To Rose Tiger: You and I both know that, but he hasn't exactly been willing to listen whenever the HOP have tried to explain it.
To Guest: That's the kind of thing that you don't forget. Hence he wakes up remembering it like a vivid dream. But reminding him of it and offering "revenge" is absolutely how Lynchpin and Night Bat control him. And most of the Lynchpin-ions aren't held there by Night Bat's "Kiss of Death"; but under the circumstances, there isn't all that much he can offer them!
To Lyger 0: That would be an interesting conversation, lol!
Hovering above the nearby apartment buildings, staring across at the Tarasque in front of him, his mace held in a tight grip, Águila Altíssimo watched the heroes on the ground work together to restrain the Beast. Moments before the Tarasque had nearly broken free of Ladybug and company when Sent-Bee fell; only the timely intervention of Killer Bee and Tyran-X had kept it in place. But the Tarasque was still struggling, still pushing forward. Under Miss Pinky and Bandruí's influence, a veritable rainforest of vines had sprung up around all six of the Beast's legs, rooting it in place. The acrid green poison continued to creep along the ground around the Tarasque, leaving browned and dying grass in its wake. Coquette, standing with Fin in the row behind Cat Noir, coughed several times into her hand as the poison infused through the air. Águila Altíssimo's eyes narrowed, and he scanned the cluster of heroes. Coquette wasn't the only one beginning to feel the effects of the poison.
The Tarasque erupted in a bellowing roar, mingled with a hissing sound, green smoke pouring from its nostrils. The poison pooled at its feet, suffusing the air around the heroes and leaving them partly obscured, despite the best efforts of Valkyrie and Kamikaze to hold the poison at bay. The Tarasque's face turned down and it leaned forward, tugging against the vines twisting around its legs. As Águila Altíssimo watched, a couple of the plants were ripped out of the ground before Bandruí coaxed them into sending out longer roots to reconnect them to the ground. The vines spread through the soil where Miss Pinky had broken up the pavement, sending their feelers as far as they could in a desperate attempt to give them a measure of stability. But as the green smoke settled on one of the ivy plants, and it instantly began to wilt and peel away. One plant's feelers rose up into a patch of poison air, and the entire plant shriveled up. The Tarasque pulled one leg free of the vines and pushed it forward against Tyran-X's resistance, dragging him after it and leaving two long furrows in the pavement from Tyran-X's heels.
Bandruí pulled a flower off of the closest vine and threw it at the free leg. Before it had even touched the ground, the flower had already burst apart with roots from a dozen sprouts. The Tarasque raised its head and shrieked before fixing its gaze on her. Its tail whipped forward over its head, aiming straight for Bandruí's head. Less than a meter from impact, Miss Pinky jumped in from the side and slammed her rake into the tail, knocking it off course. The Tarasque wrenched its tail back out of the ground and waved it to scrape along the ground, but Fin extended his snorkel and swung it like a lacrosse stick, slapping the tail away. Another stream of poison air poured from the Tarasque's open mouth as it leaned forward, its head directly above Bandruí, Miss Pinky, and Fin.
"Get its attention!" Águila Altíssimo called to the swarm of flying heroes surrounding him. He wound up and threw his mace straight at the Tarasque's eye as hard as he possibly could. "Keep its head up and the poison away from the ground!" The spiked ball on the end struck home on the Tarasque's snout and deflected away, almost into the crowd of heroes. Libertad raised her hands in front of her face and called up a shimmering shield to cover herself and Draco, but Águila Altíssimo held out his hand before it reached them, calling the mace back to him. Iron Maiden screamed downward in a steep dived, leveled out only a couple meters above the ground, and flew in front of the Tarasque's face between it and Bandruí. As she reached it, she shot a spread of energy blasts at it from both her arm cannons, righted herself, and rocketed directly upward, right past the Tarasque. As she flew past, the Tarasque's eyes followed her, its head lifting higher. It lunged forward, tugging on the cords holding it in place. More of the vines ripped out of the ground, pulling up stretches of the pavement as they did so. Behind the Tarasque, Ladybug and the others stumbled forward. The Tarasque's tail shot out, and Iron Maiden narrowly evaded it. It struck the building directly behind her instead, showering the ground beneath with masonry and shattered bricks.
