There was a pause.

No reports.  Location unknown.  Exert caution.

“I’m going to try cutting the door off,” the cape spoke.  He descended beneath the water.

Are the bugs all gone, then? I would’ve expected Taylor to try sensing them here… Although I guess we’ve moved more than four blocks away from Leviathan, making it futile.

I could barely make out his silhouette.  Laserdream ceased firing as he made his way to where the heavy metal door was, stepped around and set to burning long channels in the side of the stairwell.  I realized it was intended to give the water in the stairwell somewhere to flow that wasn’t towards the people inside.

Ooh, good call.

The door tipped into the stairwell and came to rest against the opposite wall, resting at a forty-five degree angle, sloping up toward the railing.  

Nice work!

The water in the stairwell flowed inside, an unfortunate consequence.

Well, yeah. You were prepared for that, though, right?

The cape with the Halberd set to using the blur of the Halberd to to cut lines into the back of the door and to remove the railing, so there was sufficient traction for people walking up and out of the door.

Excellent.

Then I remembered the Halberd.

!!

Yes!

Told ya it’d come in handy.

“Hey,” I stopped one of the capes that was heaving rocks out of the stairwell, “Use this.”

“As a shovel?” he looked skeptical.

“Just try it, only… don’t touch the blade.”

Hehe, I like this approach. Let ‘em see for themselves.

He nodded, took the Halberd, and ducked beneath the water.  Ten seconds later, he raised his head, “Holy shit.  This works.”

“Use it on the door?” I suggested.  He gave me a curt nod.

Wait, we actually are going for the “destroy the door” approach?

Enemy location unknown, I could hear the cape’s armband announce.  Defensive perimeter, report.

Time to check up on the bugs.

“What’s the plan?” I asked, as Laserdream set us down, I immediatelly sent out a call to summon bugs to my location, just to be safe.  “Do we want to shut the door or open it?”

“Open it,” one of the capes in the water said.  He ducked down, grabbed a rock, hauled it out with a grunt.  “We don’t know what condition they’re in, inside.”

Ah yeah, I guess it’s worth letting more water in, in return for getting in to find out if people are alright.

Laserdream stepped forward and began blasting with her laser, penetrating the water and breaking up the larger rocks at the base of the door.

Nice.

My mind briefly went down the line of “why not try to break the door”, but besides the other reasons why that’s a bad idea, that train of thought quickly came to a stop once I realized that yes, this door is presumably designed to keep parahumans out. That’s what people seem to think the Endbringers are.

I was very nearly useless here.  With one hand, I couldn’t clear the rubble, and my power wasn’t any use.

At least you’ll be able to give advance warning if Leviathan approaches. That is, unless he runs out of bugs.

There weren’t even many crabs or other crustaceans I could employ in the water around us, and the ones that did exist were small.

Man, Taylor taking control of a giant crab and having it move the rocks sounds awesome.

Alright, let’s get back to this!

Myrddin down, BX-9.

Presumably from a different attack than the one we saw earlier. It’s been too long to be explained away by the time it took him to fall down to the ground.

Laserdream carried us around the edge of the ‘lake’ that was still growing, if not quite so fast as it had been.

I suppose an answer to my question earlier about why Leviathan was going downtown might’ve been that he wanted to get close to a weak point in the aquifer. Granted, his powers are extreme-ranged anyway, but still.

I saw others gathered at the edge of the water, forming battle lines where Leviathan might have a clear path to make a run for it. If he wanted to make a run for it.  As it stood, he was entirely in his environment, in the heart of the city, where he could continue to work whatever mojo he needed to bring more tidal waves down on our heads.

Lake Heroic is turning into a fantastic base of operations for a water-based monster intent on destruction of the city around it.

To my bug senses, Leviathan was deep beneath the waves, moving rapidly, acting like he was engaged in a fight.  Against Eidolon?  I couldn’t tell.  Every darting, hyperfast movement dislodged a few bugs, made him harder to detect.

I guess we’re on a time limit as far as tracking goes.