To Anon: Hope can be dashed so quickly.
To Anon2018: Actually, there will be answers for your questions, though not necessarily in this story… And I'm glad you like the characters that I've created!
Tyran-X ducked, narrowly evading a car that the Tarasque's tail had struck and launched down the side street directly toward him. It rolled over through the air, bouncing several times on the pavement as it went. Behind Tyran-X, Elettrisicario, Araignée, and Gardur dove against the side of the building next to them along the street, pressing themselves against the bricks to avoid the car. Of the Dark Acolytes behind them, most managed to dodge the car in time, though the car smashed into the last in the line, crushing the man as it careened across the intersection and slammed into a light pole.
"Ron!" shouted the Dark Acolyte next to him, dropping to her knees to check his pulse. She slapped his cheek a couple of times, hyperventilating.
"Leave him!" shouted Tyran-X, his eyes flashing. So much death and destruction surrounded them – so much of his city had been destroyed by this Monster… and by the "heroes" who continued to fight against it. What was one more dead body in the face of everything else that had happened? He waved to the others, pushing them down the side street along the way that the car had flown, urging them away from the Tarasque. "We have to keep moving!"
Two of the Dark Acolytes picked up the third under the arms, half dragging her down the street, followed closely by the Lynchpin-ions. The ground rumbled and shook beneath Tyran-X's feet as he brought up the rear, hardly sparing a glance for Ron's body as he raced past. He had hardly stopped to talk with any of the Dark Acolytes in Paris, and there were even more now than there had been two weeks ago. The Tarasque's booming roar echoed out behind him, coming from a little further down the alley to the south from him. Quickly Tyran-X hurried after the others.
"What are we supposed to do?" demanded Gardur, folding his arms and pausing just around the intersection. "Nothing is touching this thing, the 'Heroes' are running for their lives, no one's heard from the boss since all this started – who's even in charge here?"
Elettrisicario's nostrils flared. "I suppose you can obey me now," he declared. "Unless you'd like a debate; you may find the results somewhat… shocking." Electricity crackled around his hand. "And as for what we're supposed to do, I would say that until we find an opportunity to do something to that thing and maybe cut back some of the damage to my city, staying alive is a good plan, wouldn't you?"
Tyran-X shrugged. "As good a plan as any," he agreed. He looked back at the others, taking in their bedraggled state. A couple of the surviving Dark Acolytes' robes had gotten cut and shredded from the fight. Gardur was favoring his left leg, supporting one hand on Araignée's shoulder. They could still hear the sound of the Tarasque's rampage on the other side of the buildings and a little south of them, interspersed with the sounds of energy cannons firing. "But where should we go?"
A bunch of stones shifted down their street to the south, sending a couple of pebbles skipping off the sidewalk. Instantly on high alert, Tyran-X turned toward the sound, finding his lasso with his hand. A head peeked out from around a pile of rubble strewn in front of an apartment building which was missing a large chunk of the top floor, and a young girl, no more than four years old, looked up at the group wide-eyed. "Is it gone? Did it stop?"
Tyran-X stared at the girl in shock. "I–um–yes, I guess it is gone," he finally answered her. The Tarasque shrieked, and jetpacks whined overhead. Tyran-X winced. "But it definitely hasn't stopped. Uh… where is your family?"
The girl's lower lip trembled. She looked down at the rubble in front of her, sniffling. "I–I don't know." She rubbed her eye, staining her cheek with soot and blood. "They were right here… but then they weren't."
"You poor thing," Araignée cooed, walking right down to the girl, sweeping her up into her arms, and wiping her cheek with the back of her hand to remove some of the soot. "We'll keep you safe," she promised. The girl stared at her, frozen, for half a second before hugging her tightly around the neck and whimpering.
Tyran-X raised an eyebrow dubiously. "Is it all that smart for us to be bringing a kid with us… wherever we're going?"
