2-8
Victoria Cristal was having a bad day. She hadn't been in the main lab in a few days so she didn't know how much she was affecting the timer with her work but she kept doing what the VI said. After that first day she had flopped onto her bed and passed out tired. The VI had her running around doing everything.
Right now she was running through an old office building being shot at. Her day didn't start out like this. The VI sent her to pick up a package. She put on the suit it offered and set out.The VI teleported her and she stepped out of the alley she was in, following the little arrow on her face mask.
The VI had teleported her somewhere it was late. There were people taking down pop up stalls and pulling in their wares. The ground was a layer of sand over hard packed dirt, she could feel her feet sink into the sand. The people had giant hats to shield them from the sun and mostly wore robs.
Victoria followed the little indicator arrow to a small shop on a corner. It had beads hanging down for a door that Victoria stuck her hand through and pushed to the side as she stepped in. There was a counter in the shop with a little lady waiting at it. The moment she saw Victoria she perked up and started talking in a language Victoria didn't know.
Her see through face mask flickered and a text scrolled across it. A translation of what the woman was saying for Victoria. The lady was happy that Owl was picking up her order. Victoria watched the lady dig under the counter until she popped back up with a wooden box about the size of the shoe box. The lady pushed it into Victoria's hands with an appreciative sound.
The arrow on her face mask flipped telling her to turn around and leave. She gave the lady at the counter a wave, which seemed to confuse her, then turned around and stopped out of the store with the box under her arm, “Now what?”
The VI answered through a speaker in her helmet, “You follow the arrow to the teleportation spot where you will be teleported back to the lab. Drop off the items you picked up and then you will be teleported back to the region for another pick up.”
Victoria followed the arrow floating in her view, “How far away is this next pick up? Couldn't I just pick them both up at the same time?”
“The second pick up point is about a mile away. Is that what you would like to do?”
Victoria looked down at the box in her hands. What's the worst that could happen? “Sure, let's do that.”
The little arrow flipped and changed direction, Victoria followed it. The arrow lead her through alleys and down through quickly darkening streets. She even passed some guy holding a smoking pipe, standing on top of a box screaming about some religion. That was about when her day took a turn for the worst. She crossed from what looked like a residential area through a street into business and offices. The walls went from bare things with little paintings on them to absolutely covered in artwork and posters. The sky darkened as she walked and she started seeing more people out. They were sitting on steps outside of buildings covered in artwork.
Victoria walked deeper into the city. She was getting a few looks but she was wearing a full coving suit with a cape. She figured that was natural. She was about a half a mile from her destination walking down a street when a blacked out car drove past. I went down the street ahead of her and parked. Victoria watched people spill out of the car and decided to cross the street.
They stood outside the car and watched her cross the street. The arrow was still pointing the same way so she followed it. She was parallel with the car when four more pulled down the street. They parked around her and stepped out. Most of them wore business suits but a few we in just tshirts and shorts. They started pointing at Victoria and then they began pulling out hooks and a few pulled guns.
Victoria saw the guns then looked at the little arrow in her view. One of the men surrounding her pointed at her and said something to the others. The translation flickered across her view, “Get the bot and what it's carrying.”
“Im not a bot!” Victoria yelled out.
That made them pause. They glanced at each other in confusion. Victoria took a step to follow the arrow pointing. They turned back to her and a few of them lifted the rifles they were holding and pointed them at her. Victoria knew enough about guns to know a moving target was harder to hit and a missing target was impossible to hit. She lifted her leg, turned left, and bolted into the office she had been walking by.
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She held the box close to her chest then lowered her head and drove through the glass doorway. It shattered around her and she saw it sprinkle the ground ahead of her. She kept pushing and heard the guns start shooting behind her. There was a sharp hiss sound as the bullets whizzed by her. She felt something lightly slap her in the shoulder and knew she just took a bullet. She fell in love with the suit OwlBots wore.
Papers were thrown up ahead of her. She could see holes being put into walls and cubicles starting to fall over. she turned a corner and the gunfire stopped. The little arrow in her view adapted quickly to her stepping off the road and still pointed her in a direction. She didn't slow down her run and she could hear people chasing her though the building.
The building was empty, thankfully. It was rows and rows of desks with computers on top of them. She turned down a hallway and was coming up on a steel door. It had a big red sign on top that told her it was the exit. She pushed the door open and started running again as she crossed the doorway. She felt something touch her shin and glanced behind her as she ran forward. It was one of the guys with a hook. He must not have had a good hold on it because it jerked out of his hands and she kept running.
