Step 7.2
The darkened sky burst with light, three beams cutting through the air toward the bay.
The controls fought me.
My arms tensed and my hands hurt keeping control, but I pushed them. Forced them to stay on target. Steam billowed from the beams as rain evaporated on contact.
The concentrated blast of GN particles slammed into the wave on either side and I started turning the barrels.
The capacitors began to drop.
I only had a few seconds to do it.
The turret swiveled to the right and my arm went left.
The wave buckled and vomited steam into the air.
I angled the beams down, closer to the surface of the water. Hard to tell with bay waves battering back and forth. The capacitors depleted by the moment, and I didn't have time to worry if I hit the exact right spot. I needed to just cut the wave and hope- It will work.
I kept cutting, pushing both beams to meet in the center.
The capacitors kept dropping.
There!
The beams crossed and as they met the wave exploded upward. It split in two, water crashing backward into the bay. The wings spread outward, smaller twenty foot walls of water crashing into the shore and embracing the buildings along the waterline.
The bay sloshed back and forth furiously, a wall of fog and steam spreading across the water's surface.
I didn't care. One building got battered and lost the side facing the water, and a park off in the distance got stripped clean. It didn't matter.
The bay slowly calmed back to its previous stormy conditions, the wave gone entirely.
Steam poured off Astraea and Queen's surfaces. The paint at the barrel tips of the cannons peeled back from the heat. I checked the barrels quickly. Simulations Veda and I ran showed a not insignificant chance of melting the internals on the first shot.
Around me, everything felt eerily silent.
The wind and rain, plus the crashing of waves. I started getting self-conscious in the silence, looking to Hero through Astraea's side cameras.
"Not bad," Hero said with a nod.
Did he know I just looked at him?
The waters continued to calm. Fog and steam rolled through the bay and into the streets along the water's edge. I checked the horizon but saw nothing.
"Alexandria speaking. Stay focused. Leviathan will send more waves. Report any sightings in the water or along the shore. Newtype, how many more times can you do that?"
Holy shit Alexandria is-
"I can only do it one more time," I said. "Two at most. The barrels will burn out after that and melt… I haven't solved that problem yet." Fuck she did not need to know that.
"Hold position," Alexandria said.
I nodded. "Will Leviathan hold off until a wave gets through?"
I suppose buying more time counted for something.
"No," Hero said grimly. "He's smarter than that. He won't sit out there waiting for a wave to-" Hero stopped, looking at the water. He pushed on his wrist, shouting, "Shadow in the bay! Grid B-4!"
I looked out over the water, training all three cannons on the grid square. I needed to squint to see it.
A shadow in the water, maybe forty feet long. It approached the middle of the bay ahead. Moved slowly and purposefully straight toward the shore.
"He came in with the wave," I said.
"Used it as cover," Hero agreed.
"Fire!" Legend ordered.
I didn't have time to charge for a major blast.
I just fired.
I pulled the triggers and the cannons streamed GN particles into the air.
Hero raised his arm, a machine unfolded and enclosing over the limb. The golden beam cut through the air like a ribbon, followed by spiraling light shot from Purity's hand. Missiles poured into the sky from Dragon's suit. Kid Win fired some kind of cannon mounted on his hover board. Miss Militia shot rockets. Black spheres I knew as Stratos' power appeared in the water.
The pod over my shoulder opened and launched two missiles. Veda maintained the connection between us, powering Astraea so that the beams came faster and hit harder.
All around me powers unleashed light, fire, ice, and fury.
The water exploded from the barrage, rising in a geyser from the impact.
I'm not sure what I expected. It wouldn't be the end of the fight, but maybe the start of it. Would Leviathan lash out then and there? Would he dive deeper to try and fool us? Emerge and stand there as if to mock us?
I thought a few things might happen.
I did not expect some rotten husk of an old ship to emerge from the surface. It splashed back and forth, riddled with holes and torn to splinters. And by old, I mean old. Like a galleon or something, covered in rot and coral.
It looked like something ripped off the ocean floor.
What?
"It's a diversion," Dragon announced. "Leviathan's location unknown."
"Leviathan has done this before," Legend said. "Stay calm. Eyes open. Do not lose your nerve."
He knows our positions now.
I didn't know how good Leviathan saw, but that's where my mind went. It's something I'd do. Send out something to encourage my enemies to attack so I'd be able to sit back and watch. Know where they set everything.
