Spitfire pulled on her flight suit. This performance would be without use of their planes so she was happy to put on the… less than baggy uniform. She flipped her goggles onto her head just above her eyes and checked herself out in the mirror.

Her well-toned body still looked good. Why shouldn’t it though? She was still young and not even in her prime yet and was captain of the Wonderbolts.

She opened up the door and stepped out of the changing room. Soarin’ stood leaning against a pole back stage.

“Ready to go?” he asked, slipping his signature grin onto his face.

Spitfire slicked her hair back, giving it its signature windblown look, “Ready as I’ll ever be. I still can’t believe I’m letting you do this.”

“Hey, the manager’s the one who wanted to do this. It was my job to convince you to do this.”

“A coshow with Ike Frost? Why was it your job to convince me to go along with this?”

“The Wonderbolts helping the world’s greatest magician pull off one of the greatest tricks of all time? That’s gotta be a crowd drawer,” he leaned in, “That and I know how much you hate teleportation spells.”

Spitfire cringed, “It’s not that I hate them it’s that if they go wrong you can end up anywhere and anywhen.”

“Please Spits,” Soarin’ rolled his eyes, “All those problems have been resolved. Really, teleporting is the second best way to travel.”

“And what’s the first?” Spitfire asked already knowing the answer.

“Why flying of course!”

A man popped his head out from behind a curtain, “Hey! Are you all nearly ready? The crowd’s going wild and Frost is already done with his opening act.”

The rest of the Wonderbolts appeared. Fleetfoot, Rapidfire, Misty, Silver Lining, Blaze, Fire Streak, High Winds, and Wave Chill, Surprise, and Lightning Streak emerged from their changing rooms, clad in their flight suits. They stretched their wings as they prepared to take off.

Spitfire cracked her knuckles, “Ready?”

“As always,” her team mates called.

***

“Ladies and Gentlemen! We have a special treat for you tonight. The Wonderbolts will be teaming up with me tonight as we perform their latest trick, The Pent angular Starburst!”

The Wonderbolts emerged from behind their curtain into the light of the Cloudsdale Aerodome.

Spitfire looked towards the sky, “Soarin’ this weather doesn’t look good for this trick.” The sky was dark and stormy. Lightning flashed though the crowd didn’t seem to notice.

“Oh relax,” He said, “This isn’t the worst episode of bad weather we’ve been in. And we need the lightning for this trick to work correctly.”

“Maybe…”

“… And off they go!”

At their cue they took off into the sky. They formed a circle above the stadium and began to orbit each other. Fleetfoot and Rapidfire broke off from the formation and headed up into the sky. The others broke off into pairs and headed away from the Dome.

Soon they all reached their required heights and distances and began accelerating towards the stadium. Fleetfoot and Rapidfire began their dive. Nature did its part and arced a bolt down after them. They raced to stay ahead of it as it followed their path down. Meanwhile the other Wonderbolts were converging on the stadium. They were close now.

They all rushed in with black storm clouds forming behind them. Soon it looked like they were about to collide. Just as they were all about to hit, they activated Frost’s enchantment and jumped away just as the lightning struck.

It formed a pent angular shock wave of electric energy that arced out and up before shattering in a wave of electric diamond light. The Wonderbolts themselves were gone.

“And there we have it everybody,” Ike Frost said, taking a bow. Eleven Wonderbolts emerged from behind the curtain and took a bow. Eleven. One too short.

The crowd began to murmur and talk among themselves. The Wonderbolts were confused and began to wonder what went wrong.

Finally Blaze spoke, “Anyone know what happened to Spitfire?”

***

I stared out the window of my school. Gosh this math course is boring. Same thing over and over and over and over again. Oh boy, today we started calculus! Got anything else that’s actually, oh I don’t know, challenging?

Same thing with all my other summer classes. ‘Read War and Peace by May 28th. Project due on June 5th.’ Anything else? ‘Explain how the first fusion reactors were first developed. Summarize the reasons for the return of the KKK and later Race riots on Mars. Make a program that can get this robot to fly perfectly balanced without any lean.’

School is a waste of time. Fortunately my teachers give me some slack and let me sleep my first two blocks. I’m a sophomore in all AP classes and it’s not a hard as the guidance counselors said it was. I wish it was honestly. If anything it’s just as boring as my normal level classes. Hopefully I could take something actually challenging next year.

“Only a few more seconds,” Richard said.

