The forcefield popped, and I let the cannon drop to the frozen ground to my right with a violent crunch, metal creaking. Panting for breath, I crouched there, facing Titan Skadi, who was so tall I couldn’t really encompass her in the field of view that extended from the top of my bottom eyelid to the bottom of the other.

Couldn’t do that too many more times. The gun wouldn’t take that kind of strain from being caught from terminal falling speed.

But I’d got her attention again. She wasn’t focusing on the civilians or the bridge. The armor at her shoulder was damaged, and the armor beneath was visible, raw and fleshlike where it attached to yet another layer of armor beneath that. Meat and bone lattice that looked almost like lengths of spine that connected panel to panel.

What’s there beneath the surface, Berserker Titan? Is there a glimmer of a personality, like with Fume Hood? Or are you dead inside like Oberon?

Are you angry? Is there a part of you I can drill at, that will get you chasing me?

Fuck you, I hope so.

There was something about her I just found myself hating, as I saw her straighten, rolling the shoulder I’d just made a crater in. Dealing with her was like facing down someone who screamed in my face constantly, no relief, no room to reason with her. If she turned away from me, it was to inflict herself on others.

And it wasn’t screaming. She was silent, and she killed people.

Just an inevitable, constant horribleness. The worst parts of capes distilled.

She felt like the worst possible opponent to be facing right now, as the countdown showed the other Titans’ arrival was imminent. She wore us down, broke our backs, ground down our spirit, demanding constant vigilance, because one second of failing to account for details meant she could appear anywhere on the battlefield and lives would be lost.

And the others? Nemean? Ophion? The Stranger? They would capitalize on us lacking will, stamina, or focus. They would capitalize on us lacking vigilance.

She surged toward me, past Lung, who had grown a bit, using his fire.

Maybe because she’d seen me looking at Lung again, Kenzie passed on a message: LUNG IS POSSIBLE GAMEPLAN. THEY THINK HE MIGHT GET STRONG ENOUGH TO LOCK SKADI.

It made some sense. If Lung could get strong enough that he remained the largest threat to Titan Skadi, he would be her target every time she teleported. I wasn’t sure what his upper limit was, but I knew that when he’d had a good ten or fifteen minutes of growing time, he had been able to take on the entire Brockton Bay Protectorate, plus visitors and guests. He didn’t get tired, and his regeneration sped up as he escalated.