"Try the new cannons if you got them!" a new voice shouted. Águila Altíssimo turned to see Mecha-Man and Albailier flying back around toward them. Mecha-Man shot the gap between Águila Altíssimo and Hato Gozen, straight toward the Tarasque's head, and drew its attention away from Iron Maiden. The Tarasque opened its mouth and roared out a cloud of the acrid green smoke, but Hato Gozen waved her hand, blowing a gust of wind that sent its poisonous breath up into the atmosphere above them, though the air in front of its face took on an even greener tinge. Mecha-Man paused to hover to the left of the Tarasque and held out one hand. A small ring emerged around his fist, and he sent a sonic pulse at the Tarasque's face. At the same time, Albailier flanked the Tarasque on the other side, lifted a device similar in shape to a bullhorn, and pointed it at the Tarasque.
Seeing this, Iron Maiden activated an attachment on her wrist and a similar device deployed, forming into an enlarged bracelet around her gauntlet. Both Uncanny Valley and Turing flew in front of Águila Altíssimo and did the same with both wrists, and seven sonic pulses struck the Tarasque all around its head. Three drones took off from Turing's back, adding their own sonic weapons to the mix. A low thrum filled the air resonated in Águila Altíssimo's teeth. The Tarasque roared, tugging its paws off the ground against the pull of the vines and cords wrapped around its legs. Killer Bee fell flat on her face and lost her grip on her top. Multiplice yelped and tried to cover her ears with one hand, but her jump rope slipped.
The Tarasque lurched forward.
Águila Altíssimo pumped his wings and flew straight past the Tarasque's face, angling up to draw its attention and then back down toward the ground. Albailier and Hato Gozen matched him move for move, trailing slightly behind him to either side. The Tarasque's eyes followed them through the maneuver, and Albailier holstered his sonic weapon to fire an energy blast into the Tarasque's face, just as Hato Gozen hit it with lightning. Águila Altíssimo's eyes narrowed in concentration as he twisted through the maneuver. "Whatever you're going to do, hit it now! I don't know how long it's going to stay here…" warned Águila Altíssimo, watching the Tarasque in his peripheral vision, dipping one wing to avoid colliding with Olivet.
"NOW!" Cat Noir bellowed, extending his staff, bracing it against the ground, and slamming it into the Tarasque's neck.
Projectiles – arrows, energy beams, shuriken, and more – darted out from all directions, aiming for the Tarasque's neck. Elettrisicario jabbed the Tarasque's neck with his Eelectrocution-charged lightning rod as, at the same moment, Ryoku, Hato Gozen, and Olivet all shot lightning at the same point. The Tarasque bellowed, green poison spewing from its mouth and nostrils, and whipped its tail forward. Elettrisicario jumped to the side, only for the tail to rocket straight past him and strike the Bearator square in the chest, sending him flying backward into the corner of a building. The brickwork crumbled into dust under the impact, and the Bearator slowly tried to push himself back to his feet only to stumble and collapse. Draco held out a hand to him, but he batted it away, digging his claws into the side of the building to hold himself steady. One of the Tarasque's front legs lifted from the ground, and Socomem drove a powered punch into the side of the Tarasque's paw while Bandruí raised more vines, connecting them to those still wrapped around the Tarasque's legs.
