Five minutes. That's how much time Nicholas Santiago had left to reach his English class; his first class of the day. He was sprinting down the hallway, his sneakers squeaking rather audibly.

His heart pounded with anticipation. Any minute now, that bell would ring and he'd be late. He turned a corner and ran down the section of classrooms labeled with the numbers 20 to 29 and the letter A or B. His class was merely inches away.  Okay. 32A... 32A— oh, shit!

He attempted to skid to a halt and inadvertently slammed into a girl, knocking her down.

"Aw, man..." the girl groaned as her orientation packet spilled its contents onto the floor.

The 16 year old sophomore looked around and began helping the girl collect the papers that were scattered around them. "I'm so sorry. I was in a hurry to get to class and I didn't— wait... Raven?" He picked up the folder and noticed her name scrawled on top.

The girl looked up into Nick's brown eyes and smiled, the realization suddenly dawning on her. "Nick?" She gasped. "I don't understand. How are you here?"

"I go here now," he replied. "It's my first day. I was just trying to get to class." He unfolded his schedule. "Let's see... English 3/4 with Ms. Peterson."

"32A?" Raven pointed at the classroom number posted near the door. "That's gotta be a coincidence. I'm in this class too."

Nick slowly got up and helped the girl to her feet as she stumbled into his arms. "You sure you're okay?" He asked. "You seem pretty banged up."

"I'm okay. Promise," she nodded. "Shall we?"

The two sophomores walked into class together, and sat down at a table close to the window that overlooked the parking lot. Soon after sitting, Nick got up to talk to the teacher.

"Ms. Peterson, I thought you were back at Headquarters," Nick whispered, getting closer to the teacher so no one could hear their conversation.

"We've got bigger problems, kid. We've got a Bravo-Juliet in progress. They might show up any minute now. They're not only after us, but one of your classmates too," Peterson replied. Her gaze diverted towards Raven in the second row.

The 16 year old girl studied the black-haired boy closely, but then she noticed the teacher and the boy studying her back. She quickly turned away to talk to her best friend Melissa, who was seated adjacent to her table.

"What does Raven have to do with it?" Nick asked while looking at the girl, then back at Peterson. "You don't think she knows about the files, do you?"

"I'll talk to you about this later. I've gotta start teaching," Peterson interjected before ushering Nick back to his seat.

The boy sat back down and unzipped his jacket halfway. He was dressed in a gray t-shirt under a sleek black jacket, faded denim jeans, and a pair of black and yellow sneakers.

Raven turned back over to Nick. "Hey, I know you told me this before, but what school did you transfer from again?" She asked.

"I transferred from Norview High School," he replied. "It was... okay, I guess."

"You didn't really like it much, did you?" She chuckled.

The boy laughed. "No, it's not that I didn't like the school. My freshman year was pretty fun, actually. It's just the bus ride going to and coming home from it. I wanted to attend a school that was in the neighborhood."

Raven nodded. "Yeah, I get what you mean."

7:15 am.

The morning bell rang as Peterson left her desk. "Okay! So, welcome to English 3, 4! Here is the syllabus for the class. I expect that you'll return it signed by your parents and/or guardian as soon as possible," she said, handing each student a syllabus.

As the teacher walked around, the students eagerly chatted about their summer adventures.

"So, how was your vacation?" Nick asked, looking at Raven.

"It was awesome. I went to Salem with my aunt over break," she replied, grinning. "Got to check out some of the cool historical sites. It was weird, though. Kept running into this one tattoo artist with purple eyes."

"Purple eyes?" Nick repeated.

Raven nodded. "Mhmm. She freaked me out a bit, but she was pretty cool. Saved me from a group of ghost creature thingamajigs."

Nick whistled. "Did you get her name?"

"I... no. Honestly, I don't think I ever asked for her name." Raven sighed. "Oh, wait. Yes, I did. She told me her name was Nyx. I didn't catch her last name, though."

"Lucky," Nick replied. "I didn't go anywhere with my uncle." He smiled and looked out the window as a black armored van pulled into one of the parking spaces. His smile quickly faded into a look of fear. On all the days of the week, you had to choose the first day of school? He thought before looking at Raven.

Raven curiously glanced out the window and saw five men all clothed in black exit the vehicle. Fuck. They found me. I need to get out of—

"Hey, pay attention, please. Stop looking out the window," Ms. Peterson said, looking at Nick and Raven.

