To Armadas: Cosette could make a fine hero… but not now and certainly not under these circumstances. But Leïla? Let's see how she does here…
"Marius Mallarmé! Step away from the Minister and surrender!" Hovering just above the roof, Chrysaor fired both his wrist-mounted energy weapons at a point near Mind-Wipe's feet, charring a pair of spots into the ceiling and drawing his attention. Chrysaor landed on the roof of Faure's residence and raised both his arms, deploying his energy pistol barrels and aiming them at Mind-Wipe and Dynamus. Standing beside Mind-Wipe, Faure turned to him in confusion, blinking rapidly, and stepped forward to interpose himself between Chrysaor and Mind-Wipe. Mistral's fans activated, raising her to hover a meter off the ground, and she drifted slowly toward Chrysaor, who turned one of his pistols toward her, away from Mind-Wipe. Fire-Fly sidestepped away from the others to take up a flanking position to Chrysaor's right and dropped to one knee, aiming her new prosthetic arm at Chrysaor. Dynamus clenched one fist and drew it upward, pulling a stretch of the roofing material loose and raising it in front of himself as a shield. Sandy tossed her knife up in the air and caught it deftly, her eyes alight with malice.
Mind-Wipe smirked, arms folded in a casual stance. "You do not appear to be in a position to bargain, hero!" he sneered. "Perhaps you should be the one surrendering to me – before you get yourself hurt!"
"Did you truly believe that the Heroes of Paris would permit you to run amok in our city?" Chrysaor let out a scoff. "Clearly you do not understand the Heroes of Paris! Now surrender!"
"The Heroes of Paris have fled!" Dynamus shot back, his eyes flashing maliciously. He twisted his wrist, ripping shards off of his makeshift shield which hung suspended in midair. "What do you hope to accomplish here?" Even before he had finished speaking, he punched his fist forward, sending the shards hurtling at Chrysaor.
Chrysaor watched impassively as the shingles contracted down into thin points, hurtling toward his head. They had only crossed half the distance, however, before a ball of fire shot out from a spot beside the roof to Chrysaor's left and consumed the cloud in its entirety, leaving behind only ash to drift down to the ground at his feet as the fireball impacted against Dynamus' shield, melting the tar and licking around the edges of the strip of shingles. Elementa rose to hover next to the roof before stepping onto it, a small fireball dancing around between her fingers. She drew in a deep breath and blew, sending a wind gust at the crowd of criminals. Mistral was pushed back in the air but turned one of her fans behind her to negate the wind, spinning around in a tight circle before dropping to land on the roof, pushing backward with both arm-mounted fans to hold herself in place. At the same moment an energy beam struck Fire-Fly's prosthetic a glancing blow, and Albailier swooped down from above, flaring his wings out to hover behind Chrysaor on the right. With a flick of the wrist, Chrysaor shifted his wrist cannon from energy to chi-putty and launched a wad at Sandy, missing by centimeters when she jumped forward to confront Albailier.
Dynamus' eyes flashed, and he glared at Elementa. "You!" The ceiling beneath her shattered with a sickening screech, and Dynamus hurled a roofing tile at her which turned to lava as it flew. Elementa's hair whipped about her face as she rose on a column of air above the devastated roof, spun around to avoid the lava, and grabbed the metal aerial next to her head. Wrenching it away, she threw it at Dynamus, twisting her wrist and bending the metal midair into a set of makeshift handcuffs. They wrapped around Dynamus' hands, only to melt away into water the instant they tightened.
Growling, Fire-Fly kicked into the air, her prosthetic shorting out as she did so, and kicked around in a midair cartwheel. She smacked her prosthetic twice, pointed it at Albailier, and unleashed a stream of fire at him. Albailier shot up higher as the flame passed beneath him, and Fire-Fly and Mistral rocketed upward in pursuit. Twin bursts of flame licked at Albailier's wings, and he ducked and dove around to evade them. Separating, Mistral and Fire-Fly swung around to encircle him, hovering a dozen meters above the rooftop. Albailier spun around in either direction, his eyes daring back and forth between the two threats. As he turned away from her, Mistral sent a gust of wind at his back, only for him to furl his wings and let the wind blow past him into Fire-Fly's face. With a shriek, Fire-Fly was swept up into the air. Albailier spread his wings three meters from the roof, built momentum, and shot back up after Fire-Fly, energy pistols firing.
