Some people go around the world for love

'Not much from the norm aside from what happened'.

That was the very answer she wanted to believe... yet that foolish assumption has no proof for it to hold on to except her very own hubris, all fabricated from false beliefs thinking that she could even fix a mess comparable to a child breaking expensive things in the middle of a mall.

But in most cases, a sigh and breathing out is the easiest way to alleviate her worry... for now.

Waking herself from the stress her actions caused, Nicole gently placed the poor beaten-up man aside, patched his bruises a bit with Acceleration, and left unannounced. Leaving traces of nothing, the distressed pale doll leapfrogs from holo-lamps to some floating discs, up to the sky she went.

The first thing that came to her mind was still the events that had transpired exactly ten minutes after her cookbook tutorial on how to solve her mess, sponsored by Nevada.

Even for her, something this unexpected- this.... uncalled-for event, was still very much surprising even to those who have witnessed it. There wasn't anything that could've been a factor- no, there 'is' one variable responsible...

Herself.

Her arrival in this world not only brought this worldwide catastrophe but brought attention to [REDACTED] as well. Though that alone was obvious, she can't help but think about the reasons behind 'why' they want her to 'go home' in the first place. Was it because of her power? Her Daydream? Not much could be inferred.

"But it wasn't that he was going all-out as well. Dealing excessive collateral damage isn't something a guy with his composure would've done, nor something petty like getting a hostage would do any good..." 

Nicole eventually lands on top of the skyscraper near the hotel, looking at the citizens, the cars about to fly into said citizens, alongside the debris that flew off.

"There isn't much to gain from that scuffle, it'd be best not to stress about it..." With a sigh, she held her hand and spread her fingers in each direction, giving a bend and squeeze before moving counterclockwise. 

Reversal, antithesis, tergiversation. 

The damage done slowly but surely came back to the place they were supposed to go, the same path they originally came to be, the very same spot they must be. 

But as Nicole slowly repairs both the hotel and the remaining wreckage, a small river of oddly shaped liquid leaks out from her nostrils. Its color, a shifting, mercury-bismuth-like hybrid, slowly trickled down from her nose down to her neck. 

Slowly, Nicole's hand found itself beginning to betray her, succumbing to a relentless surge of nervousness. It was as if an invisible orchestra had started playing a symphony of some guy who definitely is not Beethoven playing the single worst piece of music within Nicole, having her right hand be the very conductor of this dissonant, rubbish performance.

The first tremor was subtle- in the background- almost imperceptible to anyone even to herself. The fingers started to twitch ever so slightly, like a teeny tiny ripple of some quiet pond disturbed by a force yet unseen- a prelude to the storm that was approaching.

As the stress intensified, the shivering escalated. Her knuckles turned a shade of black as they- alongside the left hand- clenched involuntarily, the tendons straining and convulsing against the forthcoming quiver. The tremors extended from her hands to her arms, as if a silent earthquake had taken residence within, threatening to rupture through the surface in a burst.

Each passing moment only helped magnify the intensity of this mysterious event. She fell to her knees and quivered like a leaf caught in a fierce autumn gale. What once was an involuntary job involving the imminent internship that is "repairing" is now a canvas of erratic motion and confusion of the turmoil that churned within her body.

Any form of the body's attempts to control the shaking was just as effective as convincing a serial killer to be a kind person just after having taken a thousand lives- futile. The blood spilled from her neck down to her chest, with little tiny rattled lines cracking from her kneecaps to her face. 

Malfunction?

It was not just a malfunction; it was a reaction brought by the body's desire to relieve itself. At that moment, more things had happened during the instant she fell- a poignant reminder that even in the wielding of such raw power, trying to grasp something beyond what can and cannot be possible causes her to...

"Guess I overexerted..."

She turned her wrist to get a good look at her hand, now full of blood and cracks. It wasn't out of the blue that it did happen, rather one that she didn't expect- not this soon.

But before her thoughts could complete themselves, she coughs up more of the same weird icky ooze and vomits on the mixed concrete, the liquid seemingly flowing- hydrophobic to the solid it had just touched.

Like a twist as bitter as Momordica charantia, if not a lot more, the city- no, the entire globe- had been freed from the shackles of stopped time. With each hacking rasp, states and continents were unchained, untied as the long grueling hours of wait seemingly dissipated. She tried to hold a hand to cover her waterfall of a mouth, only releasing more of her fluids as she struggled to breathe.

"Seriously now?! I- *coughs -I can't show myself like this in front of him!" she slowly crawled away from the pool of  blood she made and slumped against the rooftop fences, twitchingly glancing over the tall buildings and the people. 

Though some were saved, ignored, or had gone their way without realizing a single thing, many were confused or outright panicking from the things they saw- yet again, another one to add to "her fault" lists. 

Huffing and puffing, she swallowed a lump in her throat and sighed. Something else was on her mind at that time, from the way the incidents had been happening to the news to the things she felt. 

What was it that triggered it?

"That dream from last night...."