Chapter 1 – The Dawn of a New Age

            “Crap! Savannah, no!” My brother Carson yelled, causing me to whoop in victory.

            “Take that!” I responded playfully, setting down my Uno cards. Yeah, I know I had a perfectly good smartphone sitting in my pocket, but this was more fun.

My dad leaned over the edge of the driver’s seat and called to us, somewhat annoyed. “Can you quiet down please? I’m trying to concentrate.”

            “Sorry Dad!” I responded. “But I still kicked your butt, bro!” I laughed as he groaned.

            “C’mon, don’t rub it in,” Carson whined playfully. I just laughed again. I felt the car roll back as my dad stopped at a light.

            “Oh, for crying out loud, we moved like, two feet!” My mom said, exasperated.

            “Well, that’s the city for ya,” I told her. “Why did we take a car to DC  again?” I said, half to myself. “And why the heck didn’t we take the subway?”

Suddenly, the world erupted into ear-piercing sound and blinding light. I got thrown back violently, my vision dotted with black splotches. My head slammed against something that felt akin to a metal pole. When I finally got my bearings, all I could see was the flaming and twisted remains of the car. There was a dull ringing in my ears, blocking out all other noise. Even though it was practically impossible to function due to the immense amount of pain my body was in, I tried to get out my dad’s name, then my mom’s, then my brother’s. All that came out was a choked gasp. Off to my right, I saw the motionless bodies of my family members. My dad’s body was still on fire. I didn’t even realize that I let out a sob before my body shut down, and everything turned black.

——-

“No!” I shot straight up in the hospital bed, a cold sweat coating my body. It took me a moment to remember where I was. I was in the hospital, in the same room I had been in for a whole week now. I sighed, slumping down. Memories of that fateful afternoon played over and over in my head like a bad Vine on repeat. I sniffled and forced the tears to stay in as I checked the clock on the wall. It was five in the morning. Knowing that I definitely wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep after that, I gave up and reached for the TV remote. I needed something to get my mind off that night.

After three hours of mindlessly frying my brain with crappy reality TV, which isn’t even that realistic to be honest, my nurse Kathy walked in with a wheelchair. “Hello Savannah!” She said in a cheery tone, a little bit too cheery for my taste, considering the reason why I was here in the first place.

“Hey Kathy.” I greeted less jovially.

“You’re getting released today!” She informed me.

“Wait, that’s today?”

“Yep!”

“Oh, um, okay.” I was a little reluctant to leave the hospital. I hadn’t gone back to my mansion since that day, and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the torrent of memories that I was no doubt going to be flooded with.

They still hadn’t told me who was going to be my guardian until I turned eighteen. I was probably going to find out when I got there. I sighed. I seriously needed to get back to my life. I hadn’t even looked at a social media site since that day, though multiple news stations had done stories on the “Cooper Family Tragedy” as they called it. Sometimes I hated being rich…

That reminded me, I probably needed to make a statement on my Twitter or something explaining why I had basically disappeared off the face of the earth. The hospital security thankfully kept the press away from my room at my request, but I knew I couldn’t hide from the world forever. I might as well do it on my terms. I resolved that I would make a YouTube video or something as soon as I got home. Setting a date took away a bit of the apprehension as Kathy helped me into the wheelchair. I was still a bit shaky on my feet and didn’t want to risk accidentally falling over and making my already crappy condition worse.

Kathy wheeled me down the hallway and into an elevator bound for the main floor. She took me outside to where a Cooper Company (My dad’s company, AKA “the thing that got us rich”) van was waiting. I thanked her after she helped me into the passenger seat and stored the folded wheelchair in the back. I turned to the driver. “Hello, my name is Dave,” he said.

“I’m Savannah, but you probably already knew that.” I said with a small smile.

“Indeed. I apologize that no one has come to visit you. Most of us were tied up with… you know.” I nodded knowingly. He didn’t have to say anything.

A tear dripped down my right cheek before I could stop it, sliding over a long scar underneath my eye. I was told that it was shrapnel that caused it, but it honestly looked like someone took a sword and sliced it. I was a bit mad that the scar was permanent, but that was what makeup was for. And it made me look like a freaking tribal warrior anyway, so I had that going for me, which was nice. Yep, memes. That’s a thing now. Deal with it.