Seeing Albailier's two-to-one odds, Chrysaor activated his jets and readied himself to fly up and assist. Before he could, however, Sandy charged straight at him, knife poised to strike. She reached him in moments with her miraculous-enhanced speed, springing into the air in a lunge. Chrysaor raised his chi-putty launcher to fire, but she came down on him before he could het the shot off, and he instead shifted his arm to block her first punch, which knocked him back a pace. Stumbling to keep his balance, he activated his jets for stability and fired pointblank into her chest with his other arm. Sandy parried the energy beam with her knife, deflecting it back toward Chrysaor, who dove to one side just as it shot past his chest, missing Elementa by a meter as it passed, and impacted on the side of the building next door. Chrysaor landed hard on his side a couple meters from the roof's edge and looked up to find himself a dozen paces away from Mind-Wipe, who strode purposefully toward him.
"Let's see what happens if instead of controlling the Mayor, I instead control the last hero in Paris!" Mind-Wipe declared, reaching out toward Chrysaor.
Chrysaor rose to his feet, and his eyes flashed as a harpoon embedded itself in the roof between him and Mind-Wipe, quivering back and forth. Eyes widening in surprise, Mind-Wipe jumped backward, spinning in either direction to search for the source of the harpoon. Two burnt-orange hands grabbed the roof's edge beside Chrysaor, and Nabatala leapt onto the roof, rolled to her feet between Chrysaor and Mind-Wipe, and wrenched her harpoon from the roof in a single smooth motion, twirling it between her hands to bat away Mind-Wipe's hand. Her burnt-orange dress whipped around her legs, her eyes the only part of her face visible under the black hijab which covered her entire head.
Chrysaor's jets kicked in, and shot away from Mind-Wipe, spinning around to search the rooftop for Sandy. On the street below him, Monte-en-l'Air and Elemento turned to look up at the roof in surprise, Elemento's eyes widening when he saw Albailier and Fire-Fly wheeling around in the air. At that same moment, Sarsavat leapt out from behind the bushes lining the front side of the building next to Faure's residence, wrapped his body around Elemento, and reached out with both hands to grab Monte-en-l'Air. However, Monte-en-l'Air jumped back away from him with a shout, and Sarsavat twisted his body, dragging Elemento to the ground. Even before Elemento had landed with a grunt, Sarsavat jumped off of him and slithered down the stairs in pursuit of Monte-en-l'Air. As he turned back around toward the fight on the roof movement caught Chrysaor's attention, just as Sandy grabbed his leg and pulled him in, hurling him toward the center of the roof, past Mind-Wipe and Nabatala.
"So they had another miraculous lying around?" sneered Mind-Wipe, reaching out to grab Nabatala, who smacked his wrist, taking a step back away from him. He looked her up and down, shaking his head. "And they would give it to you? I must say, the costume does you no favors, girl!"
Eyes flashing with rage, Nabatala jumped away from him in a back-flip, planted her free hand on the ground, and spun to her feet, sweeping her harpoon at his feet as he chased her. He jumped, barely avoiding the sweep, and stumbled as he landed. "So you're the Mind-Wipe I've heard so much about," she growled, pirouetting to stab at his chest. "The one who enjoys preying on innocent girls?" She lunged forward, kicking him in the chest. He stumbled backward, cradling his stomach with one hand. "One of my friends was abducted by you – she was missing for weeks!" Nabatala swung the butt of her harpoon at his head, narrowly missing as he leaned out of the way. "This is for her!"
Landing on the roof and bracing himself just before she reached him, Chrysaor ducked beneath Sandy's punch, driving both his fists into her gut. She clenched her stomach, and his fists bounced off, sending her skidding back a pace away from him.
Sandy grinned exultantly. "I could get used to this!" she crowed. "The invulnerability – the raw power! To say nothing of the control! There's no way you can stop me! Eu-Collect-It!"
Shooting a spray of his rapidly-depleting store of chi-putty behind him wildly, Chrysaor rocketed off the roof into the air as the tendrils of mist reached out at him from Sandy's fingers. Above him, Albailier, Mistral, and Fire-Fly continued their wild cat-and-mouse game, fire blasts and energy pulses lancing across the sky. All his attention on the grasping tendrils, Chrysaor ducked and weaved, spinning around through the air to avoid them, shooting the gap between Fire-Fly and Albailier as he went. One of the tendrils reached closer to Chrysaor, just a hair's-breadth from his foot, and he dove forward. The tendril continued past him and touched Mistral, who yelped in surprise, almost losing control of her fan suit.
"Watch where you point that thing!" Mistral shrieked down at Sandy, desperately adjusting her fans to keep herself up in the air as she lost altitude.
Chrysaor swung back around, rocketing toward the ground, and weaved around as the tendrils came back around in pursuit. An energy bolt lanced past him from a spot to the south and struck one of Mistral's control wires, sending her plummeting down past Chrysaor to the ground below. Juking wildly, Chrysaor dodged around the Eu-Collect-It tendrils, firing repeatedly at Sandy from both wrist cannons.
