he’d prepared for her. She sat down and looked at the food, thanking him for cooking for her. Jinsu picked up her chopsticks and was about to begin eating but Tae Min stopped her, he picked out one of the spices on her shelf and brought it to her plate. 

“You’ll eat everything I made right, I worked hard on it so you won’t even leave a single piece of rice left, right?” his smile was shining with malice. 

“Of course” she smiled at him sweetly. Tae Min then poured the spicy powder in her food, he was well aware that she couldn’t handle spicy food well. 

“There, now eat up” he closed the spice’s lid and returned it to its appropriate place. She thanked him and began eating while he sat down opposite of her and watched as her face started to contort in pain from the spiciness. Despite the punishment she didn’t stop and her eating pace was steady, even when her lips turned red and her eyes began watering, she held it in. Once she finished her food Tae Min touched her cheek, caressing it, “Your face looks swollen, go wash it with some cold water, you look awful.” Jinsu apologised for her appearance, thanked him again for the food before heading to the bathroom. Tae Min smiled to himself, she was far better this way, much easier to handle, he felt almost thankful to the ones who’d made her like this. They’d turned her obedient for him and he was the only one who knew just how to trigger it. He found himself wondering if the same thing would work on Jisuk or Taeyun but he quickly banished those thoughts. 

• Barotrauma: It's a type of injury that is caused by increased pressure or air or water. In this instance it's concentrated on the character's ears; it's similar to what one might experience while flying or diving.

• Dissociation: It's a mental state where a person feels disconnected from their thoughts, emotions and/or sense of identity. Sometimes it can even cause memory loss and can go so far that it can be a serious mental disorder. Often seen in those who have traumas.

Jinsu was taking her time in the bathroom, she was just blankly staring at her own reflection in the mirror, the swelling of her face had gone down a lot but she was still red around the lips. Tae Min came up behind her and slid one hand around her throat and the other against her cheek. “You ate my food, that makes me happy” he whispered in her ear, noticing how her entire body quivered when he spoke to her this close. He found it to be amusing and was unable to contain himself and softly brushed his lips against her exposed neck which caused Jinsu’s whole body to jolt. He looked at her reflection and asked her while looking into her reflected eyes “Do you enjoy that?” Jinsu’s eyes remained cloudy as she answered by telling him that it tickled. She moved her body away from his slowly, feeling that he was standing too close behind her but Tae Min pulled her back by the throat but he did it a little harder than he’d expected and her body crashed into his. She was warm, he could feel her breathing against his body, she slid the hand that was stroking her cheek and placed it on her chest, right under her collar bones. Her heartbeat was fast but slower than he’d expected. He decided to toy with her a little more “Why are you running away from me? Remember when you were younger you used to always cling to me.” He slinked his hand across her chest and onto her shoulder and finally slid it down her arm. The power he felt while tormenting her was truly exhilarating, the thought of Taeyun’s face if he ever saw what he was doing to his little sister made his own heart skip a beat. “Jinsu, do you like it when I tease you?” he asked, turning her head so that she’d look at him directly. Her big violet eyes had a kind of mist over them, not literally but that was the impression he got when he looked at her eyes when she was in this state. “Of course not,” she smiled at him softly. 

“I know you’re only joking, you love it” he replied and blew softly into her neck causing her body to shake shamelessly in his arms. 

“Tae Min, it tickles” she whispered and tried to move her body away from his but he held on. “Fuuuuck….” he cursed softly in her ear before finally letting her go. 

“I’m going to take a short nap now, I didn’t get much sleep last night so please wake me up in about an hour so I don’t oversleep” she gave him one last smile before leaving.  Once she’d closed her bedroom door Tae Min just couldn’t stop himself from laughing, he went over to the guest room and locked the door behind him. He couldn’t get the thought of her face, her scent, her warmth or the way her body quivered in his arms out of his head. He sat down on his bed and began stroking his cock which had really swelled up at the end there in the bathroom. He ended up cumming quickly and sighed to himself. 

“What am I a teenage boy again? Pull yourself together Tae Min.” In the meantime Jinsu was curled up in her bed under the blanket with an empty pit in her heart. Once her body began to relax the fatigue of being so tense finally caught up to her and she eventually dozed off.