The Return

"What are we gonna do now?" Jake asked, looking around in the container they traded in from a cell, illuminated by a faint green light.

"Shush! Be quieter, for one," Diana snapped, hitting Jake over the head.

"We need to get out of here. If we stay here, we'll eventually be found," Mia added, staring at no one. Although it had been a few minutes since they hid, her voice still held a slight tremble.

"I know that, but there are only two ways out and in of the warehouse, and while we ran in the opposite way, they managed to secure them," Jenn answered, playing with a few found items she picked up on the way. She slightly adjusted her body, making the green glow flicker in response.

"So we just hide?" Mia asked, trying to calm her voice.

"You have a better idea!?" Jenn asked in a harsh whisper.

"Well, no, but we can't just stay here," Mia answered.

"If you all don't have a better plan, none of you can complain. So stay here and shut it!" Diana added, smacking Jake over the head again, just for good measure.

Mia and Jake looked at each other and simply nodded in response to Diana's statement. Unable to find a way out of the sealed warehouse, they had no choice but to hide in a random container. The surprisingly square building only had one way in and one way out.

After a few minutes, Diana approached Jenn and asked in a hushed tone, "Hey, Jenn! Are you able to gather any mana?"

"Mhm? Uh," Jenn responded as she looked up from her project. Processing Diana's question, she attempted to circulate the mana in her body. After a few seconds of strain, Jenn looked dumbfoundedly at Diana, "I'm not. What?"

"Right? We've been out of the cell for almost 10 minutes, and I haven't been able to gather any mana so far," Diana explained, trying to the best of her ability to whisper.

"How is that possible? They couldn't have gathered enough MBB to cover the entire warehouse, could they?" Jenn asked in a hush exclamation.

"No! I mean, I don't think so; one block costs the same as a house. If they had the money to cover a warehouse in MBB, they wouldn't be Kidnappers," Diana answered.

"Then, how?" Jenn cried, trying again to circulate any possible source of mana.

"I don't know. Why do you think I'm asking you," Diana said sarcastically.

"Wait, if you can't gather mana, how did you cast the spell that got us out in the first place?" Mia asked from behind Jenn, startling her, making her take a slight jump.

Jenn tilted her head and paused, then asked, "What? What are you talking about, what spell?"

"You know that blue glow and annoying sound," Mia answered, this time making Jake tilt his head in response.

"Yeah, it was high pitch noise that drowned out all other noise," Diana added while pantomiming covering her ears.

"What spell? I didn't cast any spell; I thought it was Diana," Jenn responded, pointing between Diana and Mia.

"Me? No way I'm an augmentor. How the Hell would I cast an AoE spell?" Diana responded, slightly raising her voice. Due to her sudden burst, the three others jumped in response, shushing her.

Shaking her head, Jenn added, "Wait, that's not the thing we need to worry about now. Our first priority should be figuring out why we can't use magic now. We can talk about how we got out once we are safe."

"They must have placed MBB's on us!" Mia suddenly exclaimed.

"What where? When? On who?" Jake questioned, panicking.

"Shush! Look for it," Diana ordered.

The four of them imminently began searching as they patted their bodies down. The low light compounded with the silence they had to maintain rushed their minds and hearts. Every second they went without finding it rose the panic in their hearts, as they thought that they would be found defenseless and powerless.

"Ah hah, I found it!" Jake exclaimed in excitement, showing a small beige pebble over his head.

Mia smacked Jake over the head and almost shouted, "What are you doing parading it around? Throw it away!" pointing towards the container's doors.

"Oh right," Jake affirmed and ran towards the doors.

Jake, on the balls of his feet, rushed to the doors and braced himself. Slowly he opened the door, trying with all his might to prevent it from making any sound. Seconds felt like an eternity before there was a one-foot gap between the doors where Jake, with all the force he could gather, threw the pebble into the air. Jake followed his previous speed as he closed the doors and silently rushed back to his friends.

"There it's gone. Do you feel your mana returning?" Jake said as soon as he was within arms reach of the girls.

"Yeah, I can feel it now," Diana answered.

"Same here, but it's still slow," Jenn followed, clenching and relaxing her fist. "They must have placed small MBB's strategically around the warehouse to make it difficult for the Response team or any other Marked One to come in here."

"So that's why they're using the Spellguns; they have their own mana bank, they would be undisturbed by the MBB's," Mia mused.

"Yeah, great for them, they thought out their plan, hurray! How does that help us? We're still stuck in this warehouse with them," Diana added, her frustration rising with each word.

