Unlike most people, I never had a fear of heights. Looking over the edge of a cliff never made me tremble in fear.

But that wasn't why I didn't scream as I fell from the sky in an uncontrollable spin. No, that dubious honor went to my stomach, which was doing its best to relieve itself of its contents. If I opened my mouth, there was no doubt in my mind I would fill the whole damned helmet with sick.

A prompt appeared in my vision, asking if I needed assistance arresting my spin. The suit’s VI finally catching on to the fact that, no, I was not an experienced skydiver. I had read the mandatory texts when I got my flight license, but knowing and doing were two different things.

“Yes.” I gagged, mid dry heave.

Like magic, from one tumble to the next, I was stable. The many thrusters scattered across the suit fired on their own with unerring precision, perfectly canceling my previous momentum.

“Oh, thank you.” I gasped. Finally able to breathe properly. “Cut all power to the communications suite.”

The suit warned me of the dangers, which I completely disregarded. I couldn't allow for any wireless transmission capabilities. Not with my family on the proverbial warpath. They had already hacked my shuttle, I wasn't in the mood to see what they could do with the ESS.

With an eye gesture, I toggled the hard light projector. Dozens of concentric ghostly blue rings glimmered into existence in the air above me, it wasn't a parachute, but it served the same goal of creating more surface area. The rings shifted size, shape, and angles independently of each other, all working in tandem with the suit’s onboard sensor suite to ensure the most optimal results under any condition.

I slowed to a stop gently, the rings expanding slowly so as not to jerk me to a halt like its more archaic cloth counterpart.

The suit still had the waypoint for Zod’s house, so even after getting thoroughly discombobulated, I was able to adjust myself accordingly. Even after my little joy ride, the house was still over a hundred Kilometers away. From this height, I could glide a considerable distance, especially if I used my thrust-.

“Kara! Get back in the shuttle!” Dad’s voice boomed right behind me.

I think the startled squawk and panicked arm flailing the sudden sound elicited was warranted.

A glance over my shoulder showed that yes, the shuttle was indeed floating right behind me. Its anti-grav thrusters not even making a sound with how little power they needed for such a simple task.

“No!” I shouted back. The suit’s speakers ensured they heard me loud and clear.

“Kara! Please, come back to the house. We can discuss this like reasonable adults.” Dad tried pleadingly.

I had to bite my tongue at him bringing up the ‘adult’ card. So now I was an adult? Where was that consideration a year ago when they found out the world was gonna blow up?

“And what happens if I can’t persuade you? Huh?” I did my best to put aside the anger, but some still slipped in.

The silence was telling.

“Exactly.” I shot a pointed glance back at the ship, tagging their IFF transponder in the process.

With a shake of my head, I deactivated the projector. I needed to get away from the shuttle. If nothing else, I couldn't allow them to know my location. They undoubtedly already had a drone enroute as we spoke, something with the means to bring me back. Kicking and screaming, or medically sedated.

Back in free fall, the winds ripped whatever rebuttal they were working on away. Their IFF was still reading as being a dozen feet behind me. I frowned, the shuttle could break the sound barrier without even noticing. I would never be able to lose them in a contest of speed.

Glancing at the quickly approaching city, I made my decision. If speed wasn't going to win the day, size and audacity would have to do.

While the ESS could function in an atmosphere, its intended use case was for the vacuum of space. This meant that the thrusters could only be fired in short bursts, or risk overheating. Thankfully though, with how little I weighed compared to the adults the suits were designed around, those short bursts were more than enough to make large adjustments to my descent trajectory.

At this height, the buildings were scarce enough that the shuttle had no problem flying between them. No matter how many turns I made, the IFF never once left my tail. I wouldnt be able to lose them up here, I needed more obstacles. Tucking in my arms and legs, I dived. Thrusters working to reorientate me straight at the ground.

My heart pounded, wide eyes darted to and fro, absorbing every scrap of information they could. Every facet in the crystals, every window pane, the way the early morning sun made the buildings seem to glow. All of it burned itself into my brain to be dissected and picked apart.

With every second that passed, the density of the buildings exploded exponentially. My brain running overtime to dodge them, as it stood, I was already pushing the thrusters closer and closer into the red. The IFF was still keeping pace, not once straying more than a few dozen meters.

Then I got low enough and finally entered the air lanes in truth, and the IFF came to a dead stop.

