AN: Today's "Patrol Log" (chapter 35) occurs roughly concurrently with this chapter.
To Anon: We'll have to see how the fight progresses, now that their reinforcements have arrived!
To Lyger 0: Of course, the whole is much more powerful than the sum of its parts…
The Tarasque was no more; it had been separated into its contingent parts. The Monster that had plagued the continent for six weeks and the planet for months before that had been engulfed in purple-black energy. That was the only thought running through Ladybug's mind as she spun her yo-yo in a shield, blocking repeated attacks from the newly-freed Scorpion's tail. Cat Noir was heavy in her arms, still immobilized by Venom as he was. As she dove to one side to avoid a tail attack, one of the pincers started to close around Cat Noir's arm, only for a lyre to whip in from the side and pin the pincer open. The Scorpion hissed, clicking its other pincer in agitation, wisps of smoke trailing away from its claws and the tip of its tail.
Dhuan had been vague about what Dissolution would do to the individual Beasts – if it managed to separate them in the first place. But either way, all there was left to do was to fight the five Monsters before her; there was no other choice to be made.
Ladybug grimaced, searching the area around her as best she could in her peripheral vision without taking her focus away from the Scorpion. She needed to put Cat Noir somewhere safe if she was going to finish this fight. But without knowing where Killer Bee had gone, she couldn't risk leaving Cat Noir somewhere out of the way until she could Cure him. And with the Beasts still continuing the fight, she couldn't just stand on the sidelines and watch while her friends continued the fight. But she couldn't risk Cat Noir – her husband! – getting hurt, either. Sent-Bee had to be somewhere – Ladybug had only caught the quickest glimpse of her fight with Killer Bee before losing track of them in the melee. The lyre pulled out of the Scorpion's pincer, and it hissed, clicking both pincers as it turned in the direction toward which the lyre had been drawn. With a yell, Ryoku dropped from above onto the Scorpion's back, hacking at the back of its head with her sword. The tail struck forward at Ryoku's exposed back, only to be deflected away at the last minute by a naginata as Hato Gozen landed behind Ryoku. Naginata and sword blades flashed in the sunlight starting to peek through the haze that had covered Tarascon since before their arrival. The Scorpion shook and shimmied, threatening to buck Ryoku off of its back. Hato Gozen took to the air, wings pumping to keep her stationary. Ryoku stumbled as the Scorpion rocked to one side, and her gas mask shifted on her face, obscuring her vision. In a swift motion, Ryoku pulled the gas mask off and cast it aside, pulling in and holding a breath as she did so. The Scorpion's tail darted out once more, and Hato Gozen grabbed Ryoku by the arm, pulling her out of the way with seconds to spare as the Scorpion struck itself with its smoking tail. It let out a screech, grabbing for Ryoku before turning its focus back toward Ladybug.
Ladybug tensed. She had led all of her friends into danger.
But she couldn't focus on that, surrounded as she was by the Beasts. Off to one side, the Lion fought Kamikaze and Ronin. On the far side of the nest, the O Patriota, Socomem, Rugindo Leoa, and Onça Feroz fended the Ox away from the Heretic and Dhuan, who were hurrying Caravela away from the scene. As the Bear's claws extended on Elettrisicario, a blast of lightning struck it in the side, moments before Majestia swooped below it and grabbed Elettrisicario, pulling him out of its way. Tossing Elettrisicario on top of the Bear, Majestia turned toward Ladybug and rocketed in her direction.
Her pocket watch out and spinning in a tight circle, Bunyip stood back-to-back with Ladybug, facing down the Turtle. Ladybug's mouth set in a thin line. Behind her, the Turtle shrieked, snapping its jaws together against Bunyip's pocket watch. The Scorpion in front of Ladybug continued to give off black smoke from its pincers and tail, even as it reached out for her. The tail darted out, and Ladybug raised her yo-yo-shield slightly to deflect it, though the force pushed her back a step into Bunyip's back, and she stumbled to one knee.