With a thunderclap, Majestia shot between Águila Altíssimo and Albailier, flexed her shoulders back, and shot a beam of her heat vision at the underside of the Tarasque's neck, right where the Lion's head connected to the Ox's body. The Tarasque roared its outrage as it stomped its paw back to the ground with a crash and brought its head forward. Cat Noir's staff dug into the ground under the impact, and Cat Noir fell backward into Rena Rouge. The Tarasque's eyes glowed orange-red for a moment, reflecting Majestia's heat vision, before a beam of scarlet flame lanced out of them, catching Majestia in the chest and launching her backward. Out of control, Majestia careened headfirst through a skyscraper and fell out the other side before Estrella caught her by the leg and arrested her fall. The fire from the Tarasque's eyes licked at the edges of the hole Majestia had made in the side of the building as it swept its fire vision across the cityscape, searching for Majestia. Estrella placed Majestia carefully on the ground and punched one fist out. A beam of white-hot energy struck the Tarasque's mane, and it turned its glare on her.
Águila Altíssimo hurled his mace at the Tarasque's head and summoned it back once, twice, and again. The fifth time he threw, as the mace was returning to his hand, the Tarasque turned to face him, and he had a moment to react before the fire vision was aimed in his direction. Águila Altíssimo furled one wing and extended the other, letting the heat of the fire vision buoy him higher and to the side, spinning around the wave of fire and narrowly avoiding it as he twisted around to return to level flight.
"Aaah!"
Águila Altíssimo's heart stopped.
With a cry, Hato Gozen fell past Águila Altíssimo, one of her wings half-missing and her pinion feathers smoldering. The Tarasque's fire vision followed her, and she contorted herself around to face it, spun her naginata in midair, and deflected most of the fire right bat at the Tarasque, even as she continued to fall, uncontrolled, to the ground. Amun-Vatar threw his arms out, and a shimmering symbol appeared in the air between the Tarasque and Hato Gozen, absorbing the fire and converting it to light that built in intensity until it left spots in Águila Altíssimo's vision. Albailier dove past Águila Altíssimo, building speed as he went, and grabbed Hato Gozen's arm four meters from the ground, spreading his wings as he caught her. The two of them tumbled to the ground at the Tarasque's feet in a heap. Velocimonio sprinted between the Tarasque's legs, pulled Hato Gozen into his arms, and sprinted away from the Tarasque at his top speed. Though pinned in place, the Tarasque followed them with its eyes and sent a burst of fire just past them, melting the pavement right before Velocimonio reached it.
Coyotemarialada, held in the air with her flight power-up, pulled a surfboard out of her pouch and chucked it into the molten pavement at Velocimonio's feet. He ran across it as it melted away into fiberglass soup. As the Tarasque's paw came down on top of Albailier, Sunnguvuk slid underneath, holding the paw off the ground with her shield while Waktiman drabbed Albailier's rifle barrel and pulled him out. No sooner had he been cleared than the Tarasque growled, pushing down on Sunnguvuk with all its might, and she cried out as her shield was pressed down against her chest.
"No!" Águila Altíssimo wheeled around into a steep dive, aiming straight for the Tarasque's lower leg. Taureau Dechaine grabbed one of the Tarasque's claws, straining to hold it up, off of Sunnguvuk. Onça Feroz aimed a sling stone at the Tarasque's face, drawing a gout of fire vision in her direction for her trouble. None of them could get the Tarasque off of Sunnguvuk – not alone. With a roar, Águila Altíssimo twisted around, furled his wings, and drove both his feet into the Tarasque's leg, springing off into a back flip. He landed right next to Taureau Dechaine and threw his shoulder into the Tarasque's paw, struggling for leverage. A leash flew past him, wrapped around Sunnguvuk's arm, and dragged her out of the way, moments before the Tarasque's paw crashed down right where she had been.
The Tarasque turned down to look at Águila Altíssimo and Taureau Dechaine, acrid smoke pouring from its nostrils, and its eyes glowed red. Águila Altíssimo shifted his grip on his mace to hold it by the strap, twirling it in a shield, as Taureau Dechaine did the same with his cattle prod. The fire came down on them. Simultaneously, a golden dome appeared between them and the Beast.