As she crawled out from under the couch she caught a glimpse of the beefy man as he left. It appeared he was hired for brawn, not brains, lucky for them.

She tossed Brandon her knife. While he was severing his bonds, the girl crept up to her deserted room, grabbing her emergency messenger bag. Who knew I would need it so soon? She wondered. She tossed a few things out, making room for the kitten, then snuck back down. Brandon had completely freed himself, and looked questioningly at her when the blue haired woman stuffed the calico in her bag. She ignored it, and motioned for him to follow her. He did, but everyone knew she was the Gryffindor of the group. He looked threatening enough, but they all knew he was a big geeky baby at heart. As they ran outside, the first thing she noticed was that it was raining. Hard. She laughed joyfully and looked up; stormy with a chance of getting fried by lightning was her idea of the best weather ever. Then she turned around, grin only expanding. Brandon was a sunny person. He despised this. So, naturally, she splashed water in his face.

"Suck it up, Brandy, this is perfect!"

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them he was glaring at her.

"Oops," she said, and started running, knowing perfectly well that Brandon could catch up easily, and he did, 'accidentally' splashing her in the process.

Then she frowned, remembering.

"Brandon?"

"Lena?"

"What exactly happened back there?" she asked, switching back into serious mode.

"We were attacked."

Lena rolled her eyes. As if she hadn't been able to figure that part out for herself.

"By who? When? How'd they overpower us? And how did I end up on the beach?" she asked all in one breath.

"That's a lot of questions that I don't know the answers to."

"Try."

"I've got no clue who attacked us, other than the fact that they're rich and influential. "

"Keep going."

"We were attacked around two hours ago, they had plenty of thugs, and seemed to know some things about us."

"And me on the beach?"

He stopped, and turned to face her.

"Lena, you've been missing for over two months."

The girl took a step back.

"You told us you were going out for a walk. You know, for your ten thousand steps thing."

He looked at her right wrist. The fitbit charge was long gone.

Lena realized the implications of his words, and tore off her shoe and sock. There was a fresh little scar right around where the chip should've been.

"How do they know these things? Who are they?"

"I'm hoping my 'supergeek powers' will let me find out."

"Well, they probably think I'm dead, and there's a computer at my house. We're going to Colorado."

Her kitten popped out of her bag and curled around her neck. Brandon ignored him.

"You mean..." he trailed off with an evil glint in his eye, rather delighted after all the stories he had heard about her.

"Yes. We are going to say hello to my mother."