I couldn't even feel satisfaction, far too busy trying not to die. It was the early morning rush, and the air lanes were more vehicles than air at that moment. And it was only getting worse the deeper I went.

The only reason I hadn't died yet was because the ESS was overlaying the air speeders' flight paths over my vision. That system was meant to help navigate through space debris clouds, but it worked marvelously here. All I had to do was aim for the gaps between the red lines.

It wouldn’t have been too difficult if there weren’t hundreds of those lines filling my vision at any given moment. It felt like I was flying through a tangled web of death.

If I wasn't a Thinker, I don't believe I would have been able to keep track of everything. Not at the speeds I was going at anyways.

Just as I reached the bottommost air lane, a rather large cargo freighter changed course at the last second. I fired the thrusters at full burn, uncaring of how close they were to the red, only flaring briefly before shutting off from the overuse. The sudden burst was enough to violently jerk me to the side, but it wasn't enough.

My right shoulder clipped the edge of the freighter. The ESS blunted some of the impact, but even then, something still broke. The medical suite immediately began reporting the various contusions and broken bones, as if I somehow hadn't noticed already. On the bright side, it also informed me it had administered a localized anesthetic.

Whatever semblance of grace I had gained was lost. My form back to tumbling uncontrollably towards Krypton. The suit’s VI needed time to recalibrate due to the sudden loss of thrusters and external sensors on my right side.

With how hopped up I was on hormones, I hardly even felt the initial pain. My mind far too laser focused on desperately trying to pull myself out of my spin before I hit a building.

With a ringing chime, the thrusters came back online and fired, putting me back into a controlled fall. I breathed a sigh of relief. Though it was short lived, as the IFF was once more moving in my direction and gaining fast. They must have gone around the air lanes, because they were coming at me from the side.

Unlike before however, we were now at a height where the buildings were close enough together that the shuttle couldn't feasibly follow me. Not directly at least. So losing them once more was a simple matter of shooting into the labyrinth of buildings.

Simple didn't mean easy however. With my limited thruster usage, making so many turns and adjustments without overheating was a terrifying balancing act. Too much thrust and I would die at the next turn, too little thrust and I would die at the current turn. It had to be just right.

Terrifying didn't even begin to cover it.

The moment I got into a location with enough of a straightaway, I activated the projector. The rings expanded instantaneously, with the small space, I didn't have the luxury of a slow stop. Thrusters firing till burnout to try and halt my momentum before I hit the next turn.

My broken shoulder didn't appreciate the jarring maneuver, but in the end, I was left floating gently in a pocket between buildings. The ground was still over a thousand meters below me.

Now without the fear of imminent death or capture, I started laughing. It started as a soft giggle and quickly morphed into full-blown shoulder-shaking laughter. My body was practically buzzing from all the chemicals running through my veins at that moment.

I had almost died before, heck, I had died before. But I had never done anything quite like that. With the Sword granting me strength and knowledge in equal measures, fighting the robots had held an almost dream-like quality to it. The Sword, a silent safety net, constantly looming to catch me if and when I faltered. And the entire experience had been tainted by the horror of all the deaths.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

But this? This was all me. Every action, every close call, even the failures, all of it. I had done that. There was no guilt or horror to mar the experience, it was pure.

Being so close to death was terrifying, but it was also…exhilarating.

The high would probably go away once my heart finally realized I wasn't about to die, but until then, I reveled in it.

Every breath tasted sweeter than I ever remembered. It was no wonder some people became adrenaline junkies, the feeling of cheating death was indescribable.

The sound of sirens dragged me out of my euphoric state. The world snapping back into clarity.

I needed to land and get out of sight. Emergency services were probably flooded by reports of someone falling out of the sky. Rao only knew how many people I had scared back in the air lanes. Whether they were coming to dole out punishments, or render medical aid, I couldn't afford to find out.

Toggling the projector's settings, the rings became more ephemeral, my speed increasing to match. Once I was closer to the ground, I slowed the descent to a much safer level. Firing the thrusters at the last moment to bleed off the remaining momentum.

When I finally touched down, it felt like I had simply stepped off a curb.

With the approaching sirens, I didn't have the time to admire the feeling of solid ground beneath my feet. I picked a direction and ran. I had no clue where I was, and with my communications suite offline, I couldn't exactly link up with the city's navigational hub. Any direction was as good as any other.