Araignée's eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. "It's a whole lot smarter for us to look after her than to just leave her here." She adjusted the little girl on her hip and turned to the others, her free hand clenched into a fist. "Now you're going to help me get this girl somewhere safe, or so help me…"
Elettrisicario scoffed. "You'll what? Slap me?" Araignée growled, and Elettrisicatio sighed, taking the little girl's hand and rubbing one of the cuts on the back gently to work some of the gravel out of it. "My youngest isn't too much older than you," he told the girl. "So, do you like Paw Patrol like he does?"
The girl looked up at him in awe. "Are you Rocky?" she asked, pointing to his lime-green suit.
Elettrisicario raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I suppose that's a yes." He frowned. "But this does complicate matters. And we do need to get out of here if we are to keep the girl safe," he warned, looking around at the destruction.
"We can continue south on this road," Tyran-X suggested, pointing. His jaw clenched on reading the street sign: his in-laws had lived several kilometers north on this street, before the Tarasque's arrival had forced them to evacuate. Pushing such thoughts aside, he set off at a brisk jog, leading the group south. They were a couple blocks east of the Tarasque itself, and this street had thus far escaped the worst of the damage. In the distance he could still hear the sound of the fighting in front of the Tarasque, what sounded like the screeching wail of planes flying overhead.
"Is that the air force?" called Gardur pointing to the sky. A block ahead of them, a small group of survivors poked their heads out of a car that had had its front caved in by falling rubble.
Four silver planes shot past, flew directly over them, and turned back against the Tarasque. Tyran-X broke into a sprint down the street toward the survivors, the others close on his heels. The Tarasque bellowed, and another cloud of acrid smoke billowed out away from it to flood the street, starting almost two meters above the ground before settling to cover a wider area. The planes flew back around, but this time only one plane flew above them. A tremendous explosion rang out, sending shrapnel in all directions. Tyran-X spun his lasso over his head, extending it as wide as possible to shield all of the Lynchpin-ions and Dark Acolytes. Running across an intersection, Tyran-X glanced up in time to watch one of the planes spin out of control and slam into a building in front of them. The building buckled, leaned, and started to fall forward, into the street down which they were running. Tyran-X glanced down at where it was about to land, and his heart stopped.
The building was coming straight down on top of the stopped car, out of which five survivors were trying to climb.
Without thinking or hesitating, Tyran-X hurled his lasso, aiming it behind the closest building, in front of the falling building, and then looping it around the third building on the block. The lasso stretched out farther than he would have thought possible, and he fixed it halfway up the buildings. The loop caught around the third building, and he pulled taut, straining to keep the building upright for as long as possible. The group of people froze halfway out of the car and stared up at the building in shock. Tyran-X's grip began to slip, and the building started to list forward. "Get… them… out!" he grunted, gritting his teeth and digging his heels into the pavement, leaving behind long gouges as the street cracked beneath him.
From behind him, two of the Dark Acolytes raced down the street toward the people. "Move!" bellowed John, waving his hands wildly over his head.
"Get out of there!" Jake called. Tyran-X could feel the building slipping out of his control, leaning forward on its axis. "Are you deaf!?"
The two Acolytes grabbed the civilians and hauled them out of the way, dragging them back toward the rest of the group just as the building shifted and Tyran-X pitched forward, face-planting on the ground. The building fell over, spilling brickwork and building materials into the street and throwing up a debris cloud that mingled with the poison gas and choked the air. Jake tackled the last man, pushing them both to safety with seconds to spare. The other two buildings, their walls compromised by the lasso digging into them, creaked and shifted. "Back this way!" Tyran-X shouted, waving for everyone to follow him a block closer to the Tarasque. This block had seen significantly heavier damage and become clogged with crushed and burning vehicles. Tyran-X turned to Gardur and pointed to a van that blocked half the road. "Can you manage that?"
