Chapter 5: Across The Universe of Time

"Where am I?"
"What am I doing here?"
"Who are you?"
"Why am I here?"
"What have I done to you?"
"Please answer me!"

A teenage girl sat in a black cell with her arms chained to the wall. She was barely clothed, with nothing but a large shirt to cover her body. The girl looked up at the dark figure in front of her.
"You are far away from home." The figure answered. "Forget your family, forget your friends, and forget your old life. That chapter is over."
"W-why?" She sobbed.
"Because I said so." The male figure replied. "Now get up. El Silencio doesn't want his commodity to devalue."
The figure took out a key, unhooked her shackles, then forcibly grabbed her arm and yanked her up. He dragged her to the cell door and down a dimly lit hallway.
"No…please…please stop!" She protested.
"Shut up." The man ordered. He forcefully yanked her in front of him.
Whimpering, the girl walked slowly towards the bright light. The impatient man forced her forward. Soon she was exposed to the brightness outside, forcing her to shut her eyes in an attempt to get used to the sunlight. The girl looked around and saw a platform with four other girls similarly clothed standing there with a collar around each of their necks.

Gasping, she now understood where she was. But before she could do anything, two men grabbed her arms and dragged her to the platform.
"NO! NO! NO! STOP!" Tears streamed down the girl's face.
"I said shut UP!" the man slapped her across the face, leaving a handprint.
"Gustavo! Enough!" Another man's voice sounded. "Get her onto the platform with the others!"
The girl was picked up and carried to the platform where she stood on the right side of them. Shaking in fear, silent tears streamed down her face as a collar was fitted on her own neck.
"Now then." The man named Gustavo spoke. "We have five commodities here. El Silencio, how about this lovely thing from Costa Rica?"
"Thing?" The teenage girl thought. "They don't even call us people?"
The Costa Rican girl looked up at the large throne-like seat. Sitting there was a man in a white suit and a black hat with a black tie. He was also wearing a black Zorro-like mask.
El Silencio sat still for a moment, then shook his head.
Gustavo shrugged, then signaled behind the platform.

A gunshot rang out, and the girls gasped as the Costa Rican girl fell over dead from a bullet to the head.

The teenage girl trembled. "I'm going to be killed here!"
"Next!" Gustavo continued. "This gorgeous prize from Brazil!"
The teenage girl admitted the Brazilian girl was very beautiful. She had a nice figure, tanned, was well-endowed and with long flowing dark hair.
A few men in the background wolf-whistled as Gustavo displayed her.
El Silencio shook his head. Gustavo's head dropped, and he motioned again. Another gunshot, and the Brazilian girl fell to the floor dead.
The teenage girl started to tremble even more, when the next girl from Uganda was shot dead almost right away.
"Three dead, only two of us left." The girl thought fearfully.
"Choose!" Gustavo pointed. "One girl from France, and the other from the United States of America!"
The teenage girl and the French girl looked at each other. She could see the French girl's eyes welling up with tears.

"Je suis desole." The French girl whispered sadly.

"I'm sorry too." The teen girl whispered back with tears.
She looked at the beautiful French girl in front of her, and she was extraordinarily pretty. She had piercing blue eyes, clear soft caucasian skin, and short but smooth blond hair.
Just then, El Silencio stood up. Everyone watched as he raised his hand and pointed to the teenage girl.
The French girl exhaled, but still wept.

"Morte est le seul moyen d'échapper." She whispered.

BANG.

The teen girl gasped as she saw the lights leave the French girl's blue eyes; the beautiful blond collapsed to the ground, dead.
"$8,500." A man spoke.
Suddenly, she was grabbed by Gustavo and deposited in front of the large throne.
Looking up, she could see a scary glint in the man's eyes. He reached under the throne, took out a briefcase and tossed it to Gustavo.
"Payment." El Silencio finally spoke.
Grinning, Gustavo opened the briefcase and saw rolls of $100 bills in front of him. Closing the briefcase, he saluted him and departed with his entourage. The teen girl looked and saw an inscription on his belt buckle:

WSF

She gasped out loud but suddenly felt a stinging pain on her back. The teenage girl cried out, and then fell unconscious.

Three weeks later

The teenage girl lay naked in a bathtub crying profusely in a pool of her own blood. Bruises were all over her legs, stomach, and face. She felt broken. Battered. Destroyed. She had her innocence forcefully ripped from her and had a few ribs broken in the process. Within a few days, she had lost her family, her friends, and her freedom.
"A-all I wanted…was to be a doctor and help people…" She thought, weeping. "Now I'm nothing but a sex slave…I've become something to be used and abused until thrown away…"
She slowly laid the side of her head in the blood. The broken teenage girl slowly rocked from side to side in a fetal position.
"Nobody knows where I am…" The girl wept. "I am an American, but no help will come."

Then suddenly, something ignited within her.

A fire. It started to burn inside her heart intensely. She suddenly no longer wanted to escape yet.
The fire continued to burn. Higher and higher it grew until it covered her being. She could now only feel one thing:

Rage.

She slowly stood up, and wrapped a towel around her waist.
"My name is Lana." The girl announced.
Lana redressed herself, and saw a fire escape next to the bath. She stared at it for a moment, and then looked at the sink. She slowly pulled one of the drawers open.
"Bingo." She thought, and pulled out a pair of scissors. Pocketing them, she checked around the door to make sure El Silencio was still asleep.
Lana then looked around the cupboard and found a lighter. Pocketing that, she looked up at the ceiling and saw a smoke detector.
Formulating a plan, she turned on the shower and closed the curtains. She then stood up, lit the lighter and held it up to the smoke detector.
The small circular machine blared on and beeped all over the room including the bedroom. As soon as she heard him rustling in the other room, Lana quickly hid next to the door.

