The Young Master in the Shadows

Watching Ren climb into the car Victor smiled as he started the engine then his phone rang… It was his mother, he could only sigh and answer as he shot the ready-to-attack Ren, an apologizing look, that stopped her in her tracks.

“Hi mom…” he said awkwardly.

“Victor! Why weren't you answering the phone this past week?” Elena asked immediately.

“Ah, sorry, I was busy doing some business. Some pervert who looked like me had ruined my reputation, so I had a lot of explaining to do!” he said with a sigh, ignoring Ren’s curious eyes.

“Your father has already told me! I almost had a heart attack when I saw that Video!” she sighed too. “I can’t believe such evil people exist!”

“Don’t worry mother, I will find that pervert and punish her… him thoroughly!”

“You don’t need to touch such a disgusting fellow, your father is already searching for him!”

“I know… Is there anything you want?”

“Of course there is! Why the hell are you marrying two girls at the same time? Don’t you have any shame?” she asked angrily, “Why the girls are not Lily and Mira?” she added.

“Family orders…” he sighed as if this was not his idea.

“Oh… Did you really have to announce it like that though? Couldn’t you do it secretly like your father?”

“Family orders too… I don’t know what those old guys in the elder’s council are thinking…” he lied.

“Damn it…” Elena cursed, as she had no power in the family.

“Don’t worry, Everything will be fine…” Victor suddenly said, reassuring his mother, “I will send you some invitation cards, be sure to give them to grandpa and my uncles and aunts!” he said.

“Do you really want to invite those?” she said, boldly calling her family ‘those’. Like some species of lowly insects.

“Yeah, we are family after all…” Victor said, “I will call you later tonight. Now, I am busy scamming…..No… Doing business...” he said before saying goodbye to his mother and hanging up.

…

Ren carefully watched as the handsome youth hung up his phone and then slowed the car down.

She was wondering at the moment if this guy was really a recruiter or not. He didn’t sound like a bad guy, except for that ‘Scamming’ world she might have misheard when he said goodbye to his mother…. She was not sure though.

She looked out of the window and realized something was wrong. She was so preoccupied eavesdropping on his conversation that she didn’t realize that they were now out of the city on a dirt road! When did that happen?

She quickly tensed up. This was definitely a bad guy! Could it be the one she had been searching for?

She had been investigating the circumstances of the disappearance of one of her friends for the last 8 months… It all started at that time when she followed her friend’s trail into an abandoned alleyway. There she was knocked unconscious by some evil guy and then thrown inside a car trunk. It just so happened that the blood trickling from her forehead seemed to have touched a strange wooden carving, causing her to gain her powers which she accidentally used to fry the car and the four bad men in it. She was in shock at first, she was even terrified of her own power and the look of burning people.

When she returned home, she didn’t tell her parents a thing and just hid in her room. It took her a few days to realize that she had superpowers like those superheroes!

Although she survived, she lost the only lead to finding her friend, so she decided to try to find her friend once again, and this time a bad man tried to assault her. She was sniffing around in some very shady places after all!

Having no other choice, she unleashed her wrath on that man. She didn’t mean to kill him, but he ended up as a mummy after taking only one of her attacks.

She ran away as she was terrified… she expected him to be hurt, but not like that.

She learned the truth the hard way. Cartoons didn’t tell the truth. No one can walk unharmed after suffering a lightning strike!

Feeling horrified, she decided to never use her power again, she didn’t want to be a murderer. She was very terrified of her own strength!

That’s when another one of her classmates disappeared. After some hesitation, she had to put on the cloak again to search for him! “With great power comes great responsibility!”, right?

So ever since that time, she had been investigating the kidnapping gangs around the city and seeking out the bad guys. She didn’t really have to actively do that, she only needed to stop being careful, those guys seemed to be seeking her on their own, especially in the past few weeks, it was like they were on steroids!

She nodded to herself as she felt the car slowly stop. The red-haired girl descended from the car and then walk away while cursing… Why was she leaving? Why was she cursing?

