A girl walked down the street of her home town. It was nestled right in the middle of a desert. She had long, dirty blonde hair, deep blue eyes and a charm bracelet. The bracelet, though it looked like another accessory, was her self defense. It was white gold, the charm a very intricately designed transmutation circle. She looked across the street and saw two old friends of her. "Ed! Al!" She called and ran to them. "I haven't seen Y'all in forever!" She hugged bother of them. "Rene!" Ed hugged her back. "We missed you Rini!" Al said. "I can show you around here if you want" She said. "Yeah!" The two boys jumped at the offer. "Where ya headed?" She asked. "A library, please" Al said. "Okay" She led them down several almost deserted streets. It was a small bookstore/library. It was made out of old, water damaged wood, a window with "Books 4 Sale and Rent" painted in blue was on the right side of the slightly warped door. It looked like it had two stories. Rini kicked the bottom of the door and it swung open. The second floor was present at a time in the past, but now there was nothing. "Hello?" Al called out. "No body is here. We get books as we please" Rini explained. "But we keep it closed, because there are some very valuble things in certain places here" She walked in. "Nothing is marked here, so what do ya want?" Rini asked. "Um, it's an alchemy book written by Dr. Frank Starr" Al answered. "Got it" Rini climbed on top of the checkout counter and jumped onto the top of a bookcase with amazing balance. She came to one bookshelf and stopped. She got down on both knees and slammed the palm of her hand down onto the top of the bookshelf. Rini pulled out a thick book with tattered pages and a disheveled cover. She held the book close to her chest and ran across the book cases at full speed. Coming to the first bookshelf, where the two boys were standing. She leapt down and almost landed on Ed. She gave him the book and started to walk out with them. She was met at the door by an armed man in a tan duster coat. "Who the hell are you?" Rini glared. Although the man was slightly taken aback by Rini's fearless behavior, he grabbed her wrist and jerked her all the way through the door. He put his arm in front of her neck and held her to him, and his other hand held her wrists together behind her back. "Hey, let her go!" Ed handed the book to Al and tried to hit Rini's captor. Not waiting to lose the precious girl, he ran off with her. He smacked her head with her side of his fist, causing her to black out, but just before the strong willed Rini muttered "When I wake up I will beat the hell out of ya you son of a b...".

When Rini woke up, she found herself laying in the middle of a huge room, with a marble floor and a high ceiling. She glanced at her surroundings before sitting up. "Where am I? What is this place?" She questioned herself. "Hello, Rene" A male's voice echoed through the room. Rini jumped to her feet and searched for the origin of the sound. She saw a silhouette of a man. "Who are you!" Rini backed away. "Don't worry about that" The shadow replied. She felt for her bracelet, but found nothing. "Looking for this little artifact, hun?" He held up her bracelet. "Give me that!" She lunged towards him. He quickly dodged her and stuffed the bracelet in his pocket. "This treasure here has been sought after for centuries, and we tracked it down your family tree to you" He stepped into the light. He looked 40ish, with black hair and brown eyes with blue rims. "What are you talking about?" Rini looked confused. "You use that charm bracelet as just a portable transmutation circle. Put used properly it is the key to a power beyond your wildest dreams. How do you activate it?" He asked her calmly. "I'm not sure what you're talking about" Rini replied. "You know! Tell me!" He commanded. Rini, scared to death but hard headed as hell, clenched her fists and yelled back, "I don't have a damn clue!". "Tell me" He said, regaining his calm, chilling voice. "I told you, I don't know" Rini replied. He struck her face and knocked her down. Rini got back up and glared. The man left her alone in the room. "Ed, Al, please save me" She sighed.

Ed looked around the streets of Rini's hometown and found no trace of her. "Damn it!" He yelled and stomped his foot. "What shoes was she wearing?" Al asked. "Those weird high-heeled combat boots, what does that have to do with it?" Ed replied. "Oh good" Al turned around back to the place were she'd gotten dragged off. "Good? How can this be good?" Ed followed him. "Those make really deep drag marks, remember? The first time someone tried to kidnap her they didn't get too far because of those clunky shoes" Al reminded him. "Right!" Ed exclaimed. Sure enough two drag marks were quiet prominent in the dirt road. The two teenagers followed the trail until the tracks stopped. "What? They're just, gone" Ed said in confusion. "He must have gotten in a car or something" Al suggested. Ed, already starting to miss Rini, thought about how she'd fit a sarcastic remark right in the most serious of times like, "Nah, I bet he just flew away". Al and Ed needed a better method of tracking down Rini, that was for sure.

Rini looked out the only window at the moon. "They're never gonna find me" She said. "I wonder if there's a way out of here" Rini decided to go exploring around the room. She finally found a stair case that led to a kitchen with a bathroom. "Oh wonderful" She sighed. "Nothing here" Rini looked around the room. Rini went through the kitchen looking for anything to arm herself with. Very nice food was stocked, nothing in a can. "I could have used the metal for a weapon, damn it" She cursed under her breath.