The Chosen

Ambushed Ally

With much better accuracy, Kuanlin was able to sparkle everyone inside the storage building where only a little amount of light can seep through from the outside. Even though it was abandoned, the inside of the storage building was empty and vacant.

"It seems X-O did some renovation and redecoration." Jisung said.

It took them just a couple of steps before they saw Bae Jinyoung. There he was, unconscious and badly injured, in the middle of the building under the spotlight created by the hole in the roof.

"Jinyoung!" Daehwi was about to run toward Jinyoung when Sungwoon stopped him, "Why did you stop me, hyung?"

"There are people lurking around. I can hear their thoughts. This must be a trap." Sungwoon whispered to his allies.

Indeed, Sungwoon was right. A couple of loud claps began to resonate throughout the building.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" The voice was coming from a silhouette standing behind Jinyoung, "Is this the legendary group of Chosen?"

"Who are you and show yourselves." Daniel bravely called out.

Granting Daniel's request, all the lights turned on to reveal all nine members of X-O standing around Jinyoung. Of course, everyone from the Chosen Squad was able to identify each member, thanks to the intel stored inside Sungwoon's head.

"We are one! We are X-O." The group said in unison.

"Hello there, Kai-hyung." Sungwoon casually greeted and the X-O members' attention was on him.

"Sungwoon? Why are you there? Are you a Chosen?" Kai replied as the rest of X-O turned their attention to him.

"You know each other?" Suho, X-O's leader, asked Kai.

"Uhm... We are friends from way back?" Kai tried explaining but was cut off.

"Seriously Kai, we need to talk after this." Suho said in a disappointed tone.

"So, this must be half of the Chosen. The one wearing glasses must be the Seer Successor." Suho addressed the Chosen Squad.

"How can you be so sure?" Minhyun answered back.

"Simple. Bulletproof Scouts and Two-Times told the rest of the Five Pillars. And for whatever means, you came here because you need to rescue your troop mate, this guy." Suho rebutted, pointing at Jinyoung at the end.

"And how can you say he is a Chosen?" Jisung joined in the conversation.

"Because of this." Sehun, this time, was the one who spoke as he raised Jinyoung right hand to reveal a bunny and the number 10 displayed on his arm.

"Jinyoung has the mark?" The Chosen Squad was taken aback.

"Are you wondering how did this happen? Allow us to explain it to you." Xiumin started to narrate, "This guy here is known around the province as Deep Dark. He leads a small group of people and tries to convince people to express themselves and fight against our control. Though originally born without any powers, he was able to gather a reasonable number of both non-magic-users and magic-users to help him in his cause."

"So, naturally, we hunted him down but because we had no idea what he looked like, we were unsuccessful for many months." Baekhyun took over, "Until yesterday, when a police officer in the plaza tipped us off of his location. Turns out, he was a familiar face after all."

"So, last night, we cornered him in some alleyway. Out of reflex in response to danger, he manifested both his power and his mark and tried to fend us of with electricity. But an alone Chosen is a powerless Chosen and we overpowered him which led to the present." D.O. finished the relay of story-telling.

"Who would have thought that the pesky Deep Dark was living a double life. Our co-worker in the same field in the morning, vigilante at night." Kai mentioned.

"Turns out, lady luck was on our side. We did not expect for the six of you to show up. Thanks to Bulletproof Scouts, we can recognize you even in the dark." Chen elaborated.

"We have now the chance to redeem ourselves and finished what we were supposed to do eleven years ago." Lay smiled while he talked.

"To kill the Chosen." Chanyeol declared strongly.

"First, we kill you. Then, this pretty boy right here." Suho mentioned as he cupped Jinyoung's chin with his thumb and pointer finger.

The Chosen Squad braced themselves. The six of them knew that they were in a disadvantage. They only had two offensive members while X-O had six offensive members and a defensive member. But there was nothing they could do, X-O was more than ready to fight than to return Jinyoung to them. The Chosen Squad needed to save their fellow Chosen and this time, they must do it on their own.