Just below him, Elementa narrowly evaded an attack from Dynamus by pulling her leg out of a hole in the roof that he had created. However, anticipating her move, Dynamus sent a ripple through the roof, straight at the spot where she placed her foot. As she stepped, Elementa's foot slipped, and she fell backward over the edge. Chrysaor turned over to chase her, but she pointed one of her hands down and arrested her fall with a powerful gust of wind. Dynamus jumped down after her, just as another energy bolt shot through the spot where he had been standing. Elementa landed on her feet at the base of the stairs and pulled up a cement block, hurling it up at Dynamus. The block turned to glass and melted, raining molten glass on Elementa, who pulled a bush out of the ground and superimposed it above her. The bush caught fire instantly, and she tossed it behind her into the street.
Staring at her in shock, Elemento let out a gasp. "It was you!?" he shouted, eyes wide, pointing at Elementa's neck. "You stole my medallion!"
Elementa quirked an eyebrow at him. "Do I even know you?"
"Oh, you will!" he retorted, glaring at Elementa in rage. He pushed Sarsavat's coiled body off of himself and lunged off the steps at her, narrowly evading Sarsavat's grab in the process. "Now give it back!" Elemento demanded, reaching for her throat.
Her mouth set in a thin line, Elementa brought her arms up, pushing Elemento's arms out of the way, and kicked him away from her. However, leaping in from behind, Dynamus pressed his hand to Elementa's shoulder, turning her jacket to steel. Eyes widening in shock, Elementa stumbled under the sudden increase of weight and gritted her teeth, turning partway around and manipulating the metal to raise her arm, blocking Dynamus' next punch. As she did so, however, Elemento grabbed her around the legs, unbalancing her. Elementa let out a cry, waving her arms wildly, and slammed into the ground. Elemento landed on top of her, crawling over her and grabbing for her the necklace around her throat. Dynamus raised his foot over her head as Elemento tugged on Elementa's necklace cord. Taking careful aim as he passed, Chrysaor switched his arm cannon once more and sent a tranquilizer dart at Dynamus' neck, just as an energy bolt struck Elemento in the face, dropping him to sprawl across the ground. Quickly Elementa pushed Elemento's body off of her and scrambled back to her feet, rubbing her neck.
Without hesitating, Chrysaor spun around in midair and accelerated, flying back up toward where Sandy stood leaning over the edge of the roof. She drew her knife back, her eyes flashing with rage, and Chrysaor aimed one of his tranquilizers at the exposed skin of her face. Just as he fired, Sandy started, standing up straight and looking around her in confusion. The tranquilizer dart sailed harmlessly past her, brushing her hair. Chrysaor flew up above the roof and looked down to see Mind-Wipe lying on the ground with Nabatala standing over him, her harpoon jabbed through his arm into the roof.
Sandy reached up and rubbed her forehead before turning to glare at Mind-Wipe. "What the hell? You were manipulating me!?" she shrieked, brandishing her knife at him. "I thought we were all supposed to be a team!"
From where she had landed on the sidewalk, surrounded by the wreckage of her fan suit, Mistral moaned, lifting her head off the ground before letting it drop back down limply. "Oh, son of a bitch!" she groaned.
Nabatala placed her foot on Mind-Wipe's hand, jerked her harpoon out of his arm, spun, and brought the harpoon's shaft down on the side of his head. His temple struck the roof with a wet thud and he collapsed with a weak groan. Sandy let out a feral snarl and hurled her knife at Nabatala before leaping off the roof. Nabatala yelped as the knife missed her thigh by centimeters and soared over Faure where he cowered with his hands over his head. Chrysaor fired his last chi-putty at Sandy as an energy beam passed through her hair. As her ponytail fluttered to the ground, Sandy landed in a tree next to the house, ducked through the foliage and sprinted south, diving between two houses. In the sky above them, Albailier fired two shots at Fire-Fly, who dropped lower and sent a gout of flame at his face before launching away from them across the city.
Finally, the street fell silent. Elementa nudged Dynamus' unconscious form with her boot, shedding her steel jacket and dropping it next to Elemento's body. Sarsavat slithered down the steps toward Mistral, who stifled a pained whimper. Chrysaor landed on the roof and crossed to Nabatala, patting her on the shoulder before securing a collar around Mind-Wipe's neck. Minister Faure and his mistress slowly pulled themselves together near the trapdoor leading back down into the house.
Nabatala let out a breath, her shoulders slumping in relief. "We did it!"