Meanwhile, Sky Ranger has been on the run since turning on the Reformists following the murders of all of the extrahumans in the Union Tower. He finds himself on a ship headed to Raton space that crashes on a desert planet. Many are killed in the crash and the ragtag group of survivors don't have much trust for Sky Ranger, since, to them, he seems to switch sides a bit too easily. Renna, a young woman whose lover, Amy, was killed in the crash, is Sky Ranger's only advocate and the two develop a tentative friendship/sexual relationship. When Renna and Dee, a 13-year-old survivor whose parents were killed in the wreck, discover a Raton outpost in the middle of the desert, things go from bad to worse. A beacon alerts the powers that be and a ConFedMilPol ship is sent out to extract and imprison the survivors. Only Sky Ranger and Dee avoid capture, however they eventually fall prey to imprisonment as well.
While in prison, Sky Rangers discovers that several other extrahumans from the Tower made it out alive and he is thrilled to know he is not the only one left. The group bands together to not only escape their prison, but to rescue the crash survivors who are being held elsewhere, with the ultimate goal of all of them escaping to Valen to live in freedom and peace.
While I still find the dialogue is Bigelow's stories often trending towards sophomoric, she has grown as a writer and this story was far more enjoyable and interesting. The plot did zigzag a bit and at times, I found it hard to really identify with certain characters. That is to say, I didn't care enough for them to try and remember what their super power was or to try to visualize them in my mind. Also, while the story does wrap up in a happy ending for Penny and Sky Ranger, there are some things left open-ended and unresolved, such as what was so important and secretly hidden in Renna's bag, and what happens to Torres, the dangerous lab-created extrahuman sent to kill Sky Ranger. I expect a third novel in the not-so-distant future to tie up these loose ends, however. While I wasn't originally looking forward to reading Fly Into Fire, I am anticipating the next chapter in the extrahumans' universe.
