The world is ending. This is the conclusion all Ashlyn’s blindingly difficult research had brought to her. It made sense, if the world is ending why populate it, and all that stuff about respect and love; they’re all just scared about the big G.O.D. sending them right on down to Hell.
She sighed involuntarily. Nothing made sense anymore. She longed to trick her Advi into letting her go for a walk with the intent of never returning. This was always tempting and tonight it seemed inevitable, until the half naked guy came bursting through her bedroom window.

Her Advi immediately sounded an alarm that shrieked almost as loudly as she did. In approximately three seconds the guy had covered her mouth with his hand and hacked the Advi’s stream, changing it into a disregard.
“I am going to let go now, do not scream,” he said. She took a welcome breath of air before fiercely whispering, “What the hell is going on!”
“You’ve been selected to join the resistance,” was all he’d say. She was still unsure whether this was a trap or not so she didn’t say anything.
“We have to jump out the window, I have a hover disc waiting at the bottom,” was his brilliant response to the silence.
“And if I refuse?” she asked faking bravado.
“Look,” he gave an exasperated look. “It doesn’t make a difference to me whether you come or not,” his tone made this very clear. “Benny seems to think you have promise, so you can either come with me or stick around here to see what happens.”
A group of angry looking men burst through her bedroom door at that exact moment.
“I’ll go with you!” she said as she jumped fearlessly through her window, dragging him along with her.
The world seemed to melt away. It was just her and super freaky ninja dude suspended in midair for several agonizingly long seconds before they entered the range of the hover disc which slowed their momentum just before they touched its surface.
Super freaky ninja dude didn’t miss a beat.
“Come on!” he yelled, holding out his hand as he expanded the surface area of the disc. She expertly hopped up on to the balancing platform and assumed a position that allowed her to evenly distribute her weight on the disc. Muscle memory was a powerful thing. She was ready to race this thing on out of there just as she had when she was a little girl trying to out race the coolest boys in school.
The dude was struggling a bit with the jammed controls. The pack of scary looking men was gaining. Finally she just pushed him away forcefully and rigged the control panel herself.
“Where to,” she said rising into the air confidently.
“Phoenix,” he replied looking impressed.
She set the standard navigation carefully so that it couldn’t be traced, and then popped the speed cap. She took a longer and more complicated path to see to it that they weren’t followed, but they still arrived in Phoenix about an hour later.
“Am I trustworthy enough to know exactly where we’re going yet, or do you want to take over the controls?” she asked with a smirk.
“Keep going west until you reach 35th and Greenway,” he said reluctantly, obviously jealous of her awesome navigational abilities.

She kept west and followed his directions until he had led her to what appeared to be a deserted nightclub. The ancient building looked like a termite buffet and the pink stucco surface was really unattractive.

“So, this is your headquarters?” she inquired

“Why, yes it is,” he said in an attempt to match her condescending tone.

“Well, in that case you might want to consider putting some clothes on before you go greet your boss,” she told him. He looked down as if he was just now realizing he was wearing nothing but ratty shorts.

“That,” he said “Might not be such a bad idea.”

“See, I don’t even know what this is and I’m already proving myself useful,” she said with a wicked grin splayed across her face.

Super wannabe ninja dude laughed despite himself. “I'm Kyle by the way,”

“Ashlyn,” she felt way to formal. So, of course she had to counter with, “So is there a particular reason you kidnapped me?”

“Yes, actually.” He gave her a spry glance
“And you would have known that already if you’d quit asking questions and go in.” he said with a look that was just shy of dignified.
She rolled her eyes. She wasn’t quite sure what this was and she was a bit nervous, but mostly she was excited, excited because she was free, because she was wanted, and most of all because she was finally getting somewhere.