She turned to look at the handsome young man who looked at her with an evil smile then moments later he began to slowly turn into a demon.

Two long horns began to rise from his forehead and long sharp teeth began appearing in his mouth. His eyes were glowing red as he looked at her.

Damn it! This was a villain!

She was utterly terrified. Without thinking, she quickly tried to leave, but the door was locked! Damn it! She had no choice but to activate her power, zapping the thing with a bolt of thunder.

The loli attacked!

That thing howled in pain turning into smoke, but before Ren could sigh in relief, it reformed next to her, but it was somehow smaller.

The attack was not very effective!

She knew what she needed to do.

She zapped it again… the same thing happened. It grew even smaller!

She started to attack that thing again and again, with electricity, while directing some to the car’s door, intending to unlock the door.

The demon kept howling in pain as it tried to go near her, but the car was not affected. Ren didn’t know why though, she had no time to think as she focused on the demon.

She slowly began to feel tired, and her vision was getting blurry, but she kept attacking as the demon which was now furiously trying to snap her neck or bite her was only a few feet tall, jumping on the front seat… It took her another 15 Minutes of attacking before the damn thing was dead and she collapsed panting.

That’s when out of nowhere, she felt something touch her forehead. It was that young man who was standing next to her with the car door open!… Didn’t he just turn into a demon? She tried to zap him, but no electricity came out of her, in fact, she couldn’t move at all!

The loli was exhausted!

“Spare your energy!” He said, “Your mana is exhausted, and I have already locked your strength!” he said as he passed another talisman on her, just to make sure. Bad luck was in the air!

The loli had been paralyzed!

She was horrified, she wanted to fight back or at least curse at him, but soon she felt the world turn around her and she lost consciousness.

.

.

.

Gotcha! The loli was successfully captured!

Do you want to give her a nickname?

…

Victor sighed in relief after making sure that Ren was secured, just as a red car stopped next to him, it was Margret who was sent to ‘borrow’ a car. The black van was out of fuel, Victor made sure of that as he didn’t want anything to explode when that girl began shooting thunderbolts from her fingers… Although the car appeared undamaged, Every metal piece in it melted under the loli’s wrath, including the cheaply made engine.

“Let’s go!” Victor said as he carried the unconscious little girl softly in his arms.

“Where to?” Margret asked with some annoyance.

“To some very shady place where young boys and girls get scammed all the time!”

…

Ren woke up! She was tied to a wooden chair in an empty large room, and that handsome young man was sitting behind the wooden table that was in front of her. They were alone!

She immediately tried to break free and attack, but nothing happened, her powers were disabled. Did she lose her powers? No, she could still see the strange game menu in the corner of her vision, but she couldn’t attack!

“Save your strength!” the young man said, “Your powers are sealed!” he said.

She glared at him.

“Do you know why you are here?”

“Because you kidnapped me!” she stated.

“Not really… You are under arrest for violating the ‘state of secrecy’!” he said as he put his family token on the table in front of her with a thick document that had pictures of a burnt alleyway. She recognized this as the one she burnt with the bad guys two weeks ago.

“You are a police officer?” she asked as she began to sweet. “I did nothing!” She lied, she had killed no less than 41 bad guys during the last couple of months… It was not her fault, they kept throwing themselves at her!

“Not really… But in a way, I am scarier,“ he shook his head and then flicked his fingers making a small flame appear on the tips of his fingertips, making her squint her eyes.

“You are not the only one with superpowers you see… There are a lot more. I work for the guys who make sure that no one misuses their power… Think of it as super people’s police… But you can call us a management committee too!”

She didn’t understand. “Weren’t you a demon?” she asked.

“That was an illusion that I cast to exhaust your powers!” he said. “You see, there are a lot of people like you, who gain superpowers! Some of them are good, and some are bad. We don’t care, our job is to make sure that those people do not reveal a thing… And you committed a crime by using your powers to kill normal men!” he said. “Think of it as superhero Police!”

“Those men were evil! They were kidnapping children to cut them up!” she quickly began defending herself.

