Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sunrise on the roofs of Paris was the one gift above all others that Marinette treasured about being a Miraculous Holder. Even on a cold winter’s day, being up high with an uninterrupted view of the roofs and witnessing the sunlight filtering across the roofs and through the streets of her city like a golden liquid as the sun rose higher into the sky! It was so very beautiful and it seemed to call to something deep within the noirette girl. Whether it was something about being the Holder of the Ladybug Miraculous or just something with humans being a diurnal animals she hadn’t worked out. Sitting in a meditative pose with her eyes gently closed as the warmth of the new day slowly flowed across her, she decided that she didn’t care.

One thing that was definitely a ‘Miraculous’ thing and maybe even a ‘guardian’ thing was the sensation she had of a fellow Miraculous holder vaulting towards her across the rooftops. Ever since she’d awoken (much to her surprise) after using the Grand Unification to stop the rampage of Gabriel Agreste, she’d had an infallible sense of when one of her friends were near. She didn't know if it was some consequence of her channelling the powers of the five elemental Miraculouses through her body or if it was something that she’d always had and that the shock of the power flowing through her had simply knocked down her barriers to recognising the sensation. Nooroo, the kwami who would know the most about gifts of telepathy or empathy, was suspiciously and yet smugly silent on the matter.

Ladymouse opened her eyes fully just as Rena Rouge landed beside her in a perfect three-point crouch. "Joyeux Anniversaire, Marinette! How’s being 15 treating you?”

“Pretty much the same way as being 14 and 364 days did, Alya.” Ladymouse grinned at her best friend. “Except for the motorcycle permit that was on the doormat this morning!”

Rena’s big smile made her eyes crinkle a little. “So, you’re gonna turn into a biker chick?”

“If my Nonna has any say in it, yes!”

“Oh, I think that you can make it work! Turn up in front of the manor on your ‘hog’, throw Adrien over the pillion and drive off into the sunset and return in ten years as infamous outlaw travelling heroes, married and with three kids!”

The two girls’ laughter echoed over the rooftops for a long while. “Nah, that’s not for me, Alya. I’m too vanilla for that! It’s the picket fence and hamster for me!”

Rena looked at Ladymouse for a long moment with an expression of exaggerated patience. “Girl, there is nothing vanilla about you.” The Fox Heroine of Paris was silent for another long moment before she continued in a more introspective and thoughtful tone. “It’s strange, isn’t it?” Ladymouse raised a brow in a silent query. “Not being afraid anymore? The whole mess with Agreste’s little episode lasted just short of fourteen months yet it seemed like a lifetime. Now we’ve been free for over two months! Waking up in the morning and not wondering who was going to be turned into a monster today and how many people would end up with a whole new set of nightmares…? It’s just so wonderful and a part of me finds it hard to believe it’s real”

“Yes, it’s wonderful.” Ladymouse smiled and reached over to squeeze the other hero’s shoulder. “Also, it’s real, Alya. It’s real and this city has earned its respite.” Ladymouse shifted her posture a little. “Now, are you ready for your lesson?

“Of course!” Rena beamed. “There’s so much we need to go through! The history of the Miraculous! The individual kwami and their powers! How Guardians choose members of their group and how they choose heroes! How to know when a hero is needed! When…”

Ladymouse laughed and put her hand over her friend’s mouth. “All of that will come in good time, Alya. First we have to make more progress on you. You’re smart, outgoing and always seeking answers and that can clog up your mind. I want to work on clearing your mind of your continually-shifting new questions and help you focus entirely on the moment and the inner voice. Even when we’re transformed, our Kwami are always talking to us, Alya. The trick is to learn how to silence the babble of our consciousness and our perceptions to allow that silent voice to guide us.”

“You mean like… telepathy?”

“No, not really; it’s most like the difference between sailing and using a motor boat. Learn to feel the flow of what Trixx is sensing of the universal Balance around you and learn to steer yourself in harmony with those flows rather than through them.” Ladymouse patted Rena’s hand. “So, let’s see if we can’t quiet those loud voices in your head for a bit, huh?”

Of course, Rena’s real problem was that she tried too hard and that was counterproductive to the very goal she was seeking to achieve. However, this time, the orange-clad Fox heroine seemed to be allowing herself to genuinely relax and allow her always-shifting and questing mental focus to smooth out. Maybe she found the sunrise therapeutic too?

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng!” Ladymouse’s eyes snapped open at the stern voice from behind her.

Rena grunted in annoyance and spoke in a discreet tone. “Aw, shit, just when I was getting into this, he had to turn up!”

Ladymouse mouthed ‘Be nice’ to her friend before unhurriedly rising to her feet. “Master Su-Han, what brings you to me today?“

Su-Han had been making an effort to be more cooperative with Marinette since Victory Day but he was still decades older than her and a Grandmaster. He had authority that she (occasionally reluctantly) had to acknowledge. However, his tendency to term everything he said as orders or even Divine Writ never ceased to annoy her. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the Order of Celestial Guardians demands your attention and your service!” The bald man with bushy eyebrows turned his glare to a clearly-annoyed Rena. “Also that of the Apprentice you have clearly taken without going to the trouble of asking for the Council’s authority to do so!”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: Hey, Mon Chevallier, Cap, Honey!

@Cool4Catz: Joyeux Anniversaire, Purr-incess!

@NotARenaissanceHero: Yeah, Joyeux Anniversaire Mari

@TrueQueen: Joyeux Anniversaire, Hot ‘n’ Red!

TrueQueen posted AIRKISS5.png

@Cool4Catz: How is the morning treating you my love?

@BugBoss: Up to about 5 minutes ago, great.

@BugBoss: Then #Celestial_Guardian turned up to play quest-giver

@BugBoss: And it’s a story mission too!

@FoxyBabe JOINED the Chat

@TrueQueen: That’s utterly ridiculous, Mari! It’s your birthday!

@BugBoss: Yeah, and I’m a Guardian. That means that, when the Council shouts ‘jump’, I’ve got to drop everything and make with the aerobics.

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, it sucks but I’m with Marinette on this.

@FoxyBabe: I don’t wanna guess what kind of a mess Baldie and his friends will make of this without us to hold their hands

@TrueQueen: Tch

@TrueQueen: You need to learn to tell that loser that he needs to make an appointment and come back when *you’re* ready to listen to his pleas for your help to handle stuff he’s too hopeless to handle himself

@BugBoss: Don’t ever change, Chloe.

@BugBoss: Anyway, Alya and I are travelling Horse Miraculous Express to New York

@BugBoss: Looks like the Council has finally run out of patience with @CitySparrow playing slow-walk with their man on the ground

@BugBoss: I am apparently ‘required’ to assist them in ‘reclaiming the Eagle Miraculous from unworthy hands’

@FoxyBabe: I really don’t want to imagine how @JusticeVengeanceKnight would react to that

@BugBoss: So we’re going with him to stop his attitude creating fireworks, likely involving Majestia and maybe those SPECIAL spooks

@BugBoss: No-one wants to deal with that

@NotARenaissanceArtist: ‘We’re’? Alya, beautiful, you goin’ too?

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, as I’m apparently now recognised as Marinette’s Apprentice, I have to go along to ‘guard my Master and witness the Order’s ways in action’

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Need the rest of us to come with?

@BugBoss: No, the fewer of us around, the less stressed Guardians from the temple tend to get around us.

@Cool4Catz: If you’re *sure* M’lady

@BugBoss: With luck, all I’ll have to do is explain why Ma'xevé'késo is ‘worthy’ of Lirri helping her on her family’s generational ‘mission’ and the Order will back down. This might involve some bizarre RPG-style loyalty quest but I’m hoping to keep this from getting too heated.

@BugBoss: I’ve already sent a warning ahead to Ma'xevé'késo for her to keep the adult Heroez out of the mess.

@BugBoss: So, I shouldn’t miss the party.

@TrueQueen: What party?

@BugBoss: You’re a lousy liar when it comes to parties, Honey

Despite what her luxurious and ostentatious lifestyle would seem to imply, Audrey Regine (formerly Bourgeois) would insist that she was a simple woman who most enjoyed life's simple pleasures. Few of those pleasures were more enjoyable than her current occupation: Writing a fashion editorial for Style Queen that savaged a new entrant into the fashion world. It was well-researched, eloquent and merciless in its harsh highlighting of every one of the youngster’s many faults (some of them so trivial to anyone to her that she doubted anyone else noticed them). These all served to make this new name fall below Audrey’s threshold of tolerance. With luck, seeing her scorching dismissal would either ruin the unexceptional little simpleton’s career or so utterly destroy their spirit that they would just flee the fashion world and, with a little luck, the living world.

“Um… Ma’am? Madame Regine?”

“You have precisely five seconds to impress me with your reason for being here before I have you frog-marched out of my building.” Audrey didn’t even bother to look up at her cowering personal assistant (whose name she’d never bothered to learn… Priss? Present? Praline? Oh, yes, Pria) who was hovering by the open door, clearly ready to flee if her employer’s infamously violent temper flared up.

“Ma’am, there is an urgent call for you on line 3!”

“Okay, that wasn’t it. You’re f…”

“Ma’am, it’s Lord Graham de Vanily.”

Audrey looked up so suddenly that her neck joint audibly popped. “You put this publication’s biggest single private investor on hold?” Pria began to babble, trying to explain and remind her boss that she’d threatened to fire anyone who called her whilst she was in ‘editorial writing mode’ but there was little point. “You’re fired! Get out you stupid little non-entity!”

As Proxy… or whatever… fled, wailing like a lost soul, Audrey picked up the gold-edged ivory receiver of her fake-antique phone and pressed the hidden line 3 select button. “St John, my dear friend! To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Business, My dear Black Gold.”

Audrey grimaced. “For heaven’s sake you old coot! Why don’t you put a full-spread ad in the papers?”

The Lion of Crime laughed on the other end of the line in a way that made Audrey’s hackles rise. As much as she’d love power like his, on the other hand she wondered if the attendant god complex was worth it. “Oh, Audrey, I know that you’ve got your little office full of minions so programmed to terror of so much as your shadow that you could parade around in your transformed state and they’d not dare even raise their eyes to look at you for a moment!” The crime lord chuckled for a little while longer, perhaps relishing the thought that it was annoying Audrey to be held waiting for the point of the call. “Anyway, I have been thinking about the many failures and fiascos of the villainous career of your former sponsor and favourite toy, Gabriel Agreste. You are, of course, aware of his flat-footed misadventure in New York last summer? Of course you are. He left a Miraculous in your city running around on some stupid Indian girl’s neck! I really think that this presents an opportunity that would be advantageous to us both.”

“I am aware of this St John. Are you aware that the North American circle of the Dark Order has the first claim over any Miraculous located over here? We are quite able to take care of our own business, thank you.”

“A claim that you didn’t bother to exercise when my former son-in-law basically pointed out the Eagle Miraculous before running away with his tail in between his legs.” Lord Graham de Vanily rode over Audrey’s response. “I’m not calling to mock or reprove my dear. I’m calling to share intelligence. My spies have identified one of your organisation’s former brothers following the self-proclaimed “Eagle's Wing” around and occasionally making demands of her and her little wind-up mechanical toy of a companion. I suspect that this is a chance for you to not only claim the Eagle but prove your Order the stronger by striking down one of the agents of the failed group who call themselves Guardians.”

“Her codename is ‘Ma'xevé'késo' and she gets very annoyed when people Anglicise it; you may find that guideline a way to avoid needless irritations with her.” Audrey paused in her indirect critique of the man’s insufferable bigotry and open scorn for any culture except his own. “What are you suggesting?”

“The Grandmaster has been seen in New York talking with his local agent. That in itself is odd as he has not left Paris since Agreste's downfall. Of late, he has been hovering around Ladybug like a lost puppy, clearly hoping to gain some kind of relevance in his own eyes by association. Perhaps the time has come for you to activate one of your own protégés and make it completely clear that the Order of Celestial Guardians is powerless and should return to its Temple, leaving the Miraculous with those with the will to use them. Maybe you might even be able to acquire the Eagle at the same time and whatever Miraculous the old man brings with him in an attempt to even the odds with this child of a savage tribe?”

Audrey thought for a while. “Yes… Yes, there are advantages; maybe even enough to outweigh the risks. No matter the outcome, the reappearance of the Order is a threat to us and we need to make it clear who is the dominant force and quickly.” The woman’s smile became cruel. “Besides, I’d love seeing that do-gooder simpleton Keynes in mourning for that bizarre foundling she’d taken in! Very well, my dear friend, I’ll make the arrangements. One of the weaker Miraculous under our control would do nicely to assess the girl’s powers and that of the Guardians themselves.”

“I knew you’d see my point of view. I look forward to learning the results of your… ranging shot?” There was a pause. “What do you hear, my dear Black Gold?”

Audrey rolled her eyes. “St John, you may have your own organisation functioning as a borderline-cult, talking in chants and mantras centred around your nom de crime…. However, I am not and never will do so myself. Goodbye.”

Audrey laughed as she hung up. She was more than a little afraid of St John Graham de Vanily’s economic, political and Miraculous power, but he was a long way away and she didn’t have to respect him that much. Besides, she had preparations to make.

"Well, I think we both know who the dominant one in this relationship is!"

Audrey nearly bit her tongue in surprise at the unexpected voice. She raised her head and glared at the speaker, a subtly-glowing small iridescent black chibi-like creature with avian features floating on the other side of the room. "Nevrmorr, more than once I have told you not to speak unless spoken to!"

The Raven-like kwami grinned infernally. "Ah, but there is the rub, my dear Mistress: The Truth cannot be silenced! Nor is it possible to choose when it is revealed!"

Audrey somehow restrained her urge to start shouting at the kwami associated with the Miraculous that she'd been using as her own since she proved herself as a member of the Order, shortly after the birth of her annoyingly disappointing daughters, by killing the witless simpleton who had been keeping it as an unremarkable bit of native art. "Nevrmorr, I find the semantic loopholes you use almost as tiresome as your pretentions about yourself."

Nevrmorr shrugged carelessly. "Nonetheless, you know that the Leo Holder is the dominant one. His organisation may not have the sheer raw Miraculous power of the Dark Order but his many threads of power could crush you and your peers if you don't at least cooperate with his plans. You know this to be true!"

Audrey visibly ignored her kwami. "That English dotard wouldn't dare cross me, no matter how powerful he is! Now, be silent, Nevrmorr. I have work to do and unwelcome visitors to my city to expel."

The Raven kwami bowed slightly but had one last thing to add: "Just because you're sure that you're perfect, don't let that guide your planning. The wise always have a back-up plan."

~*~*~

On a rooftop in midtown Manhattan, a blue ring of light appeared hovering in mid-air, through which could be seen the skyline of Paris. A mocha-skinned young woman in an orange-and-white costume with white hair in a braided ponytail down her back, feathery extensions to her orange fox ears and a pair of rebelliously-dipped dark glasses stepped through the portal, followed moments later by Ladybug and Su-Han.

Ladybug raised her Yo-yo (open in phone mode) and looked at the display as the portal collapsed. "We're within a metre of the planned location, according to the GPS! Well done, Cavaliera Rouge!"

"Thanks Boss-bug!" Red Rider blew out a breath. "Wow! This is harder than I thought! Trixx, Kaalki, divide!" There was a flash of deep bronze light that sucked the additions off of Rena Rouge's costume and resolved into an anthro-horse chibi-like spirit who looked at her in a condescending way.

"Well, not bad for one of completely common stock." In Kaalki's book, that was a great compliment indeed.

"Yeah, I'm common and proud of it, Eeyore!" Rena Rouge stuck her tongue out at the Kwami of Migration, making her stutter a bit in annoyance. "This common soul of the Earth has enough tricks for you!" Rena pulled off the Horse Miraculous, folded its hook arms and somehow contrived to tuck it into a pop-open compartment in the Fox Flute, making Kaalki flash into bronze light again and vanish into her Miraculous. "She can have her apple later!"

Rena and Ladybug, based on a year of hard experience, immediately noticed the new arrival and turned to face him as he landed on the rooftop from a jump and began to speak. "Grandmaster… I was not expecting you to bring… observers."

Su-Han's face was inscrutable but Ladybug noticed something… embarrassment maybe… at the words of the First Nation man in Guardian Robes and with long ash-grey hair and moustache. "Standing Coyote, my brother, how are you?"

"Well, Grandmaster, as frustrated as I am with the girl who has usurped the Eagle Miraculous."

"You sound so certain of this, Guardian Standing Coyote." Both Guardians turned their attention to Ladybug, who was looking at them levelly. "Have you bothered to test that very judgemental view of this matter or is it easier for you to condemn on reflex?" Ladybug felt that the look that the American Guardian had sent her should have frozen her into a block of ice. “Given that the knowledge that the Order has about Miraculous in circulation is two centuries out of date, I think that it’s dangerous to make spur-of-the-moment decisions, don’t you?”

“Who are you to question a Guardian? What makes you think that you have the slightest knowledge in this matter?”

Rena stepped forwards. “Oh, didn’t you get the memo, pal? She’s the one who used the Grand Unification to save the world. She’s the apprentice of the only Guardian to survive the Temple’s destruction!”

Standing Coyote considered that for a moment before turning to Su-Han, the unspoken question clear in his expression. Su-Han raised a hand in a placating manner. “We are not qualified to question the paths of destiny and the Balance, old friend.” Su-Han shook his head. “In truth, I have found Guardian Dupain-Cheng’s thoughts and impressions of others… insightful; certainly insightful enough that I was unwilling to take further action in this matter without involving her. She knows the girl in question, after all.”

Standing Coyote visibly brooded over this. Finally, the First Nation man spoke. “If she is your friend, then you will know the danger she is in and the risks she is tempting by walking around with the Eagle Talon around her neck.”

Ladybug sighed. “Right now, we are throwing empty rhetoric at each other. I think that we should wait until the Holder of the Eagle Miraculous is present and can defend herself, don’t you think?” That genuinely seemed to wrong-foot the two older Guardians. Ladybug was genuinely surprised that this notion had not occurred to either of them. With a sigh, she flipped open her Yo-yo and checked the MiracuChat. “She’s on her way. It will be a minute or so.”

Standing Coyote actually stomped over to Su-Han and the two Guardians started a heated conversation in Tibetoka, the ancient language all Guardians used. They probably intended this to stop her from understanding what they were saying but, thanks to the Mage’s gift, Marinette could understand it passingly well. There were no great revelations, just Standing Coyote demanding to know why Su-Han was ‘indulging’ her and Su-Han leaning heavily on his rank and telling the other Guardian that he had far too little knowledge about Ladybug to judge her worth and position.

“Here she comes, Ladybug!” Ladybug looked up at Rena’s words and found that, whilst it was a lot weaker than with her fellow Parisian heroes, she had indeed felt Ma'xevé'késo's approach. She was sort of annoyed that she felt no sense of Uncanny Valley at all. She waited until the two American heroes landed on the roof before drawing the attention of the squabbling Guardians to their presence by clearing her throat loudly. “Brothers of the Order, I present to you Ma'xevé'késo, the keeper and protector of the Eagle Miraculous and her sister-in-all-but-blood, Uncanny Valley.”

There were lots of things that Ladybug wanted to do, not the least of which was hug her two American friends. However, she wasn’t even slightly surprised that Standing Coyote went off half-cocked long before she could move. “Very well, girl! I am here with my Grandmaster and we have Heroes to prevent you from resisting! Are you finally satisfied enough with my authority that you will hand over that stolen property?”

The khaki-clad First Nation girl looked over at Ladybug, clearly startled at her being identified as the Guardians' 'muscle'.

“Guardian Standing Coyote!” It was slightly comical how the big man jumped at the shout from the relatively tiny form of Ladybug. "I have no idea what Master Su-Han told you was going to happen but removing anything by force is not amongst them.” Standing Coyote was about to turn his ire on Ladybug when, much to her surprise, Su-Han put a restraining hand on the other man’s shoulder and shook his head subtly.

Ladybug shot Su-Han a slight smile of thanks before continuing. “The Order was absent from the world for two centuries. In that time, many Miraculous found themselves in the hands of many people by the blind process of luck and possibly the outworking of a destiny that no member of the Order had been present to witness. No-one is qualified or sufficiently knowledgeable to judge whether they are in ‘worthy’ hands except by observation of their use of those gifts. Do you agree?” Standing Coyote scowled but Ladybug realised that she’d said the one thing he could not deny. “Now, Ma'xevé'késo has agreed to be present here because she is not a thief and she wishes to satisfy the Order that she is a suitable Holder for the Eagle Miraculous in the times in which we live.” Ladybug turned to Uncanny Valley. “Maybe you can show the Guardians a quick precise of the current global security and organised crime threat levels?”

Uncanny Valley smiled at Ladybug in that ever-so slightly disturbing wide-mouthed smile before projecting a hologram from the third eye on her forehead. With her enhanced fox-like hearing, maybe only Rena heard Standing Coyote muttering something about 'unnatural golem' and 'witchery' and shot him a dirty look. Only Marinette's standing instructions to 'not start anything' stopped her calling him out for his bigotry.

The android girl's presentation was clearly well-thought-out, starting with the mid-18^th Century, at the time of the Temple's being consumed by Feaste. She particularly focussed as much attention as possible on the lineage of Knight Owls of which her best friend was such a proud part. "So… your house has long been servants and agents of Order then?" Su-Han said at last.

"I'm the servant of Justice, Master Su-Han. Sometimes, that means dropping a little chaos into the mix!"

"… and we all know how much you like that!" Uncanny Valley added dryly.

"It is a fine thing to wish to be," Su-Han announced. "However, your clan's mission is not the Order's concern. Nor are the Miraculous a collection of tools to be used for such ends." The man drew in his breath. "No, I must insist that you return the Order's property so it can be safely secured." He shifted and moved his staff somewhat forwards. "If you will not do this willingly, then you and you alone are responsible for the consequences."

Ladybug did not like the way Standing Coyote grinned. He'd obviously been waiting for this moment for a while! "Master, I think that you need to ask yourself not whether this is your problem and where the greater good lies. This isn't just about the current holder of the Eagle Miraculous but how the power that underlies the Miraculous and the Order should be used!"

"Silence girl!" Standing Coyote snapped. "The Order has kept the Miraculous secure and seen that they are used in the vanishingly few circumstances where they are needed for millennia! We have nothing to learn or reconsider! Now, the Grandmaster has made his judgement and you must assist! If you will not obey his authority, then we can move on to reclaiming the Mother Miracle Box after we have finished disciplining this arrogant g…" The First Nation Guardian stopped his rant and looked around stupidly. "Why does it feel like it is raining?"

Ladybug felt like kicking herself that she'd let her focus on stopping the Guardians from starting a fight with SPECIAL and the United Heroez from stopping her from fully appreciating the warning jangling her nerves about an approaching threat. She turned to see a waterspout rising from the Hudson River and angle towards the rooftop where the meeting was taking place. "What is that?"

Standing Coyote's face had gone pale but he still managed to answer. "Damnation. It looks like we now know what happened to Salmon Miraculous!"

~*~*~

"What happens if a Ladybug is submerged?" screeched the adult male lunatic in a pink-edged grey costume (who seemed to be called Tidal Wave) as he threw another globe of pressurised water at Ladybug and Ma'xevé'késo as the two girls swung across New York's skyline. "Same as what happens to anything else!"

"Split left!" Ladybug shouted as she swung to the right. This guy was disturbingly well trained: He wasn't someone who just found a Miraculous and let loose; he knew what he was doing and he was utilising his secondary water shaping power with disturbing effectiveness. Even as the two heroes split up, he managed to send separate rippling appendages of water out after them.

To the left, Su-Han flashed into existence on a rooftop after using a teleportation spell and pointed his staff at the Salmon Villain. "You will not sully that sacred talisman any longer, base villain!" He cried. There was a flash of violet light from the head of the Grandmaster's staff and, suddenly, Tidal Wave was surrounded in a force-field bubble. That didn't greatly deter the sandy-haired man who was using the Salmon Miraculous for evil. He gestured and more appendages of water lashed towards the Guardian. Just before they struck, Su-Han flipped a spell scroll into the air, which detonated in a white flash, turning all the water into ice that crumbled at his feet.

"Standing Coyote, bring this fool to me." Su-Han took on a magisterial pose, standing erect with his hands folded over the head of his staff as a grinning Standing Coyote used his own staff to levitate the bubble over towards them. Maybe they should have noted that Tidal Wave didn’t even seem slightly upset

Ma'xevé'késo landed on a nearby rooftop next to Ladybug, who was watching the fight's apparent end with concern. The First Nation girl looked over at her friend. "Well, that wasn't too much of a chore! Looks like the old guys are as good as they think!"

Ladybug frowned. "It's too easy, Ma'xevé'késo. We haven't seen the sort of power we should expect from an adult holder!" The noirette superhero unhooked her Yo-yo and cast it into the air to summon a Lucky Charm. What she got was a mermaid doll in ladybug colours and she immediately knew what that meant with a hydrokinetic of this apparent power. She hurriedly fished inside her Yo-yo and pulled out two lime green macarons. She tossed one over to the First Nation girl standing to her. "Ma'xevé'késo, eat this!" The Ladybug hero rammed the other macaron into her mouth almost too quickly.

At that moment, Tidal Wave started to laugh. Suddenly, he flung his arms upwards and seemed to make a throwing gesture towards the two Guardians.

Uncanny Valley would later estimate that the massive volume of water that dropped on them from above was about the volume of the entire of New York harbour basin, as improbable as that sounded.

"Are they okay?" Uncanny Valley was hovering on her micro-rocket jets and was carrying Rena Rouge dangling under her by her arms; the water currents were so chaotic that she was struggling to detect her sister and the others with her thermoscope vision. She didn't even want to contemplate the civilian death toll even if the supervillain's attack had not been restricted to this district of the city.

"Don't count my girl out," Rena replied. "We've got problems of our own!" Uncanny Valley saw the Fox hero's point. Tidal Wave had emerged from the magical deluge and was grinning at the two remaining heroes malevolently. Rena had somehow manoeuvred her Flute around and began to play a melody. "Bluff!"

Below the surface of the sudden 100-metre deep water layer, Ma'xevé'késo' was looking in shock at her new feather-like flippers on her feet and running along the back of her arms in place of the usual eagle feathers. She'd never used a power-up potion before, although she'd seen them described on the Ladyblog Wiki. "Focus, Ma'xevé'késo!" Aqua-Bug's voice was somehow not affected by the fact she was submerged and now had gills to oxygenate her blood. "Su-Han and Standing Coyote likely don't have this magic!"

The two heroines quickly located the Guardians, still on the roof where they had been standing before Tidal Wave's counter attack and they were now standing under a magical force bubble. However, it was clear that the two men were in trouble; Aqua-Bug's ability to sense motion like an aquatic beetle could told her that Tidal Wave was trying to collapse the bubble by continually increasing the water pressure around it.

Ma'xevé'késo frowned as she felt something in her head. She knew what to do, even though she'd never done it before. Instinctively she began to twirl the Eagle Bullroarer as the sense of energy started to grow stronger and stronger until… "Unbind!" She lashed her tool towards the force bubble and a bizarre glowing image of golden-white chains shot out. It briefly clenched around the force bubble before shattering and Aqua-Bug felt the pressure around them suddenly radically ease. No longer having to fight Tidal Wave's attack, Su-Han gestured with his staff and the magical bubble ascended towards the water's surface. The two heroines used the maximum power of the Aqua Power-Up to follow.

In the air above, Tidal Wave was suddenly having a bad day. There were now about thirty versions of Uncanny Valley and that girl flute player in fox cosplay and, as soon as he swatted one pair, another pair appeared! With a shout of rage, the man flung his arms out and a circle of water shot out in every direction, hitting every duplicate at once. The android girl and her companion were knocked from the air and fell towards the water, only to be suddenly caught by Aqua-bug as she did a dolphin-like leap vertically out of the water, Ma'xevé'késo' right next to her.

The Eagle heroine felt something in the villain. It was only occasionally that she sensed this; Lirri was trying to tell her something and one thing her mom had taught her, it was this: follow the advice of those who know what they're talking about. She reached out to the mind of the supervillain and felt something fear of failure; of some golden figure who would punish him if he broke off his attack for any reason, Ma'xevé'késo grabbed that sensation and mentally yanked on it like it was her Bullroarer's cord. "Freedom!" she cried out, pointing the retracted Bullroarer at him.

Her power had… unexpected effects. Suddenly freed of the fear of his unknown leader, Tidal Wave suddenly was far more afraid of the odds against him now that his first surprise attack had been defeated. Riding through a tongue of water, he fled towards the harbour, casting a wall of water behind himself to intercept and absorb the spells cast at him by the Guardians, who were now standing on a floating magical platform.

Aqua-Bug landed next to the two Guardians, deposited her two rescuees. She watched Tidal Wave's retreat for a few moments before she cast her Lucky Charm into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" The magical ladybugs flowed out and instantly the deep floodwaters were gone and New York was untouched.

"Master, we should pursue him! He is all but vanquished!" Standing Coyote shouted.

"Not without a plan!" Ladybug snapped, getting into the other Guardian's face and blocking his path (the Miraculous cure had reset her and Ma'xevé'késo's transformation). "He's trained and an adult holder; you both know what that means for the breadth and power he can use in a fight!" The First Nation Guardian seemed about to protest but the Ladybug heroine rode over him. "Don't you think it's an odd coincidence that he should suddenly appear and attack when Master Su-Han arrives and meets with you and Ma'xevé'késo? You're the target here and I know what that’s like; it means he will come back but we need to be ready when he does!"

Su-Han touched the other Guardian on the shoulder. "She is right, my friend. This is not a time for precipitant action!" He looked over at Ma'xevé'késo thoughtfully. "You show an interesting level of mastery of the Eagle's powers, child; mastery that cannot simply come from raw experience. We also need to talk before we do battle with this thief again."

Ma'xevé'késo paused for a moment before nodding to herself (in time with the bleeping of her Miraculous and the disappearance of one of the feather-like lights around where the lanyard was tied around the talon). "You're right; let's head to the Beta Aerie."

Chapter Text

Well, at least that damn robot eye is gone, Melodié Allegra thought to herself as she pressed the doorbell on the outside the gates of Agreste Manor. At school that week, she'd been confronted by a few of her friends who had asked her why she kept going to the place. After all, she had her own family – a group of people who'd shown her total love and acceptance for her entire life irrespective of their lack of a genetic relationship. Why should she want to spend time with her bio-mother and twin, two people who had, until recently, been strangers and whose only significant contribution to her recent life was to involve her in their borderline-cataclysmic family drama?

In essence, it boiled down to three reasons. Firstly, she was absolutely sure that her in the manor and being treated as one of the family would have enraged Gabriel Agreste if he was present and that was something that gave the blonde girl the greatest sense of personal victory. Secondly, she couldn't deny that there was a sense of 'what if…?' Being here with Ade and the woman who bore her gave her a dim sense of what her life might have been like if not for her biological father's incorrigible evil. However, the most important reason was that, through Emilie Graham de Vanily, she was able to come into contact with a part of her heritage that she'd never even dreamed of before that twisted cousin of hers had placed the Scorpio Miraculous into her hand.

Melodié smiled politely at Gerard, the family's long-serving bodyguard, as he walked across the driveway to open the gates to the estate. The man was as stoic as ever but there was always a friendly greeting in his gaze and assured her that she was always welcome.

Walking into the grand foyer, Melodié saw something that stopped her dead in her tracks and made her mouth drop open in shock. Adrien had personally destroyed the pseudo-royal portrait of him with Emilie and Gabriel within an hour of his father's arrest and she couldn't blame him for that. However, no hint had been given about what would replace it, if anything, until now. "I… hope that you don’t mind this, darling?" Melodié barely noticed Emilie's tentative question as she stared at the huge new portrait at the top of the first flight of stairs. Emilie had chosen a stunning off-the-shoulder ball-gown in a mix of seafoam and lavender for her portrait; Adrien was in a very fetching three-piece suit that Melodié was sure she had seen somewhere before and the portraitist somehow had managed to recreate the dress she'd worn to the Foundation Ball around nine months ago. However, there was something that immediately caught the girl's quick eye. At the centre of the collar-line of Emile's dress was the familiar navy blue and violet fan of the Peacock Miraculous, the Black Cat Miraculous was prominent on Adrien's right hand and the painter had added one adornment that Melodié had most certainly not worn to the ball – the sapphire-studded golden ear-cuff of the Scorpio Miraculous.

"It's… beautiful!" Melodié couldn’t think of saying anything else. She turned around to look at her bio-mom.

Emilie was shifting nervously and wringing her hands a little. "I didn't want to presume too much dear but… for our family, the Miraculous have always been a part of our lives, for good or for ill. For me, having you shown wearing the Scorpio was a way of… of reminding me that you're real, that you're freely in my life and that I can be with you!"

Melodiè stepped towards the blonde woman (and, yeah, she'd increasingly noted how scary similar they were in almost every way) and gave her a hug. "I'm glad that you can let yourself believe that!" She didn't mention the tears she knew were landing on her shoulder. That was just a sign that Emilie was healing from the cruelty Gabriel had inflicted on her. Neither woman noticed Adrien, standing on the mezzanine, broadly smiling at the sight.

Taares bobbed out of her hiding place in Melodié's shoulder bag and glided over to the portrait and joined Plagg and Duusu there. "It’s a fair likeness," the Scorpion Kwami said dryly. "Although I would have thought we should be included."

"Yeah, because having three Spirits hanging by their Chosen would be so easy to explain to visitors!" Plagg's smile was just the right degree of condescending.

"Well I'm with Taares! It's beautiful!" Duusu was trying to be the positive one just as she always did.

~*~*~

Su-Han looked around the hidden chamber at the top of the skyscraper thoughtfully. 'The Airie', Ma'xevé'késo had called it and he understood why. As well as being like a bird of prey's nest at the top of its tall tower in many ways, it was filled with the earmarks of her foster mother's spirit and identity with the bird (especially owl) motifs everywhere. Of course, the woman was, first and foremost, not a warrior but a seeker of hidden truths and that was easily perceptible through the tools of the natural philosopher and alchemist neatly set up in the centre of the space in front of the enormous image display apparatus, doubtless linked to one of the most powerful of this new age's thinking machines. Charles and Ada would have loved this, he thought grimly. That their mass of whirling gears that he'd seen as a boy should have turned into this!

"Master, how long as we going to indulge this?" Standing Coyote growled, making Su-Han aware again of the man's irritating presence and increasingly tiresome reactionary thought-processes that contributed little and hindered increasingly much. The other Guardian was resentfully watching Marinette preparing replacement water power-up potions at the alchemy station, instructing her Apprentice in the art as she did so as Tikki and Trixx looked on. The American Guardian's bitter and aggrieved expression was something Su-Han would expect from a freshly-initiated member of the Order rather than a Master of many decades' field experience.

"We are 'indulging' this because one of the sacred burdens of our Order is in the hands of an evil-doer and one who clearly has an unexpected level of knowledge and familiarity with his Miraculous." Su-Han shook his head thoughtfully. "I know less than I like but there is something about this that disturbs me. There is an unseen power here; the skills shown by our foe is more than the benefit of experience. He is skilled enough to be considered a Champion."

At that moment, Ma'xevé'késo and Uncanny Valley rounded the corner from where the Aerie's hygiene rooms were situated, the lack of even a hint of dampness showing that the Eagle Heroine had cycled her transformation after using her primary power. She looked at Marinette and Alya; the wooden face-mask of Ma'xevé'késo completely failed to hide her shock. "Um… guys? Ix-nay ostume-kay?"

None of the younger people present would ever decide if, somehow, Standing Coyote had learned Pig Latin or if he was just quick-witted enough to guess. "Guardian Dupain-Cheng and Apprentice Cesaire are known to us, girl. Furthermore, they see no need to hide their identities from us, which I am sure you will agree is far different from how a thief would think and act."

Ma'xevé'késo restrained an urge to visibly react to Su-Han and Marinette's nearly-synchronised winces. Instead, she chose to reply directly to her distant kinsman. "Trust; trust is a funny thing, isn't it? It's hard to show trust when you're not sure that you're trusted in return." Standing Coyote folded his arms defensively and made a disgusted grunt. Ma'xevé'késo nodded thoughtfully. "Still… Ladybug trusts you… or at least your boss… and that carries a lot of weight with me. Most importantly, in the end, someone has to be the brave one, don't they? Someone has to be the first one to take that leap into the void and be the first to show trust." She blew out a breath. "Lirri, chains of civilisation!"

Uncanny Valley actually gasped in surprise, something that caught both Guardians' surprised attention. This bizarre mechanical being, so obviously not alive, still somehow showed all the signs of the soul that surely could not be present.

The deep ocean-blue light around Ma'xevé'késo coalesced into a white-headed blue-grey avian-like chibi spirit. Su-Han allowed himself to marvel at being the first of the Order to gaze upon the Spirit of Freedom in nearly five centuries after the last Guardian to protect the Eagle Talon was killed in a raid by the then-newcomer settlers on his camp.

"I'm glad that you've finally come to your senses g…" Standing Coyote started forwards, reaching for the Eagle Miraculous but went sprawling as he tripped over the lower end of Su-Han's staff. He glared at his one-time bunk-mate in the apprentice barracks in surprised anger.

"Trust must be reciprocated, old friend. If we are unable to do that, then we must begin to question who the usurper truly is." Standing Coyote looked genuinely shocked at the Grandmaster's reproof. Su-Han turned to the newly present kwami. "Lirri of Freedom; I am the Grandmaster Su-Han."

The Eagle kwami bowed respectfully. "Master Su-Han, thank you for restraining your… impetuous colleague. I regret to inform you that his lack of patience has caused a great deal of unnecessary inconvenience in the past half-year." Su-Han was too old and experienced to laugh at his colleague's spluttering and look of flabbergasted offence.

Marinette cleared her throat. "Jess, we were just discussing Tidal Wave's level of skill. When you used Freedom on him, did you get any clear impression from what you were freeing him?"

Jess frowned as she thought back to the things she'd felt as she'd unleashed her power. "He was definitely scared of some kind of boss figure who had power over him, Marinette."

Su-Han nodded thoughtfully. "His level of skill disturbs me. Could this 'boss' have trained him somehow?

"It could be just the result of experience, I suppose," Lirri remarked. "Uncanny Valley, what did your database search reveal?" There was silence and the android girl did not even seem to have heard the kwami's question, something that made Tikki and Trixx start to laugh. Lirri rolled her eyes. "Jess, if you would?"

The light of laughter was in Jess's eyes as she turned to her sister. "Val, did you do that database search that I told you Lirri suggested?"

Uncanny Valley frowned deeply. "Yes and, as I'd already said beforehand, there are no records of anomalous water events in the past twelve months anywhere in the continental US that could have been the result of Tidal Wave experimenting with his powers. Given the magnitude of his abilities, it is unlikely that random experimentation could have passed unnoticed and we would have already known!"

"The training required to make someone into a champion is more than just practice." Tikki was frowning too now. "There are elements of training of the mind and perceptions. If one was not born with the talent by the power of the Balance, it is something unthinkably hard for an outsider to learn spontaneously."

"That reflects my concerns precisely." Lirri shook her head and turned her gaze to the Guardians. "Of course, those methods are forbidden to outsiders. Only one with the knowledge of a Guardian could provide it."

Jess touched Uncanny Valley's shoulder gently. "The kwami are saying that they think that someone with inside knowledge of Marinette's Order could have taught Tidal Wave to be so dangerous."

Uncanny Valley looked over at Su-Han and Standing Coyote with an almost-totally innocent expression of curiosity. "How certain are you of the reliability and incorruptibility of your training personnel, sirs?"

Standing Coyote was frowning thunderously. "I am totally certain. None who are truly of the Order would aid a criminal in disrupting the Balance!" No-one missed the significant glare he shot at Su-Han.

Su-Han was rubbing his chin pensively. "However, I am forced to recall that many were lost to the world during our nearly two long centuries of imprisonment and we know nothing of their fates." He looked up, his eyes dark and the grip on his staff visibly tighter. Standing Coyote's eyes opened wider as he began to realise the direction that the Grandmaster's thoughts were taking him. Su-Han's voice dropped to a growl. "It is as I feared then: We are betrayed. The only question to answer is just how terrible the consequences of this betrayal will be for the world."

~*~*~

In what she thought of as the 'Meeting Room' (but what Adrien's friends tended to call 'The Hall of Miracles'), Emilie once again realised just how much Melodié resembled Emilie’s own mother (just with lighter blonde hair). It was all the more notable from her body language, which just wasn't possible as Emilie's mother had passed away when she and Amelie were just ten years old. Nonetheless, the girl was slouched languorously in her chair with a heeled leather boot resting on the lip of the table in a way that suggested she was about to jump to her feet and storm out because of boredom or start flirting just to see everyone's reaction. "So, basically, our family was connected with the Miraculous for generations, just like Felix said. What about these Guardian guys Adrien says his girlfriend works with?"

Adrien smiled slightly. He suspected that Melodié played at not remembering things that they discussed just to keep them on their toes. "Marinette is one of the Order of Celestial Guardians, Mel. They're a monastic order founded by the wizard who created the Miraculous."

Emilie frowned. "Our family knows of them, of course. The kwami know a lot about them and freely tell the stories but we'd never found any large-scale trace of their existence beyond the Miracle Box that your Grandfather still owns." She looked at her son, inviting him to explain.

"They were consumed, for the lack of a better word, maman. An unstable Sentimonster called 'Feaste' had literally eaten the entire temple." He looked at Melodié, who'd lost her casual and slightly-bored pose. "I see that you read that story on the Ladyblog? When Ladybug and I destroyed the creature, literally everything it had consumed was… regurgitated."

Plagg grinned at the two slightly grimacing women. "Trust me ladies, it was every bit as disgusting to experience as it was to hear! We were inside it when it went 'pop'!"

Adrien rolled his eyes at Plagg's all-too-eager recollection. "Anyway, literally everything it had consumed was returned to the place where it had been: Structures, artefacts and even people; all brought to the here and now as if no time had passed for them!" The young man shook his head; feats like this really blew his mind and made the term 'Miraculous' sound so apt. "That has caused a lot of problems for Marinette. It's taken them a while to even grudgingly accept her as having rights and a position with respect to the Miraculous and the Mother Miracle Box. Even now, they're still demanding proof that she's trustworthy and they're reluctant to tell her too much about what they're doing."

Emilie shook her head. How strange that the alleged legitimate owners of the Miraculous should be every bit as secretive, inward-looking and possessive as her family, whom she'd long felt had undeserved and unexpected power fall in their laps by blind chance. "There is a third group too; when Adrien first mentioned these 'Guardians', I thought that he was referring to them." Both her children's gazes were suddenly riveted on her. "Your grandfather has always known about them; I'm sure of it. I didn't until Audrey first saw me wearing the Peacock Miraculous one day when she'd brought Chloe over. She took me into my private office and invited me to 'meet some kindred spirits'." Emilie drew in her breath. "She promised me that she could train me to use the Peacock properly and that I would be with more of 'my kind': Those who have the will and talent to use power how it should be used, as she put it." The older woman grimaced and looked sick. "I played dumb and demurred. Audrey was still my friend but that was mostly for Chloe's sake. I was always a little wary of her since that conversation: Of her and her 'Order in the Dark'. The way she treated Chloe and what she was obviously raising her to be all made sense after that."

At that moment, the door opened as Gerard walked in carrying a tablet running the TVi news app. Without a word, the big man showed it to the three people sitting around the great circular table. Emilie gasped as she watched the magical flash-flood seemingly consume New York City, only for it to be swept away by a wave of magical ladybugs that left the city looking untouched. Adrien grimaced. "I'll be back in time for the party," he mimicked Marinette's tone nearly perfectly. "I should have known that whenever M'lady hopes things can go smoothly that there would be complications!" He banged the table with the flat of his hand. "I need to get to her right now!"

"Adrien, it will take you hours to get there even in our fastest jet!" Emilie protested as her son swept towards the door, Plagg zipping over to follow him.

"I've got a faster option maman!" Adrien responded, waving at his mother and sister over his shoulder

Emilie and Melodié rushed out into the driveway just in time to see Adrien toss a wedge of purple Camembert cheese into the air that Plagg snapped out of the air with a big smile. There was a purple flash and Plagg was suddenly wearing a fishbowl helmet. "Astro-Plagg!" he laughed.

Adrien raised his right fist, the Black Cat Miraculous flashing out of camouflage mode. "Astro-Plagg: Claws out!" This time, the transformation framed in poison green light was very different: Adrien's suit included a helmet-like cat-eared headpiece and huge bat-like wings as well as a two-tone black-and-grey bodysuit. Astro-Cat looked over at his mother and sister and gave them a jaunty salute. "I'll see you ladies later!" He then leapt into the air and accelerated away in a dizzyingly fast curve up and to the west. Emile was sure she saw a donut-shaped condensation ring around her son's chest as he vanished into the winter sky with a thunderous double boom.

"How come he gets all the best toys?" Melodié muttered with a fake pout.

~*~*~

Su-Han adjusted his grip on the shaft of his staff. "Things that seem so straightforward in a planning session always feel a little different when you are waiting for the first arrow to fly."

Ladybug looked over at the Grandmaster and had to smile in honest agreement. She, Su-Han and Ma'xevé'késo were back on the rooftop where this had started earlier that day. She offered her companions a reassuring (she hoped) smile. “It’s healthy, I think. We never forget that this isn’t just an intellectual exercise!”

Ma'xevé'késo grimaced. “My mom would put it as: ‘Lack of faith in your plan means that, on some level, even just subconsciously, you know that there’s an angle you haven’t covered.”

Ladybug was silent for a moment. “Yeah, that sounds like something that Knight Owl would say.” She shook her head. “He targeted the Guardians and he targeted you. He completely ignored Uncanny Valley and Rena Rouge until they got involved. I think that he’ll be drawn to us again now we’re in the open. This is going to work guys, assuming that we all remember our roles.” The Parisian Superheroine felt the same pitter-patter of water that she felt before and actually found it in herself to smile. "Here we go, friends. Game faces on.”

“You have caused me a lot of trouble!” Tidal Wave was standing on a column of water. He was pointing angrily at his three foes. “My boss was ready to tear me apart! She said I was a dumb thug who couldn’t use his powers ‘exceptionally’!” The brown-haired and bearded man seemed genuinely aggrieved at his unknown mistress’s critique. He was also obviously anxious; she could see it in the staring eyes behind his pink-edged grey domino mask. Marinette had a strange feeling that she was being given a hint here but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“We are sorry to hear that you are finding being an agent of Chaos unpleasant.” Su-Han responded dryly, His voice filled with sarcasm. “Allow us to relieve you of this problem by taking that Miraculous from your possession.”

Tidal Wave sneered. “Actually, the only way you can ‘relieve me’ of my problems is by dying and your two little girls handing over their Miraculous!” With a rictus grin, the supervillain made a pushing motion with both hands and suddenly projectiles of pressurised water went flashing forwards from the water column towards the heroes.

Ladybug and Ma'xevé'késo were long ready and their tools were whirling to form shields that intercepted the globules long before they reached them. Tidal Wave’s eyebrows visibly furrowed and he hunkered down, clearly trying to put more energy into the attacks and brute force his way past the two Miraculous Heroes’ defences. Su-Han’s stern and untroubled expression as he just stood there, leaning on his staff, only served to make the man angrier.

Suddenly, a new voice cried out: “VOYAGE!” In a practised move, Su-Han threw a spell scroll at the water column on which the villain was standing. The column instantly turned into ice as the scroll made contact, which was shattered moments later as Ladybug and Ma'xevé'késo lashed out with their Miraculous Tools at it. With a cry of panic, Tidal Wave fell into the orange-edged portal below him.

The fall was, thankfully for him, not too far but… God, it was so hot suddenly! Tidal Wave looked at the desert landscape round him in panic. As the portal above him collapsed, his three foes descended towards him, the girl in red carrying the Pocahontas wannabe as pink energy wings fluttered over her back and the old Kung Fu Master cosplayer calmly descending in a bubble of rippling air currents seemingly coming from his staff.

Ma'xevé'késo smirked. “Okay, big guy, this is your last chance to give up before it starts to hurt!”

“Aw shut up, kid!” Tidal Wave gestured at the Cheyanne girl and… nothing happened.

“Welcome to Death Valley, Arizona.” Ladybug smiled. “It’s the driest place on Earth. According to my team’s research, it hasn’t rained in this particular spot for almost three years!” The noirette girl’s smile got a bit more malicious. “That means that you’re out of ammunition.”

Tidal Wave got almost three paces before Ma'xevé'késo drop-kicked him in the back of the head and sent him straight into dreamland.

The three heroes stood around the fallen villain. Ma'xevé'késo flipped him over with her toe and Ladybug pulled a circular First Nation brooch with fish totems painted on it off of his collar. There was a flash of bright silvery light and suddenly, a rough and nasty-looking man in a black suit with a white polo shirt underneath the jacket was lying in Tidal Wave’s place. Ladybug turned to Su-Han and offered him the brooch. “Master, I believe that you know where this can be kept out of harm’s way?”

Su-Han nodded soberly. “Thank you, Guardian Dupain-Cheng; I do indeed.”

Ladybug flipped her Yo-yo open into communicator mode and sent a brief text message. A few moments later, a blue portal opened up a few metres away and Cavaliera Rouge poked her head through with Uncanny Valley looking over her shoulder. “Hey guys, job done?”

Ladybug smiled. “Yeah, job done. Come on, let’s go home.”

Su-Han looked briefly at the fallen supervillain and gestured in distaste. “Indeed; let me deal with… this for you.” He put a levitation scroll on the top of his staff and gestured at the unconscious man, lifting him up and directing him through the Voyage portal.

Thinking back later, everyone would agree that they had all felt something like something being stabbed into their head but also being struck hard by a large, flat object, as impossible as that sounds.

~

Standing Coyote whirled towards the sudden pain and was surprised to be home in the Temple. The Council of Masters were shaking their head in disappointment in him. He'd failed! He'd failed to recover the Eagle Talon and had been forced to allow these unqualified children to save the day! Su-Han was shaking his head in disappointment of him. The Order had been left humiliated and forced to rely on these usurpers to protect itself! They had no other choice now because of him! The Order was weakened and in danger, all because of him…

THIS WAS THE TRUTH!

~

Ladybug looked on in horror as Miracle King raised the Miracle Box above his head, laughing in glee as the Miraculous hovered around him and all the kwami rapturously acclaimed him as their master. Adrien looked at her in contempt; she'd failed and caused this disaster! How could he love a witless, clumsy non-entity like her? Making her Ladybug was a mistake! Making her a Guardian was a mistake! Adrien could do better! The world needed better.

THIS WAS THE TRUTH!

~

Rena Rouge found herself surrounded by laughing people pointing at her. She was a credulous fool who was taken in by every liar who opened their mouth! She couldn't see secrets even if they were openly displayed to her! She went chasing after Chloe as Ladybug and never once pointed the finger at Gabriel as Hawkmoth! Even poor, naive Marinette… hell, even the man's own SON had figured him out before her! Why was Marinette even bothering to train her? She was an idiotic blind NOTHING!

THIS WAS THE TRUTH!

~

Su-Han watched as Feaste destroyed the Temple again, swept aside the mightiest of Masters and broke the Order more quickly than anyone had ever imagined possible. Yet, he could not blame Wang. The boy was far from perfect but his dedication and his determination could not be doubted. Su-Han had been too dogmatic and let what he wanted from the boy to blind him to his actual needs as a student! This disaster was, in the end, his fault; it was his arrogance that destroyed the Celestial Order of Guardians!

THIS WAS THE TRUTH!

~

Machine! Soulless abomination! Lifeless play-doll! All the insults echoed around Uncanny Valley, all the more terribly from the lips of those she loved. She could not deny her imperfections and her abnormality. How could she even stand beside her beloved sister when she was unable to even see and hear her spirit companion? How could she be a hero when she was nothing but a computer marching around in a facsimile of the human form? She was worthless!

THIS WAS THE TRUTH!

~

Red-skin! Savage! Barbarian! They all looked down on her and she understood why. She wasn't the strongest person or the smartest. In her heart, Ma'xevé'késo knew that she was a charity case that Barbara Keynes took in out of pity. She wasn't worthy of being a Miraculous hero, she wasn't even worthy of being Sparrow! It would be better if she just vanished and let Mom find a better sidekick than her; that way no-one would be risked by her failures!

THIS WAS THE TRUTH!

"No… No, it isn't! It isn't true! It's a LIE! It is all my worst doubts and worst nightmares shouting at me in my voice and the voices of those I love! Well, I won't be fooled! I won't be destroyed by these false fears! I WON'T LET DOWN MY FRIENDS! I WON'T!"

"FREEDOM!" All around Ma'xevé'késo, the chains of the worst self-doubts and regrets wrapped around her allies exploded into white light and shattered as she shouted her power activation word both with her mind and with her voice.

Above the cowering heroes, a woman in a trouser suit (black on the left half and gold on the right half) with bared shoulders and a black feathered eye mask as well as huge black corvine wings on which she was flying, cried out in surprise and more than a little pain as her magical attack was broken. "How on Earth could you have done that you little nothing?" she gasped in anger.

Su-Han blinked at the new evil Miraculous Holder (for she could be nothing else; he had read the records and knew what would be the touch of the Raven Miraculous's Harsh Truth spell, especially now he had felt its touch in person). "You… overestimated your power, base villain. There is a difference between the 'truth' our deepest fears tell and the truth of reality."

"Well, it doesn't matter, you old fool!" The gold-and-black woman reached out with her right arm as if she were about to grab something and shouted out a phrase in Tibetoka! Su-Han's shock that this newcomer knew the Guardians' sacred and mostly-extinct language was such that he didn't strengthen his hold on the Salmon Miraculous. The summoning spell snatched it from his hand and it flew into the woman's bicep-length golden glove. She smirked in triumph. "Thank you for returning my property!"

"That is not yours, thief!" Standing Coyote shook off Ma'xevé'késo and Uncanny Valley's help to jump forwards. "The Order of Celestial Guardians will retake what you have stolen!"

The woman combed her free hand through her chin-length blonde hair and grinned malevolently. "The Order of Celestial Guardians has retaken it, you bearded idiot; the real Order that has survived two centuries whilst always building its power base, not you hopeless failures who were wiped out by a half-functional Sentimonster!" Idly, she clipped the Salmon Miraculous to her studded golden belt (angled provocatively across her hips) and took on an arrogant and condescending posture as her wide raven-like wings continued to beat the air.

Su-Han put a hand on Standing Coyote's shoulder as he stepped to the other Guardian's side. "Who are you? By what right do you claim to act for the Order?"

"So you may know your vanquisher, old man, I am Black Gold, Centre of the North American Circle of the Order Hidden in the Darkness." She tittered maliciously. "If you prefer, you can call us the 'Dark Order', as we've started calling it recently." She cocked her head. "Do you know what it means to survive in a hostile world, my Brothers? To have no refuge, no support and no resources except your power, cunning and a handful of Miraculous that you'd been able to snatch in the middle of a panicked rout? Well, my great-great grandfather and his friends did! They and the dozens of other Guardians exiled into the outside world by Feaste knew it and did what they had to survive and thrive. They gathered power and built up their positions. We weren't hobbled by your stupid hypothetical prattling about 'balance'. No, we ensured that we were protected by the very things the mundane world worshipped – Money and position! We survived to the modern age, each generation more and more secure, holding and controlling more and more Miraculous, ensuring that they are used as they should: To empower the strong to grow ever stronger."

Su-Han and Standing Coyote were both struck dumb. They had both wondered what had happened to the scores of Guardians that had been outside of the Temple on that terrible night. However, one thing neither of them had imagined that they had abandoned all but the hollowest pretence of the Guardians' beliefs in favour of the selfish pursuit of power, wealth and security.

"This is wrong!" Every eye turned to Ladybug. "Black Gold, listen to me! The Miraculous aren't tools for selfish reasons! They're gifts to maintain the Balance! The Guardians are meant to make sure that they're used for the benefit of all, not to enrich an 'elite' few!"

Black Gold barked out a humourless, contemptuous laugh. "Ah, stupid, naïve child. I have no idea what my daughter sees in you!" There was a golden flash and a cloud of golden and black sparks appeared around Black Gold's right hand and formed into a gold sceptre with ebony raven wings surrounding the spherical head. "Now… As I've had chance to recharge, we'll add a bit more power to Harsh Truth and see if we can't melt your brains down with your deepest self-loathing so I can claim your Miraculous too!" She gestured vaguely. "After all, darlings, we all know that the world will be better off with power like that in exceptional hands… like mine!"

Black Gold raised her sceptre as the heroes took on defensive postures. At that point, a blazing blue-white fireball hit her from behind travelling five times the local speed of sound.

~*~*~

Astro-Cat loved ballistic suborbital flight. His Lady would probably smile, chide him gently for his lack of seriousness in his approach to his powers but would then agree that there was something about watching the world rolling past two-hundred kilometres beneath him at 10,000km/h and crossing oceans in a matter of minutes. However, she would also have a point; this was not a pleasure flight but he was going to aid his imperilled girlfriend and team-mates.

Melodié had obviously transformed and used the Scorpio Dagger to relay the latest video updates from TVi. So, he saw the woman in black and gold using her powers and feeling horror as his Lady and friends collapsed helplessly before Ma'xevé'késo somehow broke the attack. He knew that she was about to attack again (and damn the fact that adult Holders could perform multiple attacks even with their primary power).

Boosting his rate of descent, Astro-Cat pointed himself at New York and accelerated right towards the point where his instincts told him his enemy awaited him, a red-gold and then blue-white bow-shock of superheated ionised air building up in front of him.

~*~*~

Black Gold staggered to her feet in the ruins of an open-plan floor of a high-rise office building about a kilometre from where the meteor had struck her in the small of the back. If she were a bit more self-aware, she'd have thanked Nevrmorr for the quality of the protections on her super-suit but she wasn't that kind of woman. No, right now, she was hurt but she was also mad! Who would dare to sully her with a physical attack like that? Oh, it was him. Of course, it would have to be that pun-cracking alley-cat who didn't even deserve to be considered a mangy stray. "You're going to suffer for this, you little non-entity."

"Stop talking and start fighting." Astro-Cat swung his staff around and activated Catscratch, his name for the concentrated poison-green naginta blade at the leading end of the staff. Black Gold snarled and launched herself at Astro-Cat, leading with her sceptre. The two Miraculous tools met with impact after impact but Astro-Cat was a trained fencer and had, with Kagami's help, added Bo-jitsu to his skill-set. He was quickly able to get his foe's rhythm before sending the blade end of his staff slashing across her face. The woman looked at the blood leaking from the shallow cut across the bridge of her nose with an expression of outrage. Astro-Cat balanced his staff on his shoulder and smirked. "If this is the skill level of the 'True Order', then I'm not impressed, Goldie!" Behind him, there was a flash of a teleport spell and, suddenly, Su-Han, Ladybug and the others appeared.

Ladybug jumped to Astro-Cat's side, her Yo-yo whirling so fast that it was a pink energy circle and the string invisible because it was moving so fast. "Black Gold, if you do have Guardian knowledge of any kind, then you know that the Miraculous need to be respected and used constructively! Please, give this up! The Order is back and you don't have to be afraid of the world anymore!"

Black Gold smirked as she put the palm of her hand over the Salmon Miraculous. "'Afraid'? Oh, silly little Ladybug, you couldn't be more wrong about us! We're not afraid! We're winners and the natural top rank of the world! We have no interest in these out-of-date losers you've chosen to ally with. I'd invite you to join the real rightful masters of the Miraculous but I know that you're too idealistic and stupid to do that."

Su-Han extended his staff and shouted out a summoning spell of his own, only for Black Gold to somehow block it with a gesture (causing a brief glowing red collision effect to radiate out from the palm of her hand. Then she rapped out something (again in Tibetoka) that sounded to Marinette like: "Finnz! Cleave to your rightful mistress!" Then she switched back to English. "Nevrmorr! Finzz! Unify!" A pink stripe appeared running in between the black and gold halves of her costume and pink fish fins appeared at the tips of her wings and the feathered mask. The woman gestured behind her and made a sweeping motion with both hands.

Ladybug's environmental intuition was working and she saw an umbrella lying by an overturned desk start to flash with her colours as did Black Gold and the nearby waters of the East River. "She's using that flash-flooding attack, Kitty!"

Adrien would never be able to explain how he knew what to do but he raised his hands and felt inwards to the power that Plagg gave him. "Cataclysm!"

Simultaneously, Ladybug opened the umbrella she'd just grabbed and raised it towards the oncoming waterspout. "Ladyupgrade!" Ladybug-patterned light flowed over the umbrella as it suddenly grew to a marquee-sized giant parasol.

Gold Tide would never admit it but she was impressed by how Ladybug protected everyone from her attack and how the huge parabolic dome of green-black pure entropy projected by Astro-Cat dissolved the rest of the water into dispersing vapour. She'd never admit to feeling that she couldn't win this one without more preparation so she told herself that she had no interest in indulging her inferiors in a fight. She leapt up into the Waterspout attack and used the Salmon's passive fast swimming powers to make her departure.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@Cool4Catz)

@IStingU: God, Adrien, is there ever *any* time a Miraculous battle not appear that terrifying?

@IStingU: Mama is still trying to get her breathing under control!

@Cool4Catz: It was all under control, Mel… Well, mostly.

@BugBoss: Don't relay that part to @EmilyGdV; it won't do her heart rate any good

@IStingU: Too late, Mari; she's transformed and reading it on her Fan-phone

@Cool4Catz: Oh… merde

@FeatherLady: I'd caution you for your language, young man, but that's my view too

BugBoss posted BLACKGOLD MONOLOGUE.mp3

@BugBoss: So, Adrien told me about #StyleQueen's offer to you after she learned you had the Peacock Miraculous; does this villain's monologue sound similar to her description of her friends?

@FeatherLady: Unfortunately, yes

@Cool4Catz: So, there's another reason to be glad that Audrey is out of Paris right now.

@IStingU: Other than the fact that just her being in town makes @TrueQueen and @SneakrDiva stressed and sick

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, it looks like we've got a whole new problem and *this* one has a lot more numbers than Agreste and Sancoeur ever did!

Jess never differentiated between Uncanny Valley and Aeon, even though her sister looked so radically different in her two forms. She put her arms on the dark-skinned girl's shoulders and tried to get her to snap out of her silent gloom. "Aeon, please look at me."

Aeon looked up. "Why do you treat me like I am a person instead of a machine, Jess?"

Jess sighed. "Because you are a person, Aeon! Just because you're made of xenoalloy instead of flesh doesn't make a difference to me! Just because you have optronics instead of nerve cells doesn't make your mind any less unique and beautiful! You're still a person and I still love you because you're my best friend and you're my sister!"

Aeon's bottom lip began to tremble. "I… I… cannot see or hear Lirri! That means that I don't have a soul!"

Jess squeezed her hands. "Aeon, who told you that?" The android girl's lack of response was a response of its own. "Aeon, just because only biological life can see a kwami doesn't mean you don't have a soul! It doesn't mean that you have no value and it doesn't mean that you aren't alive! You are so filled with nobility and love! You do things that are illogical all the time because you want do because you find them pleasurable and right! You are far, far more than the sum of your parts… You will and always will be my sister! Please, I'll say it again: Never doubt that I love you!"

Aeon never worked out why she launched herself into Jess's arms and she couldn't understand the noise she was making. Am… Am I sobbing? Why are my lens cleaning pumps cycling? "Jess… I… I think I am malfunctioning. I felt… hollow inside but your words made me also feel warm there and the hollowness is fading! Yet, there has been no change in my internal equipment! What is wrong with me?"

Jess smiled and returned her sister's hug and stroked her wiry hair affectionately. "Nothing's wrong, Aeon! That's just a reminder to you that you're human too!"

~*~*~

Su-Han was sitting on the simple seat the Ma'xevé'késo had provided and he looked around thoughtfully at Standing Coyote, Marinette and Alya who were kneeling in a half-circle around him in the small meeting area he'd requested. "We are beyond debate, my Brother and Sisters. By the words of their own spokeswoman, driven by fear, our lost brethren cast aside our most sacred oaths and responsibilities in favour of selfish lusts and ambitions. The Order now stands on the precipice of disaster with our most forbidden magics being used freely by the descendants of those turncoats to turn the Miraculous into tools of chaos and a dark order that may destroy the Balance of our world forever."

"Um… sir?" Alya sucked in a deep breath as she lowered her hand that she'd raised as if she were asking a question at school. "What the hell did that bitch do with the Salmon Miraculous? Marinette told me that you couldn't force a kwami to bond with a holder?"

"Almost, young Apprentice," Standing Coyote sounded exhausted. "You can bond a kwami with someone else, not yourself. It's part of the process of creating a Champion but, as I'm sure your Master has told you, it's crude and, with time, if the kwami is not satisfied with the holder, the bond will break."

Su-Han took up the lesson. "The spell used by that treacherous witch works only a moment to force a kwami to cooperate for a few moments. Finzz would have certainly aided us without it and, once she had transformed into that Unified form, it wasn't needed anymore." The Grandmaster frowned. "Like it or not, we are now working against time. We must act as quickly as possible to identify and collect, if possible, or monitor if not, all the lost Miraculous scattered around this world. They must be kept from these traitorous hands or removed from them if necessary!"

Standing Coyote grimaced. "Brother, that would be difficult; we are time-lost by centuries! Finding them without openly exposing our moves will be impossible in our stumbling ignorance of the world!"

Su-Han smiled at his best friend in the Order. "Not all of us, my friend." He looked over at Marinette and Alya. "We are fortunate enough to have amongst us the first of a new generation of Guardians: Two young women who can move more freely and with more assurance about their actions than most of us." He frowned. "The Quest for the Lost Kwami falls to you, Guardian Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Apprentice of my Apprentice, will you do this?"

Marinette's mind was still struggling with the doubts and fears that she'd thought gone but that Black Gold had unearthed. Nonetheless, she was more than just her fears. She was someone determined to help the innocent and prevent injustice. "Master, the thought of the kwami being used for selfishness is vile beyond words to me. I will do all I can and more to see that the Balance is protected."

~*~*~

Black Gold was in such a bad mood that she hadn't realised that she hadn't detransformed until she was standing in the middle of the offices of Style Queen and was rebuking her staff for a long list of failings, most of which she was sure weren’t just nit-picking to make her feel better. A thrill of horror passed through her when she realised what a horrible first-year initiate mistake she'd made.

Then, she realised that none of her staff were meeting her gaze or even looking beyond her costume's heeled boots (one black and one gold). The only reply she was getting was a litany of "Yes, ma'am", "Right away, ma'am" and "Of course, ma'am".

Black Gold restrained her need to laugh. It seemed that her disguise magic was unneeded at least here. Audrey Regine and Black Gold were similar enough in their magnificent power and exceptionalism that her minions knew who she was on instinct! Well, what do you know? That dotard old English coot was right!

~*~*~

Standing Coyote stepped out onto the rooftop terrace of the hidden fortress known as the 'Beta Aerie' and drew in the metal-tainted scent of this giant city once again. He thought back on the conversation that he and Su-Han had after dismissing the two younger Guardians. "Brother, she has never completed any formal training! She is mostly self-trained and she has some of the most… bizarre views of the kwami and how they should be treated!"

Su-Han had laughed, long and genuinely. "Yes, it's as if she and they are some great commonality of purpose and origin, doesn't it? It's as if she had been Chosen to do with the Miraculous what others cannot!"

Those words had briefly struck Standing Coyote dumb. "You think that she's a Chosen One? I admit, she shows many of the signs but… Su-Han, you know the strictures! For centuries, we've never allowed a Chosen One into the Order, let alone guard a Miracle Box! The consequences…!"

"We have just seen the consequences of ordinary men and women driven by fear, greed and ambition having access to the Miraculous, old friend. How much worse is a pure-hearted girl, dedicated to the care of the kwami and the preservation of the Balance supposed to be?" Standing Coyote had been thinking frantically for a counter-point as the Grandmaster continued. "Young Miss Keynes is also a very interesting case. She uses the Eagle's power so easily and so well even when untrained. It is as if she just knows what to do!"

Standing Coyote still had a hint of the tension headache that this pronouncement had triggered. "You think that she's a spontaneously-occurring Champion? We've not seen one of those since the time of Lady Lionheart and Lucky Dragon!"

Su-Han had nodded meditively. "You have not been privileged to watch Guardian Dupain-Cheng and her team train together as I have. Spontaneous or trained, there are a very large number of Champions with Miraculous in the world at this time."

Standing Coyote gaped. "What are you saying? That they are a team of Champions led by a Chosen One?"

Su-Han nodded with a rueful smile. "You have read the oldest records just like me, Brother. You know of what I speak when I remind you of the Wars of the Gods."

Standing Coyote dropped down into a crouch as she watched Jess Keynes picking out an intricate and introspective melody on her guitar. "Miss Keynes?" Jess stopped playing and looked over at the Guardian with a hint of suspicion. Not without reason, he reminded himself. "Miss Keynes, the Grandmaster has made a decision. No matter our past interactions, he sees in you the greatest of potential to help us guard the Miraculous against misuse and see that they are either kept safe or are in the hands of those who will use them wisely. However, you need to know so much more and you need to be supported with more than just Miraculous power. I…" the man paused. "I am a Guardian of the Miraculous; however, I must now ask that you accept me as your tutor, your advisor and your support. I ask you to accept me as your Guardian."

The girl seemed to consider this for a long moment before looking up with a mischievous smile. "I agree on one condition: From now on, you call me 'Jess'."

~*~*~

Emilie was concentrating on breathing and not crushing her phone from the tightness of her grip. She'd hoped… oh God, she'd hoped that she'd have more time than this. With Gabriel deservedly in prison, father had been sure to act eventually but she'd wanted more time to prepare Adrien and Melodié for this trial. However, as always, her most desperate hopes were not to be realised.

From: St John Graham de Vanily ([email protected])

To: Emilie Graham de Vanily ([email protected])

Re.: My daughter, words do not serve to convey my joy

My dearest Emilie,

My dearest, precious little girl, if I had known, if I had the slightest inkling of what vile impositions that French darner of mediocre rags was inflicting on you, I would have flattened that pretentious city of his and carried you to safety; you know this. However, this is not the time to dwell on regrets for past failings. Rather, this is a time to focus on our joy that you have been returned to us. Your sister has been beside herself with rejoicing ever since we saw those intriguing young heroes in Paris carry you from your prison into the glare of the media's spotlights and only her responsibilities here in Britain have kept her from rushing to your side.

I am sure that your former husband is solely responsible for my grandchildren being kept from me. I do not hold you in any way to blame for I recognise that he was certainly using all manner of… shall we say *miraculous* means to keep you away from me. However, he is now rotting in prison and I assure you that the thickest walls and most solid bars those French fools use will not long be able to protect him from my vengeance. What this means is that there is no reason why you cannot attend the New Year's ball at Pride Rock Manor this year. Please, bring Adrien with you; I have longed to see my heir (Félix is an adequate enforcer but is still the youngest of my grandchildren and… well, he will never be more than an able Captain for his cousin's empire when he inherits it).

If possible, I would also love to see that lovely daughter of yours. I appreciate that there are certain legal niceties that may require that she be elsewhere. Simply say the word my beloved daughter and no-one will remember those Allegra peasants; Melodié will be and have always been your daughter in fact and law. You know this is a gift that I can provide to you effortlessly.

Perhaps you can persuade that very interesting clothier that I've seen on Adrien's arm to attend also. I'm quite well aware that there is more to her than meets the uninformed eye. She walks in the strangest and most remarkable company and I have the feeling that our family may gain greatly from what she could offer us.

The time has come for you to come home, Emilie; both you and your children. Do you hear the Lion's roar?

Father

Chapter Text

The rhythmic beat of Nino’s music wasn’t that loud in the Grand Hotel’s lounge area outside of its reception rooms. Emilie didn’t know whether that was due to André’s investment in sound-proofing or if Adrien’s best friend had a sense of discretion when it came to music for parties in semi-public places.

“I’m glad that we could do this, Emilie!” Sabine took a delicate sip of the coffee (perfect, not that Marlena Cesaire would allow anything else) and then gave her daughter’s boyfriend’s mother a gentle and reassuring smile. “Speaking as a fellow working mother, there never seems to be enough time to just relax and enjoy ourselves.”

Emilie nodded in response. She was not so self-absorbed as to think being one of the two owner-operators of a famed and popular small business was in any way easier than running a multinational corporation and national charity. For a start, Sabine didn’t have several thousand employees to help ease the load! “I’m glad to have the chance to spend time with you too; Marinette is so good for Adrien and so focussed on his happiness. I really had to meet the woman behind such a remarkable girl.”

Sabine shrugged modestly. “Really, all I ever tried to do was encourage Marinette to follow her heart and make sure she knew the difference between right and wrong in all its nuances!” The Chinese woman paused for a moment before continuing. “I never imagined where that moral foundation would ultimately lead her, though. Honestly, I don’t know whether I should be proud or terrified.”

“Both, I think.” The blonde woman thought for a moment. “You know, Sabine, I’m a great believer in Destiny and Marinette really reinforces that for me. I want to believe that the Ladybug Miraculous and the Chinese Miracle Box were meant to be in her hands, just as Gabriel was meant to fail and his foolishness was meant to gather a new generation of heroes.”

Sabine thought about this herself, her expression pensive. “I can’t help but wish Destiny looked to someone else.”

Emilie nodded. “That’s natural but, that this should have fallen on someone as someone as wonderful as your daughter? Well, I think that it’s a reassuring thing that Destiny has such good judgement!”

Sabine and Emlie both laughed. Sabine shook her head before speaking again. “It is just all so incredible! It reminds me of some of the fairy tales my grandmother loved telling me!” Emilie raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Oh, silly legends from so many generations before that I doubt that there is a single word that hasn’t changed twice: Wizards, magical gems, helpful peasant girls and noble warriors with Destined missions!”

“You know…” Emilie paused before continuing. “My family has its own ‘traditional fairy tales', Sabine. I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss them, if I were you!”

~*~*~

Nino was playing his latest composition/mix - MIraculous Medley. It was a common theme for the boys of this friend group (with the exception of Nino and Kim) that they were actually quite mild almost to the point of being shy and weren’t given to extrovert displays. The same couldn't be said of the girls, especially when they all had each other to encourage them. The range of dancing styles around Marinette was quite broad. Juleka was gently swaying her hips and shoulders in time with the music as she kept her eyes fixed on the enthusiastically thrashing and head-banging Rose. Melodie was commanding a huge amount of attention with her borderline-balletic routine in the centre of the spotlight (clearly for her own blissful enjoyment rather than for showing off). Chloe and Zoe were both yellow-and-black motion blurs, throwing themselves into living the dance, beaming wildly.

“Dude…” Luka looked over at Kim. The two men had become closer via their common connection with Alix. “Dude… we are such lucky dogs to live in the same circle as these goddesses!” Luka looked over from the break-dancing Alix to a girl with a tight cap of red hair and a sparkly top seemingly made of fish-scales. Ondine was, of course, the absolute centre of Kim’s focus.

“Beauty can be found wherever you look.” Luka had to raise his voice to be heard, something that wasn’t that comfortable for the normally-zen young man. Nonetheless he could see Kim’s point. Even Mylene and Sabrina, two quite plain girls, were visibly shining with happiness and life. Is it because Gabriel Agreste is no longer a shadow over us? Or are we responding to the blessing of the Ladybug Miraculous in our midst?

The music swung to a halt with an extravagant orchestral flourish; the Bourgeois twins, who had somehow worked their way over to Marinette, twirled around her and dropped into a side-sitting posture, leaning into the noirette’s sides. Realising what had happened, Marinette blushed beet red, earning good-natured laughs from everyone.

“Okay, Dudes and Dudettes! That’s enough burning the dance floor; time to get those sugar levels up into unsafe values!” Nino’s suggestion earned many responses including snorts, raspberries and laughs.

“Thank god that’s over!” Roland Dupain groused quietly as the attention of the room fully turned to the girl whose 15th birthday this particular event had been called to celebrate. “Who the hell calls that ‘music’?”

Gina rolled her eyes. She was there, like her ex-husband, in the role of chaperone, to ensure that this large group of likely extremely-hormonal teens didn’t vanish into dark corners together. Years as a soldier and an agent of SPECIAL had let her notice the clear looks of invitation several of the girls had shot their significant others. “It's the rhythm of life, Roland. It matches the joy in their hearts.” She shot her ex-husband a mocking smile. “I seem to remember a few loud rock concerts I attended with a certain baker not that many decades ago.”

Roland actually blushed at the memories of a certain leather-clad Italian soldier-girl on leave in Paris. “The performers of the 1980s were artists,” the late-sexagenarian man muttered. “That was music, not noise!” Gina chuckled mockingly as Roland shook his finger at her. Roland took a moment to recentre his thoughts before walking over to his granddaughter, who was now thanking all her guests and Bourgeois's oldest girl in particular for arranging a party at the hotel. He couldn’t deny that Marinette was growing up fast and beautiful. To him, it was bizarre that a girl should work out and practice fighting styles but it did marvels for her muscular definition!

Roland paused as he looked at the blond boy who was Marinette’s current beau and noted how he was clearly enraptured by the sight of the girl, who was wearing a sleeveless white stretch-lycra top (with her signature sakura blossom branch embroidery) and pink jeans. Well, the boy was Parisian, despite his unfortunately English mother. So, of course, he would be a romantic at heart. “Lad?” Adrien looked at Roland in surprise; the two of them were generally only distant acquaintances. “I was once in your position; don’t make my mistake and don’t get so focussed on an abstract idea of perfection that you don’t see the perfection right in front of you! Cultural traditions are important but they shouldn’t be criteria for everyone’s happiness”

Leaving behind the blinking blond, Roland completed his slow journey over to his granddaughter (God, his hips were giving out on him; too many years hauling heavy loads of flour and dough back and forth). Finally he understood just what Tom had seen in that woman of his. The strength, beauty and the shining kindness that went beyond the fact she wasn’t French. “Marinette?”

Happy bluebell eyes turned to Roland. “Oui, Grand-père?"

Roland took a few moments to sort out in his head just what wanted to say. “Child, this is a happy day but I want to remind you that there’s a city beyond your rich and influential friends. Don’t forget the wider world as your boy takes you off into the spotlights!” As Marinette tried to interpret that, Roland cast his eyes around the reception room. “Andre Bourgeois was a good man once: A patriot and an artist in the best French tradition but he let the money and his powerful friends make him forget the rest of us until he became just another Robspierre and he had to go. Don’t let that ever be a mistake that you make.”

Marinette looked at her grandfather thoughtfully and Roland idly wondered if anyone had ever mentioned to her how very much she looked like that bizarre Ladybug girl.

~*~*~

Ladymouse squatted on the corner of a roof in one of Paris’s poorer districts, having mostly shaken off Adrien's birthday kiss. She decided that, maybe, it wasn't coincidence that she was near where she and Queen Bee had saved all those people from the fire in a tenement. What had been the point of that comment from her grandfather? Admittedly, he was only ever grudgingly happy with her very existence; the simple fact of her triple heritage (French, Chinese and Italian) made him irritable and Adrien had come to punching the man when he’d absentmindedly mentioned that she was a good match for Adrien because he was ‘only half-French’. However, this wasn’t his usual barely-controlled bigotry. He’d sounded serious and he’d sounded like this was something he was worried about.

As a Guardian and as the Keeper and Protector of the Ladybug Miraculous, Marinette had a duty to protect the Balance above all else - the metaphysical harmony of the entire universe. That didn’t make her a 'trouble-making do-gooder', no matter what she’d heard some TV talking heads complain about her in the months following the fall of Gabriel Agreste (and didn’t people forget the ‘save the world’ thing quickly).  However, she couldn’t deny that more was involved in the Balance than the Miraculous and the affairs of the Great. Was she delinquent by not being aware of what was happening at the bottom of the social ladder?

The superheroine’s introspection was broken by a noise, too far off for unaugmented humans to hear but easy for her to detect along with the flashing of red and blue beacon lights amongst the streets. Wondering if there was some kind of major incident afoot, she cast the Ladybug Yo-Yo and swung off in the direction of the ruckus.

It only took the superhero a few minutes to arrive at the destination: A run-down and litter-strewn open square at the junction of several residential streets. In fact, to call it 'run down' would be generous; few of the ground floor windows were not either boarded up or broken. Right now, though, it looked like a refugee camp in a war zone.

Ladymouse hadn't been sure what she had been expecting when she'd headed towards the police sirens. Maybe a robbery, a gang rumble or even, horribly, a terrorist incident. What she found was looked like nothing less than a mass deportation. The square was brilliantly lit by portable halogen stand floodlights and dozens or hundreds of police were present in riot gear. Every tenement's front door had been seemingly ripped off and trails of people were being forcibly herded onto city busses by stern-faced riot police along with pathetic bundles of belongings. There were the usual squatters and down-and-outs that she was used to seeing in the poorer parts of the city but there were also families: Devastated-looking women leading sobbing children and many men, fathers likely, some of whom were handcuffed and looked like that they'd been in fights.

Roger Raincomprix (recently promoted to Sergeant of Police) was a street cop both by assignment and choice. Because of that, he'd become used to the presence of Team Miraculous on their patrols and had even started to recognise the signs of their presence. Because of that he instantly recognised the 'Thwip-whizz' sound of Ladybug's Yo-yo and wasn't even slightly surprised as she dropped down next to him although he was a bit put off by the fact that she was wearing the hooded version of her costume with the weird tail-like skipping rope/belt. He shot the girl a smug and condescending smile, glad that he'd be able to get her to move on sooner rather than later. In truth, he'd never liked vigilantes and even those firmly on the side of law and order were barely tolerable (he hated the fact that Sabrina's best friend was one of them). "Ah, Ladybug! No need for you and your team's help tonight! We've got everything under control here!"

"What exactly do you have 'under control', Sergeant Raincomprix?"

Roger was genuinely disturbed by the horror in the superheroine's voice but years of talking to outraged naïve do-gooders enabled him to reply without losing his professional calm. "It's a large-scale eviction, Ladybug. When the owners notified the Prefecture of Police, we agreed with them that there would be trouble, so we arranged to move in well in advance and ensure that there was no time for the residents to organise and start up a mass protest that would embarrass the city!"

"'Embarrass the city'?" Ladymouse was struggling with a sudden urge to vomit. "That's the only reason for you treating them like threats to society?!? Sergeant, this isn't what we do in Paris! This is the Warsaw Ghettos in the early 1940s! This is the Krystalnacht! Don't you feel even the slightest qualm about treating people like monstrous criminals to avoid embarrassment to the city?!?"

Roger reeled back in shock at the words. Some instinct told him that 'Don't blame us! We're only obeying our orders!' would have been the worst imaginable thing he could say. "Ladybug, please! This is fully legal! The landlords' representatives are here and serving every resident with legally-notarised notices to immediately quit the property as they're brought out!"

Much to the rotund policeman's surprise, the superheroine was gone and his heart shot into his throat when he saw where she was. Some child had broken away from her family and had become particularly troublesome. One of the Gendarmes was trying to drag her back into her place in the line for the bus that would take her to the relevant resettlement centre. The little girl (was she 5 or 6 years old?) was screaming and struggling; even clawing and biting; his officer had tried to use a non-lethal deterrent spray to restrain her. The tactical pepper spray dispenser was now in three pieces on the floor after being smashed from his hand by that tail-rope thing. The policeman had reflexively drawn his taser on the enraged superheroine and fired only for its probes to lodge uselessly into the whirling energy shield mode of her Yo-yo. Other Gendarmes had their hands on their pistol holsters but they were good, well-trained boys and were looking to Roger for orders. Roger tried not to think about the nightmare scenario of who each officer might think was the one needing protection with lethal force.

Roger realised that he was now at a crossroads in his career here: No matter how certain he was that he was carrying out his duty in line with his legal orders, he also knew that he would make an ideal scapegoat if this turned into a riot or public scandal. As he stood, frozen by indecision, Ladymouse knelt and he realised that she was picking up a tattered rag-doll that was lying on the cobbles. She handed it to the crying girl and picked her up in her arms, whispering something to her. The little girl calmed and pointed at a woman in one of the lines and the superheroine carried her over. As mother and daughter were reunited the woman hugged Ladymouse and kissed her cheeks, tears of gratitude streaming down her cheeks. Ladymouse smiled and, using that weird skipping rope/tail thing, poked the little girl on the nose, making her giggle. The superheroine turned away from the small family and walked back up to the gendarme, who dropped his taser that he was only half-way through reloading, clearly terrified of what he saw in the relatively tiny superheroine's expression. "Doing your duty never excuses you from showing compassion… sir." Ladymouse's venomous whisper somehow carried through the entire square.

The fact that the superheroine hadn't further escalated made Roger suddenly feel able to act. "Ladybug, please, I have to ask you to leave before you trigger a disturbance!" Ladymouse's cold expression as she looked at Roger made him suddenly foresee his possible hospitalisation and certainly becoming the centre of a public campaign against 'police overreach'; his voice grew higher-pitched with panic and he began to visibly cower before Ladymouse, who was less than a quarter of his volume. "Do you think I like this? No! This is legal but it isn't right! Ever since Agreste was jailed, slum-lords have been going out of business all over the city and the people buying them out have been clearing their housing to redevelop the areas! Tens of thousands of the city's poorest are homeless and the city has to do something! At least we have resettlement plans in place! If we didn't clear these areas those profit-hungry mobsters would send in their own private security and just throw people onto the streets! We'd have riots and bloodbaths!"

"Kiddo?" Much to Ladymouse and Roger's surprise, one of the down-and-outs had slipped away from his escort and had walked over. He was now touching the girl on the shoulder. The girl's nose twitched involuntarily at the scent of dried-in urine, sweat and cannabis. However, the grey-bearded man's face was kind and his eyes held a sad wisdom. "Kiddo, it's good that there is someone who cares; some of us let this life happen to us and we're used to being treated as shit that needs to be hosed away but most…?" The man shook his head and looked at the families and young people. "They could be more if only someone could give them a chance." The man sighed in a broken, lost way. "That's all any of us want really: Just for someone to give us a chance."

The man walked away, clearly too broken by a long, hard life and in no way inclined to resist. Roger put his hand on Ladymouse's shoulder. "Please, Ladybug, I'm begging you. There doesn't need to be any action taken about you disarming that officer just now and my little girl would never forgive me if I had to arrest you. Please, just go."

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@DragonGrrrl: Greetings Ladybug-sama. I am surprised to see you in the 'late-night insomnia' club

@DragonGrrrl: My apologies that I could not make it to your party. However, mother would never approve of me attending a 'frivolous event' on a school night…

@DragonGrrrl: I assume Chloe-chan gave you my present?

@BugBoss: Yes, the twin butterfly swords; not exactly what I was expecting!

@DragonGrrrl: They're designed for dual-wielding, Ladybug-sama and I suspect that they would be more at home in your hands than you expect

@DragonGrrrl: Maybe we can spar together and I'll show you.

@DragonGrrrl: However, I don't think that my present was what brought you to the Chat?

@DragonGrrrl: What troubles you, Marinette?

@BugBoss: I guess that I just needed to vent, Kagami

@BugBoss: I just came from a horrible scene

@BugBoss: Did you know that the city is helping property developers evict thousands of people every night? Just thrown out of their homes and forced to go to 'resettlement camps'!

@BugBoss: I can't even imagine how that could happen in this day and age!

@FoxyBabe JOINED the Chat

@FoxyBabe: Girl, I've got that intel you wanted.

@FoxyBabe: it was hidden but I was able to follow the money and get some names on those developers

@DragonGrrrl: Some of them are shell companies owned by Tsurugi Corporation subsidiaries, yes?

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, that's right. It was well-hidden but if someone has the time, the links are all there in the records; Stormy, I'm sorry

@DragonGrrrl: Mother has little interest in social issues but she will obtain capital wherever she can

@DragonGrrrl: It is my shame that she has chosen to become a 'robber baron', as I believe the Americans call it

@BugBoss: Kagami, you aren't responsible for your mother's choices

@BugBoss: You're out day after day, protecting people as Ryuuko; no-one can doubt that you're a good person!

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, what she said, Stormy

@FoxyBabe: Anyway, you'll need to give Adrien and @FeatherLady a heads up because the biggest single common connection was Twinrings Properties, a subsidiary of the Graham Finance Corporation

@DragonGrrrl: Adrien's grandfather

@FoxyBabe: Yeah; merde, can't that boy *ever* catch a break?

@BugBoss: Maybe this is a useful coincidence; maybe I should talk to Emilie about this myself.

The EMILIE GRAHAM DE VANILY FOUNDATION presents:

The Give Us A Chance Initiative Launch Bring-and-Buy Event!

The Place des Voyages was a busy place this bright and sunny afternoon. Ladybug never ceased being amazed by how quickly Emilie had arranged all of this. The moment that she realised that her father had a big role in the ongoing crisis, any hint of hesitation was lost and she was talking into two phones at once.

The small park was filled with cheerfully-coloured stalls where people were donating foods, water and household items either for sale or to be given to needy families. Ladybug's heart was particularly touched by the pile of old toys provided by children to be given to their less well-off peers. Naturally, the event was well-attended and not just because it was for a good cause. Who in their right minds would miss a public event attended by some of Paris's own superheroes?

Ladybug, Queen Bee, Rena Rouge, Carapace and Chat Noir were walking around the square of stalls, greeting people and thanking them for coming. Queen Bee was doing a great job restraining her urge to blush at all the worshipful glances she kept receiving. Chat was demonstrating his usual excess of charisma and personality, exchanging high fives with attendees, posing for selfies and being the attentive and proud boyfriend. Ladybug suddenly realised that this was the first time that she and Adrien had attended a public event in their costumed identities and so openly as a couple.

"Look! It's Rena Rouge and Carapace! So cool!" Ladybug saw a grinning Nora Cesaire (who obviously knew when she was beaten) release Ella and Etta's hands. The 5-year-old twins raced towards the Fox and Turtle heroes in question and started bouncing up and down in front of them, squealing in glee at seeing their idols in the flesh. It was a testament to the disguise magic that neither girl recognised their older sister and her boyfriend even though they were standing half a metre away.

"Ladybug!" Ladybug looked in the appropriate direction to see Manon Chamak, Chris Lahiffe and another dark-skinned girl in a cat hoodie break away from Nino's mother and run towards her. Only at the last moment did she notice Manon and the other girl divert off slightly. Manon collided with Chat's leg with an excited squeal and the other girl looked on with worshipful eyes. Chris, meanwhile, slowed right down and halted right in front of her, seemingly at a loss for words.

"What can I do for you, young monsieur?" Ladybug asked gently.

Stiffly, Chris offered her a boxed 15cm Chat Noir posable action figure, still in its box. "I… I decided to give this to the collection," he said quietly. "Mama got it for me for last Christmas but… but there has to be people who need it more!" The boy dug a toe into the ground before continuing in a whisper that Ladybug would never have heard without her magical sensory augmentation. "Anyway… I like you more than I like Chat." The superheroine quirked an eyebrow at the boy, restraining her urge to laugh. "Uh… Not that he isn't cool! I mean, you like him, right? He's your… boyfriend?"

Ladybug smiled; time to reinforce the secret identity. "What's your name, young man?"

"Uh… C… Chris? Chris Lahiffe?"

Ladybug knelt so she could look Chris right in the eye. "You're allowed to like some people more than others but, if that's the only reason for giving away the action figure…?"

"It's a gift from my maman!" Chris blurted out. "It's special but… I think it would be more special to someone else! That's why I'm giving it to the drive and I want to spend all my pocket money today so it can go to those in need! 'Cause…" Chris blushed brightly and whispered the rest. "'Cause that's what a good person would do! Someone like you!"

Ladybug ruffled Chris's hair before standing up. "It says good things about you that you're willing to part with a valuable gift and make sacrifices for those less fortunate. You don't need to be a superhero to make a difference, Chris!" Chris's smile was wonderful to behold and Marinette loved the way the boy's eyes lit up in joy at being praised by his idol. The boy lunged and hugged her before rushing back off to his mother.

"Should I be worried about having a rival, M'Lady?" Chat teased.

Ladybug smiled mischievously and quirked an eyebrow in response to Chat's tease. "Should I be worried about that, Kitty?" She directed her gaze to Manon was riding on Chat's shoulders and squealing in glee.

"Oh never!" Chat put down his little fan and gave Ladybug a long, loving kiss.

Manon practically had hearts in her eyes as she watched. "Whoooaaa! Did you see that Rhythm?" The other girl's head nodded frantically; she and Manon squealed in gleeful unison "You two really are together!" Manon and Rhythm ran off back towards the Lahiffes. "Chris! Ella and Etta's big sister is right! They really are together!"  

"The idea is simple, Nadja." Ladybug turned to see Emilie (with the family's Gorilla of a bodyguard looming behind her) standing beneath the big billboard for the event, talking to Nadja Chamak. "The worst thing you can do to someone in need is to habituate them to relying on external aid to survive. What the Give Us A Chance Initiative intends is to give people a firm foundation from where they can start to improve their own lives: Things like a fixed abode from which they can apply for jobs and other services; temporary work to give them a source of income; reliable healthcare and support to access further assistance; nutritious food at a reasonable price; secure and positive environments from which their children can progress their education. It's is our belief… it is my belief that people can and will make their own lives better if they are enabled to do so and will be both happier and more secure than they ever would be than if they were dependent on governmental welfare for the rest of their lives."

"Ladybug, do you think that this is an appropriate use of your influence?" Ladybug snapped her attention away from Emilie to a less-welcome figure who had just stuck her microphone under her nose. Dionne la Cynique was Nadja's big rival in France's national news. She was an ace reporter (a "tabloid muck-raker", according to Alya) for the up-and-coming 24-hour news station TVFr, a station who had an editorial policy that, now Hawkmoth was gone, Team Miraculous should disband and hand their Miraculous over to the 'proper authorities' to 'prevent such power being misused'. The station also had several other firm positions on current events and never ceased to put the worst possible spin on everything to back that up. "Everyone knows that House of Harmony, and its allegedly-charitable front operation, is a strong supporter of Anarka Couffaine's mayoral campaign and now we find ourselves at the roll-out of a huge privatised welfare initiative that will create tens of thousands of dependent voters for Mme Couffaine. Will the Initiative also be handing out pre-marked postal ballots?"

"You have to have a pretty sick mind to imagine something like that from something like this!" Chat Noir's voice was a very feline hiss. "M… Mademoiselle Graham de Vanily is trying to help people!"

Dionne smirked without a hint of fear. "Let's just talk about that, Chat Noir. Gabriel Agreste is arrested, something based almost entirely on his ex-wife's denunciation, his assistant's descent into insanity and some mystical mumbo-jumbo that Ladybug here insists that we accept on faith. This fall from grace leaves Mayor Bourgeois with no choice to resign and leaves the door open for Mme Couffaine and her otherwise-unelectable hard-left student Marxist platform; a platform that your team has been subtly supporting every step of the way by your unwillingness to give your endorsement for more mainstream politicians instead of that drug-addicted rabble rouser!" Dionne cocked her head with a malicious smile. "That oh-so-perfect destruction of Gabriel Agreste and this sudden move by Mlle Graham de Vanily to create a client electorate for her obvious choice for mayor makes so much sense in the context of this upcoming emergency mayoral election. It's almost as if it had been all carefully planned that way! What would you say to the silent vast majority of Parisians who feel that Gabriel Agreste was framed by Team Miraculous to put his huge wealth and the influence of the Emilie Agreste Foundation at the disposal of Mme Couffaine as well as her and your shadowy true globalist masters and their attempt to subvert control of this city from its people's real democratic choice?"

Chat really looked like he was about to Cataclysm the reporter on the spot but Ladybug's grip on his wrist made him hesitate to move or speak. Ladybug had a dozen angry responses whirling in her head but she had a sudden insight that responding to these wild accusations, no matter how calmly, would grant them a kind of perverse legitimacy. The red-and-black-clad superheroine drew in a breath before shooting Dionne a gentle and pitying smile. "Mlle la Cynique, sometimes a good act is just that: A good act. It does not have to have anything to do with politics."

Dionne frowned. "Ladybug, don't be naïve; everything is political."

Ladybug shook her head. "Then perhaps the time has come to stop letting it be so."

The superheroes went on about their rounds and Ladybug heard Dionne muttering to her on-site producer about the interview 'being a bust'. Since when were hysterical fictions being presented to people as the truth? Chat frowned at his girlfriend's suddenly-troubled expression. "M'lady?"

"I think that we've become pieces in a game, Chaton. I hate the thought of being someone else's piece. We need to talk to the others about this and soon."

Chapter Text

Adrien had found himself in the process of learning all about living with his mother again after she had spent over a year in a magical coma. One of the first things that he’d rediscovered was that Emilie was an English aristocrat and, as a consequence, there were fewer things than he thought about dining at the mansion that was solely due to his father’s snobby, misanthropic and agoraphobic ways. Although Emilie was not strict about appearances, she did expect meals together to proceed with formal etiquette. Of course, she talked more than father and was more genuinely interested in Adrien’s activities and plans. She had even anointed herself ‘the chief AdriNette Shipper’, to use Alya’s phrase for it and Adrien had learned that there was nothing that could make him blush more than having his mother teasingly asking him about his plans for dates with Marinette.

Another thing that Adrien had relearned was the significance of his mother pacing around the dining room before he arrived. He’d seen it during the brief few days of his father’s sentencing hearings. He’d begun to recall that, as his parents’ marriage had begun to sour (surely when she’d become La Paonne and had begun to realise something was amiss with her then-husband’s business dealings), she would pace a lot and offer unconvincing excuses to her barely-teen son about why she was doing so.

Emilie was pacing now. “Maman, are you okay?”

Emilie froze and looked at Adrien for a moment before speaking, her expression jumping from frown to unconvincing smile and back again. “I was going to say that I’m fine, Adrien, but I’m not. We… have to talk in detail about your grandfather.”

Adrien sucked in an unhappy breath. “I know that he’s got a lot of shady business dealings; Alya found out that he was behind the recent wave of evictions in the poorer parts of the city. I also know that he knew more about the Miraculous than he’s been willing to admit, even before Felix started using the Gemini openly. You’ve explained how our family has had access and control over a half-dozen or so for generations.”

Emilie nodded. “That is true, darling, but I think that I’ve been understating a lot. Your grandfather is a consummate liar and actor. He can appear kindly, jocular and can convince people that he cares for them and their happiness but… he’s nothing like that. He’s completely self-centred and focussed only on his wealth, his power and his legacy. There is nothing that he will do if it doesn’t benefit him personally and, if he makes you an offer, it’s because he wants something and will use it as leverage to get it.” Emily seemed to lose herself in unhappy memories for a while. “He twists people; it’s almost a magical talent. He makes people go down evil paths thinking it will benefit them when it will benefit him far more. He… corrupted my sister so that her heart became cynical and dark.” The next bit was hard but Emilie finally bit it out. “I am convinced that she killed your uncle Eugene, Felix’s father, at your grandfather’s orders although, naturally, there is no proof. There never is.”

Adrien was horrified. Because of his father, he’d never spent too much time with Felix’s father but he fondly remembered the quiet and thoughtful man, a senior partner in one of his grandfather’s financial interests. “We… We read your diary Maman… About the Lion of Crime? It wouldn’t have meant anything I think if it wasn’t for Chloe overhearing her father talking to someone important and the conversation having lots of references to ‘Lions’.”

Emilie grimaced. “The single best thing that could have happened for Andre’s soul was giving up the mayor’s office. He’s ‘little people’ now and father will have less motive to try to keep his claws into his mind and affairs.”

“So, the Lion of Crime is…”

“Your grandfather, yes. However, this isn’t just a reference to his pride in being British. No, we have to talk about the most valued of the Miraculous our family owns; we need to talk about the Leo Miraculous.”

Adrien considered all these revelations (most, in all honesty, not as surprising as the should be). "So, why do we need to talk about this now?

“He is a horrible man, Adrien. He is evil incarnate and one of the reasons I accepted your father’s offer of marriage with so little thought was because it would get me away from him. Ironically, it turns out that he was not that different from my father anyway.” Emilie smiled crookedly. "We need to talk about it because he's invited us over to his home for a New Years' Party and you have to be remarkably foolish to refuse an 'invitation' like that when he's still being nice enough to ask."

Well, once again, perhaps not as surprising as it could be. “Just as L… Vipereon always says, power and wealth grants people impunity. Because grandfather is so powerful, he is nearly immune to criminal investigation and can force others to do what he wants.” Emily nodded sadly. Adrien couldn't help but snort a little in ill-humour. “It’s a shame that London doesn’t have its own superheroes!” 

~*~*~

Tommy stepped back from the man that he’d just beaten close to unconsciousness in the back-alley. “That’s just a taste, mate. The Lion has a lot more to dish out, not to you but to that pretty wife and cute kids of yours, if you don’t do the smart thing and sign.” He offered the sale contract for his victim’s business and an elegant fountain pen.

Whether or not the beaten man would have done so was a mystery for history because the contract and pen were both knocked from the Tommy's hand by a black-fletched carbon-fibre arrow. Said arrow clearly had some non-standard additions as the contract caught fire after being nailed to a nearby wall.

“Who the hell did that?!?” Tommy shouted, whirling and trying to find his attacker in the darkened alleyway. “You’re playing a dangerous game, whoever you are!” He yanked open his jacket to reveal the nasty (and wholly illegal) semi-automatic pistol in an under-arm holster.

“Oh, I think I’ll manage.” The voice seemed to come from the shadows all around. “I need you to spread the word, wretch. London doesn’t want or need people like you or your boss.”

Tommy was looking around him desperately, still unable to see the newcomer. “Oh, like you know anything about what London ‘needs’?” he sneered.

“Poor little thug. Don’t you know? I am London.”

Tommy span around to see a hooded, cloaked figure rise seemingly from a pool of the blackest night behind him and stare at him from behind a near- featureless black metal mask with a T-shaped viewing slit of some kind filled with tinted glass. From the size of the other, it was a kid! Surely only secondary school age! “You’re out of your league kid!”

“Really? Why don’t you show me?”

With a growl of rage, Tommy lunged at the cloaked figure (did he think he was Knight Owl or something?!?) and the two were immediately in a dance but, frustratingly, the mid-ranking enforcer of Europe’s most powerful organised criminal cabal simply couldn’t connect. He was continually stumbling through the kid’s cape as it swung away like a matador’s lure and it was taking all of Tommy’s agility not to face-plant as he stumbled off balance. After a few humiliating charges, the kid finally didn’t dodge and…

God! Even taking into account what felt like some kind of armoured gauntlet that was like he’d been struck by a wrecking ball had just smashed into his temple! Trying to shake off the stars and ringing bells, Tommy pulled out his gun. His gun never failed him. It was proof that he was a hard man with dangerous and powerful sponsors. “Okay, I’m done with playtime!” He aimed and fired three times and the shadowy figure collapsed. “Ha! That’s right, you little shit! That’s what you get! I…” Tommy’s mouth stopped making intelligible sounds as the figure stood up again without any indication of injury.

“That’s the thing about the spirits of whole cities, scum: They’re bullet-proof.”

With a squeal of fear, Tommy raised his gun and fired again and kept firing. This time, something came from over his opponent’s back: Was that a sword? Somehow the whirling silvery blade with glowing blue edges knocked the first few shots out of the sky before the fifth and final shot was deflected back the way it came and exploded through Tommy’s left thigh. The criminal enforcer collapsed with a scream of shocked agony. 

Somehow, Tommy was still holding his gun as his foe advanced on him; he pointed it at the approaching freak and cried out in terror. “S… Stay… Stay back!” 

“Tell your boss about me, scum. Tell him that London has someone to fight for her and that the time when he’s been able to rule over the helpless is over. Tell him that Paladin told you so.”

The last thing Tommy saw before the world exploded into unimaginable white agony was the blue-glowing razor-sharp edge of the gleaming sword blade, marked all over with a strange hexagonal pattern, heading right for the wrist of his gun hand.

Private Room - "GuardianStuffz" chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat/private0020
USERS: @BugBoss ([email protected]); @Foxybabe ([email protected])

@FoxyBabe posted link: Sword Freak Strikes Again! (TheSunOnline)

@FoxyBabe: Sorry about the low-quality source babe

@FoxyBabe: Unfortunately, most of London’s press are too ‘respectable’ to post mystery men news

@BugBoss: Synopsis, Alya? So I don’t have to wade through the semi-nudes and jingoistic rubbish?

@FoxyBabe: Sword-wielding vigilante has been attacking street gangs and organised crime enforcers

@BugBoss: There are lots of mystery men around, Alya! Even in London

@FoxyBabe: What about bullet-proof ones who seemingly can go intangible and have a glowing sword?

@BugBoss: Okay, I’ll give you that one

@FoxyBabe: The London police aren’t that different from ours

@FoxyBabe: It was all denial at first; the usual stuff: urban legend, thugs getting spooked whilst high

@FoxyBabe: This time, they can’t wave it off. There was a witness to the whole confrontation and he went to the press *before* he did the police

@BugBoss: Interesting style. He cuts off a gangster’s hand and *then* stops him bleeding out before tying him to a lamp-post

@BugBoss: Maybe or maybe not a Miraculous but I get the feeling that there’s some kind of magical object or objects in use

@BugBoss: Especially that sword!

@FoxyBabe: So, what’s the call, Marinette?

@BugBoss: I think that, in the spirit of cross-Channel cooperation and friendship, Ladybug should make an appearance in London some time soon, just to make sure the festive period is trouble-free and, should I run into a certain cloaked swordsman…?

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, well make sure you bring protection, just in case he’s not the talkative sort.

@FoxyBabe: And I’m not just talking about Tikki!

"Adrien! Adrien! Over here! Over here!" Years of having Nathalie and his father drilling into his head that he always had to look his best for the press meant that Adrien nearly-reflexively turned to the paparazzi and gave them his best pose and sunshine smile. He'd hoped that the fact that they were in the traditional 'graveyard' of celebrity news – the gap between Christmas and New Year's Eve – that he and his mother could make their trip to London without immediately gathering a huge amount of attention but no such luck.

Emilie, who had been a model, actress and globe-trotting philanthropist for longer than Adrien had been alive, had absolutely no problem at all. She didn't even seem to pose. Rather her body posture, the angle she gave every camera lens and the beautiful smile was just invariably 'perfect'. "Emilie! Emilie! Why are you going to London for New Year's this year?" shouted one reporter.

"New Year in Paris isn't good enough for you?" Another asked provocatively.

Emilie laughed. "Haven't you ever heard of celebrating New Year's with your family, Jacques?" Naturally, she knew the photographer by name and Adrien couldn't help but wonder at that ability.

"You’ve not done that for years!" the man responded,

Emilie pulled a surprised Adrien into a hug, facing out from her and angled the two of them towards one young lady photographer who looked star-struck to say the least. "Show a hint of the Aries," the woman murmured to her son. Adrien shifted his arm, letting his left wrist slide out from his white jacket sleeve, exposing the golden bracelet of the Aries Miraculous, which was caught by the photographer who had no idea that she'd just photographed a Miraculous. Louder, Emilie replied. "Now, Jacques, you know that Gabriel was no fan of my family. It would have been awkward to go with him sulking all the time. Now…? Well, now Adrien and I are in the position to please ourselves."

Adrien and his mother passed through the barriers into the international departure lounge of Paris Gare du Nord; thankfully, the paparazzi could not follow. Adrien blew out a long breath. "God, I'm glad Melodié wasn't here and had to go through that! It was bad enough that she had the press constantly on her every movement when it came out that she was my sister!"

Emilie rolled her eyes in response and focussed on showing the check-in clerk by the entrance to the lounge her and Adrien’s passports as well as the Club Class tickets for the Star Train. “Fortunately, I was somehow able to convince your grandfather that making Melodié’s parents ‘vanish’ was in no something that I wanted!” The blonde woman shook her head. “It’s so him to present being an accessory to murder as a ‘welcome back’ present.”

Adrien couldn’t help but swallow as a sliver of ice ran down his spine. A part of him desperately wanted to believe that his mother was overstating the likely implications of his grandfather’s offer but she seemed so certain. No matter how much he couldn’t imagine being like that, his grandfather was a total stranger and he couldn’t discount his mother’s warnings, no matter how implausible it all sounded to him. He turned away and suddenly all other thoughts were knocked from his mind by the sight of the noirette girl with a ponytail coming from the bottom of the hair bun at the nape of her neck, wearing a black jacket, a white blouse with embroidered sakura blossom pattern and pink jeans. “Marinette?”

Marinette looked up and beamed at the sight of her boyfriend although Adrien could see shock too. “Adrien! Why train you here? I mean, why are you here? I mean, duh! Obviously you’re taking the train but why now?”

“Family business, my dear Marinette,” Emilie responded. “The same question could be asked of you! Why is a 15-year-old girl travelling to London alone?”

Adrien saw the brief panic in his girlfriend’s eyes and could see ‘Guardian business’ as the reason almost immediately. “Don’t you have an aunt in London, Marinette?”

Marinette smiled in thanks before replying. “I do, yes but that isn’t the reason. I… er… just wanted to see how New Year’s is celebrated in England!” The girl looked down and continued in a near-inaudible mumble. “I doubt Auntie Shu-Yin would be pleased to see me at short notice anyway so I daren’t use her for cover!” Then she looked up in surprise as Emiilie’s long-fingered hand whipped her tickets off the top of her roller-case.

“Economy class? Unthinkable for someone of your talent, let alone my son’s girlfriend!” Emilie looked over at the check-in clerk and snapped her fingers imperiously. “You will upgrade this tatty scrap of paper to Club Class and a seat next to my son’s.” The clerk opened his mouth and closed it again at the sight of Emilie’s black AMEX card. “Did I stutter?”

“No ma’am!”

Marinette opened her mouth to say something. Her first reflex was to refuse. There were many good reasons to do so, not the least of which were that she didn't want Emilie's charity. Besides, this was kind of a Guardian mission. Secrecy was desirable even if she could dance around the probability that it might even be essential. However, all of this was fairly neatly derailed by the fact that she was going to be able to sit next to Adrien.

"Thank you!" She was amazingly proud that she managed not to squeak that out as Adrien smiled that warm, warm smile and touched her on the shoulder.

~*~*~

Aaannnd…. twenty-two minutes exactly! Emilie smirked as she watched Marinette and Adrien’s hands entwine on the armrest between their seats, very clearly without any obvious conscious decision on either teenager’s part. She really hoped that she hadn’t overwhelmed Marinette with her spontaneous show of wealthy generosity but she had a desperate need to show the girl that she could be of some use to her and Adrien, despite their very obvious bond and the girl’s own undoubted power, benevolence and willpower. The blonde woman sighed gently. It was bitter in some ways, to return and find that someone else had supplanted her in Adrien’s heart. It was more than due time for it to happen but she still found it a shame that she’d missed that defining changing point of her son’s life.

At some point, Emilie had drifted off, lulled by Marinette and Adrien’s quiet but just-audible conversation about London and their respective experiences of the city. Then she snapped awake. The train was in the tunnel but… “Maman, the train has stopped! There’s been no announcement.”

Emilie snapped fully awake at Adrien’s words. The train was obviously stationary somewhere deep in the Channel Tunnel and the other VIP passengers were looking around them with increasing worry. “Really?  That’s odd; the crew must be busy with whatever the problem…” Emilie’s reflexive attempt at reassurance was cut off by an unexpected commotion at the rear inter-carriage doors. Two scruffy-looking men wearing bandannas that seemed to have a red dragon pattern embroidered into it burst in, waving machine pistols.

“Attention! You are now the prisoners of the Breton Liberation Army!” yelled one of them (with some red hair poking out from behind his bandanna/mask). “If you resist you will die! You will remain here until our demands for political self-determination for the Breton people on both sides of the Channel are met and you Frankish and Saxon oppressors are forced from our lands!”