Bunyip gasped. "Watch it!" The Turtle shrieked, and Bunyip dove forward, beneath the smoking Turtle's mouth, rolling out to one side and whipping out her pocket watch to wrap around the Turtle's neck moments before it would have closed its jaws on Ladybug. From the opposite side of the Turtle, the Hound's leash caught around it also. The Hound and Bunyip dug in their heels, pulling as hard as they could to pin it in place.
Ladybug lunged to one side, away from the Scorpion and Turtle, shifting her grip on Cat Noir to place him behind her. "Sorry," she whispered to him, grunting as she struggled to maintain her balance while dodging the Scorpion and staying away from the Turtle's snapping jaws. Cat Noir's eyes darted toward her face, full of trust and confidence. Ladybug gritted her teeth.
If only she could have that level of confidence…
"Spinal Shower!" Espina called, appearing beside Ladybug and pulling a handful of spines from her back. Laying them across her bow, she launched them into the Turtle's open mouth. The Turtle let out a shriek, its head turning up toward the sky, and Majestia dropped onto it from above, slamming her feet into its beak and driving it down into the mud to which the nest had been reduced.
At the same time, a wave of water overflowed the banks of the Rhone River, covering the ground around the Scorpion's feet. Riding the wave, Kamimizu landed next to Ladybug and threw her arms together, pulling together the water and moving it in either direction before it swept up and poured down over the Scorpion's back. "Do these things just not give up?" she demanded, panting from exertion.
"Apparently not," Ladybug growled, jumping back away from the Scorpion as it skittered toward her.
Majestia punched one fist into her opposite palm, grinning manically. "Good! I've been itching for some payback!" With a scream, she drove her fist into the Scorpion's eye, knocking it back a pace as black smoke wisped out of that socket.
Glancing around the nest, Ladybug grimaced, backing away from the Turtle as she did so. Kamimizu poured water over the Turtle's back, and its legs began to sink into the mud. Panting, Ladybug caught her yo-yo around the Turtle's neck and pulled down on its head, joining Bunyip and the Hound. "Yeah, but now we're fighting all five Beasts at once!" she retorted, glaring at Majestia.
"Doorman found an intact door just outside the nest!" shouted Majestia, lifting of the ground and sending twin beams of heat vision down the Scorpion's throat. It screeched, drawing its tail back to strike.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ladybug demanded.
"It means," an unfamiliar voice interjected over their communicators, "reinforcements!"
Suddenly, a golden streak rocketed across the sky and straight into the Scorpion's tail, knocking to the side so it embedded up to its stinger into the mud. A sonic boom reverberated through the nest as the streak stopped to hover above the Scorpion and send a blast of golden energy into its back. A dark-skinned woman in a red, white, and blue suit dropped to land next to Ladybug and raised a V-shaped shield.
"Took you long enough, Victory!" Majestia called, glancing in their direction and raising an eyebrow.
"You didn't exactly have a need for us before now," Victory pointed out. "And we were busy effecting repairs to your city."
"But we're here now!" a winged figure added, swooping over their heads and grinning, flicking a handful of flechettes at the Turtle as he passed. It snapped at him with a hiss, and he rose higher into the air as a mace rocketed in from one side and smacked the Turtle in the head, knocking it to the side. The Turtle turned toward where the mace had come from, only for an arrow to strike it in the side of the neck and catch fire as a fireball slammed into the arrow's shaft.
The Scorpion scuttled forward, and Ladybug and Victory dove apart. There was a gasp. Ladybug looked back to see Kamimizu standing where they had just been, the Scorpion bearing down on her. Victory met Ladybug's eye and nodded. With a shout, Victory lunged toward the Scorpion, driving the point of her shield into the side of its head. Simultaneously, Ladybug flicked her yo-yo out, caught it around Kamimizu's waist, and yanked, pulling her out of the Scorpion's path just before its pincers would have closed around her wrist. The Scorpion turned toward Victory, its smoking pincers reaching out for her, and the winged man swooped down toward her, grabbing Victory's arm and pulling her out of the way.
"Thanks," Kamimizu panted, almost doubled over in exhaustion.
Ladybug gritted her teeth. "Don't thank me yet," she warned as the Scorpion scuttled around in a circle, searching for a target. She cocked her head, studying the Scorpion carefully. Did it look smaller now than it had when it first attacked her?