“That’s not the point, the point was someone saw you! We don’t care why and how, we only care about being discovered!” he explained, “Your crime is getting seen shooting thunder from your hands!” he said.

“Ah…..” she finally got it… “You are not angry about those men?”

“No, why would I?” he shrugged, “Now, if you didn’t use your powers, I would have let you go after some punishment, but since this case reached the police I have no choice but to proceed according to the protocol…” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked as she tried repeatedly to use her powers to no avail.

“You have two choices, he said slowly. You can either become my slave and work for me, or I would have to let you go…” he said, slashing his neck.

“Then let me go….” she didn't get it!

“I meant killing you, you idiot!” he scolded, making her gasp.

“You have five minutes to think this over!” he said as he relaxed in his seat.

“I will work for you, then…” she lied directly. She planned to betray him as soon as she was able to use her powers. This was thinking that this guy was as dumb as those villains in the comics.

“Good choice!” he said as he took another document that was placed at the side of the table. “Sign this. It is a servitude contract, from now on you will work for me!” he said. It was a system contract.

“Fine… she said, can you untie me first?”

“You can already use your hands…” he said while smiling, causing her to realize that her hands were truly free… weren’t they tied to the chair a moment ago? She quickly tried zapping the young man, but her powers didn’t work. Damn it!

“Sign or die!” he said coldly as he watched her make stupid movements.

“I don’t have a pen…” she said.

“Use your blood…” he replied as she felt a needle prick her finger… it began to bleed!

“Ouch…” she flinched as she looked around, but there was no needle… What happened just now?

“Sign it!” Victor said, pushing the contract forward.

Ren hesitated for a second then signed it. She had heard before that minors wouldn’t be held responsible for the contracts signed without their parents, so she didn’t really read it! She thought she was smart.

The moment the contract was signed, it suddenly shone with a strange light and then disappeared.

“What was that?” she asked in shock.

“A system-abiding contract of course. If you betray me now, you would die a very gruesome death, think of it like a contract with the devil!” he smiled evilly. "Now there are some things I would need to explain..."

“What?” Ren asked in shock as she felt the ropes around her come loose, she was free to move. Without waiting for a second, and totally ignoring the young man, she ran to the door… it was locked. She turned and tried to throw a thunderbolt at the young man and it worked, however, the thunder dissipated the moment it touched the young man, and from the depth of her soul she felt a pain she had never felt before….

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………” she screamed as she fell to the ground.

“That’s what happens when you attack your master!” the young man said coldly as the pain resided. “You are now mine!” he added as Ren sat up on the floor and began to breathe heavily.

"You..."

"Don't 'You' me! Call me young master!" he said as  she felt the pain attack again.

"Ahhh.....Please stop... young master..." she uttered with difficulty making the pain stop.

“You will be obedient from now on, right?” he asked as he watched her relax.

She quickly nodded. She never wanted to experience that pain ever again!

"Say it! Call me by my title!"

"Yes... Young master..." she really learned her place.

“Good, then follow me… I will drive you home…” he said as he opened the door, it was not locked!

Ren hesitated then followed him out. “I can go alone…” she didn't want him to know the location of her house.

"Idiot, I already know everything about you!" Victor scolded, “I need to speak to your parents about our contract!” he said, he also needed to explain a few things to her after all.

“My parents?”

“Yes, I will need to make them sign a few papers. They don’t know about your powers, do they?”

“No… I didn’t tell them,” she quickly explained. “Please don’t hurt them…”

“Don’t worry,” he said as he guided her through a long corridor toward a glass elevator. She finally realized that they were in a tall building.

“This place is Horizon media! It’s a media production company I own, from now on you will work as an Idol here! This would be your cover,” he explained.

“Cover?” she was shocked. Was the idol thing real after all?

“Yes, It would be a waste not to use a powerful player like you! But you are still too young, so you would need a cover to move freely!” He said, “You will be like a real superhero with a hidden identity! In the morning you will be a schoolgirl and a famous idol, and at night, you will be a secret agent!”