Hero

Ava was halfway down the road, when her car began announcing she had a phone call. "Speakerphone," Ava answered as T.J. and Mijhan gave her a weird look.

"Where the hell are you?" a males voice asked.

"What do you mean 'where am I?' I'm driving to register at the courthouse, Jason," Ava answered, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, as she stopped at a stop sign.

"You have a meeting to be at, Ava," Jason replied, in an annoyed voice as voices in the background began to get louder. "Hey, keep it down back there," Jasons muffled voice came through the speaker. "How much longer?" Jason finished.

"Couple minutes," Ava replied, turning onto a highway.

"See you then," Jason hung up the phone.

"Well, that was weird," Ava muttered to herself. "We need to make a pit stop," Ava announced to Mijhan and T.J. "It should only take a couple minutes."

"What kind of pit stop?" T.J. asked, warily.

"There's a meeting at the Underground and apparently it's mandatory I'm there," Ava rolled her eyes.

"What were you just talking on?" Mijhan asked, leaning towards the front of the car.

"A speakerphone, built into the car," Ava explained, fishing her phone out of her pocket, and handing it to Mijhan. "My phone hooks up wirelessly to the car so I can take phone calls on it. Do you have anything similar to that where you come from?"

Mijhan shook her head no as she examined the phone. "We just use flare signals to alert of attacks,"

"So your towns aren't too far apart," Ava confirmed, glancing into the rearview mirror to look at Mijhan.

"Right, only a few minutes from each other," Mijhan answered, as T.J. yelled at her for giving away too much information again.

Ava laughed a little, "No worries, T.J., there'd be no way we could get to your planet. We can barely get to our own moon," a couple seconds later Ava pulled into a parking garage. "Okay," Ava turned the car off. "You two can either stay in the car or come in with me,"

"Come with you," T.J. answered, as Mijhan nodded in agreeance.

"Alright," Ava smiled a little. Just make sure you keep up and don't say anything until we're inside. Understand/" Ava watched T.J. and Mijhans' expressions, before stepping out of the car.

"This way," Ava nodded to her right, and walked towards a stairwell in the garage, then started to walk up the steps. After the fourth flight of stairs, Ava opened a door, and motioned for T.J. and Mijhan to go through. Ava looked up and down the flights before she also went through the door.

"The entrance is over here," Ava moved past a couple cars, only to stop short when she heard voices.

"Why-" Mijhan started, before Ava clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Damians men," Ava nodded towards the voices. "Stay low,"

Ava reached under the car they were in front of and grabbed a couple pebbles. She moved around T.J. and threw the rocks towards the upper level, making the voices stop all at once. "What was that?" a males voice asked, as guns cocked. A small group of men made their way towards the sound as Ava moved towards the wall and opened a window.

"Come on," Ava moved whispered, as she slunk through the small window and landed into a small room.

"You next, Mijhan," T.J. whispered as he helped his sister gather her dress to make it smaller. A couple seconds later, Mijhan dropped through.

"We're gonna have to get you some different clothes," Ava muttered as Mijhan regained her balance. T.J. joined them with news that the men were coming back, slightly agitated. Ava quickly replaced the dirty window.

"Where are we?" Mijhan asked,, looking around the room.

"This is the entrance to the Underground," Ava explained. "It's in a warehouse next to the garage." Ava groped at the wall attempting to find a flashlight, when a light protruded her peripheral vision, making her turn to look at the source. "What the?" she asked as she saw Mijhans hand was glowing.

"What?" Mijhan asked, thinking she had done something wrong, making her light falter.

"Nothing," Ava shook her head as she found the flashlight, turning it on. "It's just...I can't do that," Ava laughed a little waving her beam of light around.

" Oh," Mijhan let the light go out, to see the narrow stream of light, Ava was holding.

"It's okay," Ava replied, opening a door. "Let's go."

Ava led the way through a maze of wire walkways and stairs. "Somethings not right," Ava muttered, as she stared, ahead of her into an empty room.

"What's wrong/" T.J. asked, looking into the room.

"This is where we meet," Ava took a step into the room, turning the flashlight off, and flipped on a set of overhead lights. To see a horrific sight.

"Aaron!" Ava exclaimed in horror, upon seeing one of the youngest members strapped to a chair, his wrists slit open.

"A-Ava?" Aaron asked, his voice cracking.

"Hang on, let me get you out of the chair," Ava whispered, hurridly as she grabbed a pocket knife out of her pocket, and started to saw through the twine. She then ripped some of his shirt to stop the bleeding after freeing him.

"Ava," Aaron tried again, gasping as the light started to fade from his eyes.

"Stay with me, Aaron. We're gonna get you to a hospital," Ava's voice quavered as she saw how much blood was surrounding the chair he had previously been in.

"Is there anything we can do?" Mijhan asked, as she kneeled down next to her.

"Put pressure on his wrists, we need to stop the bleeding," Ava instructed as she looked towards the walls to see words painted in blood.

"Ava," Aaron rasped, bringing her attention back to him. "J-Jay," Aaron coughed some blood up, making him stop.

"What is it?" Ava asked, her tone softening.

"J-Jay-" Aaron stuttered again, his coughing becoming violent.

"Take you time," Ava touched his feverish head.

Aarons eyes went in and out of focus once more. "Jays," and with that Aaron breathed his last life out.

"Aaron?" Ava asked quietly, as T.J. came closer to them. "Aaron?" Ava asked a little louder, tears in her eyes, she shook his body a little, expecting him to wake up. "Aaron!" Ava ended up shouting, before letting her tears flow out, as she collapsed on the lifeless body of Aaron.

T.J. watched as Ava wept over Aaron, wondering what had happened. There were words on the wall, painted in what he assumed was the boys blood, "Disband you've been warned" the words said. T.J. was brought out of his thoughts as he felt Ava hugging him, in search of comfort. "Ava?" a voice echoed through the warehouse, as T.J. patted her back, awkwardly.

"Ava?" the voice called again, closer this time.

"Ava," T.J. whispered. "Ava, I think someone's calling for you,"

Ava lifted her tear drenched face as she listened for the sound. A few seconds later she heard her name called. "Jason," Ava called back, her voice catching in her throat.

A few seconds later a boy appeared in the door with wind tousled hair and short of breath from running. "Ava, there you are," the boy, Jason, sighed in relief. "I've been calling your phone but you haven't been answering,"

"Jason, m-my phones in my pocket," Ava reached for her phone only to find her chapstick. She wiped her eyes as she checked her other pocket to find her keys.

As Ava was searching her pockets T.J. glanced over at Mijhan who was looking Jason over. "Mijhan?" Ava finally asked, looking towards her. "What did you do with my phone?"

Mijhan quickly checked her dress for the concealed pockets, only to come up with the sack for her jewelry T.J. had given her the day before. "I must've left it in the car," Mijhan looked towards Ava and Jason. "I'm sorry,"

Ava gave Mijhan a small smile, "It's okay...but we should get out of here...I'm assuming Damians men did a sweep?" Ava looked towards Jason, who nodded.

"I'll send someone back for Aarons body," Jason whispered, as he ushered the three out of the warehouse.