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.

She frowned.

“I know your arms are tired.  Mine is too, and I was just hanging there.  I can’t tell you how thankful I am that you’ve done this much to help me, but we have to stick together, and you can fly low enough to the ground that you can drop me if you have to.”

“we have to stick together” is the one non-selfish argument Taylor has for going with Laserdream here. If Laserdream leaves without Taylor, Taylor’s going to need another flier to help her stay within range of Leviathan anyway.

“Fine, but we’re leaving the doll kid here.”

She laid Parian down in a recessed doorway, then pressed the ‘ping’ button on the girl’s armband.

Fair enough.

I held the Halberd out while Laserdream walked around behind me.  She wrapped her arms around my chest and lifted us off.  Uncomfortable, and she was jarring my broken arm, which hurt like a motherfucker, but I couldn’t complain after just having asked to come.

Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.

“Setting down again,” Laserdream said.

“But if there’s a tidal wave-”

“I don’t see one.”

Then what was the blinking about? A warning about the sinkhole?

I joined her in looking toward the coast.  The water was as stable as it had been since the fight started.

“If it’s a trick-”

With a little anger in her voice, a hard tone, she spoke, “Either we set down or I drop you.  I can’t hold on much longer.”

Flight or no flight, gravity can be a harsh mistress.

Although I believe Harsh Mistress died a couple chapters ago, so you should be fine.

“Right.”

She carried me two blocks away from the crater.  The ground was wet, but no longer submerged, the road was torn up, shattered, covered with debris.

Laserdream checked her armband, “It’s one of the shelters.  They sprung a leak, need help evacuating.  I’m going.”

Welp.

Dad.  It could be my dad.

“Bring me,” I said.

On one level, I absolutely understand Taylor’s desire to go there.

On another, what can she really do? She’d be moving away from Leviathan – hopefully – and thus unable to track him, she doesn’t have a power that can help evacuate people, and she’d be weighing down Laserdream.