#0 - Duality: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Holly is sent back with the blast, as though little more than a piece of alley debris kicked up by the wind. And that's really all you are, if you don't FIGHT! she hears in her head, but it's not much like The Voice at all, this one feels... like her mother? Oh god, just what she needs right now is to get lectured by Mom of all things.

At least she knows how to deal with a Mom lecture: do the opposite. It's an instinct even stronger than whatever she did with... her hands... what was... no, snap out of it! Time enough to worry about that later. That other one took David, and that's her first worry. He showed her the first bit of friendship she'd felt in days, and she wasn't about to let him suffer for that. That other nova came from below, the sewers, and she took him back down (how did she DO that?) that way.

That's where she was going. Let these two fight it out up here... whatever it was she did to Blondie, it didn't seem to have much effect. She spots the open access where the manhole had exploded up from the ground and goes for it at a run, taking the ladder down as fast as she can to try and locate David.

Duality scrambled to her feet in order to duck into the open manhole. And not a moment too soon either. Another blast hit the alley from above, this one more powerful than the previous. While she now knew more confidently that the attack was likely meant for the nova who was addressed as Jetstream and not for her, the blowback still caught her full force with a gout of flame pulled into the sewer to blast Duality's grip on the ladder rungs, sending her splashing into the murky water below, which probably saved her from being roasted.

The flash of light illuminated the sewer briefly, revealing a straight tunnel leading both ways, but no sign of the nova who had disappeared with David. Or perhaps she saw a brief shadow of two figures heading in one of the directions? It was all too sudden and too quick to tell.

Still, if she was being pursued, this was the first instance for which she had a moment of respite. If she wanted to try and get away, here was her opportunity, before her pursuer or pursuers came after her. After all, while she might surmise as to the intentions of Jetstream and the phasing woman, she had yet to figure out what the fire nova wanted. Her last option would be to chase after David, but that would lead her straight into the phasing woman and probably allow the other fighting novas a chance to catch up with her.