"It doesn't. It just makes our situation more precarious. If we had you or Jenn at full power, we might have had a chance to escape, but with the current situation, we have no chance," Mia added.

"Don't be such a pessimist, look at the bright side; with all these mana blockers, they won't be able to use magic to find us. That will buy us some time," Jake added.

"Yeah, sure unless, they have a sensory type with them," Mia responded.

"If they had a psychic, they would have already found us," Jenn answered.

"Yeah, we also would have never even had a chance to escape," Diana continued.

At Diana's remark, Jake, Mia, and Diana all turned to face Jenn once again. They couldn't help but run their escape in their minds again. 'How did they actually escape?' was the only thought in their heads; they already became aware of the presence of MBB on them that should have prevented anyone from being able to use magic. Even a psychic would have a hard time predicting that someone could use magic in the presence of MBB's.

At the sudden turn of heads and their piercing stares, Jenn began to feel uncomfortable. She had no idea what they were talking about. The only thing in her recollection was her on the ground about to get shot, then the next second, everyone in the container kneeling in pain.

Just as Jenn was about to speak, the rumbling sound of the container's door opening demanded the group's attention. Incongruously to Jake's attempting to open the doors, now they flung open as the squeak of bounce through them.

"Hello, brats! Well, guess what?" a gruff voice that grated the ears of anyone who heard it said.

Instinctively, Jenn and Diana stood in defensive positions, ready for action.

"Nuh-uh, move, and I'll blow your hands off. Boss said we don't need you to be healthy, only alive," a woman's voice laughed as a shot speed through the container, landing only inches away from Diana's right shoulder, leaving a perfect hole in the corrugated steel.

As muscle memory took control of Diana, her right side nearly instantaneously transformed into metal. Diana rushed forward mindlessly as anger clouded her judgment. Jenn, for fear of the kidnapper's lethal retaliation, joined her friend's advance.

"Dark Fog!" Jenn immediately shouted just a second before the woman could pull the trigger again. "Go!" she shouted as the darkness of the container came alive and engulfed all of them in its embrace.

Jenn didn't have time to gather her mana efficiently or to construct the spell perfectly. Thankfully as a neutral spell, dark fog needed less mana than an offensive spell and less control than a defensive spell.

While the vocalization of the spell's name is considered detrimental in battle, she had no choice but to do it as it facilitated its construction, cutting down the time from a few seconds to a few microseconds.

"You little bitch," The man cursed as he joined his partner in jumping back from the entrance and aiming their guns at it.

"Infernal Flame Blade!" A voice shouted from within the darkness, after which a bright slash of flame erupted from the fog speeding directly at the kidnapper's faces.

"Stonewall," The man yelled in response, raising a block of concrete from the ground directly in the path of the flame blade, leaving a patch of dry dirt underneath it.

The wall just rose in time to block the attack. The blade dug itself deep into the 2-foot thick concrete. The blade slashed into the wall as the flame melted the cement; it left a groove 20 inches deep before it extinguished itself. A crack began growing on the concrete wall. Soon it crumbled into small pebbles.

As the wall collapsed, Jenn raced behind, startling the man as a blade grazed his cheek; not wasting the chance, Jenn tackled him into the floor. She immediately regained her stance, kicking the man in the stomach as she jumped back.

At the same time, Diana had shoulder tackle the woman, sending her flying back as the quarter-ton girl rammed into her at full speed. Momentum carrying her forward, she only stopped as she crashed into a steel wall, denting it. Bouncing back up, Diana returned her skin back to normal and ran back to the entrance of the container next to Jenn.

"You little... I was planning on going easy due to the Boss's orders, but now I'm gonna have a little fun," The man coughed as he raised his palm towards them. The man strained himself, attempting to channel his man; unfortunately, his mana refused to respond.

"Try it, asshole! You're getting your ass beat by teens right now." Diana yelled and ran towards the man. "Is that all you have, huh? Huh?" Diana screamed as her hand turned into metal once again, this time taking the shape of a blade, and thrust down at the man.

"Ahhhh!" he yelled as the blade pierced his shoulder, pinning him to the ground.

"Go to Hell," Diana added in disgust as her other hand began to transform.

"I suggest you don't. Drop it!" A cold voice rang from behind Diana, demanding both Diana's and Jenn's attention.

From behind the corner of a shipping container, a group of people emerged, confidently striding towards them. Among the 8 individuals, the Leader held her Spellgun up to Jake's head, with Mia behind them being restrained by the female soldier.