“Yeah, what he said!” added his companion who seemed to have much darker hair and spoke with a thick regional accent that Emilie couldn’t quite place.

“Seriously?” Emilie had to agree with the man further forwards in the carriage. Oh, she’d heard that there were radicals in those areas but since when did they have the manpower or resources to actually carry out a train hijacking? She winced as the man got the shoulder butt of one of the machine pistols slammed into his temple for his disrespect.

The redheaded terrorist spoke again. “You will remain still, you will remain calm and you will remain silent! We will not hesitate to punish any attempt at resistance!”

~*~*~

About twenty minutes later, one of the self-proclaimed ‘soldiers’ was watching nervously as a blonde woman, who he was sure he knew from the TV in some context, tended to the man he’d knocked unconscious. He pouted under his bandanna at the harsh words his colleague had offered for using too much force. How was he supposed to know that the guy had such thin bones?

This whole thing had been such a great laugh at first. Hanging around together at the pub, cursing the ‘foreigners’, complaining about how badly the country was run and how they could do it better! Having those cool chants and a semi-legitimate-sounding reason to beat up people who looked or spoke differently! Banding together at rugby matches to beat up visiting supporters from other countries! Now, he was actually doing this and he suddenly realised that he might need to kill someone… or maybe get killed for the cause… and suddenly this wasn't so much fun.

The man shuffled nervously, shifting the aim of his machine pistol around the now nearly-evacuated carriage. Most of the passengers had been moved to the coach-class carriages at the centre of the train to make them easier to guard. Only the two kids who had been with the woman were still there; insurance in case she started getting smart ideas.

“You!” The other man was walking back towards them, pointing fiercely at Emilie. “Emilie Graham de Vanily: You’re of Saxon and Norman blood! You and your spawn are coming with us; the boss has decided to show those fools on both sides of the Channel that we’re not kidding and should be taken seriously.”

Emilie frowned up at them from where she was kneeling by the thankfully-stable man. “If you want me to be your spokeswoman, please don't bother. I don’t have any intention of helping you thugs in any way.”

The darker-haired terrorist grinned in a vicious way behind his bandanna. “Oh no, my dear Miss Blonde! All you and your kid have to do is die on camera. You’re just an invader so no great loss!”

“Well, I think it would be!” Both men gawked at the royal blue spirit with a long, feathered tail that was hovering behind and in between them. “I quite prefer Miss Emilie intact, thank you!” Both terrorists span to face the impossible little creature, only to find that it wasn’t alone.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve only just got her back!” The terrorists’ eyes jumped to a black cat-like creature along with a polka-dotted red bug-being that were both hovering in front of them at waist level.

“Absolutely! It’s disgusting that you would even consider this!” the red polka-dotted one added in a stern and almost-maternal tone that offset its squeaky voice.

“DEMONS!” the redheaded terrorist shrieked, raising his machine pistol and pointing it at the bug-thing.

“Ah-ah! Sorry, pal, got to take those toys away!” The black cat-like being began to crackle with green-black lightning. Less than a quarter of a second later, every window in the carriage exploded outwards and its lights went out.

Adrien and Marinette clambered up from their hiding place behind their seats. Neither of them was even slightly surprised to see that both men’s clothes were shredded and they were unconscious, blood flowing from their noses and ears. The interior of the carriage was a ruin, with the windows gone; the ceiling, flooring and walling shattered and broken fluorescent light tubes dangling on the end of torn-out cables hanging from the buckled roof. The only source of light was from small fires burning in a few blown-out entertainment system screens as well as the uncanny glow emitted from the three kwami.

Oh, and the two guns were gone, of course: Reduced to dispersing molecular vapour by Plagg’s unfiltered Cataclysm.

Adrien grimaced. “Hey, buddy, you’ve got better at controlling your powers!”

Plagg smirked infernally and shrugged. “Who says I wasn’t always this good, kid?” The kwami decided to not mention the over a square kilometre of sea above that he'd vaporised by focussing most of his power into it.

Emilie got to her feet. “Well, it worked. Now, I have no doubt that the rest of these disgusting killers heard that explosion and we need to act before they start shooting hostages!” The two teenagers nodded in agreement.

“Tikki! Spots on!”

“Plagg! Claws out!”

“Duusu! Spread my feathers!”

~*~*~

“Boss, Daffyd and Alban aren’t answering! What do we do?” The terrorist guarding the driver in the front power car was sweating buckets. Whatever had just happened in the Club Class carriage had made every circuit breaker in the power car jump simultaneously and he was seriously scared. After that nutcase in Paris tried to destroy the whole world a few months ago, he really found it too easy to imagine just what might have happened and what it might mean.

Their 'glorious leader's' confident claim that he had 'everything under control' didn't help at all. He probably did but did the survival of his followers factor into that plan?

The terrorist was pacing nervously and not looking at his hostage at the controls. This was a shame because he would otherwise have seen the royal blue down feather touch the fearful and resentful driver’s uniform cap. Nor did he see the neon aqua feathered mask appear hovering over the driver’s face.

"Mr Dawson, I am La Paonne…"

The terrorist swung around as something that looked like a vaguely human-shaped giant walking metal cabinet rise up and launch itself at him. Credit where credit was due, he managed to aim his sub-machine gun and get his heavy revolver half-way out of the holster. However the hail of 9mm bullets didn't even slow the Sentimonster down as it grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him into the floor with stunning force. "This ain't happening mmmmaaannn…!" A single heavy pistol round slammed into the Sentimonster but there was very little point trying to shoot something that had no internal organs and thus no vital parts to damage. The Sentimonster picked up the terrorist and slammed his face into the door of one of the power car’s equipment cabinets and kept on doing so until he fell still.

Joe Dawson, the driver, still not fully understanding or believing what he was seeing, stood up and gestured for his new helper to precede him out of the driver’s cabin. "O… kay, Safety Barrier, let's get these stowaways off our train!"

~*~*~

Further back in the train, two more terrorists (including the one female member of their band – widely considered to be the most vicious member of the movement by a long way) were screaming invective at the carriage full of terrified people who clearly wanted to stampede to safety after the explosion and everything being plunged into darkness broken only by a few emergency low-wattage lights. Both terrorists were losing their cool rapidly. They had been told to expect cowed and compliant hostages, not a riot about to spontaneously break out. Even firing bursts from their guns into the ceiling wasn’t doing any good!

The chaos was so bad and their attention was so focussed on the panicking passenger that neither of them noticed the movement behind them until a yo-yo wrapped around both their necks and slammed their heads together with bruising force. The man crumpled but the woman still had enough wits functioning to turn around and see a girl in a red-and-black super-suit. With a snarl at the black-haired girl, recognising them as one of the super-freaks from Paris, the woman tried to aim her gun at the interloper but was far too slow. "Sorry, thug! Calameowty!" The woman gaped with horror as her gun, the sign of her and her movement's power, suddenly dropped its magazine and with a loud 'thud' several internal mechanisms broke. She stared in utter disbelief at the young man in the black cat-themed costume before his staff hit her in between the eyes and she went down too.

Ladybug waved to the suddenly-cheering passengers. "We'll leave them to you folks! Make sure they don’t do anything stupid! Bug out!" She turned to her partner and continued more quietly. "Come on, Chaton!" The people in the carriage continued to cheer wildly as Ladybug and Chat Noir vaulted over the fallen terrorists and continued their onward charge.

~*~*~

Sitting in the limousine parked on the cliffs over the Star Train’s Folkstone car and lorry shuttle terminal, Amelie Graham de Vanily looked up at her father questioningly. “They’ve been stopped in the tunnel for about half an hour now, father. The news media is just getting wind of the story.” The blonde woman shifted her black-clad legs nervously. “I hope that Emilie is alright.”

Lord Graham de Vanily smiled slightly. “If she’s smart, she will be. No terrorist would harm a valuable hostage like her without a good reason.” The big man opened the car door and stepped out into the otherwise-empty observation overlook. “Besides, based on your sister’s skills and vicious temper when she was training with the Gemini, if anything I would worry about them.”

Amelie shook her head. “Father, have I ever said that I hate how theatrical you like making things?”

The big man with a mane and beard of ash grey laughed dangerously as his tawny-yellow kwami flew up to his face. “That’s your mother talking. No, it’s all the better for achieving the end goal, my darling child. Emilie needs to remember the difference between my approval and my disfavour and these suitably-manipulable fools are perfect for the part.” The man drew in a deep breath. “Ah, it’s been too long since I last did this! Regulss! Sound the Roar!”

~*~*~

The hail of light-calibre bullets from the half-dozen machine pistols might as well have been striking a wall of pure diamond for the little impact they had on the string of Ladybug’s whirling Yo-yo. So utterly focussed the gunmen were on this impossible and showy defence that none of them noticed Chat Noir’s approach until the Catscratch naginta mode of his Staff began to slice through their weapons like a hot knife through butter. The last man tried to charge the blond hero physically, only to have Ladybug’s Yo-yo contact with his forehead, knocking him flying backwards.

The Sentimonster known as Safety Barrier dropped another unconscious gunman. “I guess that’s all of them?” Joe asked as he popped his head up from behind a passenger seat.

La Paonne turned her blazing sapphire eyes to the last conscious terrorist who was backed up against the wall with the Peacock Fan pressed to his throat. “That’s a good question. Tell me, my friend; are there any more of you humanoid bags of waste around?”

“I… I won’t talk!” the terrorist blurted, his voice very high pitched.

La Paonne shrugged. “Too bad. Well, we don’t need you around anymore!” She drew back her arm, seemingly about to slash, only for Chat Noir to jump forwards and seize her forearm.

“Please, friend,” Ladybug said urgently. “You’ve not seen her like this but I have! She can go crazy if people won’t talk! I can’t stop her! No-one can!”

La Paonne shook off Chat’s arm and grinned at her prisoner in a carnivorous manner. She then stuck out her tongue and ran it across what suddenly looked like the very, very sharp edge of her fan. Suddenly, the terrorist lost all courage and belief in his cause (such as it ever was). “The boss is in the rear power car! He said that he would monitor us from there! That’s all I know, I swear! Please don’t kill me!”

“There’s a good boy!” La Paonne said before Chat Noir cold-cocked the man. She turned to Joe and her smile was a lot gentler and more natural. “Mr Dawson…. Thank you for your courage and help.” She concentrated and the amok appeared from Joe’s hat and drifted over to her open hand. The Sentimonster dissolved into royal blue smoke and vanished as if it had never existed.

“Damn, that was fun…. and freaky!” The man said, sounding honestly sad that it was all over. Maybe he was?

Ladybug smiled sweetly and patted the pale-skinned man on the shoulder before touching a finger to her lips. “Now, remember, monsieur: No-one must know of your role in this matter or of the exact events that took place here. I am sure we can trust you, non? Now, sir, please stay here with the passengers. We’ll finish this.”

~*~*~

"Ah, the heroes of the piece!" The skinny and long-faced man standing in the corridor running down the centre of the huge AC electrical motors in the rear power car had such wild clarity to his eyes and expression that Chat Noir immediately started to fear just what he might be capable of. "Come no closer!" Suddenly, the man lifted up his right hand and there was a simple joystick-like detonator trigger in his hand and his thumb was poised on the button. "This train has two thousand pounds of incendiary explosives wired to its frame. If I so much as twitch, we will all be blown to pieces and, in all likelihood, this tunnel and who knows how many rescuers will be smashed or drowned!" He smirked at the three horrified expressions; he frowned and looked at the three heroes more thoughtfully before speaking again. "So, of which of our oppressors are you the hirelings, hmm? Is it the pigs in London or the dogs in Paris? Or are you freelancers looking to make your name with them by crushing my people anew? Well, that doesn't matter. What matters is that you are not powerful enough to stop our movement! We will be free, even if we have to die to show our determination!" The man drew in a deep breath and all three heroes could see the unsettling light of fanaticism in his eyes.

"Monsieur," Ladybug tried with a desperate edge to her voice. "There is no need to kill people! There are democratic ways to make your voice heard and…"

The man cut her off with a derisive shout. "'Democracy'? Oh, you stupid French idealist! Our oppressors will never let our voice be heard! They will just laugh as they always have! No, the only way to be heard is to drown their occupation of our lands in blood and burn their people in the fire of our righteous vengeance!"

"Great, we've got a talkative mastermind." Chat Noir muttered as he shook his head. He then raised his voice to address Ladybug. "Don't bother, M'lady; he's crazy."

"Crazy?" The man tilted his head quizzically. "Maybe I am crazy, you degenerate; crazy enough to see the truth and be willing to do what needs to be done!" La Paonne tried to focus her mind and shake off the migraine-like echo of the wild mix of hate, xenophobic fear and nearly-ecstatic anticipation that the Peacock Miraculous was communicating to her from the man. She had a sickening feeling that she knew where this was going.

"Hurting the innocent is not the way to change things for the better!" Ladybug tried again.

She was surprised by the derisive laugh she got in reply. "There are no 'innocents', you idiot child! There are only those who fight for our freedom and those, by action or inaction, stand in the way! The latter deserve only death and the former should want to die if it brings us the freedom for which we have long sought!"

Ladybug sighed and pulled her Yo-yo off of her hip. "Then I'm sorry that we are going to have to use force to stop you from hurting anyone."

"Really?" There was that odd, quizzical tilt of the head again. "I wonder if you're really ready to do that, you posturing child? I know you, of course, the great heroes of Paris! So noble and so determined to live by their ideals! There is Chat Noir, the leather-clad knight who has fought so long and resolutely at his lady's side to protect his city. There is La Paonne, the great-hearted lady who helps the helpless find the strength to fight. Finally there is, of course, Ladybug, the virtuous girl who healed every wound caused in her battles! You have never irreversibly shed blood and have done all you can to save everyone, even those your foes use as their soldiers! It’s such a shame that such a sterling record is about to end in a mass slaughter! However, if I'm dead, I cannot activate the bombs, can I?" The man's smile became positively demonic. "Trust me when I say that I feel no hesitation. Those fools you swept aside so easily are no barrier to me! They should be glad to die for the Cause and, if not, then they were never true to the Cause in the start and are of no interest to me!" The man grinned at the heroes and raised the trigger up to level with his head. "I am going to do it, so who will stop me at the cost of exposing themselves as a hypocrite by becoming a cold-blooded killer?"

All three heroes shifted, obviously thinking fast and desperately about what to do. At that moment, the point of a huge war broadsword punched through the man's chest from behind and a red-gloved hand caught the detonator trigger as it dropped from the terrorist's suddenly-nerveless fingers.

The terrorist sagged and the swordsman yanked his weapon out, leaving the man to fall and lie lifelessly in the rapidly-spreading pool of his own blood. The resulting tableau was still for a few moments before La Paonne sighed. "Leonidas…" she murmured in a mix of despair, resignation and even a touch of disappointment.

The huge grey-bearded man with a mane of grey hair and wearing gold-accented red knightly robes wiped clean the blade of his broadsword (with a lion's head at the crux of the blade, cross-guard and hilt) on the collapsed corpse and laughed mildly. "What? This fanatic idiot was going to blow up the train!"

The Peacock heroine narrowed her eyes at that. "There were still other ways to end this bloodlessly… father."

Chat Noir considered the man for a moment, his mind swirling with sudden realisation before turning to his girlfriend and squeezing her shoulder. "M'lady, we're done here."

Ladybug physically had to pull her horrified gaze away from the corpse on the walkway in front of her. "Y… Yes, Chaton; the crisis is over. Paonne, you'll be okay?"

La Paonne didn't break her gaze from the man she'd identified as Leonidas and as 'father' but nodded. "Yes, I'll be fine. Go, my young friends."

The Peacock heroine and the man with the golden outline of a lion embroidered into one of the breasts of his gown-like cape stood silently as, a few moments after Ladybug and Chat had climbed out of the exit door on the side of the power car, a wave of ladybirds swept over the scene. Naturally, as he had not died by magical means or by the effect of magic on his environment, the lead terrorist was not helped by this. Still hidden behind the half-face mask of Leonidas, St John Graham de Vaniliy gestured towards the exit from the power car to the rest of the train. "Well, what do you say that you take me to see my grandson, my dear Emilie?"

Chapter Text

Emilie nodded politely and, virtually on autopilot, exchanged pleasantries with Amelie, who was sitting opposite her, as the luxurious limousine pulled out of the emergency services staging area outside of the Star Train's Folkstone terminal. Long used to keeping a neutral countenance and her thoughts private from her family, she had no problem controlling any sign of her unease at being in such close quarters with her father after so many years. She was pleased to see that Adrien and Marinette were both playing the awestruck teens, amazed at being around an actual superhero as well as one of Europe’s richest men.

Emilie noticed her father’s quick eye lock onto Adrien’s bracelet and the choker around Marinette’s neck with a barely-controlled avaricious leer. Naturally, Regulss had told his Holder about the near presence of the Aries and Libra Miraculouses but, or so Emilie hoped, they would be such obvious sources of Miraculous power that Regulss would not also notice the presence of the Ladybug and Black Cat.

She hoped.

Suddenly, Amelie’s voice cut into Emilie’s introspection. “So, when am I going to be meeting my niece, Sissy?”

Emilie blinked and turned to her twin sister. “Patience, Sissy. Melodie has led a very ordinary and mundane life and I didn’t want her overwhelmed by dropping her in the middle of father’s money and his regrettable habit of using it on a whim when he wants to impress people.”

Amelie laughed in response, missing (as she always seemed to do) the implicit criticism of their father.

~*~*~

Even if she hadn’t cast her best Somebody Else's Problem charm, Rose Potter was doing her absolute best not to be noticed in the crowd at the Folkstone Star Train terminal. Wearing simple, shapeless everyday clothes instead of her maroon ‘uniform’ leathers, with her titian hair up in a messy bun and wearing the big-lensed glasses that she’d sort of inherited from her father (yes, like him, her myopia had been magically fixed years back but giving the impression she was short-sighted was useful), she was both unremarkable and instantly forgettable.

Okay, the prodigal daughter and her son were expected but who was the black-haired girl? More importantly, why did the Lion pick her up too?

Rose had been waiting in London for the Star Train's arrival so she could slot herself in behind the long-absent members of the Graham de Vanily family and observe them inconspicuously and from nearby when Headquarters had informed her of the hijack. She'd translocated to Folkstone, fully ready to find a quiet spot in which to change into her ‘duty’ gear and go into the tunnel to deal with those militant secessionists that headquarters had already linked indirectly to the Lion’s money through a half-dozen intermediaries. However, before she could do so, the supposedly-hijacked Star Train had rolled out of the tunnel, utterly undamaged and with the only apparent sign of what had happened was the shish-kebab of a terrorist ‘leader’ that the Lion had very obviously left in the rear power car.

It was a long-standing procedure that MI8-ODA agents (the agency not even officially existing, after all) were not to officially get involved with police investigations, so Rose had made liberal use of both her mind-fogging stealth charm and the ‘psychic paper’ agency identification card. Thus, the various officers of the Kent Constabulary and Special Branch’s anti-terrorist division were convinced of her very senior and impressive security clearance but would be utterly unable to remember precisely who she was and what agency she’d represented. From the interviews she’d observed with the variety of completely-unimpressive thugs, fantasists and troublemakers who had been decanted from the train, there was no question that Ladybug and at least one of her team were now definitely in the UK. Well, C isn’t going to like that. Bad enough that word of those supposedly-non-anomalous vigilantes in London has started sneaking out into the press, now we’ve got a globally-recognised superhero interfering in British internal affairs!

“Triple-Oh Five?”

Rose blinked and, after a moment to make sure her charms were working, pulled a make-up compact from her shoulder-bag. Popped open, the mirror showed someone else’s face entirely; specifically, MI8 chief of operations Dominic Charles. “I’m here, Dom. What do you want?”

“If you’re done observing the Special Branch interviews, C wants you in ASAP for debriefing on this mess.”

Rose sighed and took a quick look at her army-standard wristwatch. “Okay, give me fifteen minutes to get to the nearest secure Ductway terminal and then I’ll…”

“Negative on the Ductway, Miss Rose; the boss says ‘ASAP’ and means it. You are authorised to use translocation as soon as you have a secure departure point.”

Rose’s eyebrows shot up. Okay, this is definitely going to be urgent and, likely, unpleasant. “Understood Dom, Triple-O Five out.”

~*~*~

Adrien understood that his mother's family was rich. However, a child of the French Republic born and bred, he didn't really understand what 'rich' could mean in a country with a still-powerful hereditary aristocracy. Arriving at his family's ancestral palace, for the lack of any better term, was thus an utterly mind-blowing experience. The journey from the front gates to the main building (which was more than ten times larger than Agreste Manor) took four minutes. Oh, and the front gate had openly-armed mercenaries on guard, something that everything he had learned about British law suggested should be utterly illegal.

"How big is this thing?" he blurted.

His grandfather shrugged. "This place? Frankly, it's too big; it's expensive to run, poorly-designed and far too public a target for troublemakers. I prefer to live in my apartments in the Shepperton studio complex. However, Pride Rock also has many advantages, including plenty of guest bedrooms, a ballroom that fits all those I need to have at parties and being a very public target that stops troublemakers looking elsewhere." The old man grinned at his grandson. "It's also pretty damn impressive, as you've noticed."

Amelie leaned forwards and patted Marinette on the knee, something that the noirette found made her skin crawl for some reason. "Don't be concerned, young lady. The actual family apartments are a lot warmer and nicer than the formal parts of this draughty old pile!"

"Well, we're only guests," Marinette said gamely and with a shaky smile. "We won't be staying long so it isn't a problem!" The girl shot a pleading look in Emilie's direction. "Right?" Emilie tried a reassuring smile but it wasn't quite up to her usual standards.

Before Marinette could press for a more detailed response, the limousine pulled up in front of monumental steps up from the driveway to the house proper. Adrien couldn’t help but smile a little at the sight of the servants and staff lined up like soldiers on parade. A smartly-dressed man who had the feeling of some kind of formal but long-obsolete role in a household stepped forwards as another man opened the door. Lord Graham de Vanily and stepped out. “Welcome home, sir,” the first man said in a well-bred tone of voice.

“Thank you Bosworth.” The big man shook his head. “Also, please dismiss the staff. I know everyone is excited to see Adrien after all these years but we don’t want to overwhelm him.”

Emilie rolled her eyes. No, you want to overwhelm him personally with your wealth and power that you’re going to offer to him in exchange for his soul and loyalty! She was more than a little worried about her son, who looked a bit dazed as he stepped out. Next out was Marinette who seized Adrien’s arm in what bordered on a death grip as she looked around the vast house and even more vast grounds.

The other passenger door opened and Emilie stepped out onto the grounds where she was born for the first time in two decades. “Miss Emilie, welcome back!” a quiet-voiced woman said as she opened the door and stood back. “It’s good to see you again, ma’am. Will you be staying here again now?”

“Of course she is!” Amelie snapped, a little too hastily and Emilie allowed herself to admit that, estranged as they were by Amelie’s clear choice to follow in the family’s criminal traditions, her sister had genuinely missed her presence.

Marinette closed her eyes and began to breathe as deeply and regularly as she could. She used all her willpower to force the image of Alya, Nino and Chloe’s brutalised corpses out of her mind. Then she opened her eyes again and looked right at Felix and Lila.

“Fé,” Adrien announced, looking right at his cousin who was just failing at looking being happy on Lila’s arm. Adrien remembered that vice grip, digging her nails into his bicep and, as much as he didn’t like his cousin, he felt sympathy for him. “Interesting company that you’re keeping these days.”

“Oh, Lila is settling nicely, aren’t you dear?”

Lila shot Felix a simpering smile that wasn’t in any way matched by the look in her eyes. “Yes I am, darling! Oh, it’s so wonderful here!” The Italian girl’s hazel eyes tracked over to Marinette. “Hello, Marinette! I see that you’re still fooling yourself that you have a place in dear Adrien’s life!”

Marinette decided not to respond to that stab. “Lila, dear! How wonderful to see you again! You must tell me everything about your stay here so I can pass it onto your mother… You know, so she can tell the gendarmerie that you are no longer Paris’s most famous missing person!”

Lila looked like she’d swallowed a whole peeled lemon. “Please don’t,” she nearly spat. “That woman is part of my past and I’m not the sort of person who reopens doors into the past.”

Felix couldn’t help but smirk at the reaction of the girl on his arm. “Yes, the past is the past. I hope that this visit will help you understand that, Adrien.”

Adrien tightened his grip on Marinette’s waist, both trying to comfort her and take a little comfort himself. “Well, I don’t think that everything in my past is full of regrets. If anything, moving on too quickly means that you forget the important lessons and lose the important things there” Felix shrugged gamely.

Lila drew herself up a little and shot Marinette a poisonous look, hidden by an utterly-insincere smile. “So, what are you doing here, Marinette? You’re not family!”

“You should ask our host. He was very happy to see me sitting with Adrien after Ladybug, Chat Noir and La Paonne resolved that terrorist attack. He absolutely insisted that I come with Adrien and his maman!”

“Indeed I did.” Their host had somehow come up behind the teens without being noticed. “You should be a little less territorial, Lila. Unless I miss my guess, and I’m rarely wrong about these things, I suspect that Marinette is every bit as important to Adrien as you are for Felix!” The man either did not see or didn’t care about Lila and Felix’s synchronised grimaces. “Do you know what that means, my dears? It means that, not too long from now, you will be in-laws, almost sisters and amongst the two most important women in Anglo-European society. I really think that you two should get over your school-yard rivalry and get ready for what that will mean in your lives.”

Lila’s expression remained happy and welcoming but Marinette saw the anger in her eyes at the implication that St John Graham de Vanily had already decided on her future and her place in his family. Well, that’s something for the books: Lila and I are on the same page about this!

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “Why grandfather! Does that mean that Felix has already proposed?” Felix went an interesting shade of plum and began to stutter denials and equivocations. Amelie began to chuckle at the look on Felix’s face. Maybe only Emilie noticed that it was malicious laughter at seeing her son’s discomfort. There was no attempt on the woman's part to object to her father picking a partner for her son without either of their consent.

Adrien settled Marinette against his chest and wrapped his arms around her in a loose hug and placed a daring kiss against her temple, making Marinette blush. Marinette's gaze moved around and she thought it significant that Lila’s eyes conveyed no jealousy, only cold calculation.

~*~*~

Sitting in the employees’ cafeteria in the well-disguised headquarters of MI8 in Leathermarket Square, London, Miss Rose rubbed the bridge of her nose in a desperate attempt to relieve her tension headache. The meeting with C, (for ‘Control’) the head of Britain’s most secretive secret service, had not gone that badly. For all the man’s reputation, he was not a fool and understood perfectly well that his neophyte agent could not have foreseen so many events in her personal case-load working out so poorly.

However, just being in the man’s inner sanctum was a difficult experience. Rose didn’t know if it was the current C or one of his predecessors that had been paranoid to an unimaginable degree. The room was suspended in the middle of a larger windowless chamber lined with acoustic-absorption pyramids, which were also marked with disruption runes that would render any magical recording or intrusion useless. Overall, the office was basically surveillance-proof even with the most advanced technology or magic. Unfortunately, it also made it a magical ‘dead zone’ and, like most mages, Rose found being in there somewhat stressful as her brain echoed with silence on so many levels.

All in all, Miss Rose wasn’t surprised to have been taken off the London vigilante case (something that was, at best, previously a time-filler). With that group having suddenly hit the world headlines, C had decided that the issue needed its own dedicated case officer and one more experienced in cases where cover-ups were necessary. However, that also meant that Rose had a lot more time to think about her other and main assignment: To find a breach in the impenetrable walls of (often magically-enforced) loyalty and cultish devotion of the Lion’s Pride. She had to somehow find someone on the inside who could provide information and plant disinformation. Of course, that meant somehow trying to get in contact with one of the members of the organisation and do so in a way that wasn’t detected or immediately reported to Graham de Vanily himself.

“Having problems, Half-Blood?”

Rose caught the flash of powder-blue leathers and grimaced. Oh, great, of all the people who could be here, it was the vigilantes’ new case officer and possibly the one person in the universe that Rose least wanted to see. She had even been trying to work out how she could arrange a handover of the vigilante case without a face-to-face briefing of MI8 Agent Triple-Oh-Two: Miss Iris. “Iris, the Blood War ended two decades ago and even your father has publicly denounced the Oldblood ideology. Can we please drop the Blood Supremacist rhetoric?”

Iris tossed her waist-length blonde hair over her shoulder and sneered at her younger colleague. “You know, me being given the Vigilante case is the first sign that C has realised that you just aren’t good enough. You might be your father’s daughter but the political benefit of having you on the rolls doesn’t mean you have a splinter of the magical talent this agency needs! Even your Vileblood mother probably leaves you standing in that department!” Iris picked a probably-imaginary spot of lint off of the hem of her leather waistcoat and then continued, not even bothering to meet Rose’s eyes. “So, all you’re left with is the suicide mission and I’ll bet C will be glad to be finally rid of you!” Iris looked idly at her perfectly-manicured fingernails. “Of course, if you were even half the witch tjam evem your Vileblood mother, you’d already have dragged that pitiful mundane back here in chains. Honestly, those ridiculous trinkets that everyone is tip-toeing around as if they actually have the power to match that of an Oldblood mage!”

Rose frowned slightly. Just how powerful was The Lion of Crime anyway? There were rumours and links to files (so heavily classified and redacted even at a Treble-Oh’s security clearance that they were essentially blocked from view) but very little solid information. Was Iris right? Was she afraid of nothing? The titian-haired agent remembered the near-ending of the world just a few months ago, the emergency alert, all-agent recall and the desperate emergency meetings as MI8-ODA tried to come up with some kind of solution to the Strange Moon and its reality-bending effects that seemed to disrupt even magic itself. No, this wasn’t her self-doubt; it was Iris’s arrogance and she wasn’t going to go in blind.

Gritting her teeth, Rose forced out a counter-taunt. “Iris, I have a lot of work to do and you have a lot of long nights ahead of you following shadows as part of this completely insoluble mystery C has probably assigned to you just to snigger at your failure. So, really, do us both a favour and find somewhere else to sit.”

Iris narrowed her eyes. The more experienced agent seemed to be thinking of saying something else but, in the end, just stood up and walked away with an excess of disdain and injured dignity. Rose focussed on regulating her breathing.

Rose really wished she could discount Iris’s taunts. Like almost all of MI8's M-class field agents, Rose had been recruited out of the first year of her training at the Lightbearers' academy in Herefordshire. Even then, there were whispers that it was only because she was her father's daughter. Her father, the hero of the last Blood War and one of the most powerful Lightbearers, was a legend but had never disguised his distrust of MI8's policies, meaning he had no interest in working for them. Was Rose just a gesture to ensure the name 'Potter' was associated with MI8, no matter how inadequate they were?

~*~*~

"Guardian, this place is drenched in evil!" Zuuben whispered to Marinette from her safe place in her jacket. Although Tikki didn't say anything, the girl could feel the other Kwami's trembling from the power of the dark, corrupted magic that seemed to have seeped into the very stones of the battlement wall between the rear garden and the wider grounds on which she was sitting.

"I can feel it too, Zuben. Just make sure you keep hidden and shield your presence from that… man's kwami."

Long used to keeping her secret identity, Marinette, sensed someone approaching well enough in advance to prevent them from noticing the kwami's presence. Not that would have mattered, because the girl who joined her and sat with an exaggerated carefree posture behind her on the wall knew her secrets quite well.

"You haven't touched your wine, Marinette!" Lila said airily.

Marinette looked over her shoulder. "Neither have you, Lila."

The Italian girl smirked and her voice became quieter. "Like you, I am suspicious of anything this bunch of cultists offers me to eat or drink and have my kwami check it. I'm sure that if I hadn't, my willpower would long ago have been drowned in mind-control chemicals and I'd be just another genuflecting, chanting minion!"

The two girls fell silent before Marinette spoke. "Your mother misses you terribly."

The other girl shrugged. "What she misses is her perfect daughter that she can wave in front of the Ambassador. I'm sure that she's glad that I'm no longer a drain on her time and attention that she could otherwise focus on her career." Marinette was surprised by the genuine bitterness in Lila's tone of voice. "You don't know how lucky you are, Dupain-Cheng. You have family for whom you actually are more than part of the furniture of their lives. Me…? Well, I learned a long time ago that, if I am to have people care about me, I have to work to make myself the centre of their lives."

Marinette thought for a moment before speaking again. She guessed that Lila neither wanted nor expected sympathy. If anything, it would cause her rival to slam shut the door she had opened ever so slightly. "So, why?" Marinette asked quietly.

Lila raised an eyebrow and replied in a similar discreet tone. "Why what? Why run off with Felix? When I burned my bridges with Agreste, Paris had become lethally unhealthy for me, no matter who won that battle. You know that."

Marinette shook her head. "No, why didn't you tell your new employer the secret identities of the heroes of Paris?"

"Ah!" Lila shifted and shot Marinette a smug expression, full of calculation. "You've never played card games, have you, Marinette? If you had, you'd know that you should always keep a few cards hidden and in reserve until you actually need them." The girl looked up into the sky thoughtfully. "I won't deny that the possibility occurs to me every now and then but, if I did that, then those cards would be played and any advantage I got from them would be lost. No… No, for now, the identities of Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, Carapace and Ladybug… will remain our little secret. To be honest, I'm not sure if the time would ever come when the disadvantages of telling them to that old monster will be outweighed by any advantage."

Marinette was proud of the fact she'd not shivered in fear at the idle threat implied in Lila's words. "So, why don't you run?" Lila was surprised and didn't hide it. "You hate this place; you despise Felix and you are obviously terrified of The Lion of Crime but also resent him in equal measure. So, why don't you run? You have the ability, I'm sure."

"I'm not as sure as you are." Lila said, her eyes dark with foreboding. "Anyway, Felix isn't that bad and I'm sure I can get him dancing to my tune with time; you know I'm good at that. There is also an entertaining little proverb that I have long followed and I think that you should have learned whilst Hawkmoth was rampaging in Paris: Better the Devil's servant than his foe. So long as I make sufficient show of cowering at his Lordship's feet, then I am not an enemy for him to destroy." Lila shifted again and looked right into Marinette's eyes. "You should think about that, Marinette. Even if you're not concerned for yourself, because we both know how self-righteously self-sacrificing you are, then for the sake of Adrien and his family." Lila stood up and her mask was fully in place and her voice suddenly loud and obnoxious. "It has been so good catching up with you, Marinette darling!"

Marinette matched mask with mask. "It was, wasn't it Lila? I do hope that we have the chance to talk like this again!" She gave the supervillain a level look and continued in a more subtle tone. "I'm sure that we will."

~*~*~

"So, what is it like Adrien?"

Adrien looked up at Felix, actually grateful for a distraction from his worry about what poison Lila might be secreting around Marinette. "Well, we're both used to garden parties. You more than me, true, but I'm not entirely new at this."

Felix's laugh was loud, obnoxious and grated on Adrien's already-frayed nerves. There was something about this place: He'd never understood what four generations of supervillainy could do to the aura of a place. Plagg was hissing quietly in defensive rage in his pocket. "Oh, Adrien! Please don't tell me that you can taste the wealth and power that grandfather is offering you!"

Adrien scowled. "I can also see the price I'd have to pay."

Felix waved idly. "Trivial compromises for the benefits!" The young man uttered a braying laugh. "You know what your problem is, my dear cousin? You impose artificial limits on yourself based on what? What Auntie Em would think is appropriate?" Felix shook her head. "Look, she's just trying to prove she is grown up by finding a way to be as opposite to grandpapa as she possibly can. She'll get over it."

Adrien was very proud of himself for not directly responding to Felix's airy dismissal of his mother's rejection of being a supervillain. "Maybe she's found a better way to change the world."

Felix snorted. "The only way the world needs to be changed, my dear cousin, is to leech more of the power away from the undeserving to those who are deserving."

"Meaning you."

Felix shrugged. "Our family has proven itself…"

"No, to you."

Felix smirked poisonously. "Grandfather is many things but he isn't immortal. Someone eventually will need to rise in his place."

Adrien frowned as he realised that Felix had no idea that Grandfather had as good as named Adrien as the heir to his criminal empire. "That is true, but that isn't going to happen any time soon." The blond boy looked at his cousin (easily mistaken for his twin) and touched his shoulder. "Be careful, Felix. Grandfather doesn't strike me as the sort to tolerate any ambition that is not to his benefit."

Felix nodded pensively, suddenly more guarded. "I'm not a fool, Adrien. Why do you think I'm keeping her on my arm?" He gestured to Lila with his chin. "Oh, she's pretty enough and a deliciously attractive adornment to wear in public but it's her ability to spin words into snares that is useful to me."

"Lila's ability to weave lies is your only interest in her, Felix?"

Felix smirked. "There could be some side benefits. I already purchased a collar suitable for a newly-tamed fox." Felix looked in Marinette's direction (the girl was talking to Amelie and Emilie in an animated way) and grinned evilly. "You know, I can put you in touch with the same supplier for your deliciously exotic pet."

Adrien later decided that he was maybe half a second from punching Felix's face out of the back of his head when Hamall butted him in the side from within his jacket. "Free bit of advice, cousin: Never assume that you are in the dominant position with strong women, especially those who can make words and people's perceptions jump through hoops."

Felix shrugged. "I know what I'm doing." Adrien doubted that but he also figured it was something his cousin would have to learn himself. Adrien wasn't honestly sure if the other young man would survive the experience but he also found that he didn't care right now. Because of that, he actually didn't miss the way Lila was looking at Marinette's back, picking her lip pensively before realising she was being watched and snapping her mask of malicious ease back into place.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@FeatherLady)

@FeatherLady: Okay, are we secure?

@BugBoss: I had Kaalki drop the bugs and tracers on the dayside of Mercury

@BugBoss: If #Leonidas wants to follow them there, he can be our guest

@BugBoss: I asked Wayzz help Hamall triple-check all our rooms; no more bugs or tracers; no magic either

@TrueQueen logged on to the CHAT

@Cool4Catz: So we're clean, maman.

@FoxyBabe logged onto the CHAT

@BugBoss: I'm actually quite surprised he let us out of that place!

@FeatherLady: Well, I did faithfully promise that we would be at the party in three nights' time

@FeatherLady: He *always* makes a point of giving everyone one chance to do as they are told

@Cool4Catz: I'd still love to avoid that 'party'

@BugBoss: I think that Paonne is right, Chaton.

@BugBoss: Best to attend rather than start a fight

@TrueQueen: Wow! 'Party' and 'fight' in the same post

@TrueQueen: Collision of what should be opposite concepts

@FoxyBabe: You three will be safe? We don't need to extract you by *other* means?

@BugBoss: No indication that our cover has been blown, Foxy

@FeatherLady: I expect that we'll be followed in our civilian guises, girls

@FeatherLady: He knows I'm La Paonne but he is only guessing about the other two

@FeatherLady: Ladybug and Chat Noir should have at least some freedom of movement without attracting unwelcome attention

@BugBoss: So, Chat and me are clear to go roof-hopping to look for our vigilantes

@NotARenaissanceArtist joined the CHAT

@BugBoss: Over here in Britain, the press have been reporting more, especially the tabloids.

@Cool4Catz: Someone is trying to stop the information sneaking overseas and doing a good job

@BugBoss: It looks like there is a whole active team, not just one.

BugBoss posted FJUK_Summary.htm

@FoxyBabe: A crusading knight, an archer, an acrobat, a big strong guy, a stage magician…

@TrueQueen: Also someone who has some kind of flying suit!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: No obvious indications of a Miraculous but… How is this not global news?

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, #United_Heroez can't *sneeze* without making news on five continents

@FoxyBabe: How is it that we're only learning about this now?

@BugBoss: I don't know guys and I don't like it.

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Yeah, dudette. Who could black out the news like that and why?

There was an explosion of green light and Rose tumbled out of the fireplace into the living room of her childhood home in Kensington, London. She had no idea why her parents' friends referred to it as 'the grim old place'. It was cheerful and had been modernised as far as a magical home could be given the well-known incompatibility of magic and unshielded electronics. For her whole life, the house had been cheerful in its red and gold tones and the presence of her siblings, her parents and the many friends they had made during their school years.

Rose was proud of her flawless tuck-and-roll upon leaving the Ductway network. Her father (who hated the rapid transit magic with a passion) still would occasionally face-plant when he left it (never when he was on a mission, though).

"Miss Rose returns?" The young woman smiled at the ancient magical servant who had helped raise her from infancy.

"Just for a short while; I'm here to see my mother."

Those expressive ears twitched. "Her ladyship is in her day office."

Rose nodded her understanding and walked through to the room where her mother had earned her Merlin Awards for practical and theoretical magic and she still used for her research. "Mum?"

"Rose, darling! What brings you home?"

Rose walked over to her mother's desk. The gently attractive woman with bushy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and wearing mundane clothing rather than witch's robes smiled at her oldest daughter lovingly as she stood, leaving her dictation quills to continue to write down her notes. The two women hugged and Rose's mother's eyes narrowed knowingly. No surprise; everyone (even snobby Oldblood types) agreed that her mother was the smartest witch of her generation so there was little hope of hiding anything from her, even if Rose wanted to. "There's something wrong at work, isn’t there?" Her mother huffed as Rose tried to demur. "Rosie, your father and I advised you against joining that agency for a reason. Its obsession with secrecy and control…?" The older witch gestured helplessly before continuing. "It's an approach to problem-solving that caused your father so much suffering and stretched out the Blood War for a decade!"

"Mum, you know that I can't talk about work; there are oaths but…" The titian-haired young woman paused. "Mum, what do you know about the Miraculous?"

Rose found herself led over to the small leather couch where, about seven years ago, she and her now-sister-in-law Aurora were squirming as they were told the Facts of Life by their mothers (their 'brave' fathers having inexplicably been 'called away'). Her mother patted her hand and called for some tea and did not say anything until it was delivered. "So, the Miraculous; I was wondering when Christopher would finally realise what so many of them becoming active might mean." Rose was struck dumb by the fact that her mother knew C's real name. Maybe it should be unsurprising but she was still shocked. "Rosie, when I was at school, the Miraculous were little more than a legend. Few had been seen in action for five centuries and there had been no hint of their still existing for a century and a half. They were treated almost as legends or hypothetical ideas rather than actual extant magical artefacts. There was little evidence of their existence at all other than that strange group of magical criminals that style themselves their 'guardians'!" The woman looked at her bookshelves for a moment before making a quiet 'ah' noise and reaching out a hand making a large book loft from one of the higher shelves into her hand. "This may help you with your research."

Rose looked at the book. Magicae Miraculum was the title and Rose wondered why no one at the office had told her this reference work even existed. Meanwhile, her mother was continuing to speak. "The Miraculous are something far beyond magic as you learned it at school. They are sapient and ancient foci of a kind of universal magic, intrinsic to the fabric of reality itself. They are unlimited in magnitude with very specific specialisations. However, together they are a power almost beyond words. They represent an absolute balance between order and chaos that is beyond human ideas of good and evil. They are something far, far beyond human control. Those blessed by them can do wonders or horrors." Her mother seemed to have to come back from far away. “Why does this subject come up now?"

Rose thought for a moment before responding. "Look… Like I say, so much of my assignments are classified that their confidentiality spells stop me from even indirectly mentioning them but I need to know just how powerful they are. They are the weapons of an evil man and even more of them are coming over to Britain all the time. I’m definitely going to have to fight someone using one sooner or later.”

Her mother leaned back with a thoughtful smile. "The greatest mistake that mundane and magical alike make is to fear something beyond their ability to understand or control and imagine that this is intrinsically harmful." The woman leaned forwards again and patted her daughter's hand. "Reject that idea, Rose. Assess every case as you encounter it. It may just turn out that some of those Miraculous may be in the hands of friends."

"The Office…"

"Is run by government bureaucrats and you know what your father thinks of them!" Rose couldn't help but giggle a little as she remembered her father's angry lectures on the subject of the Ministry's interference, intransigence and incompetence. "I have never doubted that your employers want the best for the world but their understanding of that is too narrow. You have to work out how to really fulfil your oaths to protect this nation and its people, no matter what it may cost in terms of secrecy." Her mother sighed. "Rosie, after what has been happening in the past few years, I think that the time when the wall finally comes down is drawing ever closer. So many superhumans, so many aliens and so many people suddenly coming out with unsuspected magical abilities… and the Miraculous, reappearing after centuries when their existence was only a rumour, leading to near-apocalypse after near-apocalypse. You're in a terrible position, my darling little girl. You have to decide what the future will hold and I don't think it is what Christopher,with his idea of absolute control, wants to see."

"I don't know if I'm smart enough to know what that is, Mum."

Hermione Potter smiled at her oldest daughter and caressed her face. "Just follow your heart and do what your conscience and your insight into the real greater good tells you is needed. When the time comes, you will know what you need to do."

~*~*~

The patrol had gone without any remarkable incident and Marinette had destransformed after climbing through the window of her hotel room. It was not until she was changing for bed that she found the note in the pocket of her jacket. It was obviously very hastily prepared, just a single line of text, signed by a strange sigil of the astrological symbol of Virgo with a fox curled around it.

It read: "I will contact you. Be ready."

Chapter Text

Emilie Graham de Vanily never imagined that she would ever be back in this place again. That said, so much of her life had been unexpected, especially in the last decade or so. Really, at this point, ‘expect the unexpected’ was less a motto than it was a synopsis of her everyday life.

Some things never changed, of course. She was wearing an elegant ball-gown that her father had suggested that she wear (in terms that made it clear it was a demand and she wasn’t surprised that her father had her up-to-date measurements) in white with seafoam green highlights that reflected the primary colour of the costume of La Paonne. On the other side of her father, Amelie was standing in a gown that was identical to hers except that it was black with orange-red highlights. She couldn’t be annoyed because it really was symbolic of how she and her sister were identical in appearance but so different in personality and soul.

Emilie was an aristocrat by birth and breeding and, having attended innumerable functions of this sort, she had the ability to observe a room without it being obvious what she was doing and why. The New Year’s Eve party at Pride Rock was, as one would expect, attended by a vast number of the richest and most powerful people in Britain: Politicians (who doubtless owed their positions to her father’s money), celebrities, commercial and industrial leaders and even the heads of the largest Trade Unions. There was even a few of the mid-ranking members of the Royal Family! All were there, knowingly or otherwise, to do homage to The Lion of Crime, a man whose influence and power went far beyond the financial.

“I think it’s good to see Adrien enjoying himself, isn’t it?” Emilie looked at her father, whose smile had the pretence of warmth but had a lot of cold calculation in it. “I know that Agreste was a controlling man; I doubt that Adrien had much time to relax with his peers and just enjoy himself the way Felix has been able to since childhood”

Emilie looked over at her son and she had to admit that he was very obviously enjoying dancing with Marinette. In fact she thought that the two were effectively alone together, looking into each other’s eyes, mesmerised by the sight of each other. Emilie didn’t know how Marinette had somehow created a dress for herself in a hotel room with only half a week's notice but she supposed one or more of the Miraculous were involved.

Emilie managed not to sneer as she looked over at Felix, whom her father had apparently thought was an example of what Adrien’s life should have been. The young man, in a crisp, impeccable tuxedo, was sweeping Lila around the ballroom floor, the Italian girl wearing a ‘gown’ that just about passed the muster as ‘fit for family viewing’. In her time in movies, modelling and other parts of the media, she’d seen lots of examples of dresses and people like her nephew’s apparent girlfriend-of-convenience: They all tried to use their bodies both as a weapon and as a lure to stop their chosen marks from thinking too much about what they’re doing, what they’re promising and what they’re spending. Felix had the grace and breeding not to show how uncomfortable he was and how hard he was trying to balance his annoyance at Lila’s possessive behaviour with his very obvious desire for her physical favours. Lila, meanwhile, seemed to be in the process of assessing the cash value of the ballroom’s elegant and expensive fittings for later disposal.

Emile was about to mention to her father just how obviously atrocious a match Lila was for Felix but her father had moved away. Every bit the avuncular master of ceremonies, he began to address his guests from the centre of the ballroom. “My friends! My friends… Can we stop the music? Ah, excellent, yes. My friends, it is good to have you all together tonight. The start of a new year, hopefully with few regrets but also hopefully with many joys to which we can all look forward. I, for one, am glad to have my grandson Adrien with us at last and I hope that we will all see more of him in the future!” Emilie noticed both Marinette’s obvious if subtle scowl as she met the gazes directed her way as well as Adrien’s blatantly false ‘model’ smile. “In any case, it’s just a minute to midnight, so let’s have watch this year’s last seconds tick away, shall we?”

The back wall of the ballroom had started folding open to reveal a 144-inch cluster LCD screen displaying the family's rampant red lion crest that changed to show the BBC transmission of the Elizabeth Tower, the famous Clock Tower, Big Ben, above Westminster Bridge. The TV broadcast had been impeccably timed with the image appearing just as the distinctive quarter-hour chimes began to ring. The crowd in the ballroom began to count-down the last seconds with Lord Graham de Vanily making a show of leading.

“Five… four… three.. two… one… HAPPY NEW YEAR!” Thanks to the superb sound system, the deep E natural tone of the gigantic bell filled the room and, as tradition long demanded, any committed couples kissed.

Emilie noticed the blissful way her son and his girlfriend kissed. Meanwhile, Felix and Lila’s kiss was close to a parody of passion and lust. Neither of them was obviously interested in the other’s experience, only to get the most out of it for themselves. Amelie didn’t seem to be aware of it. Oh, Ami… What have you done to yourself?”

~*~*~

Many miles away in central London, Miss Rose was silhouetted atop the rooftops of Westminster as, all around her, thousands of fireworks were launched and detonated in brightly-coloured flowers of light. The young witch turned from the celebratory pyrotechnics to move deeper into the midnight gloom of the capital. Ladybug and Chat Noir had been seen roaming around this area for the past couple of nights. Whilst her mission didn’t specifically concern them, she had a feeling that also being Miraculous Holders, they might have some kind of information or even some contact with the Lion that could be of use to her.

For some reason, it took hours before her regular sweeps for magical emanations finally picked up something unusual (admittedly difficult in Westminster, so old a government town that the number of locations that were either charmed or warded was borderline-ridiculous). She’d had a false positive that turned out to be Iris, who was going home in a bad mood, telling Rose that she was free to keep on "pursuing her fool’s errand” if she wanted to waste her time. Finally, having travelled all the way east to the southern end of the Sky Line cable car overlooking the O2 Arena, she finally found her quarries, standing on one of the giant event tent’s support pylons. Furthermore, they weren’t alone.

Sanding on the level below them as the third vertex of an invisible triangle was another male wearing a many-tone-grey hooded cloak, underneath which was a tunic and tabard over armour that only looked like metal plate but that Rose guessed was made of far more technologically advanced materials, as was the face-covering armoured helmet peeking out from underneath the hood. So, this was the mysterious Paladin; ironic that she'd found him only after being relieved of the duty to try to do so! “Most people would say something like ‘the more the merrier’ but quips aren’t my style,” Paladin’s very obviously disguised voice growled dryly. Obviously he'd seen her; well, she was hardly attempting to remain unseen right now.

Using a levitation spell, Rose began to glide up to join the three standing on the pylon’s gantry. Theoretically, the spell was fully silent, so Rose was very surprised to hear: “Milady, we have some more company.” That was the young man in a black cat costume with green piping and loose chains running from the base of his shoulders to a zipper at his throat. Oh, and he had a tail like belt that was moving like a cat’s tail and cured Rose of any misapprehension that the costume wasn’t magical armour. That would be Black Cat (in English) but she guessed that, despite his perfect English accent, he’d prefer it in the original French - Chat Noir. That made the third person, a girl in red and black with gold-edged black polka-dots (plus a few red ones on the black parts of the suit), Ladybug, the supposed saviour of the world a few months back.

Paladin's helmet cocked to one side in curiosity. “So, which special interest group do you represent?”

“I’m afraid that’s classified,” Rose responded automatically. “All you need to know is that I am an agent of Her Majesty’s government. I have the highest possible security clearance and also have full authority in your case.” Technically a lie as the case officer, Iris, could override any decision Rose made about Paladin but he didn’t really need to know that.

“Really?” Ladybug’s moderately French-accented voice was cheerful but Rose could sense the agitation and suspicion in her sweet-sounding words. “Well, unfortunately, this is a matter that goes far above and beyond the petty interests of any governmental bureaucracy and its delusions of authority over the matters of the Balance. So, precisely who are you and what do you want?”

The redheaded secret agent frowned. She honestly wasn’t used to dealing with people who boldly claimed to be outside her authority. She flashed her Psychic Paper ID. Much to her surprise, Ladybug walked over and took the leather card holder from her and what she read made her brows quirk in interest. “Well, hello Agent Triple-Oh Five of MI8-ODA.”

Rose couldn’t hide her astonishment. The Psychic Paper was charmed to present to the reader's mind what they needed to see to be most cooperative. What Ladybug saw was the truth which meant either she was one of the most remarkably lawful minds on Earth or she had some kind of power that either blocked those charms or that she had some kind of experience seeing the truth despite all magical disguise. Rose honestly didn't know which option worried her the most.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER - Voice2Text

@TrueQueen: So, folks, I'm guessing that you survived the Evil King's Ball?

@BugBoss: Yeah, we did, although he made it as uncomfortable as possible when we left.

@Cool4Catz: He didn't *openly* threaten us but the intent was there

@BugBoss: Anyway, we're out and on the lookout for the London Vigilantes

@BugBoss: Any updates, Alya?

@FoxyBabe: The localisation algorithm that @MightyMax wrote is still pinging the inner east end of the city

FoxyBabe SHARED Pingmap_010119-001.jpg

@FoxyBabe: That's the new financial district in the old docks area and the south-eastern inner suburbs; it's become an upper middle-class area in the last five years

@FoxyBabe: Same area as always - maybe his hometown?

@TrueQueen: Or maybe his favoured hunting ground

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Yean, lots of active street gangs in that area AND organised crime preying on business owners!

@SnekCharmer: I've visited that part of the city with my family a few times; lots of houseboat-friendly canals and small rivers

@SnekCharmer: Lots of super-poor areas mixed in with lots of desperate people who'll work for gangsters just to survive

@BugBoss: Still heading east along the #southbank of the #Thames

@TrueQueen: So, how was the party?

@BugBoss: Alarming in lots of ways

@BugBoss: I mean, #Leonadis doesn't really make too much effort to hide that his businesses have an at least *semi-legal* side

@BugBoss: Yet the number of faces there that I see in the news, either from commerce, media or politics!

@SnekCharmer: Welcome to the real world, Marinette

@TrueQueen: Yeah, reminds me of a lot of daddy's parties

@TrueQueen: I've only started realising how many of the guests at them were probably also criminals!

@Cool4Cats: M'lady, heads up! On the big tent poles!

@FoxyBabe: What's up, guys?

@BugBoss: I was going to say that we found #Paladin

@BugBoss: The truth is that I think that he has been *waiting for us*

VOICE2TEXT Switch Mode: Passive auto-transcribe

"You're a long way away from home, Ladybug, Chat Noir."

Ladybug frowned. She didn't like the showmanship and psychological trickery implicit in the vigilante's voice modulator that somehow made his voice echo from every direction. Automatically and from long practice, she and Chat had dropped down onto a higher set of girders on the support pylon of the O2 Arena than the cloaked and armoured vigilante. However, even with the high ground in their hands, Paladin seemed to radiate confidence and calm from his body posture. Ladybug had no doubt that the young man had planned his escape down to the last inch.

"I like to imagine that 'home' is where you make it… Paladin isn’t it? For me, that is wherever there are people who need help."

"Really."

Chat scowled, frustrated by his inability to see the vigilante's eyes through the smoked glass T-shaped slit in the faceplate of his helmet. "Hey, if you've got something to say, knighty-knight, tell us rather than let vague accusations hang in the air!"

Paladin snorted. "It's one thing to say it, Ladybug; it's another thing to live by it. Oh, don't get me wrong: I know that you have had your own issues in Paris but it seems that you're quite comfortable with the power structures in your city and elsewhere."

Ladybug quirked an eyebrow and subconsciously took on Chloe's mocking and condescending pose. "I'm guessing that you aren't? Or maybe you prefer to just spread terror through violence and you confuse 'effective' with 'body-count'?"

Chat decided that he had to redirect before his Lady and the armoured vigilante got into an argument (or worse) about means and objectives. "What do you mean 'power-structures'?"

Paladin gestured vaguely around him. "Crime very rarely has the good manners to look like a criminal. Too often, it wears a designer suit, a smile and carries a briefcase. Occasionally it even wears a politician's rosette. You are Parisians; you know what the Agreste man did to your city with his money." Chat nearly bit his tongue. That cut too close to the bone: That it had taken finding his mother's diary to realise just what his father was involved with and how deeply the grasp of his wealth had enabled the public moral decay in Paris. "Things here are not so different; wealth grants you access and impunity. Those who don't have your wealth can be stripped of their livelihoods and the things they have built from nothing and no-one will do anything. The poor and helpless live at the mercy of gangs that are little better than packs of feral animals and, once again, no-one will do anything because it's too hard or those gangs have the right sponsors!"

There was a long pause before Ladybug spoke again. "Is that what happened to you, Paladin?"

Chat was sure he could feel the British vigilante's rueful smile. "Old history, Ladybug. What matters is that, when I was just a child, I swore that I would find the means to ensure that it would never happen again." The electronically-modulated voice grew reflective. "I don't blame the police, you understand. The tide has just been rushing in for too long and has penetrated too deeply. What is needed is a counter-force to meet fear with fear." Suddenly the young man seemed to shake himself all over. "That is neither here nor there. Why are you in My City?"

Ladybug shook her head slightly at hearing almost exactly Knight Owl's way of saying those words once again. "I'm looking for you, actually."

There was some genuine surprise in the vigilante's posture. "Well, you’ve found me, so now you can leave."

Ladybug shook her head. "It isn't that simple. There are powers that have been left on the loose in the world; powers that can distort motives and outcomes so easily. Oh, they seem beneficial to a good cause but they are dangerous and, as I've found, attract the attention of evil and leave you worrying more about keeping it out of the hands of those who would misuse it than you do about your mission." The girl drew in her breath. "I have to know, Paladin: Are you using such a power?"

Both Parisians were surprised by the Londoner's scornful laugh. "Tell me, Ladybug, have you ever heard the English proverb: 'Power tends to corrupt; absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely'? Lord Acton, one of our historical elder statesmen, said that. To his wisdom, I append: 'Superpowers corrupt superlatively'." The young man shook his head. "I'd prefer not to risk letting my thinking being distorted by the belief that possessing a special power to destroy or create gives me the right to act as if I were a god-king, handing out judgements on a whim as to what is wrong and right… as to who has the right to what resource… or even to who has the right to live or die."

Chat growled deep in his throat. Now the accusation was getting clearer. "Now, listen here…" he snapped, drawing his staff. In response, Paladin reached over his shoulder and drew his longsword, that razor-thin blue light glowing across the cutting edge.

"Chaton!" The black-clad Cat Hero blinked and looked at his girlfriend. "He's telling the truth. Can you sense any magic on that sword?" Now Ladybug mentioned it, no, he didn't. Indeed, the sensation he got from the blade's humming tone was almost mechanical, like the edge of the tools Max used for his engineering projects. He'd never seen anything like that before. "Nice toy," he allowed at last, snapping his staff closed again and putting it back onto his belt.

After a long moment, Paladin sheathed his sword. "A legacy, of sorts, from my late grandfather," he explained. "Based on technology stolen from us by St John Graham de Vanily; my family ruined in the process with my father and uncles reduced to working menial jobs in the very business that they should have inherited." If they could have seen through his graphene armoured helmet, they would have seen Paladin grimace as he realised that, caught up in the moment, he'd revealed too much.

Much to both young men's shock, Ladybug suddenly leapt down to the same level of the pylon as Paladin and reached out to touch his shoulder. "You are not alone. Never think that and never let your anger at what has been done to you and those you love make you go down the path of darkness."

"I'm not alone, Ladybug; neither in spirit nor in the fact of the moment." Ladybug noted Paladin's helmet move slightly and, looking in the same direction, she suddenly saw a woman on one of the other pylons with long brown hair flapping in the breeze, wearing what looked like leathers and a similar cloak to Paladin's with a blindfold-like eye mask wrapped around her head and sighting Ladybug with a modern composite longbow. The knight-themed vigilante moved his hand in a gesture and the young woman lowered her weapon back to a 'ready' posture, letting the bowstring slowly relax. "Ranger may have only started with me recently but she is not prone to rash acts; so long as you aren't stupid, she's no danger to you." Then the tension was back as Paladin looked away to the west. “Most people would say something like ‘the more the merrier’ but quips aren’t my style.”

Chat looked in the same direction as Paladin and drew his staff again. "Milady, we have some more company.” Ladybug looked as a redheaded woman in a maroon leather pantsuit, duster and fedora drifted towards them from a nearby cable-car pylon in a way that screamed 'magical levitation'.

Paladin's helmet cocked to one side in curiosity as the woman landed near to him and Ladybug. “So, which special interest group do you represent?”

“I’m afraid that’s classified,” the newcomer responded in a formal tone that shouted 'official business' to everyone else. “All you need to know is that I am an agent of Her Majesty’s government. I have the highest possible security clearance and also have full authority in your case.”

“Really?” Frankly, this newcomer's tone and attitude reminded Ladybug far too much of various petty governmental officials and even a few gendarmes back home who seemed to think that working for the state made them a class above and apart from the citizens they were meant to serve and protect. “Well, unfortunately, this is a matter that goes far above and beyond the petty interests of any governmental bureaucracy and its delusions of authority over the matters of the Balance. So, precisely who are you and what do you want?”

The woman, who had a gentle beauty that reminded Ladybug of Juleka, right down to the visual cues of her subtle insecurities, was visibly shocked that they weren't immediately complying. She flashed her ID and Ladybug watches as the cards seemed to morph through a dozen different agencies and names. Although the Libra Miraculous wasn't fused with the Ladybug right now, it was active and she could feel Zuuben pushing back against a well-cast illusion spell. Finally, the ID card settled on what Ladybug suspected was what it was never meant to show. She casually plucked the leather wallet from the other woman (who looked about Nora Cesaire's age) and read it before handing it back. “Well, hello Agent Triple-Oh Five of MI8-ODA.”

If the situation weren't so serious, Ladybug would have laughed at the way the newcomer face-palmed at the failure of her charmed ID. However, this was serious: MI8-ODA was the British equivalent of SPECIAL and, from what Nonna Gina had told her, they were not automatically the nicest of people to deal with. "As I'm not going to get around it, please call me Miss Rose," the secret agent said with a rueful shake of her head. Well, that explained the red rose sigil on the ID card. "As for my mission, it's you, Ladybug and Chat Noir." The girl shot Ladybug a firm glare that actually made her feel nervous; this Miss Rose was clearly ready to fight if she had to. "Why did you bring your Miraculous to my country and what is your connection with The Lion of Crime?"

Ladybug sucked in a breath before replying. "For exactly the reason I gave to Paladin. There are powers out there that are far beyond even your agency's ability to control; powers that can be easily misused and can corrupt even the strongest of wills without discipline. My duty… My sacred task is to see them in the right place: Either in the hands of those who can use them to maintain the balance between sterile order and anarchic chaos or to ensure that they are hidden away from misuse until most desperately needed."

Rose looked from Ladybug to Chat Noir (noticing the blond's proud and smitten smile at hearing Ladybug's speech) and then back. "That's very moving, Ladybug. However, I have to agree with this costumed vigilante here that any power not strictly controlled…" Rose blinked stupidly. "Where did he go?"

Ladybug looked at where Paladin had been standing and her eyes opened a lot wider. She frantically looked at the other pylon where Ranger had been perched and the brown-haired woman was gone too! "He… He's gone! I didn't sense any movement or anything!" The French superheroine growled and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Damn it! After four nights of searching we finally made contact and were about to determine their agenda and whether there was any Miraculous involvement in their activities and he just ups and vanishes!"

Rose was thinking fast. Iris could worry about Paladin getting away when she read the file note she was going to submit tomorrow. However, right now, she realised that she was in deeper and on the verge of learning more than anyone else who had investigated the Miraculous ever had. The implication of Ladybug's words was that the heroes of Paris were just the most visible manifestation of some kind of secret organisation that no-one had even suspected existed prior to this encounter. Even their contacts with SPECIAL had revealed no indication of such an organisation being on the better-funded US/UN-operated agency's radar. "Um… Look, Her Majesty's government doesn't tolerate independent groups or the agents of foreign powers operating on its territory without permission. I've got to insist that you come in and explain your mission in more detail!"

Ladybug scowled and snapped back, slipping into French (which, thanks to several friends and kin, Rose could speak passably well). "Oh come on! Do you really think that your government could be trusted with the power that the Miraculous represent? Especially given that you know full well what the Graham de Vanily family did so destructively and shamelessly with that power and that your government rewarded it with a hereditary noble title and access to the highest levels of society!"

Well, that answered some of Rose's questions. The angry disapproval in the French superheroine's voice as she brought up what the Graham de Vanily family had done over the decades suggested strongly that the Parisians were no allies of the man's. "We knew that the family had criminal interests but those weren't in our remit to investigate. We didn't know that he was using anomalous means to pursue them until the power of the Gemini Miraculous to influence decisions was recently exposed by what was happing in Paris. We're on the same side here, Ladybug; work with us and we can pool our information and bring him down!"

Chat Noir raised an eyebrow. "You still haven't addressed the issue of whether we can trust your agency with knowledge of and potentially access to the Miraculous."

Rose scowled. "Frankly, you're in the same boat. I have no reason to believe that this 'balance' that you claim trumps all the concerns of Her Majesty's government as well as you and its other mysterious protectors are something that are in harmony with our interests!"

Ladybug threw her hands up into the air. "Well, that's the end of it, isn't it? Agendas without trust mean no cooperation. I'd prefer not to have to fight your government's agents to protect the Miraculous from misuse, Miss Rose. However, don't presume that we will allow the use of a Miraculous for one state's narrow interests; nothing good has ever come of that!"

Rose shook her head. "Look this is ridiculous! Britain has its dark past; I'll be the first to admit that. That doesn't mean that we want to use magic to take over the world like the Nazis tried to! We just want to stop these powers from causing chaos…!"

"Then I wish you the best on that noble goal, Miss Rose."

Ladybug's words sounded very, very final. Rose flexed her wrist to eject her rosewood and unicorn mane hair wand from its sleeve holster into her right hand, not sure if she was going to try to cast her best stunner or her most fool-proof tracking charm. That was when she heard Chat Noir whisper: "Calameowty!" She'd never heard that hex before but she realised what it was meant to do when the heels and laces of her boosts just snapped, her balance was gone and suddenly she was tumbling through the air. She needed her wand to cast a feather-fall and a cushioning charm to keep her from serious injury as she fell towards the synthetic canvas roof of the O2's dome. When the young witch had got her bearings back, sitting on the giant tent's curved roof, she looked back up towards the pylon and was not surprised to see that the two Parisian heroes were gone.

At that point, Rose's makeup compact/communication mirror started vibrating for attention from where it was on her belt. It was Dom. "Triple-Oh Five, do you know where Triple-Oh Two is? Her communicator is offline!"

Rose shook her head. "I ran into her a couple of hours ago, Dom; she said she was clocking off for the night."

Dom's response was a curse so venomous and imaginative that it confirmed his previous career working for the Office of Naval Intelligence, part of MI7. "We're getting lots of chatter on the police band and on a civilian encrypted satcom network used by the Russian Mafia. Something major is going down in the derelict warehouses in the Royal Docks just west of London City Airport! Looks like the vigilantes that Iris is supposed to be tracking are hitting some kind of big target!"

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER - Voice2Text

@BugBoss: Alix, please, please be online!

@WatchWabbit: Always am although not always strictly in the same time-frame boss

@WatchWabbit: What's up?

@BugBoss: Chat and I had eyes on #Paladin but we got distracted by a Rosbeuf special agent and he slipped away

@WatchWabbit: Ooh, clumsy! Was it the spy girl in maroon leathers?

@BugBoss: What?

@BugBoss: Yes, actually. I won't ask how you know because I know how you'll answer

@WatchWabbit: You'd be right too: SPOILERS

@Cool4Catz: Look, Alix, just tell us where that damn self-proclaimed knight errant went!

@WatchWabbit: Sharing the GPS coordinates now but

@WatchWabbit sent @BugBoss a LOCATION PIN (map)

@Cool4Catz: But what?

@WatchWabbit: Not gonna lie; this one is gonna be ugly.

For as long as humans have been aware that the next valley is possibly more fertile or less prone to natural disasters, we have had an instinctive need to move on and find new places to live when the need arises. For as long as powerful humans have styled themselves rulers and owners of locations for no other reason than their ability to persuade others to follow and fight for them, parts of the world have been divided up into territories and the arrival of 'strangers' into those territories has been accepted only guardedly, if it is allowed at all.

These two competing drives have brought with it great social ills, not the least of which are criminal groups that profit immensely from helping those driven from their homes by strife, poverty and disaster to try to find a safe place to dwell. Not satisfied with just stripping these desperate migrants of all their possessions to fund their movements, these groups often turn their 'customers' into slaves, using drugs, poverty, fear and violence to force them to work from them in every conceivable way to pay off unrepayable 'debts' that mean that, in most cases, the life they have fled to is unimaginably worse than the one from which they fled.

Many of these smuggling groups have become very wealthy and very powerful as well as being useful to many overtly-legitimate commercial and political interests. Because of this, they enjoy a degree of impunity. Where the police are able to investigate and intervene, the law limits what putatively 'legitimate' things may be seen as evidence of crime and few of the victims have the freedom to speak out without facing death to themselves and those they love.

Tonight, this particular people-smuggling organisation was not confronting enforcers limited by what the law of the United Kingdom of Great Britain said was legal to take as evidence or was legal to do to ensure the safety of the vulnerable. This was justice of a more… absolute nature.

At some point, something had exploded and the 70 years-old warehouse's timber floor and frame, impregnated with decades of sugar, syrup and fructose seepage from fruit imports from across the Empire, caught fire, causing a rapidly and uncontrollably-spreading blaze. The fire, heat and smoke only added to the chaos and terror for the gang enforcers who seemed to be confronted by beings with impossible powers.

Dropping his weapon, one such gunman staggered back from the Arabic woman in a female-cut tuxedo, white domino mask and top hat. He stared in disbelief at the half-dozen seemingly-solid metal rings that she'd pulled out and seemingly snapped together around his wrists and thighs, turning them into crude shackles. The woman gestured and a metal-headed wooden cane popped out of nowhere, which she twirled and then jabbed in the gangster's chest, knocking him on his behind. "H… how?"

The woman smiled. "A magician never reveals her tricks, filth!"

"Abbie, if you're done showing off?"

Abrakadabra looked up at one of the room's crossbeams where Ranger was crouched. "What you call 'showing off', Ranger, I call 'playing to the audience'!"

The archer rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Look, Night Glider says this place is well alight; we need to stop playing with the thugs and make sure all the captives are out!"

To her credit the stage magician-turned-vigilante didn't hesitate. She grabbed her fallen foe and with a single, smooth motion, tossed him out of the nearest window (they were only on the third storey, she wasn't inhuman). As she did so, she twisted her wrist so that the locking ring magical trick unlocked, freeing the man's arms and legs as he went out through the window. Abracadabra slid the large metal rings back into her tuxedo jacket and jogged out of the room as the first sparks of fire began to appear around the joins of ceiling and wall.

~*~*~

"Whoever you are you little English parazit, you are not leaving with our merchandise!"

Naturally, Paladin's expression could not be seen through his face-concealing mask. Behind him, just inside the warehouse's main entrance gate, were over three dozen Eastern European young women, all under 20 years old and all doubtless destined for the underground sex industry for the profit of this humanoid collection of slime. In front of him, was a half-dozen armed men pointing machine pistols and shotguns (all extravagantly illegal but available so long as you kept them away from the overstretched police's notice). Finally, the vigilante spoke. "Tell me, what is more important to you? Your 'merchandise' or your lives?"

The leader, a shaven-headed man with a pock-marked face who was speaking in a heavy accent, laughed derisively. "What? Do you think that you're some kind of space wizard out of those stupid Yankee movies? We have guns and all you have is that silly sword!"

Well, the gangster had brought up movies and, in any case, this warehouse was getting more and hazardous to stay in, so the line was relevant. "No, what you have is bullets and the hope that, once you've fired them all, I'm not still standing."

The gangster's scarred face twisted up into an angry grimace. "Screw you, boy!" Paladin didn't see any point hesitating. A long-bladed dagger twirled from his left hand, slamming into the root of the shoulder of a gangster standing right by his header and the man collapsed with an ear-piercing scream. The others all opened fire but Paladin had already swung out a round Hellenic-style shield from under his cloak and exploded into motion. Hails of bullets and buckshot ricocheted off of the nearly-indestructible graphine disc as the humming edge of the sword began to slice across arms, chests and hamstrings, sending gunmen tumbling to the ground with screams of agony and shock as the knight-themed fighter danced in between them.

Terrified, the lead gangster crab-walked through the sudden carnage to grab one of the girls and clap his revolver to her temple, his free arm wrapped around her throat. "Stop it! Stop it you crazy shit! Now, or she dies!" He felt just a moment of hope as the vigilante lowered his sword and that bizarre helmet under the hood turned to face him. Paladin moved slightly in what may have been a precursor to throwing his shield as if it were a discus when, suddenly, the people-smuggler's mind started to unravel as he began to feel horror, pain, terror and helplessness. All the assaults, murders, thefts, kidnappings and the horrors he'd inflicted on the gang's 'merchandise' all as if they were happening to him. Foaming at the mouth, he began to writhe helplessly on the ground, caught in an unending nightmare of his own creation.

Paladin didn't know for sure what was happening, but his focus was on the victims of this vile gang. As he herded the girls out of the building, burning ever more intensely with every passing moment, he noted several more freed captives and a large number of unconscious gangsters lying around on the long-disused loading dock around the building, some having obviously received Ranger's sharpshooting services and a few lying in the ruins of a car that had clearly had been crushed when it tried to run over Avalanche. The huge nearly-invulnerable strongman was sitting on the ruined vehicle and grinning good-naturedly as he and the acrobat known as Gazelle tossed an assault rifle that he'd bent into a pretzel shape in between them.

Seeing a glimmer of lavender light above him, Paladin triggered the telephoto lenses in his mask and looked up towards the top of one of the loading cranes and saw what he thought was Ladybug but looked somewhat different, pointing a longsword down at the fallen lead thug. Then she raised it to the sky as the lavender light flowing over the blade winked out and then sheathed it over her back before she and Chat Noir somersaulted from the crane's jib and landed a short distance away. With a negligent shrug, the blond Cat Hero contemptuously threw a stunned man away from where he'd been carried over his shoulders and threw the rusted and rotted remains of a sniper rifle into the waters of the dock.

"I suppose I should thank you for your assistance, as unneeded as it was… Ladybug?"

"In this form, you can call me Lady Justice. Should I assume that you have made sure that no-one is still in that inferno?"

Paladin's shrug was somewhat negligent. "Every innocent is out, yes."

The French superheroine's eyes narrowed. "And what about those less than innocent?"

Paladin's voice was a little condescending. "I'm not a monster, Lady Justice; my friends know to get prisoners secure and away from harm."

Lady Justice gritted her teeth and was about to deliver a withering response when she felt a surge in the magical background and a new voice yelled out: "Finite Conflagrio!" Suddenly, the flames seemed to leap upwards off the warehouse's structure into the sky. The resulting ball of flame shot up vertically before exploding like one of the fireworks that had been liberally launched tonight.

Everyone looked up to the recently-vacated crane jib to see Miss Rose standing there, her maroon leather duster blowing in the wind. She touched her wand to her throat before announcing. "On the authority of Her Majesty's government, I hereby order all present to discard their weapons! You are all under arrest!"

Lady Justice could somehow hear Paladin's sneer. "As usual, the 'proper authorities' arrive far too late and assume that they are somehow still in charge."

Rose drew in a shuddering breath before responding. "Spare me your self-righteous scorn. I don't care what good you did tonight; we are not a country where the law is enforced by blood and steel!"

Paladin's tone altered and Lady Justice could hear regret. "Like you, I wish that were not the case. Nonetheless, can you guarantee that these poor girls would have been saved but for the actions of Forever Justice?"

Rose scowled. "I'm not here to debate means and motives with you, Paladin. There is law in this country and a police force to whom you report information you have on criminal actions. The thing that keeps civilisation standing is the fact we don't let every random subject of the crown with a weapon and a grudge against the world to start handing out their own punishments!" In truth, she knew that she'd probably have to let everyone go unless the police got here soon. She doubted that she had enough reserves to fight the Parisians and vigilantes as well as secure the people smugglers (and she was damned if she was going to let those filth slip away into the night).

Looking back, Rose would realise that she owed a lot to instinct and reflexes. Her conscious mind simply could not have reacted quickly enough to the massive build-up of magic rapidly approaching her. As it was, her silently cast military-grade force and energy shield charm still shattered instantly from the enormously powerful blast of near raw magic delivered by the magical great-sword and she was thrown, stunned senseless, from the crane jib. She probably would have been killed by the impact with the concrete dock area below if Lady Justice had not launched herself into the air with her Yo-yo and snatched her limp body from the air.

"Well, isn't this a curious sight?" A huge grey-maned figure in a red-and-gold hooded robe smirked down at the collection of heroes below him. "So many silly and insignificant little do-gooders, all interfering in my business!" Leonidas, the Lion of Crime, raised the Leo Sword and pointed it down at the onlookers, golden magic shining along its length. The man's grin was bloodthirsty and completely without any hint of kindness. "Well, it seems I wasted time and money making sure that the constabulary knew that they should be looking in the other direction! I'm really not willing to absorb any more losses, even on a minor side business like this, so I recommend that you just all run away… now."

Chapter Text

Leonidas was in a pretty bad mood right now. Not only had his daughter basically humiliated him by leaving the party as early as she possibly could but now he found himself having to personally intervene after those flat-footed Russians managed to get nearly wiped out by that pathetic bunch of wannabe superheroes who had been nibbling at the edge of his businesses for months now. Just to make things really aggravating, those annoyances from Paris had turned up as had one of Whitehall’s pet witches.

He drew in a deep breath and finally spoke through a barely-controlled grimace of rage “You know, I have better things to be doing with my time right now. I could actually be getting some sleep. However… no. I have instead to deal with people interfering with my businesses!”

“Your ‘businesses’ are criminal people-trafficking and slavery.” That was the delusional one who thought he was a knight in shining armour.

“You’ve just exposed how tragically short-sighted you are, boy. They’re businesses, like any other, supplying what people want for a price! If the bureaucrats don’t feel that anyone should supply such things, well, that’s just more proof that they put control above all other things.

“Do you know why I do what I do? It’s because I can. Vision and the power to make that vision a reality brings with it intrinsic right to do if you choose to do so! What I want is to see the powerful, those who show that they have the right to lead and dominate to do just that! Naturally, that offends the weak, who rely on words and paper to make slaves of the powerful as they already have with the likes of her!” Leonidas pointed with his sword in the direction of Miss Rose, who Ladybug had set on the ground just in front of her.

Rose gritted her teeth. “Pardon me for preferring a world based on equality and order rather than a chaotic despotism of the powerful!” she spat. She was distracted from continuing her rebuttal by a triple-bleep sound like a low-battery warning coming from behind her.

“Tragically myopic.” Leonadis shook his head. “Order comes from the hand of the mightiest, not from the pens of bureaucrats and the pocket calculators of accountants!” Leonidas looked briefly into the sky, summoning up in his mind’s eye a vision of the perfect world he fully intended to rule from the shadows. “True order! That is bred of the fear of the strong!”

Whilst Leonidas continued to monologue about 'freeing the strong from the tyranny of the weak', a familiar French-accented voice whispered in Rose's ear. “Miss Rose, can you render me… not invisible but hard to perceive and easy to overlook?” Rose didn’t visibly respond but was surprised to hear Ladybug’s voice from behind her and another triple beep. “I’ve given you no reason to trust me but…”

Rose made a snap decision, not different from the ones her friends and family told her that her dad often did in times of crisis. “No, you have; you’ve shown me what side you’re on.” She flicked her wand behind her. “Ocullorum!” Not a true undetectability spell but, as Ladybug had asked, something that made someone easy to ignore.

“Tikki, Zuuben, divide!” Thanks to the charm, Rose didn’t see Lady Justice become just Ladybug again. Ladybug flipped open her Yo-yo, dropped in the Libra choker and fished out the Mouse necklace. “Tikki, Mullo, unify!”

Simultaneously, not too far away, the man known as Avalanche, who reminded Chat a lot of Ivan, continued to obscure the Parisian Cat Hero and the bright green flash he'd just emitted from the Lion Villain’s view. “Thanks for the help man! Plagg, time’s up. Plagg, claws out!”

In response to Chat Noir’s words, Avalanche grinned and replied without looking over his shoulder. “Oh, my pleasure, man. I always enjoy helping out!”

Paladin, meanwhile, was growing bored of the sound of Leonidas’s voice. “Of course, the fact that you would personally be unimaginably rich and powerful and everyone else would, in one way or another, be your servant is just… a side benefit?”

Leonidas grinned at Paladin. He was going to miss having him around; he really was a smart, cynical and quick-witted boy. Such a shame he was in his way! “Oh dear God no, lad! I’m no altruist. Becoming the richest man on Earth and effectively ruling mankind as a faceless dark god with an army of lesser gods to act as my agents and without the inconvenience of anyone knowing of my role is the main goal here. Everything else is just scraps I’m planning to throw over my shoulder to keep the peons in line!” The heavily-built supervillain shook his head. “Well, as much as this has been a diverting moment, I’m afraid that I am going to have to punish you for interfering in my plans. For ‘punish’ read’ ‘wipe from existence’.” The big man raised the Leo Sword to the sky. “RALLYING CRY!” The casting sounded like a lion’s roar and, at last, everyone understood just why that phrase seemed to be something important to Leonidas’s followers. Golden magic exploded from the sword and turned into a storm of twisting golden trails of power that struck every one of the unconscious and/or trapped gangsters.

Everyone seemed briefly locked into place, their hearts racing with sudden dread and uncertainty. Miss Rose had seen large-scale revival spells before but she’d never seen anything quite like this! The fallen men rose from the ground, glowing with bright golden light. No matter how wounded they were, their eyes opened wide and their faces seemed to shine with resolve and belief in themselves and the one who had just revived them. “We hear the Lion’s Roar!” they screamed in unison before charging, dragging wounded or even maimed legs if they had to, grabbing rocks, bits of scrap metal or even just using their fists as they charged at the group of heroes.

Suddenly, Ladybug (Or was it? Where had the hood, pink and grey highlights and that bizarre tail-like skipping rope come from?) launched her Yo-yo past the startled Rose and, running on an impossibly-long cord, it latched onto the bottom of another crane's jib. "Don't let them get momentum! Knock them back!"

The response was instantaneous with the various heroes following Ladybug and launching themselves at the charging magic-maddened criminals. Suddenly, a winged figure shot ahead of the heroes’ charge, dropping small silvery spheres into the charging villains, which detonated with bright white and very loud concussions. Most people would be staggered but, driven on by the magic of the Leo Miraculous, the criminals continued their charge, lashing out blindly at the hope of harming their master’s enemies. Then the two sides met and a chaotic melee began with Ladybug and Night Glider swinging down into the crowd to support their allies and friends and Miss Rose casting various charms and hexes to unbalance, disarm and bind the criminals around her.

Still standing on the crane jib and leaning magisterially on his sword's hilt, Leonadis observed the first clashes. He wasn’t in any way a fool. He didn’t expect that cannon fodder to serve as anything else than a distraction; no, he had to eliminate the key points of resistance and break the others' will to fight. He leapt off of the crane jib and dropped down to the concrete dock, landing agilely (he was tempted to use his sword’s power to knock everyone flying with a ground shockwave but, somehow, that seemed a bit excessive). He charged right at Paladin, who was slashing aside every thug that came close to him.

Leonidas took up a swaggering, confident pose to hide his sudden concern. He knew the technology that gave the sword its razor-thin blue cutting edge, although he never expected to see it put to such a romanticised use! “What do you know of the DeVere family, boy?”

Paladin frowned at the supervillain from behind his helmet's mask. “Only what everyone should know: A brilliant man and his hard-working sons were targeted by a pitiless rich thief who values no property and no rights other than his own. A loving grandfather stripped all he earned and dying a broken man and his sons reduced to menial labour just to keep their families from destitution.”

Leonidas smirked. “Or, as I prefer to think of it, wealth and power taken from those without the wit or will to use it and given to one who can! So, I’m supposing you’re the one behind the thefts and ‘inventory anomalies' at their former factory, laboratory and warehouse?”

Paladin shrugged. “Believe what you will; it won’t change the outcome.” The young man lunged forward and, with a degree of swordsmanship that surprised the supervillain, made a sudden series of blows and cuts at his face and chest that drove him back a few paces before he regained his balance and delivered a series of clubbing blows that forced the young hero back.

"So, you know what you're doing! How very unexpected!"

"You'll find that I'm just full of surprises."

"Oh, of that I have no doubt. Well, I'll make sure they carve that on your tombstone!" Paladin didn't see fit to respond. Instead, the two swordsmen launched at each other with a series of strokes and parries.

~*~*~

Simultaneously, Gazelle was a blur, her super-agility power that she was only just recently realising she possessed and making her wonder is she should still be competing in acrobatics and cheer competitions was enabling her to dart from gangster to gangster, knocking them flying with a whirling strike of her staff to head or legs. However, there just seemed to keep getting up, even though all of them had long since suffered injuries that should have left them immobilised! It was that damn Lion guy's magic! How was she supposed to beat that?

Behind her, Avalanche knocked a pair of thugs heads together and threw them away. He heavily took a few paces back to avoid a man with two broken arms still somehow lashing out with metal poles as makeshift clubs; he had no idea how long his super-powered durability could hold up against these relentless attacks. "These guys are tougher then me!"

Gazelle was back-to-back with him in a moment. "This is crazy! I've never faced anything like this before!" She blocked a rock thrown at her with her whirling staff. "We're just going to have to wait until this magic wears out!"

"That's assuming it wears out at all!" Night Glider remarked over his helmet radio from above. "Damn, this is starting to feel unfair!"

"Don't worry guys, you always use magic to beat magic! Cataclysm!" Chat Noir dropped down from above, to land next to the two British heroes, his claws crackling with green-black entropy and he drove them into the concrete surface of the dock. There was a roar as the energy spread out into a ring around them and then extended further out to hundreds of meters. All around them, magic-maddened thugs fell into the collapsing mess of shattering and pulverising concrete. "Let's do it, Wings! You too Hoodie Gal!"

Night Glider dropped into a hover over one side of the collapsed dock and fired gas jets in the arms of his flight suit that pumped tranquiliser gas down onto the struggling and half-buried criminals. Ranger shot a group of three arrows with tranquiliser gas heads into the other side of the collapse.

Chat Noir stood up, brushing off his costume. "No matter how invigorated they are, they're going to waste a lot of that just to deal with the tranquilisers. That even before they can smash their way out of the debris and climb out of the pit"

Night Glider landed behind him with a whine of miniaturised turbofan engines, carrying Ranger in his arms. "Nice thinking, Mr Blond and Feline. You do this sort of thing before?"

Chat shrugged. "Well, if you've worked with Ladybug as long as I have, you quickly figure out that you have to enact pretty cryptic battle plans against all kinds of supervillains. Trust me, it's a steep but rewarding learning curve!"

Gazelle laughed. "So, you interested in a team position, Catty?"

Chat shot the ebony-skinned acrobat an apologetic smile. "Oh, I'm afraid that I'm already in a team and I'm not about to abandon M'lady!"

Ranger was looking around her. "Where's the boss?" Chat felt that was a good question; where was his girlfriend too for that matter?

~*~*~

"Do you think that they'll give up?" Rose asked. She and Ladymouse were back-to-back under a Protector shield charm. The bubble glowed rose red around them with constantly shifting rose flower patterns flowing across it. Theoretically, the shield was immune to mundane attack but the dozen or so villains seemed quite willing to try to beat it down by sheer persistence and Rose was beginning to wonder if the charm had its limits and whether she was about to find out what that was.

Ladymouse looked around. "They're being driven on by the Leo Miraculous's magic. That's what we have to beat." The girl pulled her Yo-yo off of her hip.

"The Lion seems pretty powerful," Rose responded. "Beating him isn't going to be easy!"

"Beating supervillains is never easy; it's best to try to out-think them in an indirect way. Lucky Charm!" Ladybug cast her Yo-yo up into the air and Rose looked in amazement at the whirling mass of ladybird beetles that were spiralling around it at the apex of the upwards cast, her hairs rising up a little from the sheer level of magic in the air. She suddenly realised that this was the same incredible raw magical power she felt before the Lion's attack! So this is what her mum meant about the power of the Miraculous being far beyond her usual experience, indeed beyond her imagination! It was like feeling the universe itself concentrating all its power into one spot!

Rose was slightly disappointed when a foot-wide red ball with black ladybird spots dropped into Ladymouse's hands with a soft-sounding 'squelch'. "Okay, that's underwhelming."

"You've just got to know how to use a Lucky Charm to the best effect." Ladybug squeezed the ball and it deformed like it was made of clay or putty. Her eyes lit up. It was a Goop Ball! Manon had one and was it a cause of so much trouble the last time she'd baby-sat her! It was a slime-like plastic sticky putty; not sticky enough to be impossible to get out of fabric or hair; indeed, it was pretty strong, always staying in a single mass although it was great at… tangling… up…

Ladymouse's eyes were drawn to the duel between Paladin and Leonidas. The young hero was doing a remarkable job but he was clearly at a disadvantage. He'd pulled out his shield and was on the defensive, desperately trying to block the blows of the Leo Sword and the significant bits of broken rock and brickwork that the supervillain kept grabbing and tossing at him, somehow bouncing it off of vertical surfaces so they came at the visibly-struggling younger swordsman odd angles. The Lucky Charm began to flash with her colours in Ladymouse's view; a few moments later so did Leonidas's sword and then, finally, the entire ground under the feet of the criminals surrounding her and Miss Rose.

"So, how do we 'use it to the best effect'?" Rose had raised her wand and was visibly struggling to maintain her shield, her teeth gritted with concentration; this is what she was always most afraid of: She had lots of power but she wished she had the finesse for more specialised charms!

"I'll show you! Duplicate!" There was a flash of pink-silver light and suddenly, there was over a dozen of the balls in a circle around Ladymouse. "Rose, when I say 'now' drop your shield. Multiplicity! Rose watched as the spell turned Ladymouse into a dozen foot-tall Ladymice! "Now!" To her credit the witch didn't hesitate and, just as the superhero had commanded, she dropped her shield charm. The magic-impelled criminals charged but, unseen to them, the 10cm-tall Ladymice met them half-way, slapping the goop balls into their feet. The putty wasn't strongly adhesive enough to entirely stop them but they took away a lot of the villains' momentum and unbalanced them. All of them fell with cries of pain and surprise. Reflexively, they tried to prise the slime-like putty off of their feet and quickly found their hands stuck in the mass too!

"Singularity!" With that word of command, Ladymouse was back in one form. She picked up the remaining Lucky Charm (the original one) and slapped it onto her left hip with a disgusting 'squelch' noise that made both her and Rose grimace. "Okay, now we try this out on their mas… Oh no!"

~*~*~

Paladin had spent all his time since his family was impoverished ten years ago preparing for this moment: Learning every form of swordsmanship that he could and relentlessly practicing it to the point where fencing instructors from the private school near to his secondary modern comprehensive school were beginning to sniff around an unexpected possible future Olympic fencing talent. However, for all his skill, fighting Leonidas was like fighting a force of nature. Even through the hardened graphene of his shield, even a glancing blow from the supervillain's sword was like being hit by a wrecking ball. The vibro-blade cutting edge of his sword, a technology perfected by his grandfather to be a precision edge that could cut through the toughest of materials at a molecular scale bounced off of his enemy's sword as if it was made of diamond and he was waving around a plastic child's toy!

"You know, I've been enjoying this?" Leonidas laughed. "However, really, this is just taking too long. Make things easier for yourself and just give up!"

Paladin gritted his teeth under his helmet, tasting the blood in his mouth after a barely-deflected blow to his head made him bite the inside of his cheek. "If you're so confident, Leonidas, why don't you finish it?"

"Maybe I will!" With a growl, the grey-maned supervillain launched another full-strength blow that Paladin barely caught on his shield and it shattered like cheap pottery, the transmitted force knocking him onto his back. The young hero lashed out wildly with a left-right cut that knocked Leonadis's sword aside, giving him the breathing room to roll back onto his feet.

Amazingly, Leonidas realised that he was just beginning to struggle; even with the power of his Miraculous, it had been a long time since he'd faced such a capable foe and he made a minute mistake, leaving his right side briefly open and the barely atom-width edge of Paladin's blade slashed through his magical micro-weave armour, leaving a significant cut across his shoulder. Leonidas screamed in outraged pain. "Enough of this idiocy, boy! VANQISH!" The Leo Sword shone with golden light and Leonidas swung it at Paladin's head. The younger man barely got his sword in the way but, to his horror, its blade exploded and shattered into a dozen pieces; the Leo Sword continued on its path with only a little lost energy to strike his helmet, shattering it too and sending the younger man flying, barely conscious.

Leonidas laughed in sinister triumph and swaggered over to his fallen foe, flipping him onto his back with the toe of his boot. He raised an eyebrow at what he saw. The brown-haired young man had a domino eye mask on underneath his helmet, making it still hard to identify him. "Okay, that earns you a bonus point for forethought, lad. Unfortunately, it isn't going to save you or your friends. Goodbye, young fool!" The supervillain raised his sword to impale his foe through the chest when something filled his vision, a shining royal blue falcon the size of a private jet landed in front of him, grabbing the stunned Paladin in its talons and launched itself into the air, heading eastwards.

Leonidas's mouth was slack and open before he cried out in rage. "No! How dare you defy me like this?" He leapt into the air, crossing the nearly 300 meters to the next dock island, now part of London City Airport with one bound. Behind him, Ladymouse and Miss Rose looked on in amazed horror, unable to think of what to do next as Chat Noir and the rest of Forever Justice ran up to join them.

~*~*~

"Are you okay?

Shaking his head free of the cobwebs of that stunning blow, Paladin looked up to see a beautiful blonde woman in a seafoam green pantsuit with a skirt that had scalloped ends like the feathers of a peacock and a peacock's crest rising form the nose-guard of her mask. He shook his head again to clear it all the way and, a pragmatist, took the proffered hand. He felt the (certainly magically-enhanced) strength as the woman hauled him to his feet. "Down but not for the full count yet…?"

"I am known as La Paonne. Take a moment to catch your breath."

The young vigilante shook his head. "Ma'am, he won't break off now. You need to find a place of safety."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you."

Paladin was too much of a realist to protest at the thought of a woman having to protect him. "He's the enemy of my city and my family, ma'am. You're a Parisian; why are you risking yourself against him?"

The young man would never forget the look of anger and pain in the woman's masked eyes. "Because he's my father."

Suddenly, Leonidas dropped from the sky, heading right towards Paladin, leading with the Leo Sword. La Paonne shouldered the teenager aside and lifted the Peacock Fan to meet the other weapon, edge to edge. By any reasonable expectation, the sword should have gone through that parrying tool like… Well, like a sword through a feather fan. Instead, the two met and the attacking blow was totally blocked with a titanic burst of silver-white sparks from the point of contact.

Leonidas, his face flushed and his expression a savage grimace of rage, glared at La Paonne. "What do you think you're doing girl? Isn't it enough that you humiliated me by striding out of my home in front of my allies like you were escaping a noisome obligation? No! Now you choose to defend one of the enemies of my businesses! What is wrong with you?"

The Peacock Heroine looked back with a posture and expression of aristocratic disdain. "You even have to ask that father? You honestly think I would stand by and let you slaughter this young man for daring to fight to protect the innocent from your rapacious businesses?"

Leonidas glared back. "YES! Because it threatens our family and our businesses that have sustained us in our position at the head of this country's affairs for generations; they must come first!"

La Paonne shook her head. "Father, are you really so stupid as not to have noticed my thoughts and feelings about this before? Why do you think I married the first person who showed genuine interest in me rather than my position and could get me out of your immediate presence? Your 'family business' is an obscenity and I want no part of it for myself or my children!"

Leonidas shot his daughter a measuring glare. "Think very carefully about what you're saying, Emilie. You know how I treat those who make themselves my opponents. Nothing is more important to me than sustaining and advancing our family's position. I didn’t hesitate to have your brother-in-law liquidated; don't think that I'll hesitate to eliminate any danger you pose to us." He extended his free hand. "Emilie… You are my little girl and I love you. Please don't make me have to kill you."

"Everything about you and how you live your life disgusts me, father. I want no part of you or of that life. If that means that you see me as a foe… then so be it… Leonidas."

The supervillain nodded, his face becoming terrible in its blankness. "Yes, so be it, La Paonne. From this moment, I have no daughter named Emilie and, if you stand in my way, you will die like all those before you who defied the Lion's roar."

What may have happened next between the two adults was a mystery for the ages. At that moment, a portal with a crackling red edge appeared just a few meters away with Miss Rose standing in the middle, her wand raised aloft, holding it open. Ladymouse charged through the portal right at Leonidas's lower body. On some instinct the supervillain guessed that the Parisian superheroine was going for his belt where the Leo Miraculous sat and, given how she'd disarmed Felix months before, he wasn't betting on the normal quality of the Miraculous to prevent unwilling removal from their Holder. He lifted his sword to spit the charging girl lengthways but she was underneath his lunge and slapped something onto the point of his blade before skidding to a halt just beyond him. "Stupid girl!" he roared and delivered another downward thrust that went wide as she back-flipped over and out of range. There was something wrong with Leonidas's weapon. When he tried to pull the sword out of the concrete edge of the runway, it was stuck. No matter how much he pulled and tugged, something had glued it to the ground.

Ladymouse stood up and smiled in approval at the success of her Lucky Charm as Chat Noir sauntered over, shot a worried look at his mother and then took his place at his Lady's side.

Beyond the struggling and cursing supervillain, the rest of Forever Justice walked through the portal, a sad-looking Abrakadabra dumping an armful of shards at her feet that were all that remained of her leader's helm, shield and sword. Miss Rose strode out of the portal, letting it collapse behind her and strode over to the raging Leonidas, pointing her wand in his face. "Leonidas, in the name of Her Majesty the Queen and on the grounds that you are an anomaly acting in defiance of Her Majesty's Law and threatening Her subjects with violence, I hereby order you to detransform and surrender your power focus to me."

There was a clean metallic noise and Paladin had drawn two long steel knives from under his cape and crossed them over against Leonidas's throat. "I really, really recommend that you do as she tells you, vermin." Somehow, even without his voice distorter, his voice still had that resonant growling quality to it.

Leonidas looked around at his enemies. "You really think that you're winning?" He shook his head. "You don't know anything about me or the scale pf my powers! VANQUISH!" The golden-white power of the Leo Miraculous was channelled directly into the Lucky Charm and lanced right through it into the ground creating an enormous explosion of raw magic, knocking everyone away from the supervillain. "We will finish this at a time and place of my choosing, girl!" That declaration was shot at La Paonne, who was struggling to her feet. The supervillain leapt vertically into the sky, landing on the north bank of the royal docks and vanishing into the mass of warehouses that had been converted into shops, homes and office blocks.

"Damn it! We were so CLOSE!" Miss Rose and Paladin looked at each other in shock at having said this in near-perfect unison. If it were not so fantastically inappropriate to do so, they'd probably have started laughing.

"Night Glider?" Ranger called urgently into the radio built into her mask.

"No luck, Ranger. He's sticking to the ground and may have even dropped his transformation. There are a lot of revellers on the streets around the homes over there; there's no way to tell which might be him!"

Both the witch and the vigilante were surprised to have Ladybug touch them on the shoulders. "There will be other battles and other opportunities, my friends. Trust me: He cannot escape justice forever, no matter how powerful he believes himself to be."

The black-haired superheroine walked over to where Leonidas's sword was stuck and gathered up the Lucky Charm, which had 'splashed' out over a radius of about two metres. Once it was back into a ball, she launched it into the air. "MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!"

As the swarm of magical insects swept away, even Rose was startled. All hints of the damage of battle were gone and, looking over to the other dock, the various minions of Leonidas were out cold on the concrete dock, interestingly not particularly more damaged than before. Paladin looked in disbelief at his restored sword, shield and helmet sitting at Abrakadabra's feet. "… How?"

Avalanche patted his befuddled team leader on the back. "Simple, mate: It's magic!"

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: So, it's confirmed; #Paladin isn't using a Miraculous or any other kind of magic.

@BugBoss: It's pure technology and I'm going to ask @MightyMax to look into it if I can think of a discreet way to do so without implying that it's superhero biz

@Cool4Catz: Unfortunately, we've also confirmed that #Leonidas is a Miraculous user and a very powerful and experienced one

@BugBoss: Yeah, it also means that we can be sure #Janus and #Enchantress have a very dangerous sponsor and one who has a huge support base

@Cool4Catz: It's actually worse that he's very obviously *not* one of the #Dark_Order; he had no idea about our the full scope of our powers

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Wow! So much suckage for one visit

@TrueQueen: How is Tante Em doing?

@Cool4Catz: Well, you know, she's been disowned by her father, the psychotic master criminal

@Cool4Catz: Weirdly, she actually seems relieved. I think that she's been waiting for this to happen for a while

@BugBoss: On a lighter note, something completely new has happened to me.

@BugBoss: #Paladin seems determined to continue in his mission, so I, er…

@BugBoss: I offered him a Miraculous to help him

@FoxyBabe: You did WHAT?!?

@BugBoss: Hey, look, am I a Guardian or not? Our responsibility is to see the Miraculous is in the right place to protect the Balance!

@BugBoss: He's facing a real power imbalance and I wanted to help him counter that

@BugBoss: I was trying to decide between the Tiger, the Ox and the Libra

@BugBoss: He refused

@BugBoss: "Power corrupts and super-powers corrupt superbly, so I'll do without, thank you."

@BugBoss: Those were his exact words.

@Cool4Catz: I've never seen M'lady with that slack-jawed expression on her face before.

@FoxyBabe: Oh, I wish I was there to see that

@Cool4Catz: He even told her to talk to the hand!

@TrueQueen: lulz

@FoxyBabe: roflcopter

@BugBoss: Adrien, I really hate you sometimes.

Typed words notwithstanding, Marinette was snuggled into her boyfriend's side as the Star Train headed for Paris and home. She looked at the card in her hand. Miss Rose had handed it to her just before she and Adrien left, pleading with her to use it to contact her if she learned anything about Leonidas and his gang (known as 'the Lion's Pride', apparently). She could feel the tingle of magic but none of the kwami could feel any indication of a tracing or monitoring component. If anything, they seemed to think that it was some kind of communications interface. She wasn't sure if she could trust the British witch, let alone her far-too-controlling employers but her heart told her that she'd made new friends during this trip.

"So, when were you planning to tell me about your latest power-up, M'lady?"

Marinette looked up at her boyfriend in surprise. "Power-up?"

Adrien looked at her in concern. "Marinette, your Miraculous's detransformation timer didn't activate after you used the Miraculous Cure. It just showed the cooldown timer that normally appears after you've used Ladyupgrade."

Marinette's slack-jawed expression was back. "… How?"

On the other side of the aisle, Emilie looked through half-closed eyes at her son and the girl she was sure would one day be her daughter-in-law. She'd hoped so hard that she could keep Adrien and Melodie away from her father, his plots and his demands but it wasn't to be. She might not have the strongest powers but she swore that she would make sure that these brave children… all of them… were safe from her father's greed, hate and rage.

~*~*~

"How dare you?!?"

Rubbing her face, Rose looked up into the face of the raging Miss Iris, who had just slammed her hand on Rose's table in the canteen before screaming at her. She had about two hours of sleep in the night watch ready room last night after writing up her reports and being given a completely-unexpected personal debriefing by C with several members of the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (or 'COBRA', the 'war cabinet' that was responsible for national security issues) also present. After that, the insipid watery gruel that the cafeteria insisted was coffee was completely inadequate to keep her brain running when Iris started throwing a tantrum.

"What do you want, Iris?"

"How dare you? How dare you steal my mission out from under my nose? You've humiliated me in front of the whole agency Potter! When my father hears of this…!"

Oh, that. Before Paladin had taken his leave (leaving Rose to explain to the freshly-arrived police what had happened – Thank you for that sword-boy), he had actually given Rose a set of contact numbers, Dark Web messaging IDs and even the locations of several secure meeting points "in the event of further common interests" as he put it.

Because of that, she had been informed by no less a figure than the Home Secretary herself that she was now Forever Justice's official 'handler' with the responsibility to keep them monitored, under control and not an embarrassment to the government.

"Iris, if you'd left your communicator on, as per the rules, and responded to Dom's message, you would have been there instead of me." The aristocratic blonde witch was dumbfounded at Rose's words. "If anything, I suspect that your father would be angry at you rather than me for literally being asleep on the job." Rose smirked before waving idly. "So, in summary: Sod off, Malfoy."

As the spluttering blonde retreated, still muttering baseless threats, Rose thought about the last thing that happened before she returned to Headquarters last night.

She had been standing atop a hotel just across from the now-destroyed warehouse (curiously, Ladybug's restoration magic had no effect on it) when she'd sensed nearby magic. What she found was a titian-haired young woman in a white-and-grey fox-themed costume and a star-shaped Miraculous at her throat. Despite her fatigue, Rose's wand was already aimed at the newcomer. "Who are you?"

The fox-themed supervillain grinned in a calculated display of sensuality. "Me? My name is Enchantress and you don't know it yet… but I'm about to become your best friend in the world!"

~*~*~

Felix was very, very nervous as he and Lila entered his father's personal office in the Pride Rock, somewhere so private that no-one else except a minutely-vetted cleaner was normally allowed in on pain of death. "G… Grandfather?" The man had been sequestered here ever since he'd returned from the Docklands, enraged but also chastened and reeking of humiliation.

"Felix, your aunt has betrayed us."

Felix didn't know what to say. He knew that Auntie Em was foolishly idealistic, squeamish and sentimental and that she didn't like the family's businesses but betrayal?

Lord Graham de Vanily turned his office chair around to face the two teenagers. "Out of love for her, I have refrained from aggressively pursuing my interests in Paris because she and those she loves might be harmed. However, she has cast that display of friendship back in my face. Now, I want you and Lila ready to relocate to my chateau outside of Paris. As soon as you are in place, we are going to make that city mine and we will take the treasures that my spies have indicated could be present there."

"What about the heroes of Paris, sir?" Lila's voice was strangely guarded and neutral.

"If they get in your way, you have my permission to destroy them. We will seize their Miraculous in the fullness of time anyway." The Lion of Crime waved in dismissal.

"We hear the Lion's roar," Felix and Lila chorused before walking out, both of them struggling with contradictory thoughts, plans and feelings.

Chapter Text

As a Guardian and the protector and keeper of the Mother Miracle Box, Marinette had many responsibilities. This included guarding the treasure in her care. With this in mind, she’d contrapted all manner of security devices for her bedroom above her parents’ bakery. Now, during her waking hours, she mostly left them off because she would be there to confront any intruder. At night, she left them on.

Because of this, she was awoken by the audible intruder alarm triggered by someone entering through the skylight hatch.

“What… HEY! God-damn it! OW!”

Marinette snapped awake and desperately tried to clear the cobwebs from her head as she stared at the struggling figure lying at the foot of her bed, perilously close to falling off of the raised platform on which it was set. They’d obviously fallen prey to the first and silent layer of defence on the skylight, trip-wires made up of the ends from spools of black yarn that ran across the opening on the ends of their spools. Anyone who tried to sneak in after Marinette had set the trap would be entangled and the spools' rotation triggered the audible alarm.

Marinette’s fist hit the silence button for the alarm that she’d mounted on the head of the bedframe and she clicked on her light to find the intruder was…

“Chloe?”

Queen Bee made a ‘huff’ sound and waved at Marinette with an exaggerated patience whilst still entangled with the tripwire yarn. “I keep forgetting that you’re paranoid.”

The Guardian of the Mother Miracle Box raised her eyebrow in challenge. “It’s not ‘paranoia’ when there are full-on supervillains out to get you! How did you get up on the roof balcony?” The Bee Heroine frowned and gestured to her back where her magical wings would appear. Marinette threw her hands into the air. “Okay, wrong question; instead: Why were you on the rooftop balcony?”

“Today’s the day when we register MDC.com’s business account under your name at the bank and get your start-up loan! I didn’t want you to be late!”

Marinette sighed. Ever since she’d appointed Chloe as the ‘business manager’ for her online design and clothing portal, the blonde heiress had been focussed on it to the point of obsession. There just seemed to be something about setting up a new business that had called to her; even her father had remarked on her new focus. However, sometimes, Chloe really did go too far. Marinette picked up her phone and showed the face to her friend, revealing that the time was 5:43 AM.

Chloe smiled in a rather embarrassed way. “I… couldn’t wait any longer?”

Marinette would probably have face-palmed if her parents, her father carrying a baker’s slice as an improvised weapon, appeared in the trapdoor. Queen Bee saw them too and actually looked very intimidated as she waved waly in greeting. “Um… Hello Auntie Sabine and Uncle Tom?”

~*~*~

Adrien had enough experience of the paparazzi to have seen the three photographers who were trying to get an angle on him and Melodié as they sat eating a continental breakfast in the street cafe where he and Ladybug had their infamous ‘second Ladrien date’. What were the press calling him and his sister these days? Oh yeah, the ‘Sunshine Prince’ and the ‘Moonlight Princess’ of Paris, the latter probably because of Melodié’s favourite midnight blue leather jacket and her white t-shirt with a golden shape on it that most people assumed was a crescent moon but was actually a scorpion. Somehow, his sister had been sucked into the tabloid obsession with him; Adrien wasn’t really surprised but he still wished that she didn’t have to experience her life being considered public property. He’d love for the press to leave them alone but he knew that wasn’t really all that likely.

Adrien and Melodié had been engaged in random small-talk but Adrien could tell his sister was itching for a chance to get him to react for some reason. He’d noticed that Juleka did the same thing with Luka as did Alya and Nora. Some sort of sibling thing, he guessed. “So,” Melodié began with a transparently false smile. “Tell me, how goes the great romance?”

Adrien raised an eyebrow in challenge. If his mischievous twin sister thought that he’d over-react to her mentioning his relationship with Marinette, she didn’t know him that well at all. Of course, surviving teasing from Alya, Nino and Chloe had helped him build up his resistance to the blush reflex. Now, let’s see how well she did! “It’s great, actually! How are things with Amity going?”

Amity was a young woman of Luka and Juleka’s age and someone Melodié had been hanging out with a lot in the last few months after the two of them met at a rehearsal for a teen dance troupe for which they had both signed up. The word ‘girlfriend’ hadn’t been used yet but the way Mel’s fair skin burned red made it unnecessary. “I… she’s great… I mean, she dances great! I mean, she is a great dancer and I’m looking forward to working with her!”

Adrien took his sister’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “Remember who is one of my closest friends, Mel. I won’t misconstrue, assuming that there was something for me to misconstrue.”

Melodié shot her brother a nervous smile before snatching back her hand, chugging back the last of her coffee. “So, you want to hit the streets and see what’s the first new big thing of the year?”

~*~*~

Chloe smiled as she looked at the shop sign again: 'MDC.com - Bespoke Design and Fashions'. On the door, a discreet note added: 'Consultations and Fittings by Appointment Only - email [email protected]'. Okay, so this was Marinete’s place (and it would finally be that totally after today). However, she liked to imagine that she’d helped a lot. She no longer needed to prove herself to her mother but she couldn’t deny having helped start this business and create her own place in it felt fulfilling to an amazing degree. She wasn’t just the child of the owner of the Grand Hotel and the Style Queen. Chloe Bourgeois was becoming her own woman with her own direction in life.

