He toppled, and I shifted my position to guide his fall for the first half of the way. The focus on the latter half of the way was letting my forcefield down and catching Kenzie.

Chris fell flat on his back. Kenzie wriggled momentarily, and I deposited her on Chris’s chest, to make getting to his feet just a little bit harder. The claw slipped free of my arm.

My vision was clearing enough for me to see vague expressions, without precise detail. Chris was grinning, shaking with a laugh or chuckle.

“Come on, get up, get up!” Kenzie goaded him.

“Get off me then!” Chris boomed.

Orange motes were starting to surround them.

“Victoria!” Tristan called out. “Switch with me!”

The words were barely out of his mouth when Ashley used her power again. It was noisy to the point I worried my ears would be ringing an hour after this exercise. I could see it as a visible blur of shadow aimed behind her and toward the ground. She used the recoil to launch herself off to one side, to help her get around and past Tristan. More orange motes appeared in the direction she was going.

She used her power again, changing course to fly straight for Tristan. She planted one foot on his shoulder, stepped down so her back grazed against his, her long hair draping over his head and shoulders, aimed forward with both hands, and used her power a third time just as she touched ground, her back to his.

A power-augmented body-check. The recoil of her power pushed her in the opposite direction she fired, but because she was in contact with Tristan, she pushed him too. She stumbled, but he sprawled to the ground, his armor striking the hard platform he’d created on the slope, metal screeching and clashing against stone.

The orange motes that had started to appear around Chris and Kenzie came to life around them, an especially spiky, irregular outcropping with a thin ridge extending out to the growth he’d been making in front of Ashley’s original course, which became its own vaguely pineapple-shaped formation.

He’d wanted me to deal with Ashley. Okay. She was rolling her shoulders, rubbing at one, while she stalked toward the fort.

I could see better, so I could possibly pull this technique off better. I flew at her, and she barely seemed to pay me any mind.

My feet touched ground, helping to stop me as I reversed my direction of flight to cancel out my forward movement. I’d wanted to avoid all physical contact, but I did bump my shoulder into hers as I went from flying at near-top speed to a full stop, my face a couple of inches from hers, well inside her personal space.

As with Chris, I used my emotion aura.