AN: In case any of the Americans out there (like me) need the reminder, "football" in Europe – and the rest of the world – is the name of the sport we call "soccer." Hence the net.
To Butterfly: I suppose it doesn't exactly help matters that literally everything happening currently is XY and Bob Roth's fault!
To Lyger 0: I suppose it could happen that easily… "Bargain-bin Morbius wannabe" made me laugh!
To yellow 14: XY being less of an ass… hmm… I don't know if those words are actually in his vocabulary!
To StarDaPanda225: I'm considering it! A future story is going to fill in a little more of the lore around World War II in this universe, which could lead into a bit more exploration of that time period. The Bearator is a kid around the age of the Heroes of Paris (15-16) who was a low-level member of Andretti's operation before Night Bat recruited him for the Bear Miraculous.
Cat Noir's mouth set in a hard line in front of one of the football nets. Beside him, Carapace reached up to catch his shield. Taureau Dechaine loomed behind them, arms folded and cattle prod in hand, with the Hound and Viperion flanking them. Near the center of the field, the cordon of villains surrounding XY slowly turned to face them. In addition to the four he recognized, Cat Noir saw a further three villains with Night Bat, one of whom held a pair of very familiar hand claws. He was taken back to the last time he had seen them, when Man-Bear was killed – the Bear Miraculous was back in use once more. And it looked like the Prior had brought another of his disciples with him this time.
If they had known how many villains were going to be here – and that two of them would be Dark Acolytes – Cat Noir would definitely have called in reinforcements.
But if they'd stopped to wait, XY would probably already be dead.
"Looks like we've got a party!" Cat Noir called, his voice echoing on all sides of the stadium. "Pity they trashed the tunes!"
"Nothing to worry about: we can provide our own 'beats'!" joked Taureau Dechaine, cracking his knuckled audibly before smacking his cattle prod against his palm.
"So what's the plan, dude?" Carapace muttered to Cat Noir, raising an eyebrow subtly.
"Get them away from XY," Cat Noir muttered back, slightly louder so the others could hear. "Keep XY safe."
"Do we have to?" asked the Hound. Cat Noir gave him a dirty look. "Oh, fine."
"No, the Hound's got a point…" Viperion observed, plucking a couple strings on his lyre. "I mean, all of this is his fault…"
"Not exactly the point, dude," Carapace whispered back.
Across the field, Night Bat caught Cat Noir's eye, and his eyes light up maliciously. "I had hoped to add another member to my little group with this pathetic excuse for a human being," Night Bat commented, striding across the circle and past the spot where XY lay on the ground hugging his knees. "Instead, I can harvest another five miraculous!"
"Only if you tear it from my cold, clammy fingers!" retorted Cat Noir, tightening his grip on his staff and dropping into a fighting stance.
"That is the idea." Night Bat's group spread out in a line, leaving XY behind them. Mecha-Man kicked off the ground, propelled upward by his jetpack, and shot toward them ten meters above the ground. The Prior and his disciple took positions on opposite ends of the line, with the miraculous users between them, flanking Night Bat.
"Mecha-Man is mine!" declared the Hound. He tossed the end of his leash to Taureau Dechaine, who caught it in one hand and spun around, spinning the Hound and pulling him off the ground. He released the leash and sent the Hound hurtling through the air on a collision course with Mecha-Man. "Time for round two, Rust Bucket!" he bellowed, arms spread wide. Mecha-Man turned to hover, aimed both his arm cannons at the Hound, and fired. A single glob of chi-putty shot out of the left cannon, while the right merely smoked. Mecha-Man had a moment to smack it in disgust before the Hound, who had shifted in midair to avoid the chi-putty, crashed into him, sending them both hurtling into the stadium's second deck. "This is for London!" he shouted as Mecha-Man slammed into two rows of seats, sending plastic splinters flying. The Hound looped his leash around a protrusion from the stadium roof, pulled a flip, and landed on his feet three rows above Mecha-Man.
Mecha-Man pushed himself up and turned on the Hound. "Are you seriously still holding a grudge for that?" he demanded, firing an energy beam at him.
The Hound spun his leash, deflecting the beam back at him. Energy coursed over Mecha-Man's suit and into the concrete at his feet. "You tried to blow up my city!"
"Nothing got damaged!" Mecha-Man leapt, boosted the jump with his jetpack, and soared over the Hound's head, unleashing energy from both arms.
"That extra bomb was bad form!" the Hound shot back, evading the energy beams before snagging Mecha-Man's ankle with his leash and dragging him back down into the seats.
