Miraculous Villain Season One-E Battle Royale | |
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Season 8, Episode 4 | |
Air date | June 22, 2023 |
Written by | I'm Lynda |
Episode guide | |
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Miraculous Villain Season One-E Battle Royale is a What-If? Death Battle by I'm Lynda. It features the akumatized villains from the final five episodes of from the television series, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir: Pixelator, Princess Fragrance, Simon Says, Volpina and Stoneheart.
Description[]
Akumatized villains, they all gave Ladybug and Cat Noir a run for their money, but how do they stack up against each other?
Interlude[]
Wiz: Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is the smash hit CGI superhero show from France.
Boomstick: And, Miraculous is well known for its villain-of-the-week approach.
Wiz: This resulted in the first season having no less than 26 villains. We want to determine who was the best and most potent of the villains, but pitting 26 combatants against each other would more likely result in a war than in a battle royale.
Boomstick: So, what we are doing is taking the final five villains and pitting them against each other and see which of them is the best.
Wiz: I’m Wiz, and he’s Boomstick.
Boomstick: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor and skills to find out who among them would win a Death Battle.
Who is Hawk Moth and what does it mean to be Akumatized[]
Wiz: OK, we’ve been here before, Miraculous has one overarching antagonist, and he is named, Hawk Moth.
Boomstick: He’s the stupid-named villain that the main heroes of Miraculous have rarely come into direct contact with. Instead, Hawk Moth used his superpower to change ordinary people into super-villains.
Wiz: Hawk Moth starts by taking a normal butterfly that he has raised and adding his own power to it, turning it into a special magical butterfly called an “akuma.” Then, he sends the akuma out to land on something belonging to the victim, gaining control over them.
Boomstick: Then, the victim becomes a super-villain created by Hawk Moth, and *that* person goes out to battle the heroes.
Wiz: The akumatized...yes, that’s a word...super-villain always loses out in the end, but along the way they give the heroes a real run for their money.
Boomstick: Each of these villains is quite different, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Let’s look at each of our five villains in turn.
Pixelator[]
Wiz: Vincent Aza was a great fan of Rock 'n' Roll superstar Jagged Stone.
Boomstick: Yeah, that’s right ladies and gentlemen, this is a sighting of that rarest of birds, a Miraculous villain who has no connection to Franky Dupont High School!
Wiz: Well, anyway, Vincent is not a paparazzo so much as he is a really dedicated fan.
Boomstick: Don’t mince words, Wiz, he’s a stalker.
Wiz: Admittedly he has been pursuing Jagged, appearing at all 36 of his last performances, gone just about everywhere Jagged went to, took photographs nearly constantly, and made a genuine pain of himself.
Boomstick: Well, he finally followed Jagged into Le Grand Paris hotel, where he was cornered by Jagged’s pet crocodile, and was then thrown out of the hotel by Jagged’s agent, Penny Rolling. Hawk Moth, the Snidely Whiplash of Gay Paree, immediately picked up on Vincent’s negative waves and immediately sent one of his magical butterflies to akumatize him into the villain, Pixelator.
Wiz: After that, Pixelator went back into Le Grand Paris, looking for Jagged Stone, and pixelating everyone he came across. Well, really quickly, he came to the attention of Paris’s police and the city’s protector, Ladybug. The police proved to be useless in fighting the villain, and he even was able to get the upper hand with Ladybug.
Boomstick: Cat Noir tried some to take him on, and failed in the way that all good sidekicks do. After that, Ladybug called on her magic Lucky Charm, defeated the Pixelator, and sent old Hawk Moth back to the drawing board to think up more schemes.
Wiz: OK, let’s move on to weapons, armor and skills. As we’ve said, all of the akumatized villains get the same baseline of superhuman strength, superhuman speed, superhuman dexterity, superhuman durability, and some advanced martial arts skills. All of the akumatized villains have all this without exception.
Boomstick: And, all of the akumatized villains also have some sort of a gimmick that makes them special. In Pixelator’s case, his gimmick is that he has a special, magic camera that makes him a real menace to whoever he is up against.