On the other side of the glass, Marinette finished putting up the poster-sized picture they’d taken of Rose and Juleka back-to-back in colour-themed casual outfits Marinette had designed for them in the window. The noirette raised an eyebrow and query and Chloe responded with a thumbs-up; it was straight.

Marinette stepped out, took a moment to set the alarm and then locked the door behind her. “Are you ready now?” Chloe asked.

Marinette smiled reassuringly. “Chloe, we have twenty minutes to get there.”

Chloe showed Marinette the face of her phone and the time. “More like five minutes!” Then she was airborne and being towed along the street by her hand, helpless to do anything but stagger along in Marinette’s wake. In her mind, a cartoon version of her was fully airborne, flapping like a streamer in Marinette’s slipstream!

“Chloe! I’m sorry! I had to unpack and hang the posters before they were curled up too much and then I had to check the emails and make sure all the stuff was labelled for the couriers to collect and…!”

Chloe laughed. “Don’t worry, Marinette! Just part of running a business!” Somehow Chloe was keeping her feet in contact with the ground. “Maybe we can get there just a little bit slower?”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat.php?subthread=rotas
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@FoxyBabe) - CO-ADMIN

Snekcharmer OFF PATROL - 0700h

FoxyBabe ON PATROL - 0700h

NotARenaisssanceArtist ON PATROL - 0700h

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Helllllllooo Paris! The Big Bad Turtle and the Hot Fox are on the rooftops!

@FoxyBabe: Just in case anyone is reading this, yeah he did shout that aloud!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Just thought I’d give evildoers fair warning babe!

@SnekCharmer: I did wonder what that noise was like a crazy man shouting! ;-)

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Stabbed in the back by a fellow reptile!

@FoxyBabe: You are so lucky that I love you!

@FoxyBabe: X

The movies really didn’t get it right. There were no dark, dingy hideouts. The apartment was, in fact, clean, well-lit and moderately well-kept and there was no indication that the person who was living there (yes, living, with a lease and everything) had criminal secrets to keep. Any doubt about that fact would be answered by the way that four of the five occupants of the room were carefully packing military-grade supplies and ammunition into their black backpacks.

The fifth person had been in the apartment’s kitchenette and now returned with a bottle of cheap red win, which he served in long-stem glasses. One of the women, who had curling black hair, looked up at him with annoyance. “Seriously? Shouldn’t we be waiting until the job is done?

The man with the wine grinned. “No, because we’re celebrating being back in business! Three years we’ve had to avoid Paris, first because Agreste practically ran this city and then because we knew that there was a chance any job would end with one a passer-by turning into a freak that would go storming off after Ladybug and Chat Noir after stomping us into paste. No, at long last we can enjoy the wealth of the capital again!”

With a laugh, the black-haired woman laughed. “Can’t deny that, oh lover of mine!” She touched her wine glass to the side of the man’s. “So, here’s to crime!”

The other three in the room raised their glasses too. “Here’s to crime!” they echoed with evil grins.

~*~*~

Marinette looked out of the corner of her eye at Chloe. Her friend nodded discreetly as she put the terms and conditions document back down on the desk of the small business adviser in the branch of the BPI bank. Reassured by the approval of her far-more-business-savvy (and suspicious) partner, Marinette turned back to the adviser and signed her name where he was indicating.

"Congratulations, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng. As of now, you are formally the owner and financial controller of your business!" A strange thing to say but one had to remember that she was still a minor. Because of this, her parents had set up the account into which she'd deposited payments for her commissions. Now, nearly 15 months later, the bank had finally decided that she had demonstrated sufficient responsibility that they would transfer formal ownership of the account to her and even extend a loan to her to buy more up-to-date equipment and increase her on-line presence with ad campaigns on social media.

To Marinette's left, Chloe virtually began to shine with pride and joy at hearing this. You'd think that she was the brains behind this… Well, in honesty, yes, if Marinette was the design talent, Chloe was the saleswoman. It was amazing how many commissions that the blonde had got just by dropping a business card with nothing but the 'MDC.com' logo on it on the right table at the hotel or by striking up enthusiastic conversations with semi-strangers. She'd brought in more business than Uncle Jag gushing about her work did! Indeed, the proposed ad campaign that had so impressed the bank was her idea! There was a time when Marinette would have been suspicious of Chloe's motives but that was a long time ago. Chloe was actually happy to be on a commission-only basis but Marinette had already decided to change that; the blonde had proven her trustworthiness and deserved to have that recognised.

The two teenagers stood and took turns to shake the adviser's hands. At that point there open, well-lit business area was suddenly filled with screams and the unmistakable roar of a shotgun blast followed by a few pistol shots.

Chloe would later remark on how odd it was that it took everyone’s brains a few seconds to catch up with the situation. Screams seemed to radiate out from by the front door where the bank’s one security guard was rolling on the floor in agony, having been shot twice in the leg.

“Down!” screamed a harsh male voice. “Everyone get face down on the floor or you’ll be next!” That got the screams started seriously. At the door were five people, two feminine and three masculine in shape. Nothing else could be seen about the five people who were wearing grey exercise pants and grey hoodies with full face masks under their hoods, one with the symbol of the spade, one the diamond, one the heart and one the club and the last with a blank mask. “No-one touch their phone or they’re dead!” The voice was definitely coming from the man with the club emblem on his mask, who was swinging some kind of assault rifle around him in a controlled way that indicated that he definitely knew what to do with it.

The man with the blank mask took a quick look at his military-style watch. “Ten minutes from now! Move it!” The armed robbers fanned out with terrifying coordination and precision. The huge man with the spade emblem on his mask pulled out some kind of crowbar or tyre iron and, with astonishing precision, he used its pointed end to cave in the supposedly bullet- and shatter-proof glass partitions in front of the tellers.

The woman with the heart mask and a military-grade semi-automatic pistol started throwing out canvas sacks to the tellers. “Fill ‘em up bitches and no-one gets smart with dye packs or one of you will die for every spoiled bundle!” To emphasise the point, the woman levelled her gun at the terrified staff.

The man with the assault rifle grabbed the man who had just been helping Marinette and Chloe by the scruff of the neck. “The safety deposit boxes, shit. Where?” The man gestured in the direction of the vault door and Club shoved him in the same direction. “Diamond! Take him and get the bankers drafts only! I don’t care how much you like sparklies!”

The woman with the diamond mask snorted as she grabbed the young deputy manager. “You’re no fun, Club!”

“Eight minutes thirty! Keep it moving!” the man with the blank mask yelled.

Club’s earlier order to stay away from the ‘phones would probably have been effective if it wasn’t for the fact that Tikki, Mullo and Pollen were hidden away in their Holders’ purses. The kwami were quite able to unlock phones and send messages on their behalf.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

SOS SENT

@TrueQueen has sent an SOS ALERT

@FoxyBabe: Mari! Chloe! What’s up?

@BugBoss: alya its tikki were at the bank near the shop and its being robbed

@BugBoss: no magic just men with guns

@FoxyBabe: Okay, Tikki, we’ll send a message to the police. Are Marinette and Chloe safe?

@BugBoss: for now yes but there is no telling for how long

@NotARenaissanceArtist: We’re on our way, little dudes!

Diamond laughed in a rich tone of voice as she let a handful of gems tumble out of her hand onto the metal examination table in the safety deposit room of the vault. “Oh, you pretties, I’m so sorry that we’re going to have to leave you behind.”

Blank looked into the vault from where he was standing and shook his head. “Diamond, if you know any way to fence that stuff that is guaranteed to be untraceable, then feel free to take it.”

Diamond snorted. “You’re a meanie, Blank!”

Blank growled. “We’ve got five minutes, minimum, before the police respond to the silent alarm, which we know someone must have triggered. So wrap it up; we have to get moving!”

Blank looked over as he heard the sounds of argument outside. He turned from the vault and walked over to Club, who had his rifle pointed down at the back of the head of some teenage girl with her black hair in a ponytail running down from a bun. “Please sir! That guard will bleed to death if nothing is done for him!”

“Do I look like I care, girlie?” Club snarled. “You stay still or you’ll be dead before him!”

“Club, let’s avoid making this a homicide if we can; that’s a complication we don’t want. If she feels so strongly about it, let her do it.”

The woman with the heart mask had been stacking up bags of cash by the doors and looked at her colleagues. “Shove her over here; I’ll keep her honest.”

Club nodded, yanked Marinette to her feet by her collar and shoved her over to where Heart, Spade and the moaning security guard were by the door. “The other girl too!” Heart spat. Club shoved Marinette into Spade’s grip and then yanked Chloe to her feet too.

Spade shoved Marinette down onto her knees beside the guard. “Okay, jailbait, do your magic and if you get any funny ideas, you’ll be wearing your friend’s brains!” Chloe squeaked in terror as Spade’s huge hand closed around her head; she had no difficulty believing that he could crush her skull with his bare hands if he chose to.

“You know who this is, Blank?” Heart jerked her masked face in Chloe’s direction. “That’s the former mayor’s daughter! Reckon she’d be worth a decent ransom?”

Blank shook his head. “A complication and something else that would push up the stakes in a way we don’t want.” He looked at Chloe. “That doesn’t mean that we won’t march you out in front of us to stop the cops from doing something dumb, so don’t feel too safe, Bourgeois.”  Chloe was proud of the way she managed to cover her terror and focussed on praying that the tourniquet Marinette had put around the guard’s leg would hold somehow. Blank, the obvious gang leader, looked at his watch again. “Ninety seconds! Everyone in their positions NOW! MOVE! MOVE!”

Diamond, now with a black leather attaché case (probably filled with banker’s drafts) raced out of the vault and Club started to back up towards the others, keeping everyone covered with his assault rifle. Spade literally threw Chloe by her head back towards the middle of the room and pulled a pump-action shotgun from over his back and joined Club in covering everyone in the bank. Heart yanked Marinette to her feet and shoved her in Chloe’s wake. “Okay, honey, you’ve done your good deed for the day now get back on the floor!”

“Thirty seconds!” Blank yelled, hoisting one of the sacks of cash onto his back. The others except Diamond did the same, the woman instead securing the attaché case across her back. “Fifteen seconds! Everyone know where to go?” There were nods. “Three… Two… One… GO! GO! GO!” The robbers raced out into the street, their guns tracking for any sign of police or other potential resistance.

What they weren’t expecting was to run face-first into a wall of green hexagonal plates of light just a couple of metres in front of the door. Beyond that, they were treated to the sight of their black-painted panel van on the other side of the street dissolving into a rusty metal framework, sagging on its burst tyres and Chat Noir calmly resting his right hand against it, the power of the Cataclysm just fading away. ”So sad,” the Cat Hero of Paris said. “All dressed up and nowhere to go.”

To his credit, Blank didn’t hesitate. “Back into the bank! NOW!”

The criminals rushed back into the bank and looked out at the Shell-Ter bubble over the building for a few moments, panic bubbling just under the surface of their minds. There was a very brief pause before Blank nodded to Club, who yanked a random customer over to the window and put the muzzle of his rifle under their chin. Blank leaned out slightly to yell at Chat and Carapace. "Okay, listen up, heroes! I'm not going to negotiate. We have at least twenty people in here and we will start killing them, one every minute, until you let us go!"

Chat was looking at his Miraculous and realised that it had gone green and was showing a cooldown timer. He'd have to tell Marinette about this, once he got her out. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but your getaway van is so much scrap metal. How do you plan to get away before the police arrive?"

Blank gritted his teeth behind his mask. "Don't play games with me, boy! Whatever you break, Ladybug can fix! Everyone knows that! So get her out here now! You have thirty seconds before this innocent's head is vapour!"

"Okay, okay!" Chat raised his hands. "I'll call Ladybug now but I don't know how long she'll take to get here!"

"You're not in a position to negotiate, freak! You have ninety seconds to have her here and our vehicle repaired or you'll have an innocent life on your consciences!"

Speaking of Ladybug, in all the confusion as the robbers had made their exit, Marinette and Chloe had dropped underneath the business adviser's table and crawled over to the now abandoned and ignored vault. Both girls jumped into the cover its thick, armoured door provided and took a moment to catch their breaths, meet each other's eyes and nod firmly. Even though their voices were lowered to whispers, the power unleashed made their words resonate around them like shouts. "Pollen! Buzz on!"

"Tikki, Mullo, Fusion transformation!" As the pink light faded away, Ladymouse cast her Yo-yo forwards along the length of the vault towards its back wall. "Lucky Charm!" The swirl of ladybugs resolved into a very familiar sight – a full-length fitting mirror.

Queen Bee shot her team leader a strange look. "Kind of a strange situation to be worrying about fashion, Hot 'n' Red!" She looked out and saw Club threatening his hostage. "We're out of time!"

Ladymouse looked out of the vault and saw the same thing. "Distract them, Honey!"

Queen Bee snatched up her Trompo and, with its cord wrapped around her fingers as a handhold, pointed it out of the vault. "Soldier Swarm!" She cried this out aloud and, as she had learned, this created a completely different form of her magical energy bees. These were aggressive and they swarmed around the five robbers, biting, scratching and stinging. Discipline goes a long way but it doesn't really handle sudden unexpected attacks and Club dropped his hostage before trying to fight off his magical attackers.

Outside, Chat's eyebrows raised as the scene that he saw through the plate glass windows of the interior of the bank dissolve into complete chaos. It was a shame in a way, because he'd been quite proud of this plan. Oh well… Might as well not waste the effort Rena had made climbing onto the first floor ledge of the bank's façade! He gestured to the Fox Heroine who nodded and, with a malicious grin, began to play on her flute.

Desperate, Blank fired his powerful Magnum pistol into the roof. "Queen Bee, call them off or the next one is going into a hostage!" He was genuinely surprised when the energy bees did disperse, at least partially. Then he realised that the bee were coming out of the vault and realised something. Of course, they were in the bank all the time! Who had betrayed us? No matter! With his gun at the ready, he stepped towards the vault and realised that, while he couldn't see the Bee heroine within, he could see someone else: Ladybug! Far too angry to think straight, the criminal charged towards her, intending to drag her out to be his new hostage. If he'd been a touch calmer, he wouldn't have run into the trip-wire that was the string of the Ladybug Yo-yo. With a yelp of surprise, he fell, dropping his gun as he did so. He didn't have time to feel the impact before the tip of the Bee Trompo caught him in the small of the back and his rigid, paralysed body clattered to the ground.

Club saw everything and, with a yell of rage, flipped up his rifle and pointed it into the vault, drawing a bead on Queen Bee. Whether he planned to shoot her was anyone's guess. All that mattered was  that the Mouse Tail Rope lashed out from around the blind corner just inside the vault door and wrapped around the barrel of the gun and his neck, causing the barrel shroud to jerk up into his face with painful force. The gunman staggered, as Ladymouse stepped into his field of view. Guided by his military Special Forces training, he lashed out with a leg to trip her but she was obviously ready, leaping over him kick and responding with a roundhouse kick followed by a clubbing punch to the temple followed with being slammed head-first into the vault wall by the Tail Rope. The gunman collapsed, totally out of the fight.

Diamond's attention was focussed on the outside. The Shell-Ter shield was gone and the van was restored! "There!" she screamed, pointing urgently. She and Heart ran out whilst Spade, seeing Club and Blank down, looked around himself uncertainly.

The two women stopped in the middle of the street as the van dissolved into orange smoke and they were left standing in front of the Cataclysmed mess that was there just a minute before. Suddenly, Chat Noir dropped down in front of them, a low sweep of the Cat Staff knocking both of them to the ground. That decided Spade who, with a roar, launched himself out of the bank and firing his shotgun at the Cat Hero, who blocked the buckshot packet on his twirling staff.

"Terrapunch!" Spade was tough, but the battering ram of impenetrable energy fields that slammed into him from the left side was a bit more than he was used to and he crashed into a light pole, bending it pretty dramatically from the impact. "Damn you, you dumb cosplayer!" the former circus strongman yelled as he launched himself at the Turtle Hero… who was suddenly one of a dozen identical heroes. The criminal lashed out uselessly at one and then another before a pair of pink-hemmed red thigh boots with black polka-dots slammed into the back of his head as Ladymouse swung out of the bank on her Yo-yo. Moments later, the Turtle Shield hit the man on the left side of his head and he staggered face-first into the Cat Staff swinging to meet it.

Diamond levelled her machine pistol at Ladymouse as she landed in the middle of the street. A few seconds later Heart did the same with her pistol. "Okay, heroes," she hissed as she glared around at all five members of Team Miraculous currently present. "You play it cool and you all get to go home alive! No-one move and no-one get any cute ideas about using any mag… AIEEE!" Her scream was due to the ground suddenly giving way beneath her and her accomplice, seemingly in response to Chat Noir gently tapping the end of his staff against the blacktop, dropping both women two metres into a smelly sewer-pipe that had just broken open underneath them. Stunned, the two women were unable to keep hold of their weapons as something yanked them out of their hands. They looked up to see their guns attached to a Ladybug-patterned hand-held electromagnet being held by Ladybug.

"I could get used to this rapid re-casting thing," the black-haired superheroine said to Chat Noir with a slight smirk. Then she raised an eyebrow. "Also, since when could you silently cast Calameowty like that?" Just then, they heard the sound of police sirens.

"Just short of twenty minutes total before the cops arrive." Queen Bee was looking thoughtfully at her unfolded Trompo's clock screen as she directed her energy bees to carry Blank and Club out of the bank building. "Blankie-boy was right; ten minutes was enough to knock over this place and make your escape."

Ladymouse nodded in agreement, her mind still shocked at the brutality and cynicism, something that she’d never seen before. She tossed the guns onto the ground at Chat's feet before throwing the electromagnet into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

~*~*~

Sergeant Roger Raincomprix was nearly rubbing his hands in glee at the sight of the day's catch. "What do you know? The Five of a Kind Gang themselves! They've been raiding banks in Marseilles and all over the south coast for two years now and no-one has got close to tracking them down!" The man nodded at his subordinates who began to load the five slowly-recovering criminals into the back of a police van. "I guess Paris was too much for them! The Prefect will be overjoyed!"

"You're welcome." Carapace's voice was quietly ironic and Ladymouse shot her team-mate a warning look.

"It was our pleasure to help, Sergeant Raincomprix." The superheroine said gently as, with an electronic-sounding triple beep, the Ladybug Miraculous finished recharging after the Miraculous Cure fixed the hole in the road restored the criminals' getaway van. Amazingly, the magical restoration was so perfect that the CSIs were already finding useful forensic information from the vehicle.

Roger looked slightly embarrassed and shifted uncomfortably. "Er… Yes, Ladybug. I… er… I am obliged to remind you that the Gendarmerie frowns on vigilante activity and encourages private citizens not to risk themselves by confronting dangerous criminals like these five scofflaws. That is why we are here, after all."

Queen Bee frowned and looked about to deliver a scathing comment. Maybe something like: "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." Fortunately, Rena was there and squeezed her friend's shoulder warningly. The Bee Heroine looked at her team-mate in annoyance before closing her eyes, blowing out an aggravated breath and smiling in acknowledgement at the warning that nothing could be gained by starting an argument.

Suddenly, the press made their appearance. "Ladybug! Ladybug!" A flushed-faced Nadja Charmak charged over with cameraman in tow and, bizarrely, an excited Manon dangling from the hand not holding a microphone. "Nadja Charmack, TVi News! Ladybug, does this latest exploit by Team Miraculous mean that you are going to take a more active role in crime-fighting here in Paris?"

"Ladybug, Dionne la Cynique, TVFr News!" That voice was far less welcome and Ladymouse schooled her face into total neutrality as she locked eyes with the maliciously smirking reporter. "Ladybug, how to you respond to Councillor Auric's complaint that Team Miraculous has demonstrated that it is a dangerous and chaotic force, answerable to no-one, that is handing out judgement and punishment as it sees fit? Was this violent display simply practice for your role as Anarka Couffaine's enforcers?"

Ladymouse was not even slightly surprised that La Cynique was acting as the mouthpiece of Jacques Auric, the only serious opponent for Anarka Couffaine for the vacated post of mayor. The man was a barely-closeted bigot and the only thing he loved more than power was the thought of blaming a minority for a social ill; superhumans were as good a scapegoat as any. She thought of a dozen possible replies before recalling her own stricture to her team-mates. "Mlle La Cynique…? No comment. Mlle Chamack, Team Miraculous were here only to protect civilians immediately imperilled by a group of dangerous criminals who had already put lives in danger. We have no intention of replacing the police in upholding the law."

"Surely you don't expect the people of Paris to believe that?" La Cynique spat, elbowing Nadja aside and shoving her microphone into Ladymouse's face. "Are you afraid to speak to a non-partisan news source rather than this… liberal propaganda channel?" Nadja's face darkened with anger at hearing the other reporter's description of her employers. Ladymouse figured that, if Gabriel Agreste still had the Butterfly Miraculous, Prime Queen would be back in less than a minute!

Ladymouse didn't shove the microphone away as she wanted. Instead, she just locked eyes with the grinning TVFr reporter. "I believe that I have already said 'no comment'."

The superheroine looked at her friends and gestured; the superheroes jumped onto to the rooftops, Rena, Queen Bee and Carapace to find a place to recharge as they all had only about a minute left on their timers. Even up on the rooftop, Ladymouse heard La Cynique ranting at her camera: "There you see it for yourselves, viewers! These dangerous magical vigilantes have refused to explain their outrageous outlaw actions nor will they deny that they are acting on behalf of the unpredictable drug addict and illegitimate claimant to the position of mayor, Anarka Couffaine…!"

~*~*~

"Yes, sir, I agree!" Jacques Auric was on the phone to his main sponsor, his political guide and the man who, like it or not, would be the man in charge of any Auric administration. Not that the ambitious politician could care less so long as the money and muscle kept flowing. "Yes, they're a potential complication. However, they're also very vulnerable to appearing like they're outlaws. Yes sir, I'm sure that we can discredit them and get them out of my… our… your way, one way or the other."

Auric listened to his orders (he wasn't so deluded as to think otherwise). "Yes, milord, I do understand that your patience isn't limitless and that you have your own time-line here. You can rely on me and my party to do whatever is necessary."

"Yes… Yes, I understand exactly. Yes sir. I… I hear the Lion's roar." Auric was sweating nervously as he hung up the phone. To dream of the highest offices, he always knew that he would need to make compromises. He'd never realised that it might involve selling his soul to the devil.

Chapter Text

"I don't believe it!" Marinette would later admit that she was impressed that she'd had enough self-control not to smash her priceless antique bone china teacup against the floor in simple frustrated rage. Everyone else around the great circular table in the Hall of Miracles looked in about the same mood as her. "We go to so much risk to bring those five in and they just get turned loose?!?"

Emilie sighed before repeating the second and even less welcome part of what she'd learned from the friends in the Hotel de Ville about what had happed with the Five of a Kind Gang. "As I said, it seems that with Jacques Auric raising all this nonsense about 'lawless vigilantes', acting as 'judge, jury and executioner', the prosecutors' office felt unable to bring charges against them. They're afraid of being made a political football for 'enabling vigilantism' when, and that was the word I heard used, Auric becomes mayor."

Marinette grimaced. This situation was getting out of control a lot too quickly for her tastes. She still was having anxiety responses to the meeting she went to with Councillor Auric yesterday afternoon with Adrien along with her as backup. Even without the Libra Miraculous burning around her neck, she would have felt the man's oily insincerity as he congratulated them for their 'invaluable assistance' in 'aiding the police' in stopping Gabriel Agreste, who he described as a 'sick man, driven by both his grief and the unknowable power of the Miraculous'. Wanting to defend Nooroo from the implied accusation, Marinette had reminded Auric that Gabriel's choices were his own but Auric simply smiled condescendingly and responded that he understood why she would 'defend the things that gave you power'.

There followed what was little more than a political speech in which Auric had monologued about how the Miraculous were a dangerous power that needed to be studied and contained by experts (and who they were, he didn't say). Certainly, half-grown children should not be running around and being corrupted with such power. Would it not be better to surrender them to the authorities? If needed, there were plenty of fully-trained police and soldiers to utilise that power in the defence of the city!

"Thank you for that generous offer," Ladybug said through a smile that was more a rictus of rage. "However, I believe that the Miraculous are better kept out of the control of political agendas; I think that they're safe right where they are."

Auric smirked. "I'm sure that the next mayor will see the wisdom of my proposal, Ladybug; especially when they see how many of the silent majority of Parisians feel on the matter!"

In her seat around the grand circular table, Alya was picking at her lip pensively as she processed that part of Marinette's recollection of the meeting. "'Silent majority' - That's what that witch La Cynique has been saying are about to be heard in a few days. I can't get past the feeling that she's working for him… Maybe her entire channel is!"

"Having a gut feeling is one thing. Proving it, especially against a mayoral candidate is another." No-one could give a counterpoint to Luka's pessimistic viewpoint. Everyone was so preoccupied about the thought of just how horrible a Paris under Jacques Auric's control might be that no-one noticed the way that Melodié was stroking her Miraculous thoughtfully.

~*~*~

The election was tomorrow and the opinion polls were all showing a narrow advantage for Anarka (even those for TVFr). However, Marinette was sceptical enough of the social sciences that she wasn’t 100% sure of those predictions.

Marinette sat back in her small office chair in the upstairs work-room of MDC.com, where she spent most of her off-duty daylight life nowadays, massaging her own neck to get out the stress knots. Tikki and Mullo were playing with some strips of used cloth… Or were they? Both kwami were billions of years old and had experience with artistic forms that predated humanity on a scale of geological epochs. She still caught herself staring at Tikki's sketch of a formal ritual feathered robe worn by priests of a tribe of Utahraptors some 70 million years ago. There was no telling if the random patterns the two were making with the off-cuts were random or just something beyond her ability to recognise as apparel.

At that point, she heard a familiar 'whoosh' and, out of the corner of her eye, saw a pentagonal white portal open at the other side of the room. "Hey, Alix…" Marinette's voice cut off as the Rabbit Hero of Paris nearly fell out of the Burrow and detransformed, collapsing face-down. This wasn't her Alix; nor was it the future Alix that Marinette had seen before. The redheaded woman looked like she was in her mid-20s and was dressed in a tattered and torn buff jumpsuit and an equally-battered orange cardigan missing significant chunks. "Alix!" Marinette rushed over to the fallen woman and tried to figure out how to help her. As she did so, Alix forced herself onto her knees and caught Marinette's upper arms in her vice-like grip.

"M… Minibug? It's you? What… What date is it? What date is it?!?"

Marinette stuttered for a moment, taking in the woman's drawn features and the smattering of grey hair in her close-cropped red curls. Finally, she stammered out the date. Alix nodded and, for a moment, seemed to draw in on herself before beginning to cry. "I… I knew that I could do it! This portal opened just minutes ago and the moment it did, I knew it was our only chance!" Alix drew in a shaky breath. "Marinette, listen to me… You have to stop Auric from winning the election! He doesn't know it… Hell, he'd never want this outcome… but he'll start the process of destroying the world!" Alix began to sob. "There are only a few of us left! Adrien, Juleka, Zoe and Lila! Kagami was killed last week! Lila is actually the leader now! Then there are the camps! Oh, god, Mari! The camps! The robots don't know any better but…"

Marinette was frozen, unable to process this sudden flood of dire tidings. The time-traveller drew in a shaky breath and then continued. "Look, short version: Auric's only starting his rise today. Eventually, sooner than you think, he'll have a place in the European Commission and will talk the UN into making privately-held Miraculous illegal. Maybe it was his attempt to get out from under the thumb of the Lion's Pride or the Dark Order or something. Naturally, you didn't agree to 'hand over the Miracle Box for safekeeping' so we were all driven underground. He used his propaganda to create hysteria about superhumans of all kinds. That enabled him to commission Tsurugi Corp to develop these machines based on an idea of Gabriel Agreste's – The Strike Back Machines. Every time they're defeated, they adapt and grow stronger and smarter." The woman shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You were the first to die; you were such a public figure and no-one imagined that could happen! The purge after that… God, it was terrifying watching them die all over the world, one after the other!" Alix looked down for a moment before looking back up and into Marinette's eyes. "Something else no-one imagined is how their intelligence would respond after being defeated enough times. What is the origin of superhumans? Ordinary humans! Who made the Miraculous? Humans, that's who. Who uses the Miraculous? Humans, again. So, their programming decided that the only way to eliminate all superhumans, as the kwami are beyond physical destruction, is to destroy humanity! No-one realised what the Machines would do until it was too late!"

The woman started crying again, Marinette hearing the repeated refrain of: "The camps. Oh sweet god, the camps!"

Suddenly Alix leant back on her haunches and looked at her semi-transparent hands. "Oh, thank god. Maybe I've changed enough but… but either way, at least I'm going to be with Luka and my babies again!"

Then she was gone.

~*~*~

Scorpia felt uneasy. She was just about to start on her personal little scouting mission to look into M Auric's secret dealings when Mari… no, Ladybug… had called and made it absolutely plain that she had to be at this meeting and no excuses. Bunnyx was here too, pacing nervously as if her skin was crawling across her entire body. The female of the Agreste Twins looked at the third hero on the roof, a cat-themed woman in a mix of maroon and tan with tiger stripes cutting into the pattern of the costume from the outside edges.

"So, who are you?" Scorpia asked quietly, measuring the third hero on the rooftop warily.

The other Miraculous hero smiled uncertainly. Scorpia though that, if her long purple-edged black hair wasn't pulled back in a ponytail, she'd try to hide behind it. "I'm… Tigrette."

"Scorpia, Bunnyx, Tigrette, thank you for coming here on such short notice." Ladybug had landed silently on the roof; now she walked over to join the other two heroes, worry visible in her every movement. "As you know, I have previously ruled that we can't intervene in the political process in any way. However, new information has come to light that suggests that more is happening than anyone guessed before."

"That sounds… bad!" Tigrette said.

Ladybug sighed and seemed to deflate slightly. "That's putting it mildly. It turns out that M Auric has the potential to do a lot of harm."

Scorpia looked at her dagger sheath thoughtfully. "I'm guessing that you aren't saying that we have to use… extreme measures, Boss."

Ladybug smiled slightly. "No, thankfully we aren't at that point yet." She shook her head. "In fact, we can't do anything that makes it appear that we're trying to directly intervene in the outcome of the election without clear proof of wrongdoing. That's where you three girls come in." There were matching looks of confusion on all three heroes' faces. "All of you have powers that allow you to utilise stealth in some way or, in Bunnyx's case, to record events remotely without being seen. What we're going to need is for you ladies to monitor the events at the election."

"Events…?" Scorpia was genuinely puzzled.

"Bottom line is this, Scorpia: Anarka Couffaine's main voter base is in the Banlieues, the housing projects and slums on the outskirts of the city. If there is going to be an attempt to fix the election, then someone, not even necessarily members of M Auric's party, needs to prevent these people from coming out in large numbers to vote." Ladybug sighed. "We don't know who those 'someone' might be, so we need to have eyes on the ground and records of them doing so to explain why it was necessary to intervene."

Bunnyx shook her head. "Sounds risky to me Boss-lady; of course the other options are risky too, especially me going back in time to give the evidence to the Electoral Commissioners before the fact!"

Tigrette visibly tried to get her mind around this before finally speaking up in a quiet voice. "Yeah… Yeah, that one would be difficult to explain."

~*~*~

Rose, Ivan and Mylène were up bright and early next morning at one of the major polling stations in one of the northern Benlieues Rouge. It turned out that the Miraculous Heroes of Paris were not the only ones who had received early warning that something was up. Activists of all colours and flavours had noted the appearance of large numbers of 'independent private security contractors', arranged by a variety of non-profit organisations, all of which were associated with extreme-right political action groups, who were there to 'ensure the integrity of the vote'. Mylène was pretty sure she knew what that meant: Stopping certain people voting and for no reason other than the side for which they were likely to vote. Any doubts about that was the fact that the Gendarmerie were currently no-where to be seen, in all likelihood due to discreet calls placed by M Auric to certain precinct captains.

Mylène being Mylène, she intended to protest this as loudly and as publicly as she could. As Rose looked at the large group of very large men in black suits with black shirts, she wished that she shared her friend's confidence that simply being right in her cause and declaring it loudly enough would be sufficient to stop evil men doing evil things.

More than anything else, Rose just wished that Juleka was here. There was a feel of violence in the air and Rose suddenly realised that she didn't want to be there alone, no matter how much she wanted to support Mylène. As much as she wouldn't want her friend to get in trouble and she understood that being Mme Couffaine's daughter might let that nasty Auric man claim some kind of bias, she would have felt safer with her tall frame to hug for comfort.

"You can't do this, you know! This is illegal!" Mylène's loud voice rang out, attracting Rose's attention immediately. The relatively tiny rainbow-haired girl was standing right in front of one of the huge 'security contractors', her fists on her hips and glaring fearlessly up at him.

The 'security contractor' didn't seem to quite know how to respond to this. "Mademoiselle, our instructions are to only allow properly-registered voters into the polling station. This woman," here the man gestured to a resentfully-scowling woman wearing a hijab, "has attempted to gain access with a fake national ID card."

"How do you know it's fake?" the woman snapped back.

The man leered in response. "Oh come on? Since when have one of you people been legally in this country?"

That was enough for Mylène. "Okay, that's not only bigoted but unsupported. You can't refuse people their rights just on the basis that they may be undocumented immigrants!"

The woman nodded. "Also, my mother and I were born in France, so I think that I'm pretty sure on being a natural-born citizen!"

The response to that was a disgusted roll of the man's eyes. "I've had enough of this!" He stepped forwards and shoved Mylene back away from him. "Get lost you little do-gooder or you'll get what's coming to you!"

Ivan stepped to her side. "Which is?" he growled dangerously before collapsing as he was hit by a Taser stun-gun. With a scream, and showing her usual instinctive courage that she always showed when she didn't have time to think about it, Mylène threw herself on top of Ivan to protect him from further harm.

Whatever the 'security contractor' was expecting to be the effect of this display of force, what he got was a near-instant riot. Some people immediately scrambled to get away from him and his associates. However a great many people, and not just men, picked up stones, cans, bottles or anything else they could find and began hurling them at the cordon. Seemingly released by the spark of violence, the guards began to charge forwards, wielding batons and a large number of far nastier-looking melee weapons. Rose was shouldered aside and fell to her knees. A charging man was almost on top of her and she was about to be trampled underfoot when, completely unexpectedly, a figure in maroon and tan with tiger stripes swung into sight on the end of a whip-like rope, snatched her up and swung over onto a roof.

Rose was trembling like a leaf and it took a moment before she could open her eyes and look up into Tigrette's unearthly slitted golden eyes. "Are you okay R… Mlle Lavillant?" Rose was shocked into stillness before nodding frantically. The superheroine smiled and squeezed her shoulders in a way that instantly made her feel safe. "Please stay here; I have to help the others!"

Rose briefly clung even tighter to the superheroine's tall form. There was something about her; the air of firm authority, the effortless power and the sensation of the toned musculature underneath her skin-tight magilycra body suit… even her earthy scent. A part of Rose didn't want to be without her and wanted to beg her to take her away somewhere where she could just hug her until the bad things went away. However, that was selfish and more than a little crazy. Even more importantly, as wonderful as Tigrette's close presence was, she was dating Juleka, not suddenly crushing on a sister superhero that she'd only met twice before. She stepped back and then, on a sudden impulse, leaned forward to drop a kiss on the taller woman's cheek. Tigrette blushed, shot Rose an uncertain smile in response and leapt off the roof into the fray.

On the rooftop, Rose wished that she had some way to call Ladybug to ask for her to bring the Pig Miraculous. She also found her mind spinning with desire and guilt as a part of her imagined what it would be like fighting side-by-side with Tigrette again and feeling those oh-so-subtly-muscled curves curving around her in the thick of the action.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@Tigrette_Temp: Things have gone bad at the St Cristiana polling station, Ladybug!

@Tigrette_Temp: Mlle Haprèle and M Bruel protested the actions of those 'security guards' and it triggered a riot!

@BugBoss: Are they okay?

@Tigrette_Temp: I evacuated R… Mlle Lavillant. M Bruel doesn't seem to be particularly vulnerable to stun guns and he's punched his way out of the melee carrying Mlle Haprèlle in his arms

@BugBoss: Okay, have you uploaded everything you saw to Bunnyx yet?

@Tigrette_Temp: Uh… yeah

@Tigrette_Temp: Shouldn't I intervene?

@BugBoss: Just disarm everyone if you can and force them apart; *don't* be seen taking sides.

@WatchWabbit: Okay, we've got a jackpot here

@BugBoss: What's the take, Bunbun?

@WatchWabbit: Tigrette and Scorpia both got good recordings of the security teams reporting in to someone and using that nice catch-phrase 'I hear the Lion's Roar'.

@Tigrette_Temp: Yeah, I thought that was weird; what does that mean?

@WatchWabbit: It means that these guys are members of the Lion's Pride, which has an Interpol listing as a criminal organisation.

@BugBoss: That's great; it will be enough to overturn the election results

@TrueQueen: Maybe, Ladybug. However, it will mean months of hearings and no guarantee that, if Auric bribes enough councillors, they won't decide to ratify the vote anyway

@BugBoss: That's crazy!

@BugBoss: There has to be some way to ensure that the vote is free and fair without being seen to take sides!

Marinette launched out of her chair and began to pace restlessly, trying to figure out what to do. She had to take action without seeming to take sides! There had to be a way to just let the vote go ahead without interference!

"Lady Guardian?"

The noirette girl looked over to the speaker. The lavender-shaded kwami with a pale swirl on his forehead and flaps on his back like butterfly wings smiled at her. "What is it, Nooroo?"

"It seems to me that you need a degree of… er… 'plausible deniability' here. You need to have a… a Champion of sorts, who is not part of your team and whose motive is clearly that of simply wishing to allow this governmental ritual to go ahead without interference." Marinette looked up at the Kwami of Transmission with growing disbelief. Nooroo shot the girl a slightly embarrassed smile. "It is, in fact, the purpose for which my Miraculous was created!"

~*~*~

With a 'whirr' the motorised blind over the small rose window at the sharp corner of the attic bedroom began to roll up, allowing in a shaft of sunlight. The light progressively illuminated a woman with long black hair in a purple ball-gown with a black bustier under the purple shoulder-straps, shin-length high-heeled strapped purple sandals over black lace stockings (visible through the slash up the right side of the skirt) and shoulder-length black opera gloves, all topped off with a silver butterfly-shaped face-mask over her eyes, nose and cheeks. As more sunlight was allowed in, a swarm of white butterflies took to wing around her feet and fluttered around her.

With a reflective smile, Painted Lady stepped fully into the light, span her cane around in her left hand before planting its tip into the floor in front of her. She closed her eyes and tried to follow Nooroo's instructions; all around her, she could feel millions of minds, all with their own needs, joys and griefs. What she had to do was find a particular need, a particular feeling with its own unique scent and colour and then follow it to its source… Ah! There! There it was!

"Oh! Such a need for justice and a desire to protect the weak from exploitation! It's so very strong in you particularly!" Painted Lady raised her gloved hand and a white butterfly landed in it and she covered it with her other hand. Violet light seemed to solidify out of nowhere and rush into the enclosure created by her hands. When she raised her upper hand, the butterfly's white wings were now marked with a purple fractal pattern that seemed to shine in the half-light of the room. "Very well, my little akuma, go to them and empower them to be a champion of what they know is right!" She bounced the butterfly off of her hand and it fluttered forwards, phasing through the circular window. Then, as one of their kind had not for nearly four months now, the akuma fluttered out over the rooftops of Paris towards the target that it's mistress's powers had identified.

From where he was sitting on the ground, Hamsa Hamid scowled at the laughing 'security guard' who'd just knocked him back with a backhanded blow. This was crazy! What the hell was happening in this city that they were sending out these thugs to stop people voting if they were the wrong race or background? France was supposed to be better than this! If only there weren't so many of them and they weren't so strong…!

No-one saw the white butterfly with the purple fractal markings on its wings as it landed gently on the clasp of Hamsa's neck-chain and flowed into the gold like it was some kind of liquid. The first Hamsa realised that something was wrong was when the gentle, friendly feminine voice began to speak to him.

Civic Duty, I am Painted Lady. I can feel your fear, your helplessness and your anger in the face of this injustice. I can grant you the power to ensure all the communities of this city have their right to decide the future respected.

Hamsa smiled bitterly; he'd heard all about this particular song! "Let me guess: All you want in exchange are the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

There was musical laughter in his mind. No. No, I have no need for those treasures; for me, enabling the weak to be strong in the face of injustice is all the reward I need. All I ask is that you willingly surrender this power when the fight is done. Can I trust you?

"Painted Lady…? You have a deal!"

The 'security contractor' had stopped laughing when the neon purple butterfly mask had appeared over Hamsa's face but didn't know how to react until the young man vanished in a cloud of dense lavender smoke. When it cleared, the young man was standing a clear 30 centimetres taller and the same amount broader, wearing green leather trousers and jacket over a yellow, black and red stripped tee shirt with the symbol of an upraised black fist in a green-edged white triangle.

Civic Duty opened his suddenly-glowing amber eyes behind his green domino mask and grinned at the flabbergasted guard. "I think that it's time that you understood what it was like to be bound by a power greater than your own, creep!" Suddenly, the metal studs on Civic Duty's leather jacket extended into metallic tentacles and looped around the arms and legs of the various security contractors, hog-tying them and lifting them up and out of the way.

"You'll never get away with this! The Lion will have his revenge…! Er… Councillor Auric will hear of this!"

"Yeah, yeah, tell it to someone who cares!" Civic Duty turned to his visibly-terrified neighbours. "Well, what are you waiting for? The polling booths are waiting!" With a sudden rush, the people began to race into the polling station, shooting the akumatised champion and the bound guards worried looks and clearly a lot happier to be inside the polling station and out of the empowered man's line of sight. Civic Duty looked up at his prisoners for a moment before grinning and coming to a decision. "Lots more places to visit, guys. Why don't you come along and I can leave you with your friends!"

More metallic tentacles extended from his pants and jacket and, like extendable limbs, let him stride high above the city streets, away through the darkening evening sky in the direction of another polling station where he knew from a call from a friend there were similar problems.

~*~*~

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news!" Nadja Charmak looked at her notes uncertainly for a moment before continuing her broadcast. "Strange news coming in from the outskirts of Paris on this special Election Day: Four months after the exposure and arrest of Gabriel Agreste, we are receiving reports of a new akumatised supervillain on the loose, apparently preventing independent election observers in the employ of various political action groups from… um…" The woman paused. "Ladies and gentlemen, my producer gave me some very nicely neutrally-phrased notes but I think that we can be clear here. These 'independent observers' are all actually little better than private enforcers whoa are apparently associated with various right-wing groups with uncertain sources of funding. There are reliable reports of them preventing people from certain social demographics from voting and TVi is one of several stations that has been heavily pressured by the Auric Campaign and their allies in the city council to describe their task as 'preventing vote fraud' rather than 'voter suppression'."

"I think that the people of Paris are able to decide for themselves which of these things is the right description."

"All this aside, the question on everyone's lips this evening is this: What is the real purpose of this akumatised individual, who is using the power of the Butterfly Miraculous to empower them and what is their ultimate goal? We can also ask: What, if anything, are Team Miraculous going to do about it?"

~*~*~

"Well, you don't see that every day!" Queen Bee was looking at the Eiffel Tower. In between its four huge riveted iron legs was a web-work of metallic cables, which were wrapped around dozens of men in black semi-uniforms. Some were yelling in fury, some were screaming in fear.

Ryuuko frowned slightly. "Do… Do you think that we should cut them down?"

"Well… They don't seem to be in any real pain or distress; they're just restrained!"

The Dragon Heroine of Paris frowned. "I see your point, Bee-chan but there is the issue of the fact they were all brought here by an akuma and we cannot currently contact Ladybug-sama. I don't find that the 'Do not disturb' message on her Miracuchat account of "Don't panic! All under control!" is sufficiently explanatory."

Queen Bee sighed. "Stormy-chan, if there's one thing I've learned about Ladybug, it's this: She only gives explanations when she has the time and inclination to do so. We'll just observe for now and only take action if there really seems to be anyone in danger."

At the stroke of 10pm, the polls closed. With a grateful thought aimed at Painted Lady, Civic Duty released the power he had been given back to her. Hamsa Hamid then fell to his knees, exhausted but grinning in exhilaration. He looked up at the white wings fluttering away into the chilly night. "See ya, little butterfly."

Several kilometres distant, Marinette Dupain-Cheng let her transformation fall before calling on Tikki to transform her into Ladybug. A Lucky Charm was summoned and cast into the sky. A storm of magical ladybugs exploded out and flooded over the city, leaving over two-hundred 'security contractors' standing unharmed underneath the Eiffel Tower and looking around them in shock. All of them were thinking the same thing: They didn't want to have to explain this to the Lion of Crime.

~*~*~

Ladybug was actually enjoying the official declaration of the election results at 6pm the next day.

Auric was in a foul mood and had started shouting as soon as the event started about Team Miraculous having 'fixed' the election. It was correct, of course, it just was the wrong meaning of the word 'fixed'. He was insisting that the vote be immediately declared invalid and a new date set. Anarka was satisfied to stand with her campaign manager, Emilie, and several of her supporters on the stage, discussing the preliminary figures that they'd seen (including a very sober-seeming Adrien and Melodié who were apparently there for moral support).

"So there were some incidents at some polling stations and some 'security contractors' getting themselves tied up by some kind of prankster!" Everyone looked over at Anarka with a certain degree of disbelief. "Can yeh actually show any proof that this has led to the vote being rigged in any way? Were th' polling officers interfered with?"

Auric strode forwards, red in the face. "Those guards were meant to prevent vote fraud! The silent majority of Paris has no reason to believe that this vote was free and honest!"

Anarka rolled her eyes. "So ye say, lad. Can ye prove it? Were there any examples of sharp practice like some voters deliverin' multiple ballots? Or maybe there were certain voters being disenfranchised on frankly dubious grounds?" Auric stuttered a bit at hearing this.

Dionne la Cynique jumped forwards from her place in the press pack. "Tens of thousands of votes were placed only because of the intervention of an akuma!" She turned to where Ladybug was sitting to one side of the platform. "The Butterfly Miraculous was supposed to be safe! Who was using it and what did they do to manipulate the votes in Couffaine's favour? You owe it to the people of Paris to be truthful!"

Anarka shook her head. "Lass, those tens of thousands of votes were made by legally registered voters. We have records to prove this; every election does." The grey-haired former rock queen smiled in a condescending way and looked over at Auric. "D'ya have any grounds to claim that they shouldn't be included?" She looked back at La Cynique. "What about you, lass? I know that you've been quite open about claimin' I've been shippin' in thousands of Moroccan and Tunisian non-citizens over the past couple o' days to 'illegally pad the vote'!" La Cynique's face flamed red in response to that; she seemed to be desperately trying to find something to say.

Auric finally spoke. "The point, Anarka, is that there was interference at the polls. This alone should persuade the council to call for a repeat vote!"

"Until it gives you the result you want, Jacques?" Emilie asked sweetly. Ladybug hadn't realised that Auric could go redder but he did!

Finally, Ladybug got tired of listening to the argument and stood up. "If I may make an interjection at this point?" M Aîné, the grey-haired provisional chair of the council for the duration of the elections shot the red-and-black-clad superheroine a grateful smile and nodded. "Although we have firmly avoided taking a position in this election, Team Miraculous nonetheless has been aware that there have been accusations of corruption from both sides. For this reason, we have been observing several polling stations for signs of… Shall we say 'sharp practice'? What we have found was disturbing to say the least."

Ladybug gestured and Rena Rouge stepped forward, putting her flue to her lips. Before everyone's gaze, a half-dozen large free-floating glass-like display screens appeared and began to show video recordings taken on the day of the election. With growing sounds of disquiet, the gathered citizens, press, supporters of various candidates and assembled observers both from the national government, the European Commission and even international bodies watched the videos playing showing the 'security contractors' denying entrance and even using force to do so. They watched as they bribed Gendarmes to look the other way and used illegal means to drive off voters and observers.

"None of this proves anything!" La Cynique screeched. "Those men were preventing vote fraud! Councillor Auric had the right to have observers to ensure the integrity of the process!" Then her eyes opened wide and Auric face-palmed. There was supposed to be no admission that he was in any way involved in this.

Ladybug smiled pityingly. "Independent observers of the integrity of the process are one thing; that is what we were doing too. However, actively filtering voters at the door of the polling stations? Using force to deny entry to registered voters? That's going a bit too far." The time had come for the coup de grace. "Councillor Auric, are you aware of an individual known as 'The Lion of Crime'?" Auric stuttered but seemed unable to answer. "He is an international criminal of the highest order and has been implicated in various atrocities. Most importantly for this discussion, his 'employees', the Lion's Pride, are often hired out as 'muscle' to support politicians and businessmen whose interests coincide with his own. They have an interesting little catch-phrase." Ladybug gestured to Rena who moved her fingers across her flute, now held vertically like a cane in front of her.

"I hear the Lion's roar."

"I hear the Lion's roar."

The screens showed a half-dozen of the 'security contractors' using the Pride's declaration of fealty to their master. Several of the senior Gendarmes began to talk to each other urgently, shooting suddenly suspicious glares at Auric.

Ladybug fixed Auric with her hardest stare. "In the light of all these events, I think that most people would agree that, instead of being a corrupting influence, the akuma known as Civic Duty actually prevented the corruption of this vote."

Auric had gone pure white; he looked around him and noticed several of his supporters… most of them in fact and certainly all of them on the City Council… had found somewhere else to be. "I… I had no idea who those men were! They were recommended to me by several of my election committee!"

"You are just trying to confuse the issue!" La Cynique snapped. She strode up to Ladybug and did her usual step of sticking her microphone into the superheroine's face. "Do you deny that you have deliberately acted to alter the outcome of the election?"

"Do you deny that you have done the same?" There was silence as the firebrand reporter absorbed Ladybug's words. "Mlle La Cynique, isn't it a fact that most of your reporting has been rumour-mongering and outright fabrication protected by what was little more than threats to destroy the reputation and career of any whistleblower?"

"I'm sure the similarity of the phrases you used in your more incendiary reports and those used in M Auric's political statements was purely coincidental?" Rena's sweet grin was pure malice. "Or maybe someone should look into precisely who was issuing instructions to you at this time?"

The reporter seemed to be taken aback at being suddenly the one being questioned. "W… We have the responsibility to report current affairs and give fair hearing to those who are blacklisted by the other media companies!"  

"Maybe," Rena said. After dismissing the projection screens, she had folded up her flute and then pulled it open in its scroll display mode. "You know, M Auric's election committee is an interesting bunch: Lots of 'trustees' of frankly-shady political action groups and even some very senior businessmen; they've all skated quite close to the law on occasion, especially in the area of political lobbying and accusations of outright bribery. Interestingly, they include what are obvious proxies connected to essentially all the members of the board of TVFr. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, too?"

M Aîné, quietly cleared his throat. "Thank you Mlle Ladybug, Mlle Rouge, that is all very interesting and I believe that the council will certainly need to begin an investigation into the provenance of these 'security contractors' and precisely what were their orders." Auric, now standing in the centre of a two meter-wide empty space went a pale green shade and seemed on the verge of fainting. La Cynique was brick red and glaring at Rena as if she wanted to attack her. "However, conditional on the formal ratification of the results I believe that we can all be satisfied that the vote was reasonably free to the point where the results were not seriously affected. Therefore, I believe that the time has come to officially announce the result of the count."

The exact details were unimportant. What mattered was that Anarka got twice as many votes as the rest of the field put together.

"Therefore, it is my duty to announce that Mme Annarka Couffaine is now the mayor-elect of the city of Paris. Vive la France!"

La Cynique shot forwards and confronted Ladybug. "Ladybug, how to you respond to the charge that you have cooperated in… no, have been a leading personality… in a conspiracy to rig the outcome of this election?"

"I deny it utterly, Dionne. In fact, I would go further to say that the evidence shows that if anyone has been shown to be attempting to rig the election, it is the supporters of M Auric, which include your employers."

"I… I… There is no…" The woman shook her head as she tried to create a counterpoint. "You cannot hide the truth… We will… The silent majority will…"

"Lassie?" Dionne span to see Anarka standing behind her. "Don't bother to attend the next mayoral press conference. TVFr is barred until the council's certain it's uninvolved in this criminal conspiracy that Team Miraculous has exposed tonight."

Dionne's ever-present microphone dropped to the floor. "What?"

"That's a legal obligation, of course, lassie. I don't really see the need though; no question that the 'silent majority' of Paris could make their own decisions about you lot now."

~*~*~

Jacques Auric cringed as he listened to the voice on the other end of the 'phone call. "Milord, not everything is lost! I just need time and funding! Most of those idiots on the council are so easily corruptible that they'll vote to declare the vote invalid no matter what is the evidence!"

"More funding and more time, Auric? I don't think so. You were only worth something if you could deliver at least a facsimile of public approval. No matter what the politicians say, you are now tainted; tainted and useless to me."

"Milord…"

"Please, be silent unless you want to start me thinking about how I'm going to recoup my losses on this matter."

"M… Milord?"

"From your assets and that of your friends, all of whom I'm sure are racing to become former friends as quickly as possible." Auric's voice caught in his throat. "No, you are no longer of any use to me in regaining control over certain… assets in the Paris area. Fortunately, I have agents of my own who are already in the process of arriving in the city; I am sure that they will be far more effective… and less costly… than you have proven to be." There was a long pause before Lord St John Graham de Vanily spoke again. "Your saving grace right now is that you are too far beneath my notice to need to silence. I strongly recommend that you take whatever measures you need to ensure that you remain unnecessary to silence. You understand what I'm saying."

Auric was still standing there, listening to the dialling tone, fifteen seconds after the Lion of Crime had hung up the call. His eyes moved to his passport and he wondered if he had time to flee France before the Gendarmerie, Interpol or even SPECIAL came calling to take a statement.

~*~*~

"Damn them! Damn them! Damn them all! Especially that imbecile Auric and those cowards on the board!"

Dionne la Cynique threw the shredded remains of her notice of dismissal on the plushly-carpeted floor. It was nicely worded with all the conditional terminology and noncommittal phrases that the finest lawyers her employers could retain would use, of course. However, in the end, the meaning was clear: TVFr were tying off loose ends. She had been too closely implicated in the rapidly-metastasising scandal and the board were clearly hoping that, if they presented her head to the council on a platter as a direct and close associate with Auric (and they could prove that, damn them; the evidence was there even without them having to create it), everything could be blamed on her. TVFr would be chastened and have to rebuild its place but it would survive.

However, she knew that her career was now totally ruined. No station of any significant size or reputation would touch her now.

The chestnut-haired woman sucked in a deep breath and threw her glass of fine-aged red wine down her throat. "They'll pay for this," she vowed. "Every last one of them will pay!"

She walked over to her writing desk and opened a secret panel to reveal a twenty-five centimetre finely-shaped thin rod of belladonna wood with a hidden core of a magical asp's sinew. She held the wand up to her face as if saluting and began to chant. "Ladybug, Emilie Graham de Vanily, Anarka Couffaine and all the people of Paris: On this day and through all the power of my magic I vow vengeance and disaster on all of you. As I have been destroyed, so you also will be destroyed." The wand was now crackling with poison green fire. "On this I swear by my magic and by my soul! So mote it be!"

The woman considered thoughtfully as she lowered her wand. This new stage in her life deserved a new life. Dionne la Cynique had been destroyed, after all. Yes, yes, that was what she would call herself. "So swears Nightshade."

Chapter Text

Gina Dupain underlined the last line in the quotation on the whiteboard, capped and threw the dry erase marker into the tray beneath the whiteboard before turning to her assembled students. "So, that is the point you need to remember: All literary analysis is subjective. Ultimately, art is in the eye of the beholder." The period bell rang and the silver-haired woman with the amazingly youthful body yelled out as the class quickly began to gather their items. "Okay, kids! Remember, read the set text and I want three thousand words that is your interpretation of the poem for the next lesson!"

As Class 3A all quickly headed for the exit, Nino leaned close to Marinette. "Dudette, your grandma is pretty good teaching Lit!"

On the noirette's other side, Mylène nodded firmly. "She's a much better girls' counsellor than that horrible supervillain woman too!"

Marinette was impressed that she was able to control her blush and her scowl. Everyone had been wondering who would permanently replace Mlle Bustier when she went on maternity leave, especially now that Nathalie Sancoeur was securely locked up in Pitié-Salpetrière Hospital for the Criminally Insane. The real mystery now for her was how Nonna Gina, who, as far as Marinette knew, was a soldier, not a teacher, came up with the necessary credentials to get the job. She suspected SPECIAL were responsible for that and the idea that the superhuman monitoring agency had placed a teacher to keep an eye on her and, she had to assume, her friends, made her ultra-nervous. She was willing to trust Jessica and Aeon's mothers but President Hombee? No, she and her notoriously unaccountable agency were a bit too focussed on preserving the status quo for her comfort.

"Oh, Mlle Dupain-Cheng, a word before you go?"

One good thing: Marinette's nonna never forgot her boundaries. School would have become unbearable if she were always dealing with her grandmother calling her 'mia nipotina' and squeezing her cheeks. She turned back and returned into the classroom, earning several sorrowful looks from her peers. "Yes, Madame Dupain?"

Gina sat down on the desk and smiled. "Good job on uncovering the plot to place one of the Lion's agents in the mayor's office of this city. However, SPECIAL control has asked me to remind you to avoid using unpredictable elements like an akuma in future. If you need plausible deniability, inform me and we'll run any necessary interference with the French government to avoid their complicating matters."

There were so many things that Marinette wanted to say at this point, not the least of which was to remind her that, although she'd accepted a reserve position in the United Heroez, that did not mean that she was one of SPECIAL's pet superhumans. She was a Guardian and her loyalty was to the Balance. However, none of them would be really useful and only would create a conflict that didn't need to be fought now. "I understand, Nonna."

Gina grinned in a way that reminded Marinette that her grandmother could see through lies that were not actually explicitly lies quite effortlessly. "Oh, I'm sure that you do; just about as much as Jess does when she's issued stand-down orders!" The strangely-youthful woman touched Marinette on the shoulder. "Just remember that we are all equally involved in these matters, Marinette. Don't think that you have to act alone or in secret." She sat back. "So, what plans do you have for your visitors this coming week?"

Marinette's quick ears picked up on that. "Visitors? I'm only expecting my cousin to visit this!"

Gina shrugged. "Ah, so I have let the cat out of the bag? Well, I'll see you back at home unless you're planning to spend all night with your friends again!"

~*~*~

Fei Wu looked around herself as she stepped onto the air bridge off of the China Republic Air A340. France! Cousin Marinette's homeland! Of course, Ying-Ying was annoyed that the Renren chose this disgustingly mundane form of transport when she was confident that Fei could easily fly half-way around the world in her eagle form but Fei was pretty sure that it would likely lead to legal complications even if it was possible!

The bright lights of Charles de Gaulle Airport were a little harsh to her eyes but there was really nothing new for a young woman who had spent all her life in the bustling super-metropolis of Shanghai.

Barely enough room to fit side-on: Check.

Crowds of people who were in bad moods: Check.

Completely anonymous part of an anonymous crowd: Check.

Really, she could be right at home. Or… Could she? Fei had cleared passport control and exited through baggage claim with her carry-on and her small roller case and stared at the huge sign being held up above the crowd waiting for their arriving families or guests. Written on it with a sharpie, it read (in perfect Wu dialect): "Wu Fei – Welcome Renren!" Fei spent some time staring at this before looking down at the blond-haired and grinning face of Adrien Agreste. Standing at his side, her hair in the new bun-and-tail style she'd only seen in video calls and photographs before, was Marinette.

Fei turned towards the pair and, as soon as she was close enough, her shorter cousin exploded into her arms, hugging her tightly. "Huānyíng nǐ, biǎo dì!" ("Welcome, dear cousin") Marinette murmured into her ear. Fei raised an eyebrow and Marinette blushed. "I've been rehearsing that for months."

Fei laughed. "Xièxiè nǐ, biǎo dì! Hěn gāoxìng zàicì jiàn dào nǐ!" ("Thank you, cousin! It's good to see you again!") Marinette's reaction showed that she understood that returned greeting and this earned her a grin from her step-cousin. "Looks like you learned some things along the way!"

"Is it okay not to greet you in Chinese?" Adrien asked.

Fei laughed and squeezed Adrien's shoulder. "It's always good to see you, Adrien, no matter what language you speak." The black-haired beauty looked at the two of them with a slight air of mischief, noting the way that Marinette was leaning into the taller boy. "So, you have finally found each other?" She enjoyed their looks of embarrassment. "What, no more protests? Good; that saves me the trouble of getting you together and opens the door to endless opportunities for teasing." The black-haired young woman laughed at the look on their faces and stepped forwards to hug Marinette again. “I’m so very glad for you.” Then she hugged Adrien and whispered: “Hurt her and there is no-where you will be able to hide from me.” Adrien’s eyes opened a bit wider and she was pleased with that. “So, whose idea was that sign?” She raised an eyebrow and, from their reactions, decided that it was actually both of their ‘fault’. She chuckled. “I know I’m going to love spending time with you two already. Come on, let’s go!”

~*~*~

Sabine (Xia-Bing) Cheng was a woman of quite startling levels of self-awareness. She had little time for self-deceit and was aware that the choices that she’d made in her youth had put a wall between herself and her family. Marrying a Frenchman and moving to his homeland was probably the paramount fault in their eyes and, because of this, her sister probably would never look at her entirely favourably again.

She was at peace with this fact, which made what happened next all the more surprising. Her beloved daughter entered with her boyfriend and a third person, all carrying with them the sunshine of youth and happiness. Now, Sabine had been expecting this newcomer; it was entirely in-character for her beloved uncle Wang to take in a foundling, just as he had her and her sister when it became clear that their parents had neither the time nor the inclination to spend time with their daughters instead of on their careers. It was even more characteristic of her daughter to effectively adopt her as if she was her own sister. However, the young woman who walked through the door with Marinette and Adrien, laughing at some joke, was completely unexpected.

“Bonjour Maman!” Marinette called out and then realised that there was obviously something wrong based on the shocked expression on her mother’s face. “Mama, are you okay?”

“S… Shu-Yin?” Sabine shook her head. No, it couldn't be. This girl was no older than Marinette and Shu-Yin, despite her wild youth, would never be seen in a western-style t-shirt, jacket and jeans with sunglasses perched on her forehead in the way that Chloe Bourgeois used to favour. Yet, the tall frame and narrow face was her sister’s living image!

“Um…” Fei wasn’t sure what to say. “Nínhǎo, Madame Cheng? I’m Wu Fei…?”

Sabine shook herself out of her daze. “Zǎo, Fei, welcome to our home. Please don’t worry; you just reminded me of someone I’ve seen before.”

“Really?” For no reason that Fei could fully understand, she felt a strange and hopeful feeling of warmth. She was an orphan of course, adopted more-or-less at birth by Wu Shifu and now cared for by Uncle Wang and she was happy with her fate. However, she had always had a sliver of hope that, one day, she would somehow find the identity of her birth parents. She shook her head to dismiss the thoughts as Sabine bustled over to her.

“Now, let me help you with those bags, child. Marinette, Adrien, could you mind the counter whilst I help Fei settle in?” With her usual surprising strength, the small woman hefted Fei’s roller-case and led her towards the stairs. “Now, for the period of the stay, I am to be ‘Auntie Sabine’, okay? None of that ‘Madame Cheng’ nonsense!”

Marinette watched the two of them go as she absent-mindedly donned her apron.

Adrien frowned. “You know, I think that your mom knows Fei from somewhere?”

“Yeah but… that’s impossible, right?"

The shop was just ramping up to lunchtime so Marinette and Adrien were quite busy as Tom busied himself with keeping supplies of the popular pastries coming. Adrien was using that Sunshine Prince charm of his on some customers at the outside tables when Sabine returned back down the stairs with Fei following her with that dark, thoughtful expression that Marinette remembered from those stressful days in Shanghai. “Dear, you are on holiday…” Sabine was saying.

“Uncle Wang just wanted me to… How did he put it? Oh yes, he wanted me to have some time out of the city to ‘decompress’ auntie. However, as I am under your roof, I feel obliged to help out. I help Uncle out with the Thousand Delights and I’d be more than willing to help out here.”

Sabine frowned slightly and then shook her head. “Well, that is entirely in line with what Wang has told me about you and makes it no wonder that you and Marinette are already as good as family!” Sabine shifted posture as she came to a decision. “Very well, I will try you out.” She reached behind the counter and pulled out a spare apron, which she tossed to the Shanghai girl.

Adrien had just re-entered the shop and was reviewing an order he'd taken outside on his notepad. He noticed Fei wearing the apron and smiled slightly. “As I have been relieved of my duties, maybe you can help Marinette serve the table outside?”

Marinette took the page with the new order and raised her eyebrow in askance at her boyfriend but didn’t disagree. She began to load a tray and quickly outlined to Fei where to find the coffee cups and other supplies before pouring a glass of cool juice. Then the two of them walked outside to see Nadja sitting at one of the outside tables with a bored-looking Manon. The little girl’s face lit up when she saw Marinette but, when she saw Fei, she was visibly thunderstruck. “Mama! Lookit! Nettie’s got a sister!”

Nadja looked up and was similarly surprised. “Oh! Marinette! Who is…? Since when were there two of you?”

Marinette played with her bun-and-ponytail hairdo and realised that she and Fei did look startlingly similar now. Really, only Fei’s narrower face and dark brown eyes told the two of them apart. “Fei is my cousin, Mlle Chamack!”

Nadja smiled. “Welcome to Paris, my dear Fei. I can certainly see the family resemblance!” Fei and Marinette both struggled to find a reply!

~*~*~

Sometimes, Jess Keynes had experiences that reminded her of just how privileged she was. One of them was happening now. She was used to air travel but arriving at Paris Charles de Gaulle by scheduled airline rather than in her mother’s ‘Keynes One’ personal Boeing 757-300 was different enough from her usual experience to be something of a shock. Gonna have to get used to it, she told herself. If I want to do more field work, travelling undercover is going to be necessary.

Aeon was looking around her in fascination as she quickly absorbed all the styles and forms of the people in the airport. “Jess! Isn’t it fascinating? Even on the same planet and a similar culture, there are noticeable differences, both sartorially and behaviourally!” She turned her toothy grin on her stepsister. “I am so looking forward to this! My camouflage subroutines have never been put under such a test before!”

Jess smiled slightly and adjusted her sunglasses. “I’m sure, Aeon but don’t forget that you’re here as Aeon Hill, not Uncanny Valley.” The android girl looked quizzical so Jess decided to clarify a bit more. “Try to act and talk less like you’re a visiting extraterrestrial android!”

Aeon frowned. “Jess, I am a visiting extraterrestrial android.”

Jess was quite proud that she didn’t face-palm. “Yeah, but we’re supposed to be under cover!”

Aeon’s face cleared with an expression of revelation. “Oh! Yes, I understand now! I will try to be more discreet in my curiosity!”

Jess knew how to be discreet too. In the cab from the airport to their small and humble student hostel in the 21st Arrondissement, Jess managed to remain totally discreet as she watched as her sister, hidden behind her eye-obscuring dark glasses, tried to not too obviously gawp at the sights of and passers-by in Paris and was proud at not succumbing to the urge to giggle at her sister’s behaviour.

The two teenagers got out at the Jardins des Plantes and Jess remembered to make a show of complaining about the cab fare (it was actually well within her allowance). She looked around the beautiful inner city park. “So, how long have we got, Aeon?”

Aeon paused for a moment as she quickly called up their travel itinerary from her vast internal database. “Check-in time has actually started Jess, but we have a few hours before it closes, so we can spend a few moments to… ‘take in the sights’?”

“More like make sure I know all the high points to swing from. Not everyone has the ability to fly.”

“Actually, in the past, experienced Eagle holders have manifested wings and flown,” Lirri said helpfully from inside Jess’s coat and the First Nation girl put her finger on the kwami’s head to push her down and further out of sight.

Towing their suitcases, the two girls walked into the park and saw something that immediately caught Aeon’s eye. A French-African young man was in the park, talking excitedly to his companion, a flying robot of some kind. This immediately caught Aeon’s attention. “Fascinating! A Toyzworld BD-088 companion drone but there seems something odd about its behaviour and responses!” With her usual response to the unusual, Aeon abandoned her luggage and walked off towards the odd pair, leaving Jess to struggle with her carry-on and two extra-large cases.

“Aeon!” Jess’s sister ignored her, thanks to her tunnel vision.

Max was talking to Markov about his latest robotics project and the progress that they were making together when Markov suddenly changed his posture and looked at something over his friend’s shoulder. “Oh, hello! Are you interested in being friends?”

Max looked in the same direction and saw an African-looking girl with curiously regular features and brown eyes walking over to join them. Max noticed that she was barely paying any notice to him, her entire attention focussed on his little friend. “That’s curious; do you know what a ‘friend’ is?”

Markov displayed a rolling eyes emoji on his face-screen. “Well, of course I do!”

“Markov is a fully-sentient intelligence,” Max cut in. “That includes the ability to feel emotions!” Max shifted slightly; there was something unsettling about the level of focus in the girl’s gaze. “He’s a good friend to have.”

The girl cocked her head, her gaze still locked onto Markov. “Strange; I have no record of any BD-088 models spontaneously developing sentience.”

Markov's manipulator claw was raised in an 'Actually…' gesture and was about to reply when Jess finally caught up with her sister and took a moment to catch her breath. “Aeon, don’t just walk up to people and start interrogating them!” She looked at Max. “Look, I’m sorry. Aeon… Well, she gets very excited sometimes and doesn’t think about social niceties.”

As much as he understood that feeling, Max still felt like his brain was trying to escape his skull. This was like dealing with Marinette and Alya when Alya suddenly got it in her head to ‘fix’ something or someone and Marinette was left picking up the pieces. “Look, I’m sorry; who are you two again?”

Max had never seen anyone smile quite as widely as the dark-skinned young woman. “Greetings! I am Aeon Hill, and this is my stepsister, Jess Keynes! I’m glad to meet you!”

The young woman stuck out her hand and, frankly, Max had a few seconds of hesitation before accepting the shake, which was bone-jarringly over-enthusiastic. “Uh… H… Hello. I’m Max Kanté and this is my friend Markov. Also, he didn’t spontaneously develop sentience; I modified his processor to make him… well, a real person!”

Jess was impressed; a schoolboy of her age who achieved something that Mama Olympia had required a full-scale robotics and electronics lab as well as eighteen months of effort to achieve the same feat just 10 years ago? However, Aeon replied before Jess could think of one. “Astonishing! That is an immense achievement for one of your youth and resources!” The dark-skinned girl paused, cocking her head before a connection was made in her sophisticated mind. “Ah, yes, Max Kanté of College Francoise Dupont. You were in New York City with your class last year but we did not meet personally.” Aeon’s attention snapped back to Markov, making the little robot jump back a bit. “I also did not see your companion unit at that time!”

“This ‘companion unit’ does have a name, you know!” Markov snapped before pausing. There was something in that gaze. His optics activated their full spectrographic and telephoto modes and, completely unexpectedly, he realised that he wasn't looking into human eyes at all. All at once, the eye marks on his face screen turned to hearts. “I… You… How did I miss this? You’re astonishing! Astounding! You’re… You’re beautiful!” Max’s mouth dropped open in shock as Markov began to excitedly buzz around Aeon. “The camouflage projection integrity! The level of fidelity of the outer chassis! The amazing number of articulated components to maximise your ability to mimic human dermis! That’s even before I start on the optical and near-optical sensory system with the parallel-mount radiation projectors! I can already sense the complexity and subtlety of your intelligence algorithm! You are a work of art!”

“Markov, what’s wrong with you?” Max spluttered. He turned to the two American girls. “Look, I’m sorry, he never normally reacts to strangers like this!”

Max tried to catch his friend but Markov easily avoided his grab and zipped down to grab Aeon’s hand in his manipulator claw. “Oh, beauteous goddess of machine intelligence! Why am I so blessed with your presence? How can I serve you?”

Jess felt considerable alarm; somehow this robot had seen through Aeon’s disguise projection? How? More importantly, how was she going to stop his human companion from asking awkward questions?

Aeon didn’t need to breathe and so didn’t hyperventilate. However, completely without a conscious command, her camouflage projector manifested a pretty reddening of her cheeks. Completely lost, she tried to respond to Markov in kind. “I…. er…. Thank you Markov! Um… You are a remarkable device too! I assure you that I don’t need your service!” She smiled sweetly. “Thank you for offering though! It is always good to meet a kind being!” She patted the side of the robot’s headpiece with her free hand.

Much to everyone’s shock, Markov’s faceplate went deep blue with a stream of white hexadecimal code and he dropped out of the sky. With a yelp of fear, Max leapt to his friend but was relieved to see that his face-screen was now showing two swirls where his ‘eyes’ should be. “Markov!”

“She touched me, Max! I… I dare not ever recalibrate those tactile sensors again!”

Jess decided that this had gone on for long enough. “Okay, Max? Great to meet you again; yeah, I remember seeing you in the crowd. We’ve got to be going now, right Aeon?” She snatched her still-blushing sister’s shoulder and yanked her backwards.

“Wait!” Markov croaked from where he was lying on the ground. “Aeon! How will I find you again?”

“I’ll find you, Markov!” Aeon called over her shoulder as she was dragged away and then covered her mouth. “Jess, why did I just say that?!?” she whispered in an urgent and panicked tone. Jess compressed her lips and didn’t reply, although she wasn’t sure if it was to avoid saying something insulting or to hold in the laughter. Of all the times for Aeon to have her first crush!

As the American girls fled, Max looked down at Markov. “Okay, pal, are you done embarrassing me? If I’d wanted this, I’d have gone out with Kim!”

Markov’s eyes had turned to hearts again. “At last, Marinette and Adrien’s behaviour is comprehensible to me!”

~*~*~

It was fortunate that Marinette’s bedroom is sound-proofed, simply because of its position in the house or Tom and Sabine would be kept awake by the laughter from inside as Marinette and Fei caught each other up with the various misadventures that had marked their lives in the past year. The two girls, sitting on top of Marinette's bed, fell silent, smiled at each other and squeezed each other's hand. Finally, Marinette spoke: "I've never thanked you properly, have I?" Fei raised an eyebrow in polite query. "For keeping my secret? You could have let it slip to Adrien or Uncle Wang so easily."

Fei looked down for a moment. "I was through with acting as if I owned something that belonged to someone else just because it was convenient to do so."

Marinette touched her step-cousin on the shoulder. "It just goes to prove that you've always been more honourable than you let yourself believe." Marinette shook her head. "These past nearly two years have been quite the series of revelations about what I'm capable of and I'm sure it's been the same for you!" Fei's rueful smile was all the reply that Marinette needed.

Suddenly, the square bangle on Fei's bracelet began to shine and Marinette felt a sudden spark of power – The Grandmaster's power, something she'd only felt since that journey to the past when she'd felt his presence in her heart. A glowing spark of deep indigo with white prominences flashed into existence over the bracelet and jumped into the clear air, resolving suddenly into a cute black lion-like spirit. "Mei-Shi!" Fei gasped.

"Finally these interminable human customs of courtesy and secrecy are resolved and we can get on with the important matters for both the Renren and the Grandmaster's apprentice!"

Marinette, with Tikki peeking out of her hair, watched as the indigo-black lion with white mane soar slowly around her room, briefly pausing over the box inside which the Miracle Box was hidden.  Then, he swept back up to the two young women with a lot more grace than the kwami usually showed. "Well, what are you two waiting for? Transform and let's be off!"

"Mei-Shi, be polite! We're her guests!" Fei scolded.

The little lion spirit shook his head. "Fei, have you wondered why I so strongly approved of this journey when it will put you so far from the Cave for so long?"

The girl thought for a moment. "I thought that you agreed with Uncle Wang that I needed to get out of Shanghai and the stresses of keeping Ladydragon out of the sights of the state police for a while!"

Mei-Shi smiled and shook his head indulgently. "It is because you are needed here!" The lion spirit looked over at Marinette and glided over to her. "Ah, Marinette Dupain-Cheng! You have changed so much and learned so much since you and the Renren were last in each other's presence. You have grown, child and, so much like Fei, the burden of responsibility on you has grown even greater." Mei-Shi dropped a little lower and, much to Marinette's surprise, he touched her arm right on the invisible Guardian tattoo created by the Grandmaster's magic. "I can sense Mingzhede Xiangdao's touch and the trust that he placed in you, oh Lady Guardian."

Tikki finally made her presence fully know; she buzzed forwards and hovered in front of Mei-Shi, her forelimbs against her hips. "Mei-Shi, you talk in riddles as always but the Guardian will need more information if she is to act!"

The protector of the Prodigious looked at the Spirit of Creation thoughtfully. "Tikki, you only know of what you were present to see. You know of the creation of the Prodigious of the Spirit but what you don't know is that, after Mingzhede Xiangdao hid it away, he tried again!" Tikki looked sceptical. "After the Mother Miraculous Box was complete and you and your peers entered your long rest, the Grandmaster began work on a far more powerful Prodigious of the Virtue; the gems were created and the setting forged but it was never completed." The Lion spirit looked superior. "However, nothing rests forever."

Tikki touched the approximate spot where her nose would be if she had one, somehow managing to look like she was getting a headache. "Mei-Shi, for goodness' sake, what is happening?"

"Something that the Grandmaster never anticipated, Tikki: The reawakening of the Prodigious of the Spirt has called to the Renlings manifested for this next but never-completed project. They are awakening and this city appears to be the place where destiny has chosen to gather them anew!" At that point, Marinette's phone began to make the distinctive tone of the akuma alert, something she hadn't heard for months.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@SnekCharmer has issued an AKUMA ALERT

@BugBoss: What's up Snake?

@SnekCharmer: It's #Robustus, Ladybug. Or… at least I think it is.

@BugBoss: That doesn't make sense, Vipereon;

@BugBoss: The Butterfly Miraculous is secure and there is no way that Markov could be akumatised

@SnekCharmer: I don't know, but I've been following Markov around for a while

@SnekCharmer: He doesn't look normal and *isn't* behaving normally!

Mei-Shi looked strangely composed and even slightly smug as he regarded the two young women, now both kneeling upright on Marinette's bed. "I believe that the first pre-shocks of the earthquake to come are being felt. The only question is: How will you two children, touched by Fate, choose to respond?"

Marinette scowled. "Okay, we'll play it your way, Spirit. Tikki! Spots on!" Marinette was consumed by red-pink light, her pyjamas melting into the spotted red-and-black fighting mantle of Ladybug.

Fei shot Mei-Shi a dirty look but didn't hesitate either. She smacked her right fist into her left palm and, on her chest, the eight dark crystals on the face of the Prodigious lit up one by one and she transformed into the red and yellow costume of Ladydragon, her blonde-tipped black hair flowing in a wind that only she could sense.

Ladybug flipped her yo-yo open and spoke into it as if it was a flip-top phone. "Vipereon, give me a pin on Markov's current location but don't engage! We have no reason to assume that he's a threat yet!"

~*~*~

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news!

"Unexpected late news tonight with reports coming in of the robotic akuma Robustus apparently engaged in a bizarre rampage in the 21^st Arrondissement. At this time, we have received no reports of injuries or even of violence. Robustus is apparently stole a… bouquet of flowers… and has been soaring around the area… declaiming poetry?

"Well, Paris is the City of Love; maybe akumas feel it too!"

~*~*~

Vipereon turned to welcome Ladybug with a broad smile, which melted off of his face as a red-and-yellow eagle dropped to the rooftop at her side and then transformed in a gout of flame into a young woman with blonde-tipped black hair. "Wait… Who is this?"

Ladybug looked impatient and more than a little annoyed. "Vipereon, this is Ladydragon, Holder of the Prodigious of Spirit; hi. Ladydragon, this is Vipereon the Holder of the Snake Miraculous of Intuition; hi. Vipereon, where is Markov?"

Vipereon, a bit shocked by the impatient and highly sarcastic-sounding introduction, could only gesture in the appropriate direction. Ladybug looked and thought for a moment. Robustus had a distinctive red face that set him apart from his uncorrupted self, who had bright aqua-coloured face. This was Markov but… "Wait, his face is red in a way; is he… blushing?" The robot's face-screen was showing a blushing face emoji which was regularly swapping back and forth with a smiling valentine heart emoji! "Okay, that isn't right!"

Ladydragon shook her head as she peered in the same direction. "Okay, of all the things I expected to see on this trip, this was probably the very last!"

Markov, meanwhile, was talking to himself in a bizarre mix of code and joyful words. "00 REM //An Ode to Android Beauty

"01 init verse()

"02 def val1 =aeon

"03 def val2 =markov

"04 def beauty aeon=true (=infinite)

"05 IF (val2:val1) = false THEN goto 10

"06 start loop(00)

"07 runsearch AREA:citysec-((01-21))

"08 if val1=true THEN goto 12

"09 if val1=false

 "10 DO $bereft loneliness

"11 THEN return(00)

"12 DO $eternal joy

"13 End subproc

"14 End verse()

"What is that?" Vipereon, a songwriter by trade, was flummoxed.

Ladybug shook her head. "I… think that's love poetry? At least love poetry for a robot!" Ladybug somehow held in her urge to giggle. "Look, as harmless as it looks, we can't leave him running around the city and scaring people with his search."

Ladydragon was about to start laughing but then she noticed something in the cute little robot's manipulator claw: A gem, only the size of her thumbnail but shining gold-white with internal power. Suddenly, she realised what Mei-Shi had been talking about but just hadn't fully understood. That was a Prodigious Gem, out of its setting but clearly active! "Guys, I think that I know what's going on here! Hou-Hou!" With a flash of red-gold flame, the young woman changed into a red and yellow monkey with a blonde Mohawk, who launched herself towards Markov, bounding from roof to roof and swinging around chimney stacks and TV aerials.

Markov didn't seem to notice the rapidly approaching simian form of the Champion of Shanghai until literally the last moment. "Oh, hello! Sorry, you aren't the female I'm looking for, as nice a monkey as you are!" Ladydragon reached for the gem in the robot's claw only for it to shine even brighter and deliver a sudden flash of lightning.

From where she was standing, Ladybug only heard the crack of thunder and saw her cousin knocked away from Markov and go tumbling through the air. She cast her Yo-yo and swung to intercept and catch the falling monkey-form heroine. She landed on a rooftop and set down her twitching cousin as, with a flash of fire, she returned to her human form. "F… Ladydragon, are you okay?"

"F… Fine… Never down for the full count!"

Vipereon arrived a few moments later. "Damn it! Don't attack without giving me a chance to set a Second Chance reset point!"

Ladydragon didn't understand that but she got the general gist and shot the Snake Hero a slightly sour look. "I never knew that a Prodigious gem could protect itself like that!" She shook her right hand, obviously still stinging from the magical lightning.

Ladybug looked at her cousin. "So, that's what Mei-Shi was talking about?"

"The magic feels the same as mine, yeah."

Ladybug nodded. Turning away, she cast her Yo-yo into the sky. "LUCKYYY CHARM!" At the top of the cast, a swirling galaxy of magical ladybird beetles appeared and, with a flash of pink light, resolved into a hoop on the end of a long handle in Ladybug spotted red and dropped into Ladybug's hands. "Well, that's less cryptic than usual!" Ladybug gave the big butterfly net a few practice swings, noting that the handle was made out of plastic rather than the usual twisted wire and wooden handgrip.

Vipereon touched the Snake Miraculous. "So, we're going in?"

Ladybug frowned. "Not yet. Something doesn't feel right; there's a piece missing…"

"Oh gosh! Oh goodness! This is so bad!"

The three heroes looked over to see an eagle-masked girl in the tan fighting garb of a Cheyanne brave swinging towards them with a woman-like figure in shiny bronze soaring ahead of her on the power of several small rocket engines. Ladybug blinked in shock at the totally unexpected arrivals. "Uncanny Valley? Ma'xevé'késo? What are you two doing here?!?" So, was this what Nonna Gina meant by more friends coming to visit?

Ma'xevé'késo grinned uncertainly. "Uh… I'll explain that later. Valley insisted that we come over! We… uh… met that robot earlier today!"

Uncanny Valley was wringing her hands, her inhuman multi-coloured eyes wide with worry. "Ladybug, Markov's behaviour is abnormal and I am concerned that I may have triggered this with my appearance and careless response to his emotional reactions!"

"My beauteous goddess!" Everyone looked over to Markov, whose 'eyes' were nothing but a pair of huge hearts. The yellow gem was shining more brightly again. "Let me welcome you!" Markov reached behind him to pull out the bouquet of flowers that he'd swiped from a stall earlier in the evening. His face screen turned to a frown and he tossed the flowers aside. "No… No, too pedestrian! Hold on my love! There are some nearby gem repositories that should contain sufficiently unique displays to prove my devotion to you!" The robot turned and began to fly away, singing in his bizarre mix of code and verse.

At that moment, Ladybug's environmental intuition triggered. First her Lucky Charm, then Uncanny Valley, then Markov and finally Prodigious gem in Markov's claw all flashed red with black polka dots. "Oh, of course! Uncanny Valley! We need you to keep Markov distracted. Ma'xevé'késo, stay back but be ready to make your move. Ladydragon, go in small! Snake? I want you to keep everyone safe until we can strike!"

Vipereon snapped the Snake Miraculous into active mode. "I'm ready, Harmony. Second Chance!"

"Tang-Tang!" There was a flash of golden-white flame and Ladydragon vanished. Ma'xevé'késo's eyes opened wider when she saw a thumb-sized praying mantis in red and yellow take wing and buzz off towards Markov, who was making an indirect and unsteady departure. Ladybug nodded and, her Lucky Charm slung over her back, she cast her Yo-yo and swung off in the same direction.

Uncanny Valley drew in an uncertain breath before activating her flight rockets. "Markov! Come back!"

Markov swung around and showed a grin on his face-plate. "You called, my darling?"

Uncanny Valley grimaced slightly. She landed and took on her best approximation of a coy pose. She'd probably have done better if she wasn't so horrified with the whole situation. "Yes, aren't you going to greet me first?" As Markov paused and turned back, Vipereon's eyes widened and he suddenly tackled Ma'xevé'késo, knocking her behind an air conditioning unit with him and touching a finger to his lips to urge silence. Uncanny Valley kept her focus on Markov. "Why don't you greet me properly?" There was a buzz of miniature motors and small port opened at the base of her left wrist.

Markov displayed a shocked expression. "R… Really?"

Uncanny Valley shrugged nervously. "Think of it as a kiss in greeting." There was a 'whirr' and Markov's claw rotated backwards, revealing a recessed mounting from which a Scomp probe popped out. He inserted the probe into the other machine intelligence's port and Uncanny Valley's eyes fluttered strangely as their minds directly interfaced.

Ladybug jumped out of hiding and swung down with the net, ensnaring Markov instantly. The robot's claw opened in surprise and the Prodigious gem dropped out of his grasp, only to seemingly catch itself mid-air in a web of lightning that attached itself to the bottom of his chassis

"DUCK!" Vipereon yelled out. Ladybug dropped down, and Ladydragon in her Mantis form buzzed up into the air as a circular wave of electricity exploded out of the gem. Ladybug jumped back up, grabbed the handle of her Lucky Charm again and stopped Markov from flying away. She looked towards Vipereon and Ma'xevé'késo. "Now Eagle! Separate him from the gem!"

Ma'xevé'késo wound up with her Bullroarer but, just before she cast, Vipereon snatched her shoulder. "The gem! Aim for the gem!"

The Eagle Heroine nodded. "FREEDOM!" The Eagle Bullroarer lashed through the air and knocked the Prodigious from the web of lightning under Markov. The little robot seemed to go limp and dropped like a stone. Uncanny Valley gasped and snatched him out of the air and hugged him protectively against her breast before he could hit the rooftop.

Ladydragon buzzed forward and caught the suddenly-faded gem out of the air. There was a flash of fire and she returned to her true form, holding the gem between thumb and forefinger. "Gotcha!"

"U… Uncanny Valley?" Markov's face screen was back to normal and he was 'looking' up at the android superheroine. "I… That was very strange. I was looking in the park for something that might interest you when I saw a small yellow gemstone. I picked it up to hand it in to the police but… I believe I went onto standby after that and had an odd dream? There was a voice telling me to act on my impulses!"

Ladybug put her hand on Markov's headpiece in an attempt at comfort. "Don't feel bad, Markov; you were being influenced by magic."

"The power of the Prodigious can easily overwhelm you so it controls you rather than the other way around." Ladydragon raised the yellow gem and looked at it. "For all the power it gives you… you're better off without it." She looked down at the deceptively mundane-looking gem. "Now we have to work out how to keep this thing safe!"

The heroine nearly dropped the gem when it suddenly shone brightly and a little creature manifested above it, a feline-like anthropomorphic chibi in blue and white with black lines and silvery tufts on the top of its pointed ears. "You're not my Renren!" they squealed at the surprised Ladydragon. It crossed its arms aggressively. "You won't stop me from finding them! So there!" At that point there was a crack of thunder and the yellow gem seemed to explode into electricity and vanish, leaving Ladydragon shaking her shocked fingers frantically.

Ladybug shook her head. Something told her that solving this problem wasn't going to be fast and easy. Worse, she had a bad feeling that the Dark Order and the Lion's Pride might know about this too. One step at a time Marinette; focus on now and plan ahead when you've got a few moments to think about it!. With Uncanny Valley's help, she untangled the polka-dotted red butterfly net from around Markov and then threw it into the sky. "Miraculous Ladybug!" There wasn't much damage to fix but Ladydragon's fingers stopped stinging.

About a kilometre away, an annoyed florist found that a bouquet of flowers that had been stolen by that crazy robot had returned seemingly unscathed! At that point, much to his surprise, Chat Noir dropped out of the sky, dropped a €10 note onto his counter before snatching up the same bouquet and pogoing away on his staff. The man ran a hand through his long grey hair. "This town…" he muttered to himself.

~*~*~

Uncanny Valley and Markov detached their Scomp interfaces in a sheepish way and stepped back, both feeling a bit abashed. The android girl cocked her head thoughtfully. "Is that how you view yourself? The avatar you created in the Scomp virtual space?" Markov didn't directly respond to her question; he just put two blush marks under his 'eyes'. Uncanny Valley nodded wisely. "I have heard it said that the virtual avatars we create represent our 'souls', to a certain extent."

"Val?" Ma'xevé'keso called out to her sister gently.

"You must go," Markov acknowledged. "You have a mission and an assigned place, neither of which is anywhere near me."

"You are a kind and warm-hearted being," Uncanny Valley responded. "It may not be possible for us but I am sure that you will one day find a being worthy of your love." She gave the other machine intelligence a genuine smile. "I am not capable of forgetting. However, even if I were, I would not forget you."

Markov's voder made a sound that was a little like a sigh before he turned for home. No doubt Max would have heard the Akuma alert and would be worrying about him.

~*~*~

"Ah! Were you successful?" Mei-Shi was hovering in the middle of Marinette's bedroom as she and Fei dropped in through the overhead skylight. "Perhaps not; I see that the Prodigious of Determination is not…" He then made a loud 'Eep!' noise when he was seized by Ladydragon.

"Okay, little Guardian, no more riddles and mind games! How can we find the Prodigious?"

The lion spirit struggled in Ladydragon's grip but couldn’t get loose. "I… I can only sense their nearby presence and only then when they're fully active! All I know is that the power of the Prodigious of Virtue is coming from the area of this city!"

Ladybug touched her cousin on the shoulder. "We'll just have to be on the lookout." She looked at Mei-Shi. "Guardian, once we have secured one of the gems, how do we keep it secure?"

Mei-Shi, still in Ladydragon's vice-like grip, gulped. "The only way is for the gem to be placed in its setting, binding it to its holder." He looked at the two young women's gazes and made a hard admission. "Also… no, I do not know where the setting might be. Or even what it might be."

"… Great; I'm not sure that this could be any worse." Ladybug had to agree with Ladydragon's opinion.

Chapter Text

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@TrueQueen has PINGED @BugBoss to join the CHAT

@BugBoss: Yes, Chloe, just brainstorming over yet another crisis; what’s up?

@TrueQueen: Thank goodness you're there!

@TrueQueen:  Thinking about a crisis? Well, I’ve got bad news; we’ve got some kind of mind control thing going on!

@BugBoss: Wait, what?

@DragonGrrrl: Something strange has happened with Zoe and Melodié when they were shopping with us this morning

@DragonGrrrl: Both of them suddenly became overwhelmed with the urge to break the windows of a jeweller's store and steal the gems!

@TrueQueen: I mean, it was a tatty low-class shop trying to cash in on the Magical Schoolboy books and films; smashing the glass was almost an act of aesthetic protest but…

@BugBoss: It’s out of character, yes.

@TrueQueen: The thing is both of them had almost immediate break-downs after Gami-chan and I stopped them

@TrueQueen: They're both flashing back to when they were mind-controlled by Lila and Felix; crying and the shakes

@TrueQueen: I don't know what to do!

@BugBoss: #Janus and #Enchantress aren’t in town as far as I know;

@BugBoss: Give them time to cool down and we'll talk to them to rule out the Gemini and Virgo Miraculous as the cause

@Cool4Catz has issued an AKUMA ALERT

@BugBoss: Hang on girls; Chaton, what’s happening?

@Cool4Catz: M’lady, we’ve got a near-riot in the 1st Arrondissement

@TrueQueen: The jewellers’ district? Merde, this is city-wide then!

@BugBoss issued an SOS all-call alert STATUS: CODE RED ATTACK UNDERWAY

There was a loud ‘crack’ as the family group who had been looting a jeweller’s shop were all yanked together with the cord of Ladybug’s Yo-Yo and the impact of their heads against each other knocked them out.

Ladybug watched as Ladydragon, in her tiger form, backed another group of spontaneous thieves against a wall across the road. Thankfully, the sudden burst of kleptomania was not anywhere near as widespread as Chloe had initially feared. It had been isolated to the 1st Arrondissement and a few notable locations in the 6th Arrondissement, the city’s antiquities district. It hadn’t been more than a sudden and uncontrollable impulse for most people and it was already fading apart from a few people who had got their hands on some gems and were desperately trying to hide them away somewhere about which none of them seemed to have any conscious memory.

The black-haired protector of Paris walked over to her cousin with the latest group who were already regaining their right minds. A young man was quite relieved to look away from the red and yellow tiger and see a familiar face “Ladybug? What… What’s happening?”

“Stay calm, sir. We just need to make sure that you’re not being influenced anymore.”

Ladydragon returned to her human form and Ladybug allowed herself to see the funny side as a couple of pre-teens in this group started squealing about how ‘cool’ her powers were.

Ladybug’s Yo-yo started vibrating to indicate an incoming voice call. She unwrapped her startled and stunned group of captured victims (because she was convinced of that) and flipped it open into communicator mode. “Yes, Chaton?”

“It looks like it’s over, M’lady. Queenie and Stormy have just reported that they caught a group of these… spontaneous looters trying to get over one of the bridges to the north of the city. The moment they were caught, they collapsed and don’t seem to remember anything. There have been no new outbreaks for at least five minutes now.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m getting too. It’s bizarre! I’ve never seen any kind of power like this before!”

“You got any ideas?”

“Just one: Someone was after something and wanted it now, not later, so they used their powers to create multiple proxies to search for them. Obviously a jewel of some sort, based on what all these people were looking for! Given what has been happening recently, maybe they were looking for one of the lost Miraculous.” The superheroine rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Of course, this had to happen when I had a meeting planned!"

Listening in, Ladydragon was genuinely surprised. "You actually have planned meetings and everything? Wow! I never knew being an accredited hero was so much like work!"

Ladybug looked over at her cousin with an air of suffering. "You have no idea."

~*~*~

Fei felt that she'd made a clean getaway, all things said and done. She'd never appreciated how seriously her cousin took being the protector of this city. She thought that it might be a good idea to vanish when she'd started instructing her team-mates to do interviews with the victims of the apparent mass-madness. As much as she was willing to help, she was a fighter and she didn't really fancy spending her afternoon sifting through the recollections of the magically-altered behaviour of dozens of people.

Although, as she thought about it, something about this whole incident reminded her of something; something that remained frustratingly elusive to her memory.

Right now, Fei was atop the bakery, enjoying the sun and watching the Renlings zipping about the rooftop garden, getting into things and, as always, generally behaving like very small and innocent children. Mei-Shi was also hovering nearby, stroking his chin meditatively. Fei smiled and looked over at the Guardian of the Prodigious Cave. "I can hear your mind working, Mei-Shi."

The lion spirit smiled slightly. "I think that you could learn something from the Guardian, my lady Renren." Fei turned her whole body to look at her spirit guide in some surprise. "In Shanghai, you are something of a reactive force: You help out those in need and respond to crimes but you not interested in finding out where crimes might occur." Fei drew in a deep breath and Mei-Shi raised a paw to ask for silence. "I don't say this to criticise you; you are hardly trained to be… What do you modern folk call them…? Oh yes, a detective. You act to help the innocent and that is enough in most cases but, now, we have a sacred quest requiring our attention where you need to seek out something lost before they are found and abused."

Fei wanted to be annoyed but she couldn't really deny the truth of the spirit's words. "You think that I should be looking for clues of the presence of the various lost Prodigious?"

Mei-Shi nodded. "Indeed; as we saw with the experiences of that strange golem, when improperly handled, the Prodigious of Virtue create in their holders an uncontrollable urge to express that virtue in their lives. We have seen Determination in action already and maybe we should be looking for other similar bursts of mania."

Fei had to think about this and barely noticed as She-She, the Snake Renling, settled in her lap. Almost automatically, she began to caress their long body. "Marinette's apprentice, Rena Rouge, is going to interview the victims of the events of this morning." Mei-Shi nodded silently and waited for his charge to come to the right conclusion. Fei suddenly lurched to her feet, disturbing She-She and drawing the attention of the other Renlings. "I should be present; maybe these events are the first sign of the presence of another Prodigious! Rena won't know what questions to ask but perhaps I would!"

Mei-She nodded with an approving smile. "I do think that would be a very wise thing to do."

Xiong-Xiong, the Bear Renling took this moment to drop back into the bedroom before flying back up over to Fei to drop a flip-top phone with the logo of the eight Prodigious Gems painted on the back into her hands. "Renren! Guardian Mari was going to give you this!"

~*~*~

There was a reason why Ladybug wasn't meeting Ma'xevé'késo and Uncanny Valley at home or anywhere nearby. Yes, Jess and Aeon knew her real name, she bet that Aeon could find her home address in less than a second and, of course, Nonna Gina knew exactly where to find her. However, the pretence of them having to ask or be invited to visit her at home was a key test of the two American girls' long-term trustworthiness and sincerity. If they turned up on her roof, then she could be sure that they had no respect for her privacy and, potentially, safety. If they waited to be invited, then their respect and more fundamentally their trustworthiness was a lot more certain.

Because of this, she was very glad to find the two other young women standing in the agreed spot, the roof of the Trocadéro, just like she asked. "Thanks for coming, guys."

Ma'xevé'késo visibly jumped a little as Ladybug made her usual acrobatic arrival. "Ladybug! Sure! So, what can we do for you?"

"You can tell me why you're in my town. I could ask my SPECIAL contact but I'm already sure that they'd claim not to know."

Ma'xevé'késo and Uncanny Valley exchanged looks. The android woman's face was near-unreadable, of course but the other young woman was visibly nervous. "Um… We're… on a return exchange trip?" Ladybug just made a 'bzzt' noise like a game show's wrong answer buzzer and Ma'xevé'késo looked down, very embarrassed. "Look, Ladybug, I'm sorry but it's classified!"

"Jess, let’s be honest here. I know that you're not going to reveal your mentors' secrets easily but you’ve got to let me know if something bad is happening or if people's lives are in danger!"

There was a long pause as the two American superheroines looked at each other again and seemed to engage in a silent conversation before Ma'xevé'késo finally spoke. "Have you ever heard of a man named Zheng Zhao?"

"Otherwise known as 'Cash'," Uncanny Valley added. It was instantly clear from the expression on Ladybug's face that she did. "He is a notorious fence who deals with everything from the proceeds of small-time street robbery to major thefts. He is also, and this is how he came to our attention, a smuggler of some notoriety. Not only does he arrange the usual smuggling of contraband such as narcotics and firearms but he also is an expert at sneaking instantly-recognisable stolen objects d’art across borders and overseas."

"Yeah, I met him in Shanghai. From information that came out after Gabriel Agreste's trial, he was almost certainly acting as the man's fixer in the city."

Ma'xevé'késo nodded. "He certainly wasn't hindered by losing his major client and sponsor here in Paris. We'd finally gathered enough evidence and were going to bust him in New York about six months back but that was when Standing Coyote caught up with the Eagle Miraculous; he jumped us just before the bust and we lost Cash's scent." The Eagle Heroine frowned and continued in a quiet mutter. "It would be nice if he'd actually apologise for that instead of lecturing me about 'the higher purpose' that the Eagle Miraculous is meant to serve." She sighed before continuing in a more normal tone. "Anyway, I'm guessing that he'd worked out that we were close on his trail and he went underground after that. There were only rumours that he was scouting for specific items around Europe for the Lion of Crime. Then, suddenly, just a week ago, he finally came back on SPECIAL's radar when he arrived here in Paris."

Ladybug nodded thoughtfully. "I'm guessing that there is no clear idea of what he's doing or what he's after?" The two American visitors shook their heads. Ladybug frowned, remembering how Cash had manipulated and corrupted Fei in her desperation to recover her bracelet and find who had killed her foster father. "The problem is that he'll get involved wherever there's a payoff, no matter how small; even managing gangs of street thieves. We may never get a clear idea of what he's after until he's got it."

"There is one lead," Ma'xevé'késo responded. "He's used one of his known front companies to rent a warehouse on the Seine just downstream of the city." She looked over at Uncanny Valley who nodded in agreement. "It's nominally a shipping company, which is a favoured cover of his: 'Golden Horde Consignments'."

Ladybug thought for a moment before coming to a decision. "Okay, I'll put feelers out with my team and let you know if the front company been obviously up to anything."

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: So, that's the situation.

@Cool4Catz: Yeah… Okay, this is weird.

@BugBoss: What is? Everything seems to be weird these days!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Word

@Cool4Catz: The front company that #KingCash works through?

@Cool4Catz: I'm pretty sure that I've seen a few of their vans around the city.

@FoxyBabe: Really? I never saw anything like that!

@Cool4Catz: You wouldn't recognise them as their markings are in Mandarin Chinese. I saw them this morning!

@Cool4Catz: I remember the ideograph for ‘golden horde’ on the sides; I’d not seen it before so it stuck in my mind.

@FoxyBabe: Really? How likely is that?

@ForxyBabe: I mean, courier companies’ vans are everywhere but that particular one?

@Cool4Catz: Two of them, actually; they were very near to where we stopped two of those spontaneous smash-and-grab robbers making their escapes

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Okay, that doesn't sound like a coincidence, dude

@BugBoss: Huh. Okay, Kitty? Tonight, you and I are going on a stake-out

Okay, Marinette, don’t get too comfortable, as hard as that is! Ladybug was nicely wrapped up in Chat Noir’s arms on the cold rooftop of a long-abandoned factory on the other side of a car part from the warehouse of Golden Horde Consignments.

“So, what do you think is going on, M’lady?”

“I’m really not sure, Chaton. The obvious answer is that he’s trying to pick up as many unset gems as possible for a quick profit. It’s just not his style to be so overt, though. Then there’s the issue of the geass or whatever it was that was used on the actual thieves. Who is responsible for that? Something he got from your grandfather?” Ladybug felt Chat shiver, maybe due to the cold and maybe due to the reminder about the fact his grandfather was actually a supervillain and global criminal. "'Loose gems' might mean the cores of lost Miraculous, so we might be playing for the biggest stakes!"

Suddenly, Marinette felt someone approach and she immediately felt Ma'xevé'késo’s unique aura. A few seconds later, the Eagle Heroine landed on the rooftop. With a ‘hiss’ of jets, Uncanny Valley made her own arrival.

Ma'xevé'késo voice sounded casual but there was a very clear hint of tension. “Evening guys; anything happening?”

Ladybug looked at Ma'xevé'késo. “Nothing, which makes me suspicious right away. I work with lots of courier companies and they're active 24/7 in one way or another. Since when are distribution hubs like this not active even late at night?”

Uncanny Valley cocked her head “We may be about to get some indicative activity. I have picked up several police radio messages to indicate items found missing in checks of safety deposit boxes as the banks closed this evening.”

Chat quirked an eyebrow. “Let me guess: Loose cut gemstones?”

Uncanny Valley nodded in agreement. “All the incidents are in the 6th Arrondissement, one of the two parts of Paris targeted this morning. However, they were only noticed when the vaults were checked before being closed.”

Ladybug nodded. “It sounds like it’s definitely the same geass at work. The 'thieves' probably aren't even aware that they did anything!”

Ma'xevé'késo stood up straight and pointed. “Looks like we’re about to find out!” Three vans of the Golden Horde company were approaching quite fast. All four heroes were standing now; the Eagle Heroine took Ladybug's arm urgently. “Okay, Ladybug? I know that this is your town but this is my and Val’s bust; we’ve been working for a while for this result, so we need to take the lead.” Ladybug shrugged and gestured for the Americans to precede her.

As Ma'xevé'késo and Uncanny Valley left, Chat grabbed Ladybug’s wrist to hold her back for a moment. “There’s one thing we haven’t figured out: How is it that people are being influenced like this? We need to be cautious.” Ladybug nodded at her boyfriend in agreement before summoning her infrequently-used magical wings to fly over to the warehouse.

The four heroes were shadows against the night. Within a minute, they’d gained entry to the warehouse via a maintenance hatch on the roof by the wheezing air conditioning unit and were hidden in the roof rafters.

Cash had changed since Ladybug had seen him last. The man had apparently always been skeletally thin but tonight he looked like he was holding himself together mostly by willpower. He had purple bags under his eyes, he looked sick and his hands were visibly shaking. However, there was still the air of unquestionable influence about him as well a degree of smug triumph. “Well?” he barked.

The driver of the lead van disembarked. “Not the haul we could have had, boss, but still quite a bit.” Cash nodded and gestured for his employees to proceed. The man looked on, his eyes glittering with greed as several trays of loose gemstones were taken from all three vans. There were a few bags amongst the loot identifying the gem merchants and banks from which they’d been taken.

That's the proof we need! Ma’xevé’késo thought excitedly. She caught Uncanny Valley’s eye and nodded. Both American heroes dropped out of the rafters and landed on either side of the folding tables on which the thieves had dumped their loot. There were a few cries of surprise but it was already too late. The two heavily-built Chinese men obviously acting as Cash’s bodyguards went flying from powerful punches. A few of the van drivers turned to flee and others reached into their coats.

Ladybug gestured before beginning to stride along the rafters towards the fleeing crooks. In response to her unspoken command, Chat Noir pointed his forefingers at the drivers and loaders clearly intending to make a fight of it. “Calameowty!” There was a sparkle of green black light on the tips of his fingers and, instantly, the guns in the various men’s hands literally fell apart. Simultaneously, Ladybug lashed out with her Yo-yo, tangling all of the would-be escapees’ legs together. One of the men scrabbled at his jacket for a gun but something in the expression on the face of the red-black-and-polka-dot-clad heroine made him pause as the Ladybug Yo-Yo snapped back into her hand. There was something about her challenging expression that he simply didn’t like. After a moment, he shook his head and moved his hand away from his body to show it was still empty.

It was all over surprisingly quickly. Ladybug and Chat Noir shoved their prisoners into the group of other gangsters who were already kneeling in front of Ma’xevé’késo and Uncanny Valley, their wrists secured with zip-ties.

The Eagle-themed heroine’s voice had gotten deeper and Ladybug realised that she was imitating her mother’s own growling style of diction. “Really, Cash? Did you think that you’d be able to hide from us? Let alone carry on your business as if nothing had happened in the past few months? That was very stupid; you should have found a hole to hide in and stayed there. Still, your kind are never very smart are you? All you are really aware of is your greed.”

Cash was coyly hiding his lower face behind his ever-present fan but he didn’t seem too concerned about the four superheroes around him. “Foolish children! I founded my business when your parents were young and yet you imagine that you have me at your mercy?” The man shook his head and coughed weakly a few times before continuing. “Actually, it is you who are at my mercy!”

Uh-oh. Ladybug tensed; it was never good when villains chose this particular type of monologue. Suddenly, it was as if Ladybug’s mind was filled with cotton wool. It was difficult to think, let alone perceive anything. The only things that stood out were Chat’s ring and Ma’xevé’késo’s necklace. How pretty they were! How she wanted them! No….! Ladybug pushed back against the incredibly strong impulse but it was persistent and wasn’t going to fade away easily. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Uncanny Valley reach out and then yank her hands back as if she were trying to grab her sister’s necklace too but had thought better of it.

“M… Mine… No…” Ma’xevé’késo hissed as she visibly fought the urge to grab Ladybug’s ear-rings.

Suddenly, Ladybug’s mind cleared and Cash flew across the room, stunned and with blood running from his nose. The polka-dotted heroine blinked stupidly until she realised that the person standing on the folding table in front of her was Ladydragon. The Holder of the Prodigious of the Spirit spoke urgently. “Cousin, fight it! Can you hear me?”

“I… Yes, of course I can F… Ladydragon! What was that?”

Any hope that they could have any kind of conversation was dashed as the various crooks and smugglers, having taken the opportunity of the Heroes sudden indisposition to free themselves, charged them.

The melee lasted for several minutes before the heroes finally got control again (in no part due to Ladydragon, who used her Tiger and Bear forms to cow many of the crooks into submission). As the area fell silent again, Ma’xevé’késo was looking around desperately as she handed the last beaten crook over to Chat Noir to re-secure. “Where has he gone? Where?!?” There was a look of puzzlement from the others. “Cash! Where is he?”

Uncanny Valley looked around her, a dull red glow visible in her eyes. “Infrared traces indicate that he fled towards the riverside, Ma’xevé’késo.”

The two American heroes rushed out of the warehouse’s rear doors to a riverside loading dock and looked around desperately. “Val?”

“There are no active motor craft or any other signs of flight, Ma’xevé’késo. He’s gone.”

Ma’xevé’késo began kicking mooring bollards and the wall furiously until Ladybug joined her and hugged her. “It’s okay, Ma’xevé’késo. It’s okay. You’ve stopped his operation here and that’s what matters. He cannot escape justice forever.” She said that but the look on Ladydragon’s face made her wonder if she’d just lied to her friend.

~*~*~

About an hour later, Ladybug, Chat Noir and Ladydragon were sitting atop the Arc de Triomphe and thinking about the day’s adventures.

“So, you seem to have known what was going on there, Ladydragon.” Chat Noir’s face held no accusation, only honest curiosity.

The protector of Shanghai looked up at him with a weak smile. “I was listening in as Rena Rouge interviewed all the people who were engaged in those smash-and-grab raids this morning and I realised that I recognised their stories. The more of them I heard, the more I realised that I knew what was happening.” The red-clad heroine paused for a long moment before, at last, she began to speak again. “I have felt the same thing: An impulse to take something belonging to others because I wanted it for some reason. I have also felt the impulse to take those things to a certain place and give it to certain people.” She drew in a deep breath.

Ladybug knew where this was going. “It was Cash; it is what made you do what you did in Shanghai.”

Ladydragon’s nod was filled with shame. “The sensations were identical: The dulling of my thoughts and narrowing of my perceptions. Like today’s victims, I also tended to forget what I had done and where I took the loot. I only remembered where I took your property when you led me right to Cash, Ladybug.”