Cat Noir turned away from his cousin and raced toward Night Bat, the rest of the heroes behind him. Even if the Hound kept Mecha-Man occupied, that still left six opponents, two of them Dark Acolytes. In front of him, Night Bat brandished his sword in one hand, his other upraised, his eyes black. Cat Noir extended his staff, planted it in the sod between them, and launched himself into the air, sailing around the staff and aiming to land right in front of Night Bat. Night Bat flicked his wrist, and a bolt of black energy shot out at Cat Noir's staff as he neared the apex of his arc. Cat Noir pushed himself up higher into the air and retracted his staff moments before the lightning reached it, replanting his staff after the lightning passed and stilting his way forward.
Tyran-X twirled his lasso over his head, formed an enormous loop, and threw it at the heroes, who scattered apart. "Dino-Quake!" he shouted, stomping his foot. The earth beneath his foot split apart, forming a crack in the field that shot straight toward the heroes before diverging into a T. Cat Noir, still in midair, retracted his staff moments before the ground beneath it crumbled away. He reset his staff on the near side of the crack and pushed himself higher to clear it. Carapace and Viperion dove in opposite directions to escape the earthquake, while Taureau Dechaine slammed his foot into the ground and leapt over the growing chasm. The lasso loop came down around Taureau Dechaine's arm, and Tyran-X swung him around and slammed him into the ground on the opposite side of the group of villains from where they had started. Taureau Dechaine twisted to place his feet under him, landed on the field, and set his legs before reaching down and grabbing the lasso rope. He jerked the rope hard, and Tyran-X stumbled off-balance. Taureau Dechaine pulled him to the ground, freed his ankle from the lasso, and charged, bellowing in fury. Tyran-X rose to one knee and lunged forward past Night Bat, tackling Taureau Dechaine around the waist.
Carapace rolled to his feet on one side of the earthquake that had shattered the field and drove the rim of his shield up into the Prior's chin, knocking him backward off-balance. He ducked a swipe from the Bear Miraculous user's hand claws, grabbed his wrist, and bent it back. The guy dropped that hand claw, and Carapace caught it in his shield. It slid off, and Carapace drove it into the ground with his foot. "What are you supposed to be?" he scoffed in some amusement.
"Do you want to feel the Bearator's wrath?" he demanded, breaking Carapace's grip on his wrist and dropping to sweep Carapace's legs out from under him. Carapace leapt backward, narrowly avoided a wad of chi-putty from the Prior, and sidestepped a follow-up kick to his side from the Bearator. The Prior leapt at him, swinging his quarterstaff at Carapace's head, but Carapace ducked beneath the attack, which hit the Bearator in the arm instead as he went to punch Carapace. Carapace planted one foot on the ground, slammed his shield into the Bearator's gut, and kicked the Prior in the chest. The Prior fell to the ground next to the base of Cat Noir's staff.
As Cat Noir descended toward Night Bat on the far side of the chasm Tyran-X had formed down the middle of the field, he extended his staff and aimed to land just in front of Night Bat. On seeing this, the villain stepped back a pace. His sword flashed as he slashed at Cat Noir's head the moment Cat Noir landed. Cat Noir raised his staff to parry, and the sword glanced harmlessly away. Cat Noir dropped into his standard fencing stance, one hand back, and met Night Bat's furious attack with a solid defense.
"A fencer, I see," observed Night Bat, as casually as one would comment on the weather. "Your defense is adequate, although your footwork leaves much to be desired." He lunged forward and evaded Cat Noir's parry, scoring a shallow slash to his arm.
Cat Noir hissed in pain, but gritted his teeth and jumped back to buy space. He tossed his staff in the air and caught it with his left hand, just in time to block Night Bat's next strike at an angle. Swinging his staff around he drove the tip of Night Bat's sword into the ground, spun around, and elbowed him in the gut with as much force as he could muster in his injured arm. Night Bat gasped in surprise and dropped back a pace. The other Dark Acolyte stepped forward to help, swinging his quarterstaff at Cat Noir's head.
Night Bat shook his head and held up a hand without taking his eyes off of Cat Noir. "No, Deacon," he ordered. "Help Elettrisicario with Viperion." He shifted his grip on the sword. "I will teach the Cat a lesson!" His eyes lit up with fury. "You may have skills, child," he observed, feinting a stab at Cat Noir's gut, "but I have crossed blades with the best swordsmen the world over for centuries!"