Wiz: Pixelator can point his camera at any reasonably small target, push its button, and digitize the target, sending it off Tron-like to his picture frame storage facilities. The camera shoots out some sort of a beam, and Pixelator was only shown targeting people and animals, so it’s unknown if he can target inanimate objects as well.
Boomstick: Largely speaking if he can see it, he can pixelate it. If he sees and targets an entire person, then that person is captured. If he can only see part of a person, like an arm or a leg, he can pixelate that, leaving the person with a limb that appears to be there, but has no real substance. It’s kind of a ghost arm or leg.
Wiz: When they were fighting most of the akumatized villains that Hawk Moth sent their way, Ladybug and Cat Noir would often spin their weapons to make a shield that would block the beam or what-have-you that the villain fired at them. However, when fighting Pixelator, the heroes did not do that, presumably because if the camera could see it, it could pixelate it. The yo-yo and staff apparently provided no defense whatsoever.
Boomstick: A bit of a weakness is that the camera does not function against a reflective surface; the beam will just bounce off. So, if Pixelator tries to take a picture of a mirror, the beam will be bounced back, and he will pixelate himself!
Wiz: The camera is, though, relatively rapid-firing and is a formidable weapon. However, it’s also his biggest weakness, as it is the location of his akuma. If anything happens to it, he loses all his powers.
Boomstick: Yeah, Pixelator is a dangerous opponent to stand against. I don’t want to be exposed to him, he makes me shutter!
Princess Fragrance[]
Wiz: Rose Lavillant was a student at Collège Françoise Dupont in Paris.
Boomstick: You know, I really believe that there is not a single student at that school who has not been akumatized at one time or another, and I suspect that the same holds true for the staff.
Wiz: You’re probably right, except for Marinette Dupain-Cheng, of course. Anyway, sweet and innocent Rose was a great fan of Ali, the prince of the Kingdom of Achu. Even at his young age he was a great philanthropist, going to Paris to oversee a toy drive for a children’s hospital. She even wrote a letter to him, but when she sprayed perfume on it, her teacher sent her to the principal’s office, derailing her plan of taking the letter to the prince.
Boomstick: Yeah, little Rose was crushed, crying her eyes out on the banks of the Seine. And this brought her to the attention of Paris’s Most Wanted, Hawk Moth. He sent one of his magical, practically irresistible butterflies to akumatize her, and turn her into the super-villain Princess Fragrance.
Wiz: With her newfound powers, Princess Fragrance went to Le Grand Paris hotel and immediately started using her powers to convert the staff and resident of the hotel into her servants. Before you could say “Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cent scies scient six cent cypress,” she had attracted the attention of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
Boomstick: Wait, before you could say...what?
Wiz: Just something I learned in French class. Anyway, Cat Noir was able to break away from the hotel with Prince Ali, his chaperone, and the ever-present Chloé Bourgeois. However, Princess Fragrance was able to catch up to them, and she succeeded in making all three her servants.
Boomstick: She sent her servants after Ladybug, but they had no superpowers to help them, and even Cat Noir proved unable to take her down. Well, to make a long story short, Ladybug called on her over-powered Lucky Charm to give her exactly what she needed to kick Princess Fragrance’s ass, and send the magical mystery Hawk Moth back to the old drawing board.
Wiz: It must be said, so here it is, Princess Fragrance has all of the standard akumatized villain powers. This makes her a rather potent opponent…
Boomstick: Oppotent?
Wiz: But, it is really her theme weapon which makes her truly powerful. In this case, her theme weapon is her perfume gun. This weapon sends out a special perfume that affects people in different ways. First of all, it can either sent out a quick spritz of perfume which affects one person, or it can sent out a whole jet of perfume, which can fill a room or a larger area. At one point, she tried covering all of Paris in a cloud of her perfume, but Ladybug foiled that plan as well.
Boomstick: The lower-level perfume that she sends out is a green one that makes the target stink. It’s actually pretty lame as a weapon, being more of a gag [he he] setting, than a really useful attack.
