“We are hitting four places today.”
Four little lights highlighted on the wireframe Owl held out. The little lights were all over the globe. A few of them looked close together but on a globe that just meant they were a few hundred miles apart. “Most of those lights are on the other continent.”
“I have collected most of them on this continent. The rest that are here are just clean up.”
I gave her a slow nod. She was taking her time with it because she was probably bust with other things. “I am ready.”
She stepped closer to me and hit a few buttons on her forearm. Space twisted around us and we were elsewhere. The buildings were small, squat and wide made from some kind of stone. We had appeared in an alley, Owl turned and stepped onto the street and I followed her. The people here were short compared to Owl but still taller than me. They wore a lot of robes and wore cloth head wraps.
As I looked around I realized I blended in and Owl was getting some looks. I didn't know if it was from the armor she wore or her height but she towered over everyone. There were quite a lot of people and there were stalls for street food everywhere. I could smell the food in the air and it smelled spicy and well seasoned. If I had currency I would have liked to try some.
It was crowded but people got out of Owls way as she walked. The sun was high in the sky here, we had left Swivel City at midnight so we were on the other side of the globe. We crossed through the bazaar and headed through another alley. Down the alley there was an opening with cloth and beads as a door. Owl pushed through them and I stepped in behind her.
It was dark inside and it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. The room was full of random things and had a few counters. Owl walked all the way to the back and started talking to the person at the counter in their native language. I could have learned to speak it but it would have taken me more time than we were going to waste here.
I wandered around the room and looked at things on shelves and behind counters. None of it really interested me until I saw pipes. My pipe was the best thing on this planet but looking at others was interesting. I stepped up to the counter and was scanning them, some had bowls that looked like dragons and others in the shape of birds. They were very artistic.
Some older man stepped out of the back and saw me looking at the pipes and quickly headed over. He started talking a whole lot and waving his hands at the pipes. When I mimed I couldn't speak his language he gave me a slow nod and started taking pipes from the wall and laying them down on the counter.
Most of them had some kind of wood finish with steel mouthpieces and bowls. I didn't know if they were solid wood or just had wood covering. He started motioning towards them, I think he was trying to sell them to me. I grabbed my Kiseru from my waist and set it on the counter with a thunk. He paused in his movements and stared at the golden pipe on his table. His hand reached out quickly to grab it and I slapped it away.
He pulled back and glared at me like I had wounded him. I rolled my eyes and took my pipe back before reaching into my [Never Ending Herb Pouch] and pulled out a pinch of herbs, setting them on the counter in front of me. He looked at the herbs with suspicion before grabbing a random pipe from the counter and packing them in. Owl came over to me and glanced between us, “We are done here.”
I nodded and waved good bye at the pipe salesman then followed Owl out of the store. We had walked a few feet when Owl asked, “Is that guy going to be ok?”
“The guy I gave the herbs?” When she nodded I continued, “Oh yea he will be fine. Did you get another piece of the stone thing?”
She pulled a chunk of the stone out from under her cloak. I could tell it was the same thing we had gotten previously by the color and texture, "What's next then?”
“We go to the next location.” Owl answered while putting the stone away and bringing up another teleport.
The change was drastic. We went from being in a really hot land to standing on ice. Owl’s mask slammed shut over her jaw, helping contain her body warmth. The wind was wild, blowing snow over our feet. Owl took a step and dropped into the snow showing me it was waist deep. She paused, glancing around, then leaned forward and started plowing a trench into the snow.
I waited for her to get ahead then stepped off the snow into her tacks and followed her. We couldn't see very far, maybe thirty feet in front of us because of how heavy it was snowing. Owls cape flapped behind her as she marched ahead of me. We had crossed about a half a mile before I felt the ground below us change from rock hard frozen dirt to concrete. “Is this cold to you? I yelled over the screaming wind.
“No. My suit is rated for out of atmosphere activities. I don't feel a thing.” She must have turned the volume up on her suit because her reply was louder than my yell.
Owl kept marching forward, leading us farther onto the concrete. Up ahead I saw something silhouetted and as we got closer I realized it was a steel building. It was mostly covered in snow and the door was iced over horribly. Owl pushed past it and the next three that appeared.