On the other side of the Scorpion, Spider-Monkey flicked out one of his cord and wrapped it around one of the Scorpion's pincers, pinning it just momentarily. Spinning around, he jumped onto the Scorpion's back as it turned toward him, and leaped off to land near Ladybug. "Where are all of these newcomers coming from?" he wondered, bending over almost double and pointing vaguely toward a young woman in a toga who spun a spear above her head and jabbed it into the Bear's side before leaping away as Turing sent an energy blast into that same spot.
Ladybug shook her head, too exhausted to really care. Cat Noir's weight was heavy on her shoulder; all she wanted was to find somewhere safe for him to stay – just until they could end the fight and she could try to repair everything.
Eyeing her closely, Spider-Monkey asked, "Do you need someone to watch him for you?" Her eyes widened and she recoiled. Spider-Monkey jumped back. "Sorry; just thought I'd ask…"
"No…" She swallowed awkwardly. "Thanks… but I've got him." She grinned, though it felt closer to a grimace. "I can't let my husband down!"
As the Turtle broke free, opening its mouth and releasing a piercing cry, the Scorpion charged toward Ladybug, its single open eye entirely focused on her. Ladybug tensed, scanning the nest around her for cover. The ground rumbled beneath her from behind. Growling in rage, Taureau Dechaine lumbered past them and drove his shoulder into the Scorpion's face, straight into its opened mouth, and pushed downward. As he fumbled for a handhold on its head, a dozen Multiplice-clones swarmed off of Taureau Dechaine and fanned out over the Scorpion's back and up onto its still-smoking tail. The Scorpion snapped its claws at Taureau Dechaine, closing its mouth on his upper arm and trying to pull to one side. Two more of the toga-clad figures charged in their direction, one of whom swung the enormous hammer off of his shoulder and over his head to bring it down on the Scorpion's face. The other swirled his trident in front of himself in a circular motion, causing the water beneath the Scorpion's feet to collect together and swirl into a vortex. Pushing herself away from Ladybug, Kamimizu wobbled but raised one hand, clenching it into a fist. As she did so, the water around the Scorpion abruptly turned to steam under and around it. The steam mixed in with the black wisps still trickling away from the Scorpion all across its body, obscuring it from sight and sending blackish steam up into the sky. The Scorpion shrieked, enraged.
"Multiplice!" shouted Taureau Dechaine, grabbing onto one of the Scorpion's claws and hauling himself onto its back. Multiplice seemed to appear from nothing, growing back to her normal size as the Scorpion wailed, jabbing at her with its tail. Taureau Dechaine sprang in front of her and caught the tail in a bear hug, pulling it away from Multiplice. Shrieking, the Scorpion pulled its tail back and waved it forward, Taureau Dechaine holding onto it for dear life. Multiplice panted heavily, looping her jump rope around one of the Scorpion's smoking pincers.
On the far side of the area, the Lion pounced on Knightowl and Kunoichi, who dove out of the way as Sparrow jumped over Knightowl and onto its back, looping a garrote around its neck and shooting up into the air with his jetpack. The Lion growled, shaking its head in a rage as its mane continued to wisp away in smoke. Its tail had shrunk to half its original length.
"They're almost gone!" Ladybug called, shifting her grip on Cat Noir and turning to search for the other Beasts. Dozens of the United Heroez filled the nest, interspersed among her Heroes of Paris and their allies, alongside a few other faces, familiar and unfamiliar. Lieutenant Ramus of the SLD fired a blast into the Ox's head as lightning bolts struck it from all directions. The Ox lowed, shaking its head, its horns almost entirely gone. Ladybug swallowed hard, gritting her teeth and willing herself to fight through the exhaustion. "Just a little more!"
In response, Lupa Gris threw back her head and let out a loud Howl that echoed through the nest, reverberating off of the brickwork. At the same time, the Hound shouted, "Doggedness!" Ladybug straightened her back and stretched her fingers. The exhaustion still remained, a nagging feeling on the edge of her consciousness, but she could bear it. New energy coursed through her body. Cat Noir's immobilized body on her shoulder suddenly didn't feel so heavy. She could bear this weight. She could do this.