Kara's fingers slipped on the chopper's cable, the tendril's grip tightening around her leg like a vice, yanking her toward the flaming abyss below. Ghost dangled from her other arm, her augmented eyes wide with terror, nails digging into Kara's wrist. The dock's explosion sent a shockwave, rocking the chopper, Marcus shouting hoarsely, "Hold on!" as he wrestled with the controls. The cable frayed, strands snapping with sharp pings, each sound a countdown to their fall. Lena's cannon glowed red below, her cybernetic eye locking onto Kara with predatory precision, her voice cutting through the chaos: "You're mine."
The tendril pulsed, dragging Kara downward, her muscles burning as she kicked at it, her boot glancing off its metallic surface. The chopper lurched again, a bullet piercing its side—OmniCorp snipers, their lasers dotting the sky. Ghost's weight shifted, her grip slipping, and Kara's heart seized as she caught her by a finger, the strain tearing at her shoulder. The comms crackled with static: "Reinforcements… thirty seconds…"—a promise or a death knell, impossible to tell. The water below churned with debris, a jagged wreck waiting to claim them.
Marcus swung the cable, the chopper dipping dangerously low, its blades clipping a crane, sending sparks raining. The tendril tightened, pulling Kara's leg toward Lena, who raised her cannon, the charge humming with lethal intent. A second tendril lashed from the wreckage, snaring Ghost's leg, stretching her away from Kara. The cable snapped another strand, the frayed end whipping wildly. Kara's vision tunneled—pain, fear, and rage blending into a single, desperate scream as she swung the dead stun baton, smashing it into the tendril on her leg. It recoiled, but the damage was done; her ankle twisted, blood seeping through her boot.
The snipers fired again, a bullet grazing Marcus's arm, his grunt of pain echoing through the comms. The chopper tilted, the cable swinging them toward the dock's edge—freedom or doom. Lena lunged, her cannon blast searing past Kara's face, the heat blistering her skin. The tendril on Ghost snapped free, but the momentum flung her toward the water. Kara lunged, catching her jacket, her arm nearly dislocating as she held on. The countdown in her mind—twenty seconds to reinforcements—felt like a lie as the cable's last strand groaned.
A shadow loomed—another chopper, OmniCorp's, its spotlight blinding. Machine-gun fire raked the air, forcing Marcus to veer, the cable swinging wildly. Kara's fingers bled, her grip failing, Ghost's weight pulling her down. Lena climbed the wreckage, her cannon recharging, a twisted smile on her lips. "No one escapes," she hissed, as a tendril wrapped around the cable itself, yanking it toward the flames. The chopper's engine sputtered, smoke billowing, and Marcus's voice broke: "Jump… now!"