As I ran, I considered taking off the ESS, but I didn't know if my identity had been uncovered or not. For all I knew, the police had already put out an APB on me. With no net access, I couldn't check, so I figured running around in my skinsuit with the El crest on my chest to be too risky. At least with the helmet and thrusters retracted, the ESS could pass as a slightly more bulky skin suit.

Once I was far enough away that I didn't hear any more sirens, I slowed to a walk. No point in drawing more attention to myself than necessary if I could help it. Now that I wasn't running, I could take the time to truly take in my surroundings.

Wherever I was, the buildings were startlingly plain. Almost industrial in design, straight rigid lines and dull gray paneling, raw function over form. A stark difference from the sweeping curves and tastefully placed crystals I had grown so accustomed to seeing in Kryptonian architecture. Even the narrow and cramped nature of the street felt so different from the wide open spaces I was used to. Looking up I could only see a narrow band of the purple sky, the towering buildings occluding everything else.

It was well into the morning, and yet not a single ray of Rao’s light reached these streets. Only artificial lamps provided any light, and judging by the slight red hue they had, they were most likely meant to supplement the lack of sunlight. But with how I had to focus to notice any pain, the lamps were nowhere near being an adequate replacement.

The weakness of the lamps is what grabbed my attention the most. Sunlight was important to life, but it was especially important to Kryptonian life. Physically and psychologically, we needed it, yearned for it even. A biological imperative hardcoded into us eons ago, back when we were still just primordial ooze.

What would living in these conditions do to a person? My eyes wandered to the side, seeing a family of four exit what appeared to be an apartment complex of some kind, the two excitable children running ahead of their exasperated parents. Innocent laughter echoing off the walls. What would growing up in these conditions do to a person?

Biology wasn't my area of expertise, but I knew enough to say that it would be detrimental to some degree. Just how bad, I didn't know.

I gnawed on my lower lip as I walked. So deep in thought was I, I didn't notice the man until I bumped into him. I looked up, and up, and- ‘Holy shit, this guy was massive!’ I stared with saucer-wide eyes at the giant.

Nearly nine feet tall, and built like a tank. The absolute unit of a man turned around slowly, almost ponderously so. He seemed just as startled to see the tiny blonde girl staring up at him, as I was staring up at a giant.

“What?” He growled, his voice so deep that I think that was just how his voice sounded.

“I’m so sorry sir! I wasn't watching where I was going!” I bowed so fast I almost got dizzy, fuck House pride, if I thought getting on my back and showing my belly would help, I would have already done it. This behemoth of a man could probably kill me with a finger.

“S’okay?” Was his growled response. Was that confusion in his tone? I really couldn't tell on account of all the bass in his voice.

“Sorry sir!” I said again, sliding past him, with my head still pointed firmly at the ground. I didn't stop speed walking until I had put several corners between us.

Slumping against a wall, I tilted my head upward and tried to plot out my next course of action. I needed to get to Zod’s house, but the problem was I had no clue where I was and no immediate means of traveling the remaining seventy-eight kilometers. If I could use my accounts it would have been a simple matter to pay for transport, but my family was going to be watching for any activity like a hawk. It would be child's play for them to use it to track me down.

I sighed in frustration, mainly at the situation as a whole. Penny, bless her little processors, had screwed the pooch so to speak. There had been no reason for me to run, at the time I easily could have just nodded my head and pretended they had managed to convince me with whatever “logical and reasonable” lecture they were going to give me. Then a week or two later once their guard was down, I could slip away and get to Zod.

Even after Penny had made her move, I still didn't have to run, sure it would have been a bit awkward. But the action of the AI could have been swept under the rug as her just being overly loyal to me. With the stressful and emotionally charged nature of the sitiation, Penny made her move, and I had just ran with it. Which now that I thought about it, with Penny being so heavily based on my own thought patterns, how much of this whole fiasco was actually my fault?

I sighed, it didn't matter where the fault lay, all that mattered was that I couldn't go back now. That bridge wasn't just burned, it was nuked from orbit and melted into glass. My family would never let me out of their sights again if they managed to catch me. I had no other option than to follow through now.

I had to tell Zod.

With one more explosive sigh, I pushed off the wall and continued walking, doing my best to keep heading toward the waypoint. If I was going to make a plan, I may as well shave off a few more kilometers while I was at it.