Chat Noir frowned. “It sounds like the effect of the Gemini Miraculous but more specific to… what? Theft for his benefit?” Ladybug nodded; Chat frowned as he quickly reviewed his memories. “I didn’t see him doing anything that might be triggering a magical device before he attacked us!” He looked at Ladybug who shook her head in agreement.

“Me neither, Chaton." She thought for a moment, shaking her head. "I wonder if he might actually be a psychic with the narrow ability to induce people to steal for him." The heroine's fists clenched unconsciously and her voice dropped to a growl. "It's as bad as how Agreste used to twist people's minds for his benefit!” She reached out to her cousin and squeezed her hand. “Don’t blame yourself, Ladydragon. I have confronted power like that in the hands of Gabriel Agreste and the only thing that prevented me from becoming his pawn was him breaking off his attack for some reason. The second time, I knew how to push back but I still blacked out for a long while as I struggled to assert control of my mind.” She looked inward for a moment and remembered that horrible moment when Scarlet Moth was calling to her and how easily he was luring her, exaggerating her helpless rage at Lila’s seeming victory and suppressing her scruples until she was almost consumed by the thing called (ironically enough) ‘Princess Justice’. “There is nothing more terrible than an attack on the mind, especially when you aren’t ready and able to fight back.”

Ladydragon smiled slightly. “I know this here,” she said, followed by tapping on her head. “Knowing it here is harder,” she concluded by tapping over her heart.

There was another pause before Chat spoke again. "So, how did you know where to find us?" Fei shot Chat Noir a mischievous smirk. "Ladybug was kind enough to provide me with a 'phone that had a guest account for your social media network… The MiracuChat?"

Ladybug laughed. "I was going to formally induct you into the group before the thefts started. Good thing that you found it anyway." She suddenly looked up as what she thought of as her 'Guardian sense' triggered. "Hello, Ma'xevé'késo!"

All three heroes looked over to the other end of the platform as Ma’xevé’késo landed atop the great triumphal arch and walked over to join them, waving as she did so. “Well, Cash's local gang are all in the hands of the Gendarmes now. The front business has been closed down and they’re picking through the stolen gems to get them back to their legal owners.” She drew in a deep breath, her eyes troubled. “Cash has vanished without a trace, just like always. Damn him.”

“You’ll find him,” Chat predicted. “I doubt that his little trick will work so well twice.”

Ma’xevé’késo smiled but everyone could see that it was hollow. “One hopes so, yeah. Anyway, Knight Owl has recalled me and Uncanny Valley to New York but I wanted to say goodbye and to thank you for all your help before we left.”

Ladybug reached up to squeeze the other woman’s hand in acknowledgement before looking around her in puzzlement. “Where’s Uncanny Valley?”

Ma’xevé’késo’s smile was more genuine now. “Oh, she had her own farewells to make.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Of all the times for this to come up…!”

~*~*~

To Max, the android girl and Markov had been interfaced for less than half a second but he knew that, to a machine intelligence, that could have been an eternity.

“Farewell Markov; thank you for awakening me to something I never dreamed of having before this.”

“Thank you, A… Uncanny Valley. I will always remember your beauty and kindness.”

To Max’s utter surprise, the American superheroine leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the front of Markov’s headpiece and then turned away, climbing out of his window, extending her small rocket motors and soaring off into  the sky.

“There goes a very special lady,” Markov said, his voice pitched as a whisper. Max looked on in amazement as he realised that his friend was in love!

The genius schoolboy shook his head. "Maybe we should get back to our special project?" Markov nodded in agreement, calling up from his database the schematics for Max's newest robotics project

~*~*~

As the melee developed (with that blasted Ladydragon having turned into a tiger), Cash struggled to regain enough strength to stand up. Damn Graham de Vanily and his promises! The potion had indeed greatly boosted his powers but it had also come with a great cost and he’d been left too weak to use it again. He nearly died, for crying out loud! Even now, having spent hours floating slowly downstream on the Seine inside a covered rowboat, his strength had barely returned enough to walk up the steps of his small private aircraft at an isolated general aviation airstrip!

As he took his seat Cash shook his head in genuine regret. “Ah, young Fei: You always were stronger than so many realised, most of all that ridiculous fool Fu Shifu. You had skills that equalled my own in… my special field of interest! If only you’d been less obsessed by stupid dull-witted ideas like ‘honour’ and ‘friendship’, you had the potential to become my Princess of Thieves and even my heir!” He shook his head again as he set aside his regrets about the events nearly a year before in Shanghai. You win some and you lose some as he'd learned himself decades before.

Cash sighed regretfully as he contemplated this particular loss. That blasted barbarian savage of a superhero had got one thing right: Having failed the Lion of Crime, he'd better find a hole to hide in for a while until the man's anger faded or he found some other fool upon which he could pour out his not-inconsiderable rage.

As the twin-engine propeller plane took to the sky for its journey to Marseilles, where Cash would switch over to his personal yacht for his journey back home to Shanghai, Cash realised something. There was a weight in his loosely-buttoned formal shirt that wasn't there before the battle in the warehouse. He tensed, feeling a sudden icy dread; had one of the heroes slipped him a tracer bug or something?

With a sense of unreality, the fence and smuggler reached into his breast pocket and pulled out… a flawless red faceted gemstone! Only the size of his thumbnail but still perfect! It was obviously from the haul is thralls had obtained for him but he hadn't picked up anything before the heroes had attacked his warehouse!

Cash was looking at the gem, which he suddenly realised was perceptibly and unnaturally warm to the touch. Suddenly, it began to shine with blood-red light and a small creature materialised above it, not too different from the small spirits that gave that accursed Ladydragon her powers. The creature was a rat-like anthropomorphic spirit of some kind in blue and white with black highlights and a long silver ‘mane’ running down its back to the base of its tail.

The small creature bowed. “Greetings, sir! I am Rattus, the Renling of Chaos and Fire. How may I be of service to you today?”

Cash began to laugh. Maybe this was one that he had won after all!

Chapter Text

Alya Cesaire was roused from deep sleep when her mind began to notice the sensation of something patting her cheek and nose. She giggled a little. “Nino, you goof, stop playing with my face! Just kiss me if you need it so badly!”

There was a lot of amusement in the voice that replied but it was most certainly not Alya’s boyfriend. “I’m afraid that I’m not Wayzz’s Holder, Alya!” Alya’s eyes snapped open to see Trixx hovering right in front of her face. The chibi anthro-fox Spirit of Illusion smiled toothily down at his Holder. “Do you want me to create a Mirage of him to wake you up every morning?”

With a groan, Alya covered her eyes with her forearm. “Trixx, why did you wake me up?”

The kwami considered that question for a moment before replying. “Because it’s a school day, because you don’t want to arrive at school later than the Guardian does and, of course, because there are things that you want to do first.”

Alya scowled and crossed her arms defensively. “Why do you have to be right all the time?” Trixx’s only reply was a mischievous snigger.

Having become an apprentice Guardian had changed things for Alya in many ways. The way that she’d expected the least and yet had the most profound impact was the mental disciplines that Mast… Marinette was teaching her. She’d found that her personal focus had improved so much and that she no longer struggled with urges to interfere with others’ decisions just because things weren’t going in the direction in the way she’d thought they should. It had been impossible to hide this from her family, of course. Still, as far as her mother and father knew, she’d developed an interest in meditating several times a day, even though they thought it was odd that Alya, previously uninterested in any kind of religion, had seemed to have suddenly adopted some sort of oriental mysticism (and she’d heard them citing Marinette as a cause, something that was both right and wrong in ways they’d never imagine).

Alya took the Fox Miraculous from its night-time place with its beaded chain wrapped around her left wrist (Marinette had been dogmatic that all the Permanent Heroes should never let their Miraculous leave their person for any reason) to place it around her neck. Then, as Marinette had taught her, she took a moment to centre herself, breathing in and out deeply as she adopted a one-legged yoga pose, with her left foot pressed against the side of her right knee and her hands pressed together over her head and then slowly drawing them down to face level. After that brief exercise, she dropped down into a ‘lotus’ pose, cross-legged and her palms pressed to the tops of her knees as she looked inward and organised her thoughts and emotions.

As always, she felt her link with Trixx swell and she was again aware that the kwami she saw was just a small manifestation of a vast intelligence whose boundaries stretched not just out into the universe but into other planes. Distantly, she was aware of her Master in her room over the bakery and the sparks that were the various kwami that lived in her room. Today, however, she sensed something new, something just on the edge of her perception. The Fox granted her the ability to sense deception and illusion and someone whose spirit touched her own was engaged in just that. Who and for what purpose?

At that point, Alya’s focus was disrupted by two much closer star-like foci of mischief. Without opening her eyes, Alya responded to their presence. “Ella, Etta, I have no idea what you’re up to but don’t.” The twins audibly gasped in horror and amazement.

“Uh… We’re sorry, Alya!”

“Etta bet me that you were sleeping, not praying…”

"Or whatever you're doing…"

“So we decided to check…”

“Obviously you’re awake so…”

Alya pressed her hands together above her head, lowered them down to her lips and then opened her eyes with a smile that reflected the love that she felt for her two baby sisters, no matter how much they were a source of trouble. The two girls were still in their pyjamas, which had the same colour-palette of their daywear (sea green for Ella, cerise for Etta). Being as early as it was, the twins’ hair was still a mess from sleep. Alya reached out and flicked both girls’ noses, earning complaining noises in response. “So, what’s up, pests? Need me to find you something to do?” Both little girls shook their heads frantically. “Okay then!” Alya looked at her tablet and saw the time. “Maman will be going to work soon; don’t you think you should let her get you ready before she does?”

Both girls' eyes widened and, with gasps of horror, they ran off back in the direction of the family dining room/lounge. “I really like those two!” Alya looked up at Trixx and wondered, not for the first time, how he was keeping out of the girls’ way so effectively.

“Trixx, whatever you do, do not do anything to encourage them to make mischief!” Trixx simply smiled.

Alya didn't hear Etta, just outside the door, whispering to her sister: “I didn’t see the Real Sapotis today! Did you?” Trixx did, of course and that was the cause of the grin he gave his Holder.

~*~*~

With her glasses on and her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, Alya walked into the lounge to see the usual morning sights and sounds of her family. Her mother, Marlena, was already in her chef’s uniform, sans hat, had Ella in her lap and was using coconut oil lotion to smooth out the girl’s hair and plait it into neat cornrows.

“Morning, Alya,” Otis, her father said, standing next to the terrarium containing Ariadne, the family's pet tarantula.

“Hello, Papa, Maman.”

Alya sat down at the dining table, taking a croissant from the central platter and beginning to cut it open with a knife. She smiled as, out of the corner of her eye, she caught her mother finishing up by adding a recent addition to Ella’s daywear, a hair clip decorated with a turtle picture. Ella and Etta had started to imprint on Carapace and Rena Rouge respectively in the last four months or so and a part of Alya couldn't help but wonder how they’d react to the knowledge that the two heroes were actually their sister and sister’s boyfriend!

Marlena gave Ella a little kiss on the temple (making the girl squirm in a show of distaste) and set her down next to Etta, who had her new fox hair clip proudly on display. The woman turned to her older daughter. “Okay, Alya, I'm going now. I want you to remember that you’re looking after the twins tonight so no ‘forgetting’ because of something Nino or Marinette wanted to do, okay?” Alya groaned slightly but, before she could protest, Marlena continued. “Alya, please don’t make this difficult. It isn’t fair to impose on Nora now she’s moved in with Theo. She’s got her own household to keep now and we can’t keep asking her to help us with ours!” Ella and Etta both giggled at Alya’s look of annoyance but not too long or too loudly because their parents were watching.

The particular way her mother chose to talk about her older sister did make Alya think. Of all the people in Paris that Nora, the champion kick-boxer that she was, could have chosen, the slim-built, very non-physical, bohemian and very intellectual Theo Barbot was close to the bottom. However… Well, weirder pairings existed in this world, Chloe and Kagami coming to mind. Theo was Nora’s Artist Man and she was his Beauteous Amazon Muse and that was that, or so it seemed. Nora had moved into Theo’s loft studio with him shortly after Victory Day and the two seemed very happy together. She couldn’t help but wonder just where this relationship might go. Neither of them seemed the sort to do something formal like get married but they were definitely in this for the long term to the point where her mother called them a household. Might…? Alya’s brain bounced off of ‘Auntie Alya’ and refused to think any further about having a niece or nephew.

The young woman was shocked out of her introspection by her mother’s gentle kiss on her cheek. “I’ll see you tonight, sweetie.” Alya nodded and smiled at her mother as she began browsing through her 'phone to get the latest gossip and news to share with the others, often for reasons that her parents couldn't ever imagine.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@FoxyBabe) – CO-ADMIN

@BugBoss: Morning, Foxy!

@FoxyBabe: Hey, Mari! You sound cheerful today?

@BugBoss: Oh, me and @ManyanimalGal spent last night catching up on the cheapest animé and laughing at it

@BugBoss: Remind me to look up what 'MST3K' means; she applied it to our commentary

@FoxyBabe: I should really start recording you for a podcast channel

@FoxyBabe: Anyway, I've got some interesting gossip on maybe a new hero

@FoxyBabe: No photos as yet but lots of chatter on citywide blogs

@FoxyBabe: Looks like enhanced physicality to me: Disproportionately strong and durable but fast despite it; the name 'Titania' is being used a lot

@BugBoss: Location?

@FoxyBabe: All the pings so far are in the upstream riverside – Mostly the old commercial districts

@BugBoss: Midnight mugger central in other words. Do you want to check it out?

@FoxyBabe: Well, I would but…

@FoxyBabe posted BOGUS2.gif

@FoxyBabe: Its maman and papa's 'date night' tonight and *someone* is going to be looking after the twins!

@FoxyBabe: … and with #Anansi and #Copycat being domestic now, I don't have a standby

@BugBoss: Rats! I'd help but I think that @Cool4Catz is going to need me after school

@FoxyBabe: Really? Why?

@BugBoss: He's decided that the time has come for him to go to see #Mayura

@FoxyBabe: Wow! @FeatherLady's allowed that?

@BugBoss: The way she sees it, he's grown up enough to make that choice.

Adrien nervously straightened his jacket as he got out of the limousine, pausing to smile gratefully at Gerard, who simply raised an amused eyebrow.

Pitié-Salpetrière Hospital was in the 13th Arrondissement, within walking distance of Agreste Mansion but it wasn’t exactly somewhere Adrien wanted to be seen walking to. It was not a particularly noticeable site for a maximum-security hospital and generally blended in with the other 18th-Century classical architecture of the older parts of Paris. However, it was a maximum-security hospital and there were certain niceties to be observed, one of which was the security checks. The security guard was a pleasant enough professional but it was still nerve-wracking to walk through a metal detector and have his body scanned with hand-held sensor wands. Adrien couldn't help but smile slightly as the guard noted the Black Cat Miraculous and then ignored it, completely unaware that it was a far deadlier weapon than any knife or gun.

There was something about the interior of the building with its exposed iron-work and utility pipes in the ceiling. The lighting was just not adequate and it had an overwhelmingly unsettling feel of menace.

A pleasant young man with a doctor’s name tag met Adrien. “M Agreste?” Adrien nodded. “You’re here to see Mlle Sancour. Good; all the paperwork has been done and her care team here have authorised the visit. If anything, it may be beneficial for her!”

“Is she… I don’t know… Sane?”

The doctor thought about that. “‘Sane’ isn’t really a term that we like to use these days. I think that what you’re asking is whether she’s lucid, stable and non-violent. The answer is ‘yes’ but that is the consequence of lots of quite hard work.” The young man steered Adrien around a pleasant-looking half-naked old man who was standing in the corridor and smiling vacantly at nothing in particular. “When she was first admitted, Mlle Sancour was profoundly distressed, violently acting out intense paranoid delusions of grandeur and has since been diagnosed with an emotionally-dependent obsessive-compulsive identity-dependency on your father. It was necessary to heavily sedate her to protect her and our staff from her violent attempts to leave the facility.” The doctor sighed. “We have since been steadily decreasing the level of sedation and she has been on a regime of close monitoring and intense one-to-one therapy to improve her ability to perceive objective reality and understand the facts of both her current situation and that of M Agreste. We are confident that her sense of reality is reasserting itself but it is still early days.”

Adrien felt a lot worse after he had to pass through a second set of security checkpoints marked ‘Maximum Security Ward’ and was almost instantly confronted by the sounds of the worst forms of human mental distress floating through the air. The security booth had racks of restraints and even weapons visible and there was an obvious alert team of guards sitting in a ready room just past an internal door.

“Is this…?”

The doctor gave Adrien a plastic smile and he recognised that he was being told a lie that families were always told. “We don’t anticipate needing this for Mlle Sancour but there are patients here who are unstable and violent to a high degree and are quite capable of injuring themselves if they have a strong enough psychotic episode.”

The security guard buzzed them through two rows of electronically-locked gates. “Room Three, doc. Little Miss Peacock is already in and secured” Adrien grimaced but he was realistic enough to know that the security team would always be using demeaning nicknames like this just to deal with their own stress at working here; it didn’t make him feel any better at Nathalie being a figure of fun.

Room Three was a simple concrete box with a metal table bolted to the floor along with a bench on either side of the table and a mirror taking up one side of the room, behind which Adrien was sure that there were observers as well as various recording devices. Overhead was a single ultra-bright lamp that threw sharp shadows. On the far bench, Adrien got his first sight in over three months of Nathalie Sancoeur, her hands cuffed behind her back to the bench’s back-rest and slumped lifelessly, looking at nothing. Her glasses were missing (of course they weren’t going to let her have glass with which to use as a weapon). There was a wheelchair parked just to one side of the room that suggested that she wasn’t allowed her cane either. Her hair had been shaved short and there was no sign of her normal red dye job.

Adrien sat down on the other bench but Nathalie seemed to look right through him.

“Nathalie?” The doctor leaned forwards. “Nathalie, can you focus on me for a moment please?” The woman’s eyes seemed to regain life as she turned her head towards the doctor.

“Ah… Doctor Michel… How’s the knee?”

“Fine, Nathalie, thank you.” The doctor smiled plastically to deliver that response before turning to Adrien and talking out the corner of his mouth.. “She nearly broke my kneecap the night she was admitted.” He looked up at his patient. “Nathalie, we have a visitor for you today.”

Nathalie’s head slowly tracked over to Adrien and then something happened to which Adrien didn’t know how to respond. She began to cry. “A… Adrien? Is it you? You’re…. You’re not another hallucination?”

“It’s me, Nathalie, I’m here!” On an impulse he didn’t understand, he reached over to wipe the tears off of the woman’s cheeks. In response, Nathalie leaned her head back and she wailed in torment.

Adrien shot the Doctor a helpless look and, to his surprise, the man seemed approving. The man leaned over to whisper in Adrien’s ear. “That’s the most genuine emotional reaction I’ve seen since she was admitted.” He stood up straight again to address Nathalie in a fixed cheerful tone. “I’ll leave you with Adrien, Nathalie. If either of you need anything, just knock on the glass.”

~*~*~

“Hey, Mini-me!

Alya laughed at the ancient and long-since obsolete taunt that 7-year-old Nora Cesaire had used on her barely-toddler sister over a decade ago. She leant into her sister’s hug and once again marvelled at the strength of the older woman that she always instinctively labelled as ‘Nora’, even before she learned that her strength and durability were superhuman in origin. “Hey, Anansi!”

The light Nora’s eyes faded a little. “Not anymore, kiddo. I’m not allowed to compete professionally, now my little gene advantage is known and there’s no way I’m getting involved in the freakshows of the superhumans-only divisions.” Alya winced but Nora smiled again and she felt that it was a genuine reflection of her sister’s feelings. “Still, I’ve still got the dojo and my little apprentices! You and your friends are coming on Friday?”

Alya, Marinette, and Chloe had all joined Nora’s gym some time ago. Officially, it was so that they could defend themselves in the event of an akuma attack but, unknown to everyone but the girls themselves, they wanted to learn to fight properly in their role as superheroes. Nora was very proud of their ‘take no prisoners’ approach to Akido and every other discipline she could teach them. “Yeah, we’re all coming. Marinette is bringing along her cousin from Shanghai. You might want to talk to her; she’s apparently the last living user of the Wu form of Kung-fu!” Nora  raised an eyebrow in genuine interest. She turned and walked deeper into the loft studio, gesturing for her younger  sister to follow.

Several things had changed about Nora in the last year. For example, she no longer routinely wore her spider-themed yellow fighting costume. She also had started letting her hair down from its bun and it now hung down loosely (along with blonde weaves braided in) to waist length. Apparently ‘Theo likes it that way’ and that was all the reason Nora needed. “So, what’s going on with you now, other than being Theo’s muse?”

Nora blushed and pulled the breast of her housecoat tighter across her chest, confirming Alya’s suspicion that she’d not got dressed after Theo had been sketching her nude again. “Well, I’ve been thinking about the whole superhuman thing.” Alya nodded encouragingly. “It just freaks me out how many of us there are out there!”

Alya nodded. “Yeah, it’s more common than I thought to have the lowest-level powers!”

Nora grinned as she sat at the small circular dining table in her kitchenette area. As she joined her sister, Alya looked around the studio beyond that Theo used for his sketches and sculptures. There were a few covered half-complete statues and Alya couldn’t help but grin as she wondered if any of them was the full-body sculpture of Nora that everyone knew he was working on.

Nora took a sip of some herbal tea that she’d adopted recently. “So, anyway, I was wondering… Is this a sign about who and what I should really be trying to be? I’ve always been a good fighter and always felt the need to defend people!” The amazonian woman laughed quietly. “I dunno, Alys… Can you see me in spandex jumping across rooftops?”

Red alert! Red alert! LIttle sirens and flashing lights went off in Alya’s mind and she frowned at her sister. “Girl! Please tell me that you’re not planning to become some kind of costumed vigilante!”

Nora looked affronted. “What, so it’s okay for the Bourgeois kid and her friends but not okay for someone five years older and whose hands are licensed deadly weapons?”

Alya paused to think of a reply that didn’t blow her own secret identity. “Nora, it isn’t that simple. Team Miraculous are constantly in training: Not just in martial arts but in specific ways that include the use of our… their powers in a fight! They also patrol in groups so that there is always someone there to back them up!” Alya reached out and took her surprised sister’s larger hands in her own. “Nora, please, swear to me that you’re not going rushing out there to cause trouble and pick fights!”

Nora sucked in a breath and then smiled. “Alya, I swear. This is nothing about letting off steam or looking for cheap glory! I’ve learned better than that!” Nora rubbed her arms for a moment. “Alya, I’m not about to throw myself into a fight for no good reason; especially now I’ve got someone who I want to have in my future.”

Alya nodded. “I believe you, Sis.” She chuckled. “So, what are you thinking about then? I’m trying to see you in a police uniform and I’m failing!”

Nora grimaced in annoyance before responding. “Yeah, a black woman joining the Paris Gendarmerie? We’re in the future, kiddo, but we’re not that much in the future!”

Private Room - chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat/private0002

USERS: @BugBoss ([email protected]);

                @Coof4Catz ([email protected])

@Cool4Catz: I don’t exaggerate M’lady; it was hard

@Cool4Catz: Hardest thing that I’ve ever been through

@BugBoss: Don’t feel obliged to tell me anything you don’t feel comfortable with, Chaton

@Cool4Catz: No, you need to know this

@Col4Catz: The first big revelation is that #Mayura is or at least *was* a member of the Dark Order

@BugBoss: What?

@Cool4Catz: Or at least she was by heritage. Her parents were members and she was in training during her college years.

@Cool4Catz: She wasn’t too clear about the exact process but it seems that, as an apprentice assignment, she was assigned to groom the Agreste family to act as the Order’s pawns

@BugBoss: Let me guess: They had got wind of Gabriel’s interest in the Miraculous and wanted to use them to find more?

@Cool4Catz: Actually, it looks like she’d been originally spying on Maman to see if they could get to one of the Miraculous that #Leonadis controlled through her

@Cool4Catz: Maman remembers her as a good friend in college; I’m not sure if I want to tell her that was probably just an ‘assignment’ too

@BugBoss: Tell her; she deserves to know.

@Cool4Catz: She was the one who suggested to #The_Collector that he provide her funding to travel to the site of the Temple to see if she could find any relics.

@Cool4Catz: He was already going power-mad because of the Gemini so he agreed at once

@Cool4Catz: Here’s where things went a bit awry. She’d been spending lots of time with my father and had come to believe in his ‘vision’ of using the Miraculous to make a perfect world

@Cool4Catz: She betrayed the Dark Order - she didn’t go into details but deaths were implied

@BugBoss: It explains why they never sent someone to your family to take delivery of the Butterfly and Peacock.

@BugBoss: I wonder if Audrey was ‘assigned’ to pretend to be @FeatherLady’s friend to see if they could find out what had happened?

@Cool4Catz: She said that she'd decided that the Dark Order were cowards for hiding away and pulling the strings from shadows rather than taking control publicly as possible

@BugBoss: Master Su-Han recently told me that ‘evil is intrinsically self-destructive’. I think that I’m beginning to see his point

@BugBoss: Okay, so I'm coming over

@Cool4Catz: I'll be okay, M'lady

@BugBoss: Adrien, no-one should be forced to confront this alone!

@Cool4Catz: Marinette, as much as I'd love for you to be here, I need to get my head around this and I need to do that alone.

@Cool4Catz: I really will be okay.

@BugBoss: Well… If you're sure?

@Cool4Catz: Yeah

@BugBoss: Okay

@BugBoss: I do have something else to occupy me tonight, I guess

@BugBoss: @NotARenaissanceArtist was going to look into it for me but I can do that

@Cool4Catz: Just one other thing, Princess:

@Cool4Catz: She said that her biggest single regret wasn’t turning on Gabriel the moment she learned I was Chat Noir

@Cool4Catz: That all she ever wanted was for me to be her son

@BugBoss: Oh Chaton!

@BugBoss: Do you think she meant it?

@Cool4Catz: One of her doctors said that people with her condition are naturally manipulative of others’ emotions

@Cool4Catz: Also the whole #Imposter incident demonstrated she wanted to replace Maman in both my and father’s lives, so…

@BugBoss: Ugh

@Bugboss SHARED BigHug01.jpg

@BugBoss: I love you, Chaton, never forget that. I’ll always be here for you

@Cool4Catz: Thanks, m’lady; you’ve always been my strength in bad times

Although Marinette’s secret identity was known to her parents and her team as well as a few others, Marinette still believed strongly in maintaining this secret as much as possible. For that reason, she retreated up onto the roof of the bakery and made sure that the fairy lights were turned off, casting the roof garden in shadow. She smiled as Mullo and Tikki phased up through the rooftop and soared in tight spirals around her before reaching head-level and hugging her face from either side.

“Tikki! Mullo! Dual Transformation!” The subtly two-shade pink light faded and Ladymouse leapt off of the roof, her energy wings catching the air and letting her soar to the northern tip of the Pont d’Lena bridge where she landed on a street light, balancing right atop the lamp. Even this late at night, there were tourists around and there were several camera flashes. Officially, Ladymouse blamed Chloe for the impulse to do so but she actually waved at them and posted coyly with a V-for-victory gesture over her wink because, in the end, it was always good to remind people that their heroes were amongst them..

Rena Rouge chose that moment to arrive on the scene, landing on the same streetlight and arranging herself snugly around Ladymouse's side in a way that had the camera-flashes grow more numerous. The Fox Heroine laughed and then the two leapt off into the rooftop shadows of Paris.

After she was sure they had some distance from the crowds, Ladymouse started talking. “So, how did you get the night off, Rena? I thought that you were going to be babysitting your sisters!”

Rena grinned. “It turns out that Carapace was more than willing to swap shifts tonight and the girls were overjoyed to have ‘Captain Cappy’ watching over them rather than their boring sister!” Rena frowned slightly. “I’m not sure if I should be insulted by that.”

Ladymouse shrugged, desperately holding in a need to giggle at 'Captain Cappy' – Nino deserved better. “I’m only guessing but I’m guessing that they think he's a soft touch and that they’ll get away with more than they would with you.” Ladymouse thought for a moment. “So, I’m heading over to the east of the city to look for this ‘Titania’.”

Rene nodded. “Hence the Mouse Miraculous so you can search lots of places at once. Yeah, I wanted to check this out too! Apart from The Owl, we don’t have many independent non-Miraculous heroes in town; I guess we should at least be interested in this!”

Ladymouse was silent before she succumbed to impulse. "Also, it would be nice for there to be an independent out there who is more obviously competent than The Owl." Rena just sniggered in agreement.

So, onto something that Rena was curious about. "Um… So, I know you were planning to spend time with Chat tonight.  How… How is he? "

Rena grimaced at the sight of Ladymouse's scowl. "It's his secrets to tell, Rena. He says that he wants to handle this himself," the polka-dotted girl snapped angrily.

Both women fell silent as they leapt from rooftop to rooftop, rapidly heading out of the Napoleonic-era styled centre of the city to the more contemporary warehouses and factories of the east. The buildings were generally closely-packed and taller than you might expect. Additionally, many were poorly-maintained or outright derelict, so the two superheroes were forced to slow their progress and place their weight carefully on only very marginally-stable rooftops.

“So, how do we search?” Rena asked.

“It would be harder if we were doing this by day but most of the machines are off at night.” Ladymouse turned to her friend. “So, we use the senses of a fox and a mouse.” She stepped behind Rena and placed her hands on the other woman’s shoulders. “Come on, there has to be some benefit from having this enhanced hearing and sense of smell!”

“Ladymouse, I do that all the time, I…”

“No, I’m not saying just use the enhancement; become the fox; try to see the world the way a fox would!” The polka-dotted superheroine shrugged with a grin. “It’s something that Ladydragon’s been trying to teach me!”

Rena rolled her eyes a little but didn't argue. She breathed in and out once to clear her mind and tried to reach out with her senses the way she did to 'hear' Trixx's cues and suggestions. Much to her shock, the world both lost its colour and gained so many more; so this was how a fox saw the world! At that point, Rena 'saw' the raw red and yellow colours that were the scent of anger and fear as well as the sounds of a distant struggle. "Girl…!"

"I see it too, Rena!" The two heroes were immediately off towards a small collection of scrapyards with dingy prefabricated offices far from any real source of light (dim or broken street lights didn't really count).

Ladymouse and Rena Rouge arrived at the sight of an everyday street mugging. Sadly, there was absolutely nothing abnormal about the man lying on the ground with three men with knives surrounding him, yelling for his wallet and phone. Then it happened. A heavily-built tall woman in a dark grey body stocking with canary yellow highlights suddenly leapt from a different rooftop from the one the two superheroes had arrived at and launched herself into the melee.

Whoever she was, she wasn’t just strong, fast and tough. She knew how to deal with armed foes whilst unarmed, blocking against wrists and exploiting the human instinct to move your hand clear if someone was trying to snatch from you. Both Ladymouse and Rena noticed that the yellow pattern on the woman’s chest formed a ‘T’ shape across her shoulders and running down to her crotch.

The last mugger staggered back from the woman after taking a very obviously-pulled punch to the centre of his chest and he drew a pistol. Before either of the watchers could react, the woman lunged forwards again. The man fired and the vigilante blocked the shot with metal bracers on her forearms. Three shots ricocheted wildly across the street as the woman cartwheeled across the gap and slammed her foot into the man’s jaw, knocking him flat.

Ladymouse looked over at Rena and nodded before catching a small stovepipe chimney with her Tail Rope and dropping down to street level as the vigilante got the mugging victim back on his feet and sent him on his way. "Brother?" Her voice was gentle but had the feeling of bitter coffee. "This is a bad part of town to walk in if you need to clear your head." The man didn't seem sure whether he should shake his head or nod it and compromised by taking to his heels and fleeing the area.

Behind her canary yellow eye mask, wrapped bandanna-style around her head, the woman frowned at the two new arrivals as they walked towards here. “Titania, I presume?” Ladymouse asked. There was a brief pause before the woman nodded. “Nice and efficient; I honestly have to say ‘good work’!”

Titania grinned. “Why, thank you, Ladybug! Nice to get that sort of endorsement from one of the city's pros!” Her grin turned teasing: "Even if you are shorter than most people would think!"

Rena’s heart clenched and she bit her tongue before letting out the name ‘Nora’ in response to that familiar voice. “Y… You’re taking quite a risk,” is what she said instead.

Ladymouse nodded and walked calmly into Titania's personal space, obviously not intimidated by the fact the other woman was at least three times her volume. “You’re obviously highly trained and have some kind of enhanced physicality but it’s still a big risk to take on your own in a lightly-travelled part of the city.” Ladymouse looked around the isolated and ill-lit street. "It's not that hard to get blindsided or find yourself out of your depth without support."

Rena cut in with an urgent tone in her voice. "What she means is that it's too dangerous! You could get hurt so easily!" Yeah, it was definitely Nora in that costume. The look Titania just shot her sent Rena racing back to when she was nine years old and was caught messing with her sister's gym equipment. Nora had never really been upset with her before that.

Titania walked confrontationally over to the Fox Heroine, fists clenched and glaring angrily. "You're not the boss of me, Red! You aren't in charge just because you have magic and have been doing this for over a year!" Rena started feeling those old defensive instincts beginning to take hold as Titania's angry shout echoed in her ears and her fists clenched as she readied to go onto a counter-offensive.

"No-one is saying that we are." Both Rena and Titania looked at Ladymouse in surprise. "Titania, we have no right to tell you what to do." Ouch, Rena was going to feel the sting of Ladymouse's glare for a while. "However, we can't let you throw yourself in harm's way for no good reason. What we do…" Ladymouse gestured to Rena and to herself. "It's an obligation. We aren't seeking thrills and we aren't trying to show our strength. We have a sacred mission to maintain the Balance of all things and this requires that we always be on the lookout for those who would spread chaos or even the wrong kinds of order. That is our reason for doing this; what's yours?"

Titania was genuinely taken aback but, after a moment, she responded. "I've been akumatised," she said at last, hugging herself unconsciously. "My father has been too. My middle sister has been a couple of times … Hell, even my baby sisters have! There are people out there who will do anything for power, for money or just the thrill!" Titania looked at her right fist for a moment. "Luck, God or genetics gave me these powers; I can't just stand back and let innocents get hurt… To maybe let the people I love… my sisters… my parents… my boyfriend…" She sucked in a deep breath. "I have to make this mean something." She glared at the smaller superheroine challengingly. "My grandfather once told me that 'with great power comes great responsibility'."

Titania blinked as she realised that Ladymouse was holding her other hand gently and smiling in approval. "Those are good reasons but please, Titania, don't take risks that you don't have to take. Protect the innocent but… Well, don't let the situation develop where your family have to identify your body in the morgue." Rena swallowed and realised that she knew exactly what would be in the next nightmare she had.

"I… Suppose that I could scope out the lay of the land before going charging in."

Ladymouse chuckled. "That's a good start. Maybe add some armour to the lycra too?"

"Titania?" The big woman looked at Rena Rouge. "If I had family like you…? I'm sure that they'd tell that you have nothing to prove to them. I'm sure that they've never doubted that you have their backs, even if they resent having that presence there sometimes!"

There was a long pause before Titania spoke again and turned back towards Ladymouse. "Look, good talk, but I've got things to do. If you're not planning to arrest me or… Or…" She blinked. Ladymouse wasn't there anymore. She swung back to Rena Rouge and she wasn't there either. "Okay, I'm so finding out how they do that!" At that point, one of the muggers stirred with a groan and she knocked him back into dreamland with an idle kick.

~*~*~

"Ladymouse, that was…"

Rena was surprised when her Master's gloved hand covered her mouth. "Not unless it is needed, Rena; tell me if I have a need to know and not before. We demand that courtesy from others so I think that we should extend it in return." The Fox Heroine was flummoxed but nodded in agreement. "Let's head back to the city centre and finish our patrol."

Rena thought before shaking her head. "I'll head back later, Ladymouse. There are things that I need to do first."

~*~*~

Titania was genuinely surprised when, as she was working her way across the rooftops, looking for trouble, Rena Rouge landed on the far end of the peak of a roof from her. "So… Uh…" The Fox Heroine paused for a moment. "We got off on the wrong foot there, didn't we? Maybe I should walk the walk. Fancy having someone… uh… watching your back for the night?"

Something about that body language called out to Titania. She knew this young woman but she didn't know from where; her thoughts literally jumped away from any hint of her identity. Finally, she shrugged. "Sure, it's always good to have company." There was another pause. "Titania is kind of long winded. Call me 'Tee'."

Rena Rouge smiled. "I'm 'Rena' to my friends."

Chapter Text

There were many simple pleasures to life, Chloe had come to realise in the last paradigm-shifting eighteen months of her life. It was these things that made life worth having. She didn't need to be Queen over her acquaintances and employees. She didn't need the admiration of all around her. She didn't need to be draped in every luxury upon which her whim focussed. No, it was enough to be sitting at a standard table of the street-side patio café of her father's hotel on this late-winter day, sipping tea and talking with her girlfriend, their hands lightly touching.

“Ladies.” Chloe looked up at the masculine voice and smiled in welcome as Adrien and Melodié approached the table.

“On time for once, Adrikins?” she mocked gently, getting a tongue-poke in response.

“Adrien, Melodié, welcome," Kagami added, her stoic face lighting up subtly.

The four friends settled down around the table and made small talk. Adrien noticed that Kagami had a stock trading program open on her phone and wanted to know what was up. Melodié mischievously suggested that she was planning to buy out her mother and the calm non-response actually made Chloe wonder if this was her girlfriend’s big secret.

At that point, Chloe felt something. At the base of her French Braid (two threads, one dyed pink) A silvery hair comb was attached that, if you looked at it, you’d realise was in the shape of a silver bee. Although no other human would sense it, Chloe could feel a buzzing sensation. That was Pollen’s special way of telling her that the Hive was in danger.

“Ah, my dear cousins! Also the daughter of the ex-mayor who has gone back to being Little People!”

Chloe looked up and saw possibly the two least welcome sights she could imagine. In a smart grey suit, Felix Graham de Vanily stood in front of the table with Lila Rossi, making a show of adhering to Felix’s side, dressed in a green pantsuit with a scandalously deeply-cut v-neck silk blouse, her hair was cut back to shoulder-length with the excess in a bun and she was wearing grey contact lenses. Lila met Chloe’s eyes and, with a slight grin, rubbed her right forefinger in between her breasts; exactly where she’d stabbed the blonde to death before the final battle with Miracle King. Kagami’s hand closed protectively hard around Chloe’s hand and the blonde squeezed back as she rode through her brief but intense panic attack.

Adrien’s voice was stony and cold. “Felix, Lila, what are you two doing here?”

Felix shrugged. “As much as it irks me to admit it, Adrien, the Grand Paris is the best hotel in this city. When you’re travelling on our grandfather’s money, you can afford to pay for only the best.” He looked over at his two cousins, instantly spotting the Scorpio Miraculous on Melodié’s ear. “I see that you’re still using my gift, cousin. Grandfather will want that back, one way or another, unless you’re thinking of changing sides!”

Melodié didn’t respond with fear or even anger. “Actually, I prefer keeping things the way they are, Felix. If your grandfather wants Taares back so badly, he can come and ask for her himself… instead of sending an errand boy.”

“Ooh, isn’t she a feisty one?” Lila simpered. “Felix, darling, you never told me that she had such a lot of salt and vinegar in her! Do you think she’s actually that tough or is she just hiding her fear?” Felix just smirked in response to that.

“Lila, you’re really not impressing anyone,” Chloe snapped.

Lila shot the blonde heiress a superior look. “Actually, my dear Chloe, it's Iris now. Iris Verdi. I have documentation to prove it!”

Kagami raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure that it is most amusingly perfect documentation too. Enough to get you through the border without alerting the Gendarmerie to the fact that Paris’s most famous missing person has come home.” Lila… or Iris… smirked and shot the Japanese woman an ironic nod of acknowledgement. "So, your new… master has decided to provide you with a new identity?" Kagami cocked your head. "First Gabriel Agreste and now the Lion of Crime; are you capable of anything other than selling your services to people in exchange for what you lack the raw skill to get for yourself?"

Lila's eyes narrowed a lot at that insult. She decided not to reply. The little Japanese nobody would learn her real motives soon enough.

Chloe finally got her wits back. “So, what are you doing in Paris?” She looked at the way Lila was trying to present herself as Felix’s girlfriend and Felix’s discomfort (as well-hidden as it was); her lips twitched upwards. “Certainly not pleasure.”

Felix either agreed or didn’t catch the slight. “No, I regret to say that we are here on business; quite important business actually." The blond Englishman's face lost some of its façade of charm as he leaned towards the four friends. "It's the sort of business that you should be wary of interfering with. You and your friends aren't the subject of that business, so keep out of our way.” Adrien raised an eyebrow in surprise, honestly finding it hard to believe what Felix was just saying that.

“Yes,” Lila said conversationally. “Felix’s grandfather has actually told us that you and your irritating friends are beneath his notice for now.” She smirked and licked her lips. “Such a shame; I was so looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with dear little Marinette!”

Adrien sighed and shook his head. “You know, Felix, Lil… sorry, Iris, you really aren’t so impressive as to start trying to intimidate us.”

Felix frowned at his cousin. “This isn't our schoolboy rivalry any more Adrien. This are adult matters and for the highest stakes. Do be sure to tell your leader that the Lion’s patience and forbearance is at an end. If you’re smart, you’ll avoid giving him reasons to take action that reflects that.”

At that moment, two hotel employees and a security guard appeared and arranged themselves in a loose arc behind Felix and Lila. “Sir? I'm afraid that I must ask that you and your… companion come with me.”

Felix looked at the speaker in a bored way. “What is it? Can’t you see that we’re…?”

“Sir, I’m afraid that management has barred you from this establishment. Kindly leave immediately or we will summon the Gendarmerie and have you ejected for trespassing.” Felix looked like a landed fish for a few moments. Melodié wished that she had her phone out to capture the expression for posterity.

“What?” Chloe asked with a malicious smirk. “Daddy knows who and what you are… I also think he knows who you represent. Curiously enough, he isn’t keen on having you under his roof! Who could have ever guessed such a thing?”

Felix was about to say something then shook his head. “No matter; we have other options.” He looked at Adrien again. "Do think about this, Adrien. There are not many people who get a free warning about things to come and a chance to avoid it by changing their ways.”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@FeatherLady: I should never have defied my father to his face

@FeatherLady: Now I've brought this on you

@Cool4Catz: Maman, don't talk like that

@IStingU: Besides, from what you said, he would have made demands eventually

@IStingU: 'Kill someone or else' sort of demands

@BugBoss: Mel is right, Emilie. You cannot bargain with evil or satisfy it with anything less than total obedience.

@TrueQueen: So how do we respond, Hot'n'Red?

@BugBoss: Right now, we don't know if they're actually planning something or if they're just trying to frighten us for their amusement

@BugBoss: Still, as #Janus pointed out, only fool ignores a warning like that

@BugBoss: No-one goes out on patrol alone and make sure all our allies in the city are aware of what’s happening

@BugBoss: Most of all, remember that #Enchantress's mind-control powers work on visual contact

@BugBoss: *Don't* look right at her, especially if she's got the Virgo Mirror out.

Felix threw a sniffer of expensive brandy down his throat and levered himself out of his armchair in the pair's luxurious lounge in the Graham de Vanily family's palatial chateau outside of Paris. "Well, I think everything is ready."

Lila snorted unhappily. "Apart from the fact that we're going to have to head three kilometres in and out of Paris every time we want to do something!"

Felix shrugged. "A minor inconvenience if we achieve our objectives." He smiled slightly as Kastorr and Poluux zoomed over to him and spiralled around his head, clearly ready to act immediately. "I will see if my dear cousin is willing to listen to reason without Adrien around to encourage her to his rather antiquated notion of ‘heroism’. What about you?"

Lila's grin was positively carnivorous, her eyes visibly sparkling with avarice, even with her contact lenses in. "Oh, I've heard that Ladybug has a new friend running about town with a completely new kind of magic at her disposal. I really would prefer to see it in more appropriate hands… Mine, specifically!"

Spiica folded her arms aggressively. "I have no idea why you want another Miraculous when you have me!"

Lila stroked her fox-like Kwami's cheek with an apologetic smile. "It's not a Miraculous Spiica; it's a Prodigious and you'll always be my favourite, never fear!" Spiica made a sceptical grunting noise but offered no other objections. "Spiica! Show my dark favours!"

"Kastorr, Poluux! Unveil the dark mirror!"

~*~*~

Ladydragon would later admit that going out alone that night was probably the dumbest thing that she’d ever done.

The simple fact is that she was used to working alone. She was, after all, Wu Shifu’s last student. After the destruction of his school, she’d had to survive on the mean streets without any support for several years. Since finding and mastering the Prodigious of the Spirit, she’d gained even more confidence in herself and her ability to handle things without assistance. Having no other superheroes in Shanghai meant that she had to rely solely on her own wit and abilities (as well as Mei-Shi’s wisdom) to succeed. She appreciated her cousin’s warning but she really didn’t see the need for backup, especially when she wasn’t even going out to look for a battle, only to continue to familiarise herself with her cousin’s home city.

So when the woman in a vaguely-oriental looking fox-themed costume in multiple shades of grey stepped out from behind a rooftop air conditioning plant, Ladydragon was nowhere near as concerned as perhaps she should be. She knew this woman, of course, Ladybug had briefed her about the threats she would have to face and this is one of them. “Ah, Enchantress, aren't you? What do you want?”

Enchantress sidled over towards her in a way that could be considered ‘seductive’ if Ladydragon were in any way interested in the overt showy sensuality. “Oh, I’m merely re-acquainting myself with the city and its… Miraculous population. There are lots of people to remind who is boss, after all!” The fox-themed supervillain’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Ladydragon closely. “However, you are a new sight. You are the superhero from Shanghai are you not? The animal morpher?”

“I am called Ladydragon.”

Enchantress laughed, her voice like ringing bells but with an undertone of menace and evil that Ladydragon recognised at once. “Oh, my dear girl, how very, very stereotypical! Why not try something original like… I don’t know ‘Zoomorpher’ or ‘Scarlet Miracle’ or something? As it is, you sound like something out of a 1970s martial arts movie!”

Ladydragon quirked an eyebrow in response. “Advice on naming alter egos from a woman who chose to name herself after a synonym for a courtesan?” She noticed that the woman with the unidentifiable accent had drawn something from a strap on her left arm: A silver hand mirror with the most amazingly detailed etched relief of three naked women standing closely chest-to-back on the rear surface.

“Well, touché, I suppose,” Enchantress responded. “However, words can have many meanings and I think that you’ll find that my name is one of those!” She snapped up the mirror so that Ladydragon could see her own reflection. “Ensnare!” Ladydragon couldn’t look away from the bright, silvery light emanating from the mirror and she found herself wanting nothing more than to enjoy the sudden peace and tranquillity that was radiating off of the magical tool forever.

Enchantress’s smirk grew ever more evil. “That’s a good girl. Now, my pretty black-haired little Dragonette, who am I?”

Ladydragon seemed to struggle for a moment before replying. “Y… You… You’re my Mistress?”

Enchantress frowned. She’d encountered a few hardier minds before; she’d have to be careful. “That is right, my beautiful treasure. As your loving Mistress, I have a boon for you!” She stepped forwards and gently brushed a hand over the Prodigious of the Spirit with its eight glowing glyphs. “That seems such a terrible burden for a simple beauty like you. Why don’t you give it to me to keep it safe?”

Ladydragon wanted that! She wanted it so much just for the hope of seeing her Mistress’s smile of loving approval! However… Something didn’t feel right. There was a power here and there was a real sense of something that was truly not in harmony with what her own heart was telling her: A sense of justice, calmness, compassion, confidence, honour, patience, courage and discipline. Eight voices telling her not to do it for she was the Renren and it would betray her trust…

Enchantress scowled at Ladydragon, who had paused with her hand half-way to the amulet on her breast and was twitching like a glitching robot, if not by her own indecision but possibly by some kind of psychic defence of a kind the villain had never encountered before. She raised her Mirror again and pushed all her will into repeating herself. “Ladydragon, I am your Mistress and I command you to hand over the Prodigious!” That should do it; as specific as possible and giving her thrall’s subconscious mind no loopholes to exploit to resist her.

Ladydragon’s trembling hand was repeatedly edging towards the amulet before snapping back. Enchantress’s patience was just about to run out and she was going to try to remove it herself when two red boots with black polka-dots slammed into the side of her head and the world exploded into light and pain.

~*~*~

One thing about which Scorpia had to keep reminding herself about whilst patrolling the rooftops of Paris was that you should always keep alert about potential threats. If she wanted to be part of changing the ‘family business’ from crime to protecting the innocent, this was a skill that she had to learn. However, no matter how alert you are, it was still possible to be caught entirely by surprise and that happened very suddenly as she and her partner for the night, Ryuuko, landed on a rooftop.

“Duality of Stillness!” A two-thread helical beam of white and black light hit the Japanese hero in the small of the back and she froze in her tracks, her eyes wide with shock. Scorpia responded nearly instinctively with a sideways cartwheel. She turned in the direction of the attack that had hit Ryuuko but she wasn’t able to respond quickly enough before, with a cry of “Duality of Motion!”, another blast caught her in the abdomen. She was launched backwards faster than her mind could process and slammed hard into the brick wall of a rooftop fire escape entrance. Stars flashed before the girl’s eyes, bells rang and birds sang as shattered plaster rained down around her.

Janus jumped over to the same rooftop and sauntered over to the stunned Scorpion Heroine, twirling the Gemini Assegai around in his right hand. “Hello, Cousin!” he called jauntily. “Maybe you should be more respectful of your grandfather’s ‘errand boys’ in future?”

Scorpia shook her head to clear it and scowled up at her Cousin, who was standing just in front of her (but not close enough to be in range of the Scorpio Dagger) and sneering at her. “What do you want, Felix?” The young man raised an eyebrow in query. “You’d have used your powers to knock me out if you wanted to take the Scorpio from me, so what’s your goal here?”

Janus nodded his head respectfully. “Yes, I do have a greater goal in mind.” He paused for a moment before looking at her in a sorrowful way. “Melodié… Why are we enemies? I thought that you understood my point about the only way to change the world? That you understood the need to meet force with force and mercilessness with mercilessness?”

Scorpia looked up and, despite her ringing head, couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “You really have to ask, Felix? You mind-controlled me into helping you commit a random bank job just because you wanted to test your powers on people! Oh, and your exit strategy was to put innocents in danger so no-one paid attention to our escape! Do you actually think that I still believe anything you said to me about how to use force to achieve beneficial goals?”

Janus scowled. “Okay, I was a bit theatrical that day and I could have thought things out a bit more clearly but the point stands! If we want order and justice, it’s something that must be enforced by force and fear!” Scorpia moved her legs under her so she could stand up and Janus pointed the Gemini Assegai at her throat. “No, don’t do that.”

Scorpia shook her head. “Mom was right… both of them actually! They’ve both told me about watching out for people whose rhetoric and their actions don’t really match up. You’re a thug and a bully, Felix. Grandfather has his little enforcers all over London… and Paris too from what has been happening… all forcing people to do what he says purely for his own profit. You know something? Even with the Gemini, you’re just another one of them. So, no, there is nothing that would make me want to be part of that!”

“That’s a tragic lack of vision, Melodié.  The strong have to direct the weak; they’re too witless to…”

Scorpia clenched her fists and shouted back her answer. “That’s what Gabriel Agreste thought! He thought that he and he alone was smart enough to know the right shape of the world and that he had the right to use magic to make it happen! How’s that feel, cousin? You just the same as your hated uncle! You know, it’s ironic but the only difference between my sire and my grandsire is their level of self-deceit about being criminals!”

Janus’s already thunderous frown turned even darker. “So be it then, 'hero'. Duality of Heat!” The blade of the Gemini Assegai began to glow orange-red with searing heat and Felix moved it from Scorpia’s throat, across her cheek (making her skin tingle with the heat) and towards her right ear and the Scorpio Miraculous. Janus grinned malevolently. “Keep still, cousin; don’t resist and I’ll make recovering the Lion’s property quick and relatively pain…”

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched whirring sound and a crescent of blue light shot between the two cousins, knocking the Gemini tool away from Scorpia with a shower of silver-white sparks. Janus staggered away and nearly lost his grip on his weapon. He turned to follow the spinning boomerang of royal blue light spinning through the air in a long arc until it was caught by a beautiful feminine figure in a seafoam green pantsuit with the Peacock Miraculous on her collarbone, the light fading away to reveal the Peacock Fan. “You’re actually worse than your mother,” La Paonne growled as she snapped her Fan shut. “Twenty years younger than her and you’re already slavering at the prospect of hurting people to get my father’s smile of approval! Don’t you remember that sweet little boy who so looked forward to seeing his cousin? Who wanted to become an actor and make people smile?”

It took only a moment for Janus to realise who this was. “Auntie Em…?” The Gemini Villain’s eyes were wide with shock before they suddenly narrowed with anger. “You traitor! To think that I used to look up to you or thought that there was anything admirable about you at all! Well, you will get your punishment and now is as good a time as any!” The Gemini Assegai came up again to point at La Paonne but, instead of preparing to parry or dodge, the woman smirked and wagged her finger at him.

“Now, now, nephew; hasn’t father been telling you all you need to know? I trained with the Gemini Miraculous when I was your age. I know all its secrets, all of its tricks and all of its weaknesses.”

Janus hesitated for a moment before yelling out: “Duality of Cold!” The corkscrewing beam of white and black light shot right at La Paonne but the Scorpio Dagger met it half-way with the flat of its blade, sending the energy beam shooting off into the clouds.

“Yeouch, yeouch!” Scorpia frantically shook her numbed arm, brushing ice off of her Tool’s blade.

Janus was thinking frantically when suddenly, the air was split with a deafening crack of thunder and a blinding flash of golden-white light as the paralysed form of Ryuuko was struck by lightning. She turned to face Janus, her eyes literally shining with the power of elemental sky-fire. Janus suddenly realised that he had to flee. “Duality of Ascent!” he yelled, waving his Tool at La Paonne and Scorpia. With a cry of surprise, mother and daughter both rose off the roof, literally falling into the sky!

“Wind Dragon!” Ryuuko turned into a feminine shape of pure wind force and shot towards her colleagues, grasping them air currents and drawing them back towards the rooftop.

It wasn’t exactly Janus’s first choice but he only had one move to make immediately. “Duality of Descent!” He leapt from the roof. The magic of the Gemini responded by putting him instantly on the ground as if had never been anywhere else with a crack of displacing air and from the sudden contact. “Duality of Dark!” Instantly, the power of pure elemental darkness surrounded him.

“Let’s get after him!” Scorpia yelled, stepping towards the roof's edge.

La Paonne’s hand dropped onto her shoulder to restrain her. “Barring some luck, he’s unlocatable with that power in place.” Both teens opened their mouths to protest but the Peacock Heroine shook her head. “The fight is over for now. He’s beaten and I’m sure he’ll be too busy trying to make up excuses for his master to explain his not fulfilling his mission to bother us for a few days. Now, let’s make sure his witch of a partner hasn't harmed any of the others!”

~*~*~

"Leave my Mistress alone! I won't let you hurt her! Leave her alone! Leave her alone!!!"

Ladybug still remembered with horror how Enchantress's Ensnare had turned Zoe Bourgeois, one of the most naturally compassionate people she knew, into a simpering and homicidal slave of anything Lila so much as hinted was her will. However, seeing the same effect on Fei, a young woman of intense personal honour and focus was ten times worse. That Fei, her resolute and honourable cousin, should have been reduced to a wide-eyed and piteously eager slave of Lila!

Setting aside the nauseating implications of this horrible violation of her cousin's mind and will, Ladybug really would prefer not having to deal with the nearly-continual rain of blurringly-fast punches, kicks, blows and parries that Ladydragon, the last master of an otherwise-extinct version of kung-fu, was sending her way. Exerting herself to the full limit of her enhanced agility and reflexes, Ladybug was just about able to keep ahead of the mind-controlled heroine's attacks but she literally couldn't spare a single moment to do anything but keep dodging and she hadn't since the moment she'd knocked Lila away from her attempt to steal the Prodigious of Spirit.

Fortunately, she wasn’t alone.

"Stay still you mangy alley-cat!"

"Hey, why do they always accuse me of having mange? I'll have you know that I have a perfectly-healthy coat! Worthy of the catwalk!"

With a hiss of rage, Enchantress lunged at Chat Noir who easily somersaulted over her sweeping blow with the Virgo Mirror. The Fox Villain threw herself forwards and performed a quick tuck-and-roll to stay out of range of the Black Cat Hero's staff and the terrifying energy blade capping one end. This was not good. She was no match for Chat Noir one-on-one and, with her power being used to keep Ladydragon under her control, he doubted that she could use Wonder to attempt to influence him into making a mistake.

Chat grinned as he whirled the Black Cat staff around and then rested it across his shoulders, his wrists hooked over it. "So, Miss Fox; ready to sly-ther away? Or are you trying to think of a way to make an advantage to mesmer-ialise out of thin air?" Chat feinted forwards and Enchantress stepped right into the attack, blocking a high thrust with his Catscratch blade with the super-hardened edge of her Mirror. Only immediately afterwards did she realise her mistake. Chat's left hand touched the rooftop. "Calameowty!"

Of late, Chat Noir's ability to create destructive bad luck had grown stronger and it hit a real high note this time. The rooftop collapsed under Enchantress's feet and, amazingly, the electrical cables immediately below sparked, igniting the bitumen roof covering and creating a small but fierce blaze around the supervillain's feet. With a shriek, Enchantress staggered back, her costume's high heels suddenly a lethal hazard. Almost instinctively, she jumped out of the sudden fire, tucking her legs in and, with Spiica's power behind her, performed a backward somersault. Her landing was poor though and she took a few staggering steps back. This is getting ridiculous! She turned to her thrall who was still struggling to land a solid hit on Ladybug. "Come on, Dragonette! Just transform into your bear or tiger form and tear them apart!"

In any other situation, the look of revelation on Ladydragon's face would have been funny. "Oh yes! That's such a great idea, Mistress!" She did a quick sideways somersault to get away from Ladybug and called out, at the top of her voice: "Hu-Hu!" Ladybug, yanked out her Yo-yo. She could count on the fingers of one hand something she less wanted to face than one of her cousin's animal forms. Stopping them without killing Ladydragon would be very hard.

Everyone was still for a moment and, when it was clear nothing had happened, Chat and Ladybug exchanged puzzled looks while Enchantress's evil smile of anticipation sagged. "Well?" The auburn-haired Fox Villain yelled. "What's wrong with you?!?"

"Xiong-Xiong!" Ladydragon yelled. Still nothing. "Long-Long! I… I can't! Something is wrong! I can't feel the power flowing…!"

Ladybug cast her Yo-yo into the sky. "Luckyyy Charm!" There was a pink spiral of light that formed into something that looked a little like a heavy semi-automatic pistol. As the polka-dotted object dropped down into Ladybug's hands, she recognised it from all the times she'd visited Adrien's photoshoots – An auxiliary flashgun, designed to illuminate different angles.

In Ladybug's mind's eye, the Lucky Charm flashed in red with black polka-dots, as did Ladydragon's mask, just as Enchantress screamed in fury. "Just forget about it! You're supposed to be some kind of martial arts prodigy! Just snap her stupid neck!"

Ladydragon started forwards with an eager smile, reaching for the Ladybug Heroine. "Yes Mistr… EEEEEE!!!" The flashgun's brilliant light illuminated Ladydragon's face and not just with a single pulse but with a strange almost strobe-like pattern of flashes. The Holder of the Prodigious of Spirit slapped her hands to her face in a futile late attempt to protect her vision. Foaming at the mouth and distracted from anything other than clawing at her flash-blinded eyes, Ladydragon collapsed in a heap on the rooftop, convulsing painfully.

Enchantress took several desperate backwards somersaults to dodge Ladybug and Chat Noir's attacks. She looked down at the Virgo Miraculous to see one of its five emeralds blink black and another start flashing, showing that her timer to automatic detransformation had started. She looked to her right and realised that she'd landed right next to a rooftop water tank. She lashed out with the Virgo Mirror to sever two of the support legs. Chat Noir deployed his staff as a prop to hold up one side and Ladybug swung around the tank to land on its other side, hauling back on the tank.

Enchantress was about to try to think of some way to turn this distraction to her advantage when she noticed Ladydragon stagger to her feet. "Long-Long!" The red- and yellow-clad young woman was consumed by a tongue of fire and a huge serpentine oriental dragon took her place. With a hiss, the huge creature spat a hail of icy daggers at Enchantress. With a cry of horror, she threw herself backwards off of the roof to get to safety.

The dragon-form superheroine was about to pursue when Chat yelled out. "Don't worry about her! We need to fix this tank before it falls through the roof and destroys this building!" Ladydragon visibly hesitated for a moment before curling back through the sky and grasping the tank in her fore-claws.

With the water tank temporarily secure, Ladybug yanked back on her Yo-yo to free it from the water tank before snatching the Lucky Charm off of her belt and throwing it into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" A storm of magical ladybird beetles exploded from where the Lucky Charm once was. In an instant, all the damage of the brief battle was undone. The small fire was out and the water tank was standing on restored legs. There was a shrill triple-beep as a red dot appeared on Ladybug's suddenly-black earrings and a second began to pulse.

Ladydragon returned to her human form and, much like Zoe had during Enchantress's first ever attack, she sank to her knees and began to cry. "I… I'm so sorry Marinette! I'm arrogant and weak and a failure and…" Instead of saying anything, Ladybug knelt beside her cousin and drew her into a hard hug, pressing the other woman's tear-streaked face into her shoulder.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
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@BugBoss: How are you feeling, LD?

@Manyanimalgirl: Sick

@Manyanimalgirl: Ashamed

@Manyanimalgirl: Violated

@TrueQueen: My sister was attacked by that witch too

@TrueQueen: All I can tell tell you that it wasn’t you and you weren't weak for not resisting

@Cool4Catz: #Enchantress's enthrallment can't be resisted, only broken as far as we can tell.

@Manyanimalgirl: Yes, I do remember being blinded before blacking out. Thanks for that, by the way

@BugBoss: I'm guessing that the Lucky Charm somehow broke the Virgo Miraculous's spell over you by overloading your eyes or the part of the brain that is connected to them

@BugBoss: I won't say that everything's going to be okay, only that I'm here for you as soon as you are ready or whenever you need me.

@BugBoss: Anyway, I understand that you had a run-in with #Janus, Sting-Gal?

@IStingU: Yeah, he was definitely after my Miraculous

@FeatherLady: And he was willing to mutilate her to get it

@FeatherLady: I'm sorry to say, Chat Noir, that the boy you once knew is gone

@FeatherLady: #Leonidas has completely corrupted him, much as he did my sister

@Cool4Catz: Honestly, I don't think it would have been too hard. He was always had a nasty edge to his mischief

@TrueQueen: Truth

@IStingU: Something tells me that I didn't miss out on much not knowing him sooner.

@BugBoss: Why didn't your powers work when #Enchantress called for you to use them, LD?

@Manyanimalgirl: My powers require me to focus my mind and heart onto one of the spiritual qualities of a warrior.

@Manyanimalgirl: Under her influence, my mind was incapable of anything except devotion to her, so I couldn't feel or express those qualities.

@BugBoss: So, we were lucky

@BugBoss: However, I don’t want to rely on luck.

@BugBoss: We need to start coming up with counter-tactics.

One advantage of having a hide-out where your other persona was known, Enchantress reflected, is that it wasn't necessary to sneak in through windows. She walked right up to the Graham de Vanily family's chateau's front door and was promptly admitted by a doorman. She was still aggrieved by her defeat but the servants' fawning servility towards her did a lot to restore her battered pride.

The Fox Villain strode up the stairs and barged through the door of her and her partner's living quarters without so much of a hint of a knock or request for permission.

"Well, one look at your face tells me that you had as much luck as me," Felix said dryly from his wing-back reading chair by the fire. He was looking meditatively at the contents of a glass of red wine and he shot Enchantress a sour smile as he spoke.

"Spiica, veil my dark favours!" The villain's costume dissolved into silver-white light and Spiica swirled out of the Virgo Miraculous on Lila's breast. She immediately flew over to Kastorr and Poluux, who were both hovering by the fireplace. Lila snatched up a second glass of wine on the end table beside Felix's chair, sipped the blood red spirit and sighed before speaking. "There is something about the Prodigious that means it can't be used by someone that I have enthralled. I have no idea what but I'm going to have to think of an alternate plan."

Felix nodded. "The heroes are travelling in packs now and seem to always be learning new tricks. I don't think it's advisable to take them on one-to-one."

Lila nodded glumly and threw herself into Felix's lap and pouted as she sat there. "Comfort me," she demanded in a tone that made it sound like an order. Felix raised an eyebrow mockingly and Lila rolled her eyes. "Very well, comfort me, darling!" With a laugh, Felix lent over and gently kissed her on the corner of the mouth, Lila surprising herself by leaning into the touch. Taking that as an invitation, Felix touched her chin to turn her face towards him and the two villains exchanged a much deeper kiss.

"What do we tell my grandfather?" Felix asked after breaking the kiss.

Lila's grin was predatory as she stroked the side of her partner's face. "Why should we tell him anything until we have good news to report?"

~*~*~

In her dimly-lit night-time bedroom, Marinette broke her hug and stepped back from Fei. The taller Chinese girl still looked upset but she seemed much more at ease. Maybe the knowledge that she'd been psychically influenced before, by Cash, gave her the basis to confront the frailty of free will in the face of the power of mind magic of all kinds.

"Marinette?" The shorter girl looked up at Fei and waited for her to continue. "I was foolish to go off on my own tonight and it nearly cost us both dearly. I promise that I'll never be so headstrong again."

"No, you will because it is part of your nature!" Mei-Shi remarked from where he was hovering alongside Tikki with a smile that took away all the sting of his words. "However… this refusal to accept limits others try to impose on you is also part of what makes you the hero that you are, my dear Renren. Just remember that the game has changed and you no longer have to do your duty alone!"

Marinette grinned weakly. "Speaking from experience, it's easier to make dumb mistakes when you're a superhero than you might think. The trick is to learn from them." Fei smiled in return and gave Marinette another brief hug.

The two young women settled on to Marinette's chaise lounge, Marinette stroking her cousin's hair in an attempt to comfort her. Her desktop computer was playing a saved TVi news channel stream from a few hours earlier. Nadja Chamack was grinning into the camera as she started the hourly news update. "Don't be bemused, it's just the news! Tonight's lead story is the ratification by the city council of Mayor Anarka Couffaine's victory in last month's emergency election. With her having been formally sworn into office, the eyes of Paris society moves to the Inaugural Ball, scheduled for next week…"

Chapter Text

Dionne La Cynique was an instantly-recognisable figure with her long chestnut-coloured hair and her infamous knowing smirk. The woman with blonde hair tied up in a neat high bun and wearing an ordinary worker's jumpsuit from a major catering company was effortless to ignore, even without the attention-diverting magical charm cast upon her. No-one noticed the new van driver’s assistant helping cart in the boxes of pre-made confectionaries and fresh foods from the fleet of trucks outside the banqueting hall. With such a big job as this, there were lots of agency drivers and labourers helping deliver the foods for the Inaugural Banquet into the Hotel de Ville.

The woman ducked behind the corner of a door and waited until she was sure that everyone was walking away from her before pulling down the zip of her overalls to reveal a deep purple, almost black bustier with fishnet arms and shoulders. She reached down to a pouch on her black belt and pulled out a phial of something that glowed with a sinister green shade. Using the key that she had been given to help with the deliveries, the woman opened the giant industrial freezer and walked into the racks of cakes and pastries. With care but obvious malicious amusement, she shook a pinch of the green substance onto each of the confectionaries; upon landing, they vanished apart from the food briefly glowing green before returning to normal.

The woman zipped up her overalls again and, with a deep, malicious chuckle, locked the freezer behind her and went to rejoin her co-workers.

“Bon appetit, Ankara, darling!” she laughed under her breath. No-one in decent health should die from this rather horrible and illegally-concentrated Explosive Intestinal Evacuation potion but they would all suffer days of violent vomiting and diarrhoea; the weakest would probably succumb to dehydration but that was just the beginning of the price Paris would pay for humiliating her and destroying her career and derailing her plans for the future.

The ‘good’ people of Paris, credulous chattel that they were, would all have to just get used to the vengeance of Nightshade; getting justice for the wrongs she had suffered would be her pleasure and their pain.

~*~*~

“What?” Marinette’s face had gone curiously slack and it was taking all of Sabine’s will not to start laughing.

“Well, it seems that the new Mayor remembered that you are one of her children’s closest collaborators and dearest friends, Marinette. So you have been invited to the Inaugural Banquet and Ball as one of her… ‘friends and family’. Isn’t that a lovely thing for her to do?”

“I think that it’s a wonderful gesture,” Tikki agreed. “See, Marinette? Doing good for your classmates has turned out to have been for the best after all!”

“Tikki, I did those things because they were right, not because I was hoping for a reward!” Marinette protested, earning a warm smile of approval from the Spirit of Creation and nods of approval from her mother, Mullo and Zuuben, who were hovering to either side. Suddenly, the pupils of Marinette’s cornflower blue eyes dilated into pinpricks. “Oh mon dieu! I have to plan out a dress!”

Sabine smirked as Marinette, almost tripping over her own feet with every stride, fled the kitchen of their apartment for the ladder up to her room. "Yes, that's a fairly normal response." She looked over at the three kwami hovering in the centre of her room. “I think she’s going to be okay.” The kwami all giggled in agreement.

~*~*~

Melodié Allegra looked down at the blue and silver ball-gown taking shape around her, her adoptive mother laughing a little at the look of befuddlement on her face. "So… this is happening why?"

Emilie shot the girl she'd borne and lost to her husband's madness a mournful look. "Don't you want to go to the ball?" Her look changed to a smile. "Again, I mean? After that hilarious show you put on at last year's Foundation Ball?" Just out of sight, Adrien shot her a thumbs-up as her maman nodded in approval.

"You're both in this together, aren't you?" she snapped in response. Her maman, standing next to her bio-mom stood up a little straighter in injured dignity. "Melodié Jasmine Allegra, are you accusing me and Mademoiselle Graham de Vanily of plotting this out for some reason?" The dusky-skinned Algerian woman grinned diabolically. "Because we have been!" She walked over to her daughter and put her arm over her shoulders. "Darling, you and I both know that just being who you are means that you're going to be in the spotlight. Why don’t you just enjoy it?"

Melodié had to think about that for a few moments. She turned to her twin brother. "So, what's the official reason? Am I your plus one?"

Adrien gestured airily at nothing in particular. "Nah; that would have been Marinette… If she wasn’t invited anyway because of all the good turns she's done for Luka and Juleka."

Emilie was quite grateful for Amirah Allegra's squeeze of the hand. "No, Melodié, you're coming because Anarka wanted to acknowledge your relationship to me."

Melodié opened and closed her mouth a few times and realised that she didn't have an answer that wasn't peevish and could even be seen as a childish insult. She decided to focus on matters that didn't have as many complicated emotions threading through it. She turned to the woman who'd raised her from birth. "Mama, can I make Amity my plus one?"

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
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@TrueQueen: So…

@TrueQueen: Is that all of us invited?

@BugBoss: Looks like it, yes!

@BugBoss: I've got Foxy as my plus one and Kitty is bringing Cap along!

@SnekCharmer: Even those of us who didn't want to be are invited :-p

@DragonGrrrl: Predictably, #IkariGozen forbade me to go

@DragonGrrrl: I told her that failing to attend after I had been named as Bee-chan's 'plus one' would be a calculated insult to the new mayor

@Cool4Catz: I'm sure that went down well!

@DragonGrrrl: TsurugiCorp is already fighting a rear-guard action against #Captain_Hardrock's investigation into the whole 'air purifying plant' project with all the associated alleged bribes;

@DragonGrrrl: I invited her to imagine how much worse it would be if she makes it personal

@FoxyBabe: Woah, you go girl!

@TrueQueen: Stormy is staying over my place until her darling mummy gets over her sulky episode

@SnekCharmer: Melody? Anyone? I really need help here!

@Cool4Catz: Sorry, Snake

@Cool4Catz: I know what you're going through but sometimes you just have to deal with what it means to be the son of someone important!

@SnekCharmer: Bleh

@SnekCharmer: #Gothrockerchik at least has her psychic invisibility power to hide under

@WatchWabbit: If it makes you feel better, Snakeaxeman, I think that you rock that tux that @Marinettedesigns made for you!

@WatchWabbit: Great idea working in all of the greens and blues from his personal style, girl!

@BugBoss: We aims to please, Bunnygal!

@WatchWabbit: I'm kind of looking forward to chasing off the airheads who want to be the mayor's son's date!

@FoxyBabe: Woah! Guys! Hold the 'phone!

@FoxyBabe: News in from the Hotel de Ville!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: A big police alert, dudes! A kitchen worker has been found dead!

@WatchWabbit: No shit?

@FoxyBabe: Nope! Just outside the freezer area: Looks like he literally *puked himself to death*

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Half a dozen deserts were gone!

@TrueQueen: I've heard of someone eating themselves to death but literally?

@SnekCharmer: Maybe sugar overload fried his system or something?

@Cool4Catz: Or maybe food poisoning?

@FoxyBabe: It's got to be Sunshine but it's kind of weird;

@FoxyBabe: Speaking as the daughter of a Michelin five-star rated chef, refrigerated stuff is *not* supposed to go off that fast!

"Guardian?" Marinette looked up at hearing Zuuben's firm but thoughtful voice. She was stroking the Mouse Miraculous thoughtfully where it lay against her throat as she read the exchanges on the MIracuchat. Something didn't feel right all of a sudden. Maybe it was just her habit of catastrophizing at work but she had long ago learned to be a touch more aware of these bad vibes when her team were all going to be in the same place at the same time in their civilian guises.

"Zuuben, can you detect poisons?"

The lavender-coloured wolf-kwami Spirit of Justice blinked in genuine surprise. "Not unless the poisoner is actually present, Milady Guardian; do you think that there's a risk?" Marinette wasn't sure so she remained silent and this gave Zuuben the chance to run ahead and leap to conclusions. "Should you warn Sass's Holder's mother that her enemies are planning to assassinate her at her banquet?"

Marinette couldn't help but smile; Zuuben still thought in terms of ancient politics including the good, old-fashioned palace coup. "That's just it, Zuuben, I really don't know if this is a threat or just a horrible and unlucky coincidence."

Mullo poked her Holder on the cheek. "You know, rodents can smell impurities in food."

Tikki rolled her eyes. "You just want to go to the party and get to enjoy all those snacks!"

Marinette smiled slightly. "Actually, guys, that's a great idea." Tikki looked genuinely surprised and, funnily enough, so did Mullo. "Zuuben, be a dear and zip over to the manor and tell Adrien that he should take Hamaal's Miraculous with him to the party."

Tikki floated up into her Holder's line of sight. "Do you really think that's necessary, Marinette?"

"Tikki, you can't be paranoid if you know someone is out to get you and, given that we've had actual supervillains interfering with Anarka's political career… Mon Dieu that's a weird thought to have… Anyway, I think that we can afford to be cautious."

~*~*~

Nightshade wasn't a fool; losing her job with TVFr meant that she had to make some serious economies with her lifestyle. Magic was hardly a solution; even trying to conjure money would bring the Ministère de la Magie down on her head fast and end her supervillainous career quite efficiently.

She'd been quite lucky, really: finding an apartment large enough for her needs but low-rent enough that she could pay it with the income from her depressing new job as a convenience store clerk (which she was fairly sure she'd only got at such a high hourly salary because the night manager was a conspiracy nut and a personal fan of hers). The landlord was fortunately about as non-curious as you could get without raising suspicions of being comatose. So, she was able to set up her potions lab and enchanting table in the spare bedroom without raising eyebrows.

Right now, though, she was practically walking a trench into the minimalist lounge carpet after she saw the news about that sweet-toothed idiot in the Hotel de Ville's restaurant ODing on her poisoned deserts and dying in a way that screamed food poisoning.

I'm cursed, Nightshade thought frantically. First my bosses assign me to undermine Ladybug; then, when that blows up in their faces, they blame me for it! Now, what should have been an undetectable act of revenge is sprung in advance!

The provocatively-dressed dark witch sat down hard on her threadbare sofa and focussed on breathing exercises. She had to calm down; Zucuumb's Explosive Intestinal Evacuation Potion was undetectable to mundane forensic sciences. Unless by pure chance a French magical police officer was seconded to the investigation, there was no chance of anyone detecting the cause of that idiot's death! Her plan was still on track!

The woman allowed herself to slip into a meditative state. Maybe she could take some lessons from Gabriel Agreste, after all. From the start, the man rarely if ever personally or indirectly made an appearance at any of his attacks and maybe that was the reason Ladybug and Chat Noir had him on the ropes from the start. Maybe she should personally be present to make sure things go as planned!

~*~*~

Marinette had been seen with Adrien on several occasions. However, none were really high-end social events, so Marinette being Adrien’s girlfriend had mostly flown under the radar of Paris’s press corps. She figured that this reprieve was now over as she stepped out of the limousine in front of the Hotel de Ville and into a storm of camera flashes.

Adrien, ever the gentleman, offered her his arm and she threaded hers through his. “Adrien! Adrien! Is this your girlfriend? Adrien! Is she Lila’s replacement as House of Harmoney’s female ‘face’?” Ignoring the reporters’ questions was made easier by focussing on not tripping over her own feet (something that walking in her 6-centimetre black heels made no easier) as Adrien led her down the red carpet. Oh mon Dieu, she wished that she hadn’t added the deep slash to her right thigh up the full white skirt with embroidered blossoms. Not only was it far too showy for her tastes, it was also reminiscent of Ladybug’s ball-gown from the Foundation Ball!

As they approached the exterior door to the ballroom area, Adrien tugged her to a stop and, responding nearly unconsciously to all the coaching she’d got from Juleka and Chloe, she angled herself towards the reporters on her left and then on her right, cocking out her right hip to show a hint of her stocking’s hem and putting her left hand against her hip, showing that her pink opera gloves were not attached to the white bodice with her distinctive sakura blossom branch embroidery.

“Miss! Miss!” the reporters shouted out. “Is that dress an MDC?” Marinette smiled mischievously. Yes it was and the press pack would never guess how she got the infamous reclusive designer to carry out this commission for her!

It was amazing how adaptable the camouflage magic of the Miraculous was. Tikki had somehow transformed the Ladybug into a pair of dangly flawed ruby pendants (with the flaws creating a five-spot ladybug pattern). The Mouse was a golden charm on the end of a pink cord tied around the central knot of her elaborately-braided black hair and the Libra had been reformatted into a platinum-fronted pink satin choker. Having all three Miraculous with her and semi-active was a noticeable load on her strength but she figured that if she handled fifteen semi-active Miraculous during the Kwami-Buster incident, she could handle just three for one evening.

Adrien waved and greeted a few reporters he knew by name and then gave all the fashion blogs a lead article photograph for tomorrow by kissing Marinette’s lightly-made-up cheek, causing her to blush. “Okay, guys! We’ve got to go in now!”

The reporters would have probably groaned in disappointment if the next person out of the limousine was not Emilie Graham de Vanily and… André Bourgeois?!? After stepping out, the man offered his hand to the blonde-haired woman and, as soon as she was out, he gave a courtly kiss to the back of her hand.

~*~*~

Being a responsible young adult really sucks sometimes. Alya, resplendent in the tasselled tan dress that her good friend Marinette had made for her, leaned back into Nino’s embrace as she looked around the crowd in the antechamber awaiting being seated in the banqueting hall in the Hotel de Ville. She’d promised Marinette to be good. Because of that, her phone was turned off and safely tucked away in her clutch. There would be no photographs, live blogging or, heaven forbid, live-streaming of the banquet and it was hard! Going against her every reporter’s instinct. Especially when Adrien’s maman came in with Chloe’s dad! Either Adrien and Chloe had got better at controlling their need to spread around news or one of two things was the case here: M Bourgeois was simply Emilie’s date for the night as a gesture to a woman who had been a friend and artistic collaborator for years or, alternately, the two of them were in a relationship that they were keeping from their children. Which would it be? Well, Alya would not be in the situation to speculate in a live-stream with her watchers!

“He hasn’t given me or Zo a hint, for what it’s worth.” Alya looked over to see Chloe in an off-the-shoulder black-striped yellow dress (ah, the convenience of not having a Secret Identity) standing behind them. The blonde had a smiling Kagami in a black-edged red dress on her arm.

“Are you ready to be Sunshine Boy’s step-sister?” Alya couldn’t help but ask.

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Here was I thinking that my family tree couldn’t get any more tangled!”

“Hey! Look dudes, Luka’s here!” Alya followed her boyfriend’s gesture. Indeed he was. As per the hints she had heard, his tuxedo looked like it was a patch-work of green, teal and dark blue patches and Luka looked ultra-uncomfortable, looking around nervously at the crowds in the room. If anything, it was the sort of suit that the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Jagged Stone should wear but Luka had never been one to draw attention to himself or his newly-discovered heredity.

“Wow! Look at Alix though!” Chloe gasped. The redhead in question had clearly decided that no convention would guide her. She was wearing a tuxedo too, light blue with thick white threads and tightly tailored so that, whilst her feminine lines were visible, she still looked somewhat androgynous. She’d also had her hair cut much shorter, apart from the top and her front fringe, which was combed forward and gelled to spike out and forward a bit. She was obviously doing most of the social heavy lifting for Luka, responding with devastating sarcasm to various people who clearly were only interested in her boyfriend because he was the new mayor’s son. “Wow! That’s what I call coming out!”

 “Ladies and gentlemen?” Every eye turned to a man in formal clothing standing at the door into the banqueting hall. “If you can check your invitations for your table allocations, we’re going to start getting everyone seated now!”

~*~*~

Because of the way Marinette and Adrien had juggled their invitations, the seating arrangement at their table was a bit odd. She and Adrien sat next to each other with Emilie and Andrè on the opposite side of the table. Alya was next to Marinette as her ‘plus one’ and Nino was on the other side of Adrien and was sitting next to Melodié’s girlfriend, Amity (who looked amazingly at ease). The two Bourgeois girls were sitting on the other side of Alya with Kagami in between Chloe and Emilie. She looked over her shoulder to see Anarka at the head table talking to someone who looked like he was an official of some kind. To either side of her were Luka (with Alix on his other side) and Juleka with Rose. In some ways, the relationships in which her children were in reflected Anarka’s accepting and radical nature and Marinette felt that it suited her.

“Guardian!” Marinette didn’t visibly react to the quiet voice of Zuuben coming from her hair. “There is someone here with great evil intent!”

Marinette nodded slightly. "Mullo," she murmured. "Start spreading the word amongst the others to be extra vigilant. Zuuben, can you find the source of this evil?"

"I do not believe that they are in this room, but they are in this building, aware of proceedings and feel the greatest anticipation."

The young Guardian and Protector of Paris nodded imperceptibly. "We can't start jumping at shadows." She looked to either side. "Be ready for anything but I don't think that we should expect trouble before the desert course is served."

Alya nodded and answered discreetly without moving her eyes in any way. "It makes sense; that's what killed that poor snacking cleaner, after all!"

Do you know how easy it is to enjoy a three-course meal when you are expecting the last course to be poisoned? It isn't easy at all and, when the desert was served, everyone visibly hesitated. The deserts had actually been checked out by police forensic specialists (wasting nearly a third of them in the process) who found no hint of contamination. There was no rational reason for fear but, still, there was a sense of dread in the air. Not for the first time, Marinette wished that the city authorities had just dumped the entire desert course into a blast furnace and let every pastry chef in the city make alternatives as last-minute replacements.

She glared at the fruit pastry, dripping with whipped cream, speared on her fork before sighing. Oh well, in for a penny, as the Rosbeufs like to put it!

She was about to put it in her mouth when Mullo suddenly bit her. "Marinette! There is something wrong with that food! Some kind of evil magical emanation" There was a clatter from her right and she looked to see Adrien had dropped his fork and was rubbing his hand with a surprised expression, a flash of fast-moving yellow vanishing into his jacket proving that Hamaal had just butted his hand. Enough of the other people at the table had noticed Marinette's hesitation and Adrien dropping their fork to stop what they were doing. Amity had her fork in her mouth and was looking around the table in surprise.

"NO!" The sound of Luka's shout caught everyone's attention. Marinette turned to see that the teal-haired boy had literally slapped his mother's desert fork out of her hand and had a surprised Rose in his arms, his fingers down her throat as he tried to force her to regurgitate the mouthful she'd just swallowed. Alix was frozen comically, her uneaten huge first mouthful dropping off the end of her fork as she looked at her boyfriend's reaction in horror. It wouldn't be until later that Marinette would learn that this was the second time Luka had seen this and that Sass had somehow triggered Second Chance even though his Holder was not transformed.

Marinette looked around herself frantically. Thank god, Luka's shout had stopped most people in their tracks but there were already pained cries rising from the audience as several guests lurched to their feet, holding onto their stomachs desperately before falling to their knees. Including, horribly, Amity, who'd collapsed back into Melodié's arms, clawing at her burning abdomen desperately, groaning in pain. The smell was… pretty unpleasant and indicated just how powerful this magical poison was.

The magically-amplified cackling evil laugh that echoed around the room instantly indicated that the villain of the piece was present and what a sight she was, standing in the middle of the head table. Marinette immediately noticed the hazy distortion of her face caused by one of the same kind of disguise spells that Miss Rose used. She had long curly black hair and was dressed like most people's ideas of a sexy witch in purple and black leathers and fish-nets and with a wide-brimmed pointy hat on her head.

"Do you see?" the woman yelled gesturing at Anarka. "She can't protect you from Nightshade's wrath! You'll all pay for trusting her! She can't even protect herself! Excrucia!"

"Mama! No…!" Juleka moved almost too quickly to follow, throwing herself in front of the poison-yellow arc of lightning as it zapped towards the mayor from the elegantly-shaped wooden stick in the attacker's hand. Her scream of agony as it struck home was liked a blade scraping Marinette's bones.

As it turned out, no-one was looking in Marinette's direction as she dived under the table but, given what was happening to Juleka and Rose, Marinette wouldn't have cared much if they were. " Tikki! Zuuben! Dual Transformation!" She heard a sudden clatter of gunfire as the mayor's special services Gendarmerie guard opened fire on the intruder but didn't let that distract her; she forward-rolled out from underneath the table and, as soon as her feet were underneath her, she sprang up onto the nearest table.

The magical adversary was had broken off her attack on Anarka (and Juleka), who was curled up in her mother's arms, sobbing in pain) to instead summon some kind of blue-edged translucent force screen projected from the tip of her wand. It had obviously been enough to stop the bullets from the policemen's pistols and she was wearing a triumphant smile that instantly faded as he looked at Lady Justice, her lavender stola and blindfold contrasting against the red-and-black bodysuit (no polka-dots on this version). The superheroine drew the Libra Sword from its scabbard over her back. "You will pay the just price for your attacking innocents in pursuit of your politics, Nightshade."

To her credit, the magical terrorist didn't hesitate for a moment, thrusting her wand out at Lady Justice. "Blasto!" However, the heroine had a lot of combat experience and a magical weapon to hand. Reacting almost on instinct, she used the Sword to parry the point of blood-red light as it shot at her and sent it crashing into the ceiling, blowing a meter-wide crater into the plaster. The woman retargeted her wand on Anarka and Juleka. "You don't want to see what I could do to them, Ladybug!"

"Calameowty!" In response to Chat Noir's cry, the table shattered under Nightshade's feet, sending her falling through it with a cry of surprise.

Nightshade gestured down with her wand and the unspoken levitation spell sent her rising into the sky. "Metamorphae Lignum!" There was no visible attack but the wood of the table around which the mayor's friends and family sat began to writhe and turn into horrible-looking stake-like points that shot towards those seated with speed and force enough to impale them.

The fast-moving spearheads never reached their targets, instead shattering against a hexagonally-patterned green shield that materialised around the table with a cry of "Shell-Ter!" Nightshade turned to Carapace and snapped off another spell, a yellow beam that bounced off of the Turtle shield but leaving a glowing cut across its outer surface.

At that moment, Lady Justice's Yo-yo wrapped around Nightshade's legs and a sudden tug dragged her out of the air to land hard on her back with a grunt of pain. She looked up into Lady Justice's expressionless face as the Libra Sword transformed into balance scales and began to glow with lavender light; she felt the spectres of everything she'd done in pursuit of wealth and influence begin to gather around her and realised that she was rapidly running out of options. Her hand went to her belt and she threw a glass phial to the ground. As it shattered, it turned into a writhing mass of grey smoke that literally lunged for people's noses and mouths, making everyone, even the heroes, retreat back from the spreading cloud. In the resulting panic, Nightshade jumped to her feet again, held her wand upright against her face and she vanished with an audible 'pop' of inrushing air.

The victims of the vapour were clawing at their throats, seemingly unable to draw in breath. "Milady! What do we do?" Chat Noir cried out urgently … No, Belier Noir, he had the golden armour pieces and shield that indicated that he'd dual-transformed with the Aries Miraculous.

Lady Justice thought frantically. The Miraculous Cure could heal but she'd never tested it against an active attack of any kind before, only on the aftermath. "Lucky Charm!" she called, casting her Yo-yo up into the air. What came down was a bit of a surprise, a red with black polka-dots caduceus with a ram-head device at the junction. "My knight, I believe that this is your role."

The black-and-gold-clad Cat Hero blinked in confusion for a moment before realising what his Lady was saying. This was a magical attack actually underway and he knew how to defeat those. He swung the Aries Shield off of his back and held it over his head. "Renew-wool!" Yellow light flashed out in all directions from the Shield's rim, consuming the entire room and, as the glare faded, something happened… something Miraculous. From every afflicted person, a tiny yellow bubble emerged and soared into the air, a tiny hexagonal-patterned golden shield bubble containing either or both a writhing mass of silver-grey vapour or sparkling poison-green crystalline dust.

The shield bubbles began to glow brighter and brighter and the golden light consumed the magical poisons entirely before fading away, leaving no trace of the poisons or the shield bubbles.

Lady Justice smiled in approval before looking at the sobbing Juleka, twitching with phantom pain in a helpless Anarka's arms and then at Rose who was kneeling, hugging her belly and staring at the mess that she'd vomited up as Luka rubbed her back encouragingly; the smell of the results of Nightshade's vile poison filled the air. The superheroine's expression darkened. She threw the Lucky Charm into the air with a cry of: "Miraculous Ladybug!"

The tidal wave of magical ladybirds passed quickly and everyone was looking at each other in shock, all hint of injury of the effects of the poisons gone as if they'd never been. Lady Justice turned to the stunned head of the mayor's protection detail. "The Miraculous Cure should have healed everyone but please ensure everyone is checked out. My team and I will search for Nightshade and also let everyone who fled know that it is safe to return." The man nodded in an oddly-frantic way. Frustrated at what she felt was the un-earned applause and cheers, she led Belier Noir, Rena Rouge and Carapace out of the room. Outside the banqueting room, she stormed off to look for a place where they could detransform unobserved.

She swore then and there that she would never allow herself to be taken unawares and let people get hurt because she was too cautious to act on her suspicions.

To: [email protected]

From: [[Address withheld]]

My dear Ladybug,

Thank you for supplying (by whatever strange means you have for doing so) the recording of the attack on the mayor's inaugural banquet by the magical terrorist self-identified as 'Nightshade'.

Through various channels, both official and covert, MI8 has obtained samples of the toxin used. It is a known and, oddly, legal magical purgative known as Zucuumb's Explosive Intestinal Evacuation Potion. In legal doses, it is used to clear someone's digestive system of blockages or toxins. However, at the dosage level Nightshade used, it will incapacitate someone and have crippling side-effects. It will even kill someone of a weaker constitution. Although you and your partner's remarkable healing magics seem to have completely neutralised both the Intestinal Evacuation Potion and the extremely illegal Anoxic Asphyxiation Potion she used to cover her escape, I urge you (and my superiors have urged the Parisian authorities) to be on the look-out for longer-term effects in the various victims.

The spell that Nightshade used on the mayor's daughter is one of three curses that fall under a universal interdict known as the Unjustifiable Curses. It is forbidden to even *name* these curses to anyone outside of the magical community's security forces. However, this particular one is a torture curse, intended to cause massive and continual stimulation of the pain sensing nerves until the victim's mind dissolves into catatonia from the agony or causes them to suffer physical systemic collapse from the strain. For using this curse, Nightshade has earned herself an automatic life-sentence in magical prison without right to trial, appeal or parole and I have no doubt that France's Ministère de la Magie is even now hunting her as a matter of urgency.

Of course, it's easy to travel between our countries, so I have ensured that our own authorities, magical and mundane alike, are on the lookout for her. Whatever disguise she uses, there are certain magical traces that she will not be able to avoid leaving for us to find even though we do not know her true identity.

This is an especially terrible incident; the first time a large-scale gathering has been attacked by an intrinsic magic user since the last Blood War here in the UK. The fact that she is very obviously a student of the civilised world's magical schooling system makes it all the more distressing.

Be careful, Ladybug. It is my fear that this will only increase Mundane suspicion of those with magical abilities, intrinsic and otherwise.

Kind regards,

Miss Rose (Agent 0005)

MI8-ODA - Murus inter tenebras et lucem

________________________________________________________________________________

"This message will self-destruct… What the…?" Marinette dropped her phone that she used for hero work as the email from Miss Rose seemed to break up into gibberish and dissolve as some kind of magical malware began to erase every copy from existence both in various devices' local memory and in the cloud. She shook her head. "Well, I should have seen that coming. I suppose they take secrecy that seriously!"

Such a strange night; Marinette didn't know exactly what it said about her countrymen's nature and Anarka's essential strength but, as the fear and shock of the attack on the banquet died down, the woman suddenly appeared in the banqueting hall handing out muffins from several local big brand take-away restaurants and laughing about 'second time lucky'.

She'd even insisted on the ball going ahead and, miraculously, everyone seemed determined to have a good time. Yes, Marinette counted herself amongst that number and dancing in the arms of her Kitty had done much to help her regain her calm and focus.

That said… The next time she encountered Nightshade, she would lead with the Libra Miraculous's Restitution power and, this time, she wouldn't allow any moral qualms about the psychologically destructive nature of its effects hold her back. Anyone who could take joy in causing that amount of suffering was unfit subject for mercy.

~*~*~

Wrapped in her housecoat and curled up on her threadbare sofa with her eyes continually jumping from the windows to the door of her apartment and back, constantly anticipating one of both coming crashing down and Lightbringers charging in, Nightshade was flipping through the Ladyblog's entries on Ladybug's known powers. It was a longer list than she'd been expecting. Just how many Miraculous did the girl have and how was she using them so skilfully in concert with each other?

"This isn't fair!" she muttered to herself. "There has to be some way to neutralise her powers! There must be!"

~*~*~

Chloe sighed and stopped her caressing of Fuzzy's thick, bushy fur, making the Sabretooth hiss quietly in disapproval. "Oh great, just what we need!" She threw her phone onto her bed revealing the headline in the fashion blog page she'd been reading: 'The Style Queen Returns! What does this mean for Parisian fashion?'

Chapter Text

It was, Chloe had to acknowledge, vintage Style Queen. In the video posted on the fashion blogs, Audrey Regine (she refused to even think of the woman as her mother), resplendent in her white-and-black trouser-dress, swept through Charles de Gaulle Airport’s VIP entrance route and treated everyone and everything around her as an irritating insignificance. The women ignored the reporters’ questions, haughtily strode to the front of the VIP queue (past numerous outraged millionaires) and even tried to fire a customs official when he asked for her to scan her French National passport!

“Oh, Audrey! Won’t you ever learn that you’re just making more and more enemies?” she murmured.

“You… You can’t deny that she gets what she wants a lot!” Zoe was curled up next to Fuzzy and was watching the video on Chloe’s big screen Web TV with a strange expression of combined eagerness and fear. “No-one ever ignores her, for better or for worse!”

Chloe sighed. “It’s mostly for the worse, Zo. No, it’s nearly always for the worse. People fear her and will do what she demands but she’ll never know real love, only servility.”

Zoe was fiddling with Fuzzy’s name tag in a way that struck Chloe as oddly fretful and uncertain. “I doubt she notices any difference, Chlo. She’s got a lot of power and a lot of significance. No-one ever would say she’s no-one”

“That's a bug, not a feature,” Chloe responded. “The moment her grasp on power is shaken, you can be sure that all those ‘friends’ and ‘servants’ she has will be all over her, each trying to get the first knife into her. No-one would want to protect her”

Zoe shuddered a little. “I… Shouldn’t we want to protect her?” Chloe smiled slightly at her sister’s words. It’s clear that Zoe still felt that she was obliged to protect Audrey but found it difficult to really want to do so, proving Chloe’s point in the process. “I mean…. We’re her daughters! We wouldn’t even exist without her!”

Chloe slowly walked over and paused to give Fuzzy a caress on the cheek that the Sabretooth responded to ecstatically. “There’s more to parenthood than genetics or childbirth, Zo.” She sighed. “You have to care about someone’s happiness and not assess their value to you proportional to their usefulness to you or their ability to be your mini-me!” Zoe giggled a little at hearing that.

Chloe thought for a moment. “Here, let me show you something.” She walked over to her vanity and opened her large jewellery box. She reached in and pulled out a wide golden bracelet with eight oval lapis stones equally spaced around the circumference. “This is pretty much the only gift Audrey ever bought me. Daddy had to give it to me, of course, she wouldn’t dream of leaving New York for long enough to do so. It had no real value to me back then simply because it obviously meant nothing to her. When she came to Paris for that House of Gabriel fashion show, the first time she’d been in this town for over a decade, she looked at my arms for it and, when she saw it wasn’t wearing it, she just muttered: ‘Disappointing; just another proof about how unexceptional you are!!’ and walked off without a second glance.” Chloe frowned at the piece. She’d given lots of her older jewellery to charity, either directly or by selling it on-line and donating the cash. However she’d hesitated to dispose of this one. She just had a subconscious feeling of significance that always held her back. "I'm not sure why I kept it; just a feeling that there is some hidden quality to it, I guess."

Zoe took the bracelet from her twin and held it up. When she did… oh god that was a rush! What had been that tingling sensation? “Chloe, do you mind if I keep this?” She smiled at her sister in a cheerful way. “You know, if you don’t want it, I think it will really look good on me!”

Chloe frowned and then shrugged with a warm smile whatever misgivings Chloe had about this object, Zoe deserved a gift or two! “Okay, consider it a late birthday present for the fifteen years I missed!”

Zoe laughed and slid the bracelet over her left wrist. To her shame, the dominant idea in her mind was: If mother thinks that wearing this is a sign of being exceptional, then maybe she’ll see that in me!

~*~*~

“Mademoiselle Regine, Monsieur Bourgeois has barred you from the premises; your ‘firing’ me does not change the fact that I cannot give you admission.”

Audrey scowled at the doorman, an artery in her forehead visibly throbbing. The indignity of being kept out of Paris’s best hotel by one of her ex-husband’s flunkies! Oh, Andre would suffer for this in due time. “Very well,” she ground out. “As Monsieur Bourgeois is too stupid to realise a good thing when it comes along, he can simply instead enjoy my scathing review of his pedestrian establishment in the next issue of Style Queen!”

She turned and was about to storm away when she heard a gentle, uncertain and feminine voice call out: “Mummy?”

Audrey turned and was genuinely shocked to see one of her daughters looking up at her hopefully from one of the other doors to the Grand Hotel Paris. She racked her brain to try to remember which one this was. She had a blue streak in one of her forelocks and was wearing a black leather jacket and yellow leather pants. So, this was the one she’d kept isolated in New York to minimise the chance of cross-contamination. What was her name again…? “Z… Zana… Zoicite…?”

“It’s ‘Zoe’, Mummy.”

“Of course! Zoe! Why, you’ve taken to the grunge rock-chick aesthetic haven’t you?” Audrey was good at false smiles. She didn’t know why her younger (by all of ninety seconds) daughter was here but Nevrmorr’s power was touching her mind silently and subtly. The Raven Miraculous was tingling where it sat, mostly invisible, behind her ear and she knew that this was an opportunity, no matter how utterly ridiculous the girl looked. Was she hoping to seduce Jagged Stone’s bastard? If so, she was out of luck for he seemed to have chosen that agender freak! “It’s good to see you again! What can I do for you?”

The girl smiled nervously. “I wanted to see you, Mummy!” In what Audrey realised was a calculated move (Clever girl!), the girl moved her sleeve as she ran a hand through her hair, revealing a certain piece of jewellery that the woman had hoped would inspire a lust for power in… Chartreuse…? Camomile…? Whatever the older one was called. How interesting! Why did… Zircon …? Why did she have it? Maybe she’d been wrong in assuming that seducing and taking the Tsurugi heir as her adornment and pet was a sign that her older spawn was first in growing into the heir she wanted? This deserved investigation and personally, not by one of her witless lackeys at Style Queen Paris.

Expertly controlling her impulse to shudder at coming into physical contact with the girl, Audrey put her hand on Zoe’s shoulder and steered her towards her waiting limousine. “Come along, girl! Let’s not keep waiting outside this wholly-inadequate hostelry. I’m driving over to one of the newer hotels and we can talk on the way!”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@TrueQueen)

@TrueQueen: Hey, anyone seen @SneakrDiva around?

@DragonGrrrl: What is happening, Bee-chan?

@TrueQueen: Oh, I don't know, Stormy-chan. Maybe I'm just over-reacting

@SnekCharmer: I don’t know; you've grown beyond being the one who gets all histrionic

@TrueQueen: Thanks, I think

@TrueQueen: She's been in a funny mood ever since #Style_Queen came to town

@TrueQueen: I guess I'm scared she'll do something stupid to try to impress her

@DragonGrrrl: You really think that she would return to that woman?

@SnekCharmer: I think we all know that being enthralled by #Enchantress shook her self-belief

@TrueQueen: Snake's right; she's at a low ebb, Stormy

@TrueQueen: I'm scared that she'll convince herself that it's the right thing to do

@TrueQueen: Better to be someone as a villain than nothing

@BugBoss: I might have the means to find her, Chloe

@BugBoss: I know I can trust you and Stormy. Come over to my place.

@TrueQueen left the CHAT

@DragonGrrrl left the CHAT

@SnekCharmer: Melody?

@BugBoss left the CHAT

@SnekCharmer: Since when has she started keeping secrets from us again?

Time was of the essence; Chloe really felt that. So, as rude as it was, she transformed into Queen Bee and flew over to the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie and Patisserie. Along the way, she met up with her girlfriend, roof-hopping to the same destination as Ryuuko. Both girls remained silent until they reached Marinette’s rooftop balcony garden. As much as Queen Bee just wanted to just burst in and demand answers, she remembered the last time she entered without announcing herself, so instead she knocked gingerly on the skylight.

“Come in girls!” sang out Marinette’s voice.

No matter how many times Queen Bee visited Marinette’s bedroom, the subtle differences between its normal appearance and when it was acting as the study and sanctum of Master Guardian Dupain-Cheng never failed to strike her. Most notably today, Alya was present, standing behind and to one side of her teacher, who was wearing a silk open-fronted gown that was in the colours of her original Ladybug costume and wearing her own gown in the colours of Rena Rouge’s costume over her day wear. Several Kwami, including Hawkmoth’s former slave, were hovering around. Most importantly, taking pride of place was the spherical Miracle Box hovering without any visible means of support over the thread box under the stairs.

Queen Bee briefly wondered how to start. Ryuuko beat her to the punch by stepping forward, dropping onto one knee and bowing her head to Marinette. “Master, we have attended as you ordered,” Ryuuko said in a quiet voice. “What is your bidding?” Queen Bee was relieved that Marinette blushed in embarrassment at that gesture of formal reverence. She didn’t want her friend to get too used to power and authority.

“Um… yes.” Marinette cleared her throat as Ryuuko stood up in response to the girl’s desperate gesture. She turned her gaze back to Queen Bee. “As I said, I have some means to track Zoe, even though we don’t know where she is. How would you characterise her state of mind?”

The Bee Heroine blinked in surprise before thinking hard on how to answer. “Adrift, I think, more than anything else. Desperate and it's making her act a little cunning. I’m pretty sure that is why she asked for the bracelet, to impress Audrey.”

Marinette looked over at Nooroo. “That is quite sufficient, Milady Guardian,” the kwami replied. “Especially as she was touched by Gabriel Agreste through me, it will be relatively easy to find her.” The Spirit of Transmission thought for a moment. “Her actual location will be more certain if we send a butterfly.”

“Sorry, what?” Queen Bee responded.

“Girl, you’re going to love this one!” Alya broke in with a smug, secretive smile. Queen Bee shot the caramel-skinned girl an annoyed look but Marinette was already moving over to the Miracle Box. She touched it, rotating it around its centre of volume until one of the black dots was facing her and touched it, making it light up purple with a butterfly emblem. The spot popped open like a spring-loaded drawer and the noirette withdrew an amethyst tie pin.

Queen Bee’s eyes bulged “Wait, is that…?”

Without answering, Marinette pushed the drawer shut, walked back over to the centre of the room, pinning the gem to where the two breasts of her robe overlapped and, with a crackle of royal purple light, four wing-like fabric protrusions appeared around the corners of the gem. “Nooroo! Gentle wings rise!” Nooroo was immediately sucked into the Butterfly Miraculous. Queen Bee and Ryuuko stepped back instinctively as, with a purple flash, Marinette was transformed, standing before her friends in a purple ball-gown with a long slash up the left side of the full skirt, a black under-slip to cover her modesty despite the deep v-cut down both sides from her shoulders and a silver shoulder cape. She was either taller or the six-centimetre heels of her strappy black heels were giving that effect. The two heroes looked at the butterfly mask over the other girl’s eyes, framed by her now-hip-length unbound black hair.

“You… You’re using that thing?” Queen Bee blurted out. “Is that even safe?!? What if it corrupts you?”

“It’s the user that defines the moral alignment of the Miraculous, not the Miraculous itself,” Alya responded with a smile. “Come on, guys, we’re talking about Ladybug here!”

The Butterfly Hero of Paris smiled and, whilst there was some malice in it, Ryuuko figured that it was mostly enjoyment of their reaction. “In this form, you may call me Painted Lady.” She reached up into the air and a glass-headed cane flashed into existence with a crackle of purple lighting, which Painted Lady twirled around in her left hand before bringing it down against the wooden flooring with a loud ‘crack’ that made Ryuuko and Queen Bee jump and Alya giggle.

“Girl, you’re enjoying this way too much!” Painted Lady responded by sticking out her tongue at her best friend. Then she leant on her cane with both hands and closed her eyes. “Now… Let’s see. Yes, I can sense Zoe out there… Amazingly strongly; she’s got a remarkably strong mental signature. I can sense the frustration and… heartache? Oh, yes, that and a desperation to have meaning. It must be so, so hard for you, my dear, being amongst such remarkable people and being so mundane… in your judgement at least.”

“Where is she, Painted Lady?” Chloe’s desperation cut through her nervousness at seeing Marinette becoming the new Hawkmoth of all things.

“Exact locations aren’t something that the Butterfly Miraculous can provide, Queen Bee. If it could, Hawkmoth would have learned our true identities almost immediately. No, we’re going to have to do this another way. Empowering Wings!” Painted Lady raised her cane in her left hand and the glass head rotated open, revealing a white butterfly that fluttered out and landed on her right palm. Leaning her cane against her hip, the heroine covered the butterfly with her left hand and purple light began to shine out. “Now, my little akuma, seek out this lost soul for us and guard her until her loved ones arrive!” Painted Lady lifted her left hand to reveal the butterfly, which now had purple fractal patterns on the inner parts of its wings.  She bounced the little butterfly into the air and all four women in the room watched as it fluttered through the circular window at the far corner and out over the rooftops of Paris. “It will lead you right there, Queen Bee, Ryuuko. Follow it and be assured that I will know if you need help.”

~*~*~

Audrey peeked out from behind the doorway to her bedroom in the modern, acceptably stylish and obscenely expensive hotel run by one of St John’s legitimate concerns in Paris. Zebra was not exactly what she’d been looking for (at least she’d taken off that horrible woollen beanie when coming into the suite - who on Earth had told her that was any kind of stylish?). The girl didn’t have much covetousness or cruelty but she was desperate to find a purpose and direction to her life. That, at least, was something Audrey was willing to give the hopeless little brat. Not much of an heir but a powerful minion nonetheless. All she would need to do is break whatever remaining emotional link she had for Chamomile and leave her dependent on the smallest hint of Audrey’s approval. That, at least, was something Audrey was sure she could achieve easily.

The woman took a step back and rose to her full height. “Nevrmorr…”

“Before you say the words, Mistress Centre Audrey Regine, I have some counsel for you.” Audrey scowled and looked angrily at the Raven Kwami but, before she could say so much as a word, he continued his lecture. “I know what is in your heart and your plot and plan for your daughter. All I can say is this: Don’t try it. There are powers involved in Zoe’s destiny about which you know little, understand nothing and ought to care more. Try to make her your slave and, eventually, you will suffer the fate of every slave-master in history. Make her angry; make her resentful; betray her trust? These are all follies. Prove false to her trust and she will be fate’s instrument to bring your doom. Give her love and kindness and she will follow you to the end of the world.” In some subtle way, Nevrmorr’s beak curled up into a facsimile of a smile. “However, I fear that I’m simply wasting my breath, aren’t I? From the moment you stepped over my old Holder’s dead body and took my Miraculous from his ‘museum’ of Poe memorabilia, you have assumed that you can force  events in accord with your will by an exercise of power, nothing more. You will learn your folly in due time.”

Naturally, all Audrey cared about was the key phrase ‘wasting my breath’. She smirked. “Indeed you were wasting your breath and my time, slave. My patience with you is exhausted; from this day forward, I do not want you to speak except if I ask you a direct question. That is my command as your Holder!”

If Audrey had even a scrap of self-awareness, she would have noticed the satisfied malice in Nevrmorr’s smile and the deep irony in the quality of his obedient bow. “Nevrmorr! Speak the Terrible Truth!”

~*~*~

Settling back into the deeply-padded sofa, Zoe sipped on the ruinously expensive but delicious tea that the room service flunky had served her shortly before her mother had stepped into her bedroom (the finest in the hotel, as she’d demanded without even bothering to meet the receptionist’s gaze before sweeping past).

None of this was working out as she’d imagined, not even her own feelings. From the moment that they'd sat down in the limousine, mother had been a somewhat unnerving companion. Not only could she still not get her name right, she clearly knew only a little about Zoe's circumstances here in Paris, especially her relationship with her father. Instead, she'd questioned her about her friends and activities and, subtly or overtly, poured scorn on them. Everything was subtle encouragement to exploit people or even dominate them. She'd congratulated her on 'tricking Chartreuse' into giving her the bracelet and added: "Of course, you deserve anything she has on sight; take it from her if she won't give it to you as she's too weak and unexceptional to stop you!"

Yes, mother was powerful, wealthy (as the amazingly luxurious hotel room proved) and apparently content with her lot but, as Chloe had said, the woman was also completely without any human connection to anyone. She had no friends and seemingly no-one that she really trusted. She snapped out orders and expected instant obedience but she really didn’t even seem to be aware of whom she was talking to or if they even had the ability to do as she demanded! It would be funny if it weren’t so sad in so many ways!

Even when Audrey Regine coerced obedience, it was exactly what she demanded, nothing more and nothing less. Zoe honestly couldn’t imagine anyone doing anything for her because they could and wanted to; there was no sign that anyone had any true affection for her! Zoe felt strangely cold; wasn't this what she wanted, though: Being the centre of attention? Being significant and being exceptional? More than anything, she wished that she could consult with Chloe again. Would anything really be worth this emotional isolation?

