The sun comes shining through

Rushing her way towards the moving crowd, there'd be flying cars almost hitting her. 

"Hey! Watch it, dumba-" cuts off before they can finish their insult, "Yo! Carefu-" just fading back into the ambient stepping and her deep breaths to signify exhaustion. 

[Acceleration] was indeed turning on and off- not that it'd matter for someone who was on the run, worried about people watching her, the leaks- especially the leaks. 

Her hands reached for anything to grab on her way, muttering a little sorry with each hotdog-on-a-stick she grabs by the moment, having some guilt-grabbing lemonade from a kid's stand, taking a huge grub to eat and replenish.

"Getting a higher ground would be best-" using [Reverse] to fling herself up, rewinding gravity itself to get above instead of jumping since it could destroy the ground beneath her and cause noise, "A better view would give me the advantage to figure out what he would do..." her eyes like a bird, who zooms out to see Nevada like an interactive map, getting an eagle's view of the town she previously was on. 

"First, the projectile he threw- just bouncing projectiles around at some angle. And second, the ability to "stop" things, which is the "squeezing" feeling I got with my arms. So... the latter is an unknown 'til now..."

Just floating to get a hold of her bearings, she would breathe in and out. Like a spa, she would attempt to relax her body and soothe any form of stress. Massaging to help grip herself to logic, and root down any emotional aspect ruining the thought process.

As much as confusion runs on her mind, reason can't explain why they were here at all. Or maybe there was, not until that was defenestrated long ago. But even then, a fight's a fight. Knowing one's goal won't help much since this was never a negotiation to begin with...

for him at least.

"Breathe in" inhale, "Breathe out..." exhale.

Control was the best way to put it, control to not overexert herself again and try not to commit any fatal error on her part to not be taken over by the enemy. An action involuntary to even herself, that dream did not do much but hinder the upcoming inevitable.

But it won't matter, Naikhee is evil! So, in caveman terms: evil guys equals evil ideas. Fairly simple if you look at it with the notion that 1 + 1 is to 3.

"Calm down-"

With the loud clanking of metal, someone was rising atop the clouds, now chucking many spears from the floor Nicole thought to be a massage area. Though a possibility of him just catching up, paranoia wasn't helping at all.

Some missed given the reversed gravity around her, but some made their way to her palms and thighs. With it causing dents and major bleeding.

She tried to fly up more, but she couldn't quite reach space just yet. Pulled down by her ankle thanks to Xehnyier, she fought back with [Acceleration] combined with [Reverse] to attract the clouds at a faster rate, wanting to use that as her ticket to a safe town.

However, her ticket slip was long expired, already at the brink of it before the final time chimes in for the final call. Instead, the curtains pull her right back onto the stage, punched by the act she never meant to partake in.

She tried to parry, but she eventually succumbed to a flurry of blows to her torso and face, Grey directing her body toward the other set of clouds, colliding as she cracked toward the nimbus all followed by projectiles pinning her arms. 

Crucified, Nicole would try to bring her hands together, in such an attempt that strange, weird-looking, "un-fleshlike" material sprouted out from the holes her palms were struck on. Bringing them together, "[Stop]!" she yelled, though was kneed right to her side as she brought her gaze forward- the temporal barrier forming in front- with him at her rear already.

An axe kick to the crown, countering with her [Reverse] to send him to a course ending with her elbow, but blown back by the projectiles Grey threw to now be reused and chop her limb off.

Jumping, he'd grab her by the ankle again, only for Nicole to just rip that as well. Leaping for a lay-up, he'd swirl the angled rocks to hit her ribs and a hook kick heading for the temple. 

[Accelerate], [Reverse], [Stop]

The severed arm would start to accelerate towards her, with said stump growing back into a new limb- severing that too, because why not- and squeezing it, blocking the kick. For the projectiles, the returnee candidate would make a radius for her arm to stop the moving things, and sling them back with her remaining appendage.

"That's why..." widening his eyes in surprise, Xehnyier would get knocked back, as the inverse fades. Restarting the engine for annoying rock debris, he'd turn around and reach over for them. 

[Accelerate], [Temporal Shift] 

However, the "direction" in which the projectiles traveled went back and lacerated him instead, with the angles "altered" through the usage of the accelerated air to bend its vectors. Utilizing the stamina she gained from resting- even for just a while- an open vulnerable spot was right there like a gold mine. 

"That quick?" exclaimed Xehnyier, embedding the projectiles to him with force, before he tried using [REDACTED] to [REDACTED], only for them to be stopped- quite literally- with a projectile reaching for his head. 

Throwing a flurry of accelerated punches, the limit at which [Stop] remained could only last her a second's worth of time. But even then, it'd do not as much damage, much like hitting a piece of concrete with bare noodle hands. Instead of piling up meaningless offensive, conservation of stamina was the best. 

Stepping aside, the bright noon sun revealed itself before Nicole touched the upcoming beam to make it a long flashbang enough for a way of escape, regrowing a new arm as she headed towards a new location: Colorado River.