/

“Excuse me, ma'am!” I called to the woman. She just looked back at me with a startled expression before hurrying away from me. “Wait, ma’am please I just want…” but it was no use, if anything my attempt at getting her to stop just made her walk faster.

I grit my teeth in annoyance. What were these people's problems? This was the tenth person in a row to do that. They acted completely normal one moment, then the moment I opened my mouth they acted like I had the plague or something. It was ridiculous.

Was it the ESS? I glanced down at the suit. It was a bit out of place with how thick it was, almost looked like armor paneling if one squinted, but still, I was a child! Strange clothing or not, they shouldn’t be treating me like that.

Just as I was about to try the eleventh person, someone called out to me.

“Hey, girl!” A man called from one of the side alleys. He beckoned me over.

Yeah, that totally wasn't suspicious at all. Nope, not one bit.

Of course, being the mature and rational adult that I was, I heeded his call and approached the strange man in the strange alley.

Not.

I kept walking. The man followed. “Girl, I was talking to you!”

We were close enough to other people now, I stopped in the middle of the street. No meetings in backstreet alleys, thank you kindly.

Turning to the man I smiled apologetically at him. “Sorry sir, I didn’t realize.” Getting my first good look at him. He was a dark haired man who appeared to be in his early twenties, maybe late teens, though with a Kryptonian, looks were hardly an accurate way to judge ones true age. For all I knew, he had just turned a century last week.

“It’s no problem, but you should try to listen more, yeah?” He smiled good-naturedly.

“Of course, sir.” I beamed up at him. “Was there something you needed, sir?” I tilted my head exaggeratedly, ensuring my blue eyes were extra wide. Extra innocent.

“A polite little thing, eh?” He laughed, his eyes crinkling. “Well, I was just trying to figure out if you needed any help? See, I couldn't help but notice you trying to get those people's attention.” He gestured at the street in general. I noted distantly that he had a strange way of pronouncing words, almost like an accent.

“Oh, yeah, I just wanted some directions but those mean people just ignored me.” I made a show of stamping my foot in frustration.

He gasped, a hand over his heart. “Those are some mean people, indeed. Here, why don't you come with me and I can help you get to wherever it is you needed to go?” He inched forwards with an easy smile, a hand extended for me to take.

I inched backwards, blissful innocence radiating from my own beaming smile.

He stepped forwards.

I stepped backwards.

Neither of us were smiling anymore.

I ran.

He followed.

The moment I turned the closest corner, I activated the thrusters and flung myself up as high as I could go. Using my one good arm and boots to magnetically lock myself to the wall. I watched from my vantage spot nearly forty meters off the ground, my helmet zooming in to give me a clear view as the man paused in confusion when he couldn't find me. The walls were sheer metal, with no handholds or anything to climb on. He never even looked up, instead he kept running, no doubt assuming I had somehow made it around the next corner before he could.

A half-hour later when I finally deemed it safe enough to come down, I didn't bother retracting the helmet again. With how nervous I was, I appreciated the added layer of protection. No longer trying to ask passersby for help. Every person on the street was a threat now.

As strange as it was, those handful of seconds had been more terrifying than anything I had ever experienced in either of my lives. The uncertainty of it all made it so much worse. At least with the other stuff, I knew what was in store for me. There was an almost serenity to be found in certainty. Meanwhile, things left to the crucible of imagination could be forged into true horrors.

What had that man wanted? Had it all just been in my head, and he really was just a concerned citizen? Or were my instincts spot on, and he actually did have bad intentions for me? If so, what were they? There were so many things an adult could want from a child, all of them just got exponentially worse as one worked down the list. Especially the things that would make a person willing to chase said child over.

I would have rather gotten chased by one of brainiacs robots again. At least then it was simple. Escape, or die.

After a bit of walking, a familiar red glow bouncing off a wall up ahead grabbed my attention. I walked towards it, eager to get into proper sunlight. Perhaps then I would be less jumpy.

I had expected an open space with a clear view of the sun, I got something arguably better.

The entire building was made of a gigantic seamless ruby-red crystal, reaching so far up into the sky that it towered over the surrounding buildings. That height allowed Rao's light to strike it. Allowing the entire building to appear lit from within as the captured sunlight traveled all the way down its crystalline length.

It seemed I didn't need to ask for directions after all. I had found it all on my own.

I had found a Temple of Rao. With newfound relief, I stepped into the light.

Helping charity cases are what priests were all about, right?