We eventually came up to a concrete wall with a red stripe painted across it. Owl turned left and followed it and I hurried to follow her. The cold didn't bother me but I could feel my clothing starting to get wet and freeze as we walked. We came upon what could only be called a blast door. It was made of steel and looked to be ten feet high, absolutely covered in ice. Owl walked over and pulled her arm back before slamming it forward into the ice. Chunks broke off and scattered around us. Owl looked at the damage then stepped back, “We need in there.”
I stepped over to her and this close to her she slightly blocked the wind. I raised my hand and placed it against the ice. It was cold and smooth under my palm. I pulled back a little and pushed with a twist of chi. The twisting made my chi resonate with the ice, it spread through making the ice glow a little bit. The chi in the ice twisted and the ice poofed from one solid chunk of frozen water into snow. I took a step back and bumped into Owl and the snow fell from the door.
I looked at her mask and I could just feel the sigh from her. She stepped around me and started shoveling snow from the front of the door. When she cleared enough snow to be satisfied she reached up and grabbed the seam of the door. I could see her fingers sink into the steel as she leaned back and pulled. Metal shrieked a little as the door moved. She pulled it back maybe three inches before the metal she was holding onto snapped off.
I weaved forward around Owl as the door started to slam shut and jammed my hands in the gap. I pulled back and opened it more. Owl stepped past me and into the gap. I followed her, letting go of the door when I was inside and it slammed shut behind us.
Outside the wind was loud and screaming, inside here it was almost silent. I could still hear the wind screaming through the walls but it was muted. The walls were curved and met at the ceiling completely made of cement. Dead lights hung from the center of the ceiling. Owl turned to me and her mask opened, “Can you see in the dark?”
“Yes. I should be fine. What is this place?”
Owl stepped forward into the dark leading us through the place, “It is an old military bunker. When the world war ended quite a few of them were abandoned. This one is far into the north, almost reaching the north pole.”
Her voice echoed out as she led us through the place. I could see some military like things, signs on the walls and old metal bunks in the rooms we passed. There were old rusted guns and we passed by a vehicle bay with trucks that had sat since the place was abandoned, “I can smell mold in the air. Is this place safe for you?”
We stepped into what looked like an office. There were file cabinets on one wall and an old steel desk with a lamp on it. “I am fine. Anything I catch gets fought off faster than the symptoms appear.”
Owl headed over to the file cabinets and started looking at labels before finding what she wanted and pulling one open. She rummaged through the papers as I stepped into the room and looked around. There was a map on the wall so I headed over to it. It looked like a general map of the area and defensive plans. I heard Owl curse and turned towards her. She had a folder in her hands that was crumbling. Time wears on all things, “Did you get what you needed from it?”
She stood up and brushed the decomposed paper from her suit, “I have enough to extrapolate.”
She marched out of the room. I gave the map one last glance then followed her out. Owl led us deeper into the facility. We didn't head to the center of it but to one of the sides. We swung down a hallway and our way was blocked by a door. It looked like a ship door with the wheel used to lock it. Owl walked up to it and grabbed the wheel with both hands before twisting. The wheel spun about an inch before it seized up. Owl applied a little more pressure and the wheel snapped off with a shriek and a pop. She held the wheel in her hands before tossing it to the side and stepping away, “You're up.”
I stepped up and rapped my knuckles across the door before turning back to her, “Take a few steps back.”
She walked backwards about ten feet. I gave her a nod and turned back towards the door. I leaned back and raised my left leg before snapping forward with a kick. The metal turned to putty under my blow, warping the door, making gaps on the top and the bottom. Water started pouring out of the bottom which was shocking because it was still kind of cold in here. I turned to Owl in question and she had an answer, “an old reactor powers this bunker. Some mad scientist built it into the basement, that's why this place isn't a bunker of solid ice.”
Turning back to the door I stood on my tip toes and grabbed the top of it. Flexing my core and pulling down I tore the door from its locking bolts. Water flowed over my shins and I shifted and tossed the door to the side. Owl stepped past me and into the room beyond. The room wasn't that big but there were metal crates against the back wall. I followed Owl to one and she dug her fingers into the box and ripped the lid off. She leaned over the box and started digging through it pulling out rags and chunks of rusted weapons to the sound of sloshing water.
I looked around the room as she searched for the stone. Some of the boxes were kicked over and spilled. The people who left must have done so in a hurry. There was a pipe over my head that dripped water every few seconds telling me how the room was filled.
Owl pulled herself out of the box holding a stone, dripping water.She turned towards me as she pulled it under her cloak. “Whats next?” I asked.
“Somewhere warm.” She answered as she raised her forearm.