I looked at the map.
Small dots marked the positions of the armbands.
He wanted to draw our attention, right? Pull our eyes one way while he did something some other place.
Where?
We spread out across the city, blasters and fliers high in the towers of downtown. Other capes stood on lower rooftops facing the bay. No one on ground level. No, that would be suicide when we knew Leviathan's opening move. The remaining capes, those who'd signed up to support stood further back on buildings along the Charles River waiting.
He might still be at sea, watching from under the water.
Where will he go-
I turned my head.
Alexandria said it first.
"The river!" She shouted.
Everyone began turning around.
I rose into the air, Hero and the others following after me.
Too late.
The river exploded.
A massive pillar rose and expanded, enveloping the buildings along the shore. A few capes teleported off the rooftops, taking others with them. I saw space warp on one of the rooftops, a small girl in green holding her hand out and expanding the roof over to another nearby building.
The waves stopped, and snapped back, like on a video rewinding itself.
My eyes widened.
Legend's voice came over the intercom.
"Strider. Port. Cache. Get out-"
The air echoed with deafing cracks as concrete gave and steel bent. The buildings along the river bore and broke all at once. Capes fell into the stream. Others found purchase.
I saw Miss Militia firing a grenade launcher into the water, and a few others began to shoot. It started a volley from all around me as capes poured shots in but it all happened so fast.
The buildings cracked entirely, collapsing into the water and falling as a shadow rose.
I wanted to shoot forward, to do something.
I didn't get the chance.
It all happened too fast.
He's going to drown them.
A hand reached out from the water, big and covered in green scales. It grabbed a cape as he fell - Cache - and slammed him into the wall of collapsing buildings. A red streak trailed behind the hand, and the hand released the mangled body into the air.
The water broke, a massive green thing crashing into the falling debris and swiping it's tail through the air. It didn't hit anything, but a small wave of water cut out and rippled outward.
I saw bodies torn in half, and others crushed against debris. Yet more capes struggled and fought against the water dragging them into the river to no avail.
The water flowed backward to its source, leaving a large gangling thing to stand over the ruins. It's head turned toward us, three eyes on one side and one on the other.
"Leviathan, E-5," Dragon announced.
Then the casualties rolled in Dragon's voice.
Albatross down. Annex down. Blowout down. Cache deceased.
I aimed and fired.
A black dot streaked through the air, followed by a dozen others as light and fire streamed toward Leviathan.
"He wants to lure us in," Alexandria said. "Keep distance. Anyone who can take a hit and fly pin him. Give those in the river time to escape!"
My beams struck Leviathan in the shoulder, along with a ray of white light, golden ribbons, and spirally white.
The beast moved.
Fast.
It's one thing to hear it, it's another thing to see it.
Leviathan burst, water blowing away from his body and knocking Alexandria back inches from striking him.
"Leviathan moving toward E-1."
"Get the wounded out of the water!" Legend ordered. "Eyes open. He'll want to hit and run. We can't let him!"
"Newtype," Hero said.
I pushed on the pedals and propelled Astraea forward.
I turned in a wide arc, Hero, Purity, and the others right behind me and Veda flying in the rear again. The rain pattered against my shell as I adjusted speed, setting a pace the other capes seemed able to keep up with.
My hands shook at the controls, and I felt my heart harder than ever.
"Diving passes," Hero said. "No one lingers. Leviathan will grab you out of the sky if you let him. Newtype, arc around and we'll approach from the south-east."
I nodded and set course.
I didn't see Leviathan. The tall buildings obscured him, but I knew where he was. Missiles streamed from Dragon's suit as she flew north, and Miss Militia and others fired their powers from rooftops. Legend's light stood out in the dark sky going in the same direction.
Alexandria and her team flew through the city streets, and I lined up to follow them from above.
Leviathan shuddered under the blows as Legend and others fired into him. His tail slashed through the street and threw water up into the air. Dragon's missiles detonated before reaching their target, and a cape got cut in half.
Hawke Deceased.
Leviathan's arm swept back. Alexandria caught hold of him and strained, but other capes got knocked away, even those outside his reach. The water echo. With all the rain falling around us, he merely needed to strike and his range extended because of it.
I dodged one cape, flying under her as she spun past me. Her body crashed into Purity, and they both fell from the sky.
