Who turned off the lights?

As winter came and passed, I continued the same daily routine. I would wake up at 0500, start with simple jumping jacks, sit-ups, squats, push-ups, and pull-ups, then finish with a 6-mile run. I would finish within an hour to 90 minutes and head back to my room to shower and prepare for the rest of the day. On the weekends, I would go to the Arena and fight either in gladiatorial battles or the Zero Zone.

Angie's and Mike's birthdays came and passed as we celebrated them in their new homes. While Rose's birthday was split into two, one with her new family and one with us at the orphanage. Due to the distance to her new family home, from our respective homes. I used this period to give them a modified version of the personalized charms like the one I gave to Jenn.

Soon in the blink of an eye, freshman year was coming to an end. The late spring breeze slowly flowed through the air as hints of the summer wind hid within.

As the school day came to a close, a dark-skinned boy spoke, "I can't believe freshman year is almost over; I mean, seriously, it felt like it flashed by."

"I know what you mean; I mean, I don't feel any different than last year. Yet one person has obviously changed," Kevin added, looking in my direction.

"Right, How the hell did you change so much, drugs? Or is it the benefits of a Marked One?" Chen asked.

I looked over my body, and finding no change, I said, "What are you talking about? I look no different,"

"The hell are you talking about? Just look at you; you've grown like 4 inches and gained like 100 pounds of muscle!" Kevin exclaimed exaggeratingly.

"Shut up, I've only gained like 15 pounds if even that," I said once again, scrutinizing my body.

"Hey, Jay, are you going to come with me to the studio?" Mike's voice resounded as he ran into the near-empty classroom.

"Should I?" I said as Mike passed Kevin and Chen sitting at the desk to me, saying 'hi' to them.

"Well, Bryce said she needed to take some final measurements for those orders of yours," Mike said.

"Oh right, but I'm in no hurry for them," I answered.

"Well, yeah, but we haven't hung out together for a few days; Chen, Kevin, when was the last time he went to the Arena with you?" Mike asked, twisting his body on top of the desk.

"Now that I think of it. Around two months, I think," Kevin responded.

"No, it was the Marcus and Gradius fight in February," Chen corrected.

"There you go, see c'mon come with me to the studio, we don't have any work today, we'll just hang out," Mike said, then added, "Kevin, Chen wanna come?"

"Of course!" Kevin immediately responded, almost automatically.

"Are the rest of the models gonna be there?" Chen prodded, excitement bubbling across his face.

"Well, a few of us are gonna be there, so..." Mike began to respond when my focus was demanded elsewhere.

*Bzzzt* A rush of mana pulsed inside my body. One of four pendants placed around a bracelet on my wrist began to glow and pulsate.

"I have to go," I declared, jumping from my chair and running out of the classroom.

"Hey, where are you going? We still have a class left!" Chen yelled out, his voice fading as I got further away.

'Damn it! It's too early. It wasn't supposed to happen until another week. Fuck! She's all the way across the city. I need to make it!'

----

"Run, Miss Jennifer!" A strained feminine voice said. The voice came from a middle-aged blond woman wearing a black pantsuit, flat across the floor, blood dripping from her face.

"Fuc..." a male in a similar suit coughed before a sword pierced his chest.

"You won't get away with this! Do you know who my father is!?" Jenn screamed, leaning against the door of a wrecked black SUV, covered in sweat and blood.

A man slowly walked toward Jenn. He kicked the head of a bodyguard as he walked past him. "Oh, but it's precisely because of your father that you're in this predicament, little soldier," he said, fixing the balaclava on his face.

"Uff... I'll kill you," Jenn said with strain as the men grabbed her neck and pressed.

"Now, now, we need her alive, don't kill her. Yet!" A woman in the same outfit and mask said, cleaning the blood off her sword. "Take her and her classmates, kill the rest," She commanded.

"Aye, Aye Captain," three other masked individuals responded, rushing towards the other people sprawled across the road.

"Don't you dare! If you want me, take me, leave them alone!" Jenn cried out as the man dragged her across the floor.

"Oh, no can do, sweetheart, we need them all," the man responded.

"And here you thought, you'll just go for lunch," the woman laughed as she walked and knelt next to Jenn.