Wiz: The higher-level perfume that she can send out is a pink one. This perfume instantly takes control of the target’s mind, turning them into a servant of the Princess. As a matter of fact, as soon after they are taken over, they begin to talk in a sing-song manner. The control though seems to be absolute, with no one being able to disobey her, not even Cat Noir, and it seems to never wear off.
Boomstick: But, this perfume gimmick is not perfect. First of all, it can be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner. Second of all, it is flammable…combustible…anyway, a spark will cause it to explode, so it’s very vulnerable to that.
Wiz: But, perhaps the most serious weakness of the perfume is that it must be smelled to have any affect. Simply breathing it in is not enough. One of the weapons that Ladybug used to defeat the villain was to put a clothespin on her nose, which made her effectively immune to the attack.
Boomstick: So, she’s got her weaknesses but she’s also got some pretty formidable strengths. Don’t cross this little lady, as you will find that she has no scents of humor, and if you do it is eau de too late.
Simon Says[]
Wiz: Simon Grimault was a stage performer, a hypnotist and a card magician.
Boomstick: And, yet another person in this battle royale who has no connection to Franky Dupont High in Paris. You know, perhaps a trend is starting!
Wiz: Anyway, he was brought on to a competition show aimed at kids, where he was challenged to use his hypnotism to make Gabriel Agreste, known for being somewhat reclusive, come down to the studio. Agreste had been tricked into appearing on the show through a video link, having been told that he was to be interviewed. He was angered by the chicanery, and humiliated Grimault on nationwide television.
Boomstick: Well, as you might have expected, this rather dealt the poor guy a real blow. So, while he was stewing in his depression, arch-villain Hawk Moth sent one of his magical butterflies out to seize control of him. The akuma landed on his deck of cards, and Grimault was transformed into the magic villain, Simon Says.
Wiz: Simon Says strode back into the studio he had been ejected from, and began using his new superpowers on the people that were still inside. Well, as this was televised, it did not take long before the superhero duo, Ladybug and Cat Noir, showed up to battle him.
Boomstick: Well, Simon Says was able to use his control over people to brush them aside, and then he started created a whole army of hypno-zombies to track down and capture Gabriel Agreste. The heroes hurried there first, and helped him to lock his mansion down, like some sort of fortress. But, with enough hypno-zombies, Simon Says was able to batter the defenses down and dragged Agreste back to the television studio, where he could televise his victory.
Wiz: With his fantastic hypnotism, Simon Says almost succeeded in killing Gabriel Agreste, which would have been a very interested twist in the story. But, as always, Ladybug and Cat Noir showed up and fought the villain to a standstill. Ladybug used her fantastic Lucky Charm to give her exactly what she needed to defeat the villain.
Boomstick: Leaving Simon Grimault back where he started from, and Hawk Moth in a very unusual predicament indeed.
Wiz: You would think that it would go without saying at this point, but we must reiterate that being akumatized, Simon Says gets the same superhuman power including super-strength, -speed, -durability and –dexterity. He also no doubt is an expert martial artist now as well.
Boomstick: But this guy’s gimmick is that he can throw his magical cards at somebody or something, and issue a command that begins with “Simon says.” So, he can say, “Simon says you’re a duck” or “a gorilla,” or “a butterfly,” or even “Simon says take off like an airplane,” and the person will do their absolute best to act as Simon directed. In fact, told to be an airplane, Gabriel Agreste nearly threw himself off the top of an extremely tall building.
Wiz: He can also use his powers to give orders to people. For example, he stopped a charging opponent by simply giving him the command, “Simon says stop.” He then sent the man against Cat Noir with the command, “Simon says knock him out.” He even created an army by using the command, “Simon says you are all soldiers” to a bunch of people, making them his minions.
Boomstick: But, the most interesting power he has is the power to control people’s powers. For example, when he confronted Ladybug, he his her yo-yo with a card and commanded, “Simon says your yo-yo is useless.” At that point, the yo-yo fell limply to the floor, and the “unbreakable” cord snapped.
Wiz: His weakness is that he must have his cards in his hands to throw one, and he has to be able to say his “Simon says” command. But, on the other hand, the target does not have to be able to hear the command, it’s good enough that Simon says…it.