Gardur smirked and barreled toward it. While Tyran-X lassoed the next fire truck down the street, Gardur grabbed the rear of his van and, with a mighty grunt, pushed it to one side, creating a narrow path for Tyran-X and the others, along with the civilians they had rescued, to squeeze through. Tyran-X led the way, followed by the civilians and the other Lynchpin-ions, pushing against the vehicles to widen the passage as much as he could. Once they had made it through the chokepoint, they sprinted down the street, Araignée still carrying the little girl while Gardur and Elettrisicario impelled the civilians forward as fast as they could go. The sound of the Tarasque fighting against the heroes reverberated of the buildings around them, seeming to come from a spot a little behind them. Over the sound of the Tarasque's roar, Majestia let out a ferocious yell, followed shortly by a sonic boom. Tyran-X gave a quick glance in either direction as they reached the next intersection before waving the group forward.
"Hey! A little help here!?" a familiar voice shouted from somewhere to the right.
Tyran-X looked along the side street they were passing to find Ayilon and Miss Pinky crouched beside an overturned school bus. Just to the right, the Tarasque's hulking visage loomed above the buildings, lumbering straight in their direction. Miss Pinky saw him looking at her, and her eyes widened in surprise. Ayilon turned to look, and furrowed her brows in confusion before turning back toward the bus. Looking closer, Tyran-X realized that Ayilon was trying to lift the bus to get Miss Pinky's leg out from under it. How ironically appropriate: she was the reason his wife had been killed after being trapped in a vehicle, and now she was the one trapped by a vehicle.
It would be so easy to just leave her here.
"Come on!" urged Elettrisicario as the civilians crossed the intersection and broke into a run toward the south.
Tyran-X turned to follow, only to pause. Was that really what Béatrice would want him to do? He squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed back acid. No, it wasn't. Steeling himself, he opened his eyes to find Elettrisicario watching him in anticipation. Tyran-X groaned. "Keep going; I'll catch up!" Without looking back, he sprinted toward the two heroes. Elettrisicario shouted something, but Tyran-X couldn't stop now. The Tarasque was a little more than two blocks away. Putting on a burst of speed as he ran, he waved his hand to one side and shouted, "Move!" Ayilon dove out of the way with moments to spare as, without slowing down, Tyran-X lowered his shoulder and slammed into the underside of the bus, which skidded almost a meter along the ground. Carefully he landed with his feet on either side of Miss Pinky's hips. She stared up at him, blinking in shock, and he stepped to the side before reaching down to haul her to her feet.
"Th–thanks!" she gasped, wheezing, looking around for her rake.
Tyran-X nodded and looked back ahead to where the Taraque was still lurching ponderously forward. "So what do we do now?" he demanded. Suddenly something long and thin darted out of the side street and tapped the Tarasque in the shoulder. The Tarasque's head turned back the way that Tyran-X had come, and it sent a beam of fire straight back at the intersection. Tyran-X's eyes widened and he stared back to see two of the Dark Acolytes helping an elderly man walk while Elettrisicario zapped the Tarasque down the length of his extended lightning rod. Elettrisicario pulled back his lightning rod and twirled it in a shield, but the force of the fire beam pushed him backward and he almost tripped.
"We need to distract it!" cried Miss Pinky.
Tyran-X looped his lasso around an upside-down car and pulled, dragging it off the ground and swinging it around before releasing it straight into the Tarasque's head. The Tarasque turned, glaring at them in fury. Smoke poured from its nostrils, and its eyes glowed red. In midair halfway between them and the Tarasque, the car exploded in a fireball.
A keening, screeching wail resounded from a spot above them, and Tyran-X covered his ears on instinct. A glance at Miss Pinky showed her in a similar position. Looking up at the building to their left, Tyran-X saw Ayilon, standing on the edge and running her violin bow along the top of the roof. The building thrummed and vibrated, beginning to hum with a resonance that Tyran-X could feel from his feet all the way up to his teeth. He braced himself, staring back at the Tarasque, which had turned on Ayilon. Fire extruded from its eyes and slammed into the building. Ayilon continued to play for a moment longer, but the damage done by the fire destabilized it. The building shook and shivered and collapsed forward into the street, falling atop Tyran-X and Miss Pinky.