Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
Promise slides her armband on. She is a determined and bedraggled fairy, squinting very very fast into the rainy distance.
The cape giving the exposition continues. Smarter than he looks, don't underestimate him, dangers of macro-scale hydrokinesis plus water creation, et cetera and so forth, and also "far faster than any speedster we have on record."
He goes into strategy: the goal is to hurt him enough that he leaves. Capes are to hit him hard and hit him fast; time is on Leviathan's side before the tidal waves destroy the city or worse.
Promise, presumably, is to drop him into a black hole. Was the exposition cape not briefed of this? "...Everyone knows not to go into the gates, when there are gates, right?"
"We'll warn everyone when there are some. Dangerous powers fired off near an Endbringer aren't unusual enough for special mention from Legend."
"Fair." Gates have potential to be unusually effective but they are not actually unusually fatal.
While armbands like theirs get distributed to the capes downstairs, someone wearing mouse ears and a sword comes up to the roof. "I was told you had a way to slay the monster?" She reaches out and taps Promise's shoulder. "You are now under the protection of Mouse Protector, Hero of Justice!" And she disappears.
"It would have been nice if she told me what her protection was particularly good for. It doesn't seem to serve as an umbrella."
He grabs Promise and speeds her up, and Allegro renews her effect on both of them. The wave comes toward them in slow motion. Differently colored force fields appear around the building, shielding them.
Why can't this water be transparent like any self-respecting water ought to be, where is the fucker -
As they move and shout, Promise can catch a glimpse of the monster's silhouette. A tall figure, with disproportionately long limbs making it appear longer, surrounded by water pouring from nowhere. And, of course, the water pouring from the clouds. He wades closer, his merely human speed appearing all but stopped to Promise.
Gategategategate.
She outlines the gates in fairy lights, then adds grids across them; there are edges past the cage for the monster, a safety hazard necessitated to get the speed up.
Velocity, another of the few to be able to see what's happening at this speed, uses the armband to shout that Leviathan is surrounded by gates to nowhere and about to go through one.
Come on come on somebody hit him hard enough to get just the tip of his tail pointed down at the hole -
The water pouring off Leviathan increases. Instead of filling whatever space he vacates, it fountains off him in all directions, up, out, and down, before being splashing into the water everyone is already wading in. Leviathan maintains that output and keeps his prison full. Having created his own waterfall, he swims up it and stays in the center of the tetrahedron.
The defenders with ranged attacks start launching everything they have, to force Leviathan into one of the back walls. Even some of the front-line combatants join in, the ones with weapons long enough that they can stay safely on this side of the gates. Promise can see the lasers strike instantly, followed by energy beams and physical attacks and whatever else this world has to offer.
Promise is at the ready keeping track of as much as she can, ready to shut gates as soon as more than half of him is through any one. Somebody hit him harder -
Armbands start listing off casualties.
Impel down, CD-5. Pelter deceased, CD-5. Herald down, CD-5. Miss Militia deceased, CD-5. Allegro deceased, CD-5. Velocity deceased, CD-5.
Promise deceased, CD-5.
His decreased ability to dodge means the outer layers of his hide are being hurt faster than he regenerates, but the same could be said of his opponents. Sometimes it seems like there are injured and dead capes being listed more often than not.
He tears through toward the nearest defenders, only to stop after ten feet of his tail are severed by a stroke from a black and white striped woman.
Siberian excepted, none of the Nine can deal any serious direct damage. But some of them are very well suited for being obviously present and helping against Leviathan. Jack waves his knife like a conductor's baton, watching the battle and occasionally slashing uselessly but emphatically at the Endbringer.
The defending side, in numbers at least, is getting more and more dominated by Nilbog's creations. One of the local villains has the completely convenient power to conjure flesh out of thin air. This is quickly repurposed into monsters more expendable than capes.
Leviathan has already sustained more injuries than it normally takes to drive him off, but he's still fighting. Alexandria flies up to where Eidolon is freezing the incoming tidal waves into glaciers. They exchange words. Both fly down. Alexandria resumes close combat, while Eidolon rushes to find one of the capes who isn't directly fighting.
In his absence, more water has gathered than he can freeze. At least they had warning there was going to be a wave he couldn't stop. Hopefully that would be enough.
This gate is above a sea of liquid salt, high enough to be low on air. And once she's through, most of her markers are invisible.
But another one has reappeared.
"PROMISE! COME QUICKLY, HERO, THE WORLD NEEDS YOU!"