Free Fall

Anna’s stomach lurched as the helicopter continued to rise above the Nevada desert. She just wanted to shift her body a bit to ease the wave of nausea she was feeling. However having a heavy parachute strapped to her back, shifting easily if at all was not going to happen in the cramped cabin.

“Do you copy, Miss Harris?”

Anna quickly lifted her head from the view of the desert below to stare at the large man in front of her. To be fair, he really wasn’t that big, but compared to her five-foot tall frame he might as well have been a giant. Standing at six feet in height, Air Force Commander Jere Whittle was built like a compact tank yet moved with the grace of a sparrow when it came to his work as a paratrooper.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“I’ll repeat for you Miss Harris. The ETA for drop altitude of 13,000ft is two minutes. Do you copy?”

“Sure. . . I mean, yes, I copy, Sir.”

It was easy for Anna to tell that Commander Whittle was all business. Normally that would unsettle her easygoing attitude but something about him convinced her that she would be safe under his command.

“Let's go over the procedure one last time, Miss Harris.”

“Can we not use the term last? It sounds so final.”

“We have no time to go over the procedure more that this final time, Miss Harris. Do you copy?”

With a heavy sigh Anna accepted that the commander wasn’t going to budge in his choice of vocabulary. How hard is to just say “one more time,” she wondered.

“Copy Sir.”

“Good. When we reach jump altitude I will give you the signal to exit. At that time my men in the three escort copters will simultaneously disembark and follow you from a safe distance, recording the details of your transformation and your free fall. Do you understand so far, Miss Harris?”

“Okay, I know you all want to see how I do my thing, but seriously, how is a bunch of guys with cameras strapped to their helmets going to help me figure out what I can do? What if this doesn’t work and I become a big red stain on the desert floor below?”

As the helicopter began to bank Anna was impressed to see that Commander Whittle was not thrown off by the sudden movement as he replied. “Those men are all equipped with top of the line sensory equipment furnished by IronClad Technologies. They will record your fall in every visual spectrum currently known. Afterward our top scientists will begin to analyze that footage to see what makes you tick. Do you copy?”

“Yes Sir, I copy.”

“Very good, Miss Harris. After you disembark the vehicle you will count to five then activate your powers. At that point you will attempt to halt your decent, or at the very least control the rate at witch you descend. If you are unable to do so after a second count of ten, you are to disengage your powers and pull the ripcord to your parachute and make your way to the landing site below. Do you understand the procedure as I have laid it out to you, Miss Harris?”

“I think so. I’ll turn on my powers and because a scientist in Boston thinks that just because I can glow like a light bulb I should be as light as light itself and zip around through the sky. When that doesn’t work I’ll try not to panic as I turn back to normal and plummet to my death while your men film it.”

Once again the helicopter began to bank and if it wasn’t for the fact that Anna had been too nervous to eat beforehand, she might have thrown up on Commander Whittle as he gave her his reply.

“First off Miss Harris, I will right behind you on this jump. If any mishap should occur I will be able to react in time to save you. Secondly, I don’t believe you understand the gravity of this test. Extraordinaries have been around for more then a century now and the scientific community still doesn’t have a firm grasp on how our heroes can do what they do. How is it you can turn into a being of white-hot light? More importantly, and this is one of the things that has everyone baffled, why is it that everything you have on your person changes with you? Do you understand the situation now, Miss Harris?”

Anna really wanted to say she knew what was going on. The Commander seemed steadfast in his belief that it would be for her own betterment to find out why she has these powers. But she still had that feeling of doom looming over her head.

“I still feel like I’m just jumping to my death for nothing.”

With a slight smirk Commander Harris replied, “Have no fear, Miss Harris, I’ll see to it that no harm comes to you.”

“Wait. Did you just smile when you said that, Commander?”

“Miss Harris, let me remind you that you are just a civilian and that I’m an Air Force Commander. As such I have been trained to neither smirk, grin, nor even in the worst case scenario smile in front of you. What you saw must have been gas.” With that, a large smile formed across the commander's face.

“I understand, Sir,” Anna replied with an equally large smile.

Finally a moment of peace began to settle over Anna as they reached the exit point of their flight. She could hardly hear the commander’s voice in her headset as she leapt from the helicopter. As she began to count, she watched as six other paratroopers leapt from separate helicopters to film her decent.

Reaching a five count she forced her body to begin the change. She could feel the searing heat radiating from her body as she turned into a being of almost pure light yet she felt no discomfort from the change or the heat.

A moment later she realized that Commander Harris was zipping past her, as well as the other paratroopers. “Wait, why are you all still falling?” she tried yelling. It was only then that she realized that she was no longer falling herself.

She hovered far above the desert floor and watched as one by one parachutes began to open. But one of the soldier’s chutes wasn’t operating.

Without thinking about it, Anna zipped off to the soldier. As she approached she realized it was Commander Whittle who was unable to deploy his parachute. To make maters worse, the heat she was giving off was causing his skin to blister.

“Quick girl what do you do?” she thought to herself. Then she had an idea. It would be risky but then again everything about this day had been a risk.

As she re-approached the Commander she turned of her powers and quickly wrapped her arms around his body. The force of the two of them colliding knocking the breath out of her.

“Miss Harris, disengage now and save yourself! There is nothing you can do for me in this situation.”

“I’m sorry Commander but how do you think I would feel if I didn’t try to save the man who promised to watch over me?”

“This is not the time to argue Miss!”

“Your right, it’s not!” With that Anna found the problem with the commander's chute. Somehow neither the ripcord no the secondary cord was triggering the release of the chute. Taking a deep breath Anna yanked hard on the release and was knocked loose of the commander as his parachute broke free.

It didn’t take long for Anna to change back to her altered form and zip to the ground below. Several minutes later the Commander landed and she was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Anna couldn’t help but smile at the fact that she saved the man who promised that no harm would come to her. As she got closer to Commander Whittle she realized that he was shielding his eyes. Yes it was bright sunny day out, but his visor should block any glare from the sun.

“Oh! Yeah, that’s right! It’s me!” With a thought she reverted to her natural state and ran to the commander.

“You alright, Sir?”

“A bit sunburned, but other than that I’m in fair shape.” Pulling the rest of his chute in, the commander watched as the pick-up jeep approached them.

“Thank you, Commander Sir.”

“You did a fine job today Miss Harris. Ever since the Sunburst massacre last year the country has had very few Extraordinaries to rely upon. I believe you would serve the world community well if you chose the path of a public defender.”

Beaming from the commander's words, Anna replied, “Thank you, Commander. Any suggestions on a catchy name for me, Sir?”

“Miss Harris, catchy names are not my area of expertise. However I have head that Madam President's head of PR is qualified at promoting new Heroes to the public. I’ll see if I can get you in touch with her. Maybe she can think of something catchy.”

“So what’s next Commander?”

“More tests, Miss Harris. But fist I believe I owe you dinner. You did just save me from, as you would put it, becoming a big red stain on the desert floor.”

“Just doing my job, Commander Sir!” Anna saluted Whittle with a bubbly grin.

Commander Whittle couldn’t help but smile. As the two of them climbed into the jeep he realized that Miss Harris would not stop grinning at him.

“What is it, Miss Harris?”

“You’re smiling, Sir!”

“Once again, Anna, I’m an Air force Commander. It’s just gas.”