Cutup sits outside her aunt's shanty, waiting for any word that Meredith or Nia are safe. Nervously pacing back and forth, she suddenly is distracted by the sound of a car headed toward the village. As it comes closer, she is releived to see that the occupants are the Flea and Ramm. They pull up next to Jasmine.

"Where's Meredith?"

"The Northerners attacked last night, trying to take another of my cousins. We held them off, and I sent Meredith to follow their convoy. That was seven hours ago, and still no word!"

Flea turns to Ramm, and after a bit of whispered conversation, turns back out the window toward Jasmine. "Which way did they go?"

"Follow that road northward. They're across the demilitarized zone from here."

"Get in."

At Nocturne's headquarters, seven of the soldiers are struggling to bring Sonic Boom under control. She has awakened to find herself in a cell, which she summarily blasted herself out of, only to confront this welcome wagon. She lets fly a volley, sending one of her assaulters flying, but the rest manage to rip her two Walkmen off of her costume. By wrenching the wires from the main units, they leave her powerless. They throw her back into the cell, and reinforce the door with a metal table. After pounding at the door for a while, screaming unintelligibly, she resigns herself to her captivity, sinking to the floor, leaning against the wall.

A tap on her shoulder brings her out of her self-despair. She turns to the source and notices that a hand is coming out of an adjacent cell. She turns to the window the hand is coming from, and notices that Nia, Jasmine's cousin, is trying to get her attention. "Help me." Meredith looks in the window, and signs frantically trying to get Nia to understand. Finally, she takes her own initiative. Waving Nia back from the window, Meredith clenches her fists, lets out a shrill whistle, and watches as her power takes effect again. The barrier between Nia and Meredith is now gone.

In the car, the team becomes worried as they approach the demilitarized zone and find themselves facing an armed U.N. soldier. Another one approaches the driver's window and is surprised to be facing a large purple man.

"Identify yourselves."

"Detectives Ramm, Flea, and Cutup, Detroit Police, on loan to the U.S. Marshal's office. We're tracking a fugitive from the U.S., and have good sources that he has fled to the North. Please let us through. We will not leave until we have the fugitive."

"No can do, Detectives, or whoever you are. We're under orders from the United Nations not to let anyone through here, from one side or the other."

Flea gets out of her side of the car, and grabs the speaker by the lapels.

"Listen, butt face, we'd love to sit here and chew the fat over U.N. bureaucracy 'til hell freezes over, but we have a bad situation where if we don't get this guy, there's gonna be a whole new war. Get the picture?"

"What I get is that you guys want to get into a restricted area. Take 'em boys!"

The soldiers scramble, but Flea manages to evade them all, springing into the air and flying all the way across the DMZ, and finally lands on the opposite side. From there, she springs again, flying over much of the countryside. Ramm and Cutup, however, are not as lucky, and eventually end up in U.N. custody.

Meredith enters Nia's cell through the wrecked wall that had previously been between them. Up close, she can see the punishment that Nia has been through since she was kidnapped. It is obvious that she has been repeatedly beaten, trying to force her to submit to General Hang Mi-Pok. Meredith fears that Nia might have also been repeatedly raped, judging by the amount of damage her clothes have suffered. Meredith approaches Nia slowly.

"Id's all right. I'b a friend of Jasmid."

Nia's eyes sparkle again. "Jasmine? She's here?"

"Sinz I didn't cub back, she's probly un her way here. Lest I knew che wuz id Hoang-Kin, bud I wuz supposed duh be back dere a long tibe ago."

Nia picks herself up off the floor and starts feeling around the door of the cell. "We need to find a way out of here."

Meredith smiles when an idea comes to her head. "Screab."

Nia turns around. "What?"

"Screab. I hab powerz, bud dey depend un sound."

Nia finally understands, and lets out the loudest, shrillest scream she can muster. Meredith fires up her powers, and a volley from both hands blasts the cell door wide open. The two women quickly run out of the cell.

Back on the border, in the demilitarized zone, Ramm and Cutup have been led away to be questioned by the U.N. general at the base, one General Killian from the RAF. He doesn't look very happy.

"Tell me, detectives, why were you trying to get across the zone again?"

Ramm sighs. "We went over this four times already. An American fugitive superhuman, who goes by the name of Nocturne, escaped from the American embassy in Seoul last night. The guards all say that it was Northern soldiers who broke him out, and that they knocked out all of the guards around him. During that time, he was able to escape, and his convoy was tracked as going through here back to the North. We've been chasing their footprints since two in the morning!"(NOTE: See last issue for details.)

General Killian eyes Ramm suspiciously. "Do you realize, detective, that we in England have rounded up all superhumans, and placed them in protective custody, for the safety of the masses? Now give me one good reason why I shouldn't do the same with you!"

Ramm stands up and angrily slams his fists down on the table, splintering it and sending it in all directions. "I told you, General, we're police officers with the Detroit Police Department! Now let us go!"

Killian opens his mouth to call in security guards to take Ramm and Cutup away, when his assistant hands him a message from the American embassy.

"General, sir, message from Seoul. Their story checks out."

Killian looks at the message and cocks his eyebrow in surprise. Finally, he turns back to the two teammates.

