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Selma was a working girl for as long as she could remember— the family business was the [i]family[/i] business, after all. You didn't get to [i]sit out[/i] on the last vestiges of humanity's agriculture. When the day broke, you got up and hopped to it. No matter what aches or pains assailed her, the young sapling had it down to her roots that go time was [i]go time[/i].

The burst of light, sound, and pain felt like a punch to the nose, of course. When you had no idea something like that was coming, you couldn't brace for it, couldn't take a strong defensive stance in the mind or body. Even her tough hide only offered so much protection from a cherry bomb sucker punch... but it clearly did much more for her than the soldiers had access to. Even Captain Wei was down for the count, as far as her blurred vision could clock. [color=00a99d][i]Uh oh. That's really not good.[/i][/color] Craning her neck further, she grit her teeth and squinted at the only two things she saw on their feet— tall, masked, and decidedly dragging away her two new friends, judging from the thrashing close beneath them. If there were ever a "go time"—

Sharp pain to her side brought the world back into focus, a new stimulus resetting whatever in her brain had still been left reeling. Two knuckles, just under the ribcage, and a hiss of Baeterrae-tinted [color=8407c2]purple[/color] in her ear brought much needed direction to a swimming sea of colors and sound.

[color=8407c2]"Eyes behind us, [i]devushka[/i], we could be surrounded."[/color]

—With the mental tabula rasa, and an understanding of the situation the girls had found themselves in, "go time" was clearly [color=00a99d]now.

"[i]Jawohl.[/i]"[/color]

Since sight was limited by brightened eyes adjusting to a dark room, since sound was limited by her eardrums filtering out the explosion that had gone off in their faces (albeit enough for her to hear Chie's panicked screaming), Selma turned to her next strongest weapon. Everything that walked the earth took a step, and everything taking a step left its mark on the earth. Ground imparted force unto feet as feet imparted it unto ground, vibrations passing more readily through solid material like concrete, tile, and stone than a fleeting medium like air could ever carry.

[i]Tap.[/i]

Pushing herself off the ground, the rising tree took a deep breath and [i]felt[/i] the response to the vibrations send out by her knuckles rapping against the linoleum. More effective than her eyes ever could be even at full capacity, this dowsing ping offered a 360-degree layout of everything connected to the earth here— a mental map of subtle differences in vibration and reception. Very good for low-light situations. Rivka to her right, the assembled soldiers ahead and beside. Crystal and Chie up ahead, the former having freed herself and gotten much closer to their assembled backline, the latter still within the clutches of the two assailants, some four or five meters ahead. Whatever was behind... she would know about. Everything in this section for sure.

[i]KRAK.[/i]

A second strike, a full punch against the polished hardness beneath as she rose to a knee, unintentionally mimicking her partner's posture. A second ping to keep the picture clear as one might expect, but now that she knew the layout of things, the composition, and the locations of everyone around her that she [i]didn't[/i] find friendly, she could do something about 'em. In exchange for what little Nox she could use, for her only real trick with magic so far, she gained far more value in forewarning, which was as we all know, [i]forearming[/i].

[i]THUD.[/i]

A stern stomp upon the black and white at her feet followed the crack of Rivka's rifle, heralding the big girl rising to her full height, her venerable bookbag now carried in one white-knuckled hand as opposed to her back. Inside was nothing too special— just a few notebooks and clothes, really. But trees weighed a lot living or dead, and this one was intent on making their assailants [i]feel[/i] it.

[color=00a99d]"I've got our back! Is Chie still in trouble?"[/color] she called over her shoulder, the tightly woven fibers of the top strap of the backpack tensing under centripetal force as her wrist began to whirl, anticipating a melee. Unlike Rivka, a sport shooter par excellence, Selma's strengths lied a little closer to home. The ringing in her ears had cleared, finally, after that which the gunshot had wrought ceased.

If push came to shove, she'd launch her best shot at continued education into one of those featureless masks and settle the rest with her bare hands. It didn't matter if they'd just met, if they were all still really awkward around eachother, if they'd not progressed past small talk.

There was no way in hell she was gonna let [i]anyone[/i] get taken.