Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 7

Water is a force to be reckoned with. Even if you're an impenetrable, diamond-encrusted metahuman.

The first wave wasn't that bad; it slammed down over me like a sledgehammer, but that wasn't the worst of it. The second wave was what did me in.

Instead of coming down from above, it hit me from the side. Caught off guard, I fell down, but tried to lower my center of gravity so I couldn't be lost in the water.

Despite this, the wave overtook me and sent me over the edge of the wall. Scrabbling for a grip, I slid down it and into the river.

Having my diamond power return was a real blessing. I was invulnerable and didn't need to breathe. It came exactly when I needed them, just as all of my other powers did. But there was a major drawback that came into play here: the weight.

As with all minerals, diamond was heavy. And since I was already 130 pounds without it, the extra material bogging me down sent me straight to the bottom. I dropped like a rock.

I could touch the wall, though. On the bright side, I could follow it until I reached an opening. Then, I could climb back onto dry land.

On the darker side (literally), it was so dark down here that I couldn't see a thing. It was pitch black.

Sunlight would be nice, if it were available, but the sky was still darkened by the layers of smoke still in the air. I reminded myself that it wouldn't have helped because sunlight couldn't even reach this far underwater.

If I hadn't been holding on to the wall before I came down, I likely wouldn't be able to locate where I was. That thought made me shiver, despite the lack of physical feeling this power gave me.

Each one of my steps made it feel like I was in mud. Every foot was heavy to pick up, and putting it back varied in did fully depending on which way the current wanted to go.

I wonder why I'm the only one stuck in this situation, I thought. But then I realized that Cassie could levitate, Sierra could fly, and Sage could control water. Every one of them would be out of this situation by now.

Of course, I could try using my arms and superspeed to propel myself to the surface, or just create a force field and move it with me inside out of the water. I could even fly myself out of there if I was desperate enough to try. But all of those preferable actions required me to shed my diamond body, and I didn't know enough about water pressure to be sure I wouldn't be squished like a tin can. So, for the time being, I was stuck walking like an astronaut.

A blind astronaut.

After walking for what seemed like miles on end, I began to panic. What if I was going in the wrong direction? What if the wall never ended anywhere? How could I have even let myself get into this situation?

I wasn't scared of being in danger of anything. It was being alone, in the dark, and lost that terrified me.

Fortunately, it wasn't more than a few minutes later when the rough, algae-covered wall became thin air.

I had reached a small opening. Construction must have gone unfinished, and the place looked abandoned. A pile of mixed dirt and sand led to land.

I switched out to my normal skin.

I gaped at what the city looked like from this far away.

What the wave didn't absolutely uproot and flood, it covered in layers of mud. Water was still trying to filter out through the streets, so most of them were waterlogged. The buildings on the opposite side of the attack zone that it didn't quite reach were still on fire near the tops.