Flying with Torso felt like an extension of being Torso. Keeping my grip was tough, because the weight seemed to shift every few seconds, to the point he nearly tore out of my grip twice in the time it took me to get ten feet higher in the air, matching the Simurgh’s height. Flying forward posed the same problems, only worse, because it complicated up and down and somehow made it impossible to keep from curving left or right.

The screaming in my head was worse, now, compounded by the stress of the moment. I tried to maintain my course in flying toward the Simurgh, and she veered one direction, not even as an apparent consequence of my approach, but because of the way the fight was going.

A pillar shattered, the rebar exposed as the exterior came away in jagged splinters. To keep my forcefield going, I used Torso as something of a human shield, drawing the limbs in. Chunks of concrete struck his giant head and upper body and bounced off, with no harm done. When I tried to reorient, he nearly tore free of my grip again. By the time I had my bearings and was flying straight, the Simurgh was relocating, taking some evasive action and crashing through Narwhal’s forcefields as Legend opened fire.

Off to the side, Damsel was back out of the hole. She used her power to run up the side of a pillar, then raked it with a lick of her power to create a handhold, claw fingers gripping the edge. Waiting for the Simurgh to draw in closer.

Which, I thought, might be my best bet. Flying was too hard like this.

The entire area glowed as Solarstare used her power again.

“Come on,” I murmured. The screaming was getting worse. I saw the Simurgh block Crystalclear’s thrown crystal with a bit of debris. She wasn’t even facing him, though I wasn’t sure how much that mattered. Had he been here when I’d used my power? Or was she getting to the point where she was one step ahead again?

Other Foresight members were joining in. Anelace was holding two tinker blades I knew he hadn’t made himself, each one looking more like cut-outs in reality, showing only a startling white nothingness that stood at stark contrast to the black of Grue’s power, wherever it lingered.

A lot of capes were choosing safe ground, waiting for their opportunities to step in. The exact opposite of the initial problem we’d had, where we all attacked at once and almost screwed each other up. The danger now was that we’d all wait, and the opportunities wouldn’t line up.

Had to make them.

I flew up higher, still holding Torso, and watched as the Simurgh either floated or was driven one way or the other. Solarstare’s liquid beam ignited to fire, and the Simurgh floated back from it.