"Jump away from the cliff," Jin ordered.
Kira did; the horizon of the forest shifting before the cable and gravity brought her back to the cliff.
She landed in a crouch above Devon. Shock descended, his expression almost comical as he froze.
She grinned at him. "Hey, there."
"Move," he snapped, coming out of his stupor.
Kira made a tsking sound. She didn't think so. "Do you know what you're doing wrong?"
It was a rhetorical question. If he did, she wouldn't be there.
She didn't wait for him to answer, pouncing. She hammered both feet into his chest, knocking him off the cliff with ease. "Guess you'll have to try again."
He tumbled, his body hitting Aeron and sending both careening into a grav net. It sagged under their combined weight, before slowing their descent.
"Two strikes for the price of one," Jin crowed.
Kira bounced in place on her toes. "That was fun. Who's next?"
"Rheya is coming up on your left side. She'll pass you in five seconds."
"We can't have that, now can we?"
His laugh this time was diabolical. "No, we most certainly can't."
Kira raced horizontally across the cliff, spotting Rheya several feet above. When she was directly below the other woman, Kira exploded away from the cliff, executing a twirl as the cable caught Rheya and yanked her free. She sailed past Kira with an angry shout.
Kira's feet landed on the rock again, where she began to bounce, occasionally flipping or twirling at the apex of the move.
"Look alive, Raider and Blue are on the move," Jin told her.
She glanced down, spotting the last two. "Looks like Blue made a few modifications to her mag boots."
"I don’t think anybody has thought of that application for them before," Jin said, sounding interested.
"You can ask her about it after this," she promised him.
Kira studied the Curs closely. They would be a more difficult foe than the other initiates. With Blue, they were guaranteed to have a trick or two up their sleeve, and their teamwork would make them that much more dangerous. And they’d seen the others fall to her machinations.
Kira bared her teeth in a crazy grin; one echoed on the faces of her former companions. She wasn't the only one anticipating the coming confrontation.
"Our fearless heroine on one side and her worthy foes on the other. Who will come out the winner?" Jin's tone adopted that of a race announcer, playing up the drama.
Kira crouched. "Us. Always us, Tin Man."
"Ten-four, Phoenix."
Kira breathed deep, springing forward as she exhaled. She propelled herself at the two in the blink of an eye.
Raider straightened from the cliff, his boots clinging to the stone. He reached for Blue, a tracery network of azure lines sprang into existence between the two of them, crackling with electricity.
"Now," Blue shouted.
Raider heaved. Blue's feet left the cliff as he slung her toward the top.
"Oh, that is clever," Kira said as Blue passed her. "But not clever enough. Jin."