“Yeah,” I responded, “I can’t wait to get my ass out of here. Finally these summer courses are winding down.”

“Oh yeah.”

“You doing golf next year??”

“Hell yeah. Can’t wait. We have any homework in early solar history?”

“Summarize the causes of the Martian race riots. Easy.”

“Easy? Dude that’s hard as hell!”

“Need help?” I grinned.

“Please!”

“Alright, I’ll meet you at the park at 2:00. Bring your book.”

“Why not just go there right now?”

“Ah Caitlyn wants me to finish that modern kung Fu course I’m taking.”

“She’s just worried about you. She is you sister and right now your legal guardian since your parents are one Earth or Mars. And after what happened last year, you should finish. PTSD isn’t something to fuck around with.”

“I don’t have PTSD. I’m fine. I just ran into some trouble down seven below. Believe me, there's a long list of things that would give me PTSD before that.”

“While that scar running down your face makes you look like a badass it certainly doesn’t say you’re fine. Neither does that burn on you hand,” Richard sighed.

“Geez you’re more worry some than Cat. Fine I’ll finish the course with flying colors.”

“Good.”

BEEP.

The bell rang and with that we were off on our own separate ways. I walked down the bustling hallways as people filed to their lockers or to their busses. I headed to the lobby and into the artificial light of New Alexandria.

Welcome to the future, Population 40 billion, Year 2412.

I walked down the street away from my prison. I stared up at the dome. It still filled me with a sense of wonder and awe at what humanity had accomplished. The Dome was a magnificent but not all uncommon piece of engineering. It was a giant geodesic structure that covered the city of New Alexandria.

All along its frame work were lights that provided an almost natural feel to the whole environment and gave a night to day transition when they were shut off for the night. In the center of the dome lies the city. Tall spires reach for the heavens only to be restricted by the Crystalline Plexiglas Windows. All around rested the suburbs and somewhere in them, my house.

Beyond the dome was the thin atmosphere that may as well be a vacuum as far as humans are concerned. The thin layer of gas that surrounds Jupiter’s moon Ganymede only functions as an emergency O2 reserve in the event the air recyclers fail.

Ganymede is only one of hundreds of inhabited locations in the Jupiter subsystem alone. Europa is one place where the industry of Ice mining has taken off. The large ring and cylinder shaped habitats orbit Jupiter in high orbits while smaller Gas mines dredge H3 from low orbits.

All of this happened around me day in and day out. I reached my house and walked in.

“Squirt? That you?” Cat yelled from the kitchen. Cat was an average sized girl who was anything but average. Captain of the Rugby team when she was in high school and later an ONI spook, she wasn’t the kind of person a robber wanted to have cornered in a dark alley.

“No I’m a crazed criminal who’s come to invade your home, who else has the key to the house?” I responded sarcastically.

“Ha Ha very funny. You driving to Kung Fu now?”

“Yeah I’m just going to change real quick then go. We still on for next week?”

“Yeah. Got the express flight to earth booked. Four days in Cryo beats a week and a half on a ship from here to Mars alone, let alone earth.”

“At least the Gs won’t kill us or the crew. Whole thing’s unmanned except for the Cryo tubes right?”

“Yeah. So see you after training?”

“Later, helping Richard with his homework.”

She laughed, “Richard. What’re you going to do with him? He’s a bit eccentric sometimes.”

“Tell me about it.”

I walked upstairs to my room. It was a nice place. It’s been said one’s room is an expression of their personality. I wonder what one would say if they saw my place. On the wall hangs a katana from my advanced martial arts classes. On shelves are models of modern space superiority fighters and the ships that launch them. And on one of the dressers is my orbital skydiving helmet. On my desk rests my laptop.

Ansibles are funny things. Instantaneous communication is now a reality. Thanks to Ansibles the internet has gotten a lot bigger. Computers have advanced a lot too. Molecular computing gives a chip the size of pea the same processing power as a warehouse full of processers. My computer alone has 2 Exahertz of processing power. Not much by modern standards but enough to do almost anything.

I pulled up the Equestria daily window and tapped expand. All the latest My Little Pony media at my fingertips. Nothing I hadn’t seen this morning. I deactivated the monitor and changed into my robes before heading out to my car.

***

That was last week. The very last place I expected to be was in the middle of a South American rainforest after a botched orbital skydiving session.

