[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/dGFSkqO.png[/img][/center] [hr] Nicole's exhilarated laughter finally came to a stop as new orders from the tower came through their earpieces. She looked up to the direction of the observation platform, where their supervisors and Vanna waited and watched. She understood the logic of keeping a daughter of the Duodecim in reserve for a complication like the one they'd just destroyed, but it still got under her skin a little bit. Vanna was a more than capable fighter, from what little Nicole had seen of her prowess. Another thing Astrelle had probably hit a little too hard on the nose back onboard the [i]Laurus[/i], days previously. Speaking of her embattled, grouchy goth roommate, she heard a new voice chime in on the Ars Magis' celebration: [color=b699ff]“This certainly beats those dumb cartoons, but I'll give them credit for fueling your creativity."[/color] Nicole smiled at Astrelle wanly for a moment before looking back down at the unconscious Dana. With her fingers, she did her best to hastily fix the directions that the fight - and [i]maybe[/i] Nicole's congratulatory headpatting - had sent her hair flying. When she felt she had done a satisfactory enough job, she arced her back a bit, ready to bounce off the pavement. A little hiss came through her teeth, along with a grumbled little [color=ec008c]"Fucker, fuck, owwww, man..."[/color] She would probably be feeling where the Void's claws had raked her for a while; the side of her stomach was taut and red, with little trickles of her magic blood trickling onto the waistline of her damaged parma. [color=ec008c]"See you in hell, you fuckin' bozo,"[/color] sh continued to grumble. Her eulogy to their first major Void kill was taken away on the same gusts that had dispersed its ruined corpse. [color=ec008c]"Come on, girls. The Powers that Be are calling us. Not you, babe. You can sleep,"[/color] she added, proceeding to undo all the work she'd just done on Dana's hair thoughtlessly with another headpat. [color=ec008c]"You did great."[/color] Nicole stood up, feeling her abdomen scream in protest even after she'd steeled herself to move again, with Dana wrapped up in her arms like a sleeping sibling. Thankfully, the younger girl was probably the lightest of the five of them, so carrying her back to the tower was no sweat. She cocked her head forward, in a gesture for the others to follow her.