By the time Amina and I reached our destination, there was already a battle going on. To get here, we had climbed down some steps-a lot of steps, actually. It seemed to all lead deeper underground, looking more like a cave than a basement full of more lab rooms-tables with scattered tools, chairs with cuff restraints, cabinets left cracked open-you get the idea. But the room we stumbled into was big. Like, two high-school gyms put together big. Yells, screams, shouts, and the sound of someone slamming into a wall echoed throughout the room. Multiple heroes had showed up, and I thought that might have meant that our teacher had called for more backup, which made me wonder just how bad this situation really was. Then I saw him. A flash of tan skin, a blur of brown hair, a glance of gray eyes. It was him. The villains from the news. Except...he didn't have the toddler with him. I scanned the room, trying to find the toddler, worried for the kid. What? He reminded me of William. Sue me. Then the villain's voice rang out, loud and dangerously calm, echoing around the room. "Ava, darling, come back to me. These pathetic heroes will all die, and it'll be because of you." Now that pissed me off. Using something like that against a toddler? Letting them think they were the cause of someone's death? That was damn well inhumane, probably beyond it, honestly. Amina placed a hand on my shoulder, but her grip was tighter than it would've been normally. She was pissed, too, it seemed. And I couldn't blame her. "You find Ava. I'll handle this motherfucker." I had never heard her cuss, so it took me by surprise and also amused me, but I ignored the urge to laugh. Instead, I nodded, wished her luck, and ran off, looking for the toddler.