It was at that moment that, out of the corner of her eye, Zoe saw a golden flash from out of sight behind the doorway to her mother's bedroom. Looking in the appropriate direction, Zoe saw a blonde woman stepping out of the doorway. The woman was tall and wore a half-gold and half-black shoulderless pant-suit and a black feathered eye-mask. “Who…?”

The woman smirked in a way that Zoe felt familiar but her mind skittered away from any comparison. It was a supervillain! She recognised this feeling from when Enchantress attacked her! She had to get to her mother and protect her…

“Harsh Truth!”

~

Zoe was surrounded by so many people on every side! Her friends from school and Chloe’s friends! Daddy and Chloe stood out from the crowd, glaring down at her. “Utterly ridiculous!” Chloe spat at the cowering girl. “To think that we are even related! You’re nothing to me, Zoe Lee. You’re nothing to me and nothing to anyone! You’re just a smiling, irritating inconvenience that will never be anything to anyone!” The entire crowd laughed in mockery. “You’re without purpose and, frankly, you have no value to me and no place in my life. Isn’t that right, Daddy?”

André Bourgeois actually looked surprised to be included in the conversation. “What was that Princess?” Chloe gestured in Zoe’s direction. “Oh, her?” I thought that you’d sent her away already! Do you need me to hire a waste collection service or something?”

Zoe began to sob. All the turned backs, all the sneering smiles and all the clear impressions of ignoring her in favour of doing something important! They didn’t want her and they didn’t need her! No-one did! If only she could find someone and someone who could give meaning to her life!

THIS WAS THE TRUTH!

~

Suddenly the crowd and the vision of her sneering father and sister were gone and she was cowering on the floor of her mother’s hotel room, sobbing in horror and staring at the unnamed supervillain’s gold and black high-heeled boots. “There,” the woman said. “You’ve seen the truth now, haven’t you? How meaningless your life is and how valueless you as a person are to everyone around you?” The woman dropped down onto one knee and touched the bottom of Zoe’s chin with the hand not clutching a golden black-winged sceptre to force the girl to look up into her masked eyes. “Ah, but maybe I can do something about that, if you like? I am Black Gold and maybe I can help you get your revenge on all those so-called ‘friends’ and give you the power and skills you need to be the one who sneers at and spits on them? Doesn't that sound…?”

The rest of Black Gold's offer was lost to history as Queen Bee's foot caught her on the side of the head, launching her away from the cowering girl who was trying to deal with the existential horror of what she'd just witnessed.

Black Gold dragged herself to her feet, angrily brushing a smear of blood from the corner of her mouth. "You! I suppose you want to compound your mundanity by trying to resist my will? Don't make me laugh!"

Ryuuko stepped through the sliding glass door to the balcony to stand at Queen Bee's side and drew the Dragon Sabre. "I assure you, base villain, that we do not expect you to be amused in the slightest with what is about to happen."

Queen Bee scowled. "The moment you turned your power on my sister, you made yourself my enemy!"

Black Gold chuckled evilly. "'Enemy'? You're barely an irritation! Harsh Truth!" Much to the older woman's shock, the two heroes ducked to either side. They'd known… or guessed… that the Raven Miraculous's attacks only worked on someone in its holder's field of vision; with the two heroes now to either side, the attack dispersed harmlessly. With a shriek of enraged panic, Black Gold barely blocked a kick from Queen Bee and then rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the Dragon Sabre from reducing her height by about 30cm by separating her head from her shoulders.

As the melee developed, no-one noticed Zoe, still kneeling in front of the plush sofa. Her mother! She had to make sure her mother was unharmed! In her daze, Zoe never noticed the white butterfly with purple fractal patterns land on the bracelet her sister gave her without hesitation; probably the first gift from family that did not in some way come with strings attached. Without a sound, the insect seemed to melt into the bracelet and a neon purple butterfly mask appeared, hovering over the girl's face.

Go ahead, my dear. See to your mother!

Responding to the unheard words and a burst of power like someone grabbing her under her arms and lifting her to her feet, Zoe fled into her mother's bedroom whilst Black Gold was distracted parrying a Lightning Storm attack from Ryuuko, only to find it… empty; empty and without signs of struggle. "Where… where did she go?!?"

Well, it looks like she’s left. Now, why would a supervillain just let a valuable hostage go?

"Unless they were acting together," Zoe murmured. Her legs failed her and she dropped to her knees. "Why? Was it all a lie?" Zoe grabbed her head as if it was about to fall off and squeezed her eyes shut in pain at this latest revelation. The two of them had been barely reunited for an hour and this witch had already been plotting to brainwash her or something with the help of this monster?

Suddenly, Zoe heard Black Gold's voice from outside. "Enough of this! Your tricks can't beat me! Phobos! Phobos!" The calling for attacks was followed moments later by the sound of Queen Bee and Ryuuko's screams of terror.

For Ryuuko, it was as if every single fear she'd ever had had been manifest in the form of her mother, her blind eyes replaced by evil, demonic slits as she advanced on her, striking at her again and again with her bokken, not to injure but as if forcing her to pay attention and speaking a litany of all her worst criticisms: "Weak! Uncoordinated! Unfocussed! Talentless! Sentimental! Credulous! A failure! NO DAUGHTER OF MINE!" That last part wasn't something Tsurugi Tomoe had ever said but, in her heart, Ryuuko knew that it was how she felt.

Meanwhile, Queen Bee was looking in horror at a multi-armed version of the supervillain Enchantress, holding her hypnotic mirror in one hand and a blood-stained stiletto in another. There was something overwhelming about the sight and she found herself staggering back from the vision as it advanced on her.

From Zoe's perspective, the heroes were backing away from and cowering from amorphous shadows that were advancing on them as they grew steadily weaker and more focussed on what they were seeing. Black Gold laughed maniacally. "That's right! Your greatest fears! How typical of you 'heroes' to be so easily defeated by such petty weaknesses! Now, let's knock you down and relieve you of your Miraculouses!" The tall supervillain raised her sceptre, clearly intending to use it as a mace on the two young women.

Zoe looked on in horror, desperately trying to think what she should do. This was worse than Enchantress! She was fully aware and helpless to protect Chloe and her partner! If only she had courage! If only she wasn’t so afraid! If only she was somebody! The neon purple butterfly mask appeared hovering over Zoe's face again, this time noticeably brighter.

My apologies, EleMental, I should have introduced myself before. I am Painted Lady. I have heard your frustrations, your sense of inadequacy and your desperation to aid Queen Bee and Ryuuko, not just to emulate your sister but to prove to yourself that you can. I can aid you, EleMental. I can provide you with the power to even the odds. All I ask is that you willingly renounce the power I grant you once the fight is done. Can I trust you?

Zoe’s mind was racing; to become a super-being? That would be her greatest wish come true but only for the duration of the fight! Well, it was better than what her mother asked because this was an offer without strings other than to do the right thing! Her heart soared in anticipation. “I will, Painted Lady!” Zoe clenched her fists as her entire body seemed to catch fire and tingle with electricity all at once as dense lavender smoke boiled out of her bracelet, hiding her from view

Suddenly, Queen Bee and Ryuuko both came out of their delirium as both of the monsters that the Raven Miraculous had shown them were swept away by arcing streams of fire. They and Black Gold all turned to see the figure standing in the doorway of Audrey’s bedroom. It was Zoe and yet it was not. Her hair was pale green and its dyed stripe was now a tight rainbow of orange, yellow, ice blue, aqua blue and maroon. She was wearing a blue-and-silver magilycra body-suit under a red leather jacket with matching fingerless gloves, both decorated by metal spikes. The eyes were the things that really caught everyone’s attention: Behind the mask made of two red jagged-edged triangles either side of her nose, the irises behind the eye openings were burning orange.

“Your witchery won’t aid you any further, Black Gold! Surrender or this gets… painful!”

Black Gold’s face went from slack astonishment to boiling fury in a moment. She lifted her Sceptre again and pointed it at EleMental but the akumatised champion was already following up, her eyes shifting smoothly to ice blue. She gestured and a titanic blast of wind threw the woman across the room, smashing her into the plate-glass balcony window of the rooftop penthouse. Then the colour of her irises darkened to maroon, she turned away from Black Gold and punched the wall hard. Lumps of plaster and bricks exploded out of the wall and launched at the startled supervillain, shattering the balcony window and others slamming into her body, sending her tumbling out into the air thirty stories above the streets of Paris. Huge black wings unfurled from behind the villain and began to beat at the air, keeping her aloft instead of falling to her doom.

“Time to finish this!” Queen Bee had a good idea what was going on but she was too happy to have back-up when she and Stormy had been blind-sided like that to care too much. It was time for one of the combo moves they’d rehearsed together. “Ryuuko, use Saw Storm!”

“Ready, Bee-chain!” Ryuuko straight-armed the Dragon Sabre and aimed it at Black Gold as Queen Bee raised the Bee Trompo. “Wind Strike!”

“Soldier Swarm!”

The power of the Dragon Miraculous created a tight whirlwind that shot right at Black Gold as the Bee Trompo spat a seemingly-endless hail of Bee contracts with razor-sharp wings and appendages, swarming around the edge of the whirlwind to create a potentially lethal combination of concussion and cutting edge.

They weren’t expecting the third person to join in, raising her right hand, and pointed at Black Gold like a dagger’s point as her irises turned yellow. A blast of pure lightning shot down the middle of the wind-storm and slammed into Black Gold. The combination of the three attacks sent the woman tumbling limply through the air, vanishing amongst the rooftops as she fell into the labyrinth of streets in Paris.

EleMental walked over to the edge of the balcony, her eyes turning ice blue again as she gathered herself to launch into the air. “We’ve got her on the run! Let’s get after…” Suddenly, they saw, in the far distance, a black-winged form launch itself into the air and fly up and away from the hotel, rapidly vanishing into the skies.

Ryuuko put her hand on the akumatised champion’s shoulder. “The coward has fled, my sister. There is no need to pursue her at this time and little hope of success if we choose to do so.”

EleMental drew in a frustrated breath but smiled at Ryuuko in acknowledgement. “I agree; the fight is done. It has been an honour to fight alongside you, Ryuuko.” The girl turned to Queen Bee and her smile was bigger and filled with immeasurably more joy. “And especially with you, Queen Bee.”

You have done well, EleMental, came Painted Lady’s unspoken voice. So, will you now keep your promise?

“I will, Painted Lady.” Suddenly, the Champion was consumed by lavender smoke and, when it cleared, Zoe stood there. There was no look of disorientation or weakness. Instead she stood erect and proud as the akuma separated from her bracelet and fluttered up. On an impulse she didn’t understand, Zoe extended her left hand and held out her palm. The akuma seemed to pause for a moment before fluttering back to land on her palm. The girl bent over her hand and her lips seemed to kiss the tiny insect. “Bye-bye, little butterfly!” she whispered in her native English before launching the akuma up into the air again to flutter away.

Suddenly, Zoe was in Queen Bee’s arms. “I think that we should get out of here.”

“Who’s going to pay for all the damage?” Zoe squeaked from her sister’s arms, gesturing at the ruin of the luxury hotel room.

Ryuuko’s stoic expression was broken by a twitch of her lips. “I’m sure that Regine-san can afford it.”

Somehow none of the girls felt able to disagree with that!

~*~*~

Maybe Zoe shouldn't have been surprised but she was to see the woman in purple, black and silver with the butterfly-shaped mask standing on Chloe's balcony when the three young women made their landing. Queen Bee managed to restrain her urge to roll her eyes. Of course the she would be here. "Painted Lady, what's up?"

The butterfly-masked noirette smiled. "I just wanted to make sure that everyone was okay, Queen Bee." She turned to look at Zoe who blushed slightly as her sister set her down onto the roof. "Everyone; especially you, Miss Bourgeois."

"I… I'm okay."

"No, you're not Zoe. When I sent my akuma out to search for you, I could feel your anguish and frustration. That's why I'm here: To reassure you that there is more to happiness and real success than wealth and power. There is also being able to look yourself in the mirror in the morning and to know that you've brought more happiness into the world. Let's just say that I have… personal knowledge in this matter."

"Just like MDC, right PL?" Queen Bee snarked with a teasing smirk, getting a light kick to the ankle in response.

"Exactly," Painted Lady replied, earning Queen Bee's respect for not acting as if she'd derailed her lecture. "I'm not saying that it's easy Zoe; I'm not even going to promise that you'll always succeed. What I'm saying is that being exceptional really means making a positive difference." There was a long pause and the Butterfly Heroine looked rather abashed. "So… yeah, that's all there is to say." Painted Lady turned to jump off across the rooftops when Zoe reached her.

"Wait!" Painted Lady turned back to Zoe, who blushed before continuing. "I just want to say… You trusted me and I won't forget that; I won't forget that you believed in me." The girl smiled uncertainly and squeezed the hero's hands. "Thank you, Painted Lady. Thank you."

~*~*~

Chloe could have been doing dozens of things this afternoon but this was more important. At some point after Painted Lady had left, Ryuuko had departed too. Chloe had detransformed and Zoe had suddenly burst into sad tears leaving Chloe holding her twin, stroking her hair in a clumsy attempt at comfort. Sabrina had appeared briefly, put Fuzzy on her leash and took the huge cat out for her afternoon constitutional but had wisely not interrupted the sisters.

After a while, the girl was able to raise her head and address her sister. "I just don't know who I am, Chloe. Am I even a person in my own right? All my life, I've been roles: Audrey Regine's hidden child; the girl in Armstrong High who could fit into any pigeonhole; the prodigal daughter of André Bourgeois; the lost twin of Chloe Bourgeois; the sister of Queen Bee…" She sucked in a sob before continuing. "You are such an incredibly bright light, Chloe: Superhero, entrepreneur already, friend to some of Paris's most important people. You blind me when I look at you. What am I compared to you? I'm just… a shadow. For a while there, I actually convinced myself that the only way to be myself was to be your opposite and then I saw m… Audrey for the hollow fake she is. I don't know what to do!"

Chloe squeezed her sister. "That's the one thing I learned from her, you know. Maybe the only worthwhile thing I ever learned. You've got to find your own path and live a life that's worthwhile, never comparing yourself with others."

Seeing the fear in her sister’s eyes, Chloe squeezed her sister hard before continuing. "Did I ever tell you of the night I spent at Marinette's place after Audrey served Daddy with the divorce papers? At that point, I had no idea if there was anyone in this world who loved me enough to make it worthwhile to carry on. We all have low points, sister of mine."

Zoe nodded, struggling to give a brave smile. "I'll find some way to be my own person but… what is that?"

~*~*~

Only the rigid traditions of Japanese courtesy kept Tsurugi Tomoe from dismissing the magical virtual presence call from the Centre of the North American Circle out of sheer boredom. She wasn't even on the Council of Masters of the East Asian Circle but she was the only other member of the Dark Order in the local area that the woman knew and who was low-ranking enough for her to call to rant about her latest humiliation at the hands of Ladybug and her allies (especially her daughter) and expect them to listen. However, requirements of the Order's disciplines aside, Tomoe felt no need to pay any real attention to the woman's peevish complaints and childish sense of injustice.

Finally, Audrey seemed to run out of steam. "Maybe it is not the lack of punishment that is the problem here, Master," she remarked. "Maybe it is the lack of reward; have you ever tried to show your girls any real kind of love?" The Japanese tech tycoon couldn't help but smirk slightly at the psychic image of Audrey's slack-jawed expression of offended shock. "Well, as much as this has been a fascinating conversation…" Monologue really… "…I'm afraid that I have urgent Order business to attend to. Good day to you."

With a few muttered syllables in Tibetoka, Tomoe broke the mind-to-mind magical connection. She rose to her feet from where she'd been kneeling in her mediation chamber.

It was true that Kagami was becoming more rebellious of late but Tomoe was confident that she had ingrained a sense of duty deeply enough into the girl with simple enough behavioural response programming that, when the time came, she'd choose her mother and her heritage over the short-sighted ideas of virtue with which her friends had infected her.

The blind woman turned and walked away through the corridors, effortlessly avoiding obstacles and navigating without touching her surroundings, even though her optic nerves were basically useless masses of tissue. After a few minutes, she'd found herself in her day room. Sitting on a rack on the mantelpiece were her katana, wakizashi and recurved longbow. She caressed the polished ebony sheaths of the sword and ironwood body of the bow with a reverent and reflective smile. In response to the specific sequence of touches to rough spots most people could never identify, a hidden compartment opened up revealing a thickly-woven black blindfold-like head-scarf with a strange kanji ideograph decorating the front. She stroked her hand over the scarf. "It has been a while, hasn't it, old friend? Since we last made mayhem together? It offends my pride to go running wherever Graham de Vanily demands but I see the Masters' wisdom in this. He can be a useful tool to help us gather power and further weaken our foes. So…" She lifted the blindfold out of the hidden recess and wrapped it around her head so that the ideograph was directly in between her blind eyes. "So, the time has come for Kaze Gozen to haunt the night again."

Chapter Text

As the dawn sun of one of the last days of winter peeked above the horizon of Paris, Ladybug was standing on the rooftops, letting the first golden rays caress her black and polka-dotted red form. She closed her eyes for a moment to bask in the sensation just in time for a warm, intimate voice to whisper into her ear. "Boo! Caught you, M'Lady!"

Only a year ago, something like this would have seen Chat Noir instantly launched a kilometre or more across the city by a reflexive shoulder-toss. Thankfully, Ladybug had come a long way in controlling her instinctive reactions. That didn’t reduce her anger at herself. She couldn't afford to relax, not with Felix and Lila on the loose in the city for purposes unknown, the gems of the Second Prodigious unaccounted for and now Audrey and Black Gold in Paris and actively doing the Dark Order's will! She smacked her boyfriend's chest in annoyance. "Kitty! Stop fooling around!"

Chat Noir wasn't in any way daunted. Instead, he stepped right into his girlfriend's personal space, dipped his head, tilted her head up with a finger-tip to her chin and briefly blew all thoughts out of her mind with a lingering kiss. "Am I forgiven?"

Ladybug coughed and licked her lips to get her voice working again. "You never need to be, my Prince," she said huskily and slid gladly into his hug.

A few minutes later, the two young lovers were sitting side-by-side on the edge of the roof, watching the day in Paris begin below them. "Have I ever told you how thankful I am, M'Lady?" Ladybug raised an eyebrow in query. "For sticking with me when there are so many good reasons why you should have taken the Black Cat away from me and run?"

"Chat, what are you talking about? You're a great hero! What reason would I have for doing that?"

Chat Noir looked down for a moment. "My family is not a good legacy on either side, Ladybug. My father was a monster and did his level best to raise me to be the same. My mother is literally the white sheep of a family of vile criminals who exploit everyone and everything that comes into their power! You can't…" He sighed and looked over at his girlfriend. "You can never have not wondered, even once, of what taint may be in my blood; of who and what I have the potential to be."

Ladybug struggled to swallow and blinked fiercely to break the spell as, in her mind, Chat Noir's black and grey super-suit suit with green highlights was briefly replaced by a pure white suit and his green eyes with piercing, lifeless eyes of icy blue, the warmth of an ordinary weekday replaced with the icy clarity of a drowned world without people, the horrible sight of a bisected Moon breaking apart in the skies above. No, that won't happen; Hawkmoth is no more so it will never happen.

"Chaton, we all have the potential for evil. I know that better than most." Briefly, the memories of her first time as Princess Justice floated through the girl's mind; of the joy she felt as Lila's eyes began to film over with the oblivion of madness and roll up into her head, her screams fading into a gurgle, her lips flecked with bloody foam. She swallowed again. "However, I know that you're a good man. Just like your mother is a good woman. She chose not to be the woman her father raised her to be. From the first moment you had the Black Cat, you've been determined to use it for good. That's what defines you, Kitty: Not your mistakes, many they are!" Chat stuck his tongue out as his girlfriend and gave her a shoulder-bump, making her giggle before continuing. "Certainly not the evil example of your family; you've always chosen the right thing, no matter how hard they are and how much it hurt and the risks it posed to you and to your friendships. That's the person my partner is; that's the man with whom I fell in love."

Chat gave her that heart-breaking shy smile of his. "That's you, though, isn't it? You're all about love and redemption." The Black Cat Hero's arm slid across Ladybug's shoulders and she leant into his embrace happily. "That's the thing that keeps me going when I just want to run away and hide."

Chat Noir's clawed glove intertwined with Ladybug's gloved hand and the Ladybug tucked her head in between Chat's shoulder and cheek for a long moment before he spoke. "It's funny, though…" Ladybug looked at him again. "How many of our families are our exact opposites and how much trouble it causes."

"I like to think of it as the Balance at work. Many of us have family members capable of much evil but we're able to counter that with the good we do. It's not automatic and we have to keep fighting to maintain that pull against the will of evil but I like to think that it's a fight worth fighting."

~*~*~

Juleka Couffaine finished arranging her hair in the style suggested by her mother's semi-official stylist and looked at her mirror in the room she had (but rarely used) at the Mayor's official residence wing of the Hotel de Ville. She never thought she'd say this but she looked good. She'd tied her long purple-streaked black hair into a high bun, still leaving some of her bangs to partially mask her right eye. Apart from that, everything else in her trouser suit was pretty much black except for her purple dyed stripe, her dark purple blouse, lipstick and masculine-style necktie.

The door opened and she saw her mother enter out of the corner of her eyes. "Hey, Anarka."

"Julie," the other woman replied easily. "I was going to ask when you were going to be ready but here you are!" Anarka offered her daughter a teasing smile. "Every woman in the city will be lusting after you, I think!"

Juleka smiled shyly but she admitted to herself that she only wanted Rose to look at her with desire and longing (although a traitorous part of her wondered what it would be like to be swept onto a rooftop by Piggiwig, just as Chat Noir had done with Marinette so many times). She decided to change the subject; no-one liked discussing their sex-appeal with their parents, after all. "So, does it still look like Luka is going to dodge this?"

Anarka did a good job of not too obviously showing annoyance at that reminder. "I can't demand that he attend; the way Andre used Chloe and later Zoe as props for political use was something I despised. I just…" She shook her head. "I just wish that I knew what this 'night job' was that seems to take up at least one night a week!"

"Maybe this is just a cover for dates with Alix?"

Anarka snorted. "He knows that I'd not object if he told me that he wanted to spend time with her instead of indulging his old Maman with her political posturing!"

Juleka laughed in response. After a moment of thought, a slightly mocking smile crossed her face. "Really, Anarka, this is a bit self-inflicted, don’t you think? I mean, political rallies are part of the job description but was there any reason to do it in the late evening?"

Anarka snorted. "It's a working day, you cheeky sprite! When else are the ordinary folk of Paris going to have time to attend?"

~*~*~

"Ladies and gentlemen, pray your silence and attention. I present to you, the Mayor of the Metropolitan Prefecture of Paris, Mademoiselle Anarka Couffaine."

It was impressive that Anarka walked out onto the stage to quite the storm of applause and cheers from the crowd. There were even more than a few chants of her old rockstar guitarist stage name: "An-ar-chy! An-ar-chy!"

"I would say that this is the big difference between politics here in the west and politics back home," Ryuuko commented dryly. "Do you really think that we need to be here?"

Vipereon shook his head. "I've just got a bad feeling, Ryuuko. The election is still disputed; not by anyone in authority but there are so many bitter losers who are claiming outlandish conspiracy theories about the outcome. The way Auric had so suddenly fled the city and vanished from the sight of the media hadn't helped in the slightest to silence the whispers about him being coerced into conceding. A big outdoor event like this is an excellent opportunity for someone to do something stupid to act on their grievances." Vipereon touched the Snake Miraculous and snapped its Ouroboros timer into place at the start of its track. "Second Chance!"

Ryuuko nodded thoughtfully. "Political violence in Japan is rarely as overt as it is here and in the United States. There are… subtler ways to make your point that my people prefer. I'm not sure if that makes us more or less civilised." She looked around and smiled slightly. Of course the Snake Hero was gone; like his namesake he could move very silently and he always preferred to be in the shadows, close to the action.

Anarka wasn’t the sort of woman to enjoy the sound of her own voice. Her speeches were concise, to the point but still somehow managed to be memorable. She'd just got to the climax, three minutes in when, with no warning, Vipereon lunged out of nowhere and knocked Anarka from her feet. The two tumbled to the ground just as a black-fletched ebony arrow shot through the spot where the woman's heart had been a moment ago and slammed into the red curtain with the blue, green and gold emblem of Anarka's "Popular Alliance" group of political allies and supporters. Keeping the woman pressed to the stage, the Snake Hero rose up onto one knee and the Snake Lyre arced through the air, knocking a second arrow upward where it exploded high above the stage, sending out a rain of burning needle-sharp flechettes in all directions (fortunately, they had too far to travel to retain enough energy to harm anyone). However, this second attack was dramatic enough to provoke screams and hysteria in the crowd beyond.

Ryuuko's training had not left her the sort of woman who would be distracted and would panic, even in the bizarre scenario of a sniper archer attacking the mayor. The second attack had given her all the trajectory hints she needed to identify the likely location where the archer was hiding and she was off, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

She briefly looked to the stage where Vipereon was helping the mayor's bodyguard drag the woman and her daughter off of the stage. Then she looked back towards her destination and, just visible in the edge of the glare of the bright floodlights was the spark of light off of metal and someone in matte black clothing dodging to one side to try to get a firing angle on the fleeing Anarka Couffaine.

Ryuuko launched herself into the air for a flying kick to the assassin's head but, incredibly, the woman seemed to know that she was under attack even though Ryuuko should have been invisible with the glare from the lights and had made no sound. She tucked and rolled backwards before leaping up onto her feet and loosing her next arrow at Ryuuko. The Dragon Sabre sang as it caught the oncoming projectile and deflected it down into the ground. Already the woman was reloading but so was Ryuuko, attaching her weapon's sheath to the bottom of its hilt and transforming it into a bow. "Ice Strike!"

Both the assassin's latest shot and Ryuuko's attack made of elemental ice met head-on and the arrow dropped uselessly to the rooftop covered in ice that rendered it too heavy to fly. The ice energy attack continued onwards to strike the woman's bow, covering it in a layer of frost and making her drop it with a cry of surprised pain, shaking her suddenly-numb fingers. Without much hesitation, the woman drew a katana and wakizashi and dropped into a perfect duelling posture. Without even conscious thought, Ryuuko detached the hilt from the Dragon Sabre and dropped into an identical Main and Gauche duel-wielding posture. Oh she knew that posture. This woman had been trained by Uncle Toshi? No, that was impossible; Toshehiro Isuko had been a good and kind man; he would never have dishonoured himself by teaching the arts of sword and bow to an assassin!

Both combatants fell still for a moment, glaring at each other. Ryuuko frowned as she took in the black blindfold being worn by her foe. It had an ideograph in the sacred Kanji script in between her covered eyes. However, it was not one of the emblems of one of the known Ninja clans (Mother had ensured that she knew those on sight). Instead, it was an odd, almost poetic word bearing the general meaning of 'sight beyond sight'; combined with the fact that this woman surely should not be able to see through the blindfold told Ryuuko that magic was at work here. "Who are you?" the Dragon Heroine snapped in Japanese.

The assassin's thin lips curled up in a cruel smile and she responded in the same language. "Does that matter, child? You know what must be done if you indeed are a worthy holder of the Dragon Miraculous of Perfection. I will not disengage until Anarka Couffaine is dead. If you want to prevent that, then I must die."

"Taking a life is not something I do lightly."

The woman tilted her head. "Nor I. However, my Masters accepted this commission and I am honour-bound to carry it out. So, if you are truly a hero, you will not hesitate. If you hesitate, then you will lose." The woman smirked again. "Of course, given your only mediocre form so far, I suspect losing this fight is something over which you have no control."

Ryuuko was struck by the similarity of the woman's scornful lecture to her mother's indifferent and cutting critique of everything she ever did. However, she was not the silly, insecure and quick-tempered girl she’d been more than a year ago when Riposte happened. Instead, she changed her posture, deliberately opening a chink in her defences and offering an opportunity to attack. The woman responded by altering her posture, twirling her weapons around in her hands, a deliberate strategy to try to make Ryuuko focus on the dizzying movements of the weapons rather than her foe's moves.

Then, suddenly, the woman launched herself towards Ryuuko, leading with her katana but bringing it back at the last moment, trying to draw the Japanese heroine forward and off-balance, vulnerable to being stabbed through the heart by way of her armpit with the assassin's wazikashi. However, at the last moment, Ryuuko recognised the move and reversed her grip on her sheath to block the attack and continued her lunge, forcing her foe to duck to one side to avoid having the Dragon Sabre stuck through her throat.

The woman staggered to one side, the strange blindfold fluttering to the rooftop. Ryuuko smiled tightly. Whatever that blindfold was, she was convinced that it was giving her foe an advantage and it was no longer a factor in this fight!

Then the woman turned back and the Dragon Heroine froze in horror. At last, she could see the woman’s face clearly and it was a face that she recognised. After all, it was the very first face she ever saw, right down to the eerie blind white eyes that seemed to gaze into her soul. Tsurugi Tomoe’s words were dry and thoughtful. “So, it seems that you have been paying attention to your training and not just relying on the magic of your Miraculous to protect you.” She shook her head. “Unfortunately for you, it means that I must treat you far more seriously as an opponent and this is something that will not be to your advantage. Once again, I urge you to stand aside, Kagami. I would not desire to hurt you; you have a far greater role in our family’s saga than this.”

Ryuuko’s mind span. How could her mother know? How did she defeat the disguise magic of the Dragon Miraculous? How was she even able to see to fight? “Mother…?”

Tomoe suddenly launched herself towards Ryuuko and only years of trained reflexes stopped the woman from slashing her open from throat to groin. The young woman’s mind locked into ‘fight’ mode; her mother was determined and a seemingly supernaturally-gifted fighter. She had to focus on disarming her before solving this mystery!

Mother and daughter launched themselves towards each other again and, this time, the action was blurringly fast and continuous. The two experienced warriors smoothly transitioned from style to style, seamlessly combining many different styles of oriental and occidental fencing. As the fight continued, both began to pull more and more 'dirty' moves, adding melee strikes and parries to the electric arcs of moving blades. Ryuuko got in a kick to her foe's sternum and, in the immediate aftermath, the woman somehow found a hole in her defences, slashing at her shoulder with her katana that only the nearly-indestructible magilycra of her costume prevented turning into a crippling blow.

Panting hard, Ryuuko rolled clear and jumped back into a guarding position. “Acceptable.” Tomoe intoned. “You are not allowing your confusion to impact your reactions… at least no more than I would expect at this stage of the fight.” The woman tilted her head. “How is it that I can even fight like this, you wonder? Well, let us simply say that I have an alternative set of senses to my eyes. The only function of that blindfold with which your grandfather gifted me when I was younger than you are now was to grant me ordinary sight too, making me that much more formidable for my work as his strong right hand in the Dark Order.” Ryuuko’s eyes widened upon hearing that name. Chloe-chan’s mother was suspected to be a part of that cursed band of renegade Guardians and now her mother too? “My other sight is quite adequate for my needs, as you now perceive. The disguise magic the old wizard placed on the Miraculous is strong but it is hard to disguise a child’s heartbeat, the echoes of how sounds reflect from their flesh and bones or the flow of heat from the blood running through her body from her very mother!”

As Ryuuko struggled to come to terms with this revelation, the woman somehow joined her two swords together at the hilt, turning it into a two-ended sword known as a tsurugi. Tomoe leapt towards her daughter and Ryuuko only avoided being speared through the heart by catching the leading blade between the crossed Dragon Sabre and sheath. Tomoe flipped away before turning back to attack again, every after-stroke into a stroke in its own right. Forced onto the back foot, Ryuuko was forced to disengage, throwing herself into several backward somersaults to open up a gap. Then, with a few moments reprieve, she switched tactics. "Wind Dragon!"

This move had worked and worked well before. Transformed into a living windstorm, Ryuuko snatched up the woman and sent her spinning up into the sky. Much to the Dragon Hero's surprise, the assassin wasn't disoriented or in any way showing distress. Instead, she held her tsurugi tight against her chest along the axis of her rotation. As soon as Ryuuko dropped her, she flipped the double blade up perpendicular and turned it into a crude aerofoil that she literally rode back down towards the rooftops, continuing to twirl it above her head until she made a soft landing.

“No,” Tomoe shook her head. “You’re still trying to defeat me without injuring me too badly. That is a fool’s objective, Kagami. I will not be easily beaten and you must be willing to maim me to stop me. Do you have that skill? Do you have the strength to do it or is your facade of being a warrior just a hollow pretence?”

Ryuuko transformed back to her human form and, with panic starting to bubble inside her, switched the Dragon Sabre back to its longbow form. "Lightning Strike!" The arrow of pure electric energy shot towards the assassin who slammed the short end of her tsurugi into the rooftop and grasped the hilt as the arrow struck the longer blade and… dissipated. She'd earthed the attack into the roof!

For the first time, Tomoe showed some manner of emotion; the thin-lipped smile that she always wore when she defeated her daughter in a sparring contest. “As you can see, Kagami, I know the tricks of the Dragon Miraculous very well. Why should I not? Ever since that old refugee Guardian contacted my great-grandfather and revealed the source of the powers our ancestress Tomoe Gozen wielded, we have been working alongside the Dark Order to reclaim that power, which is rightfully ours, from wherever it had been hidden. I came to Paris after realising that a Miraculous hero known as ‘Jade Turtle’ had been hiding here since the Second World War in the hope that he would lead me to our rightful inheritance. I would never have imagined just how right I was and just how close to hand that the Dragon truly was!”

Tomoe began to stride unhurriedly towards Ryuuko, who had again adopted a Main and Gauche ready posture. "I know of your powers, girl. I know the limits that one as young as you labour under. I know that, having used one of each element, you now have only five minutes before you are forced to detransform!" She cocked her head. "You are already beaten. So, yield to me and I will continue your training at another time.” There was a shrill triple-beep and one of the five tiny facets of the pearl around Ryuuko’s throat blinked out.

Ryuuko refused to let the warning cloud her thinking. “Meanwhile, you will hunt down your prey again and slay them? Never!”

Tomoe shook her head. “You really are a stupid girl, aren’t you? You have no idea why I have treated you as I had over the years! It's ironic, truly. I had such high hopes for you, Kagami. From your birth, I have been training you to be the avatar of Perfection, the ruling concept of the Dragon Miraculous, hoping that, when I finally claimed the Dragon from the Guardian, its Spirit would immediately choose you as its rightful Bearer. However, you were never quite what I wanted you to be. Maybe Toshi had filled your head with too many of his antiquated notions of bushido. Or maybe it was your western friends who infected you with their weak ideals?"

Ryuuko took a moment to centre herself before launching herself towards her foe again. This time, she went outside her training and leapt over the woman's arcing blades, slashing down at her head. With her usual blindingly fast reflexes, the woman dodged the blow from the Dragon Sabre but that was just a feint to leave Tomoe open to a clubbing blow from the sheath. Stunned by the blow to the side of her head, Tomoe stumbled, fell and rolled to a stop a short distance away.

Ryuuko span around mid-air and landed facing her fallen foe, pointing the Dragon Sabre at her and feeling a sudden surge of confidence. "Now the tables are reversed, mother! Now, stop this! Surrender to me and we can talk about this insanity with which Grandfather seemed to have infected you!”

As Tomoe got her feet underneath her, she shook her head. “How many times must I tell you, child? Do not talk, strike!” Suddenly, Tomoe was forward-somersaulting right at Ryuuko; reflexively, her daughter lifted the Dragon Sabre and sheath to block both the stroke and after-stroke from the tsurugi but left herself wide open for a knee that drove hard into her solar plexus, knocking the breath out of her and slamming her hard into the roof. Tomoe somersaulted further, landing beyond the fallen hero, breaking her tsurugi back into a katana and wakizashi as she did so.

“Somewhat less disappointing than I had feared.” Tomoe remarked as Ryuuko shook her head in a desperate attempt to clear the ringing bells and get back her breath. “You might even one day be my equal, if you have the wit to know when to yield to your betters.” The woman’s smile returned and, this time, it was reflective. “Of course, the women of our house never do know how to do that, do we? I am what I am because I refused to accept the ruling by the Circle of the East Asian Order that, being blind to normal sight, I was too imperfect to be trained as an adept of the Dark Order. Father was wiser than those fools. He trained me and trained me well, and so Kaze Gozen, the Shadow Swordswoman, quickly thinned the herd of fools who led the Circle at that time. Now he’s gone and new Masters sit in the Circle but even he Centre knows just how important it is to avoid angering me.”

Almost lazily Tomoe pointed the point of her katana at Ryuuko’s throat. “Of course, you were to be our House’s ultimate redemption: A Chosen Miraculous Holder who was thus eligible to be a Master Guardian and, ultimately, to lead the Circle. That is the only reason why you are still alive girl. Don’t think that it’s because of any particularly impressive skill on your part. Remember, Tosheihiro Isuko taught me before he taught you. You know no skill and no technique that I had not mastered long before you!”

The Dragon Miraculous's two minute warning had just sounded. Tomoe's sermon had given Kagami enough time to recentre herself and she took the moment. As Tomoe began to slowly back away from her daughter, Kagami touched the Dragon Sabre and its sheath where they had fallen to either side of her. Keeping her breathing steady in an attempt to avoid giving an early warning to her mother’s uncanny senses she suddenly slashed both weapon and sheath across the asphalt, tearing up masses of gravel and long-hardened tar that the fast motion launched towards Tomoe and it began falling to the ground at her feet. Briefly 'blinded' by the clattering debris landing all around her, Tomoe was briefly disoriented and didn’t react as Kagami tucked and rolled forwards before kicking at her mother’s knees, sending the woman crashing to the rooftop with a cry of pain and surprise. As Ryuuko backflipped back onto her feet, she raised the Dragon Sabre again. "I don’t need my powers to beat you, mother! Uncle may have been the teacher to both of us but he taught me things he obviously realised he could not entrust to you! Things about beating all the senses, not just sight!"

Tomoe snarled as she bounded back to her feet at the far end of the roof. "And I don't need to beat you to win, girl! All I need to do is to finish my mission!" With a sudden motion, the woman threw a small metal sphere to the rooftop. The small device exploded in a cloud of black smoke. Ryuuko wasn’t startled or in any way deterred by this simple trick and rushed forwards, staying low to avoid her mother’s swords. However, when she reached the edge of the roof, Tomoe was gone. Through the fading smoke, she saw the woman completing an acrobatic series of moves, swinging down a few light poles to get to ground level.

Ryuuko was about to pursue when her Miraculous’s one minute warning buzzed loudly and she paused, grimacing in frustration. "Longg! Open sky!" With a golden flash, Kagami was standing on the rooftop and Longg zipped up to her face.

"Well, that was a thoroughly-unpleasant and dangerously-obsessed woman! I imagine that it is this ‘Dark Order’ who told her so much about the history of my Miraculous?"

Kagami shook her head. "It doesn't matter, Longg. What matters is that we have to stop her before she finishes her mission!" The girl threw Longg a jellied watermelon slice that the kwami caught mid-air. "Now, hurry; we must pursues before she hurts Luka and Juleka's mother!"

The kwami chewed quickly and Kagami could see that his expression was conflicted. Then it cleared as he came to a decision. "Kagami… Your grandfather did not lie to your mother." Kagami was frozen for a moment by that revelation. "We can discuss this later but there is a reason why you have been able to master so many of my gifts and Tomoe Gozen is part of that story; someone whose friendship I treasured and who would have been disgusted by your mother’s choices. However, as you said we must, first and foremost, pursue our foe and stop her before she harms any other innocents."

Kagami snapped out of her shock at her kwami's words, which had a commanding tone not unlike that used by Uncle Toshi in her practice drills. "Longg! Bring the storm!"

~*~*~

The… what? Ninja assassin stood before the mayor’s shattered limousine after stepping over the last of her bodyguards that she’s cut down ruthlessly. Now, all that stood between her and the unconscious Mayor of Paris was a girl in a black-and-purple suit. She was trembling in terror but seemed resolute.

“Step aside girl,” Kaze Gozen said quietly. “I have no interest in you.”

Juleka drew in a deep breath and looked right at the tattered blindfold covering the woman’s eyes. “I won’t let you hurt my maman!”

There was a long, cold pause before Tomoe spoke again. “That is a fitting choice: No child should suffer to see their parent harmed. Take solace in the fact that you will die with the greatest honour.”

Tomoe stepped forward, hesitated and side-somersaulted as Vipereon landed right next to her and lashed at her head with the Snake Lyre. The experienced assassin easily dodged but had to retreat back several paces. “Ah, more heroes make their appearance. I have already defeated your Dragon; do you think that a mere Serpent will defeat me?”

Vipereon’s heart clenched with fear for Ryuuko but he did not lose his focus just as he didn’t the last seven times. He just had to keep her back for a little longer! That wasn’t exactly going to be easy when she had those swords and was so willing to use them. “What is your business with the mayor? I’ve not heard of her having any dealings with the orient!”

The assassin smiled. “That matters not. All you need to know is that someone with the greatest resources has decreed that she must die. I have no particular interest in you or in her child but I won’t allow either of you to impede my mission. If you care for the child, take her and flee.”

Vipereon shook his head as he picked up the smooth ice-like total precision and focus of the woman’s ‘song’. In response to what he could sense, he began to pick out a tune on the Lyre: Sharp and statico, intended to crack that focus. "Soul Song!"

For almost ten seconds, it even seemed to work before the woman suddenly snarled and shook her head. “You… will… stay out of my mind, trickster!” The woman’s left hand touched her right arm and then lashed through the air, sending several spinning shuriken spinning towards the Snake Hero. Of course, he’d seen this before and knocked them from the air with the Lyre but it had forced him to break off his spell. The woman was charging after the projectiles the moment Vipereon’s hypnotic song ended.

Vipereon allowed himself to fall backwards, avoiding the woman’s lethal cut with her katana as she reached him and kicked upwards at her wrist, something she just barely avoided although the glancing blow affected her balance. The hero flung himself forwards just as the katana was stabbed into the street as it was the twice before, once again avoiding a deep cut to his back.

The assassin followed up, clearly ready to carve him open from groin to throat when a huge bat-like form appeared overhead, slamming both feet into the woman’s forehead and knocking her flying.

Ryuuko stood proud in the centre of the road to the background of dopplering police sirens as reinforcements raced to the scene. Tomoe, her blindfold loosened again from the blow and now hanging around her neck, shook her head in disorientation before looking at the Dragon Heroine. “What…? No, that isn’t…!” What had completely frozen Tomoe were the red dragon wings with black spars and golden trailing edges rising from Ryuuko’s shoulders; it reminded her with blazing clarity of an etching of her divine ancestress whose every shape she'd memorised as a child. “It can’t be! No-one since Tomoe Gozen herself has a Dragon Holder shown such power!” With a snarl, the woman threw herself up onto the roof of the wreck of one of the bodyguards’ cars, drawing her bow and nocking an explosive arrow as she drew a bead on Anarka’s limousine.

Ryuuko switched the Dragon Sabre over to longbow mode again as her wings dissolved into golden sparkles. “Lightning Strike!” Maybe this time she would have more luck? In her usual blur of motion, her mother lowered her bow, holding the arrow to the side of the bow as she used her free hand to draw her katana.

“Ryuuko! Aim low!” Vipereon yelled.

Ryuuko’s quick mind snapped onto the clue her brother-in-arms was giving her and fired not at her mother but at the bullet-proofed steel door of the car. As before, her mother moved to absorb the arrow made of pure electric force with her blade but it wasn’t aimed at her. It instead struck the car and electrified its frame. The energy flowed through Tomoe’s feet through the thin furushiki cloth wrapping and she convulsed in agony, almost dropping her weapons and falling limply off to one side.

It was a tribute to the woman that even now she did not hesitate to act. She threw the explosive arrow towards the frozen Juleka, following that up with a shuriken aimed right at the arrowhead. Ryuuko grabbed the girl and flung her flat underneath her just as the explosive arrowhead detonated with the force of a large hand grenade. When everyone could see and hear again, Kaze Gozen was gone. Police cars began to pull up and armed officers began to pour out. “Secure the mayor!” Vipereon yelled. “The assassin was only here a minute ago! Spread out and find her.”

Ryuuko shook her head sadly. “At night? No, wounded as she is, they’ll still never find her.”

She was right. Only a hundred metres distant, Tomoe threw herself into the back of Tatsu, which had been following her movements using a GPS transponder hidden under the skin at the back of her neck. “Tatsu! H… home!” she hissed through gritted teeth. “Standard speed and maximum evasive course! Activate!” As the car obediently pulled away, she clutched her seared feet and began to sob in agony.

~*~*~

Chloe, Zoe and Sabrina were still transfixed as they followed TVi News’s live coverage of the attempted assassination of their classmate’s mother. None of them were sure what to do. Chloe’s first impulse was to transform into Queen Bee and join the pursuit but she had little idea of where the action might be and less about the current situation. In any case, within ten minutes it was all over and they were soon looking at shaky phone camera footage of Anarka being loaded onto a paramedic’s gurney as Vipereon held a crying Juleka and a silent, brooding Ryuuko stood to one side.

“Thank god they’re all okay!” Sabrina breathed, tightly hugging a mildly-annoyed Fuzzy for comfort. “How could that happen? Who could have done it? Especially with M Agreste in prison!”

Zoe frowned. “There is more evil in this world than Adrien’s father, Sabrina.”

“That wasn’t Audrey’s doing,” Chloe said, instantly understanding what her twin was saying. She looked at Zoe’s sceptical expression before continuing. “I couldn’t see her doing something as subtle as sending a ninja after Anarka and, even if she did, why would she do so? No… I… I think that this might be the work of Adrien’s grandfather.”

Both the other girls were suitably shocked. Chloe had mentioned off-hand that Mlle Graham de Vanily’s father was head of an organised crime family but it had been somewhat academic up until this moment. “Why would…?” Sabrina’s question was cut off when, with a light ‘thump’ Ryuuko landed on the balcony outside with the addition of a pair of draconic wings.

Chloe saw the way the woman she loved was visibly tottering on her feet and rushed over to her without a hint of hesitation, let alone any concern about the matter of secret identities. "Stormy-chan!" With a flash of gold, the Dragon Hero of Paris dropped her transformation and was Kagami again, her cheeks streaked with tears. "Gami-chan!"

"Chloe-chan… I… Oh kami! I don't know what to do! I…!" Chloe embraced her girlfriend and wiped her cheeks, making wordless comforting noises.

Finally, Kagami was able to speak again. "We have something else in common my love; both our mothers are members of the Dark Order. I do not understand how I could have missed her dark heart for so long… Can… Can I stay? I do not dare return home now!" Zoe and Sabrina looked on as Kagami pressed her face into her girlfriend's shoulder and began to weep as shame, shock and fear overtook her. Chloe just hugged her as hard as she can.

Pollen buzzed around the two hugging women and came into a hover in a clear spot as Longg glided up to join her. "Longg?"

"What Tikki told us of the Grandmaster's suppositions is true, Pollen. We are betrayed; our oldest secrets are in the hands of those who have the most evil spirits and they will use them against us."

Zoe sucked in a deep breath. 'Dark Order'? That doesn't sound good and it's something Audrey's involved in? Okay, I think the time has come to explain to us exactly what's happening!"

Sabrina nodded. "I think that I should call Marinette! She'll know how to get word to Ladybug!" The girl looked at her smart-phone and sighed. "I don't know if there is any point in calling daddy!" she added quietly.

~*~*~

Tomoe was shifting uncomfortably, clearly still suffering from the effect of some recent injury to her feet. At her side, Audrey assumed that she should be feeling some kind of empathy for her sister Guardian but, frankly, all she felt was bitter glee that the arrogant Japanese woman now also knew what it was like to be humiliated by her own children and have to count the injuries they'd inflicted. The self-satisfied harpy won't be so quick to critique my raising of Charline and Ziva any time soon, I bet!

The two Guardians of the Dark Order were standing with Felix Graham de Vanily and Lil… Ah-ha, no, it was 'Iris Verdi' now wasn't it? The four were in the arrivals terminal at Paris Orly Airport reserved for private flights. Both Audry and Tomoe admitted to being suitably impressed as the Boeing 737-800 in the corporate livery of Graham Media pulled up to the skybridge. It was perhaps a sign of the wealth of the aircraft's owner that the skybridge was connected and the doors opened far faster than was enjoyed by any scheduled flight, not matter the prestige of the airline.

Both Guardians instantly felt the distinctive tang of an active Miraculous… no multiple active Miraculouses from the aircraft. The first person off the aircraft was Lord St John Graham de Vanily and neither adept of the Dark Order was surprised to see the lion-head belt buckle of the Leo Miraculous. What did take them by surprise was the brooch on Amelie Graham de Vanily's jacket: A stylised bow-and-arrow with a sparkling ruby at the point of the arrow. Audrey had to lick her lips and strain to control her covetous impulses when she realised that that was the Sagittarius Miraculous of Precision! As the Order had long suspected, in the hands of the Lion of Crime! Even though Tomoe couldn't see them, to her other senses, the two Miraculouses burned with power. She lightly tapped her sister Guardian's ankle with her toes and Audrey nodded discreetly, sure that the allegedly-blind woman could see the gesture well enough.

Felix bowed and Lila curtseyed. "We hear the Lion's Roar!" they chorused. Although the two Dark Guardians didn't join the reverence, they did nonetheless lower their faces respectfully to the man whom the Council of Masters had unanimously agreed was a most useful ally-of-convenience.

"My friends, thank you for coming to meet me," the Leo Villain announced with his usual bonhomie. "With all of us here, I think that we are ready to begin." He smiled. "You have all done your parts well, creating an appearance of threat and misdirecting our childish foes as to our objectives." All four of the gathered supervillains were a bit put out at the sudden revelation that they and their recent humiliations and pains were just feints. "Thanks to my other agent here, we know that our real targets are here in Paris and our role now is to give him the cover he needs to gather them all!"

The third person off of the private airliner was a skeletal-faced oriental man who was coyly hiding his lower face with a hand-fan. However, both Dark Guardians' attention was drawn to the tie-pin at the collar of his black dress shirt, a golden lotus flower in the centre of which was set a thumbnail-shaped ruby that throbbed with power and had, glowing in its core, the stylised outline of the head of a rat.

Cash smiled. “It is, of course, my pleasure to be of service to you, my lord,” he said to St John in an oily tone that made even Lila feel deeply uncomfortable. “So, when does your plan to gather these beauteous treasures begin?”

~*~*~

"Is my permit in order, madame?" The customs agent at Garre du Nord frowned at the sandy-haired English boy's accent; intelligible but hardly perfect.

"Yes it is but I am more than a little concerned about why you wish to bring…" The agent looked at the x-ray machine's screen again and shook her head. "Why you wish to bring such an arsenal of medieval weapons and armour into France!"

The boy's smile was guileless. "I'm attending a re-enactment festival just outside of the city, madame!"

The agent frowned. She hadn't heard of any such thing taking place any time soon but that wasn't exactly her area of interest and there was no question that such a thing could be happening without there being any kind of publicity beyond the relatively narrow bounds of the society of re-enactors themselves. After a moment, she blew out her breath in annoyance. Why am I even pursuing this? This is a boy, not a terrorist! I don't think he's likely to start a massacre. Especially with a sword of all things, even with a ninja apparently roaming the city! None of these things look like they could be a Miraculous either so… The woman came to a decision. "Oui, M DeVere, your papers are all in order. Enjoy your stay in France."

The boy… well, he could pass as a young man really, nodded in thanks and lifted his cases out of the x-ray machine's conveyor belt (impressing the agent with the obvious strength that would require).

The next entrant to France walked up to the machine and the woman quickly forgot the odd English boy with his nearly exaggeratedly inadequate accent, the strange luggage made of alloys that her scanner struggled and mostly failed to identify and the somehow only barely plausible cover story.

David deVere knew that he'd been pushing his luck. However, the news that the Lion of Crime was heading to his family's chateau outside of Paris had come most unexpectedly via his contact in MI8 with barely any lead time. Since then, he'd been falling over himself to find a plausible excuse for his own journey. Joyce had really struck gold when she'd found that obscure advert in an on-line re-enactment blog for attendees to a tiny fringe medieval re-enactment to the south of Paris. Otherwise, he would have had to figure out some way to sneak his equipment across the Channel in some disguised form and that would have taken up a huge amount of time and resources to arrange not to mention the time he'd need to recover and assemble them again.

As he stepped out of the train station and onto Paris's bustling streets, the young man's body posture changed slightly from a nervous and slightly uncomfortable tourist to a self-assured traveller who knew his plan and knew his quarry. It was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time. He put on a pair of round-lensed sunglasses and walked purposefully in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower. He was looking forward to the first of the exploits in Paris of the Paladin of London.

Chapter Text

There were lots of things that David de Vere, also known to few but a handful of trusted friends (or so he hoped) as Paladin, had expected from his first trip to Paris since his early childhood. This was, after all, a city that spent practically a year under siege by a telepathic supervillain and had more than its share of random ‘incidents’ since. So, he hadn’t expected the citizens to be friendly and open, especially those of his age who he expected to be traumatised and reluctant to approach strangers.

So, you can imagine his shock when, sitting on the riverside stairs of a building called the Trocadero, enjoying the early-spring sun, he was drawn from his thoughts by the sound of a digital camera’s shutter sound-effect. His eyes snapped open and over to glare at the blonde girl with long, free-hanging sunshine blonde hair with a distinctive blue stripe dyed into her left-hand bangs. She was wearing a dark leather jacket, yellow leather pants and a white tee shirt with a strange collection of eight animals, all in a hexagonal gridwork that formed a flower pattern. “Oh! Désolé monsieur! Je ne voulais pas te réveiller!” David could speak French very well but it still took a moment to get his wits together enough to respond in the right language.

“Er… Sorry, who are you?”

The blonde girl blushed in a way that he was human enough to admit was pretty. “I’m… Zoe Bourgeois.”

Well wasn’t that one for the books? He’d just randomly been photographed by the former mayor’s daughter! “So, is there a reason why you photographed me, Zoe, or are you just randomly recording visitors to Paris?”

The girl was genuinely abashed. “I just like recording unique expressions! I… should have asked, I guess but I didn’t want to disturb you. You looked like you had so much on your mind, yet your focus wasn’t robbing you of peace! It was fascinating!”

“I’m… flattered… I think?”

Zoe gave a nervous smile and shifted a bit. “Um… do you mind if I sit down?” David nodded and Zoe sat down, just a handbreadth from their hips touching. Interesting that she wasn’t wearing any distinctive scent; this was quite unusual for French girls of his age group, as far as he knew. For a few moments, there was a comfortable silence before Zoe continued in English “So… uh, I can tell from your accent that you’re not French. I can relate; I was brought up in New York and only visited France for the first time just over eight months ago when…”

It was Paladin that replied rather than David, reacting to the clear conversational opening that he suspected was not intended. There was just something in that non sequitur. “When what?”

Zoe blurted out the next bit in a rush. “When my mother ordered my foster parents to throw me out.”

David opened and closed his mouth. “Okay, there is a story behind that!” He wasn’t expecting Zoe to take that opening and he had to wonder just how long she’d been waiting to tell this to someone. As he’d long known, he was far from the only person to have suffered a great injustice from which wealth and power had insulated the perpetrator from the consequences.

~*~*~

Marinette felt a bit stupid. Okay, so maybe her tastes in music were a bit ‘vanilla’ but she felt that she ought to have at least heard of this performer that Nino was taking them all to see. “Look, I know it’s a bit late to be asking this but… Who the heck is this ‘Stefig’?”

Nino, bless him, didn’t laugh but it was clearly an effort. “It’s ‘Stef-G’, dudette. I’m guessing you’ve never heard of her?” Marinette shook her head in embarrassment. “No worries; she’s fairly new on the scene. She started out as a local radio DJ in this nowhere town in the US… Safe River or something? Anyway, her mixes and sampling got quite an audience and, when she toured with her girlfriend and a few girls she knew from school she hit the big time. Now everyone wants to get in on her style!”

“Even you, Nino?” Adrien’s tone was teasing.

“Hey, m’man, you know I’m the original! No jacking other artists’ style for me!”

Alya ran a finger up her boyfriend’s arm in a flirtatious way. “You keep me on my toes!” she whispered in a husky tone.

Chloe, Kagami and Sabrina were in the group too. Sabrina was dressed… Well, no-one had ever seen her look anything like this before. Her hair was pulled back into corn-rows ending on a single wolf-tail tied with a band made to look like barbed wire. She was wearing a sleeveless black tee shirt with the caption “Ready for the Mosh Pit” on the front and “Boom-Shaka-Boom” on the back. She’d even chosen to forgo her glasses in favour of contacts and was wearing neon purple lip-stick and nail varnish. To say she looked like another person was an understatement. Even Chloe and Kagami looked surprised when the girl had arrived outside the bakery; Marinette wished that she’d seen Sabrina’s dad’s reaction when she'd gone out of their apartment looking like that!

“Stef G is so cool!” the normally-nerdy redhead was saying. “Her blog is full of all this sci-fi and RPG stuff she does and yet she makes this wonderful music and everyone likes her!” The girl was practically jumping on the spot with excitement. “She has all these wonderful friends who are so artistic! I mean, the backing guitarist in the band she used to tour with is a published photographer and their keyboardist is a supermodel!”

Completely unexpectedly, Chloe touched her friend on the shoulder. “In other words, like you, she proves that people who look down on nerds don’t know anything, right?” Sabrina blushed brightly at her best friend's words and smiled happily at receiving the acknowledgement that, just a few years ago, just simply wouldn't have happened.

“I wish Zoe could have come,” Sabrina suddenly sounded deeply despondent.

“I think that she already had plans for tonight,” Chloe responded. “There will be other nights that we can party together, Sabi.”

~*~*~

I’m a crazy stalker, Zoe told herself as she drew her dark woollen coat around her tighter and tugged her blue floppy woollen beanie down lower as she watched the entrance of the small hotel. I meet a cute guy and suddenly, I am obsessed! Or is this more normal than it seems? Chloe says that Marinette treated Adrien like this for ages!

Seriously, though, Zoe felt that this was a bit more than obsessing on a ‘cute guy’. David had been a great listener and he’d not judged or anything. He’d just drawn her life-story out of her. When he’d told her that her mother was evil for doing what she did and told her that she could be whoever and whatever she wanted, he’d meant it; the one-armed hug from the side that he gave her when she started crying was nice too. Now, she was more than a little curious about who this so-called ‘re-enactor’ from England might be, how he got to be so good at getting people to tell him their stories and, just as importantly what his story was.

So, here she was, crouched on a second-storey fire escape next to the very cheap hotel where he was staying and trying to think how she could arrange an ‘accidental’ meeting when he came out and clutching her digital camera so that, if that was impossible, she could at least get a little photographic evidence. She hadn’t gone as far as to ask what she was going to do with herself if he didn’t come out until tomorrow, let alone why she needed photographs.

She was quite surprised when a caped figure leapt from the rooftop of the hotel and landed on top of the building on the side of which she was hiding. When she was asked later, she couldn’t come up with a single good reason why she rapidly scaled the fire escape to the roof.

Zoe arrived on the roof and it was… empty! Just her luck: A new super-being in Paris and, of course, she loses track of them almost immediately. So much for her barely-formed plan to be the first to report this sighting on the Ladyblog! With an annoyed sigh, she lowered her camera. Oh well, back to her vigil over the hotel entrance…

“It’s a cold night for an amateur paparazzi to be out on the rooftops.”

“YEEP!” Zoe turned to the echoing, dark voice and found herself face-to-breastplate with a legitimate knight in shining armour. She looked into the darkened-glass T-slit in the helmet under his hood and she tried to think of something to say.

“Well Mlle Bourgeois, it seems that, whatever you were looking for, you have found more than you were expecting. Tell me, what were you looking for?”

“I… I…” Zoe tried to swallow and failed as her eyes tracked over the hilt of the sword slung over the knight’s back. “I… was just wondering who you were?”

The dark-clad figure extended a gauntleted hand and tapped Zoe’s camera. “Also perhaps to photograph me? I know that the French media give only lip-service to privacy laws but jumping a total stranger like that is a bit much!”

“I just wanted to do something that no-one else had done before! I wanted to be known for an achievement of my own, just for once!” Zoe blurted out and wondered why she’d said that.

The armoured face tilted slightly as if in thought. “Okay then. Let’s do that.”

Suddenly, the knight’s arm was around her waist, holding her tight to his chest (Mmm… I can feel the muscles somehow…). The man raised his other arm and pointed his fist at a nearby church steeple. “I am Paladin, by the way.” Zoe’s eyes opened wider. That was the name of the knightly vigilante of London that Ladybug had encountered not so long ago! “Let’s see what there is to see tonight together, shall we?”

With a flat ‘thud’ some kind of gas-powered projectile launcher in the extended gauntlet’s bracer fired and a grappling hook shot towards the steeple. Zoe heard the ‘whirr’ of a powerful electric winch before she was launched into the air in the young man’s arms. “No, wait…! WAAAIIIT….!!!”

~*~*~

Stef-G’s music was… loud and, in its own way, so was the blazing light-show that accompanied it. However, Marinette had to admit that there was something different about it in a positive way. The way the young woman in the grey woollen beanie threaded together dozens of sound samples to make a single coherent piece was fascinating and, much against her intentions, she found herself bounding to the rhythm with her friends.

Suddenly, the music came to an end and everyone looked up as Stef-G stood at her mixing desk to acknowledge the cheers. It wasn’t until later that everyone agreed that there had been something wrong from the start but it was too late then. However, at this point, everyone in the front rows could see the strangely glassy look in the woman's eyes. “Hey Paris! It’s great to be here and it’s great to be so loved! Speaking of love, I want to introduce you to the real star of the show tonight! Let’s hear it for my wonderful mistress… Enchantress!”

There was a dumbfounded pause and, even over the gasps and growing number of panicked screams, Marinette was certain she heard Chloe swear angrily. As expected, resplendent in her two-tone-grey costume, Enchantress strutted on the stage and briefly stopped to caress Stef-G's face before snatching the hand-held microphone out of her thrall’s slack hand. Behind her, Janus swaggered forward, pushing ahead of him an oriental-looking woman who was gagged and staring around her in panic.

“Thank you, darling!” Enchantress cooed at the enthralled DJ. “Hello, everyone! I’m sure that you all know me and that my partner and I need no introduction?” Janus made a little dramatic bow, making Enchantress chuckle. “However, I think that we need to introduce you to the rest of the band. Let me be the first to introduce the ever-exceptional Black Gold and the shadow swordswoman Kaze Gozen!”

Kagami and Chloe both audibly cried out in shock as the dark wielder of the Raven Miraculous of Sooth and the blindfolded assassin both walked out onto the stage. Kaze Gozen’s face was unreadable but Black Gold milked the crowd’s reaction for all it was worth, stepping into the spotlight and doing a little model twirl before laughing arrogantly, twirling the Raven Sceptre around in her right hand..

Enchantress rolled her eyes at the woman’s bombast but remembered her role. “Finally, it is my very great pleasure to introduce our sponsor for tonight’s festivities. Please, join me in giving the very warmest Paris welcome to… LEONIDAS!”

Resplendent in the red and gold knightly robes of the Leo Miraculous, the Lion of Crime marched onto the stage and, in a strange gesture, gave Enchantress a courtly kiss on the back of her hand before taking the microphone. “Ah, Paris, Paris! You know, I’ve not had the time to sample this city since I was in university! Well, I’m glad to be back here tonight!”

Another Miraculous Villain had joined him on the stage, a woman wearing a blood-red costume with black boots, gloves and chest panel. A silver longbow was slung over her shoulder and Adrien was sure he knew her but the disguise magic stopped him from making a connection. “Sureshot, are we secure in here?” Leonidas asked. The blonde-haired woman in red nodded and held up a bunch of keys.

“All secure, my Lord.”

“Yes, fortunately some of us are able to be stealthy when we need to be,” Kaze Gozen remarked dryly. Sureshot’s only reaction was to throw the keys over her shoulder to the assassin who, despite her blindfold, caught them effortlessly.

Leonidas smiled in satisfaction before continuing. “Now, I know what you’re all wondering: Why are we here?” The man smiled carnivorously. “I am here to do what my foolish and ineffectual predecessor, Hawkmoth, had tried to do and failed. I am here to claim the Miracle Box held by Ladybug.” Leonidas swaggered over to a terrified cameraman in the pit in front of the stage and knelt so he could look right into the lens. “I’m sure that you are watching this by now, Mlle Ladybug. Don’t tell me that you hadn’t expected my vengeance to come eventually after you humiliated me in London at the start of the year?” He stood up again before making an announcement. “I am reliably assured that there are five thousand people in attendance here tonight. You have precisely ten minutes to surrender the Miracle Box to me. After that, I will have them all killed. Oh, and if you doubt my willingness to do so?”

He gestured idly. Janus shoved the gagged woman forwards and, as she staggered a few steps, Sureshot drew her bow and fired an energy arrow right into her back. There was a huge explosion of white sparks from her chest and she collapsed lifelessly onto the stage.

“That’s nine minutes and fifty seconds, my dear Ladybug.” Leonidas dropped the microphone and turned to Black Gold and the two began a sotto conversation.

Marinette was already acting. "Start working your way to the back of the auditorium!" she hissed to her friends. "Be slow and subtle about it; there are so many people here, that they can't keep track of everyone so long as we don't move too fast!"

Chloe, who was comforting the sobbing Sabrina, shot Marinette a questioning look. Her too? was the unspoken question. Marinette thought for a moment before nodding decisively, feeling Tikki's mind touching hers in approval.

Back up on the stage, Enchantress was pouting. "You should have let me get my thrall to slit the Chink's throat!" she complained. "I've been looking forward to that all evening!"

Leonidas shot the younger supervillain a patronising smile. "You need to learn to govern your cruelty, child. Displays like that need to be reserved for when they are calculated to have the right effect on others, not just for when you would enjoy them the most. Sureshot's Bullseye attack, being so dramatic, sends a message that will focus all the right minds in the right direction!"

"We should have brought some thugs to act as guards," Sureshot was fretting. "There's no way we can keep track of five-thousand or more people, especially given how much of a maze the back-halls of this place is!"

"Don't worry, daughter. With all the exits locked, we'll have plenty of time to respond to any attempted escapes or Ladybug and her team of do-gooders trying to break in. No, we have all the advantages now and remember: This is only the distraction!" He nodded to Kaze Gozen. "Just to be sure, my dear, find some high spot in which you can keep an eye on everyone here?" The black-clad assassin nodded and swept away; frankly, she was glad to be away from the master supervillain as well as his extravagant and theatrical tactics.

~*~*~

Honestly, Zoe hadn't known what Paladin had been proposing when he'd snatched her from the rooftop although, in her heart of hearts, she'd loved very moment of the grappler-ride over the city. However, that had changed when the faceless helmet had shifted for a moment and she'd heard something like his muttering: "Understood." She'd guessed that he'd heard something from some kind of informant but it wasn’t until they'd arrived at a roof in the First Arrondissement that she realised that he'd been expecting something or tracking someone. "Here he is; the Lion's latest pawn." She shivered; there was something about the knight’s armour. Although it was metallic, it just didn’t seem to reflect that much light and his words seemed to come out of nowhere.

Zoe didn't understand at first what her sort-of kidnapper had been saying until she saw the crowd of people just below. In the lead was a skeletal-faced Chinese man in a black formal shirt. What was really noticeable was the fact that he was wearing a kind of tie-pin that was shining bright red like it had an LED torch inside and a blue-and-grey rat-like creature that reminded her of Chloe's little sprit friend, Pollen was hovering beside his face. "The scent is strongest here, master," the rat-spirit was saying.

The man nodded with an evil smile and gestured to the five other people, three men and two women. "I believe that you know the task for which you were hired?" Zoe looked at the five others and suddenly recognised them: The black full-body costumes were broken only by the shape of a playing card on the front; one with a heart, one with a spade, one with a diamond, one with a club and one blank, patterns reflected on their full-head hooded masks. The Five of a Kind Gang!

"Does your camera have a low-light no-flash mode? Also an audio-video recording mode?" Zoe nodded, only half-understanding; her father had spared no expense when he realised that his younger daughter had an interest in photography. "Then start photographing and recording, Mlle Bourgeois, if you want this to be your night. Record the proof of what's happening here and to whose benefit it is!"

Frankly, Zoe felt a bit insulted that the masked knight thought that she was only doing this for a moment of passing fame and not for people to think of her as someone other than Chloe’s sister. Nonetheless, she started taking photographs on night-vision mode. If nothing else, the police would likely need this because she suspected that the Five of a Kind Gang were professional enough to disable CCTV cameras in advance.

The thin-faced leader of the professional bank-robbers glared at the Chinese man. “What about our cut, Cash?” Well, it seemed that lots of folk were using voice-disguising technology tonight!

Cash grinned in a way that Zoe would never trust in a thousand years. “Ah, my dear Blank, do not be so worried. The Lion of Crime has only a narrow interest here. Anything that he is not likely to claim is yours to do with as you wish!”

Blank frowned but gestured to his gang with a finger. With Club and Diamond covering the street, Heart attacked the door of the gem merchant’s shop with a set of lock-picks. Despite his huge size, Spade quickly and gently attached a set of wires across the alarm contacts as soon as they began to be exposed and, within seconds, the gang and their oriental employer were inside the supposedly-secured merchant's shop.

“Heart, Spade, start taking down those security grilles. We’re going to need access to the inner security room!”

“Okay, that’s all the proof we need.” Paladin hissed into Zoe's ear from near to her but not as near as before. With a single move, he threw himself off of the rooftop and, with a single acrobatic somersault, landed in front of the nonplussed Space, three stories below. The masked gunman raised his Steyr AUG assault rifle to shoot the armoured newcomer. Zoe screamed quietly as the gunman aimed a burst of fire right at Paladin but the young man and swung his shield in front of him and, impossibly, it deflected every bullet, several ricochets cracking the glass behind Club. “What is it with you unimaginative thugs and guns?” Paladin growled, drawing his sword.

I’ve got to get this! Zoe started hitting the shutter button as fast as she could as the impossible sword with its blue-glowing edge somehow cut through the AUG as if it were made of butter rather than steel. Club yelled in panic and backpedalled. Simultaneously, Diamond’s brain unlocked enough to raise her twin machine-pistols but, before she could fire, Paladin’s thrown shield slammed into the centre of her chest, sending her flying.

Zoe’s camera caught Paladin gesture with his outstretched right hand and something in his right bracer light up. A few moments later, his shield snapped back to him. Cool gimmick! Some kind of electromagnet? He straightened up as Blank and Cash appeared in the doorway and stared in shock at the advancing Paladin before Blank jumped back and started yelling orders. “Everyone, back inside! Get in cover and keep the entrance covered!”

“I don’t need to come after you to capture you, you know!” The knight-like vigilante took a few loping paces forwards and then his long sword slashed at the door. Zoe realised what he’d done the moment the shop’s burglar alarm began to howl. He’d severed the bridging wires!

With a roar of rage, Spade charged out like an oncoming demolition ball. The man was powerful and fast but Paladin was prepared (having practised this a dozen times with Avalanche). He ducked under the strongman’s grasping hands and kicked his lower legs out from underneath him. Spade went crashing to the ground but leapt back onto his feet almost faster than could be possible. He turned back towards Paladin, who was coming back towards him with his sword drawn and ready. The only thing that saved him from being gutted by the impossibly-sharp weapon was Paladin’s personal standards of ethics. Instead, his head was slammed back by the pommel slamming into his nose.

“Now, now, young man, why are you fighting when you could be helping us?” Cash had appeared again and was smiling dangerously. Paladin hesitated and turned to look at him. Zoe didn’t know what was going on but her bracelet began to tingle. Was this some kind of mind attack? Zoe vaguely remembered the description of this villain on the Ladyblog. He could make people steal for him, right? The Five of a Kind Gang were shakily regrouping just outside the shop.

The knight took a shaky step towards Cash and Zoe heard him mutter something like: “Yes… mine!”

Zoe would never be able to fully explain what happened next. She realised that she had to break Cash’s concentration. So, she picked up an old flower-pot from the roof and hurled it towards the fight with all her strength. Mid-way through the pot's flight, she felt the wind pick up and it blew her hair forwards, somehow guiding the flowerpot right into Cash’s face. The impact wasn’t that hard but he still staggered with a cry of surprise and blood began to stream from a gash on his forehead.

Paladin shook his head as the impulse to strip the establishment of everything of value faded away like a dream. “It takes more than mind tricks to stop me, scum!”

“Screw this!” Blank shouted. “Whatever reward we get isn’t worth this! Club! Night and fog!” The gunman threw a grenade to the floor at his feet and the five career criminals banished in a cloud of white smoke. Zoe managed to get a few shots of the five of them running down an alleyway and out of sight.

Still a bit disoriented, Paladin turned to face Cash. “It looks like your hirelings have thought better of carrying on this fight. Whatever the Lion is paying you isn’t enough. So, surrender and tell me whatever you know about his plans.”

Cash’s skeletal face broke into a smile. “You know, I am not as mercenary as you think. I am a tradesman and I always provide my customers with what they paid for!” The man touched his tie-pin. “I also have more than one trick to use on… uninvited guests.”

Suddenly, the man’s hand was covered in flame that he seemed to draw out of his adornment and throw at Paladin. The knightly vigilante raised his large shield but the flame somehow broke into multiple streams that arced around the shield to consume the armoured man himself. Zoe’s scream of horror and disbelief echoed around the district.

~*~*~

It had taken a long time for Sabrina to make any sound except horrified sobs and to stop trembling in Chloe's arms. Finally, she could hear her best friend's words. "Are you okay, Sabi?"

Sabrina drew in a deep breath before looking up into Chloe's eyes and nodding with a watery smile. "Better." She shook her head. "This is a nightmare, Chloe! Where's Ladybug?"

"Right here, actually!"

Sabrina looked over her shoulder to see Ladybug, in the strange merged costume that included a skipping rope 'tail' walk around the corner of the deserted back corridor in the auditorium. The Champion of Paris was twirling a bunch of keys with a Ladybug-pattern key fob around her finger. "Ladybug! You have to do something! There are supervillains on the stage! They've already killed Stef-G's girlfriend and they're going to kill all of us unless you… er… Actually, you're already here!" Ladybug laughed but there was no mockery in it; Sabrina realised too that she sounded a bit crazed at this point. "So… Uh… What are you doing here and not… y'know… fighting the bad guys?"

"Our first priority has to be getting the audience out before Leonidas's deadline runs out, Sabrina and that is where you come in." Sabrina blinked at the red-black-and-pink-clad superheroine in genuine puzzlement. "To do that, we're going to need to find and take the keys that Kaze Gozen has with her and, to do that, we're going to need your help."

"M… Me?"

Ladybug popped over her Yo-Yo like it was a powder compact and fished into its dimensional pocket almost up to her elbow before making an "Ah!" noise in satisfaction. The woman withdrew her hand before extending it to Sabrina with a black vinyl collar necklace with white dogs' heads at either end and five orange beads at the front. "Sabrina Raincomprix, this is the Miraculous of the Dog, which will grant you the ability to use the power of Acquisition to protect the innocent. You will use it to fight for the greater good and, when the fight is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?"

Sabrina timidly reached out for a moment before hesitating and looking back at Chloe who smiled warmly and nodded. Sabrina thought of the monsters back in the auditorium and realised that, just as her father had always taught her, she had the duty to serve and protect, not just the great and powerful as he said she did but to do so for everyone. "Yes! Yes, Ladybug, you can trust me!" Without further hesitation, she picked up the collar and put it on, barely noticing as it transformed into a golden torc necklace that she felt she'd seen somewhere before.

Before she could think too much about it, an orange-tan ball of light appeared, hovering just to one side, that resolved into the cutest little anthro-puppy creature that she'd ever seen, barely as tall as her hand was long and floating in the air. "Arf-arf-arf!" the being yapped at her before his tongue lolled out comedically. "Hi! I'm Barkk! All you need to do to start this is say: 'Barkk! Walkies!'"

Once again, Sabrina had to look over at Chloe for guidance but she'd done so just in time for: "Pollen! Buzz on!" Her best friend was consumed with golden-white light as the transformation into Queen Bee began.

It was then that, Sabrina remembered her and Chloe playing Ladybug and Chat Noir when Hawkmoth's attacks had barely started and there was still an aspect of fantastical adventure to this all and then realised that this was her chance to make it real. "Barkk! Walkies!" The nerdy redhead was consumed with orange light that, when it cleared, left her wearing a skin-tight tan magilycra body suit with a white panel covering her chest, abdomen and the top of her legs and a black panel covering her shoulders and upper back. She reached up and realised that she suddenly had floppy dog ears pinned into her hair and yet somehow connected to her so that her touch made them tingle and also a mask seemingly fused onto her face in the same tan-and-white colour scheme. On a belt around her waist was a tan-and-black tennis ball and an extension of her belt formed a white-tipped tail that began to wag excitedly. "This is great! What do we do, Ladybug?"

"Well…" Ladybug paused and looked at her newest colleague and got a blank look in response.

"What do we call you?" Queen Bee prompted.

The new superhero thought for a moment and realised that the general feel of her costume, as well as its colours, reminded her of a beagle. "Miss Hound! I'm Miss Hound!"

Ladybug nodded with a smile. "You have two powers, Miss Hound. The first and the most important is the ability to seize anything you touch with your Ball, it's called Fetch. However, first you need to use 'Seek' to track down Kaze Gozen." Ladybug raised a finger in warning. "She's strong and deadly; don’t try to fight her; just Fetch the keys on her belt and come to find me! We'll do the rest!"

Miss Hound drew in a deep breath and pulled the Ball off of her belt, holding it in front of her face as she concentrated on her memory of the black-clad assassin that had been working with that horrible Leonidas person. "Okay… Seek!" To her amazement, a wire-frame diagram of the auditorium appeared above the Ball with a pulsing light on one of the upper floors.

"That's your target, Miss Hound! Remember the Ladyblog's entry on Kaze Gozen and get those keys so we can get the audience out! Now go! We're on a time limit, remember?"

As Miss Hound turned towards the location she now knew was the location of her quarry, she heard Ladybug continuing to speak, now into her Yo-Yo like it was a cellphone. "Rena! Cap! Here's the plan…"

A few minutes later, Miss Hound was crouched as low as she could manage behind one of the chairs in one of the auditorium's VIP boxes, looking as Kaze Gozen, an imposingly tall woman with far too many bladed weapons secreted around her person to make the young superhero feel even remotely safe, stared down onto the terrified crowd on the auditorium floor who were almost all looking up at Sureshot and Janus in fear. Black Gold and Enchantress strutted around the stage and Leonidas simply stood in the middle of the stage, leaning on the cross-guard of the Leo Sword but otherwise unmoving as if he was meditating. Dangling from the assassin's belt, which also carried an oriental short-sword, was a large bunch of keys that Miss Hound knew was her target.

As quietly as possible, she pulled her Ball off of her belt and, thanking all the saints in heaven that she'd always loved rounders, she took aim before lofting the ball towards the black-clad assassin. The Ball contacted the keyring with an orange flash and a 'clink' of bouncing metal before snapping back to its mistress's hand as if thrown by an invisible force.

Kaze Gozen noticed; she turned right towards where Miss Hound was hiding, seemingly seeing through the chair behind which she was hiding despite her blindfold. "I don't know what that was supposed to achieve, girl, but it was a futile way to end your life!"

Crap! Oh crap oh crap oh crap! Miss Hound took to her heels as, behind her, she heard steel on leather as the villain drew her swords. The young Dog Hero wasn't so consumed by panic that she didn't see her chance the moment it was presented: An HVAC duct with an open grille that crossed the waiting room for the VIP boxes and was just big enough for her. Without hesitation, she jumped and flipped herself into the claustrophobic space with an agility and flexibility that she'd never had before. As soon as she'd stopped moving, she grabbed her ball and hissed, quietly and urgently: "Fetch!" There was a soundless flash of orange light and the bunch of keys (with 'Exit' and 'Fire Exit' tags) fell against her chest.

Kaze Gozen stalked out into the atrium, looking about her hungrily, seeing with senses that Miss Hound's intuition told her were something better than eyesight. "You can't hide, girl. It's just a matter of time before I find you and…"

"Mother!" Kaze Gozen froze and her head snapped towards the sound. Ryuuko, her daughter, stood at the entrance to the Atrium, the Dragon Sabre unsheathed and in her hands, glowing faintly with golden light.

Kaze Gozen smiled and switched to formal Japanese. "Hello, Kagami." She stepped fearlessly towards the smaller swordswoman. "We do not need to fight; surrender the thief to me and I'm sure that the Council of Masters will be merciful!"

"You know, I tried to tell myself that you were bewitched," Ryuuko responded in the same language. "I told myself that my mother, my honourable, perfect mother, could not be this vile assassin. However, I see now that I was wrong. This is what you have chosen to be and have been for longer than I have been alive."

Kaze Gozen shook her head. "That woman that you idealised was a necessary illusion, Kagami. The reality is something stronger and with a far greater purpose."

Ryuuko nodded regretfully. "So I now understand that you believe; as there is nothing to save, I must do what I must to preserve the innocent."

Ryuuko's mother barked out a mocking laugh. "Not the sort of mindset that your team leader would endorse!"

In response, the Dragon Hero raised her weapon. "This is not a matter for Ladybug-sama to decide. This is my duty as a warrior."

Kaze Gozen sneered. "So be it. Thus dies the line of Tomoe Gozen but, so I now perceive, it is for the best."

Miss Hound had already fled as the Dragon Sabre and Sheath and Kaze Gozen's katana and wakizashi clashed for the first time.

~*~*~

Honestly, Leonidas was actually quite shocked when Queen Bee strode out onto the stage as if she wasn't confronted by a half-dozen trained Miraculous Holders determined to defeat her. "Hello, Black Gold! Audrey let you off of your leash?"

Black Gold snarled. That idiotic little mistake would know the truth soon enough. "You know nothing about her or me, girl!"

In response, Queen Bee laughed mockingly. "I know that you have put yourself and the Raven Miraculous at the service of a prancing and vacuous narcissist and now through her to a slavering and psychotic murderer!" She gestured at Leonidas.

"Enough of this!" Leonidas interrupted by slamming the point of the Leo Sword into the stage. "Mlle Bourgeois, are you here to surrender your Miraculous and its box-mates to us?"

Queen Bee quirked an eyebrow in aristocratic disdain. "What do you think, you utterly ridiculous Rosbeouf clown?"

"A pity; what follows is entirely your responsibility and that of the noticeably-absent Ladybug. Janus, Sureshot, you may begin executing the hostages."

"Duality of Heat!" Janus called out, levelling his Assegai at the crowd on the auditorium floor as Sureshot pulled back on her bow's energy string, causing an array of energy arrows to manifest. Janus looked over at his colleague and, at her nod a rippling wave of pure heat shot out towards the audience, accompanied by a volley of a half-dozen energy arrows… The set of lethal attacks seemed to strike a barrier in mid-air that made the strangely-passive audience ripple and suddenly dissolve into orange light. This revealed an empty auditorium protected by a green shield bubble made up of green hexagons. Of the audience, there was no sign.

~

"Okay folks!" Chat Noir was saying with a reassuring grin as he and Miss Hound (whose collar now had two of the five crystal rings at her throat still illuminated) urged the just barely-pre-stampeding crowd out of the auditorium's main street doors and into the waiting arms of the gendarmerie. "Just keep filing out calmly and everything will be fine!"

The black-clad Cat Hero of Paris looked over his shoulder. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to get back to his Lady.

~

The supervillains were just barely taking stock when, suddenly, a masked blonde woman in seafoam green leapt out of the overhead lighting fixtures and landed in front of Sureshot, levelling a fan of peacock feathers at the nearly-identical supervillain's throat. "You have gone too far this time, sister."

Enchantress's head snapped away from the sudden arrival of La Paonne and back to the passive-looking Stef-G. She'd been diverting but now was just dead weight and this was the only way she had of ending an enthrallment without needing to reset her transformation. "Stephie, my sweet? Be a darling and kill yourself for me?"

With a smile of glee, Stef picked up a horribly-curved skinning knife that she'd left on her mixing desk and was about to slash open her throat from ear to ear when the cord of a black-spotted red yo-yo wrapped around her wrist, yanking the weapon away from her, just as a pair of black polka-dotted red thigh boots slammed into her temple, knocking her senseless. Ladymouse landed in a crouch in front of Enchantress, her Yo-Yo forming a nearly-solid arc of light as she twirled it around. "Hello, Lila. Miss me?"

"Miss you, Ladyslut? No, but I'm glad that you're here so I could watch your defeat!"

Black Gold moved towards that confrontation only to freeze as Queen Bee coughed significantly. "I think that you've got enough problems of your own right now, you bi-chromatic fashion disaster."

Leonidas looked around himself in shock at the presence of so many heroes, including his turncoat daughter. Shock turned to trembling rage and he let out a bellowing command. "I DON'T HAVE THE TIME FOR THIS! KILL THEM ALL!"

~*~*~

One of the terms of the deal under which Uncle Wang had allowed Fei to go to Paris was that she continue her lessons electronically. So it was, whilst Cousin Marinette was off at a concert that sounded like it would be wild, she found herself at Marinette's desk and studying. She wasn't a great student at academic subjects but she could manage. However, it was made much more difficult because a certain Guardian Spirit kept on nudging her. Finally, Fei's patience snapped. "Mei-Shi, what is it?"

"Milady Renren, now is the time!" The lion-like spirit had never looked so excited in the girl's memory. "I can sense so many active Renlings! More than I've ever sensed before! They're active and they're in battle right now!"

"Active? In battle?" At that point, she received the 'shelter in place' warning on her cellphone and Fei realised just what was happening that night. Within seconds, she had transformed into Ladydragon and was on the move, not heading for the imperilled concert hall; Cousin Marinette could deal with that. No, her sacred duty had her following Mei-Shi towards the magic of the Prodigious.

Chapter Text

"Paladin! Paladin! Oh mon dieu, please be alive!" Turning from her attempts to shake the smouldering vigilante awake, Zoe frantically typed her SOS into her cellphone again and prayed that Chloe would reply this time.

At that point, she heard a groan followed by a quiet “... Ow…”

She turned in an instant and, before she had enough time to think about it, she was hugging Paladin, who had shakily sat up. “Paladin! O, dieu merci! You’re okay!”

“My armour has handled the occasional flamethrower before, although I’ll admit that my introduction to magical fire was pretty intense.”  The armoured helmet turned to her. “Where did he go?”

Zoe sucked in a breath as she tried to focus on something other than her companion’s safety. “I… kept him in shot until he crossed one of the bridges over to the sixth arrondissement. It looked like he was heading for the School of Fine Arts!”

Paladin looked at the girl levelly for a moment. “Most impressive,” he finally allowed as he rose unhurriedly up to his full height. “Mlle Bourgeois, I cannot in good conscience allow you to accompany me any further tonight. I know that your father’s hotel isn’t far from here. Please go home where it is safe.” 

“NO!” Zoe stamped her foot in a way she’d later admit was impressively ‘Chloe’. “You’re the one who got me into this and I’m not going to let you stop me from seeing it through!”

“Mlle Bourgeois, it was just a whim; I’d never intended for you to see anything other than perhaps me preventing a mugging. We’re confronting a major villain with metahuman powers and…”

“You’d be still under his control if not for me!” Zoe shouted. “Look, I know you just want to keep me safe and thank you for that but you owe me!”

Paladin looked at the blonde thoughtfully and Zoe suddenly wondered if she’d pushed her luck too far. He had a reputation in London for cutting off people‘s limbs, after all. Finally, he nodded. “So be it but this is against my better judgement.”

Zoe was about to thank him, or maybe scold him for thinking she needed to be ‘protected’ but, before the  thought was fully formed, she was in Paladin’s arms and was airborne again thanks to his grappler gun.

~*~*~

Sureshot and La Paonne were circling each other warily, their weapons levelled and ready. They were twins and had trained together in combat, both with and without the Miraculous, since they were only 11 years old. They knew each other’s every move, every instinct and every thought but Sureshot was still very wary. She’d never seen how her sister would use the previously-believed-lost Peacock Miraculous in combat. Worse, she was a traitor and she was no longer sure how she thought. “You should have stayed out of this, Emmy. I would have convinced father to leave you and the children alone.”

La Paonne sighed. “Really, sis? You actually thought I could stay uninvolved when my sperm donor, as my dear daughter likes to describe this relationship, was busy having his minions ruin Paris as he has London for his own selfish benefit? Whilst his minions caused endless harm to the innocent?”

Behind her feather-edged Owl-themed mask, Sureshot’s eyes narrowed and her lips drew back into a snarl as she unpacked her twin’s words and understood that she was included in ‘minions’. “You never were so squeamish before.”

“Maybe you were never paying attention before. Or maybe you didn’t draw conclusions from how quickly I fled England the moment Gabriel proposed?”

Sureshot's expression changed to a smirk. "And we all know now that turned out!"

The Peacock heroine shrugged and smirked. "I never said I was a perfect judge of people, Ami. I just said that I don’t kill innocents."

"It means that you're weak and that you've lost the right to use that name with me!" With a blur of motion, Sureshot yanked the two sides of the feather-tipped Sagittarius Bow apart revealing a pair of deadly curved long-bladed fighting knives. She lunged at La Paonne who responded with a blurring series of parries with the Peacock Fan, somehow blocking both blades so quickly that it was impossible to tell exactly how. 

Sureshot jumped back, reconnecting the halves of her bow and fired a shot upwards, seemingly at nothing. Paonne knew what her sister was aiming for and somersaulted sideways as a lighting gantry, severed on one side from its supporting cables, swung through the spot where she'd been standing like a wrecking ball. Midway through her somersault, she launched her fan at her sister, twirling like a boomerang and Sureshot, already somersaulting to get out of the way of her own dodged attack, had to jump again to avoid the Fan-Boomerang.

At that point, she somersaulted right into the grasp of a Sentimonster that vaguely resembled a faceless gorilla and Sureshot was fighting two people instead of one.

Meanwhile, Enchantress was having some unexpected troubles. She was confident taking on Ladybug one-on-one but that damned weaker version of the fox that had rejected her offer of friendship was active and she was suddenly dealing with multiple duplicates of Ladybug. She was looking around her in panic when her partner interceded. 

"Duality of Cold!" Janus swept his Assegai around him in a flat circle and the illusory Ladybugs all vanished into puffs of orange light as airborne icicles punched through them.

"Thank you, Janus," Enchantress said with a tight smile. "She's not here! What…?" Both Enchantress and Janus turned to see that a startled Leonidas was dodging backwards from a series of flailing Yo-Yo strikes from Ladymouse. He was parrying as best as he could with the Leo Sword but he had to be cautious; the cord of the Ladybug Yo-Yo seemed unbreakable and he knew that a wrongly-judged move would let the girl yank his weapon from his hand.

"Irritating insect!" Leonidas roared, triggering the Leo Sword's Vanquish power and lashing out a Ladybug, who immediately had to start a series of backwards hand-springs to avoid his horizontal sweeping attacks. Fast running out of space on the stage to retreat, she instead leapt upwards and somersaulted over the supervillain's head. With a grin, he span and thrust the Sword at chest height right at the exact point where she was going to land but she wasn't there! He looked up again, dumbfounded, and realised that she had somehow sprouted a ladybird's four wings and was swooping down at him, driving her boots into his face and sending him staggering backwards. 

Enchantress and Janus stepped towards the duel between the two leaders when, with a loud war-cry, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir dropped out of the air and landed in front of them, blocking their way to the fight. 

Janus scowled and levelled his Assegai at the two heroes. "Stand aside you two mangy animals!"

"Oh, come on, did you really think that we'd leave all the fun to M'lady?" Chat grinned as Janus barely blocked a sudden whirling staff-blow. "The whole idea is hiss-terical!" The two Miraculous Holders, both master fencers, closed up and instantly turned into a whirling mass of blows, ripostes and parries.

"You got a free shot on me and my man, Rossi! Don't think that you'll get another!" Rena spat as Enchantress desperately started parrying blows from the Fox Flute as the mocha-skinned superheroine advanced on her. The series of attacks was so intense that she had no time to try to use her mind powers on her former friend.

Everyone was engaged and the stage was suddenly a confused melee as combatants kept switching opponents, either attempting to help an ally or hinder a foe. However, one pair didn’t switch foes and that was Queen Bee and Black Gold. There seemed to be something personal between them that no-one had enough information about either of them to fully understand except Black Gold herself. To her, Queen Bee, Chloe, her firstborn, was a living embodiment of her embarrassing failure to produce a blood heir to her seat on the Council. She had to break the girl and make it clear to everyone that no-one defied Audrey Regine. 

Unfortunately, Chloe wasn’t cooperating with that goal. Every time she tried to use Harsh Truth, the girl was using her wings to leap out of her line of sight and Phobos was seemingly malfunctioning. Every time the attack summoned Chloe’s deepest fear in a physical form, she seemed to focus her way past it. She’d heard rumours that the girl had shrugged off akumatisation and had even been able to take control of her akumatised form but she hadn’t realised just how strong the girl’s will might be! It was all Black Gold could do was to use her Sceptre to keep batting away the girl’s Trompo Stinger…

Also, how was she continually recharging it? Shouldn’t she have detransformed by now?

“Stand still, you brat!” 

“Sorry, loser! I’m not really interested in being a sitting duck!”

At that point, there was a huge explosion. Everyone looked in the appropriate direction in deep shock as bits of wooden panelling rained down as a huge whirlwind exploded out of the atrium area and through the ground floor auditorium doors, carrying with it Kaze Gozen. The whirlwind suddenly condensed into Ryuuko. "Bee-chan! Tag!" she called out.

Much to Black Gold's shock, the Bee-themed superheroine suddenly launched herself upwards towards the two falling women. "Venom!" she yelled, leading with her Trompo, her wings buzzing and accelerating her towards the assassin. 

Ryuuko summoned her draconic wings with a flare of golden magic. "Ice Strike!" She called out as she switched the Dragon Sabre to its longbow mode and drawing a bead on the American supervillain below.

As she'd done before, Kaze Gozen was using her swords as aerofoils to slow and control her descent but she wasn't expecting Queen Bee to come buzzing in behind her and drive the point of her Trompo into her solar plexus. Moments later, an arrow of pure cold struck Black Gold in between the breasts, just as she was raising her sceptre to attack Ryuuko (who was, after all, looking right at her and thus was vulnerable).

Covered in a layer of frost, the Raven Villain tumbled senseless backwards onto the stage. Kaze Gozen still a spinning aerofoil but no longer able to move to steer her descent, whirled down towards the stage, forcing La Paonne and Sureshot to leap apart to avoid being slashed by her swords.

Leonidas took the moment of distraction to kick Ladybug aside and then slam the Leo Sword into the stage. The power of the Vanquish attack caused the stage to literally implode, sending all the combatants tumbling into the sub-stage basement area underneath. "Enough of this foolish confrontation!" Leonidas roared. He looked around himself and decided against using Rallying Cry to boost his allies' strength. The odds were getting too steeply stacked against them for that to make any difference. "Janus!" he yelled. 

"My lord?" His grandson struggled out of the wreckage where (poor, noble, fool that he was) he had been sheltering Enchantress from falling debris. He'd used the Duality of Strength power to make it easier to resist Chat Noir's staff blows. Even with that, the blade of destruction energy with which the Black Cat Hero had started augmenting his staff had opened several gashes in his costume and raised burn-like welts at every point of impact. 

"The time has come for us to leave!"

Fortunately, Janus was in the ideal position to obey his grandfather's command. Janus pointed the Gemini Assegai at the ceiling. "Duality of Fragility!" Suddenly as fragile as crystal glass, the centre of the domed roof simply collapsed under its own weight. "Duality of Ascent!" the young supervillain followed up, sweeping his weapon around him. All the supervillains, even the paralysed Black Gold and Kaze Gozen, rose rapidly into the air.

"Damn it, no!" Ladymouse's Tail Rope lashed out and just missed Enchantress's heeled boot as it flew up out of her reach. 

Leonidas had adopted an almost ludicrous posture of noble judgement as he ascended, leaning on the cross-guard of the Leo Sword. "Ladybug, heroes of Paris, I bid you farewell," he intoned. "Sureshot, attack with me." He raised his Sword, aiming its point down at the building below and visibly concentrated. "VANQUISH!"

"VOLLEY!" Sureshot yelled. 

A beam of pure gold magic lashed out of the Leo Sword as Sureshot's Sagittarius Bow shot a half-dozen whirling silvery energy arrows towards the remains of the venue's roof. There were a series of explosions and the building imploded, collapsing into itself.

Leonidas's laugh was terrible to hear but it faded away as the dust from the collapse cleared to reveal the undamaged dome of a Shell-Ter shield and Carapace standing in the middle of the remains of the auditorium, the Turtle Shield raised in a gesture of power and his allies gathered around him. The supervillain snarled. He nodded to Janus and, at the Gemini Villain's silent command, the villains continued to accelerate away into the night sky.

In the sudden silence, the heroes all turned towards the sobs as Steph-G, her mind freed after Enchantress's retreat, held the body of her girlfriend, wailing out her grief. Fortunately, the cause of this tragedy was magical, not mundane. Without hesitation, Ladymouse unhooked the bunch of keys from her belt and threw them into the sky. "Miraculous Ladybug!" 

The bunch of keys exploded into tidal-wave of magical ladybird beetles that flowed over the destroyed building, restoring it to a pristine condition. It flowed over the oriental woman, whose horrible magical blast wound healed in an instant and she drew in a deep breath, opening her eyes and looked up into Steph's eyes. The two women hugged and kissed before Steph looked up at the Protector of Paris, her eyes now filled with tears of joy. "Th… Thank you Ladybug!"

Ladymouse blushed slightly. She never quite knew what to say in these circumstances. "My pleasure"? That was too trite. "It was my duty"? That was too cold. She was saved by Queen Bee racing over, holding her Trompo, which was now open in its communication mode. "Ladymouse! There's an SOS on my 'phone! Look!" 

The whole team crowded around. Chat Noir's eyes opened wide when he saw the person who Zoe had photographed. "That's Cash!" Chat swiped to get the next photograph. "No great surprise that he's found some way to get the services of The Five of a Kind Gang!"

Ladymouse nodded and her finger tapped the shadowy figure that Zoe had photographed fighting Cash and the Five of a Kind Gang. "And that's Paladin! According to this message, they're fighting in the 1st^st Arrondissement; the jewellers' district where Cash attacked before! Damn it; I've got a feeling that the attack on this concert was nothing but a distraction to let Cash loot with impunity!"

Chat sucked in a breath and released it with a hiss of anger. "The problem is that we daren't try to respond to this, M'lady. Not with Leonidas and his villains still loose! They must have quite a head start by now!"

"Wherever they go, we can follow them!" Everyone turned to look at Miss Hound, who was holding up the Dog Ball, above which was a glowing wire-frame image of Paris with a flashing red star slowly moving over it. "After I retransformed, I snuck back in and tagged Black Gold when Ryuuko froze her! I've still got a solid Seek lock!" The copper-haired Dog Heroine blushed and smiled shyly as Queen Bee squeezed her shoulder in congratulation and approval.

Ladymouse thought for a moment before starting to issue orders. "Queen Bee, get everyone recharged, then catch up with Leonidas's gang and stop them from causing any more harm! Chaton, you and me are going to find out just what Cash is after!" 

As the two lead heroes set off, Ladymouse pulled out her Yo-yo and flipped it open to 'phone mode. As it had magically copied Marinette's entire phone contact list, she could get the person she wanted to talk to with just the touch of one control. "Nonna Gina?" she murmured urgently. "Yes, don’t worry, I'm okay and I undid all the harm that pig and his allies did. We've got a track of him and I'm sending some of my team after him but I need the help of your… employers. I think that there is a bigger threat right now!"

~*~*~

These days, Cash was more of a mastermind than an active thief in his own right. However he had always kept his skills fresh as a matter of personal pride. Therefore, once he was into the alleyways of Paris’s antiquities district, he easily managed to find his way into some locked sheds at the rear of the School of Fine Arts where he could take stock without any real risk of being disturbed. He concentrated for a moment, touched the brooch at the neck of his shirt and summoned a shining tongue of fire that illuminated the darkened structure.

“A question, master: Why did we flee? That rather silly-looking warrior was almost beaten!”

Cash looked at Rattus in annoyance. "We are not here to fight Lord Graham de Vanily's wars for him, Rattus, only to acquire your lost brothers and sisters!" The Renling of Fire and Chaos looked annoyed but didn't deny Cash's words. The master thief sighed; he had a feeling that the Renling's use of the term 'master' was highly conditional, no matter how confident the Lion of Crime was that the mounting he'd commissioned for the creature's gem would bind it to its wearer. The sooner that he had his errands completed and he could consider his agreement with the crime lord paid in full, the happier he would be.

The oriental master-thief tried to recentre himself. He took a moment to examine the gem he'd found in the overnight drop box of the jewel merchant he and his 'employees' were raiding before that blasted English boy intervened. What on Earth was wrong with the world nowadays with every schoolchild suddenly setting themselves up as a vigilante?!?

He thoughtfully examined the sunshine gold gem, visibly similar to the one to which Rattus was bound and noted the tingling sensation in his fingers. Could this be the thing to which Rattus was attracted?

There was a loud 'thud' on the roof of the shed and he looked up with some annoyance. "Now what?" He wasn't even slightly reassured by the rat spirit's grin. He would have questioned the Renling more specifically when the doors were literally kicked off of their hinges by a red horse with a golden mane and tail. “Oh… blast.” Cash watched as the horse turned into a fountain of fire that resolved into Ladydragon. “Ah, my dear Fei! What can I do for you this fine night?”

Ladydragon rolled her eyes. “You can stop prevaricating and hand over the Prodigious, Cash. Both of them.” The man opened his mouth and was about to try to deny any knowledge when the Chinese superheroine cut through the air with a gesture. “I can sense the presence of Prodigious, you know. I can smell their magic on you!" Well, actually, that was Mei-Shi but there was no need for her to tell Cash that secret. The girl's finger moved to point at the red Prodigious of Chaos and Fire. "I know what that is and what it can do. Don't try to trigger it." 

Cash looked at the yellow Prodigious (for it must be one) sitting in the palm of his hand and then shrugged. Oh well, easy come and easy go! Besides, I need a distraction to make my escape! “As you wish, my dear child! Catch!” He tossed the yellow gem out of the doorway past a startled Ladydragon and then bolted for the outside. 

Somehow, Ladydragon caught the yellow gem with a diving catch and managed to get a tight hold on it. She recognised it as the one that briefly corrupted that cute flying robot a few weeks back and, once again, the small blue and white feline appeared. “You’re still not my Renren!” it hissed, making Ladydragon jump.

“I know but we need to keep you from bad people who…”

“Neither is he!” the feline Renling added, jerking his chin at the fleeing Cash. “I don’t need you, I’ll find them myself!” There was a loud ‘bang’ and Ladydragon was glad that she’d tossed the gem into the air because it vanished with a crack of lightning that probably would have stunned her.

Meanwhile, Cash was running for the perimeter fence when, without warning, a shadow seemed to detach itself from one of the columns that supported the fence. "Going somewhere, scum?" said a voice that seemingly came from all directions at once and an all-too-familiar glowing blue sword came swinging at Cash's throat. With a screech, the man dodged the blow, turned in the other direction and ran along the perimeter towards the far corner as if pursued by the hounds of Hell itself. Just when he was fooling himself that he might make an escape, he saw two figures standing on the roof of the building on the opposite side of Rue Jacob. Ladybug and Chat Noir! The damnable girl must have summoned them and the knight as reinforcements! Cash doubled back towards the shed but it was too late; Chat Noir’s staff span through the air and slammed into his knees, tangling his legs and tripping him.

Cash was just trying to get his wits together when, with a scream of high-powered turbines, a jet aircraft that was shaped like a hovering bird of prey rose up from behind the school of fine arts and shone a bright spotlight onto him. Cash looked at the wings and saw the illuminated logo of a pyramid-and-eye superimposed onto the outline of a twelve-pointed star. Oh no! SPECIAL! How did they get involved?!?

The SPECIAL Hover-Jet set down on the lawn of the school and a sliding door on the side opened up. A group of four men in sharp black suits that screamed ‘Federal Agent’ stepped down, sweeping the area with hand-weapons with glowing red vents on their sides that looked way more sophisticated than anything used by any national government on Earth. The last person to disembark was a woman in black with a red spider logo on her belt buckle. “Agent Dupain, the area is secure,” one of the SPECIAL agents reported.

Gina Dupain, Orbweaver, strode over to the fallen Cash, long years of practice meaning that she didn’t react to Ladymouse and Chat Noir leaping into the gardens. Nor did she draw attention to the girl from Shanghai who was keeping to the shadows; as the girl’s Handler, she would decide when these line agents were aware of the presence of that particular asset in Paris. “Zheng Zhao, alias Cash, by the authority placed in me by the Special Powers Effects Control, Analysis and Intelligence Liaison Office and the United Nations Organisation’s International Court of Justice, I hereby place you under arrest for the criminal use of anomalous powers in multiple locations and on multiple occasions.” 

Cash was back on his knees now and he sneered. “I don’t think so, my dear Orbweaver. Rattus! Incinerate these interlopers!” Orbweaver smirked; nothing happened. Cash stared down at the brooch at his throat and the central red gem was gone! He looked around in horror. “Rattus! Where have you gone? Return to your master!” 

Having sauntered over, Chat Noir slid his staff back onto his belt. “Friend, I get the impression that you’re missing something!”

“Yes, apparently his wits,” Orbweaver responded dryly, shaking her head. She looked over at Ladymouse. “Agent Ladybug, why didn’t you warn me that he’d gone this crazy?” She gestured and a SPECIAL technician ran over with a helmet-like device containing technology widely considered able to suppress psychic powers, which they strapped onto Cash’s head. The man might have resisted if he was not still shouting for ‘Rattus’, whoever that was.

Not that far away, Rattus, carrying his Prodigious in his mouth, ducked down a storm drain that led into a sewer pipe. That dimwit Lynx could continue his straight-line but sadly unsubtle search for their Renren. Meanwhile, Rattus was going to follow his element and make more chaos first! Who knows? He might even attract his Renren’s attention that way! He looked over his shoulder as the large humans (very obviously policemen of some sort) hauled Cash to his feet; he'd have to thank that human warrior some time for knocking his gem loose; he'd saved him a lot of trouble. “Farewell, ‘Master’, I was always far truer to chaos than thou.” He giggled and ran from sight.

~*~*~

Hidden on the roof of the School of Fine Arts, Zoe took a few more photographs of the obvious secret agents from the super-jet (who obviously knew Ladybug and Chat Noir) as they loaded Cash into their aircraft's cabin. She took just a few more shots of the Parisian heroes and their ally from overseas, who she'd seen on the Ladyblog before. "This is so cool!" she sighed. Then, suddenly, she had a  thought: Specifically of how there had never been a photograph of Paladin taken in London and only rumour-level reports of him giving photographs of criminals to the police as post-fact justifications for his actions.

Zoe looked at her camera for a moment before ejecting its SD card and tucking it into one of the cups of her bra. She slid a fresh card out of her pocket and inserted it into the camera just as a familiar and rather-spooky voice echoed around her. "Well, it seems that you've had your big break." 

Zoe looked up as Paladin stepped out of the shadows from amongst an air conditioner farm just a few metres away. "Well, it looks that way, yeah! So, what's next?"

"Next? Next I make sure that you get home safely."

Somehow that rang false. "No, sorry, I don't buy that. You could have dumped me in the 1^st Arrondissement and let me walk home from there. Even now, with Ladybug, Chat Noir and Ladydragon here, they'd make sure I got home safely. There's a reason why you haven't just vanished now the fight is over: You want something else."

Paladin had taken the time it took Zoe to deliver her rant to get very close. "Okay, you're right. There is something that I want before we go our separate ways."

Suddenly, Paladin swept up his cape over Zoe’s head and she felt an armoured glove cover her nose and mouth. There was a dry but sweet taste to the air and the girl tried to hold her breath but it was already too late and she was falling into a soundless darkness…

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: So, it was definitely a distraction 

@BugBoss: #KingCash was back and back to looting jewel storages

@Cool4Catz: He’d had an upgrade too

@Cool4Catz: Pyrokinesis from what I saw in @SneakrDiva's SOS and from what @Manyanimalgirl reported.

@Manyanimalgirl: Trust me; I saw the firestorm he created from a kilometre away

@Manyanimalgirl: It made tracking him down *much* easier!

@BugBoss: Yeah, then something happened that disarmed him before we confronted him

@Manyanimalgirl: It was hilarious watching him screaming for his powers and nothing happening!

@BugBoss: One way or another, the Prodigious of Fire and Chaos was gone by the time we got there

@NotARenaissanceArtist: There’s some good news; crazy villain lost his magical powers

@NotARenaissanceArtist: On the flip side, there’s *two* elemental power gems floating about?

@Cool4Catz: Yeah, definitely a mixed outcome

@FoxyBabe: Unfortunately, we’ve got more. 

@TrueQueen: #Leonidas and his band of idiots ran all the way to his personal castle just outside the city

@FoxyBabe: Sweet Honey here was ready to just go busting in but I talked her down

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Even though the new dudette’s tracing power confirmed #Black_Gold was in there.

@BugBoss: You made the right call, Foxy. 

@BugBoss: If we can’t prove who #Leonidas and his crew are to the Prefect of Police, then we can’t go busting into a private residence and hurling accusations.

@TrueQueen: Agreed but I’m still bitter!

@FeatherLady: Ladybug, just so you know, I have the Dog Miraculous for you to collect later. The girl you chose for it is the sweetest little thing and it’s obvious that Barkk likes her!

@TrueQueen: I feel vindicated

@TrueQueen: Anyway, we’re heading home now. Stormy’s headed off on ‘personal business’ but she’ll be coming back to my place tonight

@TrueQueen: Uh… maybe for longer too.

@Cool4Catz: Please don’t let her be going to face her mother again!

@BugBoss: Heading into a Guardian meeting; send me an urgent DM if there is any trouble

Ladydragon looked nervously at the bald man with bushy eyebrows. Marinette and Chat Noir had led her to a different part of the city than Auntie Sabine's shop. She hadn't expected to end up in the loft of Marinette and Chloe's fashion shop. Although the décor was modern, there was something about the atmosphere of the place that made her think of Wu Shifu's study back at the school in the old days. There was a simple working table, a formal-looking wooden-framed chair and, in the centre of the room, a dance mat with kneeling cushions around the edge that was clearly intended to double as a meeting area for formal and meditative gatherings.

Maybe this old guy was the origin of the sense of authority in the room. From the moment he arrived with Rena Rouge and a young man wearing an adept student's robes, Marinette seemed a bit different. More sober and more thoughtful and it made the Protector of Shanghai think about something Mei-Shi told her about there being 'an old soul' guiding her cousin. 

"Master Su-Han."

"Guardian Dupain-Cheng." The man nodded to Ladymouse and his eyes then moved his gaze to Ladydragon.

Marinette picked up on that. “I also make known to you, Wu Fei, Ladydragon, last of the protectors of the Prodigious Cave and chosen Bearer of the Prodigious of Spirit.”

The man, Su-Han, raised his bushy eyebrows but it was the younger adept who spoke. “A bold declaration.”

Suddenly, there was a flare of deep indigo light over Ladydragon’s left wrist that coalesced into Mei-Shi. “Not without reason either. She has proven herself to me and to the standards of her ancestors… and of the Founding Grandmaster.”

Su-Han’s eyebrows had somehow risen higher. “The Guardian of the Prodigious Cave? What are you doing so far from your city?”

The lion-like spirit smirked and flowed through the air over to the Grandmaster. “The cave is little more than an empty shell now, my dear Guardian. The Prodigious have chosen their Holder for this generation and my place is at her side.” Having said his piece, Mei-Shi glided back over to Ladydragon (who felt more than a little humbled by her guardian spirit’s vote of confidence).