“Hey!” A voice called from the backseat. I turned around in my chair to see two similar-looking blondes.

“Oh, this is Daniel and Evangelia, they’re interns at Cooper Company,” Dave informed me.

“Just call me Lia,” she said.

“And call me Danny. We’re twins,” he said.

I nodded. “Nice to meet you,” I said politely.

“Likewise,” Danny answered.

After a pause, Lia asked, “Soooooooooo… what’s your favorite color?” She smiled a goofy smile. I liked Lia. She was at least trying to act like I was her equal instead of her superior, though I was inevitably going to take over the company she worked for when I turned eighteen.

We soon arrived at the hotel Dave arranged for me to stay at until I was well enough to travel back to my mansion in New York. Wow, they certainly spared no expense when they were arranging this, I thought, staring at the five-star hotel towering above me. I no doubt had the most expensive suite on the top floor. I sighed as I exited the van, Lia at my side in case I stumbled. We checked in and rode the elevator to the top floor. My intuition proved to be spot-on at we walked down the hallway to the biggest room in the hotel.

“Daniel and I are going to be in the room right across the hall, Evangelia will be staying with you,” Dave told me. I nodded in agreement as she opened the door. She and I entered the suite, which definitely lived up to its name. It was one of the nicest hotel rooms I had been in, and considering that I had been in a heck of a lot of hotel rooms, that’s saying something.

Someone had already dropped off our luggage in our rooms. Someone (probably Lia) from Cooper Company had been nice enough to pack me at least a week’s worth of clothing from my mansion. I didn’t even bother to unpack, and headed straight for what I assumed was my bedroom. I laid down on the extremely fancy king sized bed, and didn’t get up for the next three hours.

——-

Two days later, I was still lazing around the hotel room. I didn’t even bother leaving, I just had room service bring me all of my food. I could tell that Lia was a bit worried for me, but she said nothing. I snickered. I had been even more selectively social before the… accident.

Right as I was about to start another episode of Hawaii Five-0, Danny burst into the room, yelling, “Lia! Savannah!” I peeled myself from the couch I had been attempting to become one with, and sat up.

“What’s going on?” I asked, getting slightly concerned at the worrying tone in his voice.

“There’s a bunch of guys with guns downstairs in the lobby! They’re saying that if, and I quote, ‘Savannah Cooper doesn’t give herself up, a lot of innocent people are gonna suffer.’”

My blood turned to ice, before melting into a burning rage towards whoever dared to do this. I stood immediately and marched towards the door, pushing past Danny without a word.

“Hey- where are you going?” Lia called.

“Where do you think?” I was in “no bullcrap” mode. I refused to be the reason why the people down there might die.

“Oh heck no, I’m coming with you,” Lia said with determination.

“Lia…”

“No complaining. If you’re going, then I’m coming too.”

“Lia, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking me anything, I wanna. Someone has to keep you out of trouble, heh.”

I gave a weak smile. “Okay, fine, but stay behind me, I’ve taken martial arts.”

She nodded. “You coming Danny?” Lia called to her twin brother as I started down the hallway.

“Yeah.” All three of us headed towards the elevator. I pressed the main floor button and waited. “So… what’s the plan?” Danny asked. Crap. I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.

“Uh… I dunno.”

“Okay. Savannah, you take the ones on the right. Danny, the left, I got the middle.” We both looked to Lia. “Or not. Okay.”

“This isn’t a videogame E, let’s try talking first.”

Lia crossed her arms and mumbled, “Stupid democracy…”

I rolled my eyes dismissively. To my surprise, Lia pulled a kubotan from her pocket. Yes, I know what those are. I have a couple back at the mansion, along with a tactical pen that I kept on my at all times. Sadly however, it had disappeared when I got to the hospital a week ago. I was still pretty pissed about that.

Before I had any time to think up some kind of plan (which, in hindsight, was probably an idiotic idea), the elevator doors slid open. I instantly caught sight of the half-dozen or so men that were holding tactical-looking rifles to innocent bystanders’ heads. They were all clothed in what looked like modified red and black SWAT gear, complete with helmets and everything.  At least half of them swiveled their firearms towards us, prompting us to automatically raise our hands above our heads. Well frick. Gosh dang it Savannah, what did you think was going to happen? That they were going to put down their weapons at the mere sight of you and be like, “Oh well yeah I guess we surrender because you say so sorry girl”? I resisted the urge to shake my head at myself.

