I love Tempo, but boy howdy are they terrifying. And tough, for standing up to Tarn like that. Not everyone fights the leader of the DJD’s sonic attacks and lives to tell the tale.

Oh, he wants to tell the tale, wants to outright boast, but tends to hold back the urge. Never know who might be upset with him for it and make things dangerous and/or irritating for him. Never know who’s secretly a fan. 

Tarn’s Voice is fairly uncomfortable for him. He doesn’t like music of most sorts because it clashes with his internal tempo, and Tarn’s is especially bad. He can stand up to it, though, it doesn’t actually harm him. It’s just uncomfortable. 

He’s certainly a lot more formidable an opponent than most people realize. The cane is almost entirely for show, there’s a blade hidden inside, and he’s agile enough to put it to good use. That, combined with extensive knowledge of where the average frame’s vulnerable points are, means he can disable an opponent with a few strategic cuts. 

In addition to that, the same ability that keeps him safe from Tarn’s voice can be applied to others. His frame won’t tolerate being quickly altered. Electric shock has minimal to no effect, most stasis restraints simply don’t work (if they even fit him), and he’s extremely hard to genuinely frighten or upset because the ability works on his own hormones. He can decide exactly how much adrenaline he wants. 

That can be applied to someone else, in a rudimentary manner. If he puts his servos on them and focuses, he can apply his self-control to someone else’s frame. Whatever part of them he’s touching tries to mimic the motion and energy patterns of his servos, and, depending on how much of his control he uses, it ranges from relatively harmless (but painful and disabling) to agonizing and potentially maiming. He’s skilled with disabling someone else’s servos and arms, applying an instant of his control to a vulnerable spot to mess up pistons and muscle cable. It hurts them and temporarily shorts out wires, but largely doesn’t cause anything permanent, just temporary numbness and difficulty moving. 

What he did to Tarn was focus as much of his ability as he could into Tarn’s voicebox. It’s not good for you to have your voicebox try to mimic the energy motions and movement of someone else’s servos- it pulls the energy out in ways it isn’t supposed to go, sends all the mobile parts seizing as they try to move, forces everything to go haywire. That may have caused permanent damage, and at the very least it’s going to be a lot of repairs. 

If he could get his servos on someone’s helm, he could put his ability to use against their processor, which would be crippling and potentially lethal. I think he’s done that once or twice.

It’s impressive, but his tiny frame makes him vulnerable. Someone fast enough to hit him wouldn’t need much to disable him. Snag a wing, snap a leg strut, pull on armor enough to prevent transformation, and he’d be largely helpless. A quick enough strike with a servo would avoid his abilities, or a blade, hammer, or large stick would do the job. He’s fragile and not terribly strong. Pit, several determined humans with rope and leverage could probably capture him. Hence the need to escape- he was tempted to stay around, try to actually kill Tarn and earn himself some respect, but it wasn’t worth the risk of an adrenaline-and-rage-fueled counterattack.