Just then El Silencio burst into the bathroom. The opening of the door helped hide Lana from his line of sight. The Zorro-looking man crawled slowly towards the shower.

He reached his hand out for the shower curtain when Lana sprang out of hiding with the scissors and sank it deep into his neck.
"GGRRAAAGHHH!" El Silencio yelled as he reactively swung his arm behind him and clotheslined Lana. Blood spurted everywhere as he turned and faced her. Flying into a rage, he grabbed her and threw her into the bedroom. She landed on her back hard. But before she could react, he was on top of her.
"YOU THINK THIS WILL KILL ME!?" He shouted. "I HAVE SURVIVED MANY ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS BEFORE YOU LITTLE GIRL, AND BEFORE YOU—"
Just then, Lana sprang forward and sank her teeth deeply into the other side of his neck. He screamed even louder but she kept biting. Soon she bit as far as she could and yanked a large portion of his veins and flesh out. El Silencio collapsed in a heap on top of her. Dead.
Just then Lana heard running footfalls approaching the room. She used all of her strength and pushed the large corpse off of her. She stood up and grasped her ribs in pain.

"Three broken ribs…" She thought, annoyed.

Lana ran for the bathroom and crashed through the window and onto the fire escape just as gunshots rang out in the room. She quickly descended down onto the street and bolted for the large laboratory.
She noticed the lab was called "STAR LABS" and kept it in mind as she ran into the complex.
Lana ran by hoards of scientists and security guards as gunshots rang out behind her.
"Hey! You can't be in here!" A scientist yelled before he was cut down by a bullet.
"Miss! Please stop! There are experiments going on in here!" Another scientist yelled.
Lana ignored them as she looked at experiment after experiment. She remembered a science fair she attended before she was kidnapped about "Exobytes."

"Scientists have been working on a new energy supplement that when taken, will enhance a regular human's natural abilities." Mr. Robinson spoke. "These supplements are called "Exobytes." And they are essentially ways to give humans superpowers. However that is not why they are being used. Currently they are used as a way to break down potential diseases at the molecular level."

Soon she found the room.

Exobyte Testing Facility

She smashed through the glass door and saw a large vat in front of her. Looking around, she saw a crowd of scientists staring at her.
"What are you doing in here!?" One of them called out. "This is a testing area! You are not all—"
His speech was cut short when a bullet penetrated his skull. Everyone looked and Gustavo was standing there with his men.
"Kill her!" He screamed.
Lana bolted for the stairs that was positioned over the vat as more bullets flew over her head.
However one bullet didn't miss.
Her right leg exploded in pain as she collapsed to the ground. Lana looked and could see the vat was right in front of her.
She crawled slowly towards the vat as Gustavo and his men ran up the stairs closing in on her.

Closer and closer she crawled, blood leaking out of her legs and now her ribs.
"Internal bleeding…" She realized. "I only…have moments…"
She looked in front of her and saw millions of blue and yellow particles swimming around a pool of clear water.
Just then another bullet struck her left arm.
Lana slowly turned and saw Gustavo was only a few feet away.

In desperation, she rolled off the platform and into the vat.

"NO!" He yelled as he reached out trying to stop her from falling in but failing.
Suddenly, the clear liquid exploded upwards. Exobytes flew around the clear water as everyone could see a figure in the middle being reconstructed. They could see the body suddenly fly upwards over the vat. Soon the liquid receded into the vat, and Gustavo could see Lana floating over it.
Lana looked at her hands and legs.
"All healed…" She thought. "No…revitalized."
Her hands glowed red and she suddenly screamed as loud as she could. Red energy flew around her as the testing room shook, forcing everyone to cover their ears.

Lana suddenly flew at Gustavo, grabbed his shirt, and slammed him onto the wall.
The tan man coughed up blood as she recoiled at the sight of Lana's red eyes.
"You…sold me…" She whispered. "To be the plaything of a mob boss…"
"P-please! Stop!" Gustavo shivered.
"Drop the man now!" Lana looked and saw his men surrounded her.
She rolled her eyes and stamped on the ground hard. The earth split open and sharp spikes emerged and impaled every single gunman through the chest.

Gustavo gasped and Lana stared at him.

"Ah. I see you still have the briefcase." She gave him a wicked grin.
Lana suddenly threw him across the room and he slammed into a test tube, shattering it.
The teenage girl picked up the briefcase and opened it.
"Ah he overpaid you." Lana noticed. "I was sold for $8,500 and he gave you $12,000. I guess his lust for young girls got the best of him. Well no matter, he's dead now."
Gustavo groaned in pain and slowly stood up, only to have Lana appear in front of him.
"WSF?" Lana ripped off his belt buckle. "The World Soccer Federation? How unexpected."
Rage energy leaked from her body. She looked behind the tan man and saw the broken test tube.

"Now that gives me an idea." Lana suddenly lifted him by his shirt and dragged him across the broken glass.
He screamed as blood splattered from his back.
"Oh I'm sorry. Does that hurt?" She asked innocently. "Maybe it didn't hurt enough."
Lana suddenly plunged a hand deep into his chest. Gustavo screamed as her hand tore through his skin and into his cardiovascular system. She grasped something soft and yanked it out.
The tan man cried out in agony as his heart still connected by his veins and arteries rested in her right hand.
"Looks like you won't be needing this." Lana suddenly crushed the heart in her hand.

Gustavo retched and went still. Blood oozed between her hands.

"Well then." She spoke to no one in particular. "Time to go home."