"Keep going," Hero said. "We can't stop."
My hands tensed.
I aimed the cannon on my shoulder and fired. A GN missile loosed from the missile pod, and I shot my twinned cannons at his chest. It's chest? Hero and the others stayed right on my trail, their powers firing as they passed and marked the street and buildings around Leviathan.
"StarGazer!" I called.
"Permission to break off," Veda said.
Right, he did say that. I did not plan for that.
"Be quick!" Hero said. "Newtype, we'll go right and come around for another pass."
At the tail of the line, Queen Gundam broke and swiveled about.
sys.v/ deploying fangs
The spikes on Queen's wings separated, a dozen small modules shooting into the air and surrounding Leviathan. The little fangs fired in a quick circling volley, dashing back and forth firing three shots each. Four spiraled in sync, blasting a larger beam that struck Leviathan's long thin arm.
They snapped back after firing, returning to Queen's wings in a flash.
Veda shot off into the sky, coordinating her telemetry with me and rejoining the line as I started to turn back for another pass.
Purity followed her.
The situation must suck if I felt relief a Nazi wasn't dead.
Below, Leviathan threw himself at a building.
Alexandria pushed, and Legend fired beams into the beast while capes gathered on the street. Fields began to appear, shimmering walls and obstacles as powers worked to hem the monster in. A teleporter's light flashed onto a nearby roof, and Stratos emerged among others.
He turned his scope on Leviathan.
"Pour it in!" Alexandria shouted.
She grabbed a truck off the street and swung it around. Leviathan caught the vehicle, and the air exploded. Alexandria gave Leviathan one last kick and then jumped off his face, every cape in sight pouring their powers into the monster.
I flew straight at him, firing a volley of my own and shooting by a second time. A hand reached out from within the blast area, grabbing someone behind me and whipping their body through the air. My brain started on its own, calculating the amount of force required to snap someone's back with air resistance.
Dragon kept announcing names the entire time.
Phobos down. Ravine deceased. Reynard deceased. Roulette deceased. Stardust down. Strider down.
All the capes he drowned and smashed in his grand opening
Dragon's casualty list continued to the end.
Vista down.
My heart jumped. I didn't know her well, but I did know her.
Just down, Dragon said. She's not dead. She's just down.
People were dead. Just like that. Dozens of them, all in an instant. What if Dragon got it wrong and Vista was dead? She's the same age as Dinah.
I steeled myself after the moment of panic.
I knew it would be like that.
I'd prepared myself. The Endbringers weren't like fighting capes. They weren't villains that could easily be manipulated or played against one another. More like forces of nature, and they needed to be endured.
Endured until I found a more permanent solution.
Still, those who got caught in Leviathan's ambush, or more? Did anyone ever help the capes swept into the river? I didn't see.
Damn it.
"Keep firing!" Legend said. "Pin him!"
The volleys continued.
I led Hero's group in a sharp turn and fired another volley at Leviathan, passing overhead as Alexandria pulled herself free of his hold. She flew off, putting distance between her and Leviathan. Her costume looked ragged and torn, but she didn't seem hurt.
Of course she wasn't. She's invincible.
I opened fire one last time on my pass, the capes behind me shooting and Veda launching another volley with the fangs.
He didn't move.
He's just standing there taking it.
With his speed, surely Leviathan could avoid being hit by everything we threw at him.
Eidolon came up from behind a building ahead of me, light charging in her hands. She fired, and the air cracked. The beam went past me toward the beast.
Leviathan surged, his body suddenly moving out of the way as the beam whipped through the air.
So he will dodge.
Rebound jumped out from behind some cars, right into the blast. The beam hit his body and bounced, cutting right back and crashing into Leviathan's side. The Endbringer shot back, body crashing into a building.
A teleporter took all the capes on the roof away, and the structure began to collapse atop the beast.
"Keep going," Hero said, around the same time Alexandria and Legend insisted everyone keep shooting.
The building exploded, capes firing into it while Leviathan scrambled in the collapsing glass and rubble.
"Newtype, can you fire that attack at Leviathan?" Hero asked.
"I can." Gladly.
I found a rooftop with line of sight and landed.
Veda landed hard behind me, and we linked the drives again.
