Kara's scream choked off as the chasm yawned beneath her, the crumbling beam tilting her toward the abyss, debris tumbling into the black maw with a hollow roar. Ghost lay limp in the masked figure's arms, their pulse rifle lost, as the ground shuddered from the hidden charge's aftershocks. The OmniCorp chopper's fading laugh—Lena's—echoed tauntingly, but the masked leader's shout, "Hold on!" cut through the chaos, their voice a haunting echo of Marcus. Kara's fingers clawed at the beam's edge, nails splintering, her body dangling over the churning void where water and fire met in a deadly dance.
The beam groaned, a crack spiderwebbing toward her hands, the masked figure lunging to grab her wrist. Their grip slipped, slick with her blood, and a second explosion rocked the dock, sending a fireball roaring up from the chasm. The heat scorched Kara's face, her hair singeing, as she swung helplessly, her legs kicking into nothingness. The masked figure strained, their mask cracking to reveal a scarred jaw—Marcus, alive, his eyes wild with desperation. "Don't let go!" he rasped, but the beam buckled, dropping them an inch closer to the abyss.
Above, the remaining masked figures fired pulse rounds at a new threat—OmniCorp drones, their red eyes piercing the smoke, descending with lethal intent. A drone's laser locked onto Marcus, its shot grazing his shoulder, blood spraying as he grunted, nearly losing his hold on Kara. Ghost stirred, moaning, her leg bleeding profusely, but the chasm's edge crumbled further, forcing Marcus to drag them both toward a rusted girder. The girder shifted under their weight, metal screeching, threatening to plunge them into the inferno below.
A drone swooped, its claw snapping at Kara's leg, tearing her boot half off, the pain a white-hot lance. She kicked wildly, dislodging it, but another drone joined, its buzz a death knell. The masked figures rallied, one sacrificing themselves to tackle a drone mid-air, their body vanishing in a fireball. The chasm's walls trembled, a deep rumble signaling a larger collapse, and a tidal wave of debris surged upward, threatening to sweep them away. Marcus's comms crackled: "Evac… thirty seconds…"—but the signal cut, leaving only static and doubt.
Lena's voice boomed from the retreating chopper, amplified by a speaker: "You'll fall with your secrets, Kara!" A final cannon blast struck the girder's base, the metal twisting, tilting them toward the edge. Kara's hand slipped, her fingers brushing Marcus's as he clung to Ghost, the three of them sliding inexorably downward. The drones circled, lasers converging, and a shadow loomed—a massive OmniCorp transport descending, its cargo bay opening to reveal armed enforcers ready to finish the hunt.