"...yes. This is an Endbringer fight."

And Leviathan's gone again.

"I'm pretty fricking new at this- He left." Scan scan scan.

That way!

"There, over there, 1500 yards!"

Her help significantly improves the time the capes take to find Leviathan again and continue to fight.

"...The fact that I can see 'im so well means my usual weapons would do jack all. Of course, I was assuming that anyway, so I didn't bring 'em."

"Most weapons, even tinker weapons, can't—"

And as if timed to prove her wrong, the capes suddenly disperse and half a second later there's a huge beam of light coming from a different roof hitting Leviathan straight-on.

It burns him.

"Well, looks like someone's a big hitter. I bet he's gonna dash again." She prepares for that.

He does in fact dash again! Over there now!

Vertigo keeps giving range and bearing as soon as she finds it. The big dish on her armor rig's back starts making ominous whining noises. "Ignore it, won't explode, just cooking itself."

The flier gives coordinates. No capes approach. There's another beam of light, this one thicker and brighter. It eats away at the Endbringer's skin before he dashes away again. And he's hit again. And he dashes again, this time nowhere he can be seen—

—and the next thing Vertigo sees is much more water than should be there, much more water than should by rights exist anywhere, pushing harder than she's ever been pushed and she's thrown away, away from the rooftop—

"Gyaah-" She's battered against the padding and controls inside her rig as it flies through the air. Head knocks against one of the glass panels. Red lights and alarm buzzers blare.

She lands in five feet of water before getting un-dazed enough to try and recover and stick the landing and gets battered around again, rolling to a stop.

Pain.

...It's leaking. Frigid water against her leg. Shut off electricals - fuck - note to self get head padding. Where is Leviathan- Her scanner is not responding at all, probably totally torn off.

"V-Vertigo here. Anyone who still has these radios. I'm- Down. Hurt. Busted gear. Not sure where..."

No one responds.

And the flier who was right next to her was also hit by the water afterimage—she's right over there—there's something sticking out of her chest and her leg is bent at a very wrong angle and her arm is crushed by a piece of the building that crumbled with the strength of it—

(The silhouette is in the distance, hitting a number of capes with his tail—)

Walta throws up.

And then Vertigo takes deep breaths and tries to calmly assess whether her rig can still get up and walk. It probably can, despite missing two of the alien tentacle legs and having a massive dent.

(Dead. She's dead. Blood and gore. If not for armor...)

It's pouring. The corner where she landed is only slightly raised, only enough that the river this street's become isn't dragging her away—but at any point another piece of debris might get shaken loose by the water and drag her with it. There's enough rain it's hard to see in any detail farther than ten feet ahead of her, and it's mostly the lights from the battle and the thunder that makes the silhouettes visible in the distance.

The scanner has been torn clean off her suit, she's pretty much blind now. She obviously can't stay here. (She doesn't know where to go except 'away'.) She moves everything that can still move sans-electricals on her suit, testing range of motion.

She tries to stand up in the muck, but between being badly on her side, missing suit legs, and low power, it's not happening. She could pop out, use the smaller set of longlegs inside the big suit to evacuate... But she doesn't want to abandon the suit. It took ages.

Vertigo grits her teeth and turns her electric motors back on, for a fraction of a second, biting down the scream when some hefty number of volts go through her right leg, and lurches upright.

...Thinker-flyer is dead, yeah. Don't even know her name.

She walks carefully through rubble and river away from the fight.

"Away from the fight" is not as clear-cut a direction when you're fighting the fastest speedster on record, but for now he does seem contained to one area of the city. There's a flash of light, probably from that tinker gun, and it's bright enough to illuminate the area around her (there's a bloated corpse floating down the street).

...Away from the fight. As best she can point herself. She's hurt - no idea how badly, and her gear is mostly ruined. She did her part.

There's thunder, and rain, and dirt, and water, and broken things, and more water—

—that's a wave, coming down the road and carrying a bunch of furniture and a piece of a car with it.

Ah shiiiiit - is there enough left in the springs to get onto a roof - no.

She'll just have to partially shelter herself by hunkering down behind the closest still-standing wall and wrapping the rig's remaining limbs around the most solid objects available.

The wave comes. It's not particularly strong or fast but it—doesn't stop. It's a lot of water that just keeps going and going and going for a long time.

Eventually, though, it does subside enough for her to be able to continue walking.

Well.

She walks.

(...Bring a freaking water bottle and ham sandwich next time. And tylenol or something.)

There's a tremor.

There is nothing Vertigo can do about that from here. Besides try to find a safe perch.

There's another tremor. And a noise.

...and a massive hulking shadow she can see even from this distance coming from the beach.