"All right. But I'm warning you, don't come to England. We'll slap you in irons quicker than you could ever imagine!"

Ramm looks at Killian in disdain, but Cutup says a quick "thank you" before pushing Ramm out the door.

Flea, in the meanwhile, has found a secluded mountain cave where an inordinate amount of military traffic has been coming and going. Waiting for dark to launch her assault, she is surprised by a guard who catches her watching the compound.

"What are you doing, foreigner? This is not your concern."

Flea turns and swiftly kicks the guard in the face, who in turn collapses on the ground, unconscious. Flea approaches the guard carefully, and notices two things: the guard is a woman, and she is the same size as Flea. Slowly smiling, the Flea drags the guard's body away.

"General Hang! There has been a report that the Flea has been spotted!"

Nocturne stands up behind his desk. "When?"

"Ten minutes ago. She's sitting up on the hillside, watching the compound from behind a tree."

"Excellent. Send a party to get her."

The guard salutes and leaves, leaving Nocturne alone again. In the panicked ruckus, the guards pass by a female guard who is running back into the compound with her head down. Though none of the others notice, her hair is tightly bundled up under her hat. Although it looks black, closer inspection reveals it is covered in dirt: the Flea massaged clumps of dirt into her hair so that she could pass for Korean.

After making sure she is in an empty corridor, Flea leaps along a horizontal path, skimming through the passage. Suddenly she collides with two other women. Picking herself up off the ground, Flea happily recognizes her sister.

"Meredith, where've you been?"

"Trapped here," Meredith replies with ASL. "I found Jasmine's cousin, but we need to get out of here fast!"

"Right. You two scram outta here, I gotta get Nocturne."

"Right. Be careful, Jill." Meredith puts one of her arms around Nia's emaciated waist and, placing her other hand behind her, lets out an ongoing shrill whistle, fires her other hand and quickly speeds out of the compound.

Outside, near the compound, the car carrying Ramm and Cutup is quickly speeding toward where the jeep tracks lead. Cutup watches the sky expectantly, until she sees Sonic Boom high in the air, carrying Nia.

"Jack, stop the car! I see them!"

The car stops, as Sonic Boom lands close in front. Nia runs from Meredith's arms and happily embraces her cousin. Finally, after what seems like a long while, Cutup turns to Sonic Boom. "Where's Jill?"

"She's still in the compound, looking for Nocturne. They call him a general here!"

"I see. Let's go!"

Ramm gets out of the car, putting Nia behind the wheel. "Get back to Hoang- Kin. This car has clearance, so you can get through the DMZ."

Nia nods, kicking the cr into gear and making a U-turn. Ramm starts running up the road, as Sonic Boom puts her arm around Cutup and starts her own flight to the compound.

Flea hides behind a wall, watching around the corner into an office, where Nocturne is conferring with his advisors.

"What's our next move, General?"

"We make another trip into Hoang-Kin tomorrow night. Since I'm going with you, we will have the village at our mercy."

"Is our target still Chin Yu?"

"Not anymore. Tomorrow night, our target is Chin Jasmine."

Pulling her gun out of the back of her stolen pants, Flea jumps into the office, steadying her gun so that it's pointed at the advisors.

"FREEZE! U.S. Government!"

One of the advisors turns to run, but Flea is quicker, hitting him in the thigh with a fast shot, then firing again at the second advisor, hitting him in the shoulder. She finally turns her gun toward Nocturne.

"All right, slimebag, game over. You're coming with me."

Nocturne slowly smiles. Flea grits her teeth tighter.

"The U.S. wants you alive, buddy, but I'm not too particular about your condition. Do the smart thing and freeze!"

Nocturne's eyes start to glow. Flea feels herself start to waver, feeling her eyelids droop, and her gun follows suit.

"That's right, detective. Sleeeeppp ..."

Nocturne is interrupted by a knife digging itself into his left shoulder. As he screams in agony, Flea snaps out of her trance, levelling her gun and shooting Nocturne in the other shoulder. His eyes are still glowing, however.

"All of you ... sleeeeeeepppppp ..."

Ramm charges into the office, slamming a large fist into Nocturne's face to shut him up. As Nocturne goes out, so does the glow in his eyes.

At the 7th Precinct in Detroit, the team regroups from what has been an eventful three days in Korea. Both Flea and Sonic Boom are wearing sunglasses. Cutup and Ramm come into the office and notice this.

"What's wrong, girls?"

Flea moans as she turns to look up at Cutup. "We needed to recover some way from the last few days. Sooo, me and my sister did a little ..."

Sonic Boom, who has since dropped her head onto the top of her desk, finishes the sentence. "... barhopping. Id wuz Jill's idea."

Cutup smiles lightly. Finally, she speaks up. "Hey, I got a call from my aunt the other night. She wants to thank us all for rescuing her daughter from Nocturne, and to repay us, she's sending something. I can't exactly remember ..."

An overnight messenger walks into the office carrying two large clay pots with a strong aroma emanating from them both. Cutup smiles widely, gladly signing the invoice for the messenger.

"Now I remember, it's here. She sent us two pots of kim chee."

The smell of the kim chee (it smells kind of like rotting meat) is too much for the Burke sisters, as they sprint for the bathroom door. Cutup shrugs, as she grabs a fork.

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