Jenn stared defiantly at the woman's blue eyes and only looked at the noon sun directly above her head before spitting at her face. The woman laughed at Jenn's defiance and, with a smile on her face, punched her. Jenn, exhausted, lacking mana, and previously injured, fell unconscious.

"Get them in the truck. We need to get out of here before the military response team gets here," the woman ordered.

Immediately the four masked individuals moved like gears in a clock as they picked up the unconscious or crying teen girls off the floor and threw them into a large van. They then moved into two other large black where other masked individuals were waiting.

In a blink, they were gone. All that remained were the bodies of Jenn's bodyguards lying across the road. The wrecked SUV, its thick windows melted through. The heavy Titanium-Z alloy body, pierced by asphalt spikes.

----

A few hours later, Jennifer opens her eyes, lying on her back on the floor of a dark room. The cold dark floor alerted Jenn as her awareness returned; the whole floor was vibrating. She shot up only to find her hands and legs bound, causing her to slam onto the floor.

"Jenn, is that you? Are you awake?" a small trembling voice echoed.

Jenn became startled; only then did she remember the friends that were with her in the SUV. "Mia! Are you okay? Where are you?" Jenn said, trying to look around, trying to find the owner of the voice in complete darkness.

"I'm okay. I'm with Diana and Jake, but they're unconscious. They are still breathing, so they're alright." Mia's soft voice almost drowned by the humming coming from the room.

"Okay, what happened after they knocked me unconscious?" Jenn said, struggling to free herself.

"The woman tied us and blindfolded us. Jake and Diana tried to fight back, but they knocked them out. They then moved us out of the back of the van into a shipping container," Mia reported, her voice becoming calmer after each word.

"How long have we been on the move?" Jenn asked as she finally freed herself from the ropes wrapped around her wrists.

"Around 90 minutes, it should be around 1:30 to 2," Mia responded, the tremble in her voice finally gone.

Jenn tried to gather her mana but found none either in her body or inside the container. Not wasting a second, she moved to untie her legs and made her way towards Mia's voice.

"Do you have your kit?" Jenn asked as she took each step.

"No, they took it from me; they also took Diana's and Jake's. Yours is missing too," Mia answered.

"Damn, they took out the bodyguard squad so quickly, I didn't have time to activate the alarm in time," Jenn said.

"It wouldn't have done any good; the signal was blocked; they must have had a jamming artifact," Mia added as Jenn grabbed her hand. Jenn began to untie Mia's binds.

"I can't use my magic, so they definitely have mana blockers. Damn it! They even took the knife in my shoe," Jenn said, bending down to check her left shoe.

"Jenn, don't do anything crazy. We've all been trained the same, just wait for the response team to get here, please!" Mia added, as her voice gained an almost imperceivable tremble.

Jenn left Mia's side and began to explore the corrugated metal walls. Jenn moved through the entire length of the wall, trying to find anything that could help them in their current predicament.

"I'm not going to put your lives in danger, Mia. I'm just trying to make contingencies," Jenn said.

"That's what I'm talking about, Jenn. Just stay put, let them get over their heads, make a mistake, and then like it always happens, they get taken out," Mia said, removing the ropes binding her unconscious friends.

"Mia, I don't think they are like all other wannabe kidnappers," Jenn added, but before she could finish, another voice spoke.

"Jenn! Mia! What is going on?" A stronger feminine voice resonated inside the container.

"Diana, are you okay?" Mia immediately asked.

"My head hurts! That bitched didn't hold her punches!" Diana responded with no hesitation. Standing up in one fluid motion startling Mia in the process.

"Hold your horses, Diana; you're worse than Jenn, seriously," Mia spoke with more authority over the background hum.

"Really, Mia?" Jenn asked, turning in the direction of Mia. "She's not wrong, Diana don't do anything reckless." Jenn promptly added.

"I'm not stupid; this isn't my first kidnapping. Besides, those guys are different. They were pros; they moved like clockwork and went straight for their targets without hesitation," Diana quickly explained, mirroring Jenn's previous actions across the darkness.

"Yeah, obviously. That's what I told Mia, but that's not what we're talking about; you need to control your temper." Jenn responded.

"My temper? There's nothing wrong with my temper," Diana said, slightly offended.

As they were about to respond, they were catapulted forward, making Jenn and Diana slam onto the floor. Since Mia was already leaning against the front wall, she only felt a tiny push.

"What now? Did we stop?" Mia asked, looking around the container.

