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[color=00a651][i]"RIVKA, I CAN'T CATCH HER IN TIME!"[/i][/color]

Shielded from the glare by her opalescent lenses Rivka's eyes snapped up and immediately narrowed. Crystal had begun to fall. Selma spotted her, processed, yelled, and Rivka herself heard, processed, and spotted her in turn. Mere moments, barest instants, but in this case those were [i]crucial[/i] fractions of the time needed. She was the [i]last[/i] person who should handle this. Gravity, earth, ice, and water were all better choices to save her than [i]fire[/i]. That didn't matter. If the [i]devushka[/i] said she couldn't save her she couldn't save her. Chie and Aoife were occupied, and that left her.

The word 'impossible' never entered her mind. The Ars Magi jammed her rifle through a sling on her Parma immediately, planted her feet, and cast the incoming drones out of her mind. Though live-fire this was still an exercise; medical staff were nearby, she was garbed in her Parma, and she was resistant to the heat the missiles would generate. Coupled with her supernatural might she would survive— if painfully— anything that came her way. But neither gravity or chance played any favorites, and impacting uneven terrain at terminal velocity was [i]dangerous[/i], even for an Ars Magi. Maybe even lethal. A member of her team was in danger. Her roommate, her [i]friend[/i], was in danger. 

Letting her down wasn't an option.

The lilac-hued girl pushed off from the ground as hard as she could. The water below her feet evaporated, the concrete dried, scorched, and cracked near to shattering in the span of a few seconds of blistering heat. To thermal imaging she looked like a brand new sun, the glare of her fire as bright as before but [i]sustained[/i]. Contained, sustained explosive force launcher her into an intercept course like a blazing comet shaded in orange and gold upon every opalescent accent. Practice, practice, practice had been the name of the game since the first time she tried this stunt; the ache in her ankles had demanded it. She could generate the lift, slow her descent, but [i]control[/i] was proving elusive; fire was fickle, it performed as it was bid and no more. Without any sort of fine vectoring proper flight was beyond her. For now. But fire would [i]obey[/i], it would do [i]exactly[/i] what she [color=7e5e7f][i][b]damn[/b][/i][/color] well needed it to do. It didn't have to be graceful. It just had to be enough.

The two Ars Magi collided, and collided hard, but Rivka wrapped one arm tightly around her roommate to keep her from slipping away. That, admittedly, was as far as her plan had gone. Their momentum, the opposite of each other, canceled each other out— nearly. Rivka had ascended a decent bit faster than gravity had accelerated Crystal. That was the science. The reality was simpler. They both slowed, and jointly reached the apex of Rivka's new trajectory before they again began to fall. 

She felt rather lightheaded, actually. Dizzy. Channeling so much fire so fast, perhaps, but there wasn't any room for that. There wasn't any room for weakness. Seconds of respite, and she needed every one to muster her focus again to visualize the fire needed to slow their descent. All she had to do was slow them down. 

Rivka never said a word.