Su-Han nodded and turned to the adept. “Chong-Li, I apologise for dragging you half-way across the world for nothing. I should have had more confidence in Guardian Dupain-Cheng’s judgement; the Prodigious did not need a keeper after all.” The young man looked mutinous but he did not reject his Master’s decision. Su-Han looked back to the Guardian of the Mother Miracle Box. “I assume that it is confirmed? The usurper of the Ishtar Miracle Box seeks this second Prodigious?”

Ladymouse nodded. “Regrettably, yes. He also has aid from the Dark Order. Doubtless both sides intend to betray the other when the time is right but it does not lessen the scale of the threat they pose together.”

Su-Han nodded soberly. He gestured to the arc of cushions and, working out what he meant, Ladydragon joined the others kneeling in front of the obviously very important senior guardian. "These have been days for thoughtful meditation and contemplation." He looked around his gathered listeners. "Since the Mage created the first Miracle Box, there have been a very few times of great disturbance to the Balance where everything threatened to turn to darkness. In these times, our duty as Guardians has shifted from being protectors of the Miraculous, remaining invisible except in extreme situations, to being those who support the great fight to resist this darkness and keep the Miraculous out of evil hands. Beyond any doubt we are now in such an era that marks the end of the Epoch that was and will shape the nature of the epoch to come." He looked over to Ladymouse and smiled at her weakly. "My dear… It is now clear to me that it is your destiny to lead this struggle, for better or for worse." Ladymouse responded with a weak smile of her own and Ladydragon noticed her swallow nervously and her hand reached out blindly for Chat Noir's. He took it without hesitation and squeezed it tightly in reassurance.

"The Second Prodigious… Ah yes, the Second Prodigious." Su-Han looked around the group again. "There is precious little in our records about its creation and purpose. The Founding Grandmaster was correct to hide away his methods and his actions, fearing that the weak-minded and greedy would use them for their own purposes. However, it is clear that he had learned from the weaknesses and dangers of the original Prodigious of the Spirit." He gave Ladydragon an apologetic smile.

"Ladydragon is well aware of the risks inherent in the use of the Prodigious," Mei-Shi said quietly. "She knows its limits and its strengths. The last Master of House Wu taught her all she needed to know, even though she knew it not at the time." Ladydragon sucked in a breath that sounded like a sob at the mention of her dead father in-all-but-blood.

Su-Han continued. "This 'Prodigious of Virtue' was evidently something that the Mage was working on at the time the weaknesses of the first became evident and he abandoned it in favour of the Miraculous…"

"No…" Everyone looked at Ladymouse. "No, that doesn't sound right. The Grandmaster wouldn't have just left dangerous magical gems just lying around. No, I feel that he knew its potential as a weapon, so he chose to trust in Destiny by hiding the gems in a dormant state and awaiting…" The Protector of Paris looked at her cousin before continuing, sensing a rightness to the things she was remembering now from a brief time she spent in the company of Mingzhede Xiangdao just over six months previously for her but thousands of years ago in the stream of linear time. "They were awaiting the reawakening of the full power of the Prodigious of the Spirit. Because of the nature of what is required in the heart of a Holder to activate the Prodigious fully, it meant that Champions existed who could use the far greater power of this second Prodigious wisely." The girl suddenly smiled. "He knew that it meant there were people with a good spirit to take on the responsibility and harness that power for the protection of the Balance."

Su-Han was stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Yes… Yes, Guardian Dupain-Cheng; that has the feel of insight. The Second Prodigious was a tool for the darkest times but ones with the greatest paragons also present; a time of struggle to determine whether the Balance would hold." The man turned his gaze fully onto Ladymouse again. "My heart tells me that it is in this city and in the places to which you travel that this struggle will be decided, Guardian Dupain-Cheng. Do you willingly bind yourself to the duty of resisting the Dark and finding the Champions of the Light?"

Ladydragon watched as her cousin straightened her back. "That has been my purpose from the moment Wang Fu chose me, Master, whether or not I knew it at the time. I will ensure that the Miraculous are in the hands that can use them most wisely and I vow eternal enmity to those who would use them for selfish evil. As for the Prodigious…?" The girl frowned briefly as, unknown to everyone else, she listened to the Founding Grandmaster's disembodied voice. "My heart tells me that it does not fall to any human to decide their Bearer. The Renlings are already seeking that one, as stumbling as their steps are. We need to recognise when they succeed and do all we can to support that one when they are found."

~*~*~

Zoe Bourgeois groaned as she awoke. She wasn't really surprised to find herself on her bed in her bedroom in the Grand Hotel. It was the sort of flourish that she'd already guessed Paladin would make, given his obvious love of the codes of Chivalry and other aspects of the Knightly tradition. She blinked stupidly as her eyes fell onto her camera, sitting on her dresser and she gasped in horror, patting her t-shirt urgently. "Damn it!" she groaned; the SD card was gone and with it her vaguely-shaped hope of making a big break into photojournalism. 

Still a bit woozy from Paladin's knock-out gas, she swung up into a sitting position at the edge of her bed and looked her vanity. Propped up on the desktop of the vanity and leaning against the vase of fresh flowers that her father always ensured she had was a manila envelope with the front marked with a sword pointing downwards through and behind a knight's shield with a 'P' monogram.

"Oh, God… Is he that corny?" Zoe stood up and opened the envelope to find a letter, elegantly written a precise hand and… an SD card? Zoe rushed over to her camera and inserted it. It wasn’t hers but it had at least some of her photographs of the fight outside the jewel storehouse and of Ladydragon, Ladybug and Chat Noir confronting that pyrokinetic thief. However, she noticed that everything that included a hero's face had been removed. Paladin, especially, was only shown as a shadowy blur of motion and the icy blue arc of his sword-strokes.

She turned her attention to the letter.

~

My dear Miss Bourgeois,

Firstly, I must thank you for your most charming company tonight. Most people would have frozen or fled in the face of the risks you encountered tonight, starting with our journey through the skies. Instead, you remained resolute, compassionate and even assisted to the limit of your abilities. This is a rare trait and one about which you can be justly proud.

I apologise for my rough treatment of you before our parting ways but I had to ensure that nothing will enter the public realm that could risk the identities of those who stand against the will of evil. 

It is my hope that we may meet again and we may continue to discover together precisely what potential you have. Even if not, you have my genuine thanks for your assistance tonight. I am sure that you will indeed find your path and your chance to shine so everyone can see the light that already resides in you.

I remain, in thanks, your loyal servant,

The Paladin of London

~

For no reason Zoe could understand, she clutched the note to her breast. "Wow. Chloe is never going to believe this!"

~*~*~

“Are you trying to hide from me, Kagami?”

Kagami looked over her shoulder at her mother, who was standing down the hall from the door to her room at the Tsurugi Villa. “I would not presume to imagine such a thing was possible Hahaoya.”

Tomoe nodded. “So, why are you here? Some addle-brained desire to fight me again, this time without your friends' help? Or have you even come to your senses and decided to join me?”

There was a derisive drawl to how Tomoe said ‘friends’ that didn’t surprise Kagami in the slightest. “You know that is something that I would never do. No, I am merely collecting my few true belongings. It is convenient that you came here after your master’s defeat at the concert hall as it gives me the opportunity to take my leave of you.”

Tomoe’s black eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Take your leave of me?”

“So long as you serve Leonidas and are a member of the Dark Order, it is impossible to trust you to respect the integrity of my person, my freedom of choice or the ownership of what is mine. Nor is it possible for me to exist in your vile company. So, I have chosen to cease doing so. I will instead remain with those who have taught me the true meaning of friendship and the woman I have come to love.”

Tomoe gritted her teeth. “I will not permit this!”

Kagami looked at her mother as she pulled her rucksack up onto her shoulder and pulled a medium-sized roller-case out into the hall. “This is not something that is in your power to approve or forbid, Hahaoya. My choice is made”

Tomoe stamped down the hallway, no longer seeing the need to maintain the pretence of using her cane to find her way. “Very well; if you wish to conduct yourself like the sulky, rebellious child that you are, do so! However, that is not yours to take!” The woman’s hand shot out to point the two swords with beautifully-decorated ebony sheathes and elegantly-decorated longbow that Kagami had slung over her back.

“Actually, they are. You had no right to keep Uncle’s parting legacy from me, mother! Did you have to add ‘thief’ to the appellations of ‘liar’, ‘murderer’ and ‘slave’ with which you have already stained your place as the head of our house?” Kagami drew in a breath to steady her emotions. “Uncle knew what you were, mother. He also knew that he could not trust you to honour his last wishes so he sent me a letter through… other means.” Kagami couldn’t help but smile at her mother’s dumbfounded expression. “As I have said before, he may have taught you all that you know but he did not teach you everything that he knew. I only recently received his missive but did not wish to believe it until recent events provided the proof.”

That was all that Kagami had to say. With a sigh, she set off down the hall, passing her mother as she did so. “Kagami?” The young woman paused and looked back at her mother, although Tomoe had not turned to look at her. “Kagami, think very carefully about what you are doing. If you choose our house’s enemies over me, then I will have no choice but to disown and disinherit you. Your bank accounts will be frozen and you will be forbidden access to all of our properties. None of House Tsurugi or its employees will acknowledge you. You will have nothing.”

There was a long pause before Kagami replied. “Nothing… Except my honour.”

Chapter Text

Whilst there was a certain degree of comfort to find by simply relax in Felix's arms on the couch and let the Graham de Vanily's family retainers wait on her hand-and-foot, the young woman born as Lila Rossi and now utilising the nom de arte of Iris Verdi was not really feeling like doing nothing today. 

That little polka-dotted whore had humiliated her! What should have been her great triumph that would have established her as Paris's premiere supervillain and seen Team Miraculous destroyed as a result of her scheme for the whole world to see was instead seen as the heroes' latest triumph! During the same incident, her sponsor had expressed annoyance at her behaviour and had the unmitigated gall to criticise and correct her! No, this wasn't going to stand; her pride and her position as the great supervillain Enchantress demanded immediate action, no matter what that sword-swinging old dotard insisted and he would see her power and give her the respect she deserved as an ally, not a subordinate! 

"Marinette, I've given you so many chances to work with me or just find a hole to hide in but… no." Lila sat down on a recliner on the balcony outside her and Felix's day room and stared out at the distant towers of central Paris. "So, we're going to have to remind you that I'm not one to be defied with impunity. You're going to have to be disciplined but how…?" The face of the olive-skinned woman whose beauty was not in any way matched by the content of her soul broke open in a cruel smile. "Ah, but of course! You're so repellently self-righteous and selfless, Mari my love! You can accept any hardship of your own for the sake of 'good' and your friends are quite able to protect themselves! However, what if the punishment came on those of your family who don't have superpowers and their livelihoods?" Lila began to chuckle in an evil way. "Ah, Ms Cheng! You were such a good teacher at the evening art class but I'm afraid that you're going to have to suffer for your daughter's sins."

"Lila?" Spiica had flown over and was looking at her in a worried way. "You're muttering to yourself and giggling at jokes only you can hear like a crazy person again. What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking that the time has come for some good, old-fashioned revenge, Spiica! Tell me, how do you feel about ruining a few lives for our amusement?"

Spiica raised an eyebrow. "I'd say that you've obviously bounced back from what happened last week!" The Kwami of Charm smirked; there was no doubt that her Holder was a dangerously selfish and cruel personality but that made the kwami's life so interesting. “So, who’s the target?”

Lila’s smile became very coldly malicious and cunning. “Oh, anybody will do, Spiica! All that matters is that they go to the right bakery…”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@TrueQueen)

@TrueQueen: Okay, Hot’n’red, what’s going on?

@SnekCharmer: Good question! I come to the Boulangerie-Patisserie and its closed!

@WatchWabbit: No doubt people are gonna riot!

@BugBoss: Okay, guys, sorry about this but there is a… problem

@BugBoss: Public health inspectors practically kicked down the door first thing this morning to say that someone has complained of food poisoning

@BugBoss: They claimed to have found *rat droppings* in some of our products!

@TrueQueen: That’s ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!

@TrueQueen: I’ve been going to that shop for years and there isn’t a hint of infestation!

@BugBoss: I know, Honey. 

@BugBoss: My parents are so careful!

@BugBoss: Mama hasn’t stopped crying all morning!

@TrueQueen: Ugh

@TrueQueen: This is stupid! If daddy were still mayor, I’d have this sorted out already!

@SnekCharmer: I’m kind of shocked that Anarka hasn’t reversed this already. 

@SnekCharmer: Sergeant Raincomprix is enjoying this *too much* for my tastes!

@WatchWabbit: Yeah, only the fact he’s @PuppySpex’s dad stops me from TPing his car!

@SnkeCharmer: Truth

@TrueQueen: I dunno, Hot’n’Red. I know a certain little butterfly girl who might be able to find someone to fix this?

@BugBoss: No, Chloe.

@BugBoss: As easy as it would be, that’s an abuse of power and we can’t go that way!

@WatchWabbit: Not that it would really do anything but delay the re-opening!

@BugBoss: As hard as this is, we have to let the inspectors finish their work and see for themselves that there is no basis for this!

Marinette was wringing her hands in distress as she stood helplessly outside of her childhood home. They weren't being allowed to go into in the bakery even to help or to explain anything untoward that the health inspectors found! Yes, they could go into their apartment but… Well, how could she when her parents livelihood was at risk? This was a nightmare! They checked their food preparation and storage areas several times a day! This couldn't be happening! Surely they would have noticed if they had a vermin infestation!

Adrien had arrived a few moments ago (summoned by Chloe) and was hugging her. Having her boyfriend around was nice but it wasn't going to solve anything. It certainly wasn't going to help her sobbing mother who kept on looking at the door to their family business with the official 'Closed for Health and Hygiene Audit' sign in the windows with a devastated and defeated expression as her father tried clumsily to comfort her.

Marinette twitched slightly as someone in the small crowd around the building muttered: "It was bound to happen eventually; small, family-run place like this could never keep up with modern hygiene standards."

Marinette whirled in the direction of the voice but Adrien tightened his grip on her. "Don't," he whispered. "I know that you want to defend your family's reputation but starting a fight won't prove anything." He looked resentfully at Sabrina's father who was guarding the front entrance and looking around himself, smug in his petty authority and its power over others. "Besides, he's looking for an excuse to arrest someone."

Marinette nodded unhappily. Sergeant Raincomprix had wanted her father in handcuffs the moment he'd arrived at the head of the half-dozen health inspectors. 'Just as a precaution' he'd said in a way that once again made Marinette wonder just how safe it was for the city to let the man carry weapons whilst on duty.

Marinette was wondering how much Sabrina's tendency to do whatever someone apparently in authority told her to do might be due to this man's strange idea of duty and public order when one of the inspectors, still in his white cotton full-body clean suit, stepped out into the road. "This is 12 Rue Gotlib isn’t it?"

Everyone was surprised to hear that and Raincomprix hesitated for a long moment before speaking. "What's the problem, Claude?"

"The problem is that there is nothing in here that could break the hygiene code. It's like the place was deep cleaned and then put under a hermetic seal!"

Raincomprix looked over at Tom and Sabine suspiciously. "Okay, you two, what the hell kind of game are you playing?"

~*~*~

“Oh Clarence! Thank you!” The painfully tall and thin man with the trilby hat and bowtie smiled in thanks at the grinning rat sitting in front of him. “You got all of it out? Oh, you asked Charlie and his clan to do it for you? That’s a bit of a risk but… Oh, they made sure they weren’t seen?” The rat made a positive-sounding squeak. "Well, he’s a reliable lad, just like all his kind!”

The strange tall man stroked his chin thoughtfully. “What I don’t understand is why this even happened! Everyone knows to stay away from that dear girl’s family shop! Then there was the ‘physical evidence.” The rat looked down in seemingly-genuine grief and there was a long, sad pause before the human male spoke again. “It was definitely Stella? Oh dear! Oh dear, oh dear! How terrible! Who would have done such an awful thing?” There was a fluttering of wings as a feral pigeon landed on his shoulder. “Frederick, spread the word! Everyone should be on the lookout for anything unusual! Someone is trying to defame our friends and we need to find out who they are!” 

~*~*~

Meanwhile, Enchantress was pacing a rooftop unhappily. “I don’t know how this is possible! I programmed that weak-minded nobody of a woman’s mind perfectly! She would have made the complaint in detail and made sure that the rat’s corpse and the droppings were scattered in the shop! How could they all be gone? I’ve been watching that wretched bakery all day and I’ve seen no sign of a clean-up! The inspectors would have caught it if they did that anyway!” The grey-clad Fox Villain balled her hands into fists. “Right! We do this the hard way then! Lucy!”

The dark-haired woman who was kneeling on the rooftop nearby looked up, her previously mindlessly-happy expression suddenly showing focus and attention to Enchantress. “You called, Mistress?”

Enchantress screwed a positive-looking smile onto her face for appearance’s sake and thanked all the dark forces in the universe that she had a thrall with essentially all hint of free will suppressed to do this for her. “We’re going to have to make another attempt, my darling love!” 

“Oh no!”

“Oh yes! For some reason, all your hard work went to waste so now you’re going to have to try harder!” Enchantress was proud of not rolling her eyes at the look of resolve on her thrall’s face. "Fortunately, your Mistress thought of this possibility. You need to go to some places where I left some bait…” Actually, those were supposed to be used in a few days’ time as the second wave of attacks but she’d make do. All that mattered was that the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie-Patisserie was ruined.

As she began to give her slave her instructions, Enchantress never noticed the feral pigeon watching her from atop a TV reception antenna.

After all, who ever notices those things?

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: Okay, some good news and some puzzling news

@BugBoss: Good news: It looks like the bakery will be open as early as tomorrow morning!

@BugBoss: The health inspectors haven’t found any kind of infestation!

@FoxyBabe: Girl, that’s great news!

@NotARenaissanceArist: Yeah, I was kind of going into pastry deficit!

@Cool4Catz: Actually, the inspector said that the bakery was ‘impossibly clean’

@Cool4Catz: Not even the slightest hint that there’d *ever* been rodents or bugs in here

@SnekCharmer: Ah, yes

@SnekCharmer: I can see why that’d cause problems

@WatchWabbit: But no repercussions?

@Cool4Catz: Nope; there’s no way that the Dupain-Chengs could have carried out a deep clean *whilst the inspectors were present* without them noticing

@BugBoss: That’s the puzzling news, of course. 

@BugBoss: I mean, there wasn’t even any sign of wasps or flies in the bug zapper!

@SnekCharmer: I get what you’re saying Melody

@SnekCharmer: One thing the last two years has taught us is that there is usually a *cause* for weirdness

@NotARenaissanceArtist: One that is likely to turn out as bad news, right dudes?

@BugBoss: Yeay 8 by ,

@FoxyBabe: Sorry, Girl? That came out pretty gibberish!

@FoxyBabe: Marinette, you still there?

@FoxyBabe: Mari?

~*~*~

When they looked back, neither Adrien, Marinette or her parents were able to make full sense of the chaos that had erupted in and around the bakery over less than a minute.

What she could say with some certainty was that a slightly-scruffy dark-haired woman had come charging up to the health inspector as he stood with her maman and papa outside the door to the bakery. The woman looked worse for the wear. Her business clothes were smudged with dirt and… Ugh! Was that pigeon guano? Her papa had just been signing off on the paperwork to confirm that the health inspectors had found nothing and had ruled the complaint groundless when the woman had started screeching about ‘this vile garbage dump’ and talking about all the filth and vermin she found in the bakery’s produce. 

The inspector started talking to her about what they’d found (or rather had not found) and was trying to calm her down. “If you think I’m lying, look at this! I hid this bait box in there a few days ago and look what I found when I took it back!” She opened her shoulder-bag and…

Marinette had never seen that many cockroaches and centipedes in one place at any time. They poured out of the shoulder bag like they had been packed in carapace-to-carapace and immediately began swarming all over the woman like a living blanket. 

Marinette wasn’t sure who screamed first, loudest or, more likely, wasn’t screaming. Even her papa cried out in horror.

“It’s horrible! It’s disgusting! Close the place down!” A small crowd had suddenly appeared from the side streets and was gathered around the bakery, Marinette noticed. What was odd was that they were chanting the same thing word-for-word and had a glazed look in their eyes.

Marinette suddenly knew just who was responsible and looked around herself frantically. “Adrien! That’s the effect of Enchantress’s Wonder power! Where is she?”

That’s when things went from ‘nightmare’ to ‘Neil Gaiman-worthy’. Suddenly, the skies went black with literally thousands of feral pigeons. Simultaneously, legions of brown rats, feral mice and yet more verminous bugs poured out of every storm drain in the street and began to swarm around in the street, boiling up the walls of buildings as if searching for something. The complainant herself was now completely invisible under a small hill of vermin either crawling up her or dive-bombing her from above. 

"Oh non! Oh yuck! Non, non, non, non!" Somehow, Marinette managed to not scream herself hoarse as the creatures poured across her sneakers by the dozen (rodents) and thousand (bugs). She was paralysed with horror and disgust.

Adrien swept his brain-locked girlfriend up in his arms and retreated into the bakery building that was, somehow, still utterly free of rampaging vermin. He looked around and realised that, in fact, the bakery was at the geometric centre of a circle of cleared ground as if something was keeping the vermin away. “Marinette! Marinette! M’lady!" Hearing her Chaton calling her costumed self summoned Marinette out of her horrified trance. "Enchantress has never been able to control animals before! In any case, if she’s behind this, why avoid the bakery when she was targeting it?”

Marinette blinked and looked around her as her brain slowly rebooted. “Y… Yes. Yes, I know! This is more like Mister Pigeon’s power but we have the Butterfly Miraculous! He can’t be akumatised again! How…?” As Marinette fumbled with her cellphone, outside, swarms of bluebottles and houseflies coalesced into a gigantic recreation of a thin human face hovering over the centre of the crossroads where the bakery sat. A face that Marinette and Adrien both knew quite well.

“People of Paris, I am Mister Rat!” 

~*~*~

Standing on the balcony of Chloe's hotel room, Sabrina tried to process what she was looking at. It was like something from the dark days of Hawkmoth's reign of terror all over again! Zoe stepped up to her side. "Well… That's not something you see every day!"

"Not recently, no!" Chloe said. There was a shrill triple-beep from her cellphone, which she pulled out and her eyes widened as she looked at what was on the screen. "Oops! SOS from our Buggy boss! Gami-chan!" Kagami had been watching Chloe's TV set on the business channel and looked up at hearing her girlfriend's voice. Her mouth dropped open as she saw the huge boiling living whirlwind of flying vermin seemingly right over Marinette's home.

"People of Paris, I am Mister Rat! For too long have you blamed the simple scavengers and litter-eaters of our city for your troubles but now you choose to frame them for your own benefit? That ends this day! Let the person who tried to ruin the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie-Patisserie come forward and accept their punishment for involving us in their business! I know who you are! Cowering in the dark where we are masters will not help you! Come forward of your own free will or be dragged out into the light by my friends!"

All four young women looked at each other in horror as they slowly began to put together what they were hearing. "Wait…" Sabrina shook her head, partly in horror and partly in a kind of disbelief that this was happening. "I know that voice! Was that Mister Pigeon?"

"He's calling himself 'Mr Rat' now," Zoe corrected, trying to sound helpful.

"Pollen! Buzz on!"

"Longg! Bring the storm!"

~*~*~

"Tikki! Spots on!"

"Plagg! Claws out!"

Ladybug and Chat Noir ran out into the chaotic street. The mob that had been gathered by Enchantress's powers had scattered (Wonder never held any control over anyone for more than a minute anyway). Roger Raincomprix was standing on top of his patrol car, screaming into his radio for backup and ducking as pigeons occasionally dive-bombed him and the health inspectors were hiding in their van. Tom and Sabine were very clearly visible, Tom holding his wife in his arms and stepping from clear spot to clear spot in an attempt to find shelter.

Ladybug gestured to Tom for attention. "M Dupain, get into the bakery! It seems to be protected somehow!"

"What about her?!?" It was to Tom's credit that the woman who had apparently decided to ruin his family business was still a concern for him. However, Ladybug could see his point. The woman who'd made the complaint was being carried down the street on a literal wave-front of rats and feral mice.

Ladybug cast her Yo-yo into the air. "Luuuckyyy CHARM!" A spiral of ladybird beetles appeared at the apex of the cast, all flowing into a pink spark of light that resolved into a black-spotted red object that dropped into the superheroine's hands.

Chat Noir looked at what his girlfriend was holding with a frown. "That's something I've seen before but I don't know how it's supposed to help here!"

Ladybug frowned herself as she considered the flash-gun Lucky Charm but her face began to clear as her mind caught up with what was happening. "I think that Tikki is telling me something about how we fix this, Chaton and, strangely enough, it isn't about defeating Mr Rat and his friends!"

At that moment, Queen Bee and Ryuuko dropped out of the sky and landed in the small street junction in front of the Boulangerie-Patisserie. "Ladybug! What going on?" Queen Bee's voice was a little high-pitched as she watched the wave of vermin carrying their prize along the river-bank.

"This is all Enchantress's doing!" the red-and-black costumed superhero snapped. "She attacked the Dupain-Chengs through her trickery and it somehow triggered this!"

Ryuuko nodded soberly. "We heard Mister Pige… No, Mister Rat's announcement, Ladybug but I do not understand how he could have done this without Agreste-baka and the Butterfly Miraculous to provide him with the power."

"That's the second mystery for us to solve today," Ladybug responded, shaking her head. "Right now, we need to find Enchantress, not just to stop her from taking more petty acts of revenge against the Dupain-Chengs but also to free the woman who I'm sure she enthralled to do her dirty work for her."

"Literally dirty work in this case, eh M'Lady?"

Ladybug felt she should scowl at Chat Noir for his wisecrack but found that she couldn't help but smile at his quick wits. She turned back to her two friends. "Ryuuko, set up a patrol pattern around the core of the group of Mr Rat's 'friends' and make sure there are no attacks on random people. Queen Bee…?" She gestured to Sergeant Raincomprix, who was still having a hysterical fit on top of his patrol car. "See if you can't calm him down whilst your Bee constructs are searching for Enchantress." The other two superheroines nodded. "Chaton, let's move!" With a thwip-whiz noise, Ladybug cast her yo-yo at a tall building's steeple-like apex and swung off in pursuit of the departing wave of verminous animals, bugs and birds as Chat Noir used his staff like a pogo-stick to join her in her pursuit.

Queen Bee and Ryuuko exchanged a small smile before splitting up to carry out their duties.

~*~*~

Meanwhile, Enchantress was having a… bad time. She was currently racing along the rooftops of Paris southwards away from the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie-Patisserie whilst trying to avoid an air attack from at least three dozen pigeons, which were diving at her hair and trying to scratch her face with their talons. Just to maximise how disgusting this was, she was also being pelted by guano that they were dropping as they were bottoming out in their dives towards her. "Dio mio!" she was panting in her native tongue. "Dio mio! Dolce dio salvami!"

At that moment, the pigeons did break off. She risked a look over her shoulder and saw that there was a bubble of wind surrounding the building on which she was standing, keeping the pigeons away. Further back, she saw Ryuuko hovering on those freakish wings she'd acquired lately and pointing her sword towards the building. "I never thought that I'd be glad to see you, Jap," she hissed. She raced around the corner of the rooftop exit of an emergency staircase to hide herself from the Dragon Hero's gaze.

Enchantress leaned back against the wall of the emergency exit and tried to control her breathing. She wasn't particularly afraid of bugs or rats but she still didn't like the thought of being around them and the thought of being buried under a mountain of them like what happened to her thrall made her whole body itch psychosomatically in disgust!

How was this possible? Like everyone else, she'd heard the announcement form 'Mister Rat' and that had been her cue to start running. However, it made no sense! Adrien's father was rotting in prison and, as far as she knew, the Butterfly Miraculous was in the hands of that repulsive do-gooder Marinette! She wouldn't empower him to cause all this chaos would she? It was entirely out of her character to do something like this!

Of course, if she was wrong…? Well, whilst it was gratifying on the one hand to know that she'd broken Ladybug and made her turn evil, on the other hand it meant that she might be in serious mortal danger! Especially given the number of Miraculous that were not entrusted to other heroes but under her hated rival's personal control!

Enchantress's eyes opened wide as a cockroach ran across the breast of her costume. Reflexively, she reached out to brush it off. That's when she realised that more bugs were crawling on her arms. With a little shriek of horror, she began to brush frantically at her arms and body but there were always more than she could get off of her! They were all over her costume and even in her hair!

With a wail of horror, Enchantress was yanked back against the wall by living ropes of centipedes and she felt the jaws of innumerable cockroaches latching onto her costume, her hair and skin, holding her flat and helpless against the wall. Enchantress's long and panicked scream was piercing and loud but worse was to come. Her throat suddenly closed with terror, she watched as a tangled, spiralling living whirlwind of rats rose up into her sight. The peak of the waterspout-like formation of rats broke open and she watched as a somewhat-familiar figure stepped onto the rooftop.

Xavier Ramier had abandoned his suit jacket and trilby hat at some point. Instead, he was wearing a two-tone grey tracksuit and a hood pulled over his head all with an overall pattern that resembled the costume that Hawkmoth had given him when he was Mr Pigeon.

The really weird bit was that the man in front of her wasn't grinning maniacally the way Mr Pigeon did but, instead, had a gentle and somewhat apologetic smile. "Ah! Yes, I know you from Veronica's description! My, what an odd look you have chosen for yourself! Are you trying to imitate that horrible Volpina girl from the Heroes Day two years ago for some reason? Yes, you are! What a strange, strange thing for anyone to do!"

Enchantress had any number of things she could try to say but horror made it impossible to unlock her vocal chords. Instead, she watched as the strange tall man visibly puzzled over what to do next. "Oh! Yes, I know. Well, as I'm sure you guessed, you can call me Xav… Mr Rat." He gestured around him. "It's very strange! All these wonderful creatures who everyone hates but I've found that a little kindness and consideration makes them all more than willing to listen to me!" He shook his head. "Really, I have no idea what made you choose this remarkably over-complicated plot."

The man started pacing thoughtfully. "The Dupain-Chengs are kind to me, you know. You would think that someone with my reputation would be banned from a Boulangerie-Patisserie but, no! No, they gladly let me take their old bread and other produce to feed to my friends…!" There was a pause before Ramier continued in a slightly-embarrassed tone. "I don't think that they know exactly what I want it for but they haven't asked so…" The man shrugged. "You know, dear little Marinette is such a sweet and kindly girl! I've seen the costumes and art she's made with my feathered friends' off-casts! She genuinely does seek peace with all things!" The man's eyes narrowed. "That is why I decided to do this, you know. Really, not only do you attack my human friends but you choose to use my animal and insect friends as a means to do so?" The man's finger was pointed rigidly at Enchantress's face and his face was suddenly filled with a rage that confirmed to the Virgo Villainess that this was indeed Mr Pigeon. "Oh no, my dear child, I really can't let that stand, can I?"

The man pulled the zip of his track-suit top down and reached in to pull out an ocarina, of all things. He put it to his lips and played a strange tune and, much to Enchantress's surprise, seemingly in response, another wave of rats and bugs poured over the lip of the roof carrying her thrall, who was struggling uselessly, bound to her verminous abductors by countless bugs and other creatures. "Mistress! Help me!" she begged hysterically.

"You stupid girl!" Enchantress yelled back. "Don't worry about yourself! Save me!"

Mr Rat stood to one side and observed with an air of indulgence as supervillain and thrall both struggled uselessly for a few moments. "So, what do I do?" he asked helplessly. "I can hardly kill you… Or can I? Is that the right way to handle this?"

A kindly feminine voice called out. "Don't do that, M Ramier."

"Yeah, she's really not worth the blood on your friends various extremities!" added a slyly humorous masculine voice.

If you'd asked Enchantress, there was literally no scenario she could imagine where she wanted to hear those voices but, right now, they were the most beautiful things she'd ever heard. "Marinette! Adrien! Save me!"

From where she and Chat Noir were perched atop the stairwell's roof almost right above the supervillain, Ladybug shot Enchantress a quelling glare. "Shut up Lila! You've done enough damage for one day! I'm not doing this for your sake! Frankly, you deserve everything you get!" Enchantress actually had the gall to look offended and looked down again with a pout.

Mr Rat looked at the newly-arrived superheroes in confusion and embarrassment. "Ladybug? Chat Noir? Er… Should we maybe be fighting?" Mr Rat didn't sound combative or even slightly sure about that.

With a sigh, Ladybug somersaulted forwards off of the roof. "No, M Ramier, we don't. I'm only here to stop you from making a horrible mistake that would destroy your life and make you… and your friends… even more hated by the people of Paris."

M Ramier looked down thoughtfully as he considered the polka-dotted heroine's words. "Even so, I can't let them keep telling lies and hurting people!"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Chat Noir remarked with a remarkably cheerful grin. "I think that Lila here has learned that you and your friends are lite-rat-ally out of her league! No, I promise that she won't try this again now she knows you're in-vermin-cible!" Enchantress looked nauseous at the puns and Mr Ramier looked politely confused. Ladybug actually giggled in response.

Ladybug pulled her Lucky Charm off of her belt and walked over to Enchantress's thrall who was still frantically trying to free herself. As she did with Ladydragon, she raised the device and triggered it, the overload of her visual cortex making the woman scream in agony before she fell limp. She looked over at Mr Rat, who seemed a bit lost. "M Ramier, could you ask your friends to release her, please? She isn't going to cause any more harm."

The man nodded and gestured and, as the Miraculous holders watched in shock, the rats and bugs flowed away from the young woman in every direction leaving her lying in the centre of the roof. With a groan, the woman struggled to stand. Chat Noir walked over and kindly assisted. "L… Ladybug? Chat Noir? Where am I? What happened? I couldn't have been akumatised could I? Hawkmoth is in prison! The last I remember, I was walking to work when she jumped out at me!" She pointed frantically at the still-pouting Enchantress.

Chat put his arm on the woman's arm. "Don't worry, Mademoiselle. You are free of Enchantress's control now."

"Well, that's all very well but…" At this point, Lucile started to pick up a bit about her environment. The rooftop was swarming with bugs of all kinds, pigeons were circling around in the skies above and there were some simply gigantic rats sitting in front of her. One of which (which was the size of a French bulldog) gave her a buck-toothed grin that Chat was pretty sure was meant to be friendly. The scream was even more piercing than Enchantress's a few minutes ago. "Get them away from me! Get me out of here!!!" The woman had jumped into Chat's arms and was swatting futilely at several hundred creatures, all of which were well out of her reach.

Somehow, Ladybug found it in herself to smile at this. "Chaton, get her down to ground level and make sure she gets home." Chat grinned and, deploying his staff, jumped out of sight.

Ladybug considered her Lucky Charm for a moment. She could feel Tikki's presence poking her. However, it wasn't a prompting to cast the Miraculous cure. "Monsieur Ramier, how are you doing this?"

The man shrugged. "I have no idea, Mademoiselle. I have always managed to make my friends understand me but, after this terrible girl started causing trouble for the Dupain-Chengs, I felt the ability to guide them grow ever stronger like… like a restraining band had snapped off somehow! They respond even to my subconscious desires now!" The man rubbed the back of his head unhappily. "I must say that it isn't a welcome thing. I am quite worried what might happen if I lose control of my thoughts and feelings for any reason!"

Ladybug nodded thoughtfully. "That's not an unjustified concern! I think… Could it be possible?" Suddenly, she threw her Lucky Charm into the sky and it turned into a ball of magical light that hovered above them. Just as she always did ever since she'd gained the ability to 'reset' her Lucky Charm, she pulled out her Yo-yo, popped it open like a powder compact and caught the descending ball of light, which vanished into the Yo-yo's bottomless interior. Instead of closing the Yo-yo, Ladybug fished into the interior and pulled out something about the size of a walnut on a strong thin chain made of little linked metal balls. "Yes… I think that this is what I was looking for!"

Ladybug held up the charm necklace for a moment, considering its dark grey body and five salmon pink ladybug spots (the same colours as the primary colours of Mr Pigeon's costume). "M Ramier, please wear this charm from now on. I sense that it will help you control your powers. You won't be overcome by your emotions, rather you will decide with your mind what to do with them!" She smiled. "You have a wonderful gift sir! You deserve to bear it without fear of losing control!"

Ramier took the charm and looked at it for a moment with his nervous expression turned into a relieved smile. "I think I will do that, Mademoiselle Ladybug!" He placed the chain around his neck and tucked the charm itself out of sight under the zip of his tracksuit top. He drew in a deep breath and looked up at Enchantress again "What about her?" M Ramier's voice had regained its anger as he pointed at her. "She's nothing but trouble!"

"No, no I swear!" Enchantress's voice was high-pitched and terrified. "I swear that I've learned my lesson! I'll never to this again! I've reformed and I'm going to be a better person from now on!"

M Ramier looked at Ladybug sceptically and the heroine shook her head. "I've heard these words from her before, Monsieur and they've always been hollow and self-interested lies. I don't know if she's capable of reforming but…" Turning her gaze from Enchantress, she looked at the man standing before her and thought of how kindly and genuinely good-natured he was. "I've always thought that what Hawkmoth did with you was the worst perversion. You are a kind man, M Ramier. A kind man whose nature is defined by your love of all living things, even those things that no-one else would love. You must not let that be stained by your shedding the blood of another living creature… Even someone like her; she has no right to take that innocence from you." She reached up to the absurdly tall man and squeezed his shoulder. "Send your friends to their homes and go home yourself, sir. You achieved what you came to do, this trouble-maker's plots are defeated thanks to you and you can rest happily with that knowledge."

There was a long pause before Mr Ramier smiled and nodded in agreement. "Thank you, Mademoiselle Ladybug. You know, I think that there is not enough kindness in this world but you have always done your part to rectify that." He blew another melody on his ocarina and a mass of pigeons swirled down around him and carried him off the roof and into the sunlit sky, surrounded with swarms of flies like an escort. Ladybug waved to Ryuuko, who ended the Wind Storm spell that had created a perimeter around the rooftop and flew away.

After a few moments, the living bindings on Enchantress suddenly melted away and Ladybug looked on in wonder as the bugs all vanished into the structure of the building as if they were never there.

With a disgusted expression, Enchantress combed through her hair in an attempt to make sure it was free of bugs, all the while muttering: "Ew, ew, ew, ew…!" As soon as she was relatively assured that she was vermin-free, she looked back at ladybug, her hazel eyes fierce. "Don't see this as a victory, Dupain-Cheng! I will make your parents suffer for how you've treated…" Ladybug stepped forwards, grabbed two handfuls of the front of Enchantress's costume and slammed her back against the wall, making the Virgo Villainess make a little 'eep' sound in shock.

"I want you to think how close you came this time, Lila. I want you to think about just how easily Mr Rat could have snuffed you from existence. Then I want you to remember who made sure that didn't happen. Remember that every time you draw a breath and every time you open your eyes, Signorina Rossi. Remember that you owe that moment to me."

Enchantress's mouth opened and closed a few times in shock as she tried to find some way of denying this as a second green light on the Virgo Miraculous blinked out. She studied Ladybug's face and noted that a red pip had just filled in rather than blinked out on the colour-inverted Ladybug Earrings. Finally, she regained her poise enough. "Okay, Marinette, I'll mark that one down as a favour I owe you and I always make a point of paying my debts. After that, all bets will be off and I will carry out all the things I warned you I'd do if you insisted on being my enemy."`

Ladybug released the supervillain and stepped back, shaking her head. "Just go before I decide that the time has already come for us to finish this, Lila."

Maybe it was Ladybug's imagination, but maybe, just maybe, the look on Enchantress's face wasn't anger but a reluctant acknowledgement of an equal to whom she now owed a debt and maybe more than just one.

~*~*~

Sabine looked at the familiar grey-haired bohemian-dressed woman wearing a tricolor sash, who was looking around the shop with some interest. "Er… Madame Mayor? What… er… brings you here?" After all, of late, Anarka had to send Luka or Juleka to shop at the bakery just to avoid the visit from turning into a media circus. However, right now, she seemed to be looking to make sure that the cameras crowded around the door were recording.

"Ach, Sabine! It's so good to see this place open again! I mean, how many eateries in this town can say that it stayed open after a full-on supervillain attack? Let alone do so whilst staying clean?" This was delivered towards the press pack who all chuckled dutifully in response. "No, this place has a reputation dear! You're a symbol of Paris's ability tae bounce back no matter what! So, ah am glad to say that ah have no problem buying from here and confirm that it has a clean bill of health from th' city!"

There was a smattering of applause. "Thanks Anarka, we owe you for this," Sabine murmured.

Anarka took a bite of the fruit macaron that she'd just been given and her eyes lit up with appreciation at the taste. "Give meh a twenty-five percent discount fer life and we'll call it evens."

Sabine raised a perfectly-sculpted eyebrow. "Fifteen percent."

Away from the two haggling adults, Marinette smiled at Luka and Juleka who had both edged over closer to her. "All's well that ends well?" Luka asked.

Marinette frowned slightly. "No… I think that we're just at a pause where all sides are ready to leave things as they are for now."

~*~*~

Felix stood at the entrance to his and Lila's bathroom as his girlfriend/partner in crime showered for the third time (not that he could blame her; just hearing about what she'd gone through made him itch all over). "So, grandfather wants us to prepare to return to England. We leave as early as possible tomorrow morning."

"I couldn't agree more!" Lila responded from inside the shower. "I hate this city and can't wait to see the back of it! Frankly, Ladybug is welcome to it and all its freaks of nature!"

Felix chuckled; that was certainly how he felt about Paris sometimes. "We haven't given up, though. Grandfather never does. However, he wants to have a better plan the next time he tries to gain the Prodigious. Until then, he wants this city's heroes to be lulled into complacency by our absence."

The shower room door opened and Lila, being Lila, gave her lover a show as she towelled herself off in his full view. "Oh, I know; your grandfather is really a man after my own heart. He knows what he wants and he does whatever he must to get it!" Now with towels wrapped around her body and hair, Lila sauntered over to Felix and leaned into his possessive hug. She smiled evilly. "Of course, the sooner that he has what he wants, the sooner we can make our plans for when we 'inherit' it from him, right my darling?"

Felix smiled. "Oh, of course!" If you think that I'm helping you betray my family and that you'll have any part of grandfather's legacy, you're more short-sighted than Adrien! Suspecting that Lila was also thinking of ways to turn 'we' into 'I', he leaned down to meet Lila's mouth with his own and the two supervillains exchanged a hungry and demanding kiss.

To one side, Kastorr, Poluux and Spiica watched their holders with the dispassion only possible for beings that didn't really feel emotions the way humans do. "Do you think that they'll ever learn?" Kastorr asked.

Spiica chuckled. "They'll figure out just how few options selfishness and long-planned betrayal leave you eventually." The grey fox Kwami stroked her chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if they'll survive learning it?"

Chapter Text

Rhythm Ntumbe adjusted the shoulder-straps of her Chat Noir backpack glumly as her mother’s car pulled up to the curb outside Elementaire Jussienne in the 1st Arrondissement. The dreadlocked Congolese girl barely noticed her mother's kiss of farewell. She’d only started in Elementaire last summer and she was still getting used to being away from her family for seven hours a day around bands of strangers, most of them (and not just the other school-kids) not being particularly nice to her. Missing her Kuro Neko so hard that it hurt at first didn't help; nor did her peers' teasing 'kitty girl' that made her afraid to bring her backpack or wear her kitty-eared hoodie for a while.

"Hey Rhythm!" The girl looked up with a sudden happy grin. Of late, of course, she had started to have a better time with one girl in particular: Her pig-tailed and buck-toothed best friend Manon Chamak (although if anyone else mentioned her overbite, they were in for a beating and not just from Rhythm!). 

"Manon!" The two girls hugged excitedly and, hand-in-hand, were instantly tugged into a whirl of play and light thoughts. Suddenly, Rhythm pointed excitedly. "Manon! Lookit! Chris! Ella! Etta!"

Indeed, escorted by their older siblings, there were Rhythm and Manon's three best friends. Almost instantly, the three of them broke away and ran over to their friends, their voices blending together in excited greetings. "Go on, have a good time with your friends!" Alya murmured in an ironic tone at being instantly forgotten by her twin terror little sisters. 

Nino, meanwhile, was watching his kid brother being sucked into the whirl of the four six-year-old girls, all chattering to him excitedly. "You know, in five years' time, Chris is going to wonder how he became 'one of the girls'!" 

Alya snorted. "Yeah, because he has no precedent for a guy who is part of a group of really assertive ladies, right?" Nino blushed as he thought of all the times he'd been caught in the middle of the vortex of Marinette and her 'girl squad', all babbling about makeup and fashion. 

"Yeah, and I guess five years further on from that and they'll be quietly debating about who gets to be the lucky one!" Alya looked at her boyfriend in surprise. Deciding to change topics, he put his arm around Alya's shoulders and drew her against his side. "C'mon, Angel. Let's head out!" Suddenly, he noticed a familiar green shape hovering tight by his neck and watching the kids closely. "Wayzz? Dude? What's up?"

"I'm sensing something amiss, Nino. I have a feeling that the youngsters may be at risk." The Spirit of Protection frowned. "There is nothing immediate at the moment but I think we should be alert."

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat.php?subthread=ROTAS

Status: PRIVATE/INVITIATION ONLY

User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Just a heads up, guys: 

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Wayzz's bad juju sense triggered at Elementaire Jussienne this morning

@BugBoss: Jussienne? Where Manon goes? 

@FoxyBabe: Our baby sibs too, Mari

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Me and Foxy transformed and did a quick circuit of the school area

@FoxyBabe: No sign of #Janus, #Enchantress or any of the other villains but it wouldn't be the first time a new villain appeared out of nowhere with no warning

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Yeah, no-one is forgetting that crazy #Nightshade chick any time soon.

@BugBoss: Of all the filthy luck!

@BugBoss: This *had* to happen the day when I *have* to be at House of Harmony to present the spring collection 'on behalf of MDC'!

@Cool4Catz: I could ask @EmilieGdV to excuse you

@BugBoss: No, Chaton; it's taken me and Sweet Honey too long to get a day off from school for this

@TrueQueen: *And* it's too big and important to miss, Hot'n'Red – Don't forget that!

@Manyanimalgirl: Don't worry, Ladybug; I'm free today! 

@Manyanimalgirl: I'll make sure that I stay in that general area this morning

@BugBoss: Thanks, Ladydragon; you're a life-saver!

"Good morning children."

"Good morning Mlle Dusenne! Good morning everyone!" If the nondescript but pleasant new black-haired teacher of class 1C at Elementaire Jussienne noticed her pupils' rolling eyes at the ritual morning greeting she didn't mention it. Instead she focussed on making sure that her excitable and fidgety charges were sitting in the prescribed semi-circle around her desk and on calling the roll.

"Now we're all settled, I want to tell you how proud I've been of you for how attentive you've been as we've been learning numbers and letters.” Manon smirked a little. Of course she'd be good at letters after watching her mother proof-read her broadcast scripts for as long as she'd been consciously aware of the work she did. "Now, the most important part of this is for me to know just how well you really are doing. So, we're going to do something called a 'test', okay?" To say that the youngsters were dumbfounded was an understatement. It is just possible that they might know what a test was. There were rules about skill and knowledge assessment for Elementaire pupils but this approach wasn't in harmony with them. "I'm going to ask some questions and you'll all write down what you think are the answers, okay? Manon, can you pass out the writing paper and pencils to everyone please?"

To describe what followed as a 'nightmare' was something of an understatement. A group of 6-year-olds taking standardised academic tests? It was always bound to end in tears and did so, literally in a few cases. Mlle Dusenne finally dismissed the class for their mandated mid-morning break to think in a panicked way of how to salvage her great idea in the afternoon session.

“Ugh! That was so boooring!” Etta complained, “What was that supposed to be anyway?”

“Yeah! Now I know why Alya always complains about school!” Ella agreed. The Cesaire Twins were both lying on their back in the grassy recess yard outside the school. The twins had their arms and legs sticking rigidly up into the air like they were dead cartoon animals. 

“It isn’t fair!” Chris had his arms crossed aggressively and was glaring at nothing in particular. “What did she mean by keep on telling me it was wrong? 

“Chris is right!” Rhythm snapped. She’d had by far the worst time of the five friends and had burst into tears when she realised that she’d got the worst score for numbers in the class. Mama was going to be so mad! Manon was sitting beside her and clumsily trying to comfort her friend. “Mama said that school was fun! Well, this is not fair and I’m going to pay them all back!” The girl leapt to her feet and stomped away, sniffling with renewed distress.

Manon stood up to follow her. She didn’t really remember the evil spirit called Puppeteer but she had the occasional formless nightmare that had her sobbing into her mother’s embrace. She knew that getting mad was a bad idea. That meanie Hawkmoth might be gone but she just had such a bad feeling about Rhythm getting so mad like that!

Rhythm was quite shocked when she saw the blue-and-white rat sitting on the lip of the waste bin and it talked to her. “Hello, little one!” it said. “My… You seem angry! Whatever is the matter?”

Rhythm’s breath caught in her throat. “Um… I… Mama told me never to talk to strangers?”

The rat grinned toothily and seemed to grow a little in the little girl’s gaze. “I’m not a stranger, am I? I’m sure that your mother never told you not to talk to Renlings!” Rhythm mentally tasted the word ‘Renling’ in her mind, not understanding it beyond a feeling that this is what the strange creature was. “Anyway, we were discussing what left you so upset!”

For some reason, Rhythm felt able to talk. “It’s all that stupid teacher’s fault!” she snapped. “School is supposed to fun but she made it boring! Worse, she’s being mean to me!”

“Oh dear!” the Renling responded with seemingly-genuine sympathy. “Yes, I agree, learning and the order of classes are no fun at all!” The creature leaned forwards. “My name is Rattus, by the way. Let me make a suggestion: I can help you make school fun again. All you need to do is to pick up the Prodigious Gem at your feet…”

“Pr… Prodig-ee?” Rhythm looked down and saw that there was a gemstone lying in the grass at her feet, blood red, shining from within with an unnatural radiance and seeming to burn even though she wasn’t touching it. “Pick it up?” Rattus nodded with a broad, smug smile. The girl leaned down to touch the pretty object.

Manon was racing towards her friend as fast as she could but she knew she was too late; her mind filled with the sight of a black-and-ultraviolet butterfly settling on her, not once but twice. “Rhythm! No! It’s bad magic!” The six-year-old pigtailed girl was blown back by a wave of red light and heat. She didn’t feel burned like that one dumb time she’d touched the side of Mme Cheng’s teapot but there was a physical force to it.

Rhythm was now wearing a red hoodie that had rat-like ears rather than cat ears on the hood and was hovering mid-air with the red gem seemingly chained across her chest with links of fire. “Come on everyone!” the girl shouted out. “No more dumb rules and dumb adults telling us what to do! Let’s have fun!”

Oh, naughty words! Manon responded silently as a maniacally-grinning Rhythmn rose into the air on a platform of rippling hot air.

~*~*~

“My lady Renren! The time has come!” 

Ladydragon had been carrying out callisthenics of her own invention; a mix of tai-chi, kung-fu and a half-dozen other physical disciplines when Mei-Shi materialised and practically rammed into her face. “Mei-Shi, what on Earth…?

The Guardian Spirit grabbed the Shanghai girl’s nose and yanked her face around. Ladydragon grimaced in pain but then she saw the point. The Elementare, the school that she’d promised Marinette that she’d protect today, was now surrounded by a dome of fiery light and the skies immediately overhead had darkened. “Yeah, that looks bad; time to get to work, huh?” The young woman rose to her full height. “Ying-Ying!” There was a flash of fire and a red-and-gold eagle soared into the air.

~*~*~

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! This is a breaking story, ladies and gentlemen. TV1 has just received reports that Paris is facing a new akuma attack. The details are sketchy but it seems that some kind of wall of fire has formed around Elementaire JuJussienne in the First Arr… Wait… Elementaire Jussienne? Oh… Oh my god! Manon! Manon goes there! My little girl! 

“Ladybug, if you’re listening, please! Please save my little girl!”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat.php?SUBTHREAD:TacticalAnalysis

Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY

User: [email protected] (@Manyanimalgirl) - Voice2Text

@Manyanimalgirl: Looks like Carapace’s kwami was right. 

@Manyanimalgirl: On-site at Elementaire Jussiene now. 

@Manyarmimagirl; This dome looks like fire but there is physical quality to it as if it is being sustained as a barrier

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, me and Cap are coming to help, Ladydragon

@NotARennaisanceArtist: Don’t try anything until we get there!

It wasn't in any way in Ladydragon's nature to be deliberately disobedient to her cousin's team-mates. It's just that she felt that she had to get in there now before the Rat Renling of Chaos could escape again (something which it was seemingly better at than the other one she'd seen). Besides, the children were in danger; what was convenient for her came second in her list of priorities. With her honour in her heart she declared "Ma-Ma!"

There was a flash of mystical fire and a golden-maned red horse materialised and charged full speed at the fiery shield around the school.

"You okay, Dudette?" Carapace asked. He'd just landed after jumping down from a roof and was looking down at the Champion of Shanghai where she lay in a small crater in a grassy verge of the road.

"My pride is hurt most," a singed Ladydragon groaned from where the whirling tide of fire had thrown her a few moments ago.

Rena would normally have laughed but her sisters were in there. "Brute force isn't going to work here! Should I call for Ladybug? It's an emergency!"

Carapace shook his head. "Let's not hit the alert button unless we have to Angel." He raised his shield. "Terrapunch!" That didn't work and Ladydragon wasn't surprised to see it. The wall of fire looked solid but her intuition told her that it was more akin to liquid than anything solid.

As the other two heroes put their heads together to think of a next move, Ladydragon dropped into a lotus pose and tried to meditate. Wu Shifu had always taught her that she should seek to know a foe or an obstacle before she tried to force her way past it. To her shame, it was a lesson she was only now learning after too many years of frustration due to her impetuosity and her need to do things now. There was no obvious way to extinguish the fire and, in all likelihood, water or a chemical fire retardant simply would not work due to its magical nature. Sheer physical force would not work either.

Slow and steady wins the race; the slow blade penetrates deeper, the young woman realised. She'd not felt much heat really when she'd charged the wall in her horse form. It was only when it repelled her that the fire started to affect her and even then only weakly. She looked up and knew the way past this test. "Tang-Tang!" Rena and Carapace looked over just in time to see Ladydragon transform into a red and black viper with gold highlights on its scales.

"Dudette! Wait!" Carapace called out but the serpent was already slithering towards the dome of fire. Much to the two Parisian heroes' shock, the snake easily slid under the edge of the dome.

The Fox heroine slapped her forehead. "Of course! There's no fire at the bottom; the asphalt isn't melting and the weeds aren't singed!"

"Okay, let's do this, Angel!" Carapace declared, grabbing his girlfriend and lifting her into his arms before somehow getting out his shield and holding it over his head. "Shell-Ter!" The two heroes were surrounded in a hexagonal green shield bubble and, slowly, Carapace began to walk it like a giant hamster ball over towards the fiery dome over the school where their younger siblings were trapped.

~*~*~

A six-year-old's idea of 'chaos' is necessarily primitive. They are too young to have spent hours meditating on the philosophical nature of the universe and its natural forces. The fact that 'chaos' is not 'evil' but simply 'randomness and disorder' mostly wouldn't occur to them. For this reason, Manon Chamack was genuinely puzzled at the lack of mass destruction and horror as she sipped a glass of the warm chocolate milk that was raining in various spots of the recess yard from pink clouds that looked suspiciously like cotton candy.

The area inside the fire dome was… Well, the laws of physics were on holiday and it showed. Even the concepts of 'up and down' were inconsistent and Manon could see other children playing on a flying climbing frame or hop-scotch on clouds. A few were even sitting or standing in chaotically-decorated rooms that had materialised with floors at a right angle to the ground as if gravity just wasn't an issue at the moment. What was disturbing was the teachers, currently dressed as dancing clowns, running around in circles around Rhythm, who was conducting a silent melody, every gesture making a part of the fantastical landscape around her change again. All except Mlle Dusenne, who had been transformed into a stone statue with a hastily-scrawled finger-painting across her abdomen reading "I'm a mean poopy-head! Throw stuff at me!"

Manon was scared but she was holding it as best as she could. She was scared that she might fall victim to Rhythm's magical madness the way Ella and Etta had, now stuck on the swings, which were going all the way around their frame at high speed. Rhythm wasn't cruel like this normally but there was something about that red gem that was empowering her worst impulses like an akuma would!

Quietly, and desperately trying to avoid catching Rhythm's attention, she snuck away towards the edge of the chaotic zone. There she fell to her knees. "I'm scared!" she whispered. "This is wrong! It needs to be fixed! I wish someone were here to help me."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, young lady!" Manon looked dumbly at the glowing white gemstone and the blue miniature owl with white face and wingtips. "Rattus is a remarkably powerful believer in free spirits but he is so very, very theatrical!"

Manon continued to gawp at the owl spirit before finally asking the one question that was in her head. "Are you good magic or bad magic?"

The owl laughed. "My dear child, there is no 'good' or 'bad' with magic, only magic. It is what you wish it to do that decides its moral flavour." Manon got maybe one word in three of that. "I am Noctua, the Renling of Order and Light. I can see your thoughts and I can see that you are afraid of what is happening with your friend. Although you are not my Renren, I can still help you to protect your friends and stop that girl from hurting anyone."

As if in a dream, Manon found herself reaching out for the glowing pearlescent oval stone…

~*~*~

"Wayzz, shell on!" With an emerald green lightshow, Nino transformed back into Carapace but Rena wasn't watching. She instead watched as the second segment of the Fox Miraculous filled in and the third began to flash orange. This was identical to the 'cooldown' lightshow when she used Bluff but she'd used Mirage to protect them both from detection whilst Nino recharged Wayzz! She'd been aware that this happened with Ladybug when she used Lucky Charm these days and Chat Noir with Cataclysm but she'd sort of thought it was because they were special. The fact that her body was getting so used to the Fox's magic that it was putting less a load on her life-force…? Well, she wasn't sure what to think. Experience or Guardian training? she wondered. Gonna have to talk to Mast… Mari about this tonight.

Anyway, now wasn't the time. She had to find her kid sisters and save them!

Oh, and Chris who, although he was a brat, she was getting used to too.

At that point, there was a terrible scream. Rena and Carapace looked up beyond the rainbow canopy of what, lacking any other description, they'd have to think of as 'ringing bell trees' to see three children tumbling towards the ground along with a climbing frame.

Rhythm had been having the time of her life! Everything was so happy and fun! She had no worries and no rules! Every time she so much as moved the world around her changed into a new weird and amazing form!

However, it is in the nature of chaos to be unpredictable to the human mind. If the magic could change the world, it could also un-change it without warning or conscious intent. Rhythm was too young to understand that. So, her mouth dropped open in horror when, in response to her gesture, the floating jungle gym was no longer floating and plunging towards the ground. Her mind froze and there was no useful thought there for a long moment. Instead, she could only look on in amazement as there was a sudden burst of fire in the grass and a red-and-gold giant eagle soared out and into the sky, catching each of the three falling children with ease as the gym frame crashed into the ground, scattering several kids.

"Sorry…!" she squeaked. "I… I didn't meant to… I… don't know how I…"

"Rhythm!" Rattus hissed. "That's the other Renren! Keep her back or she'll take me away!"

The six-year old girl's mind whirled in confusion. Almost on reflex, she gestured towards the eagle and a stream of fire like a  gigantic javelin materialised and shot towards her only to impact on a… was that some kind of gemstone? Or was it nothing but a sheet of pure light? Either way, the fire struck the barrier and burst apart like a super-soaker's jet against a rock.

That is when Rhythm suddenly found herself in the middle of a hexagonal-patterned green sphere. With a squeak of shock, the girl fell on her backside as the force bubble dropped to the yard's asphalt with a noise like a drinking glass being set down on a hard surface. Rhythm flopped a bit and banged her head on the Shell-ter bubble. "OW!"

Rhythm may not have been consciously able to use the magic Rattus had given her but her hind-brain was able to react to her fear and disorientation. Bursts of fire suddenly radiated out in all directions, corkscrewing through the air towards every figure around her. "What… NO! DON'T HURT THEM!" Rhythm screamed.

Fortunately, someone appeared to be listening and more of the panes of light/glass/crystal materialised out of nowhere, each deflecting a fire blast. Rhythm wasn't in the right mind-set to be grateful however. Instead, she turned to Rattus, who was hovering over her as she lay at the bottom of the Shell-ter bubble. "Why are you doing this?" she shrieked. "Why are you trying to make me hurt people?"

Rattus made a stuttering noise. He didn't think in human terms of cause-and-effect and certainly didn't understand a human's perspective of ethics. He was aware of only two needs: To spread chaos and to find his Renren! How could he explain that, to him, random and inexplicable events were the way things should be? How could he explain that there was no 'why' to his actions, just pure chaos? "Rhythm… I… This is what you want isn't it? For everything to be fun? For there to be random wonder and delight?"

The girl hunched over, clutching her head as if it was about to burst open. "No! No it isn't! I don't want to hurt people or scare people! It's wrong and it needs to stop! It needs to stop!"

Far closer to Rhythm than she might imagine, Manon wiped the tears from her eyes that were triggered at seeing her friend's terror and pain. She had to stop this and make things okay again and, thanks to the head-chain, centred on the Noctua's gem, which was touching the bridge of her nose, she knew how to do that. She drew in her breath and focused on the crystalline purity of her new owl friend's nature, the thing he referred to as Order, and she raised her hands.

The three superheroes looked around themselves in astonishment as more of the planes of silvery glass or just solidified light materialised and silently drifted across the transformed landscape, passing over objects and people and, as they did so, reverting them back to normal. Children who had been soaring on thin air, hop-scotching on clouds or even having a tea party in a room hanging sideways in mid-air all dropped lightly onto horizontal panels of light and were slowly lowered to the ground, looking around themselves in wonder.

"I'm sorry Rhythm." Rhythm's eyes turned from her astonished witnessing of these amazing events to look at Rattus, who was looking down, not willing to meet her eyes. "I never intended to cause you pain and hurt but I understand now that, because you're not my Renren, you can't really understand or properly harness my Chaos." The rat spirit looked up at the girl again. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly the fiery chains were gone as was Rhythm's altered clothing, the dome of fire and the red gemstone, its brilliance dimmed, dropped into the rat-spirit's paws.

"That's the Prodigious of Chaos!" Ladydragon jogged over towards the Shell-ter bubble. "Carapace, get ready to dispel your bubble but only when I'm ready to grab it!" The Keeper of the Prodigious of Spirit positioned herself, ready to try to grab Rattus. The Renling of Chaos glared up at her.

"Lynx likes saying that you're not his Renren and you're not mine either!" he spat. Suddenly, he was a ball of fire and it suddenly shot up into the sky and out of view.

"D… Dude! Nothing can penetrate a Shell-ter!" Carapace protested.

"It's chaos, honey," Rena responded. "Pure, elemental chaos; it doesn't follow anyone's rules."

The Shell-ter bubble vanished and Rhythm suddenly found herself in Rena Rouge's arms. "It's okay kiddo," she whislered.

"I'm sorry!" Rhythm wailed, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The girl was covering her head and trying to roll up in as small as a ball as she could. "Ev'ryone's gon' hate me! You must hate me!"

At that point, she suddenly found herself in Manon's arms. "It's okay, Rhythm. We know you didn't mean it. It's just the bad magic but you made it go away!" Rhythm buried herself into her friend's arms and the two girls tears seemed to blend together. Ella, Etta and even Chris rushed over too and threw themselves into the group hug, all more worried about Rhythm's safety rather than what she'd done to them under the influence of the Prodigious.

No-one noticed the new bracelet that Manon wore on her left wrist, a chain of nearly-transparent crystal holding a pearlescent gem that dangled from it.

~*~*~

"I want that girl expelled! Mlle Dusenne slurred as she was helped to her feet by Carapace and Ladydragon (the former's Miraculous chirping it's three minute warning). Oddly enough, the painted message to throw stuff at her was still there on her white blouse, possibly because it was mundane in origin. "She assaulted me! She disrupted the lesson this morning and her academics were well below minimum standards!"

Ladydragon's grip on the woman's arm grew slightly painful. "She's a child! She was reacting to powerful magic that is known to corrupt adult thinking. If you victimise her because of this…"

"I'd like to know why you think that Mlle Ntumbe's academics are poor, Noemie," asked a man, the principal, Carapace guessed.

The woman paled. "She struggled on several modules of the standardised tests…"

"The tests? There are no standardised tests at this level, at least not in the older sense of the word. What were you trying to do today?"

Carapace decided that the woman had enough bad luck for the day. He made a gesture to Ladydragon which a tilt of his head and the two superheroes slipped away.

~*~*~

"Oh, Kuro Neko, I've messed up so bad!" Rhythm sighed mournfully as she stroked her black kitten on the balcony of their apartment. Naturally, the feline knew little of what her Human was saying, reacting only to the pleasure from her caresses with a deep, throaty purr. "There was this rat-thing there. Yeah, I know, rats are only for chasing but… It offered stuff. It was so good and it made me feel good and…" The girl sniffled and rubbed her damp cheeks.

The cat wondered why her Human had stopped the required tribute of caresses and nudged her hand with an impatient 'Nya!' noise, making Rhythm giggle.

"So, I hear that you ran into some purr-oblems today, little kitty friend!"

Rhythm looked up, her mouth hanging open in astonishment as she looked up into a pair of shining green eyes on a kindly smiling face, all of which surmounted a familiar shape in black, grey and green with little decorative chains decorating his shoulders. "Ch… Chat Noir?" Could this really be happening? Could her very most favourite superhero in the world be here on her balcony?

Kuro Neko only knew that this newcomer exuded an undeniable friendly cat-ness and stood up, circling his legs with her tail raised in greeting.

"Carapace was telling me all about what happened at school today, little kitty friend. I'm sorry that M'lady and I were otherwise engaged and couldn't help."

Rhythm blushed and looked down shyly. "S'okay," she whispered. "You probably got lots of real important stuff to do; more important than…"

Chat Noir touched her lips. "Hush, ma petite. Do you know what the first rule of being a superhero is? There is no 'more important' when someone is in need and that's why I'm here." He dropped down into a cross-legged position, sitting very close to Rhythm whose eyes would probably have dropped out of their sockets if she'd opened them any wider. Kuro Neko daintily stepped into Chat lap and began to knead her new perch to make it the ideal sleeping spot. "Oh, me-owch. I've never been so glad that my suit is armoured!" Rhythm giggled at that wisecrack.

Chat shook his head and looked at the girl again. "Rhythm, do you know what I've learned about magic in this… Oh, it must be nearly a year and a half now…?" The girl shook her head. "I've learned that you cannot control magic but it can't really control you. There is a flow to its power but you can ride it like a surfboard or sled and you can even change direction if you really want to. The trick is to know what direction that you want it to take you to."

"But it made me hurt people!"

"And you stopped it when you realised it was happening. You weren't ready when the power came and it pulled you along but you were still able to change course when you needed to." Chat Noir sighed and leaned back, stroking the purring Kuro Neko for a moment. "The very first time I became Chat Noir, I was overwhelmed by the power and played the fool; nearly got hurt a few times because I was so eager to use that power. M'lady had a similar problem, so overwhelmed by the power and its potential that she barely knew what to do or even have the confidence to do it." Chat shot the girl a smile. "We got better, but it took time. The key was that we knew in our hearts what we wanted to do." The Black Cat superhero reached out to cup Rhythm's cheek with his hand. "Carapace told me how you did that too."

Rhythm's brain jumped in the predictable way for a child. "You think that I could be a superhero too?" she asked in an excited gasp, beaming in delight.

Chat laughed. "Maybe ma petite but that's not the point. The point is that you have showed yourself that you have the spirit of a hero – superpowers or not – and that is a very good thing for you to have and for you to treasure."

There was a long pause and Rhythm looked down for a long moment before looking up. "Rattus didn't really mean it either," she rushed out breathlessly. "He was sorry. I could tell that he was scared and alone; he was looking for something or someone and didn't know how to find them!"

Chat smiled. "We… Ladybug and I… we know. He's one of several lost beings right now, looking for the person who should care for them. Maybe even they don't know that they're out there yet. We're trying to find that person and find all those little lost spirits and are trying to help them. It says good things about you that you're worried about him after such a bad experience!"

Chat picked up Kuro Neko and placed her in her mistress's arms and stood up again. "I'm not going to say that everything's going to be okay tomorrow… or next week… but you're not a bad person, Rhythm. You were overwhelmed by power and a new experience but you made the right choices when you realised what was happening. You're making the same choices now. I'm sure that, if you keep doing so, you'll continue to make me proud."

With a metallic 'click', Chat extended his staff and rode it into the sky like it was a huge magical pogo-stick. Rhythm stroked the purring Kuro Neko, her face seemingly alight with wonder as she watched the Black Hat Hero vanish into the distance. "Oh wow! He's proud of me Kuro Neko! Chat Noir knows my name and he's proud of me!"

"Mow."

It might have been the girl's imagination but the black cat seemed to be looking at her in a cynical way. "Yeah, I know he mostly said that to make me feel better. I just wanna sit back and let that make me feel good for a while, is that okay?"

"Purrr-chkt!" Kuro Neko butted her mistress's face and caressed her cheek with her own, making the girl giggle and focus entirely on her little furry friend.

~*~*~

"I'm glad that you're okay, Manon." Ladybug stood back from the hug she'd given to the girl she still babysat on occasion (not that the Chamacks knew that). "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you because I was out of touch with the news but I want you to know that I would never stop if I knew that you were in a danger." There was a Thwip-Whiz noise as Ladybug cast her yo-yo and let it carry her off of the front step of the girl's apartment complex, leaving Manon and her slack-jawed mother behind.

"Okay, since when does Ladybug do house visits?" Nadja muttered to herself in wonder, tucking away her 'phone and deciding that the footage was insufficiently newsworthy (as well as too personal, although she didn't know why she felt that way) to share with her station. "Come on, munchkin; let's get back to the apartment."

Sometime later, Manon was in her darkened bedroom, looking at the faintly-street-lit night sky outside of her window. "Noctua?"

Manon's bracelet lit up with white light and the blue-and-white owl spirit materialised hovering over Maon's head. "I'd say 'You should be in bed young lady' but your mother already has and you are!"

Manon giggled. "Yeah, I was just thinking. You're the Renling of Order, right?" Noctua nodded. "What does that mean?"

Noctua paused. "Order is the natural pattern of the universe. Things happen in a certain way at a certain time and place." The Renling paused again before continuing, seemingly a little reluctantly. "The problem is that too much order is as bad as too much chaos. Too much order means too little change. The Renling pointed out of the window to the half-moon peeking down on Paris. "The Moon is a perfectly orderly world. It is a still place of solid rock with no earthquakes, no lapping oceans, no wind and no life. On the other hand, there is a planet in your system… Jupiter I think that you call it… that's nearly pure chaos: Vast whirling storms and flashing lightning the size of cities and no solid surface until you are half way to its centre and then it is a strange, alien metal unlike anything you've ever encountered but still… no life. Order and Chaos only work properly when they're in balance."

Manon picked her lip for a moment as her six-year-old mind tried hard to visualise what the Renling was telling her. "So the problem Rattus caused was 'cause… he was acting alone?"

Noctua nodded. "Correct, Manon. It is only in balance, not just with me but also the other six Renlings of the Prodigious of Virtue that his powers can be used in a way that does not cause unintended harm."

The girl nodded again. "Noctua? You sound smart. How much do you know?"

The Renling laughed. "Know? Maybe less than you think, my dear child. Still, I can tell you much about the orderly things of this plane."

Manon nodded thoughtfully. "Noctua… I wanna know everything."

Noctua gave the girl a cynical look. "I'm not sure if you could understand that, even if I knew it. However… Maybe I can tell you a story." Much to Manon's wonder, several of the faintly glowing glassy planes she'd seen before materialised around her and began to fill in with paintings like she saw in her book of fairy tales. "Although we Renlings have been dormant ever since the Founding Grandmaster created us, we have been aware of events around us on a certain level, so I can tell you some stories of things that happened in the past few millennia. This one, I think that you will enjoy: Hundreds of years ago, actually not too far from where you are now, there was a girl named Jeanne and boy named Gilbert. This is how they met and how they redeemed their Miraculous by their choices."

Manon restrained her urge to stick out her tongue in disgust. "Is this gonna be a sappy love story?"

Noctua laughed. "No, it's going to be an adventure with magic, brave knights in shining armour and even dragons!"

"Cool!"

~*~*~

Fei slumped to the floor of Marinette's rooftop garden. "It's no good, Mei-Shi. I just can't get a grip on one of these Renlings! I get close and they escape!"

"And they do so sometimes in a way that you find painful, my dear Renren." The indigo lion spirit shook his head unhappily before settling into his charge's lap. "I too am sorry. I was so excited when I felt these new Renlings that I rushed into this without thinking enough about what happened when we found them."

"Hey, guys," Hero and guardian spirit looked up from their morose introspection to see a grinning Adrien Agreste climbing up through the roof hatch. "What's with all the downcast long faces? The good guys won this one!"

Marinette followed Adrien up onto the roof and briefly fit herself under his arm in a comfortable way that Fei couldn’t help but feel a little jealous about. "I'm no closer to recovering any of the Prodigious, Adrien, Marinette. I'm failing and the possibility of someone being hurt is just getting greater and greater!"

Marinette frowned slightly and the world went briefly out of focus as she heard the whisper of the voice of Mingzhede Xiangdao, "Well, maybe you need to try new ways to do it. You might not be able to grab those gems because the Renglings fighting back but… maybe you can persuade the Renlings to cooperate?" The noirette in pink and white was quiet for a moment as her cousin and the Guardian Spirit processed this. "In any case, the trick is the setting that would let us permanently store them. Mei-Shi, have you tried to find it?"

Mei-Shi seemed flabbergasted. "Madame Guardian, it could be anything and anywhere in Paris!"

Marinette frowned. "You could sense it, if it were nearby?" The lion spirit nodded. "Well then, I think that the time has come for you to start looking, don't you?"

Adrien put his arm over his girlfriend's shoulders. "So long as you have M'lady on hand, you're never without a plan! Have I mentioned recently that I love that about you Marinette?" He dropped a kiss onto her cheek. The shorter girl blushed brightly but didn't protest at that compliment.

Chapter Text

The room was… suitably atmospheric, Nightshade decided. Having been a TV news presenter, it was a reflex for her to make the appearances of her plans “entertaining” or at least in some way manipulative of someone’s subconscious reaction. So, the darkness (necessary for the brewing of this particular potion) and the smoky atmosphere (every reference she could find insisted that it had to be brewed over a plane-wood fire) really brought out the “evil witch’s lair” in her workroom. 

Nightshade picked up her silver ladle (another one of these damn ritual necessities that no-one seemed willing or able to explain in the texts), stirred the potion anticlockwise thirteen times and then served it, tipping the bubbling red liquid into a pewter bottle. She then put in a simple cork. A part of her wished that she had one with a skull-shaped stopper just for visual effect but that would be silly. It wasn’t as if anyone apart from her was going to see this thing!

“I’ve waited long enough; if the local Lightbearers were going to arrest me for my attack on the Inauguration Banquet, they would have done so. So! It’s time for my second shot!” The dark witch looked at the now-sealed bottle with an evil smirk. “The champions of your city aren’t invulnerable, my dear people of Paris. How will you react when they fall? That will be the price you have to pay for angering Nightshade!”

~*~*~

“Don’t be bemused, it’s only the news!

“Bad news out of the camp where the young competitors for the Anglo-French Youth Friendship Games are engaging in their final training: A mystery illness has broken out, leaving many of them suffering from intense muscular pain and unlikely to be well in time for the start of competition next Monday.

“Competition managers have apparently been caught unawares but claim that they have enough reserve qualifiers available to ensure that France will still be able to put up their best athletes against the best of British youth.”

~*~*~

On a street corner, a tall boy with blond-and-black hair was leaning against a lamppost in a casual way as a young woman with a tight cap of red hair walked hurriedly up to him, clearly quite agitated. “Kim, does this letter say what I think it says?” Ondine Sirene stuck a slightly-crumpled bit of paper into her boyfriend’s face in a stiff-armed way that made Le Chien Kim think that, just maybe, she was a little afraid of his answer.

The tall Vietnamese boy gently prised open his girlfriend’s tightly-clutched fingers so he could look at the official-looking letter. “Okay, ‘Dear Mlle Sierene… Blah-blah’, lots of Max words about the outbreak of whatever it is at the Stade Sebastien Charlety. Wait, here we go. ‘Your excellent performance at the qualifying trials in Paris caught the attention of our judges and only concerns about long-term alteration to your physicality due to the so-called ‘Syren’ incident led to your disqualification. We are therefore pleased to inform you that you have now been called to represent the youth of France in the Anglo-French Youth Friendship Games. Whilst we apologise for the short notice…’” Kim turned to his girlfriend with a big grin. “Looks like you’ve just had your entry to the big leagues, babe!”

Ondine leapt onto her boyfriend’s arms with a squeal that doubtless had stunned bats tumbling from the air in parts of Paris. 

“Now, I wonder what that’s about?” Kim and Ondine both looked over to see the grinning face of Alix Kubdel as the girl swaggered over to them. “Could it be that the lady has had some good news?” The shorter redheaded girl stuck her hand out with a letter to Kim. “Your dad wanted me to give this to you, Kim; seems you rushed out quick this morning to see if any of the mail was for you.”

Kim looked at the letter strangely as Ondine clutched his arm with a slightly-quieter squeak. “Kim! That’s the same letter I got!” 

“Me too,” Alix added. “Seems that we did better at the qualification trials than we thought, huh?”

Kim had a reputation for being easy-going to the point of being a bit lackadaisical. However, seeing the call-up letter seemed to affect something in him and he began to frantically jog in place. “We got to make sure we’re in shape, girls! Come on! No time to lose!”

Alix reached out and pressed Kim’s nose and it was like she really had pressed a power button from the way he fell still. “Kim, seriously, I have never known you to be anything other than fit. So, what we’re going to do is take the Metro calmly to the training camp, sign in and follow the fitness regime provided by the professional coaches.”

“Hah! I can beat the Metro to that place! It’s only on the other side of the river! Race you there, Kubdel! On your mar… er…?” 

Ondine was giving her boyfriend a look that he’d already learned to understand and fear: Don’t you dare, mister! “Kim, you are not going to run yourself into exhaustion before the competition even begins!” 

Alix probably made the blow easier to bear by not laughing at her friend. “Come on, all-conquering champ. You’ve time enough to set personal bests when you’re actually at the pool!”

~*~*~

Roger Raincomprix frowned. He didn’t like magic, superpowers or anything else that shifted the ground of possible and impossible in law enforcement so, in some ways, the fact that this attack appeared to be so anomalous added insult to injury. He held up the small branch with long dagger-shaped leaves and a cluster of void-black berries. “So, doc, is this what I think it is?”

The small CSI specialist nodded. “Atropia Belladonna, the Deadly Nightshade. However, I don’t see why it would be here! Whatever was used on the camp’s water supply was not derived from this chemical in any way.”

“It’s sending a message, Doc. This isn’t a how but a who. That crazy witch with a beef with the mayor is behind this.”

Leaving the evidence with the CSI to bag-and-tag (although he had little hope of any useful forensics to come out of it) Roger walked off to one side of the cistern room in the roof of the hotel where the French team had been staying before the games. The man thought for a few moments before, at last, reluctantly dialling a number he’d memorised during Hawkmoth’s rampage but that Mayor Bourgeois had refused to allow him to use and he’d hoped that he’d never need again. It wasn’t like any other Paris, national or international number but that wasn’t entirely surprising.

“Special Powers Effects Control, Intelligence and Analysis Liaison Office. Good morning, how can I help you?” The accent wasn’t French native but wasn’t also the sort of accent Roger would expect from a native English-speaker; he suspected that the operator he was speaking to was Canadian. 

Roger looked at the instructions on the screen of his phone before speaking “Paris, France, watchdog-501611; ground incident code 2B-0012.”

“Checking that, Officer Raincomprix, please stand by.” It didn’t surprise Roger that the SPECIAL agent knew his name. “Code accepted; please do not mention this call to anyone else involved in this investigation. Help is on the way.” There was a soft ‘click’ followed by a harsh series of electronic tones and the message on Roger’s phone screen corrupted and vanished from his screen as well as the list of messages. 

Over a kilometre away, standing behind the counter of her parents’ bakery, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was very surprised when her phone began to ring. Firstly, this was because she had it on ‘mute’. Secondly it was because she’d never heard that particular ring-tone before. It took her a few seconds to recognise it as an instrumental cover of Clarna Nightingale’s ‘Miraculous’, something that she’d never dare use as a ring-tone to avoid awkward questions. She sighed and shook her head. “Very clever, Nonna,” she muttered.

Marinette looked at the phone screen and, as she expected, her usual desktop was gone, replaced by the shield of SPECIAL and the rather presumptuous message REPORT FOR DUTY and an address in the First Arrondissement. “Maman?” Sabine looked up. “Maman, I have to go. Um… Something special has come up… The polka-dotted piece I made?”

Sabine puzzled over that for a moment before she realised what her daughter was saying. “Oh, okay dear. Be careful and don’t… er… let the bugs bite?” Marinette smiled tightly and, stripping off her apron as she went, ran towards the steps up to her room.

A few minutes later, Ladybug was swinging across the skyline of Paris (she’d never liked using her wings unless she had to). One addition to her costume was the United Heroez team badge, which she’d attached to the front of her belt after transforming. 

It only took Ladybug a little more than five minutes to arrive at the hotel near to the Suzanne Berliox Pool that was acting as the French team’s base. By long habit, she landed on the roof and found her grandmother there. Only, it wasn’t quite her grandmother. Somehow, despite being identical in appearance, Orbweaver just didn’t feel like Nonna Gina. However, Adrien had mentioned more than once that ‘Ladybug’ and ‘Marinette’ behaved differently too; sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly. “Agent Ladybug,” the older woman said neutrally.

Game face on, Ladybug reminded herself. “Agent Orbweaver.”

The older woman nodded. “Your response time was adequate. We should enter through the lobby as we are here in our official capacities.”

“I thought that SPECIAL was a covert operation?”

Orbweaver grinned and touched her own ‘UH’ bicep circlet with a mischievous wink. “We’re world-famous heroes, remember? There’s no need to involve, let alone mention SPECIAL!” 

Ladybug would love to have been in everyone’s heads to know the reaction of everyone in the lobby when the two superheroes, from the United Heroes no less, walked in. “No need to worry everyone!” Orbweaver said, tapping her armband again. “This situation is completely under control! Just go about your normal business!” 

Ladybug impressed herself by not rolling her eyes. As she and Orbweaver strode towards the service lifts, there were at least a dozen phone cameras following them as they walked across the open lobby. She could also see the obvious worshipful glances being directed their way and not all to her. For a woman in her early 60s, Orbweaver was still amazingly beautiful, after all. Thinking about how young President Hombee looked even in her early 70s, she honestly wondered if her grandmother would ever age beyond her hair fading to silver-grey.

Upon passing through the fire escape doors on the top utility level, Ladybug was immediately confronted by Officer Raincomprix. “This area is a crime scene, I… Oh, Ladybug and…” The man looked at Orbweaver, who immediately took charge.

“Officer Raincomprix, I am Orbweaver and you’re already familiar with Ladybug. We’re here to assist in your investigation. I want to know everything you know or suspect and I want to see any physical evidence you’ve gathered.” Raincomprix gathered his wits and was about to reply but Orbweaver rode right over him. “As of now, this investigation is under UN-ICJ jurisdiction. That means that you report to us.”

Raincomprix looked as close to sulking or possibly bursting into tears as Ladybug imagined that an adult could get. She knew he didn’t like superheroes or vigilantes but this was a bit excessive even for him. “We were obviously alerted by the fact that the affliction suffered by the French team didn’t match any known form of Legionella or other contamination that could be found in communal halls of residence. As soon as we started looking at the cisterns here at the hotel, it became obvious that some kind of toxin.”

Ladybug wandered away from the policeman as he continued to brief Orbweaver of where the investigation was for now. Instead, she walked towards the stairs up to the rooftop entrance and, around her throat, the Libra Miraculous began to heat up. “Orbweaver?” The silver-haired senior agent looked up. “I think I’ve found something. Sergeant Raincomprix, was there any sign that this entrance had been forced?” Raincomprix shook his head. “I can sense the echo of malice on this doorway.”

The small CSI scientist shook his head. “Those doors can’t be opened from outside, Ladybug!” 

“Not by mundane means, no,” the red-and-black clad superheroine responded. “Look at this though.” Indeed, there was a disturbance in the dust to show that the door had been opened recently. 

“That’s… impossible?”

“That’s why we’re here,” Orbweaver corrected. “Technician, sweep this area carefully for footprints and fingerprints. I’m not confident that we’ll find anything actionable but this is our best lead for now.” She walked up to Ladybug and touched her shoulder. “What do you feel, Ladybug?”

The black-haired girl frowned. “It wasn’t physical in any way. It reminds me of what I sense when I’m around Enchnatress or Janus…” Or at least what I sense when I have Zuuben with me. “So, I think that someone who can use magic is behind this.”

Raincomprix gestured with the bagged Nightshade branch. "Well, we already know that, I guess. So, I'll call a press conference so you ladies can confirm it and we'll get the hunt…"

"No, don't do that!" Orbweaver and Raincomprix both swung around to look at Ladybug in surprise. "Think about it: Why did she leave that branch behind? To make it easy for us to identify that she was responsible! She wants her crimes to be known!"

Orbweaver cupped her chin in her hand held up by the other and nodded. "Yes, she's doing this for publicity; so people know she can do this. Kind of like a classical serial killer psychology."

Ladybug grinned. "Remember the Inauguration Banquet though: She turned up when she realised that things weren't going as she planned. If we deprive her of that publicity, she'll have to make another and more overt attack so that people know that this is another one of her twisted acts of revenge."

Raincomprix sighed. "Now I suppose you're going to tell me that you know when and how she'd do that?"

Orbweaver grinned. "Of course we do, Sergeant; that's why we get the big paycheques!" She then looked at Ladybug with an expression that seemed to urge the younger hero to not let her down.

Ladybug took pity on the man. "The biggest and most public event that she can find associated with the Friendship Games: The opening ceremony! All we have to do is wait for her to walk into the trap that she's made for herself with her own pride!"

~*~*~

“Dudes! Did you see that?” Kim blurted out excitedly as he stood outside Suzanne Berliox Pool with Ondine and Alix. The pool included a small gymnasium and indoor athletics track and all three teenagers already had a lengthy list of exercise routines that they needed to start immediately.

“See? What?” Ondine looked up to follow Kim’s gesture and was too late to see the bright red figure zip by on the end of her Yo-yo cord.

“Ladybug landing on top of the hotel!” Alix supplied. She touched her hat (under which Fluff was hiding). “Fluff, ask Ladybug if she needs our help,” she whispered urgently.

Alix almost immediately felt the first pre-warnings of a serious headache, not from any physiological cause but from the way Fluff chuckled. The Spirit of Evolution was a puzzling and sometimes-fearsome temporal anomaly to her grandparent's people, unlinked from linear time in a way that ought to be impossible. As a consequence, this temporal nature messed up his communications pattern with… eccentric tense uses. "Ladybug will told you that she needs you if she did," Fluff whispered in response. Alix just about could put that together. "You will had your own role played in this!" Alix shook her head as she tried to piece that together.

"Are you okay, short-stuff?" Kim asked punching her on the shoulder. 

"Yeah, I guess we should expect the heroes to be around after this weird outbreak but I guess I don't…"

"Focus on your races," Kim interrupted. "No point worrying about superhero biz that we can't help with!" There was a strange annoyed tone to his comments that made Alix wonder exactly what his problem with the heroes of Paris might be. Kim shook his head. "Look, Alix, I get that you like to imagine that you can do anything but don't get yourself hurt trying to dip your toes into that!" Kim snorted before adding: "If there's anyone who can do anything here, it's me!"

Alix nodded. Ah, buddy, if only you knew who you were talking to! "Okay, Kim, let's get in there and start warming up." It would be years before Alix realised that Fluff was stopping her learning certain things in the Burrow; such as the identity of certain heroes who had not made it onto the regular roster of Team Miraculous. She'd never entirely decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"C'mon, Kim! I want to hit the pool as soon as possible, which means we need to start warming up now!" Ondine dragged her boyfriend away, granting Alix a little open space. "Fluff, is there going to be a fight?"

Fluff phased out through the material of Alix's baseball cap and hovered in front of her Holder's face. "Alix, when does the strange in this epoch not lead to a fight? The Balance has needed to be found again!" 

~*~*~

It is an easy-to-make misconception that Team Miraculous are a big, happy family and that is mostly true but not all of them are great friends and siblings-in-all-but-blood. Alix never got on well with one particular Hero who she found a bit too cold and distant for her tastes. So, she figured that it was karma that, upon entering the warm-up gym, she found that self-same hero practising a set of long-sword katas with her bokken.

Breaking away from where Kim and Ondine were doing squats to warm up their leg muscles, Alix sauntered over, Fluff phasing out of her hat to meet Longg mid-air in between the two young women. “So, Tsurugi, what’s up? Come to spy on the French team for your side?” Tsurugi Kagami’s reply was actually quite surprising.

“Hardly, Kubdel. Even if espionage was in my nature, this is an Anglo-French completion, remember? Japan is not involved." The normally-stoic girl sighed. "It seems that, in her attempts to punish me for choosing honour over family, my mother chose to cancel my Japanese passport. Fortunately, I am not without personal resources and friends, as you know. Whilst the Japanese government deals with what M Bourgeois’s lawyers tell me is a near-unprecedented situation, I have been hurriedly granted French citizenship by the intervention of the new mayor.”

Alix blinked, startled by this news. “So you’re French now?”

Kagami shrugged. “As much as you are.” 

Interesting; I don’t remember ever mentioning that I have dual citizenship! Still, it was hardly a secret and it was the sort of thing that she could imagine reaching Kagami through the scuttlebutt chain via Luka and his sister. “Well, welcome to the team, I guess. The non-masked one anyway.”

As was typical for her, Kagami didn’t respond to the crack except with a slightly quirked eyebrow. 

“Excuse me but, as interesting as this contest of wills promises to be, have you sensed the strange tang of magic here?” 

Both young women looked at Longg in some surprise. The two kwami had been keeping to the shadows to avoid being seen by the other athletes and had apparently been sweeping the area. Alix shook her head. “I’m not a magic empath, Longg, what’s up?”

Long made a graceful mid-air swoop towards a completely anonymous part of the wall. “Beyond that wall, Ms Kubdel: There is a scent of malice present; malice to everyone and anyone who may be in this competition.”

Alix frowned. “Okay, we’re going to need to check this out.” Kagami gave her an odd look. “Ladybug’s at the team hotel; I’m guessing that there is some kind of magic or supervillain behind the ‘sickness’ of the first team.” The stoically beautiful Japanese woman… well actually French-Japanese now… frowned for a moment and then nodded. 

The two detransformed heroes quickly ducked out into the hall and found that, behind the wall of the gymnasium was probably something connected to a door in a deserted corridor off of the main areas of the building. There was a sign on the door reading: “STAFF ONLY - NO UNAUTHORISED ADMITTANCE” plus several warning icons indicating the presence of irritant chemicals.

“Locked of course. So, how do we get in?”

Kagami looked at Alix with some askance. “Do you not have the ability to travel to any point in time and space?” 

The short redheaded woman flushed at that. She looked over at her kwami. “Have you sensed anything off here, Fluff?”

The Rabbit of Evolution grinned helpfully in response. “Of course I will, Alix! It just wasn’t time for you to have learned about this until then!”

All sorts of responses popped into Alix’s head but she decided to stick to business and deal with the fact that Fluff kept stuff from her if it wasn't 'the right time' later. “Fluff! Clockwise!”

“Longg! Bring the storm!”

As the light of the two transformations faded, Bunnyx folded her parasol and pointed it at the empty air. “Burrow!”

Moments later, the power of the Rabbit Miraculous deposited Bunnyx and Ryuuko inside the air conditioning machinery room. Bunnyx's nose twitched like her animal totem's would in the presence of an unfamiliar and threatening scent. 

"Bunnyx," Ryuuko announced. "There has been some mischief at work here." Bunnyx looked at where the Dragon Sabre was pointed and nodded as she considered the mass of vines and the flower resembling a fanged carnivorous mouth wrapped around air conditioning system's main cooling stack. It was disappointing in a way. The amount of magic she could feel tanging the air probably meant that this sabotage could have been attempted without leaving any hints behind but it kind of made sense that, whoever was behind this, didn't care about detection and wanted to make doubly sure that there was no possibility of anyone interfering.

It probably would have worked if the Dragon Heroine of Paris were not present. "Ice Strike!" Whatever the unnatural plant sitting on top of the main heat exchanger stack was, it had no more chance against the magical cold than any other. A few moments later, Ryuuko's weapon arced through the air and the wilted and flash-frozen tendrils and the flower both shattered. 

"Hold on, Ryuuko, I'm just going to call the boss!" Alix hopped back into the still-open Burrow and quickly browed through the various circular windows until she found the one she was looking for. She then stuck her head through, grimacing slightly and with sweat suddenly breaking out all over her visible skin from the stress of holding open two time portals at the same time. "Ladybug!" 

"Bunnyx?" Ladybug was standing in another machinery room – probably at the top of the team hotel – along with some cops and a white-haired woman in a cat-suit who Alix was sure she knew from somewhere. "What's going on?"

"We've… that's me and Stormy-Gal… we found a magical monster and some indication of magical interference at the swimming pool!" 

The white-haired woman frowned. "So, more than one act of sabotage?"

Ladybug nodded thoughtfully. "It seems to be the pattern developing: Some kind of toxin in the air or water? They're probably different ones to avoid them being neutralised by the same agent though." She looked up at her colleague. "What did you find, Bunnyx?"

"Some kind of giant killer creeper or flytrap plant on top of the aircon system, Boss-Bug. We took it out without problems but I'm guessing that it was there to protect sabotage of the system, just like you thought! Who knows what crap is floating around in the air there?" Alix suddenly wished that she'd warned everyone to evacuate the minute the kwami started noticing something amiss. Who knows what they could have already been exposed to?

Ladybug nodded. "Okay, let's head over. Orbweaver? Finish up here and then meet me on top of the hotel."

Ladybug followed Bunnyx back through the burrow to the air conditioning machinery room and looked at the remains of the probably-conjured plant with wider eyes. "Nightshade seriously has a sick imagination!"

Nightshade? So that crazy Halloween witch was responsible? Bunnyx shook her head. Some people obviously needed better coping strategies for losing. Next to her, Ladybug cast her Yo-yo up into the air. "Luckyyy Charm!"

All three members of Team Miraculous all looked at the ladybird-coloured object that had fallen from ceiling level into Ladybug's hands. "Is that what I think it is?" Bunnyx asked.

Ladybug looked at the old-fashion wooden brush-stick head broom. "Well, it confirms what Nightshade is and… I don't know?" She threw the object into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

~*~*~

Kim and Ondine rushed over as Alix and Kagami re-entered the warm-up area. "Hey, Alix! Where did you go?" Kim nearly yelled, stripping the other two of any hope of 'sneaking back in unnoticed'.

"We went to find a water fountain." Kagami responded dryly. 

Kim snorted. "Water? Like, neat water? Geez, coach will be mad that you used that to hydrate instead of the isotonic stuff they've prepared for us!" 

Ondine looked thoughtful as she took in the complete stone wall expression Kagami was offering to the world and the way that Alix was looking everywhere except them. "So, do you guys know why we just had the Miraculous Cure wash over us?" The avoidance expressions and behaviours just got worse in response to Ondine's question and she nodded in satisfaction, her suspicions confirmed: They knew. "Let me guess, Ladybug swore you to secrecy? Rats! I'm always out of the loop!"

Kim put his arm across his girlfriend's shoulders. "Ah, stuff like this is always going on! So long as they didn't change into something weird and had to be changed back, everything's okay!"

…

Not so far away across Paris, Nightshade jumped in surprise as Ladybug's wide-area purification and healing spell washed over her. "Nice try, brat," she hissed. "Unfortunately for you, my potions are only a toxin; once the damage is done, there's no way back except through convalescence." 

The brown-haired woman began to pace her small apartment. "Still… Who knows what she knows? I don't know how that power reacts to dormant magical toxins in the environment. She might have just disabled all my back-up attack vectors. I need to be ready to maybe take direct action. However… When would be best?"

Nightshade looked at her tablet that had the events schedule for the Friendship Games displayed and smiled dangerously. "Oh, of course! When else?"

~*~*~

"Don't be bemused, it's the SPORTS news!

"Hi, everyone, and this is Nadja Chamack reporting live from Stade Sebastien Charlety at the start of TVi2's live coverage of the Anglo-French Youth Friendship Games covering both days of this weekend's schedule, which you can all read on tvi2.fr/schedule! However, first up is this evening's grand opening ceremony!

"With excellent timing, the two competing teams are just starting their parade. 

"The French team has a lot of unfamiliar faces to anyone who aren't Ladyblog followers. The British Amateur Athletics Federation has tabled a protest based on unverified concerns that the large number of former targets of Hawkmoth in the team might mean permanent physical or neurological changes amounting to acquiring mild superpowers but, so far, no reputable scientist has found any proof of these alleged abilities in former victims of Hawkmoth and SPECIAL themselves have given them 'normal' classifications. With that declaration, there is nothing to stop the games going ahead on schedule!"

Idly listening to Nadja’s commentary streaming over her phone, Marinette (wearing a yellow high-visibility ‘volunteer’ vest) paced around the top floor walkways behind and beneath the stadium seating. After all, there was no point being too publicly present in her civilian guise if things went badly.

“Hello, Princess!”

Marinette turned with a big smile as her boyfriend, also in a volunteer’s vest, walked over. “Adrien! However did you talk your maman into allowing this?”

Adrien laughed. “Oh, you know her, Marinette: She’s always into community service. No-one would blink twice at the thought of the son and heir of the activist queen of Paris getting involved in this way.” He grunted. “About as different from father’s way of doing things as you can get.”

Suddenly, Marinette’s walkie talkie on her belt crackled. “Dupain-Cheng, report!” Marinette rolled her eyes before addressing the floor supervisor. “No late arrivals and no loiterers, Claude. I’m guessing that everyone is watching the opening ceremony right now?” There was a non-committal grunt in reply before the man cleared the channel.

“He’s really a great guy when you get to know him,” Adrien said, making Marinette giggle. He reached up to touch Marinette’s chin to look at the intertwined necklace and choker about her throat. He then moved her chin to one side to look at her ear-rings. He mouthed ‘Three’? 

Marinette shrugged. “I need the flexibility, Adrien. I know what I’m doing.” I hope, she added silently.

At that point, they all heard the change in the timbre of Nadja’s commentary. Marinette yanked out her phone and looked at the screen. Both she and Adrien stared at the live TV pictures being displayed. “Oh, is she serious?” Adrien muttered. “I mean… yeah, theatrical I get but that’s pretty close to being too weird to be scary!”

Marinette shot her boyfriend a quelling look. “I think that when you’re crazy enough to want revenge on a whole city, breaching the suspension of disbelief isn’t a big concern!” 

Both teenagers raced up the stairs into the stadium proper and looked up into the sky. The thing that Marinette later remembered the most was the lack of screams. It was strange but she had to give Adrien that. Overhead there was an actual witch’s broomstick with Nightshade riding on top. She was actually doing sky-writing, her broomstick leaving a trail of poison-green smoke that was slowly drawing out a letter ‘N’, with tendrils of smoke sprouting out of the corners to form the shapes of leafy branches with distinctive leaves and bunches of berries.

“Ahem!” Adrien had raised his ‘phone and was using its camera to get a closer look at Nightshade, who seemed to have her magic wand pointed at her own throat and it was amplifying her voice somehow. “Are you watching, people of Paris? You have gathered your so-called champions here before us all. I am here for one reason and that is to prove to you that no-one can protect you from Nightshade’s wrath! Not the strongest, not the fastest or the smartest…!” The brown-haired witch pushed back her pointed hat and looked down at the crowded sports field below. “Admittedly, from what I know about sports, ‘smartest’ probably was never going to apply here.”

“Hey! That’s a personal slight!” Kim yelled, unheard by the supervillain.

Adrien and Marinette ducked back down the stairs into the walkway. “Washroom,” Marinette said, pointing in the appropriate direction.

“There’s a good thing no-one’s around,” Adrien remarked as he ducked into the enclosure with the prominent ‘women’ sign over the door. “Plagg! Claws out!”

Marinette closed her eyes from the green flash of her boyfriend’s transformation before touching the intertwined neck adornments. I am not afraid, she thought. I am a Celestial Guardian. I serve the Balance and the Balance will protect me! “Tikki, Mullo and Zuuben! Combined transformation!”

Yeah, it hurt and it hurt a lot but that passed almost instantly and instead she felt a rush of power far greater than she’d felt before (at least not in her conscious memories). The resulting costume was basically that of Ladymouse but with Lady Justice's polka-dotted red stola and the Libra Sword sheathed over her back. “Okay people, Lady Multi-Justice is here!” She looked over at Chat Noir, who had a suspiciously mocking gleam in his green feline eyes. “What? It’s a work in progress!”

Back outside, hovering over the middle of the stadium, Nightshade had finally got to the end of her somewhat-rambling speech. “Now, citizens of Paris! As your champions are here, let one of them challenge me! You will learn from their fate that you should not defy me!” 

Kim was about to raise his hand and say something probably instantly-fatal but Alix had his wrist and held it down, making him scowl at her. “Listen, you dimwit! You don’t have any weapons or any magic! How long do you think that you’ll last?"

“NIGHTSHADE!” Every eye turned to the sound of the voice to see a woman in red-edged black leathers (with a scandalous cleavage-exposing ‘V’ at the front of her jumpsuit with a red leather corset top barely sparing her modesty) swing off of one of the floodlight pylons on the end of a grappling hook. No, it wasn’t Ladybug but who it might be was not obvious except to those who had been following superheroes for more than 30 years. 

The witch looked at the approaching foe and lazily raised her wand. “Blasto!” she cast, sending a point of intense red light flashing towards the oncoming hero. She released her hold on the rope mid-swing and slid across the air under the shot by just a few centimetres under its trajectory. A moment later, a pair of heavy heeled boots slammed into Nightshade’s midsection, smashing oher off of her broomstick sending her tumbling helplessly towards the ground, earning a roaring cheer from the gathered crowd.

Three objects tumbled towards the ground: Nightshade, the newcomer and Nightshade’s broomstick, unable to continue to levitate without its owner’s magic. Another object arced through the air and snatched the falling newcomer hero and the crowd cheered louder, recognising Ladybug swinging on the end of her Yo-yo despite her hood and Roman-style stola top. “Pluma Ruinam!” Nightshade screamed, waving her wand frantically and her fall slowed considerably, letting her descend safely to a space cleared by fleeing athletes in the centre of the stadium

The two heroes landed on the opposite side of the grassy stadium floor. Lady Multi-Justice hooked her Yo-yo around her hips and glared at the older woman, her fists on her hips. “Orbweaver, next time make sure you’ve got backup before making a flashy move like that!” 

“Non essere sciocco, Mia Nipotina,” Orbweaver replied with a laugh. “Ladybug, I’ve forgotten more landing strategies for unarrested freefalls than you know! I would have been fine!” Those in the audience who could understand Italian looked at each other in surprise. This woman was Ladybug’s grandmother?!? Many of them shrugged, noting that it probably made sense that swinging around cities and fighting supervillains ran in the family. Meanwhile, with a swagger, Orbweaver walked towards Nightshade, who was dusting herself off. “Now,” she called more loudly, “I’m not a full-time resident of Paris but I suppose that I might serve as a ‘champion’ for your ludicrous challenge of yours?”

Nightshade grinned evilly. “Oh, that offer is one I am so glad to take up, you old crone!” She pointed her wand into the air. “Just to make sure no-one interferes: praesidium!” A stream of silvery light shot from the wand up about 10 metres into the air before flattening into a dome shape that flowed back down into the ground, sealing the two women inside. If Nightshade were a touch smarter, she would have been worried by her opponent’s unimpressed twitch upwards of her left eyebrow.

Chat Noir landed next to Lady Multi-Justice and tapped the shield bubble with the tip of his Staff. “I’m pretty sure that I can break this with my Catscratch, M’lady!”

“We’ll hold that in reserve, Chaton. I’ve got a feeling that Nightshade is going to regret her choices!”

Inside the force field bubble, Nightshade levelled her wand at Orbweaver with a poisonous smirk and began yelling out words of phrases in Latin, twitching and flicking the wand as if in emphasis. Rippling waves of fire, ice darts and even ropes shot towards Orbweaver who immediately started an acrobatic series of flips, slides and other dodges. “Damn you! Stay still! Crescant plantae!” Dozens of thorny vines exploded out of the ground all around Orbweaver and tangled around her limbs. However, much to the witch’s shock and ill-concealed horror, the superhero tore loose of the outermost and weakest vines, reaching behind her back and pulling out two long, serrated military knives whose edges immediately started growing orange-red. Orbweaver started cutting away with the knives, their super-heated edges making the plants sear and wither away at their touch.

The last scorched bit of plant-life dropped away, Orbweaver took a two-handed knife fighting pose, one dagger pointing forwards from over her shoulder and one from by the other hip. “My turn, strega debole!”

“Absolutum Exitium!” Nightshade shrieked, her voice laden with panic. Orbweaver didn’t try to dodge the deep poison green lightning that shot out from the witch’s wand and instead caught it on her crossed knives with flashed into green light and dissolved as she dived under the lightshow and went into a hand-spring towards her foe. Both of Orbweaver’s boots caught Nightshade on the jaw, throwing her back.

Okay, this has gone too far! Lady Multi-Justice thought, casting her Yo-yo upwards. “Luckyyy Charm!” The superheroine immediately recognised what came back down, based on its resemblance to something she and Chloe had used to prank Audrey shortly after her return to Paris: A silly-string gun! She looked at the lucky charm and looked back up as Nightshade, her broomstick, Chat Noir, Nightshade’s wand and the Lucky Charm all flashed in Ladybug colours in her vision. “Chaton! Bring down that shield and disarm her! I’ll stop her from escaping! Multiplicity!”

Lady Multi-Justice began to shine with pink light and dozens of miniature versions of her began to race towards the stadium, summoning their ladybird wings to fly faster than they could run. Simultaneously Chat Noir pulled out his staff and extended it, summoning the Destruction Energy blade that he called ‘Catscratch’. He took two loping steps forwards before stabbing the blade into Nightshade’s shield. The magical bubble, able to handle immense forces without any trouble, shattered the moment the energy blade touched it with a sound of shattering crystal glass. 

Chat Noir collapsed his staff and continued to race towards the two combatants. Orbweaver was a blur of motion around Nightshade, punching and kicking at her from every angle. “Stop it!” the witch howled in terror. “Get away from me! Repulso Omnes!” There was a displacement of air that knocked Orbweaver flat but, taking his cue from the older woman’s tactics, Chat Noir did a forward roll to get under the wild attack before jumping up to his full height in front of the villain. 

“You should know to witch your blind-side! Cataclysm!” The claws of Chat Noir’s right hand, surrounded by a black-and-green miasma of Destruction energy, caught the wand mid-length and it immediately began to crumble and rot; Nightshade released it, backpedalling in horror. 

“My… My wand! You monster! Do you know what you’ve…?”

“He’s done his job.” Orbweaver spat as she stood up again, levelling a pistol with red light shining out of vents around the barrel assembly at the witch's back. “Now this is over. Surrender, Nightshade; you’re under arrest.”

The woman looked around her and listened to the roars of the crowd at seeing her defeated. “You two… You’ve ruined everything!” The woman stretched out her hand to her broomstick and screamed out: “Reditus broomstick!” The broomstick leapt from where it lay into her outstretched hand. Nightshade leapt astride it and yelled out: “Volare!” 

As the broomstick ascended, Orbweaver took a shot and a thread of red light flashed out, punching through the Nightshade’s shoulder and making her cry out in agony. Somehow, she maintained control of her conveyance and urged it to greater speed, dodging a second laser shot because of her sudden acceleration.

On the various floodlight pylons, the dozens of miniature Lady Multi-Justices took aim with their Lucky Charms as the ascending broomstick reached their level. Magically-enhanced threads of silly string lashed out from multiple directions and tangled around the broomstick, halting it mid-air. The ‘web’ of silly string drooped under the sudden weight but held firm, leaving Nightshade tangled a few dozen metres above the ground along with her broomstick.

“Singularity!” the multiple heroines said simultaneously and, with a bright pink-white glow, they began to merge.

Struggling to tear the threads entangling her and also scrabbling on her belts for some flasks of corrosive potion to throw into the crowd, Nightshade looked up to see Lady Multi-Justice standing on one of the floodlight pylons ahead of her, drawing the Libra Sword. The superheroine grimaced, sensing through the Libra Miraculous her foe’s nearly-hysterical need to hurt someone; she levelled her sword at the villain. “You have had your chance to surrender, Nightshade. What happens now is your choice. Restitution!” Nightshade's expression turned from rage to panic.

As the power of the Libra Miraculous stabbed into her like a blade of lavender light, Nightshade began to thrash in her bonds. “No! NO! That isn’t true! Please, I… I just want to live in peace! Why are you saying this? Why are you doing this?!? Why won’t you leave me alone?!?” Experiencing being the target of bigotry, prejudice and lies that made everyone seemingly judge her was something that Nightshade obviously didn’t enjoy, even though she’d so happily done it to others for nothing more than a paycheque at the end of the month.

Lady Multi-Justice stopped the attack and lowered her sword, frowning as the witch sagged nervelessly in her bonds. She knew this woman; the echoes that she felt of the Restitution spell’s purpose felt familiar; her punishment was to suffer slander, mob hate and bigotry rather than anything to do with the magical mayhem she'd caused; that meant that Zuuben had identified that as the greater wrongdoing on her part. Summoning her wings, she collected each of the silly string cords, tying them together as she did so. She then lowered the resulting net carrying the witch back towards the ground where Chaton and Nonna were waiting, all to the approving roar of the crowd. 

Once down on the ground, Lady Multi-Justice got in Nightshade's face. "Who are you?"

Nightshade was recovering and her wits were sharp enough to know what had triggered that question. "I… am one of the people who has a right to stand in judgement over people like that. If they suffer… then maybe they'll realise that their kind isn't welcome!"

"Well, from now on it’s you who are facing judgement." Orbweaver snapped a pair of handcuffs with a strange set of glyphs carved onto the bracelets onto the woman's wrists. “Nightshade, by the authority placed in me by the Special Powers Effects Control, Analysis and Intelligence Liaison Office and the United Nations Organisation’s International Court of Justice, I hereby place you under arrest for multiple assaults with magic in violation of the Statue of Separation of 1749”.

As Orbweaver led the restrained Nightshade away with her broomstick resting on her shoulder, Lady Multi-Justice threw her silly string gun into the air with a cry of: "Miraculous Ladybug!" The tidal wave of ladybird beetles flooded out in all directions and all the (relatively minor) damage done by the battle was undone 

Chat Noir frowned as he picked up something out of the grass. It was Nightshade's wand; he twirled it around his fingers like a baton. "I feel kind of offended by the fact that you undid my hard work, M'Lady!" 

Lady Multi-Justice punched him on the shoulder and gave him a loving smile. "You know I can't do what I do without you, Chaton. Come on, let's go." The superheroes walked off of the fear to a rousing ovation.

~*~*~

Marinette couldn’t believe what she was hearing her grandmother tell her. “What? She escaped? After all the trouble Chat Noir and I went to, you as well, she managed to escape? How is that even possible?”