“Savannah! How nice of you to join us!” I heard someone call to me. The man (whom I assumed was the leader) approached me, a pistol in his hand. He cocked back the hammer and held the muzzle to a young intern’s head. She whimpered, and I could visibly see her shaking. I clenched my fists in an effort not to sprint over there and crescent kick that Kimber right out of his hand, right after back fisting him in his stupid masked face. “Now, I’m assuming that I don’t need to explain to you how this is gonna go down. Come with me, or the girl dies.” I bit back a harsh response. I didn’t want to make a bad situation worse. My mind whirled. As far as I could tell however, there was only one course of action I could take. I had to go with the man. I knew it was probably a stupid decision, but I couldn’t just let the girl die. There was no way that I was going to let her death, or anyone’s death for that matter, be on my head.

“Hey hey hey, I’ll go with you, okay? Let her go. Along with everyone else.” I could almost see the man raise an eyebrow. “Or else I’m not gonna come.” Wow, good negotiation skills there Sav. Just wonderful.

“Head to the truck.” The men obeyed their leader without a word, shouldering their guns and leaving immediately. If there was any doubt that this man was their leader, that thought had been squashed. I breathed a sigh of relief that I hoped wasn’t visible. That thirty second encounter had been more stressful than I’d like to admit. The man raised his Kimber to point at me though; that did nothing to help my ever-growing anxiety about the situation. “Now come on dear, don’t want to keep the others waiting,” he said with a sneer. I returned it as I slowly walked towards the man.

“Savannah, what are you doing?!” Danny whispered to me harshly.

I ignored him. The man led me out of the hotel and to a very conspicuous-looking black and red van that was sitting outside of the hotel. He shoved me into the back with five other men, before slamming the door shut. I heard the passenger door open and close. Soon after, the van started driving. One of the men slapped handcuffs onto my wrists before I could react. I narrowed my eyes at him, though on the inside I was panicking. I desperately hoped they didn’t try to make a move on me or something. Curse my dirty mind (Excuse me, sexy imagination)!

I kind of just sat on the floor of the van until it rolled to a stop. “What’s going on?” I asked. One of the men raised the butt of his rifle above my head.

“Say goodnight,” he said.

“Oh, don’t you freaking da-” He struck my head,  and I was out like a light.

——-

I awoke with a killer headache. I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. Harsh lights shone into my face, prompting me to squint. When my eyes finally adjusted, I discovered that I was in some sort of abandoned warehouse. Panic started to rise in my chest. I looked down and discovered that I was laying on a table, with my arms and legs in some sort of metal restraints, keeping me straight on the table. What would happen if I got an itch? Gosh dang it Sav, now was not the time! I had been freaking kidnapped! I needed to find a way out of here, before I was used in some sort of experiment or something.

Before I could think of anything however, the leader walked in via a door I hadn’t notice before. “Good, you’re up,” he said in a way that seemed somehow menacing. That got me worried about how long I had been out for.

“What do you want with me?” I asked immediately, trying my best not to sound scared. I couldn’t really tell if I had succeeded or not.

“Oh, you naïve girl, you haven’t figured it out by now? I want your Lumen energy.”

“My… what? Huh?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, child. I know you’re part Luminarian. I was planning on using your father for my plans, but it turns out that my ‘underlings’ placed the bomb in the wrong place. I quite like that word, underlings…”

“Woah woah woah, back up. You planted a bomb on my car?!” I was flabbergasted. It hadn’t been a mechanical failure like I was led to believe. This man, whoever he was, had purposely tried to kill my entire family. The only thing that made me even more angry at the situation was that he succeeded. “You… you bastard!” I screamed, tugging at the restraints with incredible force. Rage had encompassed my entire being. I actually wanted to kill this man, and that scared me. I had never felt anger like this before.

“Woah, language,” the man said with a cocky smile. I growled at him – yes, growled – and jerked in the restraints one last time.

“Shut your stupid mouth,” I retorted. “You don’t get to say anything to me, you murderer.” I spat out the word like it was poison. He just chuckled, which infuriated me even more.