The tropical Rainforests are unforgiving no matter how much technology you have on you. Fortunately you can always fall back on the old reliables, Instinct, a knife, common sense, and survival skills.

I crouched down and sharpened the spear I’d been working on. I lifted up my gold visor and inspected my work.

“Pity,” I said, “If my wings and parachute survived I could’ve made an adequate spear.” I closed the knife and shoved it in my pocket.

It started out like any other trip until the alarm when off and not the jump alarm. The Emergency Evac klaxon, AKA the ‘get your ass out of the ship before it becomes your coffin.’

None of the other passengers on our Trans orbital plane had ever heard one of those so naturally they freaked while the jump master was shoving them out the hold. I went out followed by Cat.

Only as we entered the Mesosphere and began falling from 85000 meters did we see what was wrong with the ship. The port side engine was on fire and pieces of the wing were disintegrating.

Botched would put it mildly. We all ended up scattered across the North American and South American continents.

I checked my TAC pad.

“Great,” I said, “Cat lands in New Orleans, that guy who wouldn’t shut up landed in DC, that old lady in Boston, and me in the middle of the fucking amazon. Just my luck.”

The rainforest was not a place you wanted to be. While now under protection buy the UGH it was still a hostile place.

I looked up. The sheet of clouds blocked off the sun while it continued to poor rain down on me. I pulled up a map on the helmet’s HUD.

“Guess I can try Natal. Soon as I’m outta this shit I can call Cat and get a ride outta here.”

I followed the HUD’s instructions and crept along the foliage. This place is the most alien environment known to me. Hell, I’d be more at home on Mars. And Mars isn’t even green yet.

Soon the trees began to clear up.

“Great, a fucking river. Wait a sec why the fuck isn’t this on the map?”

I pulled up the map again. The nearest river was Kilometers away. Now why is this here? Oh, it’s not supposed to be here.

“Well swimming is out of the question. Not in this weather and not in this suit.”

I looked around. There had to be something I could use to cross. I looked up river. Yes! Fallen tree for the win.

I tightened my grip on the spear and ran along the river. I didn’t want to be here any longer than I had to. The ground steepened but it wasn’t too difficult to scale. Soon I came to a clearing where the tree had fallen.

I saw something terribly unnerving. Even for me who’d been through some shit this looked bad. A girl in a blue flight suit and flame like hair was lying unconscious in the clearing. A panther was growling hungrily at her.

Shit this looked bad. This part of earth was not the place to get caught in this situation. While Natal was a safe haven this place wasn’t known for being friendly.

The big cat crept closer to the girl. This type of thing had happened to a skydiver last year. Survived the fall only to be mauled to death by tiger in East Asia. Not good. Not gonna happen this time.

I crept in behind the cat as it prepared to eat. Readied my spear and smacked the cat on the head. It growled and turned, swiping my arm with its claws. I smacked it again, knocking it away from the girl. I looked for something to give me more distance between it and me.

I searched the ground and quickly found a rock. I scooped it up and tossed it at the cat before picking up the girl and running. I didn’t dare to look back as I heard growling. My HUD registered a large, fast moving object behind me. Even with my years of martial arts training and running track couldn’t help me out run this beast. All I had was agility. I zigged and zagged, nearly dropping the girl in the process. Thank goodness she was light or I would have lost her. Trees and foliage were helpful here as I hid from the cat.

I crouched behind a tree, listening to the cat huff and sniff as it searched for its lost prey. I held my breath and prayed this girl wouldn’t make a sound.

It seemed like I’d been there for an hour before I heard the cat leave. I still stayed plastered to the tree for a few minutes before deciding to leave. I walked out from behind my cover and continued north.

“Fuck, does Natal even have a space port?” I’d totally forgotten. I certainly hopped so or I’d be fucked six ways to Sunday.

I ran along the foliage before it began to thin and eventually give way to a small town. I checked on my passenger. Good, she appeared to be breathing but was still down for the count.

The town was a small quaint place but seemed modernized enough. There was a large clearing between the town and myself. Most likely to give a large line of sight if any large predators decided to show up. Near the edge of the town was a barbed wire fence. A guard house stood nearby.

I booked it through the field. I didn’t want to remain out here longer than I needed to. I was almost to the edge of the town when a man in a police uniform emerged from the guard house, a Glock 27 automatic rifle in his hand. I paled behind my gold faceplate when I saw the rifle. It was known for firing high powered, 9 mm rounds that had a sensitive explosive round that detonated on impact. It earned the name of the meat grinder for its… interesting results.