The Deacon turned away as Night Bat's eyes flashed black and the wind picked up around him. He shot upward into the air, held aloft on a swirling column of wind. His fingertips crackled with electricity, and he held out one hand. A bolt of lightning lanced out at Cat Noir, who sprang away, extended his staff, and vaulted over the heads of the others into the first tier of the stadium, chased by a flurry of lightning bolts. Cat Noir continued to dodge between the chairs as Night Bat shot black lightning at him over and over. Through the smoke of ozone and melting plastic Cat Noir could barely see his friends still on the field.
"Cat, go left… now!" shouted Viperion. Cat Noir obeyed instantly, moments before Mech-Man melted a hole straight through the stands right where he had been standing.
Close to the near sideline, Viperion rolled to his feet, holding his lyre by one limb, spun it around, grabbed the other limb, and brought up in front of his chest to block a punch from Elettrisicario. Elettrisicario stepped back to avoid Viperion's follow-up kick, spun around a punch, and whipped out with his lightning rod to strike Viperion's leg. Viperion, however, dropped his lyre straight to counter. Elettrisicario lunged again, and Viperion parried with his lyre, swinging it around to lie across the back of his arm as a shield and holding it by one limb, knocking the lightning rod aside. Elettrisicario stabbed at Viperion's shoulder, and Viperion raised his lyre, rotating it slightly to expose the strings. The lightning rod stuck through the space between two of the lyre's strings, and Viperion immediately twisted, wrenching the lightning rod out of Elettrisicario's hands. Viperion spun the lyre and launched the lightning rod across the field, over the heads of the other combatants, where it stuck in the ground near the far boundary line, waving back and forth. "Thanks, babe," he whispered to himself.
Elettrisicario scoffed. "I don't need a weapon to kill a Snake like you." He flexed his arms. "I made my first kill before I was old enough to drive, and I did it with my bare hands!"
Viperion snorted and leapt back, careful to avoid where Taureau Dechaine and Tyran-X were wrestling, holding his lyre across his body. "You'll have to touch me first for that to happen!"
"Eelecrocution!" Elettrisicario's hand was wreathed with crackling electricity. He lunged forward, hand outstretched toward Viperion. Viperion, however, sidestepped and dragged his foot where Elettrisicario would trip on it. Elettrisicario stumbled and waved his arm, catching Tyran-X with his hand. Tyran-X fell to the ground, panting and twitching. Elettrisicario landed on top of him and immediately sprang back to his feet with a snarl.
Anticipating the danger from his side, Viperion ducked the Deacon's swinging quarterstaff and spun around a kick, dropping into a crouch and holding his lyre under one arm. The Deacon's momentum carried him past Viperion, who pushed him off balance before kicking him in the back. Viperion glanced at his wrist and grimaced: "Second Chance is about to expire, and this is our best attempt yet."
"I guess we're winging it from here." Cat Noir glared up at Night Bat, hovering near the second tier of the stadium, and dove across an aisle to avoid another bolt of lightning. The row of seats he hid behind exploded in a shower of plastic, and he spun his staff in a tight circle to block the worst of the shrapnel. A mostly-intact seat landed in front of Cat Noir, and he stuck one end of his staff under it, flung it into the air, and smacked it with his staff, launching it at Night Bat. Night Bat blasted the seat apart with another blast of lightning, but Cat Noir vaulted through the air right behind the seat, sailing through the cloud of debris and kicking Night Bat in the chest with both feet, knocking him out of the air. Night Bat fell away from him and righted himself just before he landed on the field, rolling over several times and finally stumbling to his feet.
As he raced across the field in pursuit, Cat Noir saw out of the corner of his eye a bolas skipping across the short grass at his ankles and dove to one side, narrowly avoiding it. The Deacon was on top of him in an instant, swinging his quarterstaff at Cat Noir's head. Cat Noir parried and drove the quarterstaff into the ground. Across the field he could see Night Bat advancing on Carapace, who was still locked in combat against the Prior and Bearator. Cat Noir was about to follow to help Carapace when the ground shook beneath him.
Taureau Dechaine barreled past, leapt across the gaping chasm in the ground, and charged Carapace's position. Carapace turned away from the Prior and raised his shield to block Night Bat's sword thrust with moments to spare before sidestepping to avoid the Bearator's claws.
"In-Di-No!" shouted Tyran-X, whipping out his lasso at Taureau Dechaine. A hole appeared in the ground in front of Taureau Dechaine, spilling lava over the playing field. Taureau Dechaine, however, jumped over the lava hole, landed, and tackled the Prior and Bearator to the ground. The earth shook as they landed. None of the three rose.