“Well well, that’s quite a mouth you’ve got there young lady. You might want to watch your tone.” He slid up his visor, which allowed me to see his face. “You’re talking to the face of Owen Incorporations, after all.”

“Adam Owen?!” Adam Owen owned one of the biggest technology companies, just slightly behind Cooper Company. They had always been rivals, but it was just friendly competition up until now. He had actually murdered his competitor. “Owen, what the frick?! Why…?”

“Why would I kill poor old Robert Cooper? Oh, you really have no idea, do you?”

“What? Does it have to do with the ‘Luminarian’ thing you mentioned earlier?” I asked.

“Yes, actually.” He strolled closer. I had an overwhelming urge to punch him in his idiotic face. “You see, your father wasn’t as human as he claimed or pretended to be. He came from the planet Lumina, and in turn produced lumen energy. When your mother had you, you inherited that same power. Although, I don’t know how powerful it is in you… That’s why I wanted your father, you see.” He sighed. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to make do with a half-Luminarian instead.” The words finally sunk in. I was half alien. I was half. Alien. I could almost feel the brain cells exploding at the statement.

“You… what?”

Owen laughed. It was actually full-blown laughter, not evil or menacing in the slightest. “Oh, oh ho ho, I knew you were going to be entertaining, but you expression!” He almost doubled over. “That is absolutely priceless!” His genuine amusement at my predicament fueled my ever-growing rage, but at the moment it was squashed by my desire to learn more about what he was telling me. If my dad was an alien, how did he meet my mom? How did he get to Earth? Had Carson been half Luminarian too? How did Owen know about all this? There were just too many questions and not enough answers. And how did I know Owen was telling the truth anyways? He might just be telling me lies to mess with my brain and make it easier to manipulate me. I took a deep breath. Whether he was telling the truth or not, it did nothing to help my immediate predicament. I still needed to figure a way out of… wherever this was.

Suddenly, yellow-greenish light erupted from my eyes and seemed to flow out of every pore I had. It felt like my very soul was trying to escape my body. I cried out, confused. After at least five seconds of this, it slowly faded. I breathed heavily. “What the…?”

“Ah, you’re starting to overload. I was wondering when this was going to happen.” Owen walked over to a nearby table and picked up a scary looking gun thing with lots of unnecessary spikes. He flipped a couple switches on it, causing it to whirr and whine. I got a distinct feeling of dread as he brought it over to me. “Do you know what this is?”

“Um… a Gaster Blaster?”

Owen ignored the comment and replied, “This is a Lumen Energy Extractor. LEE for short.”

I snorted. “Heh, LEE. Stupid name.” Again, Owen ignored me. It was starting to get annoying, he wasn’t reacting to any of my jokes!

“You won’t be laughing for long.” I rolled my eyes, but I knew I shouldn’t take him lightly. He had killed my entire family, after all. Owen pressed a button on the side of the device. It started whirring even louder now. I resisted the urge to wince away from the  device. It wasn’t like I could go far anyway.

“So what happens when I overload, might I ask, since you seem to know so much about me?” I asked. I was genuinely curious.

“You blow up. But anyway, you aren’t in danger.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

“Because I’m going to suck all of that Lumen energy out of you right now.”

The machine finally turned on, the spikes swirling. I suddenly felt that awful feeling again, like my very being wanted to escape this puny flesh prison of mine. I screamed. It felt like all my energy was getting ripped from my body, slowly and (extremely) painfully. My vision started to get spotty, though I couldn’t really tell through all the Lumen energy that was warping around everywhere. I felt like I was going to pass out anytime now. Suddenly, all the windows in the building broke open, and men and women in blue and white uniforms and armor streamed into the room. Leading them all, was Lia and Danny. Lia shot a beam of… something, at Owen via a small laser pistol thing, and he collapsed to the floor. Danny instantly ran over to me and pulled out something akin to a miniature laser cutter, getting to work on relieving me of my chains.

“Are we interrupting something?” Lia asked rhetorically. “Remind me to thank Carmen for the Lumen energy tracker, bro,” she said offhandedly, turning to her brother. I couldn’t help but notice that even though Lia and Danny were only in their early twenties, they seemed to be commanding soldiers that were sometimes twice their age.

            Why am I always falling unconscious? was my last thought, before doing just that.