Amber hooked her hands under Kai’s armpits and hoisted him to his feet as if he were a child. Then, without a grunt, she pivoted, scooped one arm under his knees and the other behind his back, and cradled him against her chest. His head rested naturally against the curve of her deltoid.
By the third take, the crew was silent. The lighting tech, a grizzled man who’d worked on action movies for twenty years, muttered, “I’ve seen stunt rigs less stable than her.”
The request came via a private message from a producer known only as “Voss.” He was putting together a new kind of physical showcase. Not a competition, not a strongman event, but a narrative. A story told through lifts. Amber hooked her hands under Kai’s armpits and
Voss called cut, then immediately asked for a reset. He wanted the “Amazon carry”—Kai draped face-down across her forearms like a piece of lumber. Then the “fireman’s carry” over one shoulder, his torso draped down her mountainous back. Each time, Amber adjusted her grip, her traps and rhomboids rippling beneath the torn fabric of her costume.
“Amber,” Voss finally said, “that’s a wrap. But… can you do that again for the B-camera?” By the third take, the crew was silent
She laughed, a low, rumbling sound. “Give me five minutes. I want to rehydrate. Then I’ll carry you too, if you want.”
When she reached the top, Voss didn’t say cut. He just stood there, mouth slightly open. A story told through lifts
“I need an Amazon,” his message read. “Not a woman who looks like one. A real one. Lift and carry. No tricks. No harnesses. Just raw, beautiful power.”
Voss turned red. The crew laughed. And Amber Steel—Amber DeLuca, the FBB, the Amazon—walked over to her water bottle, every muscle still humming, ready to lift the world again.
Amber smirked, her lats flaring as she leaned back in her chair. She’d done lift-and-carry videos before—fireman’s carries, shoulder sits, the classic cradle hold that made grown men blush. But this felt different. Voss wanted a scene: a futuristic warrior retrieving a fallen comrade from a collapsing alien ruin.