2-23

“Head here instead.” Amber said through her helmet.

The little arrow flicked in a different direction and Victoria Cristal slow to a stop as she was flying through the sky, “What happened to the last place?”

“I sent Suneya there.” Victoria cringed and suddenly felt sorry for those people, “follow the arrow, it will lead you to an oil platform that is currently on fire.”

Victoria felt a spike of alarm shoot down her spine and she took off. Everything got quiet as she hit the sound barrier and pushed through it. She slipped through the clouds and knew a giant hole would rip through them soon. Thrusting her fist out in front of her she picked up speed and started to follow the curve of the planet. The arrow started to curve downwards and she followed it.

She soon came upon the oil platform Amber pointed her at. It was in the middle of the ocean with a few boats around it. It looked like an office building on stilts with roiling black smoke floating from it. Victoria swooped low and skimmed the waves while slowing down. She came from the bottom of the oil platform, following a ladder up and passing a worker in an orange suit as he was climbing down to a boat below.

Landing inside the platform she marched ahead into the hallways of the platform. She poked her head into one room, saw it was empty, then continued onto the next one. Victoria thought most of the people had evacuated, she was just checking all the rooms to make sure. Victoria stopped in front of a bulkhead door, one of those doors on ships with the wheel. She wrapped her hands on the wheel and could feel the heat through her gloves. Giving it a good twist, she heard metal lurch then the wheel snapped off.

She flipped it around and looked down at where it connected to the door, the bolt was cheery red. Dropping it she looked at the seams and with a little wiggling she dug her fingers into them. Pulling her hands together and the door collapsed inward. She gave it a jerk and the door snapped off its hinges and with it came all the heat. It reminded her of when her brothers would take a steel bucket of used motor oil and boil it on a fire before throwing it into the flames.

She dropped the door and looked ahead, the whole place was covered in flames with dark smoke. She lifted off the ground and floated through the flames and down a set of stairs into a room on one of the stilts. Tucked in a corner was a guy in orange with a wet towel over his face, he was taking short quick breathes. Victoria floated close to him and knelt by him. She reached back, grabbing her cape and lifting it, shielding him from what she did next.

She pulled her arm back then speared it into the wall next to them. She made a curved motion then pulled the flap into the room with them, it looked like the flap on a soda can. Fresh air flowed through, feeding the fire above them and letting the guy breathe. She reached over, feeling the heat climbing across her back, and scooped him up then rolled through the opening.

She caught herself about ten feet down and floated down to the one boat that had a giant red plus on the top of it. People scrambled around as she got close and she laid the guy on a stretcher before turning and flying back into the oil platform. She landed inside and went back to checking all the rooms.

When she got closer to the top she heard people yelling so she sped up her search. She found them trying to fight fire in a hallway with a fire extinguisher, getting past would allow them to get to the helicopter waiting on the pad. She grabbed one of the extinguishers that they were passing up and took a few steps into the blaze of flames. Flipping the extinguisher upside down she closed her fingers around the bottom of it. A quick squeeze, twist and pull, the chemical mixture in the extinguisher exploded from the bottom. The fires she was standing in went out as the hallway was covered in white cold powder.

The people that were fighting the fire charged past her to the helicopter. They climbed in and started it up as she floated out of the oil platform to make sure they got away safely. Its blades spun up and the helicopter lifted before flying away from the platform. Victoria flew up and glanced back at the platform, “Should I put the fire out?”

Boats were pulling away from the platform and Victoria could feel the heat from where she was hovering. It was slowly getting warmer as she waited for Amber to reply. “No. Leave it.”

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“Why? I could put it out easily.”

“No. this platform is an illegal drilling operation. They people who own it will get fined quite a bit and the government about twenty miles to the west will end up pushing for greener energy.”

Victoria shook her head then turned and started to fly away. “Dont you own electric car companies?”

“Quite a few. They compete with each other and I push the engineer teams in the right direction when I visit. The push for green energy will happen and electric cars will help clean up the air.”

Victoria paused in her flight when she noticed the arrow hadnt updated, “So.. what's next?”

Amber answered after a few minutes, “Nothing.”

Victoria wasn't expecting that, “We are done for the day?”

“No. We are done for quite some time. I might send you out on emergency rescue missions or the like but the world is slowly settling back down.” Amber replied.