"Sorry," they said in unison. Nick sighed and looked at his Apple Watch that was synced up to his iPhone. He pressed the on/off button and put the device into sleep mode while Raven kept looking out the window, a worried expression on her face.

The men had disappeared, going into the building.

"Ms. Gonzales! Pay attention, please! What is so important about the parking-" Ms. Peterson stopped her sentence once she realized what was outside. She then turned her attention towards the clock on the wall. "Okay, um... Everyone, please take a look at the syllabus I just handed you-"

The door suddenly burst open as the 5 men dressed in black charged into the room, quickly locating Nick and Raven, who had frozen in shock.

The pair inadvertently grabbed each other's hand. Nick looked over and gave Raven's hand a light squeeze in an effort to let her know that he was okay. Raven retaliated with her own squeeze and let go.

The other students started panicking and quickly got under their desks.

One of the five walked up to the two students. "At last..." he said in a heavily distorted voice that would make James Earl Jones proud. "We've found you." The man pulled out a pistol and aimed it straight at the girl. "Now... You're gonna tell us where they are. Or else we'll force you to tell us."

The teacher looked over at Nick and then motioned towards the gunman's arm, as if to say, "Grab it quickly."

Nick silently shook his head in reply and quickly tapped a distress signal on his watch in Morse Code.

One of the other henchmen holding a knife noticed this and aimed the weapon at him. "Seems a bit too late to be calling your boys for backup, isn't it, Santiago?" He laughed softly and grabbed Raven by the wrist forcefully, ushering her out of the seat as another man opened the door. "If any of you brats attempt to aid her in escaping... She goes kaput."

Raven kicked and scratched, attempting to make a run for it, but then the other two men grabbed her other arm and legs respectively while leading her out to the parking lot. "What do you guys want from me?" She asked, cautiously eyeing the gun.

"Keep quiet, you lil shit..." The lead gang member commanded, putting a piece of tape over her mouth.

Nick glanced back and forth between the van and his teacher. "Ms. Peterson..." He said, eyes pleading.

She sighed, and reluctantly let him "go home early", watching as he sprinted out the door towards the school's main entrance.

He slipped on a Bluetooth earpiece and turned it on. "We've got a code Romeo-Echo-Sierra-Charlie-Umbrella-Echo in progress," he said.

"You comfortable back there, Gonzales?" another gang member asked while looking at the girl. She was now bound and gagged in the back seat. "Alright, guys. Let's head- oh shit, we gotta go now. Drive!!" The van's tires emitted a loud screech and started heading towards the parking lot exit. The lead agent then forcefully shoved a cloth rag dabbed in chloroform onto to the helpless girl's face until she was rendered unconscious.

Nick sprinted even faster, nearly tripping over his own feet, but somehow managed to mount a tracking device on the back door of the van before it could drive away. He skidded to a halt and turned on his Apple Watch. "I need back up right now, guys," he said.

10 minutes had passed as a dark grey van bearing a gold badge with a black phoenix emblazoned in the middle skidded to a halt in the parking lot.

Nick quickly got in the van and climbed in the back seat while the van sped out of the parking lot and made its way onto the freeway. "What took you so long?" He asked.

"We just got back from another mission," his partner, Samantha, replied. "Who are we saving?"

"Raven. She got kidnapped by Blackjack's thugs." Nick hastily put on a black and grey jumpsuit which bore a similar design to the pendants that he had been wearing. On his belt were several gadgets: a tracer, a pack of smoke bombs, and a pair of silver and black polycarbonate escrima sticks. He completed the look by donning a black and silver neoprene tactical helmet with a tinted visor, similar to the ones used by people that play paintball. However, this one was also equipped with a vocal modulator.

"You put a tracer on the vehicle, right?" Another comrade named Jet asked.

"Yeah, but I had to throw it on their trunk door. Hopefully it's still there."

"Alright. GPS activated. Let's see where they hid your little girlfriend," Jet joked.

Nick sighed. "Dude, she's not— never mind."

The overhead GPS displayed her current location: a UCI Warehouse on West 21st street in Granby.

Meanwhile, the trio of gang members forced a still unconscious Raven into a folding chair and tied her hands behind her back before nodding to each other.