I took aim, and after three seconds I pulled the triggers again. Astraea's cannons erupted, concentrated GN particles cutting through the air for a second time. I realized then how much the beam from my cannons at their maximum dwarfed all the other powers being shot.
The building exploded, floors collapsing like dominoes. They crashed to the ground, burying Leviathan under their weight.
I took pleasure in that.
"Wave." Dragon announced. "Brace."
Now?
I cut the beam, and Queen stepped back.
I didn't have time to stop it.
I saw the darkness rise in the distance. Capes hid themselves in fields of light or took cover. Teleporters moved groups as they could. Dragon slammed her suit down into the street, shielding a group of capes behind her.
The black mass crashed into the city, sweeping through the streets like a river. Smaller building collapsed, and the towers in downtown buckled. I saw it all from above. Capes who lost grip, or who got separated. Some capes didn't fly high enough and got caught in in the storm as the sea slammed over Boston.
I started to move, but Hero snapped, "Hold position! I know it's hard but-"
The collapsed building exploded outward in a blast of rock and water.
Leviathan surged forward, grabbing Dragon's suit from behind and driving his tail into one of the legs. Dragon turned and grappled the beast, armor cracking and groaning as the two struggled.
"Leviathan D-2," Dragon announced calmly.
The rubble from the building crashed into others, and joined the flow of water sweeping through the streets. One group of capes got buried, and the rubble broke up other groups and swept stragglers away.
The wave subsided, water receding in some areas while others remained swamped. In others the water seemed to slosh and simply reverse with the same intensity, dragging debris and capes out toward the bay.
Dragon began listing names, her suit still locked in a struggle with Leviathan. A few stood out to me.
Kid Win down.
Miss Militia down.
Velocity deceased
How? In the wave? In the rubble? I saw Kid Win flying earlier, did he get caught too low? I didn't get time to figure any of that our or decide how I felt about it.
Force fields fell, teleporters brought capes back.
It all started again.
Alexandria tackled Leviathan, knocking the Endbringer back and giving Dragon room to launch into the air and gain distance. The Endbringer switched targets easily, grabbing hold of the world's most famous brute and slamming her to the stree- Can she breathe under water?
Leviathan held his position, and it dawned on me Alexandria probably can't breathe underwater.
I spotted a shadow on the rooftops.
Sophia.
She joined a line of a dozen others, firing her crossbows into the streets below.
Alexandria broke free of Leviathan's hold. I shot past at nearly the same moment, unleashing a trio of missiles and firing my cannons into Leviathan's back. Veda swung around behind him, the fangs shooting out for a quick volley and then returning to Queen again.
I lost sight of the fighting for a few seconds as I began turning for another pass.
The Haros flew around the city, Orange and Purple locked on Leviathan and keeping him in sight as he sped north chasing Dragon. Red and Green I directed toward the river.
Bodies lay in the water. Some motionless, others floundering. Capes on the shore helped drag people out, struggling to stay out of the water themselves.
At least someone is doing something.
I threw my feet forward, bringing my suit into a hard near ninety-degree turn in less than a second. I shot forward, the rest of the wing still behind me.
I took aim before coming around the corner. As soon as I cleared the building I fired.
Leviathan spun around, his tail slicing through a row of defenders while his hands ripped an arm off Dragon's suit. Little black spheres tore at his back while Stratos tried to dig his way into the beast, but it looked exactly like his attempts to use his power on Squealer's tank.
The spheres seemed too small.
Leviathan's flesh is ultra-dense?
I continued flying, Veda deploying the fangs again and letting them pepper a volley into Leviathan.
"Is Leviathan's hide denser than normal flesh?" I asked.
Behind me, Hero raised his head.
"You noticed?" He asked.
"I've seen how Stratos' power works," I answered.
"Yes," he answered. "We believe his body becomes denser the deeper in you go."
Denser?
On the next pass I slid close to the ground, firing the last of the missiles in my pod and ejecting the container from my pack.
I got a brief glimpse at the Endbringer.
He looked hurt.
Scars and burns marked his body, and strings of flesh hung off his limbs and torso. He looked like we'd throw a giant tinker tech lawn mower at him. Yet, he didn't slow down. He didn't stop.
Alexandria hit him from behind and caught his tail, and Legend's team lined up above and fired down onto him. Narwhal and others started trying to pin him with shields and fields again as I passed and started to ascend.