Boomstick: Yeah, he’s formidable, that’s for sure. The biggest fear would be that he would he would trip after throwing a card. “Simon says…shit!”
Volpina[]
Wiz: Lila Rossi is an Italian student, who is new to the Collège Françoise Dupont in Paris, where she attends with Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste.
Boomstick: And that is the school where the uniform comes with a target printed on the back.
Wiz: Well, Lila rather put the target on her own back. You see, Lila was a lonely, insecure girl who made up for her lack of self-confidence by making up stories about herself, painting her as a famous person with an exciting life.
Boomstick: And, she made Adrien Agreste a target of her attention. MUCH to the annoyance of Marinette, who had been mooning all over Adrien like a quadruple-love sick puppy. Anyway, to impress Adrien, Lila tells him that she and Ladybug are good friends. Well, this results in a visit from a rather angry Ladybug, who informs Adrien that basically *everything* that Lila told him is a lie.
Wiz: Lila than ran away, feeling shattered by Ladybug’s attack. She is so brimming with negative emotions that the arch-villain Hawk Moth immediately spots her and sends an akuma to transform her into a super-villain. She is to use her powers to convince Ladybug and Cat Noir that she is a superhero, gain their trust, and then betray then by stealing their Miraculouses and giving them to him.
Boomstick: She did a great job of establishing her superhero cred with the two by catching a huge meteor that was set to squash Paris, and then hurling it back out into space. Strangely, no one seemed to notice that the meteor vanished the moment that it came into contact with a pigeon. Then, she really cemented her leadership of the two superheroes when she took them out hunting Hawk Moth.
Wiz: Volpina cleverly separated the two heroes, and sprang her trap on Ladybug. Showing Ladybug that she had the power to tear Paris down building-by-building, Ladybug almost gave in and gave her her miraculous, when she had a revelation about the true nature of Volpina’s powers.
Boomstick: Well, to cut a long story short, Ladybug and Cat Noir fought Volpina across Paris, with the final confrontation occurring atop the Eiffel Tower…of course. Ladybug called on her magic bullshit Lucky Charm and defeated her, but unlike so many of the akumatized villains, Lila Rossi was not willing to be friends with Ladybug and would stay her enemy.
Wiz: Volpina showed that she was quite good at using the power that she acquired through the akuma; leaping easily from building to building, and fighting Ladybug to a standstill.
Boomstick: Now, when it comes to her “special” [Boomstick does air quotes with his fingers] powers, Volpina is a master of illusions. She has a magical flute that she can use as a staff, or she can play a little tune on it and summon up an illusion of her own choice.
Wiz: She can do a fairly large illusion, like when she cast the illusion of a meteor, or when she cast the illusion of her knocking down a small building. And, she can also do a fairly small illusion, such as an illusory Hark Moth flitting from housetop to housetop.
Boomstick: She can also make an illusion army of a group of Volpinas to hide in. Unfortunately, though her illusions can be moving ones, there are limits. For example, when she made the multiple Volpinas, they did not each undertake a different task.
Wiz: The greatest weakness she has, though, is that if her illusions come into contact with anything, they are totally dispelled, showing them for what they were. Illusions were dispelled by Volpina touching one, by being touched by a pigeon, and by being hit with Ladybug’s yo-yo or Cat Noir’s staff. As such, they really are not terribly immersive. Also, should her necklace be broken, he akuma will be released, ending her power.
Boomstick: That Volpina is a tough opponent: she can out-fight her opponents, out-think them, or trick them with her illusions. To defeat this combatant, you’ll really have to think outside the fox.
Stoneheart[]
Wiz: Ivan Bruel is a student at the Collège Françoise Dupont in Paris, and though he looks big and tough, he is actually a sensitive young man.
Boomstick: Which is rather unfortunate, as Franky Dupont is the favorite hunting grounds for super-villain, Hawk Moth.
Wiz: And unfortunately, a favorite school athlete, Kim Chiến Lê decided to have some fun at Ivan’s expense, and so he started tormenting him. To make a bad situation worse, their teacher, Miss Bustier…
Boomstick: That’s a cool name for a teacher! I wish that I had had a teacher named Miss Bustier.