Victoria made it maybe a tenth of a mile close to her destination, “I don't think I am going to be able to pick this other thing up.”
“Would you like to come back to the lab? Should the pick up be rescheduled?” the VI spoke onto Victoria's helmet.
She was running down an alley now and she was starting to breathe deeper. Victoria was about to reply to the VI when at the end of the alley a truck pulled up and parked. Shutting off that way, the little arrow that had been guiding her flickered and told her to take the next right. People started piling out of the back and she took the next right.
She heard an odd sound from the people chasing her. She shifted in her run and started looking behind her when she saw what made the noise. It was a rocket from an rpg Seeing it gave her just enough time to tuck the box under her arm and shield it. The rocket missed her by a handspan, flying by her ribs.
It hit the wall in front of her at an angle and detonated. Victoria grit her teeth, closed her eyes and tried turning away. She felt the blast hit her in the chest and left her off the ground then she felt her back hit the wall behind her where she bounced off. The blast was loud, even muffled as it was she could still hear a ringing in her ears. That she wasn't in pain made her love her suit even more.
When the ringing in her ears stopped the sounds she was hearing in her surroundings still came to her weird. She opened her eyes and saw the mask of the helmet she was wearing was cracked. It put chills down her spine, if it was that damaged then she would be dead without it. She was getting sound from the helmet and through the crack. The little arrow was still there, it just had a split through it.
The smoke rolled out of the alleyway and cleared. The wall that the rocket hit was gone, she could see inside the little shop that it hit. There was stuff scattered everywhere. She heard shouting behind her so she turned and all the people that were chasing here were pointing and jumping up and down. They were pointing at her and chanting something and her helmet helpfully translated, “It can fly! New model bot!”
Victoria looked down at the ground. She was curled up and hovering, slowly floating down the alley away from the explosion site. She uncurled and a surreal feeling flowed through her. She was in a comic book world and she was flying, “Holy shit, I can fly.”
Her feet were inches from the ground. She stopped floating and hovered in one spot. She looked to the little box in her hands and saw it was only a little damaged. Some scrapes from the explosion. “I can fly.” She repeated.
“Adjusting parameters.” The VI said through her helmet.
The little arrow twisted and pointed in an upward direction. She heard shuffling behind her. She turned and saw they were scrambling to reload the rocket launcher they had shot at her with. Victoria looked to the night sky and with a flex of her will shot upwards. A glance back showed her the lights of the city and how many were turning on from the noise of the explosion.
The city got smaller under her very fast and the arrow was pointing to one side of the city. “Reschedule that pick up. I don't think I am going to be able to get it today.”
The arrow changed direction, Victoria curved her flight and landed near the arrow destination. She hit the ground harder than she meant to, cracking the stone under her feet. Maybe it wasn't the suit that saved her. A twisting of space and she was in one of Amber's storage rooms. An OwlBot without the suit walked over and took the box from her hands.
Victoria let out a sigh then headed for the door, passing more OwlBots that were organizing or moving things. She walked through the door and brought her hand up. It was covered in the glove of the suit. She ran it over the mask and the helmet and could feel the divots or chunks taken out of it from the explosion, “Where can I replace the helmet of this suit?”
The little arrow pointed her in the direction and she started walking. Victoria Cristal had been isekaid. She thought Amber picking her up was her cheat but that turned out to be wrong. The flight was a clue and the missing chunks from her helmet were the bigger one. Her brain should be paste from the shock alone. Military helmets don't stop the force, they try to redirect it or absorb it. You could wear the strongest helmet on the planet and a big enough rifle will still hit your head hard enough to turn your brain into a slurry.
The arrow led her to a side room, she passed an OwlBot walking into the room. There was a helmet on the table. She stepped up to it and pressed on her neck with her fingers. A seal broke and she grabbed the helmet by the jaw and wiggled it off. Flipping the helmet around Victoria saw the damage looked even worse from the front. She was surprised it even held together, but it was built by Amber so it shouldn't be a shock.
Victoria looked at the helmet on the table then to the one in her hands. She lifted it and placed her palms on both sides before she started pressing her hands together. It took a little more force than she was used to but the helmet started to flex, then with a snap, it shattered on the crack that ran across it. She looked at the collapsed helmet in her hands then back at the full one, “Holy shit, I’m strong.”
She heard a muffled, “Updating Parameters.” from he helmet on the table.