He looked back along the sedan's trajectory to see the giant ape beating his chest and bellowing at him. He had his next target, and this was a perfect time to exercise some of the teamwork they'd forged in the past week and a half of practice.

"WiLo, prepare for pickup," he broadcast while arrowing back down towards her location on the ground. "Let's see if we can give that overgrown banana disposal something to think about."

He swooped in low behind her and cut his speed to reduce the jarring from impact. He just hoped she remembered to reciprocate and sprint forward.

"Roger that, Paladin. I'm with you." She clapped Murray on the shoulder. "Gotta jet. The old fellow over there, he seems stable enough but his color's not good. Watch your backs, okay?"

With that, she located Paladin's descent, tried to gauge his trajectory and took off running as fast as she could in that same direction. It was a move the non-fliers had rehearsed with the flying team-members, but none of them had really perfected it yet.

It looked practiced, Paladin reached down and grabbed Lotus' extended hand and lifted her into the air. As they approached the gorilla, he turned to face them. He was frightening -- really frightening. He roared and beat his chest. His breath was hot and sticky to Lotus' skin; it smelled like fetid fruit and bile. Paladin noticed that she gripped even tighter against the metal sheath that covered his arm.

It had been many months since Wild Lotus had felt such fear. She'd nearly forgotten how debilitating it was, how it had kept her living a half life for years. This was beyond that, a lifetime of fear concentrated into one heart-stopping moment.

He shifted his grab to hold her torso underneath her arms with his hands and flew closer to the gorilla's face.

"C'mon, kid," he encouraged in her ear, "do your thing!"

Swallowing heavily, Lotus forced her arms up as they neared the apex of their approach waiting for the last possible moment to release the spores -- right into the source of that vile wind.

The gorilla’s nostrils flared in disgust and he spit as if trying to cleanse his mouth and nose. He swiped at his own nose, trying to move the spores away from his face; then he took a swipe at Paladin. His large, hairy arm swatted but Paladin was able to jink out of the way in time.

"Damn," Paladin muttered while checking his grip on his teammate, making sure his fancy flying didn't lessen his hold on her.

"We're going to need to whole team for this one," he thought out loud. "Let's regroup and get these smaller fires put out," he said to Wild Lotus, "then we'll come back for Bonzo."

"Suits!" She called out, glad to get some distance between her and the ape. Her next words were for her commlink, though. "Audrey! What are the damage parameters on the big ape? We may have to injure him pretty seriously to neutralize him as a threat."

**Ummm ... ** The agent said, **We have no idea about how much he can take. But, taking him down is the priority now that the crocs are taken care of.** She said. **Paramedics are probably less than 5 minutes out. Once they get here, we're going to need you guys to keep the ape from lobbing more cars in our direction. He seems to like doing that.**

A small, blue, Korean-made came flying past them and landed below in the parking lot with a scream of metal and plastic. The gorilla seemed to be happy enough that the pair had fled his territory.