If his body became denser the deeper we went, how dense did he get? Could we even penetrate to any vital organs?
"Recoil speaking. Butcher sighted!"
"Where?" Alexandria asked.
"Moving south on-"
She got cut off, and in the distance a building collapsed.
"Leviathan is moving north!" Someone else shouted. "B-2!"
I blinked. Is Leviathan trying to engage Butcher?
"We need to regroup," Alexandria said. "Team leaders take stock and see who's still standing! Thirty seconds! Teleporters on standby!"
"Wave!" Dragon announced.
It's like he's timed it all out perfectly.
Another wave swept through the city, and another list of injured and dead followed. I landed on a rooftop in downtown, searching the streets all around.
Purple and Orange lost him?
"We've lost sight on Leviathan," Alexandria said. "Regroup immediately. Be prepared for ambush!"
How can something that big disappear? I mean, Leviathan is actually smaller than I expected, cliché as that sounds. He stood maybe thirty, thirty-five feet tall? That's still big. Taller than Squealer's robot tank. How the hell can it just vanish?
"Do you need to recharge?" Hero asked.
I turned toward him.
"I was told your suit can only operate for a set period of time."
I glanced past him at the rest of the group. We'd lost someone else along the way, when did that happen?
I eyed Purity hard, but now wasn't the time.
"I don't," I said. "I solved that problem a while ago. Astraea and Queen can operate indefinitely."
Hero nodded.
"Any chance of another one of those 'fuck it' beams?" One of the other capes asked.
"No," I said. I glanced to the diagnostic results in one corner of my HUD. "The barrels will probably explode if I try again. I'd only take out myself."
"Well… That's disappointing."
"We need to find Leviathan," Hero said. "He's probably hiding in the water, waiting for someone to make a good target."
"The Haros are searching," I said.
They flew low enough to use the sonic cameras, but six Haros weren't enough to search all of Brockton Bay, let alone Boston.
I set off and started flying.
We spread out a little more than normal, using our height over the city to see into multiple streets at a time. Half of them were flooded now, but not deep enough for Leviathan to go unnoticed. Did the sewers offer enough space for him? Or maybe he returned to the river?
I considered he might repeat his trick from Madrid, but that didn't make sense. Boston was easily the largest city along the Charles River. No point in trying that same trick here.
"Everyone on guard," Alexandria said. "He's done this before! He's lying in wait, buying time. Search the city but do not engage. We need to report his position!"
He'd launched three waves now. Another would come soon. Did he intend to just hide and taunt us the whole time?
Why even bother coming onto shore in that case?
Thinking about it that way, Leviathan's behavior didn't make any sense. Why bother fighting any of us? Couldn't he feasibly destroy cities from within the ocean? No cape would ever manage to stop him and no army could reach him.
Yet, he came onto land and engaged us in a battle.
Does he just want to fight?
I didn't see him anywhere.
Seriously, he's huge how can he vanish?
Capes flew all around, most lower than me.
It dawned on me then. We spread out across the city searching. That's exactly what he wanted. He wanted us spread out instead of concentrated, and we didn't have a choice. We needed to force him out of Boston before the city sank and didn't have time for a game of chicken.
He is smart.
It struck me again that I fought in this exact same way. Hit and run. Feints. Attrition. Playing the long battle to win the longer war.
It's a lot less fun on the receiving end.
"Leviathan spotted!" Someone screamed. "Gahhh!"
I saw movement on my cameras and turned, eyes widening as Leviathan blew out of a skyscraper and impaled someone on his tail. The other capes on the unfortunate victim's team scattered, some firing lasers at the monster. He sailed over the street and crashed into the next skyscraper, water following behind him and shattering the windows.
Glass showered in the rain, and the shouting started.
"Leviathan G-3!" Alexandria shouted. "Hem him in!"
She tackled the beast, the building cracking as they began striking one another. Other capes started grabbing on and hitting Leviathan, and the building began to collapse. I looked down, my mind flashing back to Squealer destroying Market Tower as capes below began to scramble.
"Let's go!" Hero said.
I shot forward, and the others lined up behind me again. I swept low, getting under the collapsing building and spinning myself to face the sky.
I fired a volley of lasers into Leviathan and flew past, noticing a giant hole torn into the base of the building Leviathan came out of.