"Of course we stop, oh! Jake, are you okay?" Diana said. She had been slammed onto the floor just in front of Jake's still unconscious body; without meaning to, she pressed against Jake's groin, causing him to groan in pain.

"Ahhh! Get off of me!" Jake yelled.

"Sheesh! You noisy much?" Diana responded, cupping her ears as Jake's shout echoed and built up inside the metal box.

They were about to continue when suddenly the container began to drop at a slow, steady rate. The teens were startled; the sudden change caused them to stay silent for the entire descent. The 20 seconds as the container dropped felt like an eternity to them; the hum added to the sounds of hydraulics filled their hearts and minds with trepidation.

Jenn and Diana moved quickly and efficiently, even in total darkness, to stand in front of Mia and Jake. In addition, Jake took Mia behind him, using his body to protect her.

'Damn it! Only Diana and I are Marked Ones. Jake and Mia are regulars! If anything happens, they are the ones in the most danger. I need to protect them.' Jenn thought, trying for the nth time to gather mana any mana that she could.

Then the doors began to click; suddenly, the container's doors flung open, flooding the pitch-black room with a blinding light that washed all color from sight. The teens couldn't help but squint and shield their eyes as the sudden flow of light burned their corneas.

"Well, would you look at this? They're so cute, being all protective about each other," a feminine voice said, standing at the entrance.

"What do you want with us?" Jenn asked, trying her best to open her eyes.

"Oh, now, of course, I'll tell you my entire plan," the woman said sweetly, then added, "Rebind them and move them to the cell." her voice now harsh and cold.

Instantly, 6 individuals rushed in, blocking enough light allowing Jenn and Diana to struggle. Unfortunately, just as they were about to fight, a rush of wind knocked them down; their bodies still hurt and sore from earlier, they could offer no resistance. The individuals grabbed the four of them while the two others put the binds back around their arms. The individuals push them out of the containers, blinding them as their eyes adjusted.

Jenn forced her eyes open to observe her surroundings, trying to force her brain to come with any plan possible for escape. The only thing she found was her heart sinking, as she saw the face of the woman who appeared to be the leader in front of them.

The woman had platinum blond hair that accentuated her almost unnaturally blue eyes. She would be more beautiful had a massive scar running down her right cheek ending in the tip of the nose not been there. Her natural beauty did not compare to the power of mana radiating from her, making her 5-foot-9 figure imposing and towering even among the other unmasked individuals around her.

"Move it, sweethearts, and you too, brat!" A tall man with dyed red hair said as he hurried the girls and pushed Jake.

"Don't touch me! Please... don't, let go!" Mia said her previously calm demeanor shattered like sugar glass. A shorter man around 5-10 grabbed Mia's arm and jerked her to move forward.

"I'll beat you to a pulp, asshole! You want to mess with someone? Mess with me. Get me out of these binds and show you," Diana spat as she tried to struggle against the woman holding her arms to rush at the man.

"Careful, the more you bark, the more I'll bite," the shorter man who had dyed gray tips pulled Mia closer to him, provoking Diana.

"Don't you dare, if you touch her, I'll kill you!" Jenn roared, breaking free of the two who were holding her. She took a few steps only to have the two behind her tackle her to the ground.

"Feisty! Aren't you? Well, you are a general's daughter. Guess that comes with the territory, huh?" said a man who had been standing to the side. He then moved towards Jenn, still on the floor, and added, "Will you do me a favor and shut the hell up?" then proceeded to kick her in the stomach.

"You bastards! Don't hurt her!" Jake yelled, a sentiment echoed by Diana.

A man and woman moved up and gagged the four of them as they dragged them to a second shipping container. Inside, the back had been reinforced and modified into a cell; not wasting their time, the individuals threw them inside and locked the gate.

"All I need you to do is stay silent, and do what I tell you. Any of you, try to defy me, in any way, I'll hurt one of your friends in return, got it?" The leader said, walking up to the bars. She then took a small pistol from her back and shot between the legs of Jake, not removing her gaze from Jenn's.

The woman immediately left and the others followed, this time leaving the doors open. Seeing the coast clear, Jenn, Diana, and Mia shifted their sight to Jake. A giant icicle was embedded into the thick wooden floor, inches away from the panicked teen's crotch.

'A spell gun! How?' Jenn thought, fear rising for the first tiime.