Kara's scream reverberated as the chasm walls slammed shut, the spike's remnants crumbling into the geyser's inferno below, swallowing Ghost and Marcus into the darkness. The tendril tightened around her leg, its mechanical grip crushing bone, yanking her against the enforcer's cable, which strained to breaking under the opposing forces. The air grew suffocating, dust and steam choking her lungs, as the OmniCorp chopper's engine sputtered, its spotlight flickering wildly, casting jagged shadows across the collapsing chasm. Lena's shout morphed into a snarl, "You'll die with them!" as the cannon, jammed but sparking, threatened to detonate.
The cable snapped a thread, the jolt wrenching Kara's dislocated shoulder, her vision exploding with white-hot pain. The tendril pulsed, dragging her toward a jagged outcrop, its edges glinting with molten rock, inches from slicing her apart. The masked leader's voice crackled through static, "Hold on, Kara!" but a boulder crashed down, burying their position, silencing the pulse rifle. The enforcer's baton swung again, its electric crackle grazing her neck, locking her muscles in a spasm, her grip on the cable slipping as blood streamed from her leg.
The chasm shuddered, a deeper rumble signaling a secondary collapse, and a crevice opened beneath, spewing a torrent of scalding water that splashed against the wall, searing Kara's arm. The chopper tilted, its rotor clipping the chasm edge, sending a cascade of debris raining down, one shard piercing the tendril, weakening its hold—but also snapping the cable's anchor. Kara fell, the tendril's grip faltering, her body twisting in mid-air as she snagged a rusted pipe with her good hand, the impact jarring her teeth loose, her shoulder grinding audibly.
Lena's chopper stabilized, its cannon's jammed barrel glowing red-hot, a ticking bomb ready to explode. The enforcer rappelled closer, their rifle aimed, a bullet grazing Kara's ear, the whistle deafening. The tendril lashed again, wrapping around the pipe, pulling it free from the wall, and Kara plummeted, catching a dangling wire with her teeth, her jaw clamping down as her body swung wildly. The wire sparked, electrifying her, her muscles seizing, but it held—barely—as the geyser's heat rose, blistering her back.
The chasm's walls groaned, a massive slab tilting toward her, its shadow swallowing the light. The masked leader emerged from the rubble, firing a final grappling hook, the line arcing toward Kara's belt—but it snagged the tendril instead, yanking it taut. The pipe snapped, the wire broke, and Kara fell again, the grappling line catching her mid-descent, the force dislocating her other shoulder. The cannon detonated, the blast shattering the chasm wall, sending a shockwave that hurled debris toward her, a shard embedding in her thigh.