And dozens of capes who wouldn't make it before it crashed on top of them. I saw a familiar suit of white armor in the crowd.
A flash of light in my peripherals drew my eye, and I saw Eidolon there. She raised her hands and strained, body dipping in the air. The building slowed its fall, a golden light infusing into the collapse. Alexandria and Leviathan continued beating each other like boxers on the suddenly frozen wave of destruction, but I felt a little flabbergasted.
Can Eidolon stop time?
I'd heard the first Eidolon had every power as a super power, which seemed utterly ridiculous to me. Whatever absurdities capes proved capable of we usually had limits. Our powers tended to do one thing, maybe two or three other tinier things. We tended to obey a loose sense of physics, and our powers always came with rules and limits.
I'd seen the second Eidolon fly, cross half the country, project shields, and fire blasts of energy, and now she stopped time?
Bullshit.
Air snapped as a teleporter appeared on the street below, and he waved everyone to him. He snapped away a moment later, and others ran out of the path before Eidolon dropped her hands and flew away.
The building crashed, Leviathan's form bursting out from the debris and swiping his tail. Alexandria flipped end over end and skipped across the street like a rock on a lake, and Legend came up from behind and opened fire with Cinereal.
Eidolon didn't make it far.
She floundered in the air and fell, Rebound jumping up from below and catching her.
"Eidolon down," Rebound's voice said.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Exhaustion," Hero said. "She doesn't do that trick often. Takes too much out of her."
And it saved maybe twenty people from being crushed.
She said she charged her power. And she burned most of it getting to Brockton Bay to help hold off Squealer. Did she not have enough time in two weeks to recover?
"Newtype, veer right. Let's try not to lose him again."
I nodded and set my course.
By the time we came around Leviathan stood in the street between the skyscrapers. We didn't have any path to him but straight lines between buildings. The defenders still lay scattered about the city, and we didn't move as quickly as before.
Strider.
The rogue teleporter, one of the best.
He got knocked out in Leviathan's ambush at the start of the fight. Did he plan that?
I ducked between the buildings, lining up my weapons with Leviathan as capes on the ground closed around him.
"Wave!" Dragon announced.
My head snapped around. The wall of water surged on us, faster than the others.
"Pull up!" Hero shouted.
He is planning this.
The wave rose above me.
I raised my arms and maneuvered all four shields around Astraea.
The panels on all four shields opened. GN particles shot into the air and enveloping Astraea in a bubble. The water crashed around me, dragging Astraea down in the flow and smacking my bubble into the street. I saw bodies hit me. People caught in the wave and swept away.
I closed my eyes.
I tried not to listen. People didn't all die at once. Dragon announced them alphabetically, but as they went down and out some names ended up out of order.
Mockshow deceased. Rime down. Clockblocker deceased.
My eyes opened.
The waters receded, and I dropped the shield. I didn't see Hero or the others, but Queen hovered about four hundred feet above me. Cars floated in the water to my left and right, offering refuge to some of the capes caught in the wave. Some.
I saw bodies too. People who looked bent and broke, slammed into something by the wave or just crushed.
These were petty tricks.
A decoy and an ambush. Hiding in a building to draw us toward downtown, forcing fliers to be low to fight him and capes to get out onto the streets with huge buildings around them. And what choice did we have? He needed to be forced out of the city to save it.
Dragon continued reading the casualty list. No one else from Brockton Bay, but we'd already lost so many. Kid Win, Vista, and Miss Militia were down. Velocity and Clockblocker died.
I didn't want to think about the consequences of that when we got back home.
"Leviathan G-4," someone said. "He's holding position."
Not moving? Standing there trying to get us to attack?
"No," someone said. "He's frozen."
Armsmaster.
I rose into the air and flew till I saw Leviathan. Veda followed in behind me. I spotted Hero going the same way.
Leviathan stood motionless, as if stopped mid-attack. A body hung from his hand, a white glove clasped against the beast's wrist.
I scowled.
Leviathan grabbed him, and he froze it before dying.
"We don't have long," Armsmaster said. "Clockblocker's power can be unpredictable."
"Regroup," Alexandria said. "Try to box Leviathan in and trap him when he unfreezes. Armsmaster, execute your contingency and buy us as much time as you can!"
"Understood," Armsmaster said. "I need veterans. People I know well. Everyone else keep your distance."