Gina grimaced. “I’m sorry Mia Nipotina. The handcuffs I used can block almost all kinds of magic but she used something called an Anchor-Key. It’s sort of a magical quantum entanglement device that snaps whoever is holding it to a fixed point that is connected to its magic. There is nothing that can block it when it is activated.” The white-haired woman sighed. “The uniformed agents should have searched her for devices like that before they loaded her in the catch wagon. I can only apologise again.”

Marinette squeezed the bridge of her nose and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. “Well, at least we got her wand-thing.” 

Gina nodded. “Yes, an intrinsic magic user’s wand is very carefully synchronised to their magic and casting without it is possible but a lot more difficult. There are only a few places where she could get a decently-synchronised replacement and we monitor them for illegal activity so, hopefully, she’ll fall into our hands again.”

Marinette tried to move past her anger at the wasted battle and her concern about what someone as filled with anger and bitterness as Nightshade may do next. Instead, she smiled and looked over at her grandmother. “You, though!” Gina raised her eyebrow at that. “Fighting like an acrobat or a dancer! I’ve never seen someone move like that!”

Gina laughed. “Being promoted is no fun, darling! I’m mostly stuck in an office or, if I’m in the field, I’m guarded like a fragile glass sculpture! It was good to be able to go one-to-one with a foe again! I hadn’t felt that alive since the last time I faced Volpe d’Argento!” The woman shook her head. “Never forget, Marinette: Your powers are your least and weakest suite; it is your skill and strength as a fighter that will serve you best!” With a sudden move, the woman smacked her granddaughter's muscular abdomen under her sakura blossom-decorated white tee-shirt. “As I’m sure your kickboxer friend has taught you!”

Marinette blushed slightly; she’d forgotten how much her grandmother knew about her heroic activities, no matter how well-disguised; it made sense that she’d be aware of her fitness and fighting lessons with Nora. “So,” Gina continued. “All was not lost. We got usable fingerprints off of the broomstick and even a thumb-print off of the wand. The prints were on our records, mostly because the fascista in question was associated indirectly with one of the Lion of Crime’s many plots and we already have issued international arrest warrants for her. I believe that you know her? Dionne la Cynique?”

Marinette was startled but suddenly the way the Restitution attack had affected Nightshade made sense. “Yes… Yes, I do Nonna. She’s a good example of how the worst monsters don’t have the courtesy to look like one.” 

Gina nodded sadly. “I’m sorry that you have had to learn that so young, darling.”

Chapter Text

"Babe, are you okay?"

Ondine looked up at Kim and managed a wholly-unconvincing smile as she made a nervous hand-washing gesture. "Of course I am Kim! Why wouldn't I be?"

Le Chien Kim was far from the brightest light in the firmament but even he could read his girlfriend's body language when it was presented so obviously. "Oh, I dunno, babe. I mean… you did qualify for the finals, didn't you? I mean, yeah, let's not tell lies: You are off your personal bests but, with you 'below personal best' is 'chew on my dust' for everyone else!"

Ondine couldn't help giggle. "It just feels like I'm relying on luck, Kim!" The redheaded woman began to pace. "When you're relying on luck, then you've got nothing left when it runs out!" Ondine began pacing again. "There has to be some way to shave those last few hundredths of a second off of my length times! I…"

The young woman found herself wrapped in Kim's arms. "You're gonna be okay, Babe!"

Ondine smiled politely and pushed him off. "Kim, thanks, but stop trying to distract me!"

Kim watched as Ondine strode off and felt more than a little worry. He was a perfectionist himself, no matter how unlikely as that sounded from the perspective of those who knew him. The thing was that he had a huge reservoir of pure raw athletic talent and thus didn't stress too much about performance; when he needed it, he knew that he had the skills and reserves of strength there. It was a confidence thing but, early on in their relationship, he had realised that Ondine didn't have that easy-going confidence, despite being arguably better than him in her chosen field. Kim was proud of his ability to make Ondine smile but something told him that this would not be enough in these circumstances.

It was times like this that Kim really wished that he were more like Adrien or Nino. The two of them seemed to have a natural talent in reassuring their girls – two of the most highly-strung women he knew. There was a secret there and he desperately wished that he knew it!

~*~*~

By her nature, Wu Fei was not much one of nature's spectators. She lived to shape her life and events around her with her own skills and will. She would easily admit that this had led her astray on occasion but it at least gave her the comfort of not being vulnerable to others' choices when it came to the direction her life would take.

Because of this, her current mission was something of a frustration. Simply passively touring the high-traffic areas of Paris and hoping that, by some chance, Mei-Shi would pick up the magical traces of the Setting for the Prodigioius of Virtue. It had all the feeling of doing something active when she wasn't really doing so. It was frustrating but Marinette was right: There was no hope in just hoping that somehow being able to persuade the new Renlings to remain with her when their instinct was to find their Renren. The power of the Setting was the only hope at this stage.

Who would have expected that she owed anything to Cash? However, the fact that he'd hit the jewel merchant and antiquities districts so hard during his two attacks on Paris had left Fei sure that they weren't the places to go. Cash would have found the setting already if it was there. No, she had to be patient and be willing to invest the time needed. So, she was walking around the tourist areas centred around the river-front and simply keeping her senses open to the world around her, just as she did when Cash had her trapped as one of his arm of wandering pick-pockets, always on the look-out for a score.

Fei was struggling with what must surely be a false positive – the little girl that Marinette occasionally baby-sat and she was now observing playing in a park with her friends. "Lady Renren?" Long practiced to discretion, Fei didn't visibly react to Mei-Shi's voice but she did move her eye to look at where the indigo lion spirit was looking out from the collar of her leather jacket. "Things are afoot; I can sense another Renling has become active."

Fei nodded. "It seems to be accelerating, doesn't it, Mei-Shi? They can all sense that their time is near."

Mei-Shi nodded. "Indeed; I just hope that…" Fei looked down at her Guardian Spirit as his voice broke off. "Astonishing! I think… I think I may have just sensed the Setting briefly pass us by!"

Fei looked around for a moment. She was surrounded by hundreds of people but Mei-Shi's words didn't sound right for him to be referring to just another pedestrian; the source was obviously moving much faster than the foot traffic. Road traffic was moderate but not so heavy as to give her too many targets. Based on instinct, her eyes tracked to a cream-white limousine that had just passed her by. The vehicle and had passed her just at the moment Mei-Shi had sensed something.

A native of the crowded streets of Shanghai, Fei was an expert at navigating through bustling crowds. She turned on the spot and, accelerating to a brisk jog, began threading through the pedestrians around her, trying to keep the limousine in sight. She was fairly sure she knew this vehicle too but she wasn't sure from where.

Fei pulled out her cellphone and touched the contact option that she'd always choose in a situation like this. "Hello, Fei!"

"Marinette, I think that I'm onto something! Can you come and join me?"

"I was delivering some pastries for my parents but that can wait. Where are you?"

~*~*~

Ondine was idly splashing her legs in the shallows of the hotel's small exercise pool, which was mostly being used for physiotherapy during the Friendship Games. When she was a little girl, her father had frequently called her 'little mermaid' because of the fact that she always felt more comfortable in the water than she did on dry land when she felt ill-at-ease. Maybe she really did have a superhuman affinity for water? She didn't know but, at times when things weren't going her way, she always felt better returning to it. Things were always simpler when she was swimming.

"Hey, Ondine! Are you going to use that pool or are you just chilling?" She gestured to team-mate to take her place. She got up and towelled off her legs for a moment. "Gold medal for sure at the finals?" her team-mate challenged in a friendly way. Ondine smiled in response and wished that she felt as confident as that implied.

Ondine paced the perimeter of the relatively small basement pool area. There was something strange happening. She could sense a power here but couldn't understand what it might be. Normally, water made her feel at peace and at harmony with the world around her but, right now, she could only sense a challenge in the aquatic element that normally she didn't even feel during competitions.

With a grumpy sigh, the redhead went upstairs to the hotel's lobby and found herself staring at the ornamental fountain installed there.

"Peaceful isn't it?" Ondine looked around herself frantically but there was no-one standing by her who could have said that. "The sound of running water and coolness in the air! Who couldn't be put at ease by that?"

The redheaded woman's eyes finally picked up the anomaly in front of her and blinked stupidly. The faintly-glowing hand-sized blue-and-white chibi-like creature with the long tail was bobbing on top of one of the fountain's water jets. Ondine's first reflexive mental response was to assume that this was some incredibly delicate work of art but it was speaking to her and its shining ocean-green eyes were following her every motion. "Um… H… Hello?" The creature waved in a friendly way. "Er… Who… What are you?"

"I'm not a 'what', I'm a Renling and my name is Luta!"

"Okay… Hello, Luta!"

"You're great!" the little blue 'renling' chirped excitedly. "I've never met a human so invested in motion and grace as you! No wasted motions or drag! You're all about getting the most out of every move!" The little creature illustrated its words by literally 'swimming' through the air to Ondine to hover over the palm of her hand. "Yet you're sad! Why is that?"

Ondine would never be able to fully explain what happened next. Only that there was something about the little spirit that encouraged her to open up. All the frustrations, inadequacies and fears about her performance that were bouncing around inside her head and that she could never admit to anyone, even Kim. Luta gazed at her with wonder-filled eyes. "Oh, well, I can fix that!"

Ondine blinked in response to that. Even years later, she'd use this incident as a warning to her children and grandchildren about the necessity of treating magic with caution; for some reason at that moment she didn't feel the slightest hesitation to reply positively. "Really? That sounds cool! How?"

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat

Status: PRIVATE/INVITIATION ONLY

User: [email protected] (@BugBoss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: Hey, Honey, you available?

@TrueQueen: It's spa day, Hot'n'Red, what's up?

@BugBoss: Me and @Manyanimalgirl are trying to track down a magical trace that might be associated with the stuff #Leonidas is trying to find

@BugBoss: Her spirit guardian is getting a strong positive from a particular vehicle: One of your father's limousines!

@BugBoss: Any ideas why that might be?

@TrueQueen: This might come as a shock to you, Ladybug but I don't keep track of who is using the cars from Daddy's motor pool

@BugBoss: Chloe, this is important

@TrueQueen: I'm sure it is but I don't have that sort of information! It's utterly ridiculous!

@BugBoss: Look, all I'm interested in is whether there's anyone really interesting at the hotel at the moment

@Manyanimalgirl: Especially from out-of-town

@TrueQueen: No-one that I've *noticed* as being weird, exotic or otherwise likely to be a visiting supervillain or anything

@TrueQueen: I'm sure I don't need a 'sarcasm' tag

@TrueQueen: It could be anyone; even my sister is out in one of daddy's cars right now!

@BugBoss: Chloe, really, I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't something with which you can help!

@TrueQueen SHARED: Rolleyes5.png

@TrueQueen: I tell you what, come over this evening and we can check the motor pool for any signs of weirdness

@TrueQueen: Or, rather, *you two* can; I'll just make sure no-one asks awkward questions

@WatchWabbit issued an AKUMA ALERT

@BugBoss: Woah!

@BugBoss: Okay, that goes on a back burner! We've got a Code Red here!

Marinette's motor scooter was stopped diagonally at a junction. She and Fei, who was riding pillion, were looking at the sight in front of them in shock. "Well, there's something that you don't see every day!" Fei remarked.

"Oh, I've seen that before!" Marinette countered. "Not for over a year though!" She looked at the dome of water covering the site of the athletes' hotel and practice gyms. "As impossible as it seems, it looks as though Syren's back!" The noirette kicked her scooter back into gear and aimed it for a side alley. "Hang on, Fei; I haven't tried this with a passenger before! Tikki! Spots on!"

There was a burst of pink-white light from the alleyway and the Ladybike emerged from its other end. Ladydragon looked down at the streamlined black polka-dotted scarlet superbike in a befuddled way, not sure how her cousin transforming could have triggered her own (and disturbed by the sound of the Renlings giggling in her mind). "Uh… New wheels, Ladybug?" Ladydragon was relieved that her cousin probably didn't hear that lame question over the howl of the bike's turbocharged five-cylinder engine.

The Ladybike pulled up at the perimeter of the dome of water and the two teenage superheroines got their first look at what was happening. A horrified Kim and Alix were standing just beyond the edge of the water along with a large crowd of other onlookers. Alix was barely holding Kim back; the boy with the dyed blond Mohawk was trying to get to the perimeter of the water, beyond which could be seen the team hotel. "I have to get in there!" Kim was yelling. "I have to save Ondine!"

"Don't be a muscle-head!" Alix countered, her face showing both anger and fear. "Think you can breathe underwater without her granting that?!?"

Ladybug looked over her shoulder at Ladydragon as she pulled off her helmet. "Ladydragon, how does this feel to you?"

At first, Ladydragon didn't understand the question but then she realised that she'd been feeling the sense of a semi-familiar power all morning. "It is a Renling, Ladybug! I can feel its presence!"

Ladybug nodded. "Obviously it's the water elemental Prodigious. Based on what we've seen the Lynx and Rat Renlings doing, it would grant anyone who accepts its power the ability to shape water."

Leaving the Ladybike parked just outside the water bubble, the two superheroines began to walk towards the watery barrier. Ladydragon's fists clenched with frustration. "Knowing our luck, whoever it is will likely be at the centre of this effect. I don't have any aquatic forms though. How do we get to them?"

Ladybug unslung her Yo-yo and thought for a moment. "I do; I'll go in and scout out the lay of the land and we'll figure out what to do then." As much as Ladybug wanted her cousin to join her, she had no idea whether the power-up potions would affect the Prodigious too (or in the same way) and this was the wrong moment to start experimenting. Popping open her Yo-yo like a powder compact, Ladybug reached into the interior and pulled out a lime green macaron.

"Strange moment for a snack attack," Ladydragon remarked, making her cousin chuckle.

"You don’t know the half of it! Aqua power-up!" Ladybug swallowed the small confection with one bite and she immediately the superheroine was surrounded by a green nimbus of power with a vaguely watery theme. As Ladydragon looked on, her cousin's costume developed a fish-scale pattern as well as fish-like fins on her feet and forearms. "Ladydragon, stay here until I get back!"

With a weird horizontal diving motion, Aquabug dove into the water bubble. Aquabug always found the sudden change to being a water-breather and the strange sounds of the underwater world weird but she kept her focus. There was no obvious sign of Syren and there was none of the floating debris of her previous experience with this particular villain. Aquabug began to swim towards the pool but then noticed something – a disturbance in the water. What are those shapes? As the objects flowing around the pool came closer, Aquabug realised that they were actually changes in water density that had a humanoid form.

At that point, a dozen of the water elementals (because what else could they be?) suddenly left their circling patrol around the building ahead and lanced right towards her. The differences in density affected the light around them and it didn't take Aquabug too long to realise that they were armed with tridents made of concentrated water! Aquabug deployed her Yo-yo and deflected several thrusts against its whirling string but several of the elementals were trying to get behind her.

"Go away!" The nearest ones had developed a face that she recognised: Ondine. Well, any remaining doubts that this was Syren were put to rest! "You'll only get one chance, Ladybug! I won't let you take away my watery kingdom again!"

"Ondine, whatever you think that this will achieve, you don't have to do this!" Aquabug protested.

"Be quiet you false mermaid! Begone from my realm!" At that point, the water seemed to thicken around Aquabug and she was literally spat out of the side of the water bubble to land in an undignified heap on the pavement.

"Ladybug!" Ladydragon ran over. "Are you okay?"

"My dignity is as damp as I feel," Aquabug said in a rueful tone as she allowed Ladydragon to help her to her feet. She shook her head as she pulled out her Yo-yo again. "Okay, let's do this the right way," she announced, casting her Yo-yo into the sky. "Luckyyy Charm!"

The spiral of ladybird beetles cleared and a small ladybug-patterned plush cuddly toy dropped into her hands. Aquabug looked at it and, almost immediately, her environmental intuition cut in. The plush toy flashed in ladybug colours as did the distant swimming pool and Kim, who was still being restrained by Alix. "Okay, that makes sense." She looked at Ladydragon. "Ladydragon, I need to get some backup. You stay here and wait for me to bring Syren out to you; we'll probably need your help to separate her from the Prodigious!" Hooking her Lucky Charm to her fin-themed belt, Aquabug ran over to Kim, casting the Yo-yo to the nearest non-waterlogged roof. "Mlle Kubdel, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to borrow M Le Chein!" she called out, detaching the shocked Kim from Alix and then sweeping him up into the air in her arms.

As soon as they were away from the crowd, Aquabug turned to Kim. "So, you're finally calling me up again after a year, huh?"

Aquabug wasn't sure if that was a bit of resentment in Kim's voice. "If you are willing, Kim, yes. I don't think that anyone else could get to Ondine and make her give up without a fight. I will help you if you are willing."

There was a pause before Kim nodded with a fierce frown. Aquabug reached into her Yo-yo's bottomless interior and felt her hand grasp the thing that she needed. "Le Chien Kim, this is the Miraculous of the Monkey that will grant you the power of Derision with which to protect the innocent. You will use that power to fight for the greater good and, when the fight is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?"

Kim sucked in his breath and then grasped the Crown of Sun Wukong, the King of the Monkeys, firmly. "Yeah; for Ondine, I'll do it."

Aquabug did not release her grip on the "I wouldn't offer this if you weren't worthy. Not everyone is a regular hero but you have proven that you can and will use the Monkey Miraculous to help others."

Kim nodded. "You can rely on me, Ladybug." Aquabug nodded and released it

Kim settled the Miraculous on his brow and, almost immediately, a park of bronze light solidified into a little chibi monkey creature. "Hey, Xuppu!"

The Kwami of Derision grinned the moment his eyes locked with Kim's. "Hey! Big lug! Long time, no see!"

"Xuppu, here! Eat this!"

Aquabug threw another lime green macaron at the monkey kwami, who easily caught it in his mouth. "Ugh! Too sweet for me!" he responded before beginning to shine with green light. "Ha! Call me Aqua-Xuppu now!"

Kim realised what was going on and also immediately realised that this wasn't something most of the temporary heroes experienced. Ladybug was obviously serious about trusting him even though she hadn't called him to battle for over a year. "Aqua-Xuppu… Showtime!" There was a bronze light show before King Monkey was revealed, this time with wide, flat tail fin on his rope-like tail and further fins on his arms and legs. "Cool! Call me Sea Monkey!"

"And you can call me Aquabug in this form. Come on, Sea Monkey, let's get in there!" Aquabug said with a slight smile, grabbing the tall superhero by the hand and dragging him behind her as she plunged back into the watery bubble.

"Have you guys always been able to do this?" Sea Monkey blurted as he and Aquabug began to swim towards the entrance of the Suzanne Berliox Pool. He wasn't sure if he was most weirded out by his sudden Merman powers of the strange resonance of his voice through water.

"Lots of flexibility to Miraculous Power if you know a Guardian," Aquabug responded. "Okay, game face on; there are some kind of weird water elementals under Syren's control around the pool."

Sea Monkey pulled out his staff. "I'm ready for them, Aquabug!"

"Before we move in, you need to hear this, Sea Monkey: I've learned that you have a second power. It's called Party Time and it will confuse your foes. Unlike Uproar, it won't trigger an automatic detransformation, so you should lead with that." Sea Monkey looked at the much smaller Ladybug heroine and nodded. She smiled. "Once again, yes; everyone has those. Normally, I wait until they discover stuff like this on their own before explaining them, but there's no time today."

The two heroes swam off again and, once again, Aquabug saw the swarm of water elementals. "You were warned, Ladybug!" Ondine's voice seemed to echo through the water from every direction. Sea Monkey began to look around himself frantically.

"Was that Ondine? Where is she?"

"Don't lose focus, Sea Monkey; the things that are giving her power is letting her do this but it is also confusing her! We need to get to her and snap her out of it."

"Got it in one, Aquabug!" Sea Monkey began to whirl his staff before him like a huge propeller. "Let's make this one quick! Party Time!"

Xuppu's powers were… eccentric. Aquabug knew that but she wasn't ready for this power to manifest itself as the effects of dozens of party-poppers, with glitter, confetti and streamers rippling out towards the oncoming water elementals. Almost immediately, they seemed to lose all coordination. Several of them simply discorporated and the others began to dance and swirl wildly around each other with no direction and no purpose. "Cool! I love this!" He looked into the window of a nearby building and noticed that the five timer rings on his crown had gone black and one was flashing bronze. "Woah, Max has told me about this! It's a cooldown timer like in a game, right?"

Aquabug grinned. "I knew you would catch on fast. Push on to the pool!"

Much to both heroes' surprise, there was no further resistance. Aquabug wondered to herself if the Party Time had affected Ondine herself, given that she was obviously shaping the water by conscious choice. However, that was just speculation and there was no way to know for sure.

As soon as they had entered the Suzanne Berliox Pool, Aquabug was kicking herself for 'taunting nice M Murphy', as Ma'xavé'késo always put it. In the close confines of the athletics and aquatics centre, there was nearly a wall of oncoming water elementals crowding to get at the two heroes in the atrium.

Sea Monkey was a blur of motion, always having his staff in place to block of smash but there were just two of them; he and Aquabug were at risk of being quickly overwhelmed. Aquabug looked around her and her eyes were drawn to something at the concession stand in the public entrance area: A Slushie machine; she had a brainwave. She launched herself at the machine and touched it with a cry of: "Ladyupgrade!" A wave of polka-dot-patterned light flowed over the machine and suddenly she was holding what looked like a cross between a leaf blower and a refrigerated fluid hose. "Sea Monkey, duck!"

Sea Monkey ducked and barely avoided a stream of pure cold from the Upgraded machine that caught the front ranks of elementals, turning them into icy statues. Aquabug kept up firing with the machine until the ranks of elementals were thinned down enough that Sea Monkey was able to smash his way through them. Just at that point, his cooldown timer finished and the Monkey Miraculous returned to its normal colours with a satisfied-sounding double beep. "Better late than never, I guess!"

With no more foes before them, the two heroes continued deeper into the complex, heading for the main practice pool where intuition told them they needed to go. They were right but neither of them were ready for what they found there.

"Woah… Ondine!" Sea Monkey whispered.

The pool area was completely filled with water, of course, but Ondine was there and not in the form of Syren that Aquabug remembered from when she was transformed by Hawkmoth. She was still in her civilian clothes and was swimming around a central sphere of altered and shaped water in beautiful and balletic motions: Blurring fast and yet graceful at the same time. She literally didn't seem aware of the presence of the two heroes but instead seemed to be in a trance, surrounded by blue-green lightning that all seemed to concentrate on a blue-green spot on her forehead that resembled a Bindi but was obviously a physical object rather than just a pigment mark.

Aquabug grabbed Sea Monkey before he could charge in. "Hold back; we don't know what to do," she hissed, pulling out her Yo-yo.

~*~*~

Ladydragon was not good at feeling helpless but that was how she felt ever since Aquabug and Sea Monkey had dived into the watery enclosure. The only good side she could think of right now was that the watery barrier wasn't moving outwards to consume more of the city the way the flood tide did when Syren was empowered to attack the city by Hawkmoth some time ago. She was pacing up and down in front of the Ladybike when, much to her surprise, her cellphone started to ring. She pulled it out from where it was attached to the back of her hips and looked at the caller ID: "Ladybug" along with a profile photograph of her cousin in her costume that she was pretty sure wasn't in her phone's photo gallery. Magic affecting technology! Seems wrong somehow… Ladydragon swiped the green 'accept' button. "Um… Hello?"

"Ladydragon, we're almost at the core of the attack but… Well, I'm sending you a video now!"

With the ease of a child of the Communications Revolution, Ladydragon opened the attachment (whilst acknowledging that she never imagined that she'd be doing this as part of her superheroic life). She looked at the video and pressed her lips together. It reminded her enough of what had happened with Markov and Rhythm that she knew what she was seeing. "Ladybug… uh… Aquabug, it looks like she's being consumed by the power of the Prodigious of Athleticism and Water. Breaking her connection with it should bring her around but there is a risk that occurs to me. I think that the Prodigious is protecting her from being underwater. Unless its effects are dispelled at the same moment that you break the connection then she could easily drown before the water drains away!"

~*~*~

Aquabug looked over at Sea Monkey who looked understandably anguished at the possibility of the risk to the safety to his girlfriend. "So, what do we do Aquabug?" he asked.

Aquabug looked around her. "There is one chance; the Miraculous Cure would remove this water construct but we'd have to be coordinate our moves to the last second." She looked up at the Monkey hero with a determined glare. "Are you ready?"

Sea Monkey visibly swallowed before extending the Monkey Staff. "I'm ready, Aquabug. Once I cast Uproar, it should take about… five seconds to reach Ondine and take effect!"

Aquabug looked around her and satisfied herself that there wasn't likely to be any attacks as she detached her Lucky Charm from her belt. "From previous incidents, the Prodigious will try to protect itself, so we've only got one shot at this. You lead."

Sea Monkey nodded; he could do this; he was a goof but, when it came to it, he could also be professional. "Okay, five seconds from my cast!" He began to spin his staff around his grip. "Starting on my mark: One, two, three… Uproar!"

The magic of the Monkey Miraculous concentrated into a single point that solidified into a loofa sponge of all things and was launched down a whirling current created by the staff's motion towards Ondine.

Plus one, two, three… She threw the lucky charm up towards the waterlogged ceiling. "Miraculous Ladybug!" The plush monkey exploded into pink-white light just as the loofa slapped Ondine in the forehead as she turned to face the two interlopers, her eyes sparkling green-blue with power.

Everything happened faster than either hero could easily follow. When the Uproar toy hit Ondine, the blue-green lightning all seemed to vanish all at once and a spherical shockwave shot out from her body as the blue-green gem fell lose. Ondine's eyes cleared of their mystical daze and, for a split second she had a moment to realise that she was entirely underwater without air and there were the first moments of life-threatening panic before the pink tidal wave of the Miraculous Cure washed over her.

"It… Worked!" Ladybug had been restored to her default form by casting the cure. "I can't believe that it worked! King Monkey, it actually…!"

King Monkey was desperately pumping at Ondine's chest to clear it of water. "Come on, girl! Breathe! Stay with me!" Ondine coughed; miraculously, she hadn't drowned.

"K… King Monkey?" Ondine coughed. "I… did you save me?"

Ladybug walked up behind King Monkey and touched his shoulder. "Yes, he did. In fact, he didn't hesitate to lead the way!" Ondine blushed and King Monkey smiled nervously in response.

King Monkey's crown bleeped as one of its rings turned black. Ladybug cleared her throat. "I'll meet you on top of the roof where we started," she told him. The boy blushed slightly, nodded again and, with one last lingering touch of Ondine's hand, fled the pool area.

"Do you think I should tell him that I already have a boyfriend?" Ondine asked Ladybug in a semi-rhetorical tone.

"Oh, I think he knows," Ladybug replied as Ladydragon walked into the room, her pace fast and her expression urgent.

~*~*~

"Ondine, there is something that I have to tell you," Kim was saying to the girl. Ondine looked at the entwined hands and struggled to overcome her disorientation. Firstly, there had been this bizarre magical transformative episode, then King Monkey acting as if she was the centre of his world and then Kim being carried down from a rooftop by Ladybug for some reason. I mean, she could get that maybe Ladybug had stashed him up there to keep him away from the water but she wasn't sure why it was necessary. Then there was Kim being earnest which, given how trivial he usually tended to be, was strongly out of character.

"Ondine, babe, I've got to tell you that you're the best. Okay? You don't have to prove yourself to me or anyone else! Win, lose or draw… and I'm sure you'll win, okay? Anyway, you're not just the best athlete I've ever know, you're the best person and I don't ever want you doing something stupid like taking up some weird magical gifts that you don't know anything about because you think you're not good enough! You're great, babe! You're perfect in every way!" Kim squeezed Ondine's hands again. "Do you get that babe? Don't ever scare me like that again!"

"I… I promise, Kim!" The two teens kissed deeply, earning a loud sigh of approval from the crowd that had gathered around the Suzanne Berliox Pool in the aftermath of the short-lived magical incident.

To one side, her Miraculous long since automatically recharged, Ladybug didn't react as Ladydragon walked up. "Tell me," she murmured.

Ladydragon shook her head. "Nothing, Ladybug; I searched the pool three times and then checked the filtration rooms with Mei-Shi's help. There's no sign of the Prodigious of Athleticism and Water at all; I've got to assume that the Renling has moved on the way the others do."

Ladybug sighed in defeat. Another threat resolved but they were no closer to resolving this.

~*~*~

"Thank you for keeping me, Ondine. I'm sorry for letting my powers overwhelm you and I promise I won't interfere in your competitions going forwards!"

Ondine sighed as she stroked the cute little Otter Renling's head affectionately. "I understand, Luta. You were as confused as I was." She then wagged her finger at the little spirit. "This is only temporary, you understand? Until you find your… What was that term?"

"My Renren, yes and thank you, Ondine!" The glow of the blue-green gem on Ondine's new ankle chain faded and Luta faded from sight.

"I'm going to regret this…" Ondine muttered to herself.

Private Room - "GuardianStuffz" chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat/private0020
USERS: @BugBoss ([email protected]); @Foxybabe ([email protected])

@FoxyBabe: So, it's confirmed then?

@BossBug: Yes, Alya; just like I've told you before

@FoxyBabe: Sorry for going on girl but… I'm a little nervous

@FoxyBabe: A little scared too!

@BossBug: Look, this was bound to happen eventually.

@BossBug: I can't just keep dragging the Miracle Box around with me where I go

@BossBug: My parents and I have had this visit to London planned for over a year now

@BossBug: It would be too difficult to explain to Tante Shu-Yin what it is so I can't store it at her house anyway

@BossBug: I'm only taking the Butterfly Miraculous with me; you'll have everything else in the Miracle Box at my place.

@FoxyBabe: Yeah but what if something happens?

@BossBug: Then Chat Noir is in charge

@BossBug: Your only extra duty is to protect the Miracle Box, hand out Miraculous to the auxiliary members if you have to and distribute power-ups on need

@BossBug: I've been training you for this moment since we brought down Miracle King, Alys

@BossBug: You're ready for this

@FoxyBabe: Okay; brave smile on

@FoxyBabe: Enjoy your holiday

@BossBug: I'll try but I have no doubt that Paladin and MI8 will find some way to prevent that.

Chapter Text

Lynx, the Renling of Determination and Lightning knew that he had a… poor reputation amongst his kin; especially with that smug over-achiever Rattus. That said, he was sure, absolutely sure that he was going the right way about finding his Renren. Okay, so there had been a few false starts and a few errors along the way but it was in his nature to not easily be dissuaded.

Since escaping the strange being that Rattus had been working with in his own attempts to fulfil every Renling's sacred quest and that second run-in with the Keeper of the first Prodigious, Lynx had been keeping a low profile but that didn't mean that he wasn't still determined to complete this quest by any means necessary.

Sitting quietly in the pocket of an unsuspecting human, Lynx was following the scent of magic in the air and wondered if he was coming close to his goal.

"Mademoiselle Chloe, may I tidy your room now?"

"Of course you may, Jean-Pierre. The girls and I are going to be out for the rest of the day."

As the human… servant? It was certainly in line with his actions… As he began to tidy the living area, Lynx noticed that there was something nearby that had the most powerful magical aura. It wasn't just because it had been affected by magic but because the belief and love that it had been given for years. Something like this was certainly of great significance to its owners and that was something that attracted Lynx's attention. Determination had been here and he could use it to aid his own cause.

Rattus was a show-off and was unpredictable but Lynx was increasingly wondering if the Renling of Chaos and Fire had the right idea. If they made as big a show of their presence as they could, surely their Renren could not help but come and find them!

~*~*~

Chantal Hatou looked around nervously as she entered The Brat’s palatial room. Thank god, that monster of hers was out, likely walking on a leash with The Brat’s redheaded slave as if it was a pet cat rather than a gigantic predator that put most lions to shame. Oh, ‘Fuzzy’ (and it had to be The Brat that named the creature in such a witless way) had never attacked anyone. However, the way it looked at her when she was cleaning The Brat’s room made her fear that it was contemplating just how she might taste.

Being a housekeeper at the Grand Hotel Paris could be a difficult occupation at the best of times. Even at just 19 years old, she'd already learned to despise the super-rich who populated its halls and treated her like she was either a non-entity or someone who existed to satisfy their every whim. Oh, since the foul harpy that was the owner’s ex-wife had finally walked away from her family rather than continue with the pretence of being a wife and mother, things had got easier and The Brat’s new hobby (pretending to be one of those freak costumed heroes) kept her away from the staff so Chantal couldn’t honestly say if no longer having that woman around to emulate might have changed her ways. She’d never had any lengthy interactions with the girl anyway but the older staff had told horror stories and there was something about how she carried herself that made Chantal sure that she was looking down on everyone around her.

The woman stepped into the centre of the room. Oh, how she wished she could show her employers just the real meaning of power, position and authority! She’d make them all sorry for looking down on her and treating her as an anonymous non-entity! She’d use power in a far better way than that fat idiot did as mayor or how The Brat did whilst swanning around in that indecent skintight suit of hers with her friends and pretending to be heroes!

“Well, you are determined, aren’t you?”

Chantal froze at the sound of that squeaky voice, like that of a character in a child’s cartoon. It seemed to come from inside her head! Was this what it was like to be akumatised? “Who… Who said that?” she squeaked, suddenly rediscovering her fear.

“I believe that this object is called ‘Mr Cuddly’,“ the voice replied, amusement colouring its squeaky voice. Chantal turned her face to look at The Brat’s old plush toy and, to her dawning horror, it turned its head to look right back at her. 

Despite every instinct that told her to run, Chantal didn’t. Instead, she felt a sense of… energy. It was as if something was encouraging her and driving her forwards. “Yes, you are determined!" the voice continued. "You are determined to earn respect and make those who cause you fear know fear of you instead!” The maid nodded dumbly. Was the plush bear smiling at her? Her mind felt like it was stuffed full of cotton wool and she was having a hard time thinking straight. “Perhaps we can help each other? I’m looking for someone and I need to find some way to get someone special to see me. Maybe whilst I help you get the recognition and power that you so desperately want, you can help me be seen?”

“Wh… What do I do?” Whatever hesitation Chantal felt was gone. All she could think about was the straight line to her goals that she could now see in her mind’s eye.

The plush bear’s dyes lit up with golden yellow light. “Just let me ride with you.”

~*~*~

One day! Rena Rouge hissed in her head as she parkoured over the rooftops of Paris. Was it too much to ask for there to be more than one day after Mari left town before everything went completely to hell?

There was another 'crack-boom!' of lightning as the new supervillain threw another attack at Queen Bee who was taking a huge risk by continually flying low over her head in an attempt to keep her attention on her. If it wasn't utterly impossible, she'd assume that this was an akumatised villain, based on her complete and fanatic focus on fighting Queen Bee and Chat Noir ever since the heroes had arrived on the scene. 

It had all started so nicely this morning. With Gabriel Agreste currently keeping the walls of a prison cell occupied, it had been necessary to find other things to fill the Ladyblog apart from the very occasional attack by other supervillains (and, oddly enough, Enchantress and Janus acting out again weren't really that good press). So, she'd been doing a series of retrospectives about former Akuma hosts: What they thought made them vulnerable, what they thought of videos of their rampages and even what they'd do with their powers without Hawkmoth's fanatic focus on Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses to drive them into conflict with Paris's heroes.

Juleka had threatened to do something anatomically impossible with her intestines so something about Reflekta (and, by extension, Princess Fragrance) was impossible. However, she really had a stroke of luck with Aurore Boreal who, as it turned out loved talking about herself.

She was getting into the second hour of her interview when there was a boom of thunder. "That wasn't me, by the way," Aurore said, earning a slight chuckle from Alya. At that point, her phone started to ring with the unique tone Max had programmed to warn the team that, civilian form or not, they had incoming Team Miraculous communications traffic incoming.

Alya was never entirely sure if Aurore accepted her excuse for suddenly terminating the interview.

Rena and Chat Noir had reached the origin spot of the Akuma alert to find Queen Bee hiding just around the corner from an out-of-city shopping street centred on one of the usual ornamentally-decorated crossroads so typical of Paris. "Queenie, what's going on?"

“If I knew, Foxy, I’d tell you.” She shook her head. “Whoever this is, they’ve got a real issue with the service industry!”

“Girl! Fetch me a coffee!” screeched a hideously-distorted version of a woman’s voice. “Boy, I’ll have a croissant! How about saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’? Or maybe learning our names?!?”

Chat took a peek around the corner and saw something eye-straining that matched the weirdest of his father’s akumatised creations during his rampage. She was dressed as a teddy bear, right down to a hood with round bear-style ears and a face mask with a black button nose. Specifically, she was dressed as a teddy bear with Mr Cuddly’s colours. Chat’s eyes snapped to the costumed woman’s back where the real Mr Cuddly clung. “So, what do you think we should do next, Mr Cuddly?” The obviously-crazy women asked.

Much to Chat’s shock, the plush bear’s head moved slightly and seemed to be whispering into her ear. The woman laughed in a crazed way. “Oh, we can’t do that! Whoever would clean up the mess?” She paused. “Although… Maybe that gives me an idea!”

There were a half-dozen people, probably the patrons of one of the low-quality franchise coffee shops around the crossroads, who were handing mid-air nearby, suspended by crackling lighting that was forming energy cuffs around their wrists and ankles. With a gesture, they were launched forwards and fell at the base of a couple of street cleaners' carts that had obviously been abandoned. “Why don’t you clean up your mess?” the woman hissed. “Rather than leave it for someone else, why not take responsibility for your own detritus?”

“I only spilled my coffee because you attacked the shop…” one of the men squeaked in a way that Chat felt was either brave or foolish.

“SILENCE! I WON’T TAKE ANY BACK-TALK FROM THE LIKES OF YOU, PARASITE!”

"Okay, this has gone far enough," Chat Noir growled before somersaulting around the corner. The Cat Hero landed right in front of the crazed woman and posed casually with his staff resting across his shoulders and his wrists hooked over the ends. "Now, Cherie, there is no need to be un-bear-able. He might even shock you with the quality of his lifestyle and attitude towards others." Chat's face lost its casual grin. "Either way, you've already hurt too many people and now this has got to end!"

The woman growled. "One of the so-called 'heroes of Paris'!" she spat. "You're nothing but enablers! When have you stood up for the ordinary people in the face of the exploiters!" Chat briefly considered debating their role in Anarka's election but decided that would be counter-productive. In any case, he doubted this woman was sane enough to debate; the magic that was doubtless infecting her would probably be messing up her cognition quite badly.

Queen Bee stepped up beside her childhood best friend and inspected where her fingernails would be if they weren't invisible under her black magilycra costume gloves. "Really, this is utterly ridiculous," she remarked. "Do you really think that we're still living in a time of indentured servitude or something? Armand d'Argencourt didn't even get over three percent at the last mayoral election!" The Bee Heroine was about to continue on her lecture about employment in the modern global free market when she realised that the woman was staring at her with her eyes sparkling with hate and her voice trailed off.

"You!" she hissed. "You're the one! How many, brat? How many lives have you destroyed with your sense of entitlement?"

"Hey, now I've changed a lot since I was a girl!" Queen Bee protested.

"No you haven't!" the woman spat back. "You can't change! You'll never change! It will always be about lording it over others and the so-called heroes of Paris welcome you into their number!" Much to everyone's shock, she brandished Mr Cuddly, holding up the plush as if he was a protective charm. "Well, Mr Cuddly has given me the power to strike back!" There was a bright yellow flash and the white belly of her costume suddenly had a yellow electrical hazard warning symbol there. "I'll tell you this brat: Your condescendtion and false heroism makes Mr Cuddly very cross!"

Both the woman's eyes and that of the plush bear lit up with golden light and Chat Noir barely tackled Queen Bee out of the way before a quadruple lightning bolt flashed through the place the blonde had been standing and struck a subcompact car that promptly exploded.

"I am Despair Bear!" the woman shouted. "You can look upon me and indeed despair at the end of your power! Now flee, you parasites!"

The two heroes jumped in opposite directions, trained reflex to avoid the ranged attacks of a villain who had them.

"Swarm!" Queen Bee cried out as she pointed her Trompo at the villain. A stream of bee constructs shot towards Despair Bear, who raised her hand creating a disc-shaped shield of sparkling electricity. The constructs struck the shield and puffed uselessly into yellow smoke. At that moment, Chat Noir closed in and caught the supervillain in the small of her back with his Staff, sending her flying.

Despair Bear lay stunned for a few moments as the two heroes advanced on her and, surreally, once again, the plush bear moved up her back from its place like a child's novelty backpack and seemed to whisper into her ear. "Thank you Mr Cuddly!" she gasped and gestured. Electricity crackled over the metal legs of various bits of furniture and they were lifted into the air, launching themselves at the two heroes. Chat had to side-somersault out of the way and Queen Bee launched herself into the air to avoid the attack aimed at her.

In the resulting chaos as Chat and Queen Bee dodged the flying furniture, Rena had finished evacuating the patrons of the various cafes and shops that Despair Bear had attacked. The appearance of the heroes (and apparently especially Queen Bee) had completely distracted this villain from taking out her social rage on the patrons. It somehow was inevitable that this would somehow be due to Chloe being Chloe, even if she wasn't like that anymore and this woman seemed to have big issues in accepting that maybe she wasn’t the same person she was two years ago.

Rena glanced around and tried to take in what was happening, trying to figure out what to do and wishing that she had Ladybug's environmental intuition about what was a villain's vulnerability or how to use things around her as weapons or traps. Then she realised that the electric arcs were not coming from the woman but from the plush toy! Suddenly, she flashed back to the footage that someone had got of Markov's rampage a couple of weeks ago that Marinette had told her was the work of one of the gems from the Second Prodigious. That was it! This was a Prodigious incident and that meant the woman would be powerless if she could be isolated from the gemstone!

Rena hefted the Fox Flute like a javelin and threw it with dead-eyed accuracy, knocking the plush bear off of the woman's back. It worked like a dream. Instantly, the furniture dropped from the air with a clatter. The woman's scream of furious denial showed that she knew the source of her power too. She lunged for the plush bear and got there just a moment before the three heroes who were converging on her. There was an enormous thunder-clap and all three of them went flying from the sudden electrical discharge.

"Guys, that toy somehow is carrying a Prodigious!" Rena yelled. "They're sentient and they'll defend themselves. Lure her away from civilians and keep her off-balance!"

"Oh shut up!" Despair Bear hissed but Rena was already out of the way of the lightning bolt she sent her way.

"We've got to find a way to separate her from the bear!" Chat yelled, deflecting a lightning bolt with his spinning staff and forcing the woman to stumble backwards to avoid a cut at throat level from his Catscratch entropy blade which effortlessly slashed through the electrical field bubble around her. Chat Noir backed off, reminding himself that M'Lady was not around so he had to be more careful about how he used the easily-lethal powers gifted to him by Plagg.

~*~*~

Rena Rouge landed on the roof of the temporarily-closed Tom & Sabine's Boulangerie Patisserie. She hadn't expected this. Marinette had explained exactly what would happen when she temporarily placed the guardian role on Alya but still she hadn't expected it, when she'd tried to cast Mirage to confuse Despair Bear and give Chat and Queenie time to find cover, instead, she'd got a bizarre image of a beagle that danced around the supervillain's legs briefly before spontaneously dematerialising.

Despair Bear had been visibly flummoxed and had laughed scornfully as Rena Rouge had suddenly fled. In fact, it had been enough for the Fox Heroine to know exactly what to do. She knew that Chat and Queenie were more than good enough to stay out of the supervillain's line of fire whilst keeping her completely occupied.

Rena extended the Fox Flute and inserted its end into the complex mechanical contraption that Marinette had installed on her skylight. It wasn't any kind of physical key; the lock was instead responding to Alya's intrinsic aura and the magic of the Fox Miraculous. She twisted to the right and the skylight popped open, giving her access.

Marinette's bedroom was spookily quiet without her friend's hyperactive presence but Rena had practiced this enough that it was nearly automatic. She pressed a half-dozen thread reels in the box stored under the bed platform in a seemingly-random order that would be meaningless to someone not knowing colour theory; the structure folded open, letting the basketball-sized red-and-black Miracle Box to rise free to hang in mid-air. Rena bit her lip and swivelled the ball around its centre-of-volume and then pressed the black circle closest to her, which lit up in a tan-orange shade with the outline of an Alsatian's head. The circle popped out to reveal a drawer inside of which was a torc necklace with dogs' heads at either end. Rena folded her flute lengthways, placed her thumbs to the join between the two halves and pushed outwards, revealing a seemingly-bottomless storage compartment glowing with orange light. She dropped the Dog Miraculous inside and straightened up as she pushed the drawer shut.

Rena drew in a deep breath, recentring herself for a moment and letting herself feel what Trixx was trying to tell her. Of course! Illusion and misdirection! Despair Bear had not shown any unusual awareness of what was around her! If she couldn’t see her foes, she couldn't react to them! Rena delved into the bottom of the thread box in which the Miracle Box was stored and drew out a package with the branding of Tom & Sabine's Boulangerie Patisserie. "Should have taken one of these the moment I knew Mari was going to be out of town," she muttered to herself, tucking it into the Flute's dimensional pocket too.

Rena closed the storage compartment and unfolded the Flute into its true form. Remembering to hide the Miracle Box again, she sprang for the skylight.

~*~*~

"This is ridiculous!" That was Chat speaking, not Queen Bee. His staff blow was absorbed by the sphere of static electricity around this 'Despair Bear'. Although she was knocked back a few paces from the sheer force of the attack, she obviously wasn't hurt. Once again, Queen Bee launched a Swarm at the supervillain and none of her bee constructs were able to get close.

"Keep pounding away, Chatty!" Queen Bee urged. "We have to get to Mr Cuddly! I'm sure he's the source of her power too… As crazy as that sounds!"

The two superheroes and the supervillain were now fighting across the 18^th-Century tiled rooftops of the terraces of central Paris. The moment that the heroes mentioned her plush companion, Despair Bear visibly reacted, seemingly proving Queen Bee's theory of the importance of the plush toy. "You leave him alone!" Despair Bear she screamed and sent crackling arcs of lightning out in random directions. Regaining her focus, she charged up for another powerful lightning bolt cast just in time for Chat to tap the rooftop with his staff end. "Calameowty!" There was a crackle of entropy and the tiles and roof timbers splintered under Despair Bear's feet, sending her plunging into the attic of the building below with a cry of surprise and, doubtless, pain.

There was a long pause before, with a shriek of fury, the supervillain exploded out of a window, levitating in a bubble of electromagnetic force and paused. Suddenly all of the heroes were around her; many multiple versions of them. She stared around herself in horror, trying to work out what to do next. They are illusions her plush bear companion told her. There is no life here!

"If they're illusions, then let them be gone!" A spherical shockwave of electricity flashed out, turning each of the illusory heroes into a puff of orange smoke that quickly dispersed. She looked around her. "Where are Chat Noir and Queen Bee? You cowards! Face me!!!" Of course, there was only silence. With a hiss of anger, Despair Bear began to flit from building to building, frantically searching for her foes.

A few rooftops away, Chat Noir landed first and straightened up as Queen Bee landed at his side. Waiting for him were Rena Rouge and Miss Hound, who was immediately engulfed by Queen Bee's hug accompanied by a squeal of delight. "Okay guys, here's the plan!" Rena said. "I'm pretty sure that this is a Prodigious incident. That means that we need to separate that crazy from the plush toy and then destroy it!" Queen Bee visibly winced but didn't protest aloud. "The problem is that we can't get close to her without her using her shield! So, we need to arrange things that she doesn't know that she needs to protect anything!"

Rena repeated her storage compartment trick and pulled three pink macarons out of the bottomless orange light. "Snack time, heroes; fortunately, we've got some tricks that I doubt she's ready to counter." The other three heroes ate the treats (Queen Bee with a very clear grimace – she'd never liked macarons). All three of them were surrounded by pink light and their costumes changed noticably, going greyscale with no visible colour at all. Rena nodded in satisfaction. "Okay, Shadow Noir, Shadow Bee and Shadow Hound, I'll draw Despair Bear's attention and you get into position!"

Chat looked at his hands as the black parts of his costume turned semi-invisible (and him with it). "Cool power-up, Foxy! Is this one of M'Lady's potions?"

Rena grinned. "When are they not? I can just about manage to brew them with her looking over my shoulders!"

~*~*~

"Oh, Plush Bear Gal, where are yooouuu?" Rena sang out as she landed in the middle of a crossroads not far from where she'd seen Despair Bear last. "You'd better get out here or I'm gonna start bullying low-income workers until you do!" Rena couldn't believe that she was saying that but it genuinely seemed to be Despair Bear's trigger and, as with Hawkmoth's akumas, you apparently had to press the trigger buttons of people to get them to come running into traps! It was weird but the Prodigious seemed to affect people in the same way as akumas, leaving them utterly focussed on one goal (or one behaviour) above all other things and completely unable to think straight.

There was an approaching rumble of thunder and Rena looked up to see a sparkling ball of golden light in the sky dropping towards her. She easily somersaulted clear as Despair Bear attempted to body slam her. There was a 'bang' of discharging electricity and the supervillain stood up, clearly a bit woozy from the impact. "Where are your friends, Rena Rouge?" Despair Bear growled.

"Oh come on! Do you think that I need more than me to stop a silly idiot borrowing power that she can't understand!"

"I'll show you!" Suddenly, Despair Bear was holding two jagged lightning bolts like they were daggers and lashing out at the fox heroine. Rena easily blocked the slashing attacks with her flute.

"Not that easily, I seems! You've got lots of power, lady, but no skill!"

"Mr Cuddly has empowered me to make everyone respect me!" Despair Bear cried in a mixture of rage and desperation. "You'll regret mocking me… also for disrespecting him!" Out of the corner of her eye, Rena saw a hint of motion behind the supervillain that were like masses of rippling transparent water moving indistinctly against the background. Anytime now, guys…!

Despair Bear grunted with surprise as an orange and black ball struck Mr Cuddly where it was hanging on her back like a child's backpack. She swung around and shot a random lightning bolt in that general direction but Rena saw the outline of Shadow Noir carrying Paris's newest hero up onto a rooftop. "Where are you? Show yourselves, cowards!"

"Fetch!" A voice cried out, seemingly from nowhere and Mr Cuddly vanished in a flash of orange-tan light.

"Venom!" Shadow Bee was suddenly visible as she slammed her Trompo into the woman's midsection from directly ahead, making her keel over backwards, frozen perfectly in place.

"Cataclysm!" Although paralysed, Despair Bear could see Shadow Hound and Shadow Noir on the rooftop and her eyes visibly showed panic and despair as Shadow Noir, his clawed glove surrounded with green-black entropy, touched the plush bear, which immediately unravelled, its fur discolouring and falling out and its stuffing degenerating into crumbs of unravelling cotton wool fibre.

"Sorry, Mr Cuddly," Shadow Bee said sadly. "I'll always remember you!" She looked down as, with a crackle of static in the air, Despair Bear's costume turned into arcs of electricity and, underneath, revealed the uniform of a housekeeper from her father's hotel. She looked into the resentful eyes that met hers. "Wait, I know you! It's… Chantal, isn't it? You have been assigned to clean my floor on the hotel for the past week!" She scowled as she realised that the woman was still under the influence of Venom and couldn't answer. "Oh, for pity's sake!" She hauled the woman to her feet and, with an exertion of will, cancelled the effect of her attack. The former Despair Bear immediately began to move and yanked her hand out of Queen Bee's.

"Keep away from me! You've taken my revenge and my right to equal power from me!" Queen Bee was genuinely surprised and it showed. When someone had been freed from being akumatised by Hawkmoth, their first reaction was disorientation followed by anguish and shame when they realised what they had probably just done. In her experience, only her mother and Lila Rossi had this angry reaction before.

Rena stepped forwards. "Ma'am, you were influenced by uncontrolled magic! You weren't in charge of your thoughts…"

"Don't patronise me!" Chantal yelled. "I had the chance to make your kind fear me and recognise me as more than a servant and you took it away! You think that I'd thank you or forgive you?" She looked around in panic. "Where did the power go? There must have been something other than that damn bear behind it! I have to find it!"

Shadow Noir and Shadow Hound jumped down to join the other two heroes on the street. "It's gone," Shadow Noir said. "The power is sentient and is good at hiding. I doubt that you'll ever touch it again." He'd seen a lot of dangerous folk since first being entrusted with the Black Cat Miraculous but there was something about the resentful rage in the woman's eyes that made Shadow Noir take a step back.

Loyal as she was, Shadow Hound stepped up to defend her best friend. "Chloe isn't the bad person she used to be! She's a better person and she's trying to…"

"Oh shut up!" Chantal yelled into the redheaded Dog Heroine's face. "You're just too stupid to see the truth about her! She's a lying fake who is trying to make the world forget what a brat she is by playing hero!" The brown-haired housemaid tore off her Grand Hotel ID tag and threw it at the surprised Shadow Bee. "You can tell your fat slug of a father that I quit, Brat!" she spat. "Destitution is better than doing whatever minimum I can get away with in that place without being fired!" With that, she stormed off, yelling abuse at curious passers-by who were gathering to see the new 'akuma'.

"Charming woman," Shadow Noir muttered. "I actually wish that M'Lady and I had children so that I could forbid them to hang out with her!"

"I doubt that you'd have to bother," Rena remarked with a shrug. "She strikes me as the sort of person who is about as fun as a road traffic accident an about as draining on the spirit!"

Shadow Bee had visibly deflated and was hugging herself, her eyes unfocussed. "I… thought that everyone knew I was changing!" she whispered brokenly.

Suddenly she was enveloped in the other three heroes' arms. "You have, girl," Rena said. "It's just that some people find it easier to pretend that the world and the people in it never change. That way, they don't have to think about how they need to change in response and instead just keep right on blaming the same scapegoats for their problems."

"You're a good person, Chloe," Shadow Noir added as Shadow Hound gave her friend a kiss on the cheek.

~*~*~

A few days later, Zoe Bourgeois was in Paris's most expensive bespoke toy shop. It had taken her an age to find all the bits that had been left behind by Chat Noir's Cataclysm and collect them together. She was quite proud of that effort. She was even prouder that she would, at last, be able to repay her sister for all the good she had done for her, even though it set her back €10,000! Well, she had to do something with the ludicrously generous allowance her father had started giving her from the moment she first arrived in Paris!

Zoe pulled open her First Nation-decorated satchel and deposited Mr Cuddly within. Some things should be preserved, after all, no matter who or what tries to corrupt them for evil or selfish ends.

"There is one other thing Mademoiselle Bourgeois!" the artisan plush toymaker told her. Zoe paused on her way out and turned back to him in surprise. "I found this in the core of one of the bits of cotton wool fibre. It must have been in the toy from the start but I can't imagine why such a thing should have happened!" The man reached out and dropped a yellow-white gemstone about the size of a thumbnail into Zoe's outstretched hand. "I'm presuming that your sister had hidden this treasure in her bear for some reason? Please return it to her for me so she knows that we are honest craftsmen here!"

Zoe looked at the subtlly-glowing gem and absent-mindedly nodded in agreement.

The gem felt weird; warm but also familiar somehow. Zoe thought that she may have seen it before but there was one thing about which she was certain: It felt right in her hands; there was a definite sensation of something being at home. The unset gem was certainly not something she'd seen in her sister's possession. Right now, she felt right in thinking that she should look after it for now until she found out to whom it truly belonged.

~*~*~

Chantal Hatou felt… uncomfortable. If there was one person who was more objectionable to her than that little Brat, it was her harpy of a mother. Yet, she was not that naïve; nor was she that self-destructively proud. She needed a job and when a janitorial position opened up at Style Queen's Paris office (and appeared at the top of her list of job-search results), she jumped at the chance. What she hadn't expected was to be interviewed by the company's owner and chief executive, Audrey Regine.

The woman was everything Chantal hated about the rich: Dressed in bespoke clothes and dripping with jewels and the other accoutrements of wealth. What made this experience that little bit more surreal was the Native American hair decoration ending in a raven feather tucked over her left ear; if nothing else, it was more than a little theme-breaking for the woman compared to her black-and-white pantsuit. Chantal couldn't work out exactly what was going on here. She knew the Style Queen in passing from when she'd lived at the hotel and knew that the woman would never normally demean herself in her own eyes this way by concerning herself with the filling of a janitorial role.

As Chantal had suspected, Audrey had only been pretending to listen to Chantal's answers to the standardised facilities custodian interview questions; they weren't even slightly what she was interested in. "So, Mademoiselle Hatou, I think that we can dispense with the pretence here."

Chantal raised her eyebrows in only somewhat-feigned surprise. "P… Pretence?"

Audrey gestured. "Please don’t insult my intelligence by pretending innocence and ignorance. You are entirely qualified for the janitorial role but you don't honestly think that I took personal interest in filling this menial role for no reason? As if I didn't know who you were and the interesting little exploit you carried out a couple of days ago?" Audrey smirked. "I actually fired a perfectly good… or at least invisibly mediocre… janitor to lure you to me!"

Audrey turned in her chair and pressed a button on a remote control. Instantly, the transparent wall panel behind the world-famous fashion journalist turned into a huge LCD display screen and Chantal was treated to CCTV recordings of Despair Bear's rampage seen from multiple angles. She tried to say something and failed. She tried to stand up and storm out of the office before the police poured in from somewhere to arrest her but instead she felt rooted to the spot by some uncanny power, unable to flee what was undoubtedly the truth.

Audrey grinned. "That, my dear girl, was the most hideous costume for a supervillain that I've ever seen and I personally reviewed each of the costumes that Gabriel Agreste subconsciously created for every akumatised villain!" She pressed the button again, freezing the playback on Chantal's face just after Queen Bee had used Venom on her. The look of surprise, despair and rage on her face was quite the sight. "You actually look quite stupid at that point," Audrey remarked. "I don't blame you for that; you'd been completely out-thought and you must have feared that those stupid children were going to kill you or something. Still, you were a novice and it would have taken a miracle for you to have done better." Audrey grinned. "Or maybe… a Miraculous?"

Chantal drew in a deep breath. "Ma'am… What is this about?"

Audrey laughed. "I wonder if you're intelligent to guess that?" she asked rhetorically. "No, don't say anything you ridiculous person; I wouldn't have lowered myself to personally speak to you if I didn't think that you had some… potential." It was at that point that Chantal realised that a strange creature was hovering beside the woman's head, a hand-sized chibi anthro-raven that was looking at Audrey in a way that was… disappointed and resigned? She wondered what the story was there! Then she realised that seeing some kind of spirit being with the woman and doubtless associated with her in some way hadn't surprised her at all! She was obviously a stranger in a strange land that was getting stranger all the time!

Audrey gestured carelessly. "Mademoiselle Hatou, the janitorial position is yours but it will never be more than a cover for a far more important role in my organisation for which I am sure you will turn out to be ideal." Audrey swung her chair around in a circle before leaning forward with her chin leaning on a bridge formed by her interlocked fingers and grinning at the former hotel housekeeper in a very, very predatory way. "I am in the unique position of being able to recruit… suitable personalities for the most unique of roles, acting as the enforcers for a secret organisation that I and a handful of others across the world use to elevate the truly worthy to the positions that they intrinsically deserve." Audrey leaned back. "These ones are empowered by secret means to use Power to both carry out our will and bring destruction on our foes. You've shown yourself to have the determination and intrinsic skills to make use of these powers in an effective way."

Chantal's head was swimming but she still had enough sense to ask a question. "I'm assuming that this power comes with terms and conditions." She drew in a shaky breath. "I'm also assuming that saying 'no' at this point is signing my own death warrant."

Audrey laughed. "Of course it does. Yes, you'll be a servant but only of a handful of the most powerful people on Earth… and, most importantly, you'll have the power to resist those so-called 'heroes'… including my dear, dear failure of a daughter."

Chantal felt a dark satisfaction deep within her and a very angry and cruel smile split her lips, similar to the one on her new employer's face. "Tell me what I have to do."

"For starters, when we're in private, you should start calling me 'Mistress Audrey'; it's a formal reference that will tell other members of our organisation that you are under my tutelage and authority." Audrey reached into her desk and pulled out a small octagonal box with an elaborate Pre-Columbian geometric in silver on a red background on the lid. Audrey flipped open the lid to reveal a leather fist-strap with four bear's claws tied to the back like a primitive knuckleduster. "Secondly, from now on, you should wear this little treasure: This is the Bear Miraculous of the Thunder, which will grant you the power to do whatever I want: Steal whatever I want stolen; enrich anyone I want enriched; impoverish whoever I want impoverished; silence whoever I want silenced… kill whoever I want killed."

Without any hesitation, even as a quiet voice in her head screamed at her to stop, Chantal reached out for the Bear Miraculous. This was what she wanted after all: To be equal to the powerful and humiliate those who once stood over her. If the price was making a show of prostrating herself to this harpy and even her soul, it was a fair exchange in her mind.

"So," Audrey continued. "There is the small trifle of casting the binding loyalty oath to the Order Hidden in the Darkness."

Chapter Text

WazzApp! - @SneakrDiva

@TheOfficialChloeB: Hey, Zo! You online?

@SneakrDiva: Yeah, I am Chlo; what’s going on?

@TheOfficialChloeB: Never guess who has finally got out of the city!

@TheOfficialChloeB: SHARED stylequeenbails013.jpg

@TheOfficialChloeB: I feel better already!

@SneakrDiva: Yeah, I feel you

@SneakrDiva: She never tried to contact me after setting her pet supervillain on me at the hotel

@SneakrDiva: Still,  I guess I was worried she might try something!

@TheOfficialChloeB: She’s obviously smart enough to know that there was no point

@TheOfficialChloeB: You’re too tough minded to be fooled by her lies!

@SneakrDiva: #~_~#

@SneakrDiva: Hey, isn’t that the housemaid who cleans our floor of the hotel?

@TheOfficialChloeB: WAS, Zoe; WAS

@TheOfficialChloeB: She gets turned into a supervillain, we kick her butt and then she quits and ends up carrying Audrey’s bags?

@SneakrDiva: (!)

@TheOffiicialChloeB: Nothing good comes from a coincidence like that!

@SneakrDiva: Wel, at least she’s gone out of town!

Zoe was standing on her room’s balcony, watching the city’s early evening skyline and she shook her head whilst lowering her phone after reading her sister’s last post. She agreed but a part of her couldn’t help but wonder if that was a symptom of a hidden disadvantage of being a superhero: Always worrying about where the next villain would come from. As much as she envied her sister for her fame it seemed to her that it came with some pretty serious drawbacks.

Of course, the fact that Chloe really didn’t want the fame any more (she was well aware of her sister’s earlier publicity-seeking before the ‘Miracle Queen’ incident) in its own way made that sense of awareness of her fame that bit stronger and sharper. Not only was she a global celebrity as the only one of Paris’s heroes whose secret identity was publicly known, she really didn’t want it and was actually more than a little afraid of what that fame might bring to her door.

Zoe acknowledged that there was a time that her sister’s fame and the humility with which she responded to it would be like shards of glass being grated into her skin. However, in the aftermath of Black Gold’s attempt to break her will, she was a lot less interested in external validation. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t looking for some way she could take her life that would really make a difference but doing that so others could cheer her on was a bit too close to Audrey’s mind-set for her comfort.

Subconsciously, Zoe found herself rubbing the bracelet that Chloe, seemingly on a whim, had given to her as a ‘retroactive birthday present’. Ever since she had (on a whim of her own) had decided to keep that yellow jewel, the bracelet had… Not felt tighter as much as it seemed to fit better? Zoe couldn’t explain it in any way that made rational sense. 

Zoe rubbed her arm nervously. She still was regularly telling herself that there was no reason for her to hand in that jewel to anyone. There was no possible way that Chloe could have known it was there and how could Jean-Pierre have possibly put it there when he bought Mr Cuddly all those long years ago? No, something told Zoe that this gem was something else and she was struggling with the impulse to keep it that was warring with the very, very modern Parisian suspicion of random and somewhat-supernatural objects coming into your life.

Zoe was about to go back into her room to look at the gem again and decide finally what to do with it when there was a sudden noise of shattering concrete that cut through the air. The blonde girl’s head snapped around to see, in the evening gloom, the crossover bridge linking the two sides of an office block in the middle distance suddenly shift in a way no element of a building should. Faintly through the air, she heard the screams of panic. It was 6pm and it was filled with workers going to the lifts to return to street level and travel home. Zoe’s ears also picked up the groan of tortured metal joints twisting and straining.

“Oh mon dieu!” she screamed. She turned her head frantically. “Chloe! Kagami!” she screamed at the top of her voice before realising that her sister and her sister’s girlfriend were on a date at a theatre tonight. Oh god, why tonight? Why when I don’t know how to reach anyone quickly? That bridge is going to collapse! All those people are going to die! I have to do something! What can I do? If only I had some way to help them!

“That is a noble aspiration, young lady!” Zoe’s head slowly tracked to a sweet little anthro-falcon hovering beside her, coloured royal blue with white panels and black highlights. 

“Uuuhhh…?” Oh, well done Bourgeois. A very, very intelligent response. She looked at the creature and immediately noticed both the similarities and the differences with Pollen and Longg. “Are you a kwami?”

The falcon-chibi laughed musically. “No, silly! I’m Falco and I’m the Renling of Aspiration and Air!” Zoe reflexively looked around herself again, half expecting chaos to break out around her. A Renling! That was what the Ladyblog was calling the lost spirits that had been randomly causing havoc in Paris over the past few weeks! Once again, Zoe felt frustration that Chloe and her friends weren’t around. 

Then Zoe’s attention was drawn again to the crossover bridge as it shifted again and was very visibly about to come loose from the two buildings. “I’ve got to help those people!” the words were out of Zoe’s mouth before her brain had caught up with how impossible that was.

Falco looked at Zoe levelly. “I believe you and I feel it in you that you aspire to live up to both your sister’s example and to deny your mother’s own way. Keep that in your heart, Zoe Bourgeois. Focus on it!” Zoe looked at the bracelet and noticed that one of the blue gems was now shining brightly. She slowly lifted her left arm, fist clenched, as she looked at the gem. Suddenly, she remembered how she’d helped Paladin and the strange wind that had carried her clumsily-thrown weapon

There was another groan of failing metal parts. “I will do something!” she yelled out, no longer worrying about consequences and the possibility that, like so many others, the power of the Renling might corrupt her. “Falco, help me!” 

“WHOOPEEEEEE!!!” Falco screeched as she was suddenly sucked into the glowing blue gem and was absorbed into it. The blue light coalesced into the stylised outline of a hovering falcon’s wing and tail feathers. “Falco!” Zoe yelled out and…

Suddenly she wasn’t Zoe at all, because Zoe Bourgeois didn’t have wings, feathers, a beak and supernaturally-accurate distance vision that let her see the dozen or more terrified people in the collapsing crossover bridge. Zoe launched herself off the balcony and caught the evening thermals on her wings, circling up for a moment before tucking her wings back and stooping forward, accelerating to a blurring fast flight as she lanced towards the tilting crossover bridge.

The structure was still twisting and one of the windows popped out of the warping structure. With a scream, a woman with brown hair in a neat bun dropped through the sudden gap. Zoe could see every detail as she flared her wings and cut into a tight turn around the woman. Wind howled and the woman was suddenly slowly drifting towards the ground below inside a tightly-controlled whirlwind.

The woman gaped stupidly as the giant bird of prey metamorphosed into a blue-white column of flame that resolved into a blonde teenager wearing a blue-and-white body stocking and a black-edged blue-and-white domino mask. Her loose blonde hair had a  blue stripe with grey and black edges dyed into the left-hand bangs. The girl was looking at her white-gloved hands with a visible air of shock. “Uh… Thank you? Wh… Who…?” She looked up and screamed as, suddenly, the crossover bridge finally snapped loose and, surrounded by falling masonry, metal parts and glass, dropped towards them.

The girl, seemingly on a reflex, threw up her arms in a warding motion (revealing semi-circular white gliding wings attached to the bottom of her arms as she did so) and there was another roar of wind. The falling crossover bridge slowed its fall, the miscellaneous debris scattering in all directions. 

Slowly, the bridge lowered to the ground at the costumed girl’s feet. As soon as it settled in place, the other people all began to stagger out. A few phone cameras flashed as they took pictures of the obvious new super-heroine as she stood, looking on in shock. 

“Guys! Look at this! A new hero!”

“Cool! Which of the Miraculous do you use?”

“Is Chat Noir as dreamy as they say?”

“Miss! You saved me! Please! I love you!”

Zoe shook her head. Chloe didn’t seek publicity so neither should she do so. Seemingly responding to the power of her aspiration to live up to her sister’s example, the sensation of power grew again and, with another flash of blue-white flame, she was in her falcon form again, soaring back towards the hotel.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat.php

Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY

User: renarouge_verified (@foxybabe) - CO-ADMIN

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Babe! Get onto TVi now!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Something’s blowing up!

@IStingU: I’ll say! Since when was there a ‘falcon’ hero?

@FoxyBabe: Okay, everyone settle down. Mel, Babe, what are you on about?

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Like I said, watch the news, Ayls! A new hero is in town

@FoxyBabe: Okay, just back from looking at the TVi stream and…

@FoxyBabe: I should have told Mari not to go on vacation

@IStingU: I'm taking that as meaning that you don't know who this girl is

@FoxyBabe: I never even knew that there *was* a Falcon Miraculous

@Cool4Catz: Actually, Alya, I don't think that's a Miraculous at all.

@FoxyBabe: Yeah… No power name and no indication of a timer of any kind even though she can't be any older than us

@FoxyBabe: Plus the animal morphing and wind control are totally different kinds of power!

@Cool4Catz: Right; the Miraculous just don't work like that.

@IStingU: What else could it be though? I can't imagine an intrinsic metahuman could just *appear* with powers that strong!

@Cool4Catz: I'll tell you who has powers like that: @ManyAnimalGirl.

@FoxyBabe: The Prodigious? Okay, this is an alert, guys. Any hint of who that is, chase it down.

@TrueQueeen: Hey guys, what did I and @DragonGrrrl miss whilst we were at the show?

Zoe drew in a deep breath and let it out as she tried to control her instinct to freak out as she looked at herself in her full-length dressing mirror. The costume was mostly aqua blue, now she was in decent light. There was a black-bordered white stripe forming a rhombus running from her crotch to her neck with the widest point being across her chest. The gloves and boots were also white, ending at the elbows and knees respectively with jagged edges. 

Zoe ran her gloved fingers across her mask uncertainly. It didn't feel painted on; there was a definite layer to it over her skin but it didn't shift but, when she tugged on it, it stretched her skin. The bracelet was part of the costume, which made sense, tight around her left bicep with the blue gem shining gently. 

The thing that really caught her eye was the symbol on her chest, a ring of six hexagons starting with one at the top and bottom, two rows of two with a seventh in the centre and an eighth like the stalk on a flower. Interestingly, the lower middle hexagon had the same stylised falcon outline as the one on the blue gem that was obviously associated with Falco.

"Okay, this is cool but… How do I get it off?" She tugged futilely on the collar. "Come on, I want you off!" There was a blue-white flash and, suddenly, it was gone and she was back in her everyday clothes. There was a long pause as Zoe boggled at her reflection. "Please don't tell me it's that simple!"

"How complicated is it supposed to be?" Falco asked in a genuinely puzzled tone. 

Zoe collapsed onto the bench in front of her vanity and ran her hand across her face. "This will do fine, thank you." 

Falco was zipping about Zoe's room and very obviously getting into things like her wardrobe and her makeup; several things flew through the air. "Hey, Falco! Please stop that! Don't make a mess!"

"This is so interesting!" the Renling was squeaking excitedly. "I can smell so much magic in the air! Do you know anyone else with magic?" Zoe spluttered and was about to mention her sister before mentally biting her tongue. Wait a minute; do I even need to hide Chloe's secret from anyone? Especially from a magical creature?

Falco was floating around Zoe's ornamental jewellery box in interest. "Ooh! Pretty!" she squeaked in her usual high-pitched voice. 

"It is and it's personal and private, thank you Falco."

"I know someone in there!" The Renling announced. 

Zoe blinked. "What."

"My brother is in there!"

"Your…" Zoe shook her head. "No, that's insane and this is an insane conversation. I'll prove it to you." Zoe took off the box's heavy gold-decorated lid and Falco dived right in, nearly throwing aside the removable tray in which Zoe kept her ear-rings, wrist bands and other small items. "Woah! Wait, what are you?"

"Lynx, are you sleeping?" Falco sang out. "Wake up!"

Much to Zoe's shock (although, at the same time, she was wondering why it was a shock), the mysterious golden gem began to glow just like Falco's. A yellow spark of light appeared above it and then faded, revealing a cat-like chibi anthro with the same colour scheme as Falco, blue with white panels and black highlights.

"Falco! It's good to see you!" the little cat-Renling (for such it had to be) yelled and hugged the falcon-Renling. The little creature turned and stared right at Zoe with very yellow eyes and made a strange noise. "Oh! You… found her!" 

"F… Found… me?" Zoe asked quietly. "What do you mean?"

"Isn't that obvious?" the new Renling… Lynx… announced. "You're our Renren!"

"Your what?"

Lynx dived into the jewellery box and emerged with the gem. "Come on! There's no time to waste!" he squealed. 

Zoe jumped as he dived at her bracelet and hid it behind her. "Hey! Wait! What are you doing?"

Lynx gave Zoe a patient look. "I'm putting my Gem in the Setting of course!" A stranger in a strange land, Zoe nervously offered Chloe's gift to the little Renling, who pressed the gold gem into one of the other lapis stones on the bracelet and it seemed to flow inside. As soon as it was fully inserted, it faded entirely from view and was just another lapis stone. 

"Now," Lynx announced, firmly in 'lecture' mode. "As the Renren you have the sacred duty to wield the Prodigious of Virtue and protect it! There are another five Renlings and Gems out there for you to gather into the Setting." 

Zoe looked at the bracelet. "There are six other places for gems!"

Falco nodded. "The eighth gem and its power will only be revealed to you when you have mastered the lessons of the other seven. It isn't something that will happen at once but we know you can do it!"

At that point, Zoe heard pounding on the door and her sister's voice. She looked at the two Renlings who returned her look with child-like innocence. "Look, hide… de-manifest or whatever you do! I don't want to have to explain this to Chloe yet!"

Both Renlings did hide but Zoe had no clue exactly how. "What is it Chloe?"

"Zoe! Let me in!"

Zoe opened her door and was genuinely surprised to see her sister in full Queen Bee costume. As always, looking into the simulated 'bug eye' lenses over the eye of her mask was a bit of a bizarre experience. "Chloe… Uh Queen Bee?"

"Zoe, just stay off of your balcony, okay? M Rat and his vermin are going berserk!"

~*~*~

When she got back from London, Marinette was very upset about this incident. She'd genuinely thought that the magical charm she'd given M Ramier would prevent any further incidents. However, she'd forgotten a key point: The magical charm helped the strange but kindly man regulate his emotions. However, what was happening tonight was not caused by his getting uncontrollably angry or otherwise upset. No, when challenged by Ladybug, he admitted that this was what he felt was a rational response to highlight what he regarded as a genuine political injustice.

It was just that, being M Rat just made his 'protest' like something out of a horror movie. 

He later admitted that he may have got 'carried away' with 'making my point'. He also really didn't have the ability to stop his little friends from messing up the entire area they were occupying with their droppings.

Zoe was standing just away from the 'protest area' as the sun crept above the eastern horizon. Something about the situation had made Falco and Lynx manifest and they both seemed to be looking at M Rat's allies in a hungry way. "Yum, pigeons!" Falco said as Zoe looked at the huge formation of pigeons that had gathered above the Hotel de Ville. 

"Yum, rats!" Lynx added, looking at the tide of brown that was sweeping through the streets under the cloud of pigeons.

Zoe was only half-listening to the two Renlings chattering about their animal totems' favourite meals. She was focussing on Nadja Chamack's live blow-by-blow commentary playing on her phone. Apparently, this was all caused by the city council rejecting Xavier Ramier's petition to set aside one of the city's larger but somewhat-neglected public areas as an 'urban wildlife sanctuary'. Somewhere where his rats and pigeons could live undisturbed and people could care for them without legal repercussions, in other words. Naturally, the councillors were slightly more worried about the public health consequences of such a move and essentially tossed the petition back in his face.

So, M Rat had decided to 'occupy' the Hotel de Ville until his proposals (and his assurances that his friends weren't that dirty) were given what he perceived to be a 'fair hearing'. 

"This is ridiculous!" Zoe blurted. "Okay, his heart's in a good but weird place but this is just asking for Mayor Anarka to call out the exterminators!" 

The two Renlings fell quiet and turned to her, glowing slightly and clearly waiting for her to come to a decision. What Zoe didn't know (and wouldn't until she'd finished some unexpected lessons with a certain hero from Shanghai some time in the future) was that they were responding to her showing the Virtues that they represented – Aspiration and Determination. 

"Okay, first step is to clear away his friends so that people stop panicking!" Not knowing the secret of her transformation, she raised her left fist as she'd done the previous night and focussed her feelings on what she wanted to do. Two of the lapis stones changed into shining blue and golden-yellow gemstones and the two Renlings were sucked in, creating the stylised falcon and the outline of a Lynx's pointy-eared head on the respective gems. There was a flash of blue flame and Zoe was once again in her costume. She focussed and launched her falcon form up into the crowd of pigeons.

The fastest-moving bird on Earth is the Peregrine Falcon. It is the closest thing in existence to a biological fighter plane, with senses and instincts fine-tuned to hunt other birds on the wing – specifically, various species of pigeon. Seeing a gigantic version of their most feared natural predator made the flock of pigeons panic and scatter in all directions.

Meanwhile, Zoe was having some problems. Specifically, the Falcon was massively influencing her thoughts and she was trying to prevent it from knocking down and snacking on one of the pigeons, even though it desperately wanted to. Okay, enough is enough! she thought desperately. Lynx!

The oversized falcon disappeared into a tongue of blue-white flame that shot down to ground level and faded to reveal a blue-and-white lynx wildcat with darker blue leopard spots and distinctive black tufts on the end of its ears. The rat plague took one look at the oversized version of the mostly-extinct Eurasian predator and fled frantically in every possible direction. With a gleeful snarl, the feline started jumping about in every direction, trying to pick a rat to snatch up.

Nope! Nope! Nope! Not happening! Not gonna snack on rat! Even if I wanted to, that would only make M Rat mad at me! Forcing all her will into the Lynx, Zoe was able to push down its hunting instincts. As she did so, there was another blue-white flash of light and stood in her costume in the centre of the rapidly-clearing courtyard. 

“Excuse me, who are you and why are you tormenting my friends?!?” Zoe looked up as Xavier Ramier stormed over to her, his face darkened with righteous fury. 

“Hey, I was just clearing them away before someone got hurt…” Zoe snapped back. “Maybe them!” she added, remembering her worries about the authorities calling in exterminators.

Ramier, in his ‘M Rat’ uniform of a charcoal grey and pink athleisure suit with a pink-hoodie put his fists on his hips. “Well, that’s all very well, young lady but imitating those predators has terrified my friends! It will take me days to get them back fully under my control!”

“Xavier Ramier! You are under arrest!” Zoe and M Rat looked to see Roger Raincomprix, surrounded by a squad of SWAT officers, pointing a very comprehensive collection of long guns at them. 

Zoe’s eyes got very round and, almost before she realised what was happening, she thrust out her right arm and sent a golden-white flash of lightning at Raincomprix’s feet, making the man drop his shotgun and jump back with a squeak of panic. “Oops! No! Sorry! That wasn’t meant to happen!” 

“Open f…” one of the SWAT officers started to order before Zoe responded, mostly on instinct, flinging both arms up into the air and magnetically yanking the weapons out of their holders’ hands. 

As soon as she’d carried out this latest prodigy of power, Zoe immediately panicked, realising that she was effectively assaulting police officers. “Oops! Sorry guys! No, my bad! Really! I’m sorry!”

“Okay, everyone freeze!” came a familiar voice as Queen Bee dropped down out of the sky with a buzz of energy wings. “What the hell is going on here, Raincomprix?” she snapped at the police sergeant. “Do you have a reason to be waving guns around? No, don’t tell me, I’m not interested in hearing it!” Full of righteous rage, Queen Bee stormed past a slack-jawed Zoe and got into the face of M Rat, despite him being almost twice her height. “M Ramier, Ladybug will be very disappointed when she finds out what you’ve been doing!”

The tall man tapped his index fingers together nervously. “Well… Er… Yes, I don’t suppose we can avoid… er… telling Ladybug?”

Queen Bee shot the man a slightly sour smile but Zoe could see the humour in her eyes. “Only if you promise to never do this again!” She threw her hands into the air. “Really, M Ramier, this is utterly ridiculous! What did you think that you’d achieve? Other than a public nuisance and a public health hazard that, let us not forget, proves their point against you!”

The vermin empath’s eyes got a bit wider with realisation. “Oh… I hadn’t thought about that.” Queen Bee shot him a silent look that shouted: Obviously. 

Completely to everyone’s surprise, M Rat boldly walked up to Sergeant Raincomprix (the two of them were long-time antagonists). “Well, I shall be off, Sergeant!” 

“Wait a minute, Ramier! What about the disruption you caused?” 

Ramier looked around him. “Well, it’s all very unfortunate, Sergeant but… do you have any proof that I somehow did this?” The policeman boggled at the strange man’s daring. “Proof with which you persuade a magistrate, I mean?” Ramier smiled. “Maybe this could be avoided if all the rats and pigeons had somewhere to go?”

“Don’t push it, sir, please.” Queen Bee said in a level tone. Ramier looked at her for a moment, nodded and then walked off, pulling off his hoodie as he went.

Raincomprix raised a finger and then lowered it again. “I’m not paid enough for this,” he growled before turning towards Zoe. “As for you, young lady…”

Chloe was looking at the new hero, a Prodigious bearer, if Rena’s deductions were correct. The moment she looked directly at the masked face, her mouth fell open and she was relieved to be looking away from Raincomprix. No disguise magic, she realised. Must be a difference between Miraculous and Prodigious. “Zoe?” she hissed. “What are you doing?”

Her twin replied in a panicked hiss of her own. “I don’t know! Help me!”

Queen Bee turned back to the policeman, raising her voice with authority. “Actually, Sergeant, she’s with me. She’s a trainee and shouldn’t be out on missions without her trainer,” Queen Bee briefly shot her sister a glare and was satisfied to see her squirm. “Anyway, you can be sure that…”

Zoe caught the cue; her power was over wind and lightning, so that made it power over storms, right? “Tempestia; my name is Tempestia.”

“You can be sure that Tempestia will be given a thorough dressing-down about this incident.”

Raincomprix looked around him, focussing on the piles of pigeon scat and rat pellets. “Who will clean up the mess?” he remarked morosely.

“I don’t know!” Queen Bee snapped, pretty much at the end of her tether. “Call Sanitation! This is their job, isn’t it?”

~*~*~

Just as Chloe had promised it was a bit like being called into the principal’s office and being taken down a few pegs.

After flying back to the hotel, Chloe had destransformed on her own balcony and, a minute or so later, had knocked on Zoe’s door. Zoe had swallowed nervously and had admitted her sister silently. Pollen had buzzed around Zoe’s head before buzzing around Falco and Lynx, looking quite fascinated at the two Renlings. 

Oddly enough, Fuzzy had followed her mistress down the hallway, her silent padding at odds with her huge size. She’d then jumped onto Zoe’s bed and observed the girl levelly with the magisterial gaze of a lion staring over her pride’s territory. 

Chloe extended her hand in a silent command and Zoe showed her the bracelet. She didn’t try to remove it but she stroked it thoughtfully. “Audrey’s bracelet,” she murmured. “Was this why she gave it to me? Did she know…? No, if she did, she would have tried to get it back after Graham de Vanily hired her to help him gather the Prodigious.” She stood back. “No, typical of her, all she knew was that it had power and she handed it off to someone she wanted to influence, expecting them to do all the hard work.” Chloe smirked maliciously. “Ironic  that, in doing so, she put the Prodigious further away from her reach.” 

Chloe hopped up onto Zoe’s bed and put her arm across Fuzzy’s shoulders, making the huge Smilodon Magus purr resonantingly. “You have no idea, sister dear, how much time we’ve been spending on this thing, not realising that it was right under our noses from the start! Ladybug and Ladydragon have been hunting all over Paris and have even been sending me the weirdest messages at all times of day and night!” The blonde young woman’s eyes grew harder. “I’m not sure what I have to do now.”

Zoe clutched the bracelet to her chest protectively. “I can’t give it up, Chloe! This… It’s something that feels like it’s my responsibility! From the start, I felt that the bracelet was special and I felt the same about Lynx’s gem! I knew that I had to hold and protect them!”

Chloe nodded slowly. “When I first found the Bee Miraculous, it was by blind chance. Even so, I felt that this was something that… not belonged to me as much as was entrusted to me! Pollen needed me to protect her and I needed the Bee Miraculous to find who I really was.” Chloe thought for a moment. “The first time I transformed, it was like I’d come alive; I knew that it was my… My destiny.”

Zoe found herself nodding in agreement. “Every time I use the Prodigious of Virtue, it feels right, Chloe. It feels like something that falls to me to see done and see done right. I can do good with this and I know I can stop them from causing harm!”

Chloe nodded. “The Order of Celestial Guardians are looking for those Prodigious, Zoe. So are Adrien’s Grandfather and his team of supervillains. Just by having them, you’re putting yourself and everyone around you in danger. I’m obliged to my team to report what I’ve learned.” Zoe swallowed and looked at her sister in a pleading way and was met by a level, determined gaze. “So, what do we do now?”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat.php

Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY

User: queenb_verified (@TrueQueen)

@TrueQueen: Okay, everyone, thanks for taking time out to be here

@NotARenaissanceArtist: At least in virtual terms!

@TrueQueen: You know what I mean, noise-maker!

@TrueQueen: Anyway, I have an announcement

@TrueQueen: Foxy, you were right on the mark. The person who saved the people on that crossover bridge was using the Prodigious of Virtue

@TrueQueen: Two of them in one setting; I confirmed that at the Hotel de Ville

@ManyAnimalGirl: Wait, ‘setting’?

@TrueQueen: Yeah, she found that too Kung-Fu-Queen

@FoxyBabe: Honey, that’s great! 

@Cool4Catz: Who are they?

@ManyAnimalGirl: More importantly *where* are they? I have to protect those gems!

@SnekCharmer: Ease down people

@SnekCharmer: Something tells me that it won’t be so easy

@TrueQueen: Got that right Snake

@TrueQueen: Ladydrag, you know the whole ‘sacred task’ thing, right? 

@TrueQueen: Tempestia… that’s the codename she’s chosen… feels exactly that way about the two Prodigious she’s found

@WatchWabbit: You know, watching this happen in real time is *much* more interesting that seeing it from the past… or future… or whenever the Burrow normally is

@TrueQueen: She wants our help and needs our help but there is a condition

@FoxyBabe: She’s not going to surrender the Prodigious to the Guardians

@TrueQueen: Pollen spoke to the Renlings and they threatened to run away again if they were separated from their ‘renren’, whatever that means.

@ManyAnimalGirl: I was afraid of that

@ManyAnimalGirl: Not surprised but I was still worried about her saying that

@Cool4Catz: She’ll be in danger, Chloe

@Cool4Catz: We know grandfather is looking for those gems

@TrueQueen: She knows that, Adrien and that’s why she’s asked us for help

@TrueQueen: However, she’s asking us to respect her secret identity until she’s ready to go the next step

@TrueQueen: Marinette always insisted that we give each other that courtesy, guys. Will you do so now?

@FoxyBabe: Okay, but I’ve got one condition of my own, Honey

@FoxyBabe: Whoever she is, she’s gotta agree to let Ladydragon train her

@FoxyBabe: No-one else has any background with the Prodigious and their powers and risks

@TrueQueen: Agreed

@TrueQueen: Actually, I’ve already suggested that and she agreed

@TrueQueen: Enthusiastically :-) 

@ManyAnimalGirl: Let me know where we should meet up, Queen Bee

@TrueQueen: Guys, thank you for trusting me with this

@FoxyBabe: You earned it honey

@Cool4Catz: Though, you should expect to get the third degree from M’lady when she gets back

@TrueQueen: Yeah… I’m actually kind of looking forward to it

@DragonGrrrl: Bee-chan and I agree that Ladybug-sama is ravishing when she’s angry

@Cool4Catz: Guys, my girlfriend, remember?

Chapter Text

With a sigh, Marinette left her parents’ room, leaving her father to comfort her sniffling mother. 

Despite having spent half of her life in the West, Sabine was still very Chinese in her thinking and that included not making a public show of family disputes and being upset. It frustrated her because, right now, she thought that Shu-Yin deserved nothing less than as public a dressing-down as was possible. How dare she talk to her sister in such a way and in front of her husband and daughter? What right did she have to criticise her sister like that?

“Calm down, Marinette,” Tikki counselled. “Your mother is strong and she has a family that loves her; she will get over her sister’s harsh words.”

“The point, Tikki is that Tante Shu-Yin shouldn’t have said things like that! It isn’t up to her to judge whether maman is raising me right or whether I’m too ‘westernised’!” Marinette threw her hands up in the air. “Ugh! It’s like dealing with grand-pere Roland in reverse!”

Tikki giggled at that. “One thing I’ve learned, Marinette, is that humans are remarkably insular thinkers sometimes. ‘Correct’ often means ‘the same as me’.”

Marinette sighed and nodded. She got an early warning from Tikki diving into cover to put a suitably respectful look on her face as Shu-Yin rounded the corner of the apartment’s corridor and looked her niece full in the eyes. “Marinette,” she announced. Marinette was sure that the woman was deliberately exaggerating her accent. Having lived in London for fifteen years, Marinette was sure that the woman should have lost all hint of it by now.

“Ayi Shu-Yin,” Marinette replied in a neutral tone of voice and noticed the woman’s hastily-hidden displeasure at being addressed in Wu Chinese. 

“I’m glad that you’re getting used to speaking in our language. Such a shame that you had to rely on your French paramour to learn it rather than being taught by your mother.”

Marinette briefly considered reminding her aunt, yet again, that she hadn’t had the slightest interest in learning any of Chinese’s myriad dialects until she realised that Adrien was learning it as a part of being able to communicate with the owners of the lucrative fashion houses of the Far East. That was before Fei came into her life and suddenly, being able to speak Chinese was a courtesy as well as a necessity for her future business plans. However, they’d already had this ‘discussion’ (which was as close to a fight as Marinette ever wanted to have with a close relative) and she doubted that there was anything to be gained by trying again.

There was a brief pause before Shu-Yin suddenly spoke up. “What led to the change of heart?” she suddenly asked. “Xia said that you’d never really felt any interest in learning our language; what changed your mind?”

Marinette smiled. “My cousin did.” She saw her aunt’s reaction and continued in a hurried manner. “Not by blood; I met this girl in Shanghai and that whole visit I was more-or-less dependent on her to act as a translator. At the end, Uncle Wang took her in and I made a total mess of trying to call her my sister-in-heart. I decided that I never wanted to be in that position again.”

Shu-Yin considered her niece for a moment, mentally testing all the mispronunciations that she could have uttered and suppressed her wince at some of the scatalogical variations. “That’s so like Uncle though; taking in yet another foundling like that after knowing her probably for less than an hour!”

Marinette laughed. “Like he did for you and Muqin, Ayi?”

Shu-Yin blushed and responded a bit too quickly. “Oh no, Marinette. Your mother and I were family… No, we were never in the position of being beggars! I’d never let myself get in such a shameful position!”

Marinette frowned slightly, noting how the Butterfly Miraculous, currently masquerading as a collar fastening on her cheongsam blouse (Marinete was smart enough to not offend her aunt’s eyes with Western-style clothing), burned briefly in a way that told her Nooroo was telling her something. However, that was something for another time.

“Where are you going, young lady?” Shu-Yin asked imperiously as Marinette stepped to the apartment’s door. 

“Just going out to get some fresh air. Don’t worry; I won’t stay out too late!”

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat.php

Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY

User: ladybug_verified (@bugboss) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: Hey, Fei, you online?

@ManyAnmalGirl: Sure am, how are you doing, Marinette?

@BugBoss: Oh, my aunt is being her usual charming self and traumatising maman. 

@BugBoss: I was just wondering… How much do you know about your blood family?

@ManyAnimalGirl: Basically nothing.

@ManyAnimalGirl: When Wu Shifu found me, I was literally just a newborn in a basket and swaddling cloth

@BugBoss: That’s sad but I’m glad that you ended up with someone who loved you.

@Stormygal has JOINED the Chat

@Stormygal: Uh, Ladydragon Shifu? You said that you wanted to talk to me?

@ManyAnimalGirl: Yes, Xuetu. Jump into a private room and send me an invite

@BugBoss: Okay, who was that? And why are you calling them your ‘apprentice’?

@ManyAnimalGirl: I’m sworn to silence, Ladybug. Suffice to say that some stuff has been happening since you left town

@ManyAnimalGirl: Nothing *too* bad or anything that you need to be worried about

@ManyAnimalGirl: @FoxyBabe has everything under control

@BugBoss: Why isn’t that as reassuring as I’d like?

@ManyAnimalGirl: Because @Cool4Catz is right, cousin

@ManyAnimalGirl: You worry too much and too easily about your friends!

“You have to admit that she has a point, Marinette,” Tikki said, smiling at her Holder over the top of her phone. Marinette shot the Spirit of Creation a stink-eye glare, making her giggle. “Admit it: This is why you left Kaalki behind! You knew something would come up and you wanted to make it harder for you to go rushing back to Paris!”

Marinette groaned a little. “I wasn’t expecting Fei to apparently find a whole new hero to train whilst I was away! Also, what does Alya have ‘under control’? Ugh! What’s the point of being a leader if you’re not in a position to lead?!?”

Tikki shot her Holder a reproving look. “I think that maybe you need to trust your friends to call you if they need you.” Tikki zipped around the phone’s body to tap the clock displayed on Marinette’s desktop (a picture Zoe had taken of Chat Noir in his new costume). “I also think that you have an appointment?”

Marinette gasped and nearly dropped her phone. “Merde! How am I managing to still be late? Tikki! Spots on!” As the pink flare of magic faded, a figure not recently seen in London zipped out of the blind alleyway on the end of a yo-yo cord and swung up onto the rooftops of Limehouse. 

As Ladybug feared, the person she was meeting was on the rooftop already and she hoped that the other woman hadn’t been waiting for too long. 

“Ladybug,” Miss Rose announced neutrally. Ladybug immediately noticed that the British magical spy was wearing a bandage on her cheek. Rose noticed the direction of the Parisian superheroine’s gaze. “No, don’t worry. As my PT instructor is always telling me: ‘Rely on magic less and learn to duck faster when someone throws a punch.” Rose frowned before continuing in a sotto mutter. “I’m going to so get Ranger for laughing at me…” 

Ladybug was somewhat embarrassed and was glad of the option to change the subject. “Okay then, to business: I’m not surprised that you knew I was in London but what did you want to talk about that couldn’t be handled by messaging?”

Rose sighed. “I wanted your help vetting a possible source inside Graham de Vanily’s gang, Ladybug and to do so without making it official. What do you know of someone called ‘Enchantress’?”

Ladybug’s heart froze in her chest for a moment. “She’s a psychopath who never tells the truth when she can lie,” she said without hesitation. “She’s a very plausible story-teller whose only interest in other people is how to manipulate them, either for power or for her amusement.” She drew in her breath. “She is immensely dangerous, especially with the mind control powers that the Virgo Miraculous gives her.”

Rose frowned and nodded pensively. “That sounds about right. When she approached me, I felt something prodding at my mindscape fogging, trying to influence me to trust her.” Ladybug nodded. That sounded like the Virgo’s ability to make people accept any story they were told by its Holder. 

“Well, don’t ever look directly at her Mirror. I don’t think that there is any kind of mental shielding that would protect you against a direct attack.” Rose nodded. “What did she offer you? Influence? Success? Wealth?”

“She offered me Leonidas. Oh, not directly but she made it clear that she was willing to provide information about his plans in exchange for immunity.”

Ladybug nodded again. “That sounds right.” She sighed. “As much as it irks me to admit it, I think that she might be at least somewhat sincere. She has no particular love for Leonidas, nor does she trust his gang’s rather religious feelings towards him. She doesn’t play anyone’s second fiddle happily and I really think she’s only in his gang to get access to his wealth and power for herself. She’ll help us bring him down but only if she’s able to get away free and clear, probably with whatever of his Miraculous and as much as his wealth and influence that she can steal in the confusion.”

“A real backstabbing close subordinate then?” 

Ladybug laughed. “With the exception that she probably overestimates her position in the Lion’s Pride but, otherwise, yes. You should never turn your back on someone like that.”

Rose nodded. “Something that Leonidas probably knows too. Well, I’ll bear that in mind. I didn’t want to put any of this in messaging because I was worried about how dangerous she might be and I didn’t want any of my… ambitious colleagues to get out of their depth with her after reading my message logs.” 

Ladybug grimaced. “Yeah, that would be just what she’s waiting for and the worst possible outcome.”

There was a long pause. Rose was hesitating and Ladybug could see reluctance and embarrassment in the super-spy’s emerald green eyes. “So… Uh… Now we've got the business out of the way?” Ladybug raised an eyebrow in query. "Look, I've been watching you since you arrived in London and it's pretty obvious that you and your aunt are having trouble. What's going on there?"

Ladybug sighed. She’d expected her secret identity not to remain secret for very long against the professionally-trained spy. She hadn’t been expecting the older woman to be a bit nosy. Equally oddly, Ladybug welcomed the opportunity to talk to someone with a neutral perspective. "Bottom line? My aunt is pretty proud of being 'traditional' Chinese; my mother and I aren't up to that standard."

Miss Rose laughed dryly. "Ah, traditionalists verses people who aren't total cultural supremacists? Yeah, I know all about that. My family fought in an entire civil war on the subject. Even now, there are people who would insist that they are good, liberal reformers who still look down on my mum, despite her stellar achievements, because her parents were mundanes and think that I am inferior because I wasn't raised like a proper witch!" The secret agent smiled bitterly. "At school, I came to hate the term 'vileblood' that was and still is whispered behind my back." The witch shook her head. "There are two ways to deal with people like that: You can ignore them or you can find some way to show them that they aren't anywhere near as superior as they think!"

Ladybug smiled and shook Miss Rose's hand. "Thanks for the advice and, please, don't trust Enchantress without verification of everything she says."

~*~*~

Sabine Cheng had her pride, no matter how much her sister had this horrible skill at poking under her skin. However, there was only so much she could take. As much as she loved Shu-Yin, it was looking more and more like she would have to cut ties with her sister just for the sake of her own sanity.

"She doesn't know you," Tom whispered into her hair as he hugged her. "Not anymore anyway: You're more than your ability to be a 'proper' Chinese wife and mother and everyone who really cares for you knows that."

Sabine nodded. "I know Tom but…" she shook her head. "Shu-Yin and I were so close as children and I hate the way we've grown apart and over such a ridiculous thing! I just wish there was a way I could reach her heart but she's too wrapped up in her own pride!"

~*~*~

"Nooroo! Gentle wings rise!" There was a flare of bright lavender light in the conveniently-unoccupied and –unmonitored utility attic at the top of the apartment block. As it faded, Painted Lady stepped forward into a shaft of light coming through a small window at the top of the attic. 

“Painted Lady, are you sure this is a good idea?” Tikki asked timidly. 

“Tikki, I will be monitoring her all the time, okay? We’re just going to show Tante Shu-Yin that she’s wrong to look down on maman like that and…” There was a pause. “Tikki, there is something hidden here. I think that it will do her good to have to admit it.”

Tikki shot her Holder a sceptical look. “By having her intimidated by an akumatised champion.”

Painted Lady shrugged and then grinned mischievously. “Think of it as ‘reinforcement’. Also, I think that maman needs catharsis too!” Tikki rolled her eyes. “Tikki, this is not like Hawkmoth’s akumatisations. I don’t mess with people’s minds, perceptions or motivations. I trust maman with the power, okay? I’m going to be watching and no-one will get hurt!”

Tikki sighed. “Well, just be careful and don’t let the power carry either of you away in its current!”

“I won’t Tikki.” The Butterfly Heroine drew in a deep breath before looking down at her cane. The orbed head rotated open and a pure white butterfly fluttered up into spring late evening twilight. She extended her hand so it could land on her palm and covered it gently with her other hand. “Empowering Wings!”

Lavender light shone from in between Painted Lady’s fingers and, when she lifted her upper hand, the butterfly had lavender fractal marks on its wings. “Now, my pretty akuma, find the pained heart and empower her!”

~*~*~

Sabine had lots of small keepsakes in her life and often kept them on her person where it was easy and simple to do so. Some of them meant more to her than others. In the context of her own current turmoil, however, none meant more than the simple bracelet made of two threaded leather strips around her right wrist. It was made by two little girls the night they’d settled into their uncle’s apartment after being found home alone one too many times.

“Oh Shu-Yin!” Sabine sighed. “How did it come to this?”

Sabine never noticed the white-and-lavender butterfly until it alighted on the simple golden neck-chain that had been Tom’s birthday gift to her over a decade ago.

Qilin, I am Painted Lady.

Sabine gasped. Outside a tiny number of people, no-one knew that she’d been touched by the power of the Butterfly Miraculous once before. The name she’s heard then had been ‘Verity Queen’ and, to this day, she’d feared what she might have become if something had not happened that broke Gabriel Agreste’s powerful hold over her mind. However, there was something different this time. There was no false charm, no sense of malice and no drive that was overriding her will or awareness. Surprisingly, the voice was feminine.

Qilin, I have heard your anguish at the actions of your sister; of the accusations she has made and the refusal to acknowledge your worth and her own dark secrets. I now offer you the power you need to uncover those truths for the benefit of all of your family.

Sabine’s head was spinning but she still had control over her thoughts and actions and was able to choke out a response. “What is your price for this, Painted Lady?”

There was a long, long pause before she heard the reply in her mind. Do no harm to your sister and, when your mission is done, willingly release this power again.

Sabine drew in a deep breath and, with a sudden thrill of power running through her body like a drug, she realised she was not afraid. This was something that she could do. This was something that she had to do. As the oldest child, this duty fell to her! “I agree to those terms, Painted Lady!”

Lavender smoke boiled up around the seated woman, hiding her from sight.

~*~*~

If Shu-Yin Cheng had one characteristic that everyone would agree on it was this: She was adept at compartmentalising her thoughts and feelings so that she wasn’t distracted by the affairs of the day from her routine tasks. What she’d never admit was that she was necessarily adept at self-deceit to help herself do so.

So, she wasn’t thinking about her strained relationship with Xia-Bing that turned their every interaction when Tom or Marinette weren’t present into an argument and ensured that even interactions when they were present were painful and strained with far too much sniping and condescending (at least on Shu-Yin’s part). No, as far as she felt as she was hanging up her laundry on the line on her balcony, she was merely reminding her sister of her shortcomings and gently encouraging her to do better in future.

She didn’t notice the wind picking up until she was airborne, many dozens of feet above the top of the building and staring at a monster with shining green eyes, golden skin and a costume that seemed to be a traditional Chinese dress armour from many centuries ago in gold and jade. What caught Shu-Yin's eye the most was the horn rising up from the forehead of the helmet that was trifurcated at the end. She'd seen that horn somewhere as a child but she couldn't remember where. Whatever this thing was, it was very obviously controlling the unnatural whirlwind curling around her and keeping her aloft. She knew that she was trapped; any attempt to escape and she would fall hundreds of feet to her death!

Shu-Yin gasped in horror but… she knew this monster somehow. “What… Who are you?” The monster smiled and that smile broke any remaining uncertainty about who this was. “Jeijei Xia-Bing?”

“For now, meimei, you can call me Quilin!”

For a few hysterical moments, Shu-Yin actually found herself questioning if her older sister really was a Qilin. The decoration on the armour and the horn was straight out of the legends that their uncle used to tell them (too much to hope for such a touch from their parents). Shu-Yin gritted her teeth but didn’t struggle. Slowly, the monster descended to street level and the whirlwind around them both faded. “What do you want, Xia-Bing? What possible justification could you have for acquiring this unnatural power like this and turning it against me?”

“You have your secrets, meimei and I have tired of you keeping them from me whilst you insult me for not meeting the high standards that you reserve only for others. We will explore them now, you and…” Qilin stopped and shook her head in annoyance as Shu-Yin fled. “So, we do this the hard way then.”

The concussion that struck the car parked ahead of Shu-Yin’s path was something basically only felt rather than seen or heard. The vehicle flipped end-over-end, its glass exploding outwards and its body panels caving in from the simple force of the overpressurased wave of air.

Still in the apartment’s attic and observing through her mental link with the akuma butterfly, Painted Lady winced in horror as the abused car’s fuel tank detonated, sending Shu-Yin sprawling on her back. “You were right, Tikki! Maman’s being corrupted by the power, I’m…”

The Kwami of Creation shook her head urgently. “No, wait, Marinette! That was a bit showy but if your mother wanted to hurt her sister, she would have aimed her attack at her instead of that car! She’s still in control and, as much as I can’t believe I’m saying this, it isn’t necessary to stop this yet!”

Painted Lady nodded. “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Tikki, but I think that I should be ready to fix things now they’re getting violent. Nooroo, Tikki, unify!” As Painted Lady brought the palms of her hands together, Tikki was sucked into the transformation. Painted Lady’s black thigh boots, elbow gloves and basque underneath her purple opera gown turned red with black polka dots and the Ladybug Yo-Yo manifest itself on her left hip. Painted Lady unholstered the Yo-Yo and cast it upwards. “Luckyyy Charm!” The pink light faded and Painted Lady stared at the photograph that had fallen into her hands in a ladybird-patterned ornamental frame. It was a photograph she’d seen at Uncle Wang’s apartment of a very young Sabine and Shu-Yin standing beside each other as children, loving sisters. “We can only hope, Tikki,” she murmured.

Back on the street, Shu-Yin looked around herself frantically as she dragged herself to her feet. Of course this would have to happen at night when there were so few people on the street. Lights were coming on in the apartment blocks all around her and she had no doubt that calls were being made to the police and fire brigade but she doubted that they would be of any use to her right now.

“What are you hiding, Shu-Yin? Why are you so determined to be ‘proper’ and condemn all who are not, even in this distant foreign land?”

“Maybe I still have pride!” Shu-Yin yelled at the shining armoured figure that was striding towards her with an unhurried pace. “Maybe I’m not willing to surrender my identity to fit in?” Shu-Yin’s mouth curled in an animalistic snarl of defiance. “I am not answerable to you! Even before you were a monster, you’d denied our heritage by marrying a foreigner and abandoning your home… By abandoning me! You are a failure as a sister and now as a mother! Your daughter can only speak our language because she wants to impress some foreign boy who has caught her eye!” With those words uttered, the younger woman turned and fled again.

Qilin sighed. There was a certain irony that her younger sister had condemned her in English for not teaching Marinette to speak in Chinese. Always the one to miss her own failings in her haste to condemn others for the same shortcomings, eh, meimei? Qilin called on the air again to lift herself off of the ground and soar unhurriedly in pursuit of her fleeing sister.

Shu-Yin didn’t think that she’d actually dissuaded the monster wearing her sister’s face from following her; she wasn’t stupid. However, she was genuinely surprised that there were no magical attacks raining down on her. What on Earth was holding her back?

Slowing to a trot and now risking an occasional glance over her shoulder, Shu-Yin turned into the high street, a place much changed by investment and gentrification in the fifteen years she’d lived in London. Even at this time of night, it was crowded by young people wandering between various nightclubs and bars and a few late-running shoppers patronising supermarkets before they closed. 

Shu-Yin was just beginning to seriously wonder if she’d somehow imagined the whole thing when her ears popped due to a sudden change in air pressure. She didn’t have time to scream before every litter bin and dumpster on the street suddenly exploded open and sent huge clouds of rubbish and horrible, sticky waste foods raining down on the street. 

Screaming in panic, the bystanders fled in every possible direction and, looking around her, Shu-Yin suddenly realised that the trails of debris had formed a simple barrier around her, encouraging everyone to flee away from her. She looked around in horror before she realised that she should be looking upwards. When she finally did so, she saw Qilin slowly dropping out of the sky towards her, her arms folded.

“Well, are you done with your rather pathetic attempted flight, Shu-Yin Cheng?”

Shu-Yin snatched up a discarded large umbrella and brandished it at Qilin, her mouth a twisted rictus of terror. “Stay back! I’m warning you…!”

Qilin’s smile was something terrible to behold. “Is that courage or stupidity, meimei?” Qilin gestured and Shu-Yin’s improvised weapon was snatched out of her hand by a narrow and concentrated gust of wind to land several yards away, turned inside-out. “Now, are you ready to talk?”

For some reason, Shu-Yin was able to go beyond her fear and speak to the woman inside the monster. “Talk?!? What do we have to talk about, Xia-Bing? You have dishonoured our family by your choices and your complete abdication of your responsibilities as a mother! What is Marinette but another Westernised fake, pretending to be Chinese only when she wants to be? Mother and father must have guessed this and that is why they abandoned you!”

There was a long pause before Qilin spoke again in a sad, reflective tone. “They abandoned you too, meimei. Maybe you were too young to remember those fearful few days before they thought to call Uncle to collect us. It would be five years before we saw their faces again and that was just a passing visit.”

Shu-Yin tried to swallow but she couldn’t. She didn’t remember much; she’d only been five at the time, after all. She did remember being so very hungry though, even though her sister had tried to provide meals for her as best as she could. She looked down as long-suppressed tears began to burn behind her eyelids. 

“Why did you leave?” she begged. “What did that… man have that I didn’t?”

Qilin sighed. “Tom is my love, Shu-Yin. It was my place to be at his side and, when his father was taken ill, he had to go home.” The akumatised champion smiled slightly. “Have you forgotten that he was planning to take a position in Uncle’s restaurant before then? Not that you were ever around much around the time I was married; you didn’t even attend the registration at the magistrate’s office. Where were you anyway? You’d been practically ecstatic at the prospect of seeing me married off before then!”

The younger woman growled. “My business is none of yours, Xia-Bing! I was trying to be a good sister even though you were marrying a foreigner! However, I had found a far more suitable man of my own and he had invited me to visit him that weekend and I…” Shu-Yin slapped a hand over her mouth.

Qilin chuckled. “So, you were entertaining a man-friend, dear meimei? Well, you were of legal age and, as you say, your business was your own. Who was he anyway and why is he not in your life now?” Shu-Yin looked down in deep shame. “Ah. He got what he wanted and then threw you out?”

“He… did bring me back to the city but I wasn’t able to contact him again.” The younger woman shook her head. “None of this excuses your failures as a mother! Marinette is a disgrace! She’s an idle dreamer! What will she do with her life and how will she care for you and your husband in your old age?”

Qilin’s face didn’t seem to change expression. She gestured and Shu-Yin found herself airborne again along with her magical antagonist. “Really, meimei? Why don’t we explore that together?”

The ground dropped away and Shu-Yin closed her eyes tightly as she felt the world began to seemingly whirl around her as her acrophobia flared up. “P… Please, jeijei, don’t hurt me! I’m sorry! I’m…”

“Look around you, meimei,” her sister’s voice, still booming with power and yet paradoxically gentle and loving, whispered into her ear. 

Shu-Yin tentatively opened her eyes and realised that they were hovering over the river by the box-like structures of the EXCEL conference centre. ‘House of Harmony presents a special extra London Fashion Week!’ declared the billboard in front of her. “Featuring the new collection from MDC!”

