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Nicole felt success lurch from beneath her in the span between two heartbeats. The first instant, the song of victory was alive in her chest, thrumming with more energy than she had ever felt in any club, any arcade - anything in her life. The next, she was tumbling, her flight crudely interrupted by talons from hell. She gasped as they scraped her fashionable little parma, grimacing as she felt Astrelle start to leave her grip. Instinctively, her arm shot for her roommate's hand.

She grabbed only the air. 

[color=ec008c][i]Where is she? Where is she? Fuck. Oh fuck. Did I drop her?[/i][/color]

She had no time to get cerebral about where Astrelle could have landed. She felt the claws of the devil wrap around her the same way they had wrapped about Astrelle, but clearly something in the Void's bestial consciousness recognized her as the girl who had just bifurcated it - and it was pretty pissed about its legs. She felt, but hardly registered, the feeling of talons sinking into her stomach as she was reared back and violently thrown through the air. She heard, but didn't contemplate, the wind in her ears - so quick to buffet her rise, and now so instrumental in her fall. She heard Penny and Dana's yells, and closed her eyes. 

[center][b]|| Music: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5HBuZCc3us][hype grunting intensifies][/url] ||[/b][/center]

[color=ec008c][i]I can breathe. I can fly. The wind is still mine.[/i][/color]

Through the pain in her stomach, Nicole tried to focus. But her concentration, just as she began to feel the faintest stirrings of control again, was broken by the sound.

She heard a noise, almost like whistling, cut through her head. But it wasn't any whistle she could ever recall - not like the sound her dad made, breezing through movie themes in the other room while he sliced vegetables or showered. It was the sound of something skull-checking the sound barrier, screaming its fury as it surpassed the limits imposed by their humanity. 

[color=39b54a]"Think fast, Nicole!"[/color]

[color=ec008c][i]What [b]is[/b] this girl?[/i][/color]

Penny, fearless, brash, foul-mouthed little Penny, had latched onto Nicole firmly by the wrist and flung her, [i]hard[/i], with the same berserker strength that seemed to have a knack for landing her [i]into[/i] these situations in the first place. Nicole was more than grateful for the second wind, though; in fact, as she picked up momentum again, hurtling with speed that approached that of Penny's rocket-blading, she began to laugh maniacally. It was better than any thrill ride she'd ever been on, and even though the wind had largely sucked the cackle from her mouth, muffling her, she felt the same breezy, devil-may-care joy resonate through her whole body again. The wind [i]was[/i] hers, and she could feel it begin to cushion her anew as she descended. She touched down onto a street light and whooped aloud.

Nicole grinned, looked up and felt the sun on her face. It took her a second to grasp the implication.

She looked down, blinking, to see Dana standing at the head of an enormous beam, one that she knew felt as warm and comforting to them as it must have been hell for the Void. She could see the disgusting, oil slick-like effect of the creature's decimated body in the air, and her experience just seconds was already catalogued into her [i]'shit I have to learn to keep doing this job for a long time'[/i] databank in her brain. So from her perch, she drew her blued saber, hearing its peerless edge hum and sing in the air, and brandished it in an overhand cut. 

[color=ec008c]"Clean up, Vedfolnir!"[/color]

A gust of wind blew through the epicenter of Dana's strike, scattering the pieces of charcoal Nox in various directions. Hopefully they wound up at the four corners of the fucking world, but she would settle for the knowledge that the creature's tatters were now too far away to reaccumulate into a monster. She grinned, ready to congratulate the girls, when she saw Dana begin to sway.

With a graceful leap, Nicole landed from her perch and bent down to catch Dana before she hit the ground, feeling a slight twinge in her tummy where the Void's talons had cut her during the throw. Affectionately, she ruffled the sleeping Dana's hair and looked up at Penny. She gave a little wink of gratitude and bit the edge of her lip.

[color=ec008c]"Man,"[/color] she exhaled. [color=ec008c]"What fucking shows did they [i]show[/i] you kids?"[/color]

She started to giggle.