I landed on a ruined rooftop, the building leaning slightly. A lot of buildings leaned, though they remained standing. Water flooded the streets, and the bay seemed to have swelled and swallowed some of the shoreline.
Down below, capes moved.
Narwhal, Chevalier, Alexandria, and Legend – some of the oldest and most well-known members of the Protectorate and Guild, plus Crusader from the Empire – surrounded Armsmaster. Purity turned her head on my right and nodded.
She descended, taking a position just behind Crusader.
Armsmaster pulled the second halberd from his back and waited in front of Leviathan. Other capes began blocking the streets with force fields and shaker effects.
I turned my attention back to Armsmaster as Dragon's suit landed behind him.
"What's he doing?" I asked.
"He's going to buy us time," Hero said. He looked around grimly, and then pushed the button on his wrist. "This is Hero. Everyone who can still move, move fast. Report the location of the injured. Start collecting anyone who can still fight. We'll gather at the Berkley Music School while Armsmaster and the others stall. We're too scattered right now." Hero looked down and shook his head. "We can't fight like this."
I looked at my map and saw what he meant. We'd been scattered before, but in tiny groups. Capes strewn throughout the entire city, some in pairs and others alone. Many probably hurt. I'd seen at least one teleporter still active, but we were everywhere.
All these attacks were just so he could keep dividing us into smaller groups?
And his first attack hit the movers and rescuers.
He's trying to cripple us.
I watched as Armsmaster began directing the other heroes around him. Just the eight of them? Dozens of capes tried knocking Leviathan down and he kept getting up, how did they plan to hold him for any period of time?
Alexandria and Dragon might be able to grapple him. Dragon's suit looked even worse than the last time I saw it, with one leg completely gone and another limping. Chevalier's costume looked torn, and Narwhal seemed to be favoring one side.
How hurt are they?
I stepped back.
People he knew, he said. He wanted people with the most experience fighting Leviathan?
I set the Haros to surround the area. If Leviathan just fled we'd lose him again.
"StarGazer," I said. "Can you keep an eye on this?"
"I can," Veda said.
I nodded and set off.
I spotted a cape in the mouth of the river, clutching at debris. I dove down and scooped her out of the sea, and then turned back toward the direction of the music school.
"T-Thank you."
She coughed as she spoke. She sounded pretty waterlogged.
"No problem," I said.
Veda tagged her as unknown, but I'd seen her before. That girl with the web costume I saw outside the arena. Someone new, or minor enough Veda never got any pictures. So, no idea who she was or what power she held. She'd been helping out those PRT agents with the armbands, so a Ward? Maybe one of Boston's.
"Can you still fight?" I asked.
She looked up at Astraea's head and stiffened. "Um-" She coughed again, hand covering her mouth.
Maybe not.
"Weaver," she said. "My cape name."
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Water," she choked. "Too much water."
I nodded and turned toward the school. I'd drop her off and go searching for others.
In the meantime, I opened a private line and cut the external speakers.
"Veda?" I asked.
"I am progressing, slowly."
"Nothing yet?"
We'd made… I lost count of the passes, but Veda peeled off each time. She fired a volley of fangs and returned, always hitting a different spot and observing the affect.
"Leviathan is protecting something," Veda said.
I raised my brow.
That was the plan.
The fangs didn't pack much punch, not enough to seriously damage Leviathan. But they attacked from multiple angles, every side. If Leviathan's body held any weaknesses, any parts he didn't want struck, he'd protect them. I wanted to shower him in blasts and see what hits he took and what hit's he dodged.
"It is a location on his torso," Veda said. "Statistically, Leviathan used his tail and limbs to block powerful blasts, while allowing weaker shots through. He does not actively appear to do this, but the probabilities are consistent."
So Leviathan did something that meant strong hits didn't strike his torso.
That didn't tell me anything.
Everyone tended to protect their torsos. It's where all the vital organs sit.
I debated relaying the information to those planning to fight Leviathan in some kind of last stand, but how did it help? It's a thirty foot tall murder machine. 'The torso' is a very big part of it. Saying anything might confuse them more than anything.
"Leviathan is moving," Alexandria said.
I looked back in the direction of downtown. The Haros watched the monster throw Clockblocker's corpse into a building in a sudden burst of speed.
"Armsmaster."
The hero stepped forward, a halberd in each hand.
"I'm starting."