Wiz: Anyway, she took exception to the way that Ivan acted, and sent him to the Principal’s office. And, as fate would have it, he was in something of a bad mood and reprimanded Ivan for not approaching his door properly.
Boomstick: By this point, Ivan was a cauldron of negative emotions, so when Hawk Moth cast his eyes on the school, he immediately picked Ivan as a prime target for akumatization. He sent one of his magical butterflies to get ahold of Ivan, and transformed him into the rock-monster, Stoneheart.
Wiz: Immediately, Stoneheart set out to get revenge on Kim, and he began searching all of Paris to find him. At that point, Ladybug and Cat Noir were newly minted superheroes, so neither Stoneheart nor Hawk Moth were expecting to bump into them. But, nonetheless, the heroes were out and about and they soon confronted one another.
Boomstick: Using her Lucky Charm, Ladybug is able to overcome Stoneheart, and get ahold of his akumatized object, breaking it and releasing the butterfly. However, being new at the whole superhero gig, she did not know to purify the butterfly, so it flew off and made a whole bunch of new butterflies. These attached themselves to random strangers, turning them into Stonehearts, though none of them were active.
Wiz: Once Ivan experienced more negative emotions, he was re-akumatized, and returned to be Stoneheart, though this time with an army of Stonehearts to accompany him.
Boomstick: Eventually, though, the heroes were able to differentiate Ivan’s Stoneheart from the others. Ladybug used her magic, OP Lucky Charm and re-unakumatized him yet again, this time properly.
Wiz: OK, as you know, all akumatized have some standard abilities, though these are rather modified in Stoneheart’s case. Instead of just having superhuman strength, he seems to have gigantic strength, in accordance with his gigantic size. For example, he can knock down building with his bare hands. He also seems to have the great durability that you would expect from a rock-monster.
Boomstick: On the other hand, he really does not seem to be able to move superhumanly fast or with extreme dexterity. And, with his gigantic size he really does not show himself to be a real martial artist. Instead, he is exactly what you would expect, a giant rock-monster.
Wiz: Stoneheart does have some extra powers besides his giant and stone natures. The most important of which is that if he suffers some sort of impact, he actually grows in size, making him even larger and more dangerous.
Boomstick: His voice is also as big as his body, and his yell is enough to deafen people who hear it.
Wiz: But, as with most akumatized-villains, Stoneheart carries his akuma around with him in his hand. This offers it a fair amount of protection, but it also means that he cannot open his hand without losing it. And, if anything happens to the object, it will free the akuma, and return him to being plain old Ivan Bruel.
Boomstick: Yeah, don’t pay too much attention to this weakness. If you take him for granite, he will easily rock your world.
Intermission[]
Wiz: Alright the combatants are set; let’s end this debate once and for all.
Boomstick: It’s time for a DEATH BATTLE!
DEATH BATTLE![]
Pre-Fight[]
On the Pont des Arts, the bridge connecting the right and left banks of the Seine River, people enjoyed the fine summer day. Tourists took photos of the boats on the river, while lover walked arm-in-arm, André, the ice cream man, sand merrily to himself as he served up ice cream to the people at his cart.
Suddenly, there were five flashes of purple energy that resolved themselves into five akumatized villains: Pixelator, Princess Fragrance, Simon Says, Volpina and Stoneheart.
Purple energy masks blazed in front of their faces, and the heard Hawk Moth’s silky smooth voice.
“Pixelator, Princess Fragrance, Simon Says, Volpina, Stoneheart. You have all failed me, but I am determined to give you a chance to redeem yourselves. I need the best of the best, so consider this your arena. Five go in, and one comes out. Now fight!”
“Of course, Hawk Moth,” Pixelator answered merrily. “You know that I never give up.”
“Yes, Hawk Moth,” Princess Fragrance answered. ”How sweet it will be.”
“Indeed,” answered Simon Says. “Simon Says that I will win this time.”