The guard raised the rifle. I did my best to raise my hands with an unconscious girl on my back.

“Parar! Quem és tu? Pronunciar o teu nome!” He yelled.

Shit. Come on universal translator! Yes! The translation echoed into my helmet, “Halt! Who are you? Speak your name!”

“My name is Jett. Please,” I nodded up with my head, “she needs help.”

The translation came out of the helmets speakers almost as soon as I started speaking, “Meu nome é Jett. Por favor, ela precisa de ajuda.”

The hostility in the man’s eyes vanished. He lowered the rifle. He spoke again, “Vá lá, há um kit de primeiros socorros na guarda casa. Rapidamente diante de algo famintos nos vê fora da vedação.”

My helmet sent the translation, “Come on, there's a first aid kit in the guard house. Quickly before something hungry sees us outside the fence.”

I followed. I sighed. I hope this guy could speak English because I didn’t want to put on the helmet when I wanted to talk to him.

I spoke up. “Do you speak English?” I asked with the translator off.

“Yes,” the man said with a heavy Portuguese accent, “Took four years of it in high school.”

“Thank the gods,” I said, “Universal translator is handy but I only have on in my helmet.”

“Do you have your phone on you?”

“Unfortunately no. I left it back at the hotel.”

“Speaking of which,” the man said, “Who the hell are you and how did you end up in the forest like that? Only a fool or a man with a death wish would be there and you don’t seem to be either.”

“Skydiving accident. The drop went to shit we got scattered,” I said.

“That how your friend got hurt?” the guard asked.

“I’d guess that,” I said, “found her unconscious in a clearing with a panther getting ready to… We’ll you get the idea. East Asia.”

The man grimaced as he opened the door the house, “Good thing you saved her then. The world doesn’t need another one of those. Come on in. Set her down couch over there.” He walked down the hallway and into a supply closet.

I stepped into the house. It was a simple place. A desk was in one corner and behind it a hallway lead to the other end of the building. In the room was a fridge, an arm chair and a couch. A small table sat in a corner near the fridge with two folding chairs nearby.

I set the flame haired girl on the couch and pulled up one of the chairs. She seemed so familiar and so peaceful. Where had I seen her before?

“Oh Martian Gates!” the man yelled, “You said you name was Jett right?”

“Yeah,” I yelled back.

“There’s been a prisoner escape in the next town and their calling all officers to help find him. I need to go.”

“Isn’t there some regulation against leaving me here alone?”

“Normally I can’t but a level five alert overrides all other regulations like this. I need to go,” he ran into the room and pulled a coat out from under the desk, “If you need anything at all, call this number,” he said plastering a piece of paper down on the desk, “and ask for officer Delgado.”

“Uh, ok,” I said as the man ran off.

Great. I was alone in a guard house in one of the least friendly places on Earth with an unconscious girl in front of me. Well I could do a medical scan to see if anything was wrong. I pulled up the scan function on my HUD.

“Bio signs normal. Normal heart beat. No broken bones thank god. Slight bruising along the legs but nothing serious,” I said. All in all she seemed battered and bruised but overall fine.

I removed my helmet and set it on the table. I examined my arm. Superficial lacerations, easily reparable.

Something like a moaning sound drew my attention away from my medical status. The girl was beginning to wake up.

“Oh shit my head,” she moaned, holding her head in her hands, “I swear this is the last time I let Soarin’ talk me into doing another show like that!”

She propped herself on her arms before opening her eyes. They were a brilliant orange amber color. She stared at me for a second before her eyes narrowed and she spoke again, this time with more hostility.

“Who are you and where have you taken me?!” she yelled.

“My name is Jett and I’m the one who saved your ass from being slaughtered by a panther earlier.”

“A panther? What are you talking about? Where am I and where is the rest of my team?”

“Rest of you team?” I asked getting a bit irritated, “You tell me cause I honestly have no idea. Your jump go to shit like mine did?”

“Jump? What are you talking about? Where are the rest of the Wonderbolts!”

“Girl, did you hit your head on something on the way down here or something? Just who in the hell do you think you are?”

The girl clenched her fists and stared my down with a look that could’ve blown a hole in the UEG Enterprise’s Tritainium armor plating. Her orange eyes began to scare the shit out of me.

“Don’t you know who I am? I’m Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts.”