The Chosen

Monthly Misery

Three more days passed and the Chosen Squad was still unable to convince Woojin to join them simply because he was tough to find. On the rare cases that they did find him, he instantly rejected the idea. A new morning dawned in BN-Miuzek and the Chosen Squad, just like the days before, headed to the dining hall for breakfast when they noticed something unusual. Only a few people were there. They saw Mrs. Park coming out from the kitchen and approached her about the situation.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Park, but where are all the people?" Daehwi asked.

"Ah, right. You do not know." Mrs. Park sounded nervous as well, "Well, to tell you honestly, every month, on this particular day, Wheener and Plackbink comes through the province to usurp 'taxes' from us."

"Why haven't my parents and I experience that before?" Kuanlin questioned.

"Because the schedule was comepletely random at first before they appointed a specific day each month since a year ago." Mrs. Park answered.

"And what happens if you don't pay?" Jinyoung follow-upped.

"They either torture you, burn your building down or both." An old woman interjected her remark, much to the surprise of everyone, "Pick your poison."

"Well, not if we can help it." Sungwoon firmly said.

"But Sungwoon-hyung, after what happened with Jinyoung-hyung, didn't we make a promise within ourselves that our group will only use our powers to protect and defend, not to harm and attack others?" Kuanlin reminded Sungwoon.

"Who said we will attack first? We will stand our ground and retaliate only when they fire the first shot." Sungwoon clarified while the rest of the Chosen Squad simply nodded.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." The words of the Chosen delighted Mrs. Park and the old woman.

Everyone anxiously waited for Wheener or Plackbink to arrive the whole day. At near three in the afternoon, both Wheener and Plackbink showed up in front of the hotel.

"Taxes!" Yoon called out but there was no response.

"Taxes!" Yoon tried again but only silence was heard afterward.

"PAY YOUR TAXES OR ELSE!" Yoon snapped and his hands were now on fire.

"Or else what?" Jisung responded as he and the rest of the Chosen Squad went out of the hotel, "What will you do?"

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the members of the Chosen. Didn't expect to see you so soon." Jinu chuckled.

"Guess who's back! We are Wheener." The four males said simultaneously.

"Finally, we get to see the Chosen." Rose commented, "We have heard so much about you from our fellow Pillars."

"But since we are feeling good today, how about you let us have the taxes that we need and we will be on our way." Jisoo elaborated.

"And what if we won't?" Seongwu challenged.

"Then, you'll get a taste of Whygee's power." Hoony declared.

"You don't scare us." Jinyoung mentioned.

The tense stand-off between Whygee's forces and the Chosen Squad lasted only for a few minutes as Jennie fired the first shot and released some shock waves. Sungwoon replicated her powers and countered with shock waves.

"Remember, you started this." Sungwoon warned.

"And we will emerge victorious." Jennie arrogantly replied.

With Wheener and Plackbink not backing down, Daehwi, Kuanlin, Minhyun and Seongwu stepped back, leaving Sungwoon, Jisung and Jinyoung in the frontline. As for Daniel, he stayed inside the hotel for his protection. Jinyoung fired lightning from both of his hands and Sungwoon followed suit. Mino simply raised his shield for a moment, rendering the lightning useless. Yoon activated his Advanced Fire Throwing but his fire was redirected by Jisung to Plackbink. Jisoo managed to nullify the fire with her Cyrokinesis. Sungwoon replicated Yoon's power and threw some fire as well. Mino stepped forward and shielded his team from the attack, though he was pushed back by a few centimeters.

"It's time to end this!" Yoon claimed.

"X-Con: Boombayah!" Jisoo and Jennie exclaimed.

"X-Con: So-So!" Jinu and Yoon chanted.

Plackbink and Wheener activated their X-Con techniques. Plackbink released some bluish soundwaves that instantaneously froze everything that comes into contact. On the other hand, Wheener's technique looked like a giant yin-yang wheel of fire and ice.

"Brace yourself, guys. This is not good at all."Sungwoon informed hiscomrades while raising the shield he copied from Mino.