“Oh…”

Victoria looked down at her suit, this one was different from the one she had started out with. When Amber had realized what she was wearing she made Victoria take it off. Amber wasn't angry, she was grossed out. Those suits were designed for OwlBots that didn't sweat and have to use the bathroom. The next morning Amber had handed her a brand new suit, on the outside it looked exactly the same the internals were different. It let her skin breathe. Sweat no longer pooled in her boots or at her belly.

She heard a chip in her ear and Amber spoke again, “Do you want me to teleport you back to the lab or do you want to fly there?”

Victoria looked up to the sky and sighed, “I guess I will fly there.”

The arrow appeared and Victoria lifted her hand and grabbed it, moving it to the side. She started flying upwards and just didn't stop this time. She passed through the clouds and didnt stop or turn. The little arrow flipped direction a few times then just pointed in a general direction. She few higher and saw the curve on the horizon and kept going. The air thinned out then disappeared, Victoria barely noticed. She kept flying away from the planet and when she finally decided to flip around the planet was about the size of a beach ball.

She hovered there and just stared at it. With Amber back on the planet and everything slowly calming down Victoria was starting to feel it. She had felt like she was carrying the whole world on her shoulders as she ran around and helped people. She didn't know how Amber handled it. It felt completely different from reading it in the comics.

Victoria floated in space for quite some time just staring at the planet. She could see all the cities, and mountains of the two continents. It wasn't her home planet but it was still beautiful. She felt a small pang of loss knowing she would never see her family again but shoved it to the side. Her brothers would be ecstatic at her powers and her parents would be proud of how she was using them.

A flex and she started flying back to the planet, following the little arrow. She went slow when she broke the atmosphere, not wanting to land as a giant bass of fire. Victoria took her time flying down to the lab, She enjoyed her time out flying and was having thoughts about getting her own place somewhere on the planet.

She passed through the opening into the area where Amber grew her plants. There was an OwlBot there waiting for her as she landed. Victoria reached up and pulled off her helmet, the OwlBot took it when she passed it over. Victoria headed for her room with the bot following her. When she got there she pulled off her suit, passing it to the OwlBot for washing. It walked away from her and she headed for her own showers.

Stepping out of her shower, she pulled on some clothes and some slippers then headed to the kitchen for something to eat. Lahrya was there, working on her tablet and eating what Amber was serving today. Victoria got herself a plate, it turns out to be some kind of chicken soup with really thin noodles. She turned and walked over to Lahrya and took a seat at the same table ask her.

Victoria had read about Lahrya in the comics. She generally tended to be very curious in the comics with the writers throwing out hints of her turning bad in the future. There were twenty different comics of her, lots or retcons and a few versions of Lahrya that came form the future to conquer the universe. Victoria thought she was just an alien space babe used to bait new people in to read the series. Her older brothers loved the series, mono gender species of aliens with boobs sells comics. who would have known, “Hello Lahrya. How are you enjoying your time on the planet?”

“It is a little warm but you have quite the variety of food. I don't think I have seen any of the same ingredients in any of the dishes I have tried on this planet yet.” Lahrya answered.

“That is probably because Amber is making them. We have specialty stores that sell the same thing. Most of the people on the planet find what they like and stick to it.”

“Amber has access to all the food ingredients on this planet?” She asked.

“Amber has probably gotten some of your dna and broken it down so she knows what is healthy for you. The food you are eating is probably laid out to help you acclimate to the food on our planet.” Victoria took a spoonful of her soup and swallowed, “this soup is not as flavorful as what is usually served here.”

“Do you work for Owl? Is Amber her real name or is it Owl?” Lahrya asked between bites.

Victoria sighed and swirled her spoon in her soup, “No. I don't work for her. I just help her with some things. Amber is the name her birth parents gave her and Owl is the name she took.”

“What about Suneya? Has she taken a name? We have titles for people on our planet that have mastered life essence manipulation to her level.”

Victoria felt a flush of doubt at that. She didn't think anyone was near Suneya's level. Some of the comics she had read where Suneya had to fight things close to her level always stalled out with her giving a shrug and saying her opponent was pretty good, “No. Suneya hasn't taken a name. People who use chi on the planet are kind of hidden. I am sure she will eventually pick up a title eventually.”

The conversation switched to random topics from there. They finished eating and cleaned up then went on their ways. Victoria was happy that the world had finally calmed down.