The transport aircraft bucked beneath the storm.
Taylor stood near the open rear ramp with one hand braced against the wall, the wind screaming through the compartment hard enough that she could barely hear herself think. Beyond the aircraft, the world had become shades of gray and black, rain hammering the ocean below so heavily that sea and sky seemed to blur together.
Somewhere down there was Leviathan.
The realization should have terrified her. Instead, she found herself gripping the watch.
Around her, the atmosphere inside the transport had become increasingly tense the closer they got. PRT personnel moved with the focused urgency of people who knew exactly what kind of battlefield they were approaching. Nobody joked or talked more than necessary, and even New Wave had grown quiet.
Lady Photon stood several feet away with Brandish and Manpower, speaking in low voices. Armsmaster was checking something on the display attached to his forearm. Miss Militia was staring through the open ramp into the storm.
And Taylor—
Taylor was grinning so wide her jaw hurt. After all, she was about to jump out of an aircraft and fight another Endbringer.
“Contact confirmed.”
The announcement came through the cabin speakers, and every conversation died instantly.
Taylor straightened.
The pilot’s voice followed a second later.
“Visual confirmation on Leviathan. Thirty seconds.”
Her pulse kicked up.
This was it.
No more planning, no more discussions, and no more people trying to talk her out of it.
The aircraft banked slightly, then the clouds opened. Taylor stepped closer to the edge and saw it. Even from this height, Leviathan was unmistakable.
The Endbringer stood waist-deep in the ocean several miles from shore, a towering silhouette amid crashing waves and torrential rain. Water moved around him in unnatural patterns, entire sections of ocean responding to his presence like extensions of his body.
He looked smaller than she had thought, then she realized that was only because she was viewing him from thousands of feet in the air. The moment her brain adjusted, the sheer scale returned, and her stomach tightened.
“Taylor.”
She glanced back.
Her dad stood near the bulkhead. He wasn’t supposed to be here, but nobody had managed to convince him of that. The compromise had been keeping him aboard the transport instead of anywhere near the actual fight.
For several seconds neither of them spoke, then Danny stepped forward and hugged her. The action caught her completely off guard, but she hugged him back automatically.
“Come home,” he said in a whisper.
Taylor swallowed. “Yeah.”
It sounded far less certain than she intended.
When they separated, he looked like he wanted to say more. Instead, he stepped back.
Taylor appreciated that. There wasn’t really anything else to say.
She turned toward the storm again as Armsmaster walked over. His helmet concealed most of his expression, but she had spent enough time around him now to recognize concern when she heard it.
“You remember the plan.”
Taylor snorted. “I punch Leviathan.”
“That is a disappointing summary of a considerably more detailed strategy.”
“It gets the important parts across.”
Armsmaster stared at her. Then, surprisingly, he nodded. “Fair enough.”
The ramp warning light flashed green.
GO.
The wind somehow grew louder as Taylor took one step forward, then another, the edge arriving sooner than expected. For a fraction of a second she stood there with nothing between herself and the storm except empty air.
Then she jumped.
Wind tore past her as rain struck like bullets and the ocean rushed upward. Instinctively, her hand slapped down onto the watch. Green light exploded around her, and the Arburian Pelarota emerged from the transformation already curling into a sphere.
Armsmaster and Dragon had spent hours estimating what would happen if she hit the ground at full speed. Taylor had stopped listening after the words “multi-megaton yield.” But she wasn't even content with that. She wanted—no, needed—her introduction to be, without a doubt, memorable, and as such, just before she met the Endbringer, she unrolled and sucked in air from her surroundings. Then, aiming it behind her, she expelled it and immediately curled into a ball again.
The sonic boom was a deafening, rippling shockwave in every direction, sending her straight toward it.
Leviathan looked up, but it was too late. The sea exploded, a mountain of water erupting upward into the very atmosphere as the alien struck the surface at a speed surpassing terminal velocity. The impact carried her and the Endbringer downward, her nearly indestructible shell transferring all that kinetic force straight through it and into the ground. Solid bedrock was punched through, creating a crater dozens of meters wide and triggering a severe localized earthquake.
And seconds later, another thunderous boom rolled through the cloud.
Just as quickly, everything came rushing back, gravity asserting itself again and covering the exposed sections of the ocean floor with water again. But Taylor didn’t wait for Leviathan to recover. The instant she had unrolled herself, she slapped the watch’s symbol.
Green light flashed again, armor vanishing and replaced by rocky skin enveloped with flames. The ocean boiled, steam exploding across the air so quickly that visibility vanished almost immediately.
For one brief moment, the battlefield ceased to resemble an ocean at all. It became a furnace. And inside the transport, far from them, nobody spoke as the monitors showed nothing but steam. One agent slowly removed his headset.
“Jesus Christ,” another whispered.
Back down, Leviathan reacted instantly, claws lashing out through the steam. Taylor caught one, and the force traveled through her arms and into the seabed beneath her feet.
The ground cracked beneath her feet, fractures racing through the seabed as Leviathan tried to wrench himself free. Taylor didn’t budge. Water surged toward him, and she increased the heat in response. The incoming water became steam again and again and again.
She could barely see. Leviathan could barely move. Every attempt to escape brought more water, every wave became steam, and every second trapped beneath her became another second spent cooking.
Taylor grabbed hold of its shoulders, then forced it back into the seabed. The impact sent cracks spreading through the ocean floor.
The Endbringer twisted violently in her grip, water surging towards them again. He was trying to pull away.
For one impossible moment, Taylor felt a surge of exhilaration.
Was he actually retreating?
The thought hit her like a shot of adrenaline, and she tightened her grip.
Its jaws snapped toward her, and Taylor caught them, one hand on the upper jaw and the other on the lower. Then she pulled, muscles straining. The Endbringer fought back, but its actions were futile. Its jaw was torn wide open, and even wider still.
Taylor leaned forward, and with a booming laughter that filled the entire area, breathed fire into it.