Volpina crossed her arms and announced, “it will be my pleasure, Hawk Moth.”
“Ya!” Stoneheart cried bashing his fists together.
Then the five villains turned, eyeing each other, and their surroundings. The people on the bridge began to run in panic, with one unfortunate man even falling over the railing and in the river.
André grabbed the handles of his cart, and began running. “Ladybug! Ladybug! Where are you?” he shouted as he ran.
FIGHT! []
Pixelator looked at Princess Fragrance and raised his finger to the trigger of his camera.
“Smile!” he purred evilly.
But, before he could press the trigger, Princess Fragrance drew her perfume gun, pointed it down towards the ground, and pulled the trigger. Immediately, she rocketed up into the air on a column of pink perfume.
Pixelator pushed the trigger repeatedly on his camera, and several pictures of pink perfume appeared on his apartment wall.
Volpina raised her flute to her lips and blew a quick tune. Immediately, a ball of white energy appeared on the end of the flute. Volpina threw it to the ground.
Looking at her, Simon Says lifted a card in his right hand, prepared to throw it at her.
“Simon Says…” he began.
But when Volpina’s energy hit to ground, a group of twenty Volpinas snapped into existence, covering the original one.
Simon Says looked at the crowd of Volpinas with his mouth open.
Princess Fragrance rocketed up, and flew in a circle around Stoneheart’s head. A cloud of pink perfume gathered around him, obscuring him.
Suddenly, Stoneheart roared and waved his hands to clear the cloud. One of his flailing hands struck Princess Fragrance, sending her flying up the bridge. She crashed to the ground, and rolled to a stop on the paving.
Pixelator turned, just in time to see Ladybug and Cat Noir charging at him. He smiled, and put his finger to trigger of his camera.
“An action shot, how wonderful!” he chortled.
He pressed the button and the two heroes disappeared, quite literally in a flash.
He smiled to himself, and then turned at the sound of someone running towards him. He barely had time to lift his hand before Volpina barreled into him. The two villains went down in a pile, punching and jabbing at each other.
Stoneheart charged at Simon Says, his stone feet making a tremendous crashing on the bridge.
“Simon says,” he began, but before he could finish his command, Stoneheart’s hand whipped around, striking the villain, and sending him tumbling.
He struck the railing at the side of the bridge and went over, catching himself before he fell into the Seine.
Pixelator lay on his back, while Volpina sat on his chest. She raised her flute, and bashed at his head. He blocked each stroke, a snarl written on his lips.
Suddenly, Pixelator heaved and threw his opponent forward. She turned the throw into a summersault, and she leaped to her feet, running away from the man.
She swung her arm to the side, and a missile appeared. Its engine instantly ignited and it flew back towards the other. Pixelator gasped, and dropped to his knees, nearly falling backwards. The missile flashed past him, mere millimeters above his face.
When he stood up, he looked for Volpina, but all he saw was Jagged Stone stepping out behind a black limousine.
“You again?” Jagged asked incredulously. “I thought that you had retired.”
“Oh, I’m still quite active,” Pixelator answered smoothly. “Look into the lens.” Then, he put his finger up to the button on his camera.
Princess Fragrance again circled around Stoneheart, leaving a pink cloud floating around his head.
“Why isn’t my perfume working?” She demanded, voicing her frustration. “Why aren’t you my servant?”
Stoneheart waved his hands at the soaring Princess Fragrance like she was a bug.
“Perfume?” he said in confusion. “I don’t smell nothing.”
Surprise blossomed on Princess Fragrance’s face, and she seemed to fly without paying attention to where she was going. So, she did not see Stoneheart’s hand aiming straight at her.
He swatted Princess Fragrance with his stone hand, sending her tumbling up the bridge. He started running after her, his stone feet pounding on the pavement.
Pixelator laughed triumphantly as he pushed the button, causing Jagged Stone, his limousine, and everything around him to pixilate and fly into his camera.
In a picture frame on his living room wall, a frame momentarily showed a picture of Jagged Stone and his surroundings, and then it immediately disappeared.
“What?” Pixelator asked in confusion, turning to the left and to the right. Then, he saw Volpina running at him.