Jake trembled, his fear growing as the barrel of the gun tapped the back of his head at every step. Mia's fear betrayed her again, as her eyes filled with tears and her body shivered, in the ironclad grip of the woman clenching her arms, the feeling almost gone within them.

"Mia, Jake!" Jenn and Diana yelled simultaneously, their anger swelling within them as they observed the fresh blood dripping from their friend's faces. A gash opened above his left eye drenched his face in scarlet. Mia, who had gone the entire time relatively uninjured, had a cut on her lip and swelling across her cheek.

"I'm sorry! I tried to give Mia a chance, but...Ah!" Jake began to say but was kicked behind the knee, forcing him to kneel under the sights of the woman.

"Be good little girls and cancel your spells," the words slither out of her lips. "I don't like repeating myself," she added, pressing the pistol up to Jake's head.

Jenn and Diana didn't hesitate as they canceled their spells, falling to their knees in exhaustion. The only thing holding their bodies up was the adrenaline rushing through their bodies; they had forced themselves to use magic, knowing they didn't have enough mana. Jenn looked over at the blue-eyed blonde, her eyes burning in defiance.

The corner of the woman's mouth rose in a cruel smile as she lowered the gun and pulled the trigger. Jake screamed in pain as a mana bullet pierced his calf, boring a hole through. The howls of pain were rapidly stifled as the woman aimed the sights back to his head.

"Jake!" the girls scream in response to their friend's muffled cries.

"I told you what would happen if you defied me," the woman spoke in a calm and frigid voice. "I only need her mommy," nodding towards Mia, "and your daddy; now, I don't need him or that girl over there, so right now, their lives lie on your hands. Try anything again, and I'll finish what I started," she added directed at Jenn.

"Fine! Don't hurt them. I'll do whatever you want, just please don't hurt them," Jenn resigned, lowering her head and holding her anger.

With a click of her tongue, she ordered, "Check them! I want to know how the Hell they managed to cast a spell inside the cell," turning from Jenn and facing the eight with her. She began to walk away, stopping suddenly, as she remembered, "And get those Idiots checked out; I want them back to their feet when we roll out. If they can't, deal with them."

The kidnappers moved immediately at her command; two moved towards Diana and Jenn, securing them and moving them to their already apprehended friends. Concurrently three moved toward their injured comrade, one to the man and two carrying the still unconscious woman.

In less than a minute, Jenn was back with her friends, the injured kidnappers were retrieved, and they were heading back to the cell they were in less than an hour ago.

They walked down the corridor between the shipping containers; each step clouded their vision, the fear choked their breaths. Soon the resignation grew in their minds causing each step to become unsteady with every footstep.

"What the fuck is this?" A voice cut through, awaking them, all of them from their stupor.

Jenn looked around her and noticed the warm opaque fog around them, inching its way into her head. Suddenly, recognition filled her eyes as she tackled her friends and yelled, "Take cover!" Pushing them around the corner of a container.

"Wha... Stop the" one yelled, jumping behind them.

*Boooom*

Suddenly, the corridor they used to be standing in was a raging blizzard of searing ash, twisting and turning as the heat torrented the ash. As quickly as the inferno appeared, it disappeared, replaced by an arctic gale that froze the hall. The abrupt temperature change caused the metal to crack and crackled as the steam met and clashed with the frost.

"What the hell was that?" Diana yelled, flabbergasted as the hurricane-level wind crashed against her face.

"I know that spell; there's only one person that uses it. How?" Jenn stated, more to herself than to those around her.

The wind then coiled around them and pushed them back away from the passageway, stopping once they were around 12 meters away, in another intersection.

"So, you come here often?" A muffled voice asked, drawing their attention.

Leaning on the corner stood a person, covered head to toe in white, wearing a blank mask, his arms crossed and one foot up against the wall.

"Ost!" Jenn yelled in excitement, jumping up to her feet and ran up to him with her arm wide open.

"Who?" Diana asked, seeing the man sidestep Jenn, causing her to slam into the steel wall.

Not wasting a second, he ordered, "Run towards the exit. I'll keep these guys distracted in the meantime," pointing back to the frozen path behind him.

"What about..." Mia asked, remembering the people guarding the entrance.

"Don't worry, there's no one there," he calmly answered.

"Wait, I'm not gonna leave you here alone," Jenn protested, walking up to him.

"I said, run, soldier! That's an order!" he responded by raising his voice, alarming the girls, and waking Jake from his trance.

"But I..." Jenn began, then looked over at her friends. She looked back at him with resolution in her eyes. "Yes, Sir!" she saluted.

"What? Who? Why" Jake asked, dumbfounded as he processed the information his subconscious recorded.