He quickly raised his finger to the trigger of his camera, and pressed the button. Volpina pixelated, and disappeared.
Suddenly, he heard, “Simon says, your camera is useless!” And then a card struck his camera.
Pixelator turned towards the source of the attack, and saw a man in an eye watering green-and-purple suit.
He raised his finger to the camera’s trigger and said, “Smile for the camera!”
But, when he pressed the button, nothing happened.
Stoneheart reached the prone Princess Fragrance, and then began hammering at her with his fists.
Princess Fragrance lifted her perfume gun, and fired at Stoneheart’s face. The spritzes of perfume impacted on his face, but did no more than irritate him.
His fist came down again, crushing her to the ground, and he struck at her again and again.
Finally, an impact struck Princess Fragrance’s perfume gun, shattering it into pieces. Immediately, a magical black-and-blue butterfly flew up into the sky, as black-and-blue energy flowed out of the Princess. Rose Lavillant barely had time to registers where she was before Stoneheart’s fist came down again, crushing the life out of her.
“What?” Pixelator asked in confusion, and then he began pressing the button over and over again. Still nothing happened.
From off to the side, Volpina barreled into the villain, knocking him to the ground. She raised her flute, and again began pounding on Pixelator’s head with it.
On an impact, his camera broke, releasing the akuma that was in it. The magical butterfly flew up into the sky, as black-and-blue energy flowed out of Pixelator, leaving Vincent Aza lying on the pavement.
Volpina raised her flute to finish him off, when she suddenly heard a voice saying, “Simon says you are a duck!”
Not even bothering to look up, Volpina leaped off of Vincent and took off running. She ran to a light post, and ran up it.
Then, she executed a back flip, causing Simon Says’ card to fly past her. She turned, and ran up the street.
Waving her flute over her shoulder, she sent a ball of energy to the ground, which flashed into a forest scene. She was nowhere to be seen.
Simon Says snarled after the other villain.
Suddenly, Vincent Aza spoke up. “What’s going on,” he asked.
Looking disgustedly at him, Simon Says reached down, and grabbed the front of his Jagged Stone concert shirt. He effortlessly lifted him up, and tossed his screaming over the railing. The young man dropped into the Seine and disappeared, with only a few rising bubbles to mark his passing.
Stoneheart spotted Volpina running along the bridge. He bellowed out a war cry and began running towards her.
Hearing the noise, Volpina turned, saw the threat, and raised the flute to her lips. After playing a short tune, a ball of energy appeared on the end of the instrument. She flung it down to the ground, and instantly a second Stoneheart appeared.
The two Stonehearts roared, and charged at each other.
When the two juggernauts collided, the new one simply dispersed into a gray cloud and disappeared.
Stoneheart looked around confusedly and spotted Volpina running away. He ran after her, he huge legs closing the distance quickly.
When he was almost on top of his target, she turned, blew a few notes on her flute and created a group of Volpinas.
Stoneheart roared, and whipped his hand through the crowd of Volpinas. All of them instantly disappeared, except for one that went flying across the pavement. Volpina rolled to a stop, and came up with her flute raised, ready to use it as a weapon.
When Stoneheart stepped forward, Volpina ran forward. He lifted a fist, and aimed a titanic blow at her. Volpina ducked under the descending fist, and charged in. She thrust her flute into his stomach as hard as she could.
Suddenly, Stoneheart seemed to flash with white energy, and he grew even larger!
Volpina gasped and leaped backward. Stoneheart charged after her in pursuit. Volpina ran along the bridge, quickly playing on her flute. As she ran, the pavement crumbled behind her, leaving a large gap in the bridge.
Stoneheart looked dubiously at the broken bridge, and then he reached down and touched it. Instantly, the destruction wafted away, revealing a fully-intact bridge. He roared in fury and ran off in pursuit of his quarry.
Simon Says fanned his playing cards in his left hand, and drew one out with his right.
Stoneheart saw the villain, and immediately turned his charge, aiming at Simon Says instead.
Simon Says pulled his arm back, and threw the card at the charging behemoth.
“Simon says, you can’t see me!” he commanded.
The card hit Stoneheart and magical energy seemed to cascade across his stone skin.
Stoneheart shook his head and looked around. Then, he turned, and ran after Volpina.
Volpina saw the stone giant running towards her, so she raised her flute to her lips and played a tune. The energy blasted from the end of the instrument, and suddenly she was surrounded by an array of missiles and rockets, all pointed at Stoneheart. He stopped at the sight.
“Give me your akuma,” she demanded, “and I won’t destroy you.”
“No!” Stoneheart screamed, and then he ran forward, barreling into the missiles, which immediately turned to smoke and wafted away.
Volpina recoiled in fear, but Stoneheart was on her in a heartbeat.
He picked her up in a giant hand and smashed her to the ground. Then, he began to pummel her with his fists. She raised her flute to protect herself, but it shattered under the impact of Stoneheart’s fist. Then, a magical black-and-blue butterfly flew up into the sky, as black-and-blue energy flowed out of Volpina, returning her to just Lila Rossi.
Stoneheart looked down at Lila, and then raised his foot and stamped down, swiftly ending her life.
Simon Says tossed a card at the stone giant.
“Simon says, you can now see me,” he commanded.
Stoneheart turned, saw the villain and then ran towards him.
Simon Says drew another card, and threw it at him.
“Simon says, you are so sleepy that you cannot stay awake!”
Immediately, Stoneheart collapsed onto the ground and began snoring. His mighty fist opened up, and a purple rock rolled out from it.
With a smirk on his face, Simon Says stamped on the stone, shattering it and releasing the akuma. Black-and-blue energy flowed out of Stoneheart, leaving Ivan Bruel asleep on the pavement.
Simon Says lifted the young man, spun around, and threw him into the air. He sailed over the surrounding building and disappeared from sight.
K.O.! []
A purple energy mask blazed in front of Simon Says’ face, and he heard Hawk Moth’s voice in his head.
“Well done, Simon Says,” he said.
“Your acclaim is all that I ever need, Hawk Moth,” he answered.
“But, I have one more test for you.”
“The show must go on, and I never disappoint,” he answered slyly.
Results[]
Boomstick: OK! Another fun battle, but this one was a bit of a disappointment. I mean, where were the karate movies and the giant explosions?
Wiz: True, this one was a bit different than many of the others, due to the nature of the combatants involved. Let’s look at them one-by-one.
Boomstick: Well, the first one to go out was Princess Fragrance. I mean, her perfume gag was pretty good. She could turn opponents into servants, but it was far from a perfect weapon. I mean, Ladybug succeeded in defeating it with just a clothes pin! It was a good gag, but it was just not powerful enough to carry her through against other high-powered opponents.
Wiz: Then there was Pixelator. His weapon was good, being able to lock up opponents. But, Cat Noir was able to escape from his picture frame prison, so it was not unlikely that other opponents could have as well. And, while he could imprison opponents, Pixelator did not really have a good way to actually kill them. It was a fatal weakness.
Boomstick: And then there was Volpina. She was pretty good at what she did, and she appeared a number of times on the show. Nonetheless, while she could use her illusions to confuse opponents, she also was not terribly well armed, and in a fight to the death, she was just too weak to go the distance.
Wiz: And, then there’s Stoneheart. He was a powerful opponent, and his ability to grow larger when struck would have likely served him well, if he was pitted against opponents who were also heavy hitters. It was very unfortunate for him that in this battle, he was pitted against a number of opponents who used magical attacks, rather than physical ones. In this battle, his large size was more of a hindrance, as it made him more vulnerable to the others.
Boomstick: And, last but not least was Simon Says. He was also not terribly well armed, but his card shtick was extremely potent. With the hit of a card, he could force any opponent to do anything that he wanted. No one was able to resist the card, and no one was able to break out of the hypnosis. This made him nearly unbeatable, as long as he could see his opponent.
Wiz: So, while each of these combatants was pretty potent in their own way, one was just more potent than the rest.
Boomstick: And that was the joker in the deck, the winner of this battle, Simon Says.