“MDC,” Qilin murmured. “That means ‘Marinette Dupain-Cheng’, by the way.” The golden-skinned face had such a peaceful and gentle smile that Shu-Yin had a difficult time understanding it. “She’s so modest and so hard-working. If she chose to, she would already be a world-renowned household name but she does not want that. She’s far happier creating the art that she loves in the shadows whilst others work to sell the results.” Qilin shook her head. “That won’t be possible for long. Emilie Graham de Vanily has seen her potential and is determined to help her show it to the world. You cannot work for such a global corporation in such a senior role without being known but…” The akumatised champion sighed. “I cannot help but mourn the simpler life that she had up until just a year ago but has been swept aside by… circumstances.”

“I… I never knew!”

Qilin frowned. “You never asked and never listened to either of us, Shu-Yin. Your anger was just too great. Now, tell me, why? Why is a woman so determined to be a traditional Chinese woman instead an unmarried bookkeeper in a foreign city?”

This seemed to trigger something deep inside the younger woman. “Is that what you want to hear?!?” she screamed into her transformed sister’s face. “That you are a happily married and successful woman, co-owner of a city-renowned business? That your child will be world-famous and will keep you in ease in your old age? Whilst I am a mediocre nothing with nothing to offer a man and destined to be forgotten? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED TO KNOW?!?”

Qilin was grateful for Painted Lady’s blessing in that moment as it meant that she was able to numb her emotions and was not fatally broken by the look of grief and self-loathing on her younger sister’s face. Instead of replying, she guided them up, away from the conference centre to land atop the hotel built downstream of its location. “What happened to you, meimei?” she asked after they had set down.

Shu-Yin didn’t immediately reply; instead she fell to her knees and began to weep bitterly. “I… have been prettily punished for my youthful indiscretion. That man…? He… he fathered my daughter… my only child! Oh, jeijei… I was so ashamed! I couldn’t tell Uncle! How could I? You were gone to France and I couldn't call you back because of my own foolishness!” Shu-Yin wasn’t remembering, Qilin could see. She was reliving. “I… gave birth at a friend’s house but… it didn’t go well. The baby… a beautiful little girl… was well but… but I was torn up inside. The bleeding stopped after a few days but… Jeijei, the doctors told me that my womb was too badly damaged and there was no hope of me ever bearing another child.” Shu-Yin buried her face in her hands. “That is why I fled Shanghai! That is why I have never had a relationship since!” The woman sucked in a deep breath. “That is why I take every chance to reproach you because, so long as I make you less in my own eyes, I will be able to forget my own worthlessness!” 

Qilin hauled her younger sister into her arms and the two women hugged. At that moment, Shu-Yin felt that her sister’s cold, hard armour was the most comforting and welcoming thing she’d ever felt.

“Oh, my poor, sweet, meimei! You should have told me this before! You are an intelligent and diligent woman! Not every man is so crude as to desire a child from a relationship and there are other means by which you can take in a child to your family! Even then… Oh, meimei, why did you torture yourself so?”

“I… I don’t know jeijei! I don’t know… I… I was just so ashamed and… Oh, it hurt so much! I just wanted to find some way to make the pain go away!”

“Come,” Qilin said in a gentle tone. “We have done what we came here to do. The truth has been told and now the healing can begin. Let’s go home, meimei.”

~*~*~

With a sigh of relief, Shu-Yin opened her eyes and she was again on her balcony. At that moment, something quite magical happened. Qilin was surrounded by lavender smoke that, when it cleared, revealed her sister, fully human. A white butterfly fluttered away from her neck chain and alighted on the older woman’s forefinger. “Thank you, Painted Lady,” she whispered before the insect took wing again and soared up out of both women’s line of sight.

“What… happened?” Shu-Yin asked when, without any warning, there was a wave of tens of thousands of ladybird beetles that swarmed over the buildings and streets. On the street below, the destroyed car, which was surrounded by helpless policemen, vanished at the heart of the swarm and, when they passed, it sat in its parking spot again, undamaged (something that very clearly relieved its owner, who had been practically tearing out his hair).

Sabine smiled gently before turning back to her sister. “Shu-Yin… What did you do with your baby?”

Shu-Yin drew in a shaky breath. “I wasn’t thinking clearly, Xia-Bing. I wasn’t going to admit what had happened to Uncle; I could barely admit it to myself. There was… a kwoon nearby; the monk who ran it was known to be an honourable man, even though he had fallen on hard times. I wrapped my child in a small blanket.. I had not given her a name; how could I dare do so when I was about to abandon her…? I put on her head that little fox-eared cap that I’d loved so much as a baby and I took the basket and left it outside Wu Shifu’s school and, if the Spirits were kinder to her than they were to me, she would have found her home there.”

There was then a loud crash. The two women looked into the apartment to see that Marinette had apparently tripped over her own feet and dropped a (thankfully empty) tea-tray on the floor. “Sorry, maman, tante, I was distracted by a text from Adrien!” 

Neither woman noticed that Marinette’s phone was not in her hand. They were left shaking their head at the girl’s clumsiness as she fled.

“Marinette!” Tikki hissed urgently. “Do you think?!?”

“I don’t know?” Marinette replied. “The story fits perfectly and so does the time period but… What’s the chances? There are over 25 million people in Shanghai! What’s the chances that I should run into my own lost cousin, who I end up thinking of as my cousin because she was taken in by my Uncle Wang?” If the situation were not so startling, Tikki would have struggled not to laugh at the way Marinette was tugging at her hair because of the mental overload.

Nooroo was fluttering along beside the other two. “In my experience, My Lady Guardian? It seems that the chances are very good! The dice always roll a winning number, especially when Chosen Ones are involved!”

“What do I do?” Marinette asked fretfully.

Tikki thought for a moment. “For now? Nothing. Talk to your aunt tomorrow and tell her the story. She needs to know and deserves to know. You can decide what to do next based on her reaction.”

~*~*~

“Ayi Shu-Yin?”

It was an early morning and Shu-Yin was sipping on a calming tea. She had not slept a wink overnight but she hadn’t expected to after that creature that surely was a messenger of the Spirits had forced her to admit to Xia-Bing her most shameful moments. 

She might not be a mother, not really. However, she was familiar enough with young people to know that Marinette had some truth to share. Behind her, Xia-Bing entered the room and looked at her sister and daughter in concern. The fact that Marinette was speaking in Chinese and using a very formal dialect told her that something important was on her mind.

“What is it, Marinette?”

“I heard the story that you told muqin, ayi. I think… I might be insane… it seems insane… but… You should hear this.”

“Hear what, niece?”

“About a year ago, I was in Shanghai. I was foolish, ignorant and not thinking and I shudder to think of what horrors might have befallen me if not for pure good chance. Anyway, I was robbed and left lost and unable to find my way back to Uncle’s restaurant. That is when a girl approached me. We fell into conversation as she helped me… she even helped me find and reclaim my property.”

Marinette pulled out her phone and opened its photo gallery. She called up a picture of her with Fei, both poking their tongues out at the camera whilst shooting it V-for-victory gestures. “This is her. Her name is Fei… Wu Fei.” Shu-Yin gasped, touching her lips in amazement. “She told me that she was the last of the line of the adepts who had inhabited the kwoon last run by Shifu Wu.”

There was a long, long pause. “Tell me more,” Shu-Yin said, her voice without inflection.

Marinette chuckled. “We had quite the adventure, thwarting a thief and, amazingly, managing to get caught up in an attack by no less a figure than Hawkmoth, the Terrorist of Paris! Along the way, Fei so impressed me with her skill as a fighter as well as her strong sense of duty and of right and wrong. Her foster father was dead, murdered by that same thief and the kwoon had been abandoned and destroyed because of his machinations. Fei had nothing, so I took her to Uncle and, as I knew he would, he took her in. He eventually adopted her and she is now my cousin in the eyes of the law as she was in my heart from that moment we first met.”

“Marinette, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Sabine asked, covering her mouth.

“I can’t explain how it could be that way maman but… yes…” Marinette swiped her phone, switching from the picture Adrien took of her and Fei together in a mischievous pose to a more formally-posed portrait. “I can’t see who else could have had such a story and be nearly my age. In that dark moment, when I was more lost and alone than I’d ever known before… my cousin came to me and saved me. The cousin that I never knew existed.”

“When I met her earlier this year, I thought that she looked like you, meimei,” Sabine said quietly. “I just couldn’t imagine how that could be.”

Shu-Yin laughed suddenly, her finger gently tracing the outline of Fei’s face. “No jeijei… She is the very image of grandma, I think.” She looked up at Marinette. “Thank you for telling me the truth about your adventure, niece.”

Marinette’s finger moved to the touch control that would call up Fei’s contact card. “Do… you want to speak to her, ayi?”

Shu-Yin paused for a moment then shook her head. “No. I gave up all rights and all connection to her when I left her on Wu Shifu’s doorstep. I have no right to impose myself in her life now, especially when she has a life of her own that has nothing to do with me. Uncle will care for her and I am blessed by having such a noble-spirited young cousin; there is nothing else she can be for me or I for her.”

Marinette wasn’t convinced but she didn’t say anything else as her aunt walked out onto the balcony and bowed her head. Maybe only she could hear the stifled sobs. 

Sabine put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and spoke in French. “Leave it be for now, Marinette.”

“Maman, was I wrong to say anything?”

Sabine smiled. “I think that you may have helped your aunt to start to heal and not just this morning.” Marinette blushed slightly. How foolish of her to presume that her mother wouldn’t have guessed that she was Painted Lady when she already knew her to be Ladybug and a Guardian. “However, things sometimes must be allowed to proceed at their own pace. For now, we have a busy day ahead of us and there are many things in this city that I’m looking forward to seeing today.”

Chapter Text

Surrounded by his backing dancers, XY finished his performance with a raised fist dead in the centre of the spotlight, the last auto-tuned chords fading away. The audience went wild.. Well, at least most of them did. The blond dance star snorted as he waved to his fans and strode off of the stage. There would always be the fuddy-duddy old-timers like that washed-up has-been Jagged Stone who said his performance was lacking some spark.

“The one and only XY, ladies and gentlemen!” XY heard Alec Cataldi, the master of ceremonies announcing. “Now onto our next act for your consideration at tonight’s competition. Fresh from their victory at TVi’s ‘New Faces’ show last season, give it up for Kitty Section!”

XY couldn’t help but sneer at hearing that despised name. Despite being all younger than him, in their own way, Kitty Section were as old-fashioned as Stone (no great surprise that two of their line-up were his kids): Old-fashioned harmony and melody. Hell, they even wrote their own songs and lyrics rather than buy from the best contracted composers and lyricists! 

Despite himself XY looked out onto the stage and was surprised to see that their ‘unicorn kitty’ masks and suits were gone. Instead, most of the band were dressed in black leathers with white shirts that had the unicorn kitty printed on the front and had the same logo picked out in silver studs on the back of their jackets. However, the singer, R… Ronni? No, Rose. She was dressed in an all-white minidress with sparkling sequins that made her blonde hair stand out dramatically and made her instantly the centre of the set, drawing every eye to her as the spotlight caused her dress to flare like it was encrusted with diamonds.

“So; good show, Xavier.” 

XY turned to look at his father (as well as agent), Bob Roth. “Dad.” He gestured towards Rose. “Next set, I want the same thing; dress the backing dancers in black and put me in white! It’s a great idea!”

Roth rolled his eyes at his son. As always, the boy never had a thought that someone else hadn’t had first. “I’ll see to it.” He said. “You got a solid 8.9 average from the judges. That’s good but not outstanding; you should be ready for a sing-off with the runner-up.”

XY grimaced. “Come on, dad! No-one is as good as me and, besides, they all know that you’d destroy their careers if they humiliated me!”

Roth sighed at his son’s entitled naiveté and looked out onto the stage where Luka and Juleka, Stone’s recently-acknowledged spawns, had launched into a thunderous interlocking guitar/bass duet. “Huh! That’s Adrien Agreste playing the keyboards!” Roth remarked, making XY look in the appropriate direction.

“Cool!” the younger man remarked. “I guess having an ultra-rich mom who owns the mayor gets you the occasional dream come true!” Roth discreetly rolled his eyes at his son’s inability to understand that the Agreste boy was handling his concert-quality synth like a grand piano with interlocking melodic lines and chords cycling off the key of the melody and back. XY had never shown an interest in the technical aspects of his craft and was often little more than a dancer miming along with pre-recorded lyrics.

Then Rose started to sing and her melody somehow outshone the elaborate guitars, which fell silent and continued supported only by synthetic chords and harmonies from Adrien’s keyboard whilst Ivan continued to pick out a hard, rapid beat. Bob frowned at what he was listening as the song went into its first chorus with the guitars coming back with near-operatic force and Juleka’s dark, ethereal alto voice began to repeat the lyrics rung out in Rose’s lighter, brighter mezzo-soprano in a ghostly harmony. “Now that’s an interesting twist: Heavy Metal vocals written in the style of Scandinavian rock-pop? Is that the wave of the future?” XY scoffed as Bob surreptitiously began to record the song for later analysis, deconstruction and imitation.

A bad sign (for XY): Luka had taken the instrumental-only repeat of the chorus after the third verse as an opportunity to get the audience to sing along and they were. Getting the paying peons that invested was guaranteed Hit Parade material. No, Bob couldn’t let this stand. The big man stormed off, leaving behind his befuddled son. “Stone!” he yelled, seeing Jagged Stone observing his children’s band from the other end of the backstage. 

“Hey, Bob! How’s the plagiarism going for you?” The English rock god grinned in ill-humour. He hadn’t ever forgiven him for dropping him from his label and Bob knew that this would make things harder. He drew in a breath to calm himself before continuing in a mock-friendly tone.

“Your pups are doing good out there, Jag. So, what will it take for them to pull out of the Sound of the Nation competition? A debut album being #2 behind XY this summer? Warm up act for Clara’s next tour?”

Jag raised his eyebrow. Personally, he couldn’t imagine why anyone who wanted to hear Kitty Section would also want to hear Clara Nightingale; the two acts’ sounds were totally different. “Why would they do that at all?”

“You’re not an idiot, Stone. This is business. I can make it my business to make or break your kids!”

“Can you?” Jag tilted his head towards the stage as Kitty Section launched into the last repeat of the chorus with Rose and Juleka’s voices perfectly blending together and swapping between lead and repeat of the lyrics. “I dunno, Bob… Sounds like they’re doing fine. Now, I’ve got FNJ Records on the hook for their first album and Penny has their first few single releases planned but, if you want a piece of the action…?”

“Stone…” Bob shook his head. “You know what this is about. XY has a good five years left in his career and I don’t want him to face serious competition until I decide who’ll make him yesterday’s sound.”

“Bob, honestly, those kids have got a rare talent and you’re not the biggest voice in music off of the European continent. You forced me to find an alternate label and now you’ve lost your control over my choices…” He looked back to the stage as a visibly amazed and crying Rose did a deep curtsey to acknowledge the audience’s ovation before all five members of the band leapt into a group hug. “You don’t control theirs either. That was your choice.”

Bob grit his teeth. “You’ll regret this, Stone.”

Jag’s expression was thoughtful. “I’ve regretted a lot of things in my life, Bob. Walking out on Anarchy… the best thing I’d had in my life… and my kids is the greatest by a long way. Well, now’s the time when I start trying to make things right by letting them shine.”

Bob snarled and strode off, ready to use all of his influence to have Kitty Section disqualified on the spot.

“Bob, this is impossible! Did you listen to them?” Bob’s mouth was hanging open as he listened to the chairman of the judging panel. He’d never been just rebuffed like that. “I will listen to you if you have a serious alternative qualifier but..” the man shook his head. “Let’s be frank here, Bob; XY is still a saleable talent but he’s stale and, beyond his early-teen fanatic followers, he’s sliding off of the top! These kids…” The man shook his head. “These kids are huge. They have the raw talent and the skill to dominate the charts for a decade!”

“Claude… Just imagine how difficult it will be for you to fill venues if Moolak Music is boycotting you.”

The other man shook his head. “I’m sure I’ll find other acts that don’t come with your hidden strings attached, Roth.” He turned to his fellow judges and nodded decisively. Bob’s eyes bulged as he looked at the marks. Honestly, he thought that they were a touch low and, if it weren’t for his own commercial interests, he’d say so (as well as snap up the kids on the spot). However, as it was…

“Dad! Nine point three? I never got marks that good even when I was just starting!”

“Xavier… I’m sorry. I tried but Stone has them all thinking that they’re capable of being their own men and women for once.”

XY came close to stomping his feet like a thwarted child. “Dad! You promised!” Bob shot his son a genuinely annoyed look. “Look, I know the score, okay? I’ve done everything you asked for me and you owe me success in return!”

Bob laughed. “Owe you? Oh you stupid, arrogant little boy! I don’t owe you anything! I’ve done my part but the entertainment biz is always moving. Styles go out and styles come in! I can control that in some ways but not all of them and all of the time! You’ve just got to deal with the fact that I can’t guarantee that you’ll always come out on top! It’s a test of how resilient an investment you are to see how well you bounce back!”

XY looked down and the expression on his face wasn’t sad or anguished. It was enraged. “Look, old man! I’m XY and I’ve done my part so step up and do yours!”

“Done your part?” Bob hissed. “Not entirely: You aren’t winning.”

XY was genuinely shocked by his father's words. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Bob growled but decided that, as this strutting peacock was his son, he at least deserved some semblance of an explanation. "Look, Xavier-Yves, entertainment works like this: Styles and trends come in and go out regularly. What was hot one day is garbage the next. Ultimately, people make their choices about what they want and there is nothing you can do when they’ve made that choice but ride the tiger!"

Bob stormed off, shouting instructions to his underlings over his cellphone. XY, meanwhile, stood backstage, shocked into silence and too stunned to argue any further. He was still there when Kitty Section were announced as the clear winners of the Paris regionals and that would go to the contest’s national finals. He wasn’t even runner-up! He was third behind some ridiculous female five-voice choral troupe! What was this? XY grimaced in anger at those insufferable amateurs who had been an ever greater thorn under his thumbnail from the moment he’d first met them. 

The dance star drew in a deep breath. “Okay, dad, you want me to win? Well, okay then… I’m going to win. Just don’t complain if, afterwards, I decide that I don’t need you anymore!”

~*~*~

“Aye-aye, first mate Juleka! Permission to come aboard? Ya-haaarrr!” Juleka rolled her eyes at Alix’s words as the diminutive redhead saluted her jauntily from the riverbank with Rose, Ivan and Mylène all crowded around her.

“Do you see the grey braids?” Juleka asked, gesturing to her hip-length purple-streaked black hair. “No, you don’t because I’m not Anarka. Please don’t think that you need to do the pirate lingo with me now she’s living at the Hotel de Ville!” She stepped back and gestured to the rear sundeck of the Liberty. Her girlfriend and three friends piled down the gangplank onto the houseboat.

Ever since Anaka was elected mayor she had, sensitive to appearances in her new position, had been living in the mayoral apartments at the Hotel de Ville. This had left the Liberty entirely to her twin children who were both close to their 17th birthday and more than able to look after themselves. Juleka was quite proud of this new level of independence and even prouder of the fact that she and Luka had resisted the urge to turn the houseboat into Teen Party Central.

Luka stepped up from the glass-covered main deck onto the sundeck just in time to be met with an airborne hug from his girlfriend. “Hey! Axman!” Alix laughed. 

Juleka was about to make her own mocking comment when a gentle pair of fingers touched her chin and turned her face so that her lips met Rose’s as the smaller girl leaned up into a kiss. 

“So,” Myléne asked mischievously. “Is it always like this here at PDA central?”

“Nope,” Alix replied boldly. “Weekend nights, we go without clothes!”

“ALIX!” Luka, Juleka and Rose all chorused loudly, going bright red. 

Ivan, being who he is, looked between them in confusion as Mylène giggled. “Uh… Wouldn’t that be cold?”

“Kidding! Kidding!” Alix chuckled, still not having got out from under Luka’s shoulder.

Rose coughed in embarrassment and, with a clear exertion of effort, got her brain onto something that did not make her want to imagine certain things about Juleka and Tigrette, both with her at the same time and sans clothing. “So, um… Where’s Adrien?”

Luka shook himself all over and smiled at his sister-in-law in all but the letter of the law. “Adrien couldn’t make it today. Melodie’s dance troupe has their first full dress rehearsal today and, being who he is, he managed to get an invite. I think that he wanted to cheer them on!”

At least in theory, the day’s gathering was to finalise the arrangement of Luka’s latest composition for recording. However, as always, the three couples couldn’t help but relax in each other’s presence. Mylène snuggled into Ivan’s embrace and nearly fell asleep. Rose and Juleka had stopped talking after a while and were just holding each other’s hands and staring into each other’s eyes. Alix kept on teasing Luka and trying to get him to put down his acoustic guitar on which he was strumming out a thoughtful tune.

At that point, in a way that had been all too familiar during the more than a year of Hawkmoth’s rampage, things went strange in a very bad way. Luka’s guitar made a brain-jarring sort-of-chord made up of a mix of third- and seventh-tones. “Wow, Bro!” Juleka’s face twisted. “You haven’t been that bad since you were five! String break or something?”

Luka was looking at his guitar in worry. “No, it’s fine; the strings just… made the wrong sound?”

“Here, let me!” Juleka took the guitar and strummed it a few times, changing the string tensions as she did and frowned at the lack of positive effect. “This is so weird! It’s as if the tones of each string have altered!”

“I don’t like this…” Luka said. Rose didn't either. There was something wrong; she could feel a headache coming on that reminded her nightmarishly of her near-fatal brush with meningitis when she was still a young child and it felt like the world was pressing in on her from all sides!

“Yikes!” Everyone turned to Mylene as she ripped out her earphones. “My playlist has turned to random noise! What’s going on?”

Ivan frowned and pulled out the earphones’ jack plug. “Guys, I think that you should listen to this.” he touched the face of Mylène’s phone, increasing the volume on the speakers. 

“Heeellooo Paris!” 

“What…? Is that XY?” Alix blurted. “How did he get onto a read-only file?”

“So, I hear that you don’t like my sound anymore! Maybe you want something new and something more to your tastes. Well…” the dance-pop singer laughed harshly. “Well, from here on, Dissonance is the game. You can wave bye-bye to harmony, melody and tune! You’ll get the newest of new waves - the sound of madness!” The demented laughter that followed was almost as bad as the random screeching that had preceded it, let alone the random noises created by Luka’s guitar.

At that point, the world tipped sideways and there was suddenly no hint of logic, order or pattern anywhere. Rose slammed her eyes shut and covered her ears as her friends began to scream, their voices suddenly a random series of noises as they staggered randomly through the disordered mess that was now their world. No! She wasn't going to lose her mind! She wasn't going to succumb to lies created for revenge!

“Rose! Rose Lavillant!”

Rose opened her eyes to look into a familiar orange-masked face. She was standing on the roof of one of the riverside apartments. Beyond Rena Rouge’s head was the green hex-pattern of Carapace’s Shell-Ter. “R… Rena Rouge?”

“Rose, you once served Paris as Piggiwig, the Pig Hero of Veracity. Are you willing to do so again?”

Rose sat up unsteadily and looked at the ankle-chain of the Pig Miraculous. All around the rooftop was an unimaginable hellscape of twisted angles, random colours and, mixed into them, the occasional glimpse of the agonised twisted face of those caught in the effect.

Rena grimaced. “It seems to be limited to a few hundred metres around the riverbank but keeps on moving. In any case, although Shell-Ter can block it, it isn’t possible to nullify it to get close to Dissonance, who we’re guessing is at the centre of the effect.” Rena pushed the Pig Miraculous forwards. “The Pig protects its wearer from that which is false, be it illusion or the effects of any other external powers. It can also grant you the power of Root Out to protect others in the same way.”

“Please, Miss Rose!” Daizee was floating by Rena’s head, looking at the pixie-like blonde. “We need you!”

Rose shook her head. “Where are the others?” 

“They’re outside the sphere of effect or they’d be lost in the chaos too.”

“Babe!” Both Rose and Rena looked at Carapace who was looking at a read-out on a hovering hexagonal haptic display being projected from the Turtle Shield. “We’ve got problems! Chat says that the Five of a Kind Gang are hitting the theatre’s box-office! Probably just a coincidence but still…!”

“We’re out of time, Rose. Can you do this? Can I trust you?”

Rose’s head had cleared enough to realise that Juleka and her friends were all in danger and that the Pig Miraculous was her only means to help them. “Yes, you can Rena Rouge!” she said, snatching the ankle chain from the Fox Heroine’s hand and getting an approving smile in return. Rose slid on the ankle chain, stood up straight and called out: “Daizee! Scent it out!”

The pink-and-white fighting garb of Piggiwig formed around Rose’s slim body and, in perfect unison with the other two heroes, she leapt into the air, remaining close to the centre of the Shell-Ter bubble. Piggiwig thrust the Pig Tambourine into the air and yelled: “Root Out!” A beautiful sugary pink bubble of light shot out from Piggiwig's tool, clearing away the madness to a greater extent than the diameter of the Shell-Ter, which Carapace now shut down. The Turtle Miraculous went black with one flashing green sector.

The three heroes landed on the sun-deck of the Liberty next to the twitching and moaning Luka, Juleka, Alix, Ivan and Mylène. Shaking her head, Alix looked up with a grin as she saw the three superheroes and pulled out a certain pocket watch. Luka’s eyes widened and he seized her wrist shaking his head. “Luka, this is the time, trust me.”

Before Luka could reply, Rena looked at Ivan, Mylene and Juleka. “This should be done privately, but Piggiwig can only block Dissonance's powers out to a relatively short distance. So, we do it here and I must trust in all of your discretion and honour to keep these necessary secrets. Juleka Couffaine, Mylène Haprele and Ivan Bruel: These are the Miraculous of the Tiger, Mouse and Ox. They will grant you the powers of the Hunt, Multiplication and Endurance to protect the innocent. You will use it to stand beside us and fight for the Greater Good. When the fight is done, you will return the Miraculous to us. Can we trust you?”

Myène made a frightened squeak but, after a moment, she reached out and took the bronze coin on a leather throat strap. Seemingly freed from his own hesitation by his girlfriend's decision, Ivan nodded in response and took the bronze septum ring. Finally Juleka shot Piggiwig a nervous and apologetic look before taking the Panjas Bracelet.

“Heeeyyy cub!” Roaar yelled as she materialised in front of Juleka’s face. “Ready to find more prey?”

Piggiwig’s mouth dropped open. “J… Juleka? You’re Tigrette?” 

Juleka shot Piggiwig a genuinely apologetic smile before raising her now panjas-clad fist. “Roaar! Show my stripes!”

Alix grinned. “Fluff! Clockwise!”

Luka rolled his eyes but realised that this was always destined to happen eventually. It happened on Heroes’ Day after all; that was how the original three secondary heroes had discovered each other’s identities. “Sass! Scales Slither!”

Mylène and Ivan had finished quiet conversations (with amazed looks on their faces) with Mullo and Stompp respectively.

“Mullo! Let’s get squeaky!”

“Stommp! Make way!”

The mass of transformations dazzled Piggiwig but she was focussed entirely on the woman she loved in the costume of her secret crush, Tigrette. “So, you were always the same woman?” she muttered in a strange, strained voice. Fortunately, no-one heard that.

Rena grinned at the looks on the sextet’s faces. “People, we’ve got to go to support Chat Noir and Scorpia at the theatre. We’ll leave Dissonance to you!” With that, Carapace re-summoned Shell-Ter and he and Rena Rouge leapt off into the shattered, distorted skies.

The six heroes stood around each other, not entirely able to believe what was happening. "So… Uh…" Vipereon said to the two newcomers. 

"Call me Polymouse!" the small girl with pink dreadlocks in the grey mouse-themed hooded onesie with pink arm, leg and chest segments and mouse ears on the hood.

The new leather-clad Ox Hero was looking at the sledgehammer in his hands and looked down at the Mouse Heroine in an adoring way. "I'm… Minotaurus?" 

Piggiwig moved first, noticing that her tambourine was still sparkling and feeling an instinct that, strangely, seemed to be talking with Daizee's voice. "Okay, I think I've got an idea. Hold still, guys!" She stepped towards her friends. Uncertainly, she touched each of them on the forehead and they started shining with sugary pink sparkles too. "Yeah! It worked! Okay, you've been individually blessed with the power of Root Out! Anyone you touch will be protected from Dissonance's powers now but I'm not sure whether this can end this!

Bunnyx shook her head. "The akuma rules still apply, PW. We've got to find the source and we've got to take him down!

"I can split up!" Polymouse said. "Search lots of areas at once?"

Piggiwig shook her head. "The Root Out charge will stop you from being driven crazy by his power but the world around you would still be distorted and hard to navigate; you can't achieve anything by just going out there, you would likely get lost!"

"Well, didn't Rena Rouge say that the effect was centred on the riverbank near here? Also… it was XY!" Minotauros shrugged. "Figures that he was attacking the Liberty to get to us for revenge for what happened at the regional!" It was times like this that everyone realised that for all Minotaurus was hardly the fastest wit in Paris, he thought in straight lines and that was always the quickest way to g et to an answer.

Tigrette slammed her right fist into her left palm. "So we just go ashore and punch our way through everyone and everything between us and that talentless nepo-baby!"

Vipereon nodded in agreement with his sister and set his Miraculous. "Second Chance! Wait!" He shook his head. "Okay, that's bad. There are crazies everywhere! People out there who can't tell friend from foe and will tear apart anyone who gets close to them!"

Piggiwig really didn't want to guess how the Snake Hero had worked that out as none of the scenarios were particularly nice.

"So, that's my call: If I can stop people from being driven crazy by Dissonance's powers then... Multiply!" The pink sections of Polymouse's costume began to shine and, as everyone had seen Ladybug do when using the Mouse Miraculous, she rapidly turned into a mass of tiny Polymice. "I don't need to even find Dissonance!" one of the tiny Polymouse clones squeaked. "I just pass on my immunity to the people he has on the riverbank… not even all of them… just enough to let the rest of you get through!"

Vipereon nodded thoughtfully. "It will work! Let's head out, people!"

Tigrette grinned at her brother. “Now you’re talking my language!” She sprung for the gangplank before Vipereon grabbed her again. 

“No, wait! We can’t just all go charging in head-on! We need to give Piggiwig an opening to get through to Dissonance and that means he’s got to be distracted and disabled for a moment!” Vipereon looked at his girlfriend. “Bunnyx, take Tigrette to XY’s location, wait until we’re there and then hit him from behind!” 

“Burrow!” Bunnyx called, gesturing with her parasol She looked inside the glowing pentagonal portal and then looked outside again with a grimace. “No dice, Snake. Dissonance’s powers have so screwed up space in the local area that I can’t see a portal to his area.”

Vipereon grinned. “All we need to do is get the area of effect of Piggiwig’s Root Out to him then a portal should open. Get ready to move when that happens!” Bunnyx shrugged with a game smile and gestured for Tigrette to follow her inside. Vipereon turned to the mass of Polymice standing around Minotaurus’s relatively gargantuan feet. “Minotaurus, you and me are going to keep the crazies from looking at Polymouse until it’s too late. Everyone ready?” There were two nods in response (well a nod from Minotaurus and about fifty simultaneous nods from Polymouse). “Okay, let’s move!”

Minotaurus raised his hammer above his head. “Impulse!” He roared and charged up the gangplank with Piggiwig close behind him, followed by Vipereon surrounded by the swarm of Polymice.

Prior to that moment, Piggiwig had never given much thought to what the phrase 'unstoppable force' might mean. Then, as she raced up the gangplank and the cloud of distorted reality ahead of her broke up to reveal maybe a hundred Parisians clawing at each other's faces and moaning in horror as they lashed out at each other. Several saw the Miraculous Heroes and, with cries of mania, they reached for them. Minotaurus ran towards them and they were simply swept aside, several being slammed into each other and went sprawling by the immense transmitted force, although not all of them really seemed aware of it.

As she watched, the Polymice spread out and, as they grabbed the downed berserkers, a miracle happened. Their bodies were coated with the same pink sparkles of the Scent Out power. They looked at their hands and around them in amazement, seeing the heroes and their own sense of self no longer so hideously distorted. The Polymice raced on, running from person to person whilst carefully staying inside the bubble of stabilised reality.

More of the afflicted charged the heroes but their numbers were thinner and it gave the heroes the advantage. The Snake Lyre, Pig Tambourine and Ox Hammer were able to knock aside several attackers (who were so maniacal to have no real plan other than 'grab and tear'). More appeared and it was clear that there were a lot more to go. "Guys, we're not gonna be able to hold them off forever!" Minotaurus warned as his Miraculous gave a warning bleep. A few moments later, that was joined by a different tone and Vipereon looked at his Lyre in surprise, realising that he had received an invitation to join a Miracuchat session.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [email protected] (@SnekCharmer)

@Snekcharmer: This is a bad moment, whoever this is.

@WatchWabbit: You only think so, Snake

@WatchWabbit: Looks like Big Beef was right

@WatchWabbit: The rabbit-hole is still distorted but we've got him!

@WatchWabbit: Dissonance is in a top-floor apartment in the block immediately on the other side of the river!

@Tigrette_Temp: I don't know if I'm flattered or creeped out that he was actually watching us! He's got binoculars and a parabolic microphone in there!

@Piggiwig_Temp: Be creeped out;

@Piggiwig_Temp: The thought of that guy watching you and your brother coming and going since yesterday?

@Tigrette_Temp: That's a high-cost rental apartment and I know for a fact that he didn't live there or I would have seen him going in and out!

@Polymouse_Temp: Yeah, definitely an 'ik' from me.

Vipereon shook his head as he dismissed his Lyre's phone interface. Vipereon watched the mass of moaning mind-distorted civilians lurching towards them. "Minotaurus, Piggiwig and Polymouse, we know where we're going to let's get there!"

"Singularity!" Polymouse called out and everyone watched for a moment as all her miniature clones rushed together with the full-size heroine rising out of the silver-white glow.

With his Impulse power still active, Minotaurus charged forwards across the river-front road, his earthquake-like footsteps easily sending the berserkers in their way staggering. Aware of her importance, Vipereon and Polymouse were guarding Piggiwig from either side, which she found frustrating. She didn't need people protecting her!

A few moments later, Minotaurus met the aged wooden front door of the apartment block, which simply exploded into splinters. The four heroes crowded into the deserted reception area. "We need to keep moving!" Vipereon called out. The berserkers weren't particularly fast but if they trapped the heroes in an enclosed area, the situation could quickly turn deadly.

Polymouse looked up and cast her Tail Rope towards the top of the stairwell. Piggiwig shook her head in wonder at what the Miraculous tools could do; the Tail Rope had increased in length more than twenty times to do that! "Hang on, guys!" the Mouse Heroine called out. Everyone did so and, with a tug on the rope, it retracted back to its normal length, carrying all four of them (Minotaurus probably making up more mass than the other three combined) to the top of the stairwell.

"How do we get through the apartment door?" Vipereon yelled. "Minotaurus, do you have any of your Impulse charge left…?" The Snake Hero turned to see that the door was open and Piggiwig was gesturing politely for them to enter. "Why I am not surprised that XY didn't bother to secure his lair?" he muttered. He strode in and froze.

Vipereon supposed that having a whole power theme based on the distortion of mind and reality required that one look the part but the open-fronted two-piece suit was a bit of a fashion horror and he imagined that Melody would have a fit at seeing it: Every panel of the suit and trousers were made from a different colour material; lime green, purple, pink and yellow were the most prominent. Vipereon's quick eyes rapidly worked out what was happening before him.

Dissonance was muttering an endless stream of rap lyrics into a free-standing microphone wired into a mass of amplifiers and speakers pointing out of his balcony. There were also transmitters wired up to some laptops. Obviously, the dance performer had been aware of these powers for a while and thinking about how to use them to make large scale mischief. Vipereon was thinking of ways to disable the attack when the Snake Miraculous's option to reset timed out and it made a loud bleeping noise. Dissonance whirled and stared incredulously at the heroes. Fortunately, Minotaurus had quick reactions and charged the amplifier and digitisation set-up, leading with his sledgehammer. Plastic and metal casings caved in and electronics expired with a shower of sparks with every blow.

"Oi!" Dissonance yelled. "Those were bought on dad's credit card!" It took a moment for the neophyte supervillain to realise that he was in immediate danger. "I'm not going to let you make me nobody!" he yelled. "I'm going to break this city and I'm going to break those amateurs who want to knock me off of the top! They don't like me anymore? Well, I'll make them beg for me to make hits for them!"

Suddenly things made sense to the heroes… Or least as much sense as the thoughts of someone clearly struggling with a sense of weak self-worth could make sense. "Dissonance, let me help…" Piggiwig stepped towards the half-demented man.

"NO!" The Pig heroine was blown back into the much smaller Polymouse, knocking them both flat. "I don't know how you escaped my power, you stupid pink dumbass but I don't need your 'help'! You'll find that up close and personal, there's nothing that can stop me from destroying your sense of reality!"

He might have a point. The entire forward arc in front of the supervillain was suddenly like a shattered window with ripping randomness in between the shards. Horrifyingly, Piggiwig could feel the protection of Root Out being stripped away by the force of the attack and her three colleagues were rolling on the ground, clutching their heads. At that point, a hexagonal portal opened and an oh-so-welcome purple and grey shape emerged. "Single Strike!" Tigrette's fist, crackling purple with the power of the Tiger Miraculous, slammed into the side of Dissonance's face and smashed him past Piggiwig and into the wall by the door, the plaster covering of which shattered before he crumpled nervelessly to the floor.

Piggiwig flew into Tigrette's arms and the two superheroines hugged (Tigrette didn't know why Piggiwig was acting this way but experienced a guilty joy at the experience nonetheless).

Bunnyx ran over towards the fallen supervillain and aimed the point of her parasol at his throat. "Not a word or even a sound, rapper boy." Bunnyx turned to the two embracing heroines. "Hey! Piggy! I think you're up!"

Feeling a little embarrassed, Piggiwig untangled herself from her costumed girlfriend and walked over to the visibly fuming Dissonance. "Dissonance, you're so scared of losing your position in Paris's culture. I wonder… is that really is the case?" Piggiwig performed and jingling circular motion with the Pig Tambourine. "Revelation!" A pink circle was drawn by the Tambourine and, in the circle an image formed: A rapid montage of people playing XY songs and girls sighing romantically at pictures of the man. "I don't think that you'd be so easily forgotten, Xavier-Yves Roth. Not so easily at all… Unless you insisted on becoming a figure of terror."

"I… I never knew!" XY sobbed. Somehow, what he was seeing was more than just images. There was a feeling of what was happening that told him that it wasn’t an illusion. "I was so scared! I thought that Kitty Section were going to take them all away! I… I never understood." XY nodded. "Yeah… Yeah, I still have something out there and I can't throw it all way, no matter how badly dad let me down."

Great, thought Tigrette. He's still blaming others but at least he realises that supervillainy isn't going to help.

At that moment, The Mouse Miraculous made a triple-beep and the last mouse outline on its face began to flash. "I think the time has come for us to make our departure," Bunnyx said with a smile. With a gesture of the Rabbit Parasol, the pentagonal Rabbit Hole to the Burrow re-opened. "M Roth? Don't forget what happened today and what you have to lose if you choose the wrong path."

Suddenly, a tidal wave of ladybird beetles flowed through the room. "Looks like Ladybug finally made it back," Vipereon said with a relieved smile. Too many people had been hurt for them to not need the Miraculous Cure. "Let's go, everyone!"

"No, wait!" Everyone looked at Piggiwig, who held out her fist. "Come on, let's do it!" With grins, the other heroes raised their fists too, Vipereon rolling his eyes in a good-natured way.

The six fists touched. "Pound it!" they chorused.

~*~*~

"Did she do well, Mullo?" Ladybug asked the Mouse Kwami.

"Oh, very well indeed, Guardian Ladybug! I'm very pleased with how quickly she learned!" Mylène blushed at that praise as a smiling Ivan, having already handed over the Ox Miraculous to the Champion of Paris, grinned and squeezed his girlfriend's shoulders in approval.

"Well that's good to know. The world always needs more heroes."

"Oh, no! I don't think that the Mouse Miraculous is right for me!" Ladybug was genuinely surprised. The small girl with rainbow dreadlocks smiled as she handed back the necklace. "I've seen all the times you've used Mullo's power on the Ladyblog and I don't think that I'd ever be as good with her as you are!"

Ladybug took the Mouse Miraculous and dropped it into her Yo-yo's bottomless depths. "Okay, Mylène but don't think you're going to get away that easily! Mullo's recommendation means a lot and I bet that I can find the right Miraculous for you!"

Mylène blushed and averted her gaze. "If... if you think you need me and think that you can trust me despite my fear…?"

Ladybug smiled warmly. "What fear? Vipereon and Bunnyx say that you volunteered for the most dangerous part of the mission and didn't hesitate when you were needed!" She touched the smaller girl on the tip of the nose. "I think that, if you stop telling yourself that you're too scared, you might be surprised at what you can do."

~*~*~

"Hey Juleka, you did great, girl!" The said young woman squeaked in surprise and looked up to see Rena Rouge crouched on glass roof of the main deck of the Liberty, grinning down at her. Roaar chuckled at her reaction from where he was hovering beside her.

"Thank you! Uh… Thank you Rena Rogue!" She pulled off the Tiger Miraculous (making the Kwami of the Hunt fade into a ball of purple light and vanish) and held it out to one of Paris's longest-serving superheroes. "I'm always glad to help, no matter how weird the job. Please make sure that Ladybug knows that!"

Rena smiled and jumped down onto the rear sundeck. "Actually, on the subject of Ladybug, she's had her own things to say about this caper!"

"Um… Oh?" Juleka felt the need to go invisible but somehow restrained it.

"Oh yes. Did you ever read the rules for posting whilst your phone had temporary access to the team's chat system?" Juleka shook her head. "Rule 4," Rena explained. "Temporary Heroes can't be made Permanent Heroes, and thus have permanent logins to the chat, until they've completed at least two missions to the Guardian's satisfaction."

…

"Of course, that's something that applies to you now, Dudette!" Carapace told Rose who was still holding out the Pig Miraculous with a confused expression."

"P… Permanent?" Rose asked, her voice squeaky.

"As the Boss-Bug likes saying, the world always needs more heroes!" The Turtle Hero grinned. "You've shown that you have what it takes too!"

…

Rena Rouge walked over to Juleka and gently folded her fingers over the Tiger Miraculous. "This is your third major mission and every one of them you were exemplary. Ladybug was pretty clear about this to me before she left town again. She wanted you to keep the Tiger so that, wherever you go, you can help protect the innocent. There is just one question to answer."

…

"Do you really want this?" Carapace asked Rose. "Being a hero is as dangerous as it is fun!"

…

Juleka looked at her hand, now closed to grip the Tiger Miraculous gently. "I won't lie, Rena. Being Tigrette is fun and I've loved helping people but… Yes, I have been scared."

…

Rose frowned as she looked at the links of the Pig Miraculous sticking out from either side of her fist. "But I've helped people too. I've stopped lies from destroying lives. I've never imagined that I could be a fighter… a hero… but…" The girl shook her head. "I can't ignore that good that I've done and the fact that it felt so right to do it!"

…

"Working with Roarr… It was more than just a thrill! I felt like I'd finally become something that I was meant to be!"

Rena smiled and nodded, putting her hand on top of Juleka's. "Am I right to say that means 'yes'?"

Juleka grinned; she moved her hand free and pulled the Panjas Bracelet on. With a flash of purple light Roaar manifested again. "Thank the Balance! I thought you'd never finish thinking about it!" The Tiger kwami grinned and flew around his Holder's head once before getting in her face. "So, what do you have to eat around here? I just love durian fruit!"

Rena laughed. "Yeah, one of the untold drawbacks of being a Permanent Hero: Keeping up with these bottomless pit picky eaters!"

~*~*~

It was dusk in Paris and XY was smoking on the balcony of his actual apartment (not the lair he'd obtained by embezzling money from his father). After getting his head together he still hadn't entirely got over his sense of resentment but he realised that lashing out without any real long-term plan would only make things worse. Finishing his cigarette, he tossed the butt off of the balcony.

"That's a disgusting habit and a pretty dangerous way to get rid of your butts!"

With a squeak, the dance music singer span around to see a very familiar black suit with polka-dotted red outer layers on her body, arms and legs. "L… Ladybug?" he gasped out. The Ladybug Heroine was leaning against the wall by the balcony and was idly cycling her Yo-Yo up and down in a way that made XY wonder how long she'd been killing time and watching him.

Ladybug didn't smile or glare but XY got the clear impression that she was judging him somehow. "So, when did you discover those powers?"

XY wondered if lying would do any good. Nah, probably not; she likely had some freak powers that let her detect lies and he had the feeling that the consequences of that would be bad. The 'junior team' had let him go after breaking up his attack as Dissonance but he didn't want to tempt fortune. Honestly, that experience of 'the truth' that the pig gal had shown him and knocked all of the fight out of him. "I first accidentally smashed reality when I was 13 and an independent producer told me that I didn't have any talent." He looked down at his hands. "I've kept it hidden; I figured that dad would drop a freak and all I ever wanted was fame. Still… whenever I get mad, it tends to sneak out." Not entirely true but true enough; she didn't need to hear of all the other people he'd mostly-accidentally broken that way through the years.

Ladybug nodded and flipped her Yo-Yo up into her hand before popping it open like a make-up compact. Reaching into the pink-white light shining out of the interior, she pulled out a circular charm on a chain. Although it could have looked like a ladybug, it reflected Dissonance's colour scheme, mainly purple with a blue, green, yellow and pink and black spot. "Xavier-Yves Roth, this magical charm will help you govern your emotions and prevent your powers from 'sneaking out'. It won't repress them but, as long as you wear it, you will need to use them consciously and you'll find it harder to allow your emotions control you."

XY looked at the magical charm. "Okay and what if I don't want it?"

Ladybug's smile was humourless. "You can distort reality and people's minds enough to put innocents at risk, M Roth. If you won't take steps to control your powers, then I have responsibilities." She moved her free hand to tap the 'UH' badge on her belt. "SPECIAL will then have to decide what is done with you."

XY had heard of the UN-mandated superpower-regulating spooks and nothing he'd heard was good. He nearly snatched the chain out of Ladybug's hands and put it on. "You've got a deal Bug-Lady!"

"See that it's kept!" Ladybug's Yo-Yo cast was fast and, almost before XY could realise what was happening, she was vanishing against the skyline. XY shook his head. No-one told him what to do. However, he knew that he'd have to be careful and, if he ever did this again, he would have to make sure that he did it right.

Chapter Text

Tomoe Tsurugi swept through the doors of the Tsurugi Corp high-security robotics development lab just outside Paris, the doors opening smoothly before she even arrived at the threshold. Naturally, she had ensured that all the doors in the facility would open at the mere hint of her approach. After all, no-one had any right to secrets from her in her building.

“M Forgeron,” she said. It was a matter of personal pride for her that her quiet, understated voice nonetheless drew all attention to her. The named individual raced over to greet his CEO, nearly genuflecting in his eagerness to please her. Having little interest in small talk she immediately got to the point of her visit. “M Forgeron, as you know, the advanced commercial robotics conference begins at the start of next week. I remind you that it is imperative that TsurugiCorp wins the prize for most impressive new item in the field of computer-assisted human-operated exosuits. I trust that your project, into which we have invested so many resources, is complete?”

“Of course, Mme Tsurugi!” the man said. “I assure you that the new paramilitary security exoframe we have developed will sweep the board in all the relevant categories. I even confidently expect it to snatch the ‘best in show’ prize!” 

The man was gesturing excitedly at the huge exoskeleton shaped like a human/dinosaur hybrid, standing in the middle of the room surrounded by technicians who were busy carrying out tests on their laptops and tablets. The shining silvery biped with triple-jointed legs, horribly-clawed fingers, a faired-in jet pack and the hint of various types of weapons housed all over its body loomed over the technicians like a mechanical predator. Of course, it was the psychological impact of this impression that had driven its appearance from the earliest days of the project.

At that point, Francoise Forgeron realised that he was indicating his brainchild to a blind woman. Of course, Tomoe could see the exoskeleton very well, perhaps even better than the man could himself. However, it amused her to ‘see’ him flush in horror and listen to his babbling and frantic apologies, even though she didn’t show it by her facial expression. “Enough. I am familiar with the design of your project. Simply ensure that it wins.” The woman’s eerie white eyes, protected by her usual round-lensed sunglasses, turned to directly face the project leader. “Whatever it takes, M Forgeron. No other outcome is acceptable to me.”

Tomoe turned to leave before pausing and swinging back to impale the man with her seemingly-sightless stare once again. “Oh, and M Forgeron? In the unlikely event that any of the other projects on show are comparable or superior to yours? I think that such technologies would be far better off in our hands, do you not agree?” Once again forgetting himself, Forgeron nodded frantically. Tomoe saw no point requiring a spoken reply. It would serve her personal mystique if she just seemed to ‘know’ what her employees were doing around her. Instead she turned and left the laboratory as swiftly and silently as she’d entered.

~*~*~

With Nooroo and Tikki swirling around her head, Marinette finally fell backwards to lie spread-eagled on her bed. Home at last! “Oh, it’s so good to be back!” she groaned.

“Hard time with the fam?” Alya asked from where she was leaning on Marinette’s work desk with Trixx hovering beside her.

Marinette sighed. “In ways both harder and also not as hard as it could have been, Alya. I think that I might even have done some good, even if it’s left me with a dilemma to solve!”

Alya raised an eyebrow in askance. “Girl, when is there never a dilemma for you to solve? You need to learn to delegate more before it breaks you!”

“Like you did when you found a whole new superhero and didn’t bother to tell me?”

Alya looked at her hands. “You left me in charge, Mari. Chloe and Ladydragon had it under control and I didn’t want to go screaming to you for help with every issue that came up!”

Marinette smiled slightly, although Alya couldn’t see it as the noirette was looking up at the ceiling. “Yeah… That was a bit of learning that I needed to do. It’s hard, not knowing everything and being at the centre of everything.” She looked up. “So: Juleka and Rose?”

Alya smiled. “They knocked it out of the park, oh Master Marinette. You were right to say that they were ready for a permanent place after their next mission.” Alya chuckled. “I do wonder how long it will be before they work out each other’s secret identities? Is Paris ready for another Super-Couple making out on the rooftops?”

Several responses came to Marinette’s mind but she just shook them off as being her neuroses, things that she was trying hard to fight, manifesting themselves. “So, let's talk about Ladydragon’s new apprentice.”

“Uh…” Alya hesitated. “Look, Marinette, you were the one who said that we have to respect heroes’ secret identities, right? She asked us to keep it confidential. I think even Ladydragon only found it out on their second training session. Chloe said that it was a condition on which she decided to cooperate with us!”

Marinette picked at her bottom lip nervously. “I don’t like it, Alya; especially not with the power that the Prodigious give you. Only Ryuuko and maybe Chat Noir are more powerful and…”

“Did someone call my name?” With an acrobatic move, the Black Cat Hero of Paris came through the ceiling skylight and back-flipped onto the end of Marinette’s bed before dropping on top of the girl full-length and seizing her head for a brain-mangling kiss.

“Do you two want some time alone together?” Alya asked with an arch expression.

“Kitty!” Marinette reproved in a gasping voice the moment that Chat removed his lips from hers. Chat would have been more worried but for the cute smile with which the word was uttered. 

There was a flash of green light and Plagg soared up to the other kwami, exchanging a high-five with Nooroo before settling in to gossip with the others. Meanwhile, Adrien adopted an Indian cross-legged pose at the bottom of Marinette’s bed, smiling at her in a way that was 100% Chat Noir but that Marinette had finally learned was actually Adrien’s true nature without the shadow of his father’s tyranny handing over him.

Marinette pulled herself up into a sitting position, leaning back against her kitty pillow. “So, Adrien, when were you planning to tell me that your mother had funded a whole week-long fashion show just to showcase my work?”

“MDC’s work, Princess,” Adrien responded. The raised eyebrow showed that the attempted distraction had not worked. The blond boy raised his hands in a helpless gesture. “Look, Marinette, she swore me to secrecy! I couldn’t disobey her! You know what it’s like when a parent is in that mood!” 

Actually, she did; if Emilie had a ‘disappointed and disapproving’ look as powerful as her mother’s then Adrien was literally powerless to disobey her! “I still would have appreciated a heads-up in advance!”

Adrien shook his head. “Look, Marinette, House of Harmony is a big organisation! We can run a show without you having to micromanage us! Everyone and their dog had been predicting that Maman would hire MDC to be the new chief designer and you’d already submitted a full spring and summer beach collection. All she has to do is make them up, stick them on a few models and let the media realise that the rumours were true!” There was a long pause as Adrien looked down at his hands that were clenched in his lap. “You… don’t have to be there!”

Marinette sighed. “I would have preferred it if Emilie hadn’t made this a ‘surprise’ but I get your point.” She leaned forwards and poked her boyfriend in the chest. “Also, if Emilie thinks that I’m letting my debut commercial collections go on show without me to make sure everything is perfect then she doesn’t know me at all!”

Adrien smiled lovingly and pulled a pair of club class Star Train tickets out of his back pocket. "I knew that you'd say that Marinette!" He was proud of the upper body strength that prevented himself from being tackled off of the bed platform by the momentum behind Marinette's hug.

“That means you’ll be out of Paris again, I guess?” Alya sighed.

Marinette grinned unrepentantly at her best friend. “Well, you’ve proven how well you can do without me, Alya!” 

~*~*~

“It’s ready!” Max said as he looked at the huge mass of titanium alloy, synthetic rubbers and plastic sitting in the centre of his mother’s seldom-used garage.

“So it seems,” Markov agreed. “Just in time for the show next weekend too! Are you excited?”

“Of course not! I don’t let things like this affect me!” 

Markov looked at his human friend knowingly. “Max, my voice stress analysis reads back a 82% chance that you are lying to me… and to yourself.”

Max grinned in an embarrassed way. “Okay, you got me. There is a final step to take though.”

“The first all-up test.” Markov said. “Well, there is no point putting it off!” The little robot zipped over to the garage doors to trigger the roller shutters and the slowly widening beam of sunlight caught the shape in the middle of the small building: A large, humanoid shape like a man kneeling on one knee, but formed in scarlet metal plates with joints of black rubber. One the right-hand side of the chest was painted a simple logo, a robotic-styled version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man inside a cogwheel-shaped ring and underneath it, the acronym: M.A.X. - Mobile Anthropomorphic eXoframe.

Max clapped his hands in a gesture of nervous anticipation. "Okay, Markov, let's get moving."

"My pleasure, Max!" The small robot folded in on himself and dropped into a socket on the huge suits back, which locked closed. There was a pause and slowly the big robot shuffled forwards under the garage shuttered before standing up. The chest panel opened and the helmets slid up to reveal a space in the body that was clearly upholstered with cushions salvaged from car seating. "Ding-Ding! All aboard!" announced Markov's voice from hidden speakers.

With a slight smile, Max clambered into the piloting space, made sure that he was in contact with all the control surfaces and then touched a small control with his left pinkie finger. The chest compartment and helmet closed around him.

Roland Dupain was just putting out his rubbish behind his old shop when he heard a noise like jet turbines spooling up… No, that is exactly what it sounded like. The old man turned just in time to see a humanoid mechanoid rise into the air with a howl of jets and, unsteadily at first but with rapidly-improving grace, flew off towards the north.

Now, most people would have been shocked or even terrified by this sight. However, this was Paris and Roland had lived in this arrondissement ever since his ill-fated marriage. He knew what that was and who that was. "Kids these days!" he mumbled in disgust. "Boy's mother should find him something useful to do with his time instead of tinker with scrap!"

~*~*~

Marinette was nothing like Chloe in most ways. Because of that, she had no real interest in being the centre of attention. That was probably the real reason why she was really enjoying the robotics show. In this crowded event hall, she really was nobody: Just an ordinary girl with an ordinary life. She had put together the occasional contraption on occasion but she didn't fool herself into believing that she was a real engineer like Paladin and his family in London who built real wonders – technology that could be magic.

There was a specific reason why she was here though. "Marinette! Over here!" 

It was one of the smallest stalls in the 'Enthusiast/Newcomer' section but Marinette wanted to be here rather than one of the bigger corporate stalls because there was a friend here who she wanted to encourage. "Hey, Max! Good to see you too Markov!" 

The bespectacled robotics prodigy reached down from where he was standing on the platform around his display to grasp his friend's hands and grinned in welcome. Marinette smiled and not just because of the 'M.A.X. Robotics' logo that she'd designed and the t-shirts she'd made up for him.

“So, this is the big invention?” Marinette. The robotic exosuit was shining red in the powerful spotlights and, strangely, didn’t actually look as scary as she’d expected when Max had described his project to her and Adrien a few weeks ago. 

“Indeed it is, Marinette!” Markov actually sounded proud which most people would believe to be impossible although Marintte knew better.

“Yes, Marinette; this is the big one; the one I was working towards from the moment I finished with upgrading Markov!” He walked over to the M.A.X. suit and ran his hands reverently over the plating. “A fully-mobile environmentally-resistant power armour that can be equipped with any number of tools and other peripherals to carry out almost any task imaginable in any environment imaginable!” Max stood straighter and nodded. “From the bottom of the sea to the airless wastes of space, M.A.X. can go anywhere and do anything!” 

“Not, military I’m assuming?” Marinette asked. 

Max made a face like he’d just swallowed a peeled whole lemon. “I hope not; I designed M.A.X. to be a construction or rescue tool but, I suppose, it could be used for police work if you thought it was suitable.” Marinette nodded thoughtfully as the young man smiled uncertainly at her. “All assuming anyone wants to bring it to full production of course.”

“Having problems drumming up customers?” Marinette asked. How odd that something that was her greatest concern as she was starting up MDC Design should also be the case at the other end of the technology scale!

Max shrugged. “I’m not exactly in the best place to promote my work, Marinette. I’m all the way over here in the ‘amateur hobbyist’ section. All the major players are over there and that’s where the real buyers will be!”

The oddest thought imaginable popped into Marinette’s mind. “So, why not take it over there?” Max started to stutter in response. “I’m serious, Max. This thing is safe to walk in crowded areas, right?” Max gestured in a way that Marinette interpreted as ‘in theory, yes’. “So, prove it! Take it over to the big corporate area and show them what real robotics genius can do!” The noirette’s smile was dazzling and the idea was seductive.

“Um… Who would watch my stall?” That was Max’s last weak attempt at resisting the idea.

Marintte rolled her eyes, tossed her black jacket and clutch behind the counter and walked over to the box of shirts to pull out a small M.A.X.-branded sweatshirt and slide it over her floral-decorated tee-shirt. “See? So long as no-one checks to ensure that I’ve got an exhibitor’s ID, no-one will notice the difference. So, go out there and show them what you have to offer!”

Max suddenly realised that he knew just what Nino went through with Alya: There was something about the ‘leader trio’ of Marinette, Chloe and Alya that just made it futile to oppose their ideas on how to improve your situation. He looked over at Markov. “Markov, I know that I’m asking a lot but can you keep Marinette out of trouble?” Markov’s face screen changed to show a ‘thumbs up’ emoji. 

“This is dumb,” Max muttered as he popped open the exosuit’s piloting chamber and clambered in. “I’m going to get myself thrown out of here and blacklisted but I don’t have any better ideas!” 

After clambering into the suit, he triggered the start-up sequence and closed the chest and helmet around him. “Please stand well back, ladies and gentlemen!” Markov called out cheerfully as the exosuit began to move. 

The first step Max took kicked the round counter around his stall and, Marinette noticed with interest that the balsa-wood didn’t splinter at the robotic titan’s very touch. “Oops! My bad!” Max’s amplified robotic voice echoed from hidden speakers. The relatively thin crowd in this part of the show hall backed off nervously. “Okay, I got this; just let me make sure I have the stabilisers and control sensitivity set right!”

With a whine of electrical actuators, the M.A.X. took another step forwards and exited onto the exhibition walkway. Marinette was impressed at how much of the huge weight of the suit was being entirely absorbed by its rubber foot treads. There was no titanic metallic crashing noise, just the somewhat musical-sounding whine of actuators and stabilisers. “That is amazing!” a round-faced sandy-blonde hair in unflattering pigtails and bug-eye corrective lenses muttered. “It’s moving with the agility of biology! I’ve never seen a machine move so smoothly!”

Marinette turned her best ‘sales’ smile on the girl. “So, what would you like to know miss…” she looked at her visitor’s ID. “Miss Gonzales?”

Hovering out of sight above the open central roof of the stall, Tikki watched Marinette launch into an unplanned marketing skit with a loving but exasperated smile. Just below her, Markov muttered: "Curious; how does Marinette know so much about this?"

Although she knew that the robot couldn't see or hear her, Tikki replied. "I think that you can blame Chloe. Ever since she was taken into Marinette's business, she's been a bit of an example of 'every job is sales' thinking and Marinette really does imprint so easily!"

~*~*~

“It’s rather…. unimaginative, monsieur.” Franc Forgeron blinked at the judge in surprise. Did that man just call Warframe ‘unimaginative’? 

“It represents the high-water mark of military robotics, sir!” he protested.

The judge smiled patronisingly. “Exactly, Monsieur Forgeron: It literally is nothing but a walking gun. There is no flexibility and no ability to do anything beyond a relatively narrow set of purposes. To me, your team seems to have set out to make an anti-infantry and anti-armour weapon system and have never gone beyond that.”

Forgeron ground his teeth. “I think that you’ll find that this is a bit more than a bipedal tank, sir. It has the agility to surmount any obstacle and can survive any combat environment! It is designed to fight and defeat any conceivable threat!” 

“Yes,” a woman added. “However, can it do anything else?” 

Forgeron frowned and gestured to the suit, catching the attention of the man piloting it. “Jean-Marc, please show everyone just how easily the Warframe can move?” The hawk-like head of the exoframe nodded in response (an interesting little subtlety all of its own) and took several steps forwards. Possibly because of the highly-placed piloting station, the pilot didn’t see the laptop case until the clawed feet physically launched it into the air to crash back to the ground about thirty metres away (with a cry of dismay from its owner).  The pilot over-reacted and the exoframe took a step back, trying to regain its balance and its arms automatically repositioning and knocking off one of the supports holding up the canopy over the Tsurugi Corp stall, bringing it down on a pair of shrieking salesgirls.

“Strong, yes,” the judge announced. “Agile too from what I’ve seen. However, it just seems to be all brute force and cutting edges. No real subtlety or grace at all!” Maybe the man didn’t notice the vein throbbing on Forgeron’s temple or maybe he did and didn’t care. “Simply put, Doctor, this prototype seems to be a genuine step back from some of your employer’s previous consumer robotics products.” The judges turned away and, with a sinking sensation, Forgeron realised that he'd blown his chance and maybe his job too.

Forgeron growled inarticulately and squeezed the bridge of his nose as if he was trying to keep his brain from popping out of his nostrils. He stormed up to his brainchild. "Marc, you idiot! You're fired!" he hissed.

There was an appalled pause before the pilot disengaged his restraint frame and hopped out jof the slowly-opening chest panel. "Fired? I quit! I thought that being a mech pilot would be cool but you've made it a drag!" With that, the young man stormed away. 

“Um… sir? Now what?” one of the Tsurugi Corp marketing personnel whispered urgently.

Forgeron tried to force down his massive stress headache. “Don’t worry; I can pilot it as well as any of these animé-addicted morons,” he murmured in reply. Frankly, he was more worried by the fact that not just the ‘best in show’ prize but possibly the first prize in ‘Police and Security Technology’ category was slipping away from him. He knew the rumours about Mme Tsurugi; everyone did. However… she didn’t really arrange fatal accidents for subordinates who failed her too dramatically did she?  

At that point, Forgeron felt rather than heard a regular set of loud footsteps. They were accompanied by an electronically amplified young man's voice. "Whoops! Sorry about that! Still getting used to people's reactions! Uh… Sorry! Here! Got it for you!" The robotics engineer looked on in wonder at the three-metre-tall red humanoid-shaped exoskeleton kneeling next to a Chinese woman who had dropped her files. Gods! The dexterity it was showing with its big three-fingered end-effectors as it picked up the papers and neatly stacked them. The woman was watching with amazingly wide eyes as the robotic figure handed the files back and then rose smoothly off of its knee back to a standing position.

The judges, who had been looking at a tracked bomb disposal robot, all flocked towards the newcomer and Forgeron knew what they were feeling! There was either the most advanced movement algorithm ever written in that thing or, somehow, the creator had made a quantum leap in motion sensors and motor control! 

“An amazing device young man!” the head judge was babbling. “From someone who is mostly an enthusiast! How long have you been working on this?”

Forgeron joined him and smoothly moved to the front of the crowd of experts. “Indeed it is,” he said. “I’m speaking here as a man with fifteen years’ experience in the most demanding commercial environments too!”

Inside the M.A.X.’s piloting womb, Max touched one of the tongue switches that deployed a telephoto lens and gave him a better view of the man’s exhibitor card. Tsurugi Corp! Wow! Talk about making it to the big time with a single leap! “So, as my colleague wonders, what is your secret?” There was something about the man’s voice; not insincerity but Max was reminded of Lila Rossi: There was cunning and very obvious avarice in his voice.

“Mostly it’s the analogue AI software,” Max responded. “It takes time but I’ve been walking around with a motion tracker suit on for months. The system has learned what different motions are intended to do; M.A.X. now basically can predict and copy my every movement. I also have tried to get the sensors not just sensitive but also to discriminate between intentional and unintentional motions by the contextual patterns behind them.”

“Fascinating, fascinating!” Forgeron said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Young man, you have probably done more with this entertaining street walking machine than many professional engineers have done with machines far more complicated and refined. Speaking on behalf of Tsurugi Corp, I would be more than willing to take your software and develop it into a far more refined product.”

Behind the tinted glass faceplate, Max nodded to himself and, naturally, M.A.X. copied his motion. “For a suitable licensing fee, of course?”

“For the honour of being remembered for your contribution to robotics!” Forgeron snapped. “Don’t be too quick to turn me down, young monsieur! We’ll eventually make the same breakthrough and then you’ll be forgotten!” 

“Tell me, Mr Kante,” one of the female judges interposed, sensing the increasing tension. “What is this suit meant to do, other than demonstrate your fascinating motion learning algorithm, of course.”

“M.A.X. was originally designed for construction and rescue work, madame. It can carry up to four active tool pods at any one time. They are powered by the main power cells and are directly attached to the limbs, giving the pilot the maximum level of precision and refinement when using them.” Max had his mech reach towards its hip and detach a circular unit that he moved up to the left forearm and attached it. “For example, these are powered metal cutters.” The shear jaws of obvious industrial metal cutters extended from the circumference of the disk and made a purposeful ‘click’ noise as Max cycled the cutting system a few times. “I’d be lying if I denied that I used the motions of a visual artist at school who likes cutting paper shapes of considerable intricacy as the basis of the algorithm in this case.”

Forgeron stepped forwards again, wringing his hands in an excess of tension. “Look, young man, this is all very impressive but we both know that you lack the capital and the infrastructure to move to production as well as find a customer base. Your discoveries will be a footnote unless Tsurugi Corp uses them!” The engineer was visibly gritting his teeth and was stomping around in circles on front of the M.A.X. Max was shocked that an adult could show such childish signs of stress. As for Forgeron, he wasn't thinking about that. He was just thinking about how having control of this boy's code was probably the only thing that could save his job at this point!

"Perhaps but I may have other bidders waiting." Max gestured at the professionals around them, all of whom were now looking at the M.A.X. in confusion and wonder.

"Listen to me," Max could tell that Forgeron was losing his cool. His tone was starting to sound like Sabrina's dad when you talked back too much. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime here! We'll see to it that you'll be fully credited, okay?" It cost Forgeron a lot to make the following offer as he was quite sure that Kante would be a definite risk to his own position at the company. "We'll even sponsor you into technical university and you'll have a high chance of getting an internship at Tsurugi Corp! Isn't that great?" He pointed a slightly shaky forefinger at the impassive visor of the exoframe containing the lucky young amateur. "Take what you can get or you will be left with nothing! Madame Tsurugi will see to that!"

Invisible behind M.A.X.'s visor, Max raised an eyebrow. "I'd prefer a patent and the resulting royalties, actually," he said, impressing himself with his own bravery.

"You know, your negotiating tactics aren't making a good impression of you or your company," the head judge remarked with an arch expression. "Everyone knows that Mme Tsurugi always plays to win but do you have to mirror that with so little class?"

Franc Forgeron stood up straighter and shot a nervous look towards his creation that, in retrospect, Max would admit should have been a transparent red flag. "Class?" he said with a smile that actually was a snarl. "You want class you ignorant fool? Well, I'll show you class!"

~*~*~

Alex Gonzales was very impressed with Markov and he was actually showing a blush emoji at the way the teenage electronics enthusiast from Mexico was gushing over him. At that point, Marinette heard screams and an enormous crash. Years of experience immediately told Marinette that trouble had arrived, in one form or another.

"What was that noise?" Alex gasped.

"Probably bad news, given this town's recent history! Markov, get Mlle Gonzales to safety!"

"Run! He's gone berserk in that darn killer machine of his!" someone screamed and the crowd instantly turned into a panicking mass running in the direction of the emergency exits.

Marinette dived behind the counter of Max's stall. "Tikki! Spots on!"

~~*~*~

“Okay, people, there’s plenty of room here!” People weren’t staring at the M.A.X. suit anymore. Instead  they were hurriedly running under the bit of ceiling that the exoskeleton was holding up to evacuate the exhibition hall; most of the other exits had been blocked by fallen debris.

Max was glad that Alix had insisted that he put a 5kW amplifier onto the M.A.X.’s voice output system because, right now, that lunatic in the combat exoskeleton was making a hideous racket shooting up all the other corporate displays whilst cackling comments about: “How’s that for flexibility, ladies and gentlemen?”

“Ah, the hero of the hour!” Max turned his suit’s headpiece around to see the huge combat platform, named ‘Warframe’ by its pilot, loping towards him and aiming a long rifle-like weapon at him. “It’s a most amazing thing you have created, despite your total lack of professional resources. However, unfortunately for you, my needs are far greater than yours.”

“Sir, there is no need for this destruction,” Max responded hurriedly. “Let alone to put all these innocents at risk of harm!”

“Oh, I agree; I’m not psychotic. I just wanted to put people at risk. Given that you mentioned ‘rescue’ so distinctly in your outline of the functions you intend that suit to carry it, it occurred to me that putting innocents at risk would keep you here and occupied.” Warframe’s rifle was now pointed at Max’s visor at nearly point-blank range. “Your engineering has made a remarkably-hardy device but I doubt that the visor can block an anti-armour railgun round at this range and I only need an intact data drive from which I can reverse-engineer your code. You are… a loose end that could potentially slander me with claims of plagiarism. So, M Kante, I fear that this is where we must part…”

Max had never felt so relieved that supervillains seemed to reflexively monologue in situations like this as it had given time for the cavalry to arrive. Ladybug’s Yo-yo cord wrapped around the barrel of the railgun and the force of her leaping overhead was enough to yank it up to point at the ceiling where a half-dozen nail-sized uranium-cored titanium-teflon sabots were shot through the thick concrete roof.

Warframe staggered and Max could imagine the man’s shock. After all, Ladybug was small even for human girls and for her to have enough strength to overpower the exoskeleton’s servo-assisted joints showed just how much her magic boosted her physical strength.

“Ladybug!” Warframe finally snapped. “This is not any of your business, girl; this is a matter of science, engineering and commerce! Be off to chase your fellow magical freaks!”

Standing on top of one of the other stalls, Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s a nice attempt to compartmentalise, sir. However, I do think you’d understand if I objected to you threatening so many lives for any reason.”

Warframe probably shouldn’t have re-focussed his attention on the red-and-black-clad superheroine. The last few imperilled exhibition guests had just slipped through and Max repositioned his power-assisted gauntlets on the slab on concrete that he’d been holding up. He positioned his feet and swung the mass as hard as he could, slamming it edge-on into Warframe’s back and shattering the exoskeleton’s multi-role missile launcher where it was stowed against its back.

“Stupid boy!” the maddenned robotics engineer yelled as he turned back to his nearer opponent and slammed one of his suit’s clawed feet into the M.A.X.’s chestplate, knocking him back a couple of metres. He then turned back and fired two arm-mounted pulse lasers at Ladybug, who was already somersaulting out of the way as the megajoule-scale energy pulses slammed into the stall where she’d been standing and the concrete walls behind, both exploding from the energy transfer. “Everywhere there are complications! Why can’t I just get them out of my way?!?"

Still leaning against the wall that had stopped his movements, Max had stowed his cutting tool and had pulled a different two disc-shaped tool units out of the stowage area on M.A.X.’s back. He’d never intended for his suit to be used as a weapon but he couldn’t just let Ladybug fight something that was intended to outmatch tanks and whole companies of soldiers single-handed. He attached the industrial diamond-edged circular saw to his left forearm and the laser cutter to his right hip, letting him draw the pistol-like laser projector, wired into the M.A.X.’s power cells through a thick cable.

The pistol-like liquid-state argon-helium cutting laser sent an intense beam of green-spectrum coherent light into Warframe’s armoured chest-plate, sending a white-hot shower of incandescent titanium alloy from the impact point. 

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that both combatants at this point were shocked by that. Max lowered his laser cutter and Warframe touched the damaged spot, still glowing cherry red, in a way that seemed to communicate shock. “Interesting,” the robotics engineer remarked. “So, despite all your claptrap about wanting to build an exoframe for peaceful purposes, it does have some combat tools after all!”

Max grimaced behind his visor. “Detune a laser cutter and you have a defensive tool, it’s true.”

Warframe made a strange grunt, a wordless reaction that was made to sound all the stranger by his suit’s voice amplifier that distorted the sound too. “Indeed; but you need to learn to keep firing until you penetrate the armour. Let me demonstrate to you what a combat laser can do.”

Max wasn’t about to wait to see. He took a loping step forwards and then tucked over into a roll just as a hail of energy fire sliced through the air. Some of it did slice across the back of the M.A.X. but, fortunately, no critical systems were there.

At that point, Ladybug reappeared and landed on Warframe’s back wielding a… a pry bar painted in her costume colours?!? The polka-dotted heroine jabbed the sharp end of the pry-bar into what looked like the seam between the hatch of the driving compartment and the the suit’s helmet and tried to push it into the gap in the armour. “Get off of me, your irritating insect!” Warframe roared, reaching over his shoulder and snatching the superheroine, slamming her to the ground. 

The combat exoframe’s foot rose and Max watched with horror as 10cm-long knife-like traction assistance claws extended as Warframe was about to stamp. Looking back, Max admitted that there was no conscious thought process involved. Max charged and slammed into the Warframe. Balanced on one foot, the TsurugiCorp killing machine tumbled onto its backside, giving the briefly-stunned Ladybug the moments she needed to flip back onto her feet.

Max was no fist-fighter but he was too far gone into his desperation to stop this lunatic to hesitate. He slammed several punches into Warframe’s chest-plate and visor as he attempted to stand up. “ENOUGH!” Warframe caught the M.A.X.’s leg as Max was about to try to stomp his face-plate. “I am done playing with you children!”

Warframe threw the M.A.X against the ground, very hard and slammed his foot into its’ chestplate, Reaching forwarded with is exosuit’s terrifying claws, he grabbed the disc-like interface unit for the cutting laser on the other exoskeleton’s hip, tore it off and crushed it in a shower of sparks. Maybe he shouldn’t have considered that the only threat because Max responded with his Teflon-edged circular saw that carved across the combat suit’s throat guard with a shower of sparks. Warframe snatched up his opponent with both arms grasping the M.A.X’s upper arms and pinning its weapons and manipulators away from him. With a whirr of motors, two auxiliary arms deployed from underneath Warframe’s main arms, one with lethal-looking metal cutters and the other with an arc welder. “Now, boy, let’s cut you out of that suit and I can reverse-engineer it in another place and time!” 

Suddenly, Ladybug’s Yo-yo coiled around the two tool arms and dragged them together, the arc welder’s deadly plasma flare striking the base of the metal cutters and melting the mechanism into useless slag. With a wordless roar of fury, Warframe threw the M.A.X. into the nearest wall, which promptly collapsed, nearly burying the other exosuit in nearly a tonne of shattered concrete and twisted rebar. With both hands free, he turned his pulse lasers on Ladybug who somersaulted out of the way, leaping through the ceiling support frame into another part of the hall.

Warframe deployed his railgun again and stepped away from the debris. “I’m sure that you can hear me, boy; that small pile of pebbles isn’t enough to stop you. However, I do know that you’re still listening for all you’re trapped. So, listen to this: I want exclusive use of those algorithms and I want them now! If you refuse, I will proceed to destroy this city, block by block, with everyone living in them until you do! Those deaths will be your responsibility!”

At that point, the Bugshield arced through the air and slammed into Warframe’s visor, making him take a step away in shock. “That was Hawkmoth’s threat too, metal-britches!” she snapped from where she stood fearlessly in one of the connecting arches to the other parts of the exhibition. “Remember what happened to him!” 

“Everyone, boy! Starting with Ladybug!”

Most people would run screaming in terror in hearing these words being uttered by the terrifying machine about them. Ladybug just rolled her eyes. “Okay then, we’ll play! Tag, gruesome!” The superheroine somersaulted forwards and slammed both her feet into the exosuit’s visor. There wasn’t much real effect but, despite that, Warframe wasn’t able to connect with Ladubug with his wild slash with a 50 cm-long chain-blade that had popped out of his right wrist-guard. 

Markov watched with wonder as Ladybug began tumbling across the exhibition area, somehow avoiding volley after volley of laser blasts. It was a true demonstration of the power of the Miraculous that she was able to keep up her evasive manoeuvres long after even the toughest organism would have collapsed from exhaustion. The little robot shook his head. No matter how powerful she was, she had to have a limit. She needed help and that meant Max and that is why Ladybug had granted him his current gift. 

Right now, Markov was invisible to any human gaze and it wasn’t just due to some cloaking effect but some form of psionic influence, given its total ineffectiveness on his optics. His hull had turned red and had a hexagonal pattern of black polka-dots all over it - something that Ladybug had called a ‘Ladyupgrade’ when they had met moments before in the other hall. 

Zipping towards the collapsed wall, Markov phased through the concrete and dropped into his socket in the M.A.X. suit’s back-plate. “Max, can you hear me?” he announced over the suit’s internal speakers.

“Markov! I’m glad that you’re okay! We have to get out of here and help Ladybug stop that lunatic!”

“Yes, Max, I’m working on that.” When Max later asked his robotic friend, he’d admit that he’d had no idea what he was going to do. He just accessed the auxiliary energies that had filled his systems since Ladybug had used her powers on him and ‘pushed’ them into the M.A.X.’s power cells. 

Warframe’s internal computer had finally come up with an algorithm that could predict Ladybug’s movements. The Exosuit darted forwards under its autopilot’s control and seized the somersaulting superheroine by the shoulder. “At last!” Warframe yelled through his suit’s PA system. “I have succeeded where Hawkmoth failed! After this, the market for this product will be huge!” 

The chain-blade was getting closer to Ladybug’s neck when suddenly the pile of debris on the other side of the exhibition exploded outwards. Warframe looked over and… didn’t see what he was expecting to see.

The M.A.X. suit had changed dramatically with its joints now silvery multiple pressure-resistant bearings and joints suitable for a diving hardsuit. The boxy limbs were now subtly curved giving a humanoid feel to the robotic frame. Warframe, to his credit, didn’t hesitate. “I knew that threatening this foolish bug would flush you out, boy! First I’ll end your interference and then I’ll rid the world of this ridiculous girl!” 

Max was feeling weird. He’d not felt this way since he’d last borne the name ‘Pegasus’ and had found his instincts and reflexes operating on a totally different level. It was as if an autoplot took over: As Warframe unleashed another hail of laser pulses in his direction, he swung the arm carrying his circular saw in front of his face and the disc-shaped mounting flared out into an 4-metre-diameter energy shield made up of rotating petals of orange light that absorbed every laser pulse. Then, with the suit’s turbofans at full power, he launched himself at Warframe, who had turned fully to look at the changed M.A.X. with a growing sense of horror at its obvious power.

Ladybug tumbled away as her friend’s exoskeleton smashed into the more complex war machine and then flipped it over his shoulder. The two machines were engaged in an aikido-like melee almost too quickly for even Ladybug’s enhanced senses to track properly. “Max! My Lucky Charm says that the only way to stop this…”

“Is to get him out of that suit! I know!”

Somehow, Warframe had got his railgun off of its mounting and pushed the upgraded M.A.X. suit off of him with the full power of his suit’s legs. However, before he could align and fire it, Max slashed its barrel off with his now more regularly-sized energy saw. There was a blue-white explosion as the superconducting electromagnet was torn apart and arcs of electricity were earthing everywhere. 

“Im…. impossible! That weapon is made of the strongest alloys! Nothing should be able to cut it!” Suddenly realising that he was genuinely outmatched, Forgeron’s courage deserted him. He turned away and triggered the Warframe’s jet pack to flee. 

“No so fast, pal!” Max snapped. Activating his own suit’s turbofans, he launched himself after the fleeting armoured villain. He slashed his saw across the war machine’s back, destroying the jet nozzles and sending the suit crashing into the open front courtyard of the exhibition centre. With an earth-shaking impact, the M.A.X. landed on top of the Warframe’s upper arms, its immense weight crushing the actuators in the shoulders and immobilising its arms and the weapons mounted there.

Max slashed across his adversary’s chest at the collarbone level with his upgraded saw and the laminated armour chest-plate on the Warframe was carved open as if it were made of polystyrene. Ladybug landed on the exoskeleton’s helmet and dug her lucky charm into the resulting gap and pushed with all her might. The abused locking catches in the chest-plate finally gave way and between them, Ladybug and the M.A.X. pulled the Warframe’s driving compartment open . Max tore off the Warframe’s helmet and then grabbed Forgeron in his suit’s enormous three-fingered gauntlet. “No! Wait! I surrender!” the roboticist screamed in panic.

~*~*~

The Miraculous Cure had been cast after the Gendarmes had dragged the broken Forgeron away (the final straw being someone from Tsurugi Corp delivering his dismissal notice as he was placed in shackles). The magic restored everything except the shattered Warframe to its previous state. The ‘upgrades’ created by the Ladyupgrade had faded at the same time. Max had grinned behind his visor as the superheroine had touched her relatively tiny fist to that of his suit with a mischievous comment of: “Bug out!” 

Max was looking at his M.A.X thoughtfully (now with the ‘best in show’ and ‘best newcomer’ awards glinting in the overhead lights by its feet). He wondered again just how it was that Ladybug’s magic had been able to affect it second hand, just by Markov plugging into his interface socket. “Um… M Kante, yes? You’re the one who created that… amazing machine?” Max looked at the girl with dirty blonde hair in unflattering braids and big bug-like corrective lenses.

“Um… Yes? Max blushed immediately at the look of worship on the girl’s face. He’d never looked at girls with a desire for romance but being asexual didn’t make him ignorant. The girl’s body language and the way she was trying to dig her toe into the plush carpet of the exhibition hall reminded him a lot of how Rose and Marinette behaved around Juleka and Adrien. “Can I help you...?”

“Gonzales; Alex Gonzales!” the girl supplied. “My mothers have enrolled me in a technology school here in Paris as they’re working at some kind of classified project in Iceland for the next year and…” the girl paused shyly. “Sir, this suit shows such a lot of wonderful software innovation! I know I could learn a lot from you and help you improve the design even more if… if you are in the market for a collaborator?” 

Max wasn’t quite sure what to say. Hovering by his head, Markov decided to respond for him. “I think that Max would welcome a third perspective on his work, Mlle Gonzales!”

Max cut in. “Yes, it would be useful, especially if you have some relevant technical knowledge. However, please don’t call me ‘Sir’. Please call me Max!” Lacking the relevant instincts, it would be a while before Max understood the way Alex’s face lit up at that request.

~*~*~

“Madame Tsurugi!” The allegedly-blind technology mogul turned to her flustered personal assistant. “Madame! The second Warframe prototype….” He shook his head. “Ma’am, it stole itself!”

Tomoe frowned; she was surprised by few things but that was unexpected. “Stole itself?” 

“It started up, tore its way out of the storage room and flew off! We’ve treble-checked the camera records and there was definitely no-one inside.” The young man paused before continuing. “Shortly afterwards, it broke into the Police Headquarters and rescued Forgeron!” 

“Hmm… So, he did have some foresight.” Tomoe gestured dismissively. “Inform the Commissioner of Police that Francoise Forgeron is no longer an employee of Tsurugi Corp. We will be preferring charges of theft against him and will assist in any way practical in his apprehension and punishment.” The man nodded and ran off to do her bidding.

Tomoe looked out of her window and smiled reflectively in the evening sunlight. “Well, not entirely according to plan but, nonetheless, the machine is tested and proven. I’m sure we’ll have no problem finding sales given that only superheroes can apparently stop it and even then only with difficulty!” Her grin became much more predatory and evil as she wondered what Forgeron would do next in his stolen war machine. “I do hope that you and your friends enjoy the gift I have given to you and your friends, my dear daughter!”

~*~*~

Marinette was helping Max and his new collaborator finish tidying up the exhibition stand he’d rented for the day. Max was clearly clueless that Alex was completely smitten with him and she hoped that the Mexican girl wasn’t on a path to heartbreak the way other girls who had been interested in him had experienced. 

Like Max, she was wondering how the Ladyupgrade had ‘spread’ to the exoskeleton. She’d only intended for Markov to find Max and help him escape, not to empower it to a new level of capabilities. “Did I do it wrong, Tikki?”

The kwami of creation, snug in Marinette’s clutch purse, frowned. “I don’t think so, Marinette, but I’ve never used this power on one of these artificial sentients that have started appearing in the last few years. I really don’t have any idea how the power might interact with them!”

Marinette frowned in worry. 

“I wouldn’t worry,” Markov remarked as he buzzed over with a box of brochures held in his claw. “All my systems are nominal and I have never felt better!” The small drone looked down at Tikki and there was a long pause as the two beings looked at each other, Markov’s hesitation communicating his confusion as eloquently as the looks on Marinette and Tikki’s faces. “I have also never seen you before. Are you… a kwami?”

Marinette snapped her clutch shut. “How is it that you can see her?!?”

Markov showed a ‘puzzled’ emoji on his face-plate. “I… don’t know? Wait… You are Ladybug too aren’t you? I really don’t understand why I haven’t seen that before! This is most puzzling!” Before Marinette could say as much as a word, Markov span on the spot and buzzed away towards his friend, phasing straight through one of the stand’s support columns as he did so.

“Marinette…?” Tikki said in an uncertain tone of voice. “Um… Markov has a magical aura now. It’s sort of the same one as my fellow kwami!”

Marinette groaned; suddenly, she had the feeling that things were about to get a lot more complicated.

Chapter Text

New York City was a crazy place; anyone who had lived there for any period of time would confirm that. Even setting aside the continual activity of The City That Never Sleeps, the United Heroez were seemingly always having a knock-down, drag-out fight with some random supervillain. Assuming that you could ignore the superhuman fisticuffs, there were so many metahumans and costumed individuals running around the city, right down to a hot dog vendor with a flying cart and whose hot dogs granted temporary superpowers!

Paris had initially promised to be so very, very different for Zoe Bourgeois (née Lee) but it didn’t turn out that way. Within 24 hours of her arrival, she’d been targeted by the villain Shadow Moth and briefly turned into a fifty-foot tall solid gold replica of her twin sister, Chloe. Within weeks, she'd found herself going through more and more bizarre experieces, helping her sister with her pet sabre-tooth cat, befriending the lost twin of her sister's childhood best friend, being mind-controlled into go-go dancing on top of a street-light and even literally dying at the start of the end of the world!

Since then, things had only gotten crazier (as astonishing as that was), not the least of which was being hunted by a supervillain working for her estranged mother. She'd also contrived to develop a crush on a mysterious masked modern-day knight in shining armour! However, what she saw that morning as she looked out from her balcony down onto her new hometown still managed to get into her top five. It actually matched her becoming a superhero in her own right by discovering that she was the chosen carer for an octet of cute but mischevious animal spirits that let her transform into those creatures and wield the elements! 

Everything below the level of third-storey rooftops in Paris was completely invisible. In its place was an unending mass of greenery; mostly vines but also gigantic Venus Flytraps, all of which had particularly unpleasant thorns and was moving like a mass of serpents. She gaped at the sight of the Arc de Triomph and the Eiffel Tower with vines curling around them like ivy climbing up a tree, all with poisonous yellow and inflamed red flowers breaking the otherwise-unbroken green. She didn’t want to even imagine what might have happened to anyone who was out in that mess when it appeared! 

The girl turned slightly to her TV set and flicked it on. A rather flustered Clara Coultard was reading from some hastily-typed notes from a studio somewhere.

“... unknown at this time. You’re joining TVi News live coverage of the latest crisis to strike Paris. The mayor’s office has advised all Parisians to remain in their homes or shelter in place wherever they might be. The mutant plantlife that has consumed the lower levels of the city is dangerous and has been attacking anyone who tries to enter from beyond the city limits and there have been several injuries reported!

“We’re trying to contact our Paris studio at this time but it isn’t known if they’re able to transmit or even if the staff can get into the building…”

At that moment, the door swung open as Chloe and Kagami strode in, every bit the dominant personalities that they were“Have you guys seen this?” Zoe blurted to the other two girls.

Chloe nodded grimly. “One thing is sure, the city is pretty much impossible to traverse at ground level right now. The other heroes are all trying to evacuate the smaller houses and lower-level shops but these vines are pretty vicious and seem to be programmed to attack anything that moves near them!”

Pollen and Longg were circling the room thoughtfully. “This smells of dark magic, my queen!” Pollen announced. “There is a taste of vile potions in the air!”

Longg nodded in agreement with the other kwami. “Yes, this reminds me of the methods of the Druids of Britannia in times past! They were nasty with their plant magic!”

Zoe frowned. “So, what do we do?”

Kagami shot the blonde girl the precise but artificial-seeming smile that seemed to be generally the best she could manage in most circumstances. “We are not doing anything, Zoe-imoto-chan. You will stay right here where it is safe whilst Chloe-chan and I go to help the rescue of the imperilled using our flying powers.“

Chloe shot her sister a firm look, silently reminding her not to talk about being Tempestia to anyone who didn’t already know. “Kagami’s right, Zee. You stay here where it’s safe. Besides, we don’t know who is responsible yet!

The other two young women transformed into their superhero forms and Zoe was left standing on the balcony as they flew off. She felt a little annoyed but she understood why she hadn't been included in this.

At that moment, a red eagle with a golden tail and head plume circled down to land on Zoe’s balcony. There was a fountain of red and white fire and the eagle was replaced by the familiar sight of Ladydragon, the bearer of the Prodigious of the Spirit. “Ladydragon Shifu! I’m so glad that you’re okay!” Zoe said, racing over to hug her mentor.

Ladydragon smiled as reassuringly as she could, given the circumstances. “I had to be sure that you were okay, my Xuetu.” She gently pushed her student away and stepped back for a moment. “I don’t know if you can sense it? It took me a while to realise what it was I could sense!”

Zoe blinked in confusion. “Sense it?”

There was a flash of lavender-white light and Ladydragon’s guardian spirit appeared beside her left wrist. “Let your mind run free of your physical senses, young one!” 

Zoe frowned, annoyed how, with Mei-Shi, everything turned into a lesson but, nonetheless, she tried to comply using the mind-clearing meditation routines that had been as far as her training had gotten so far. She frowned as she sensed a buzz in the air. “There is something off…”

Ladydragon smiled slightly. “I didn’t get it until I asked Mei-Shi either, Xuetu. That’s the power of another Prodigious active and nearby! Leave the Miraculous bearers to their mission; we have our own sacred duty to address.” She looked around the vista of writhing thorny vines with a frown. “Of course, that doesn’t make it easier to know where to look!”

~*~*~*~

“Quite chaotic indeed!” Rattus said with a toothy smirk.

Nightshade was standing next to the overing rat renling and visibly gloating at the sea of writhing green wrought her Growth Potion, combined with the strange magical spirit’s ability to induce chaotic enhancements to any magic or person. “Indeed it is my little friend!” Nightshade surprised herself by caressing the spirit’s rodent-like face. She’d always hated rats, after all!

“Such a public display of chaos is sure to bring my Renren running!” Rattus continued. Nightshade smiled evilly. It might do such that and Nightshade would then have far, far more magical creatures at her command that just this one! “In any case, what is your endgame for this demonstration, my dear lady witch?”

Nightshade laughed. “The endgame my dear Renling? The abandonment of this filthy city and its reduction to ruins! I don’t care who lives and who dies so long as Paris becomes a fading memory and everyone knows that Nightshade was the person responsible!”

There was a long pause. “Well, shouldn't you tell someone then?” Nightshade gave the rat renling a surprised look. “I mean, right now, it could literally be the work of anyone! How will anyone know that this is your revenge?” 

Nightshade was quite proud of herself for not face-palming as she realised just how dumb a mistake she’d made. “The TV relays!” she jogged towards the abandoned Champagne Bar and its small TV studio for broadcasting views of the city. Being a former TV news reporter had some advantages and knowing the codes to activate the transmitter was one of them!

~*~*~*~

Tempestia thumbed off her TV set after Nightshade’s horribly over-acted broadcast came to an end. “Well, at least that tells us where were to find her!” she remarked as she threw her remote control onto her bed and did a few lateral torso twist stretches (unnecessary as her super-suit seemed to fit her perfectly and never ever crimped or snagged at her joints). 

Ladydragon lowered her phone, having just finished a conversation with Rena Rouge. It was something of a validation that cousin Marinette’s apprentice had allowed the two Prodigious Bearers to take the first shot at Nightshade. It wasn’t an unqualified act of trust; she’d insisted that Queen Bee and Ryuuko join them despite the fact that they would be better used rescuing those trapped in the plant-choked lower levels of the city. However, it was still a confirmation the degree to which her cousin’s team-mates had accepted her since her arrival in the city barely six weeks ago. 

She considered her apprentice's words thoughtfully and decided that the girl was definitely learning the way of the soldier. “Yes… It feels like a trap, doesn’t it?”

Tempestia frowned. “Yeah… There is a feel of ‘come into my parlour…’ about it, isn’t there?”

Ladydragon wasn’t familiar with that saying but she got the point. “Unfortunately, we don’t have many options. The tower is surrounded by lots of open space without any cover. We will struggle to gain surprise, so we have no choice but to…” 

At that moment, with a buzz of insectoid wings and a hiss of flapping leathery pinions, Queen Bee and Ryuuko landed on the balcony. Ryuuko looked at Tempestia with visibly-widened eyes but relaxed as she saw her girlfriend shake her head in a mute instruction not to not ask questions. “So, we’re going after that crazy witch?” Queen Bee asked, adopting a lazy and bored posture.

“We were just discussing that,” Ladydragon said. “We’re going to be very vulnerable flying in. If she has any kind of ranged magic, we'll be sitting targets across the open skyline in that area of the city.”

“Why don’t we go through the elevators from the mid-level?” the Bee heroine responded. "We can sneak in low and then be out of her line of fire for the rest of the ascent!"

There was a long pause. “I’m feeling dumb because of that question,” Tempestia said with a rueful laugh. “Getting there without being attacked by those freaky vines is going to be hard though!”

Ryuuko smiled thinly. “I frequently get criticised for saying this but there are advantages to having an offensive-themed Miraculous. It grants you the option of solving problems through brute physical force rather than having to think your way around a problem the way Ladybug-sama does.”

~*~*~

The Bugshield was a whirling discus with brightly-glowing pink razor-sharp energy edges as it arced through the growths encroaching on the airport, slashing through dozens of the tree-thick mutated vine plants with each cast. A second later, the green-black laser of Chat Noir's newest application of his Cataclysm power lashed out, making a city block-sized mass of magical plant growth dry out and wither into rot and kindling in a moment.

Rena Rouge tossed one last apple segment to Kaalki who happily snapped it out of the air. "All done, MLP?" the Fox Heroine asked the Spirit of Migration. 

"More than enough to recharge me after retrieving the Guardian, my dear lady!" The snobby horse spirit had warmed up to the Guardian's Apprentice of late, possibly mostly due to all the apple confectionary recipes she'd learned from her mother.

Rena pushed the Horse Miraculous up her nose and smiled. "Okay then! Trixx, Kaalki! Unify!" There was a flash of bronze-gold light and suddenly, Cavaleira Rouge was standing in the roadway. She looked over to her team leaders. "Master, why don't you just cast the Miraculous Cure to clear all of this out of the city?"

Ladybug retrieved her Bugshield after her last cast and turned ot look at her Apprentice. "It wouldn't work, Cavaliera. So long as the magic that created this growth is still active, it would grow back so long there is plant life in the city to corrupt! Remember: We know the means to fix it, even if we don't know precisely how that will work out!" She again showed Cavaliera the Lucky Charm she'd received. It was an oriental-style dragon in the colours of a ladybird beetle. "One way or another, this is Ladydragon's crisis to resolve. We just need to stop anyone from getting hurt! Now, use your secondary power to get back to Carapace." The Ladybug Heroine's eyes briuefly twinked. "Also to the others, of course!"

Cavaliera had just about to throw the Horseshoe Boomerang at the wall of tained growth but hesitated and gave her Master a thankful smile. She holstered the weapon on her back, gathered herself and then leapt vertically up into the air with a cry of: "Stampede!" There was a double crack of a sonic boom and, surrounded with bronze light, she flashed away in the direction where the other heroes were struggling against this invasive growth closer to the centre of the city, her body briefly surroneded in a circular condensation cloud as she broke the sound barrier.

"Do you think that she can do it, M'lady?" Chat asked as he launched another beam of elemental destruction into the growth.

Ladybug started to swing her Yo-yo, turning the cord into a fast-moving cutting edge and waded into the growths, slashing back vines and snapping fly-trap-like maws as quick as they could reach for her and her boyfriend. "We have to have faith in the charm and in Ladydragon, Chaton! Neither has let us down before!"

~*~*~*~

Rattus sighed. Mistress Nightshade was monologuing again, wandering around the interior of the club and muttering to herself before laughing in an exaggeratedly evil way. He wondered if the human woman had always been this insane, if it was some side-effect of bonding his powers that he first encountered in a way he recognised when he tried to help that delightful Rhythm child or whether Nightshade had just gone mad when her mask of respectability had been torn from her.

Realisations like this made him wonder if there was something wrong with his judgement about choosing temporary wielders. There was no doubt that the woman had a core of chaos in her but she also had a focus on revenge with no further goal beyond that, which blinded her to all other concerns. The Renling smirked dangerously. Well, if there was one thing he’d learned since his awakening, the champions of this city were remarkably adept at freeing him from the unworthy. 

Down at the feet of this mighty iron edifice, he saw the flashes of lightning, elemental ice and the golden-white magic of Subjection. There was no need to discuss this with the ‘Mistress’. If she were as powerful as she thought, then she would have no problem in defeating these heroes. Otherwise…? He chuckled aloud, catching Nightshade’s attention.

“Rattus, what is so…?” The entire edifice shook as a whole field of the magically-summoned thickets were frozen solid and then smashed into tiny shards by a focussed blast of storm-force wind. The witch’s eyes opened wide in alarm. “What was that?!?”

“I believe that you are about to receive guests, Dionne la Cynique,” Rattus responded with an evil smirk.

Nightshade gritted her teeth, easily distracted by this attack on her secret identity and how deeply she needed it to escape the failures of her past. “I have already told you, Renling, that name has no more meaning for me”

“That is not the case,” Rattus replied in a strangely lecturing tone. “It is the name of your true self and only your ludicrous self-image forces you to make the pretence of having abandoned it. No, Nightshade is merely Dionne la Cynique’s core self, of all her rage, hate and lies, all without the cover of needing to pretend to be a respectable recorder of events.” Rattus looked over the edge of the observation deck again. "I imagine that these most powerful and impatient guests are unlikely to respect your belief that your desire for revenge is justified!"

Nightshade’s hand lashed out and she seized the rat spirit and yanked him close to her face, too angry to notice that there was not a hint of fear or pain in his expression, no matter how hard she squeezed. “I believe that you have far more important problems than me, ‘Mistress’,” Rattus sneered as there was a loud explosion and a flash of light visible through the windows from very nearby and below the observation deck club.

With the enemy literally at the door, Nightshade wasn’t about to waste time continuing her verbal sparring with the Rat Renling. She released him and snatched her wand from a hidden holster on her thigh. “Speculum Observatis!” she yelled, tracing out an oval shape in the air with orange light that instantly solidified into a hovering oval mirror. She touched her wand to its rim and, in a few seconds, she could see the heroes advancing up the emergency stairwell in one of the legs of the Tower. Queen Bee and Ryuuko she’d expected; the huge oriental dragon coloured red and gold she hadn’t and its icy breath was enabling it to shatter her creations as soon as they reached it. There was also a fourth figure, a blonde girl in a white-and-blue costume riding atop the curving serpentine dragon. At first, Nightshade wondered if she’d summoned the beast. However, no: There was no indication that she was directing the creature’s actions. There was no need anyway; the lightning that she was throwing from her hands was certainly power enough.

With a battle imminent, it was easy for the woman to dismiss her hurt pride at Rattus's devastating deconstruction of her motives. She pulled a potion phial from her belt, opened it and started sprinkling the sparkling rose-red dust it contained across the potted plants around the walls of the club. As soon as she did so, the plants started to mutate into the thorny vines and horribly-fanged venus flytrap-like jaws. She twirled her wand through an elaborate pattern. “Botania incrementum! Guard the door my pretties and stop my foes from entering!”

The mutated and rapidly-growing plants formed into almost a curtain of thorns across the doorway as more mantrap-like leaves arched their stems and poised, ready to bite as soon as a target presented themselves to the motion- and touch-sensitive growths. 

Nightshade glared at Rattus, who was hovering not too far away, seemingly untroubled by the situation and the witch’s preparations to resist the heroes. “Well? Are you going to help?”

Rattus smiled. “The enchantments with which I’m bound to my jewel impel me to obey you, Mistress.” He didn’t mention that she would have to command him specifically to actually make him do anything; there was no need to make things too easy for her, after all!

There were several loud thuds from behind the closed door, reinforced some time before by Nightshade's magic. As the appalled witch looked on, frost began to form on the surface and Nightshade found herself ‘standing’ on a layer of ice that had spread across the floor in moments. Nightshade gulped with sudden fear and levelled her wand at the door. Then, with a titanic explosion, the doors, flash-frozen to fragility, were blown inwards by a tremendous gust of hyper-pressurised air. Nightshade instantly lost her precarious balance thanks to the ice-rink that had been the floor, landing on her fishnet-and-velvet clad behind with a pained grunt. 

The witch looked up at the bright scarlet maw of Ladydragon’s dragon form as her plant guardians rapidly withered in front of it because of the sheer cold that surrounded them. “Hi there!” said the blonde in a blue-and-white costume in a happy tone of voice. “Welcome to Paris! We’re here to hit you!” 

The red-and-gold dragon growled and began to advance sinuously. Nightshade had no idea of this unknown species was likely to find a human paletable and had no intention of finding out. “Auget Tractus!” she yelled, waving her wand at her stiletto-heeled booted feet. A soft pink glow briefly surrounded the heels and soles; aided by the traction-boosting charm, was able to stagger to her feet and scramble for the balcony doors.

Just as she was about to reach safety and throw herself off of the balcony to lose her pursuers in the thicket far below, she realised that she was not alone. “Hello,” Ryuuko said with a thin smile and levelling the point of the Dragon Sabre at the witch’s throat. “We’ve been looking for you, as I’m sure you guessed!”

“Really?” Queen Bee added, silently summoning her Venom stinger. “You weren’t expecting us to cover the exits? That’s utterly ridiculous!”

Nightshade looked back the way she came to find that the dragon was gone, replaced by a woman in a red-and-yellow costume with long, blonde-tipped black hair in a ponytail. “Rattus, do something!” Nightshade yelled in a panic.

“Really, Mistress, what would you have me do?” All eyes turned to the Rat Renling of Chaos and Fire, who was hovering in the balcony doorway and grinning down at her in a way that leaked malice and triumph. The girl in blue and white's eyes opened wider and she seemed about to say something when Nightshade's panicked scream echoed across the observation deck and, or so it seemed, the city itself.

“Just stop them!”

The Renling smirked. “Oh, my pleasure, Mistress!”

No-one was able to fully explain what happened next. There was what looked like and even felt like a burst of flame all around the four heroes (although none suffered burns) and, briefly, almost every one of the laws of nature seemed to turn inside out: Up was down, light was dark, hot was cold and so forth. It only lasted for a few seconds but it left the four heroes disoriented and fighting their suddenly-tumbling sense of balance and direction for just long enough for Nightshade to Summon her new Broomstick and launch herself into the sky.

“Mistress, I suspect that all of those heroes have some means to fly,” Rattus remarked as he flew up alongside Nightshade.

“Then we go to phase 2!” the witch snapped in response. The Rat Renling gave her a patient look of incomprehension and Nightshade remembered that she hadn’t actually told him what phase 2 was supposed to be. “Burn the plants! Set as big a fire as you can and raze this city!”

Well, that level of destruction wasn’t exactly in the range of Rattus’s ability whilst not being borne by his Renren but the thought of creating even more chaos with the limited scale with which he was able to obey this command appealed to him on a fundamental level. The rat spirit briefly burst into flame and launched fireballs off in dozens of directions and at different inclinations. Everywhere they stuck the writhing plant-growth, it immediately burst into intense fires. 

“Pursue me if you wish,” Nightshade spat. "However, I suspect that these wildfires are of far more immediate concern to you. So, until my next act of reprisal, farewell 'heroes'!” With a stereotypical witch’s cackle (which had Rattus rolling his eyes), the broomstick accelerated into the air. 

Tempestia 'aimed' at the fleeing Nightshade with an outstretched left arm. Nightshade never noticed this threat but Rattus did. Floating effortlessly alongside the witch, he briefly considered remaining silent but, despite his essentially chaotic nature, he wasn't really cruel. "Mistress, I must remind you that these heroes have ranged attack powers."

Looking back, the Renling would always insist that the way Nightshade's eyes widened in realisation was an intensely funny recollection. She pointed her wand backwards and yelled: "Prases Argento!" The silvery energy shield was just in time to stop Tempestia's lightning bolt… at least mostly. However, Nightshade felt the impact through her wand arm and her muscles spasmed slightly as waves of electrostatic energy flowed up her body. She was not sufficiently affected that she forgot the obious next step to take; another defensive charm that she learned at the school for witchcraft she'd attended as a teenager. "Obscura!" A white jet shot out of the wand-tip, forming a vast cloud that swallowed her up and hid her from view.

Ryuuko briefly lined up her bow on the cloud, intending to freeze it and anyone hiding in it. Then she shook her head and sheathed her Miraculous weapon. There was no time to continue the fight; these fires were mostly limited in size for now but, with the thickets extending everywhere at ground level and above to almost five metres depth, as the wild-fires spread, they would cause immense damage to the city very quickly and endanger those still trapped in those buildings completely engulfed with the mutant growth. “We need to stop this fire!” she announced to her sisters-in-arms.

Queen Bee was thinking frantically. “I think I know how! Come on Stormy-chan!” Both heroines deployed their wings and flew off in the direction of the glittering Seine. Tempestia transformed into her falcon guise and raced off after them.

Ladydragon did not follow. On their way over to the Eiffel Tower, she’d noticed something in the Jardin des Plantes and she had a feeling that it might be something that just might be more effective than dropping a river on the fires. After all, the real secret of water as a fire extinguishing agent is that it prevents the flames from getting at free oxygen.

~*~*~

Having her sister and her wind powers around was a great aid to Queen Bee's hastily-conceived plan. Stormy-chan could make a waterspout without too much difficulty but Tempestia meant twice the water-tornadoes and doubled the rate at which they could extinguish the rapidly-spreading flames. Had that insane witch done something to make the plants into bone-dry tinder or was it just a consequence of whatever magic she'd used on them? No matter, they had to stop the fires as quickly as possible. 

If Queen Bee had a wish, it would be that they had a hydrokinetic of some sort in the city! She briefly considered trying to call Hot'n'Red to see if she and the Butterfly Miraculous could find Syren anywhere but she knew that there was no guarantee that any akumatised champion would be the same as  the previous one for that host. Queen Bee was so focussed on her musings about other possible tactics that she never noticed that, upstream, there were indeed sudden flash-floods drowning out the fires spreading in that area.

Later, no-one would know who had been responsible for this and it was another entry in the mysteries that Ladybug knew that she had to solve to keep her city safe.

Queen Bee's Trompo suddenly made the Pip-pip-pip-pip-drrriiinnng tone that indicated an incoming team transmission. She popped it open to its 'pear-phone' mode. "Everyone, maybe it's me but the plant-growth seems to be dying from the edge of the city and is retreating inwards to the centre of the city!" Ladybug's voice crackled out of the magical device. "Anyone do anything that they want to share?"

"Nothing here, Hot'n'Red! Maybe there is something in that magic that makes the plants dry out super-quick?"

"Maybe it's something to do with the magical fire?" Chat Noir asked. "Some kind of law of conservation of enhancement that means you can only have one elemental effect at a time?"

"Guys, less speculation and more fire-fighting!" Carapace sounded a bit stressed and Queen Bee hoped that he hadn’t been sheltering a chunk of the populace under his Shell-Ter since this started. Sometimes the Turtle Hero was a bit reactive that way and it wore him down very quickly.

Ladybug wasn't out-of-step for long and had probably been thinking about a counter-tactic herself too. "Cap is right; in the absence of any other options, use your tools to cut back the growth to ground level; do it to form fire-breaks!"

"We're trying to drown the fires around the Eiffel Tower, Hot'n'Red!" Queen Bee reported.

Ladybug made a frustrated noise. "Good thinking, Honey but the fires are already too widespread; it's going to take too long that way! We need something that can kill all the fires as soon as possible!"

Ryuuko released a water-spout on her target blaze and looked around herself in frustration. "Where is Ladydragon? She could be helping!"

~*~*~

Ladydragon's eagle form was circling above the Jardin des Plantes, her enhanced vision easily picking out what she had seen earlier. It had been mostly-hidden in the writhing plant-growth earlier but it was easier to spot now and the fact that this was so was proof that this was something of importance. She dropped from the sky, transforming back to her human guise and stood for a long moment, marvelling at the bright, healthy and natural plant growth steadily forcing back Nightshade's abominations.

At the centre of the widening clear circle was a mound of multicolour flowers and, hovering above it was a bright green gem, about the size of a thumbnail. Hovering above that was the cutest little anthro-wolf chibi in blue, white and silver. She stepped forward but not too close as she didn't want to spook the creature. "Greetings, Renling. I am Wu Fei, the Renren of the Prodigious of the Spirit. Who are you?"

The wolf-like spirit shot the human a dismissive glance. "Well, if you must know, I am Lupus, the Renling of Sociability and Growth. You may be a Renren, but you're not my Renren! Don't try to steal me or I'll run away!"

Ladydragon was pleased at her ability not to grimace at the typically-defensive reaction. "I have no desire to steal you, Lupus. However, I do have a need for your power in the face of the dark magic cast on the living things of this city!"

Lupus shot her a suspicious look. "So, you are aware of this evil? It is a foul and unnatural thing that harms both plant and animal alike! I am curing it, as you can see. I really have no need of you, so I suggest that you return to your friends."

"It's the risk to others and especially my friends that caused me to seek you out, Lupus. I know that there is a limit to what your powers can do without the guidance of your Renren." Ladydragon drew in her breath and switched to the line of argument that she and Mei-Shi had rehearsed together for days. "Now, as you say, I am not your Renren but I do know how to provide you with that help, just as I do with my Renlings. All I ask of you is for your trust and to accept my promise to take you to your Renren, who is known to me."

Lupus's expression was closed and suspicious but it was not in his nature to reject such a plea. Finally he drifted forwards. "If it is as you claim, then you will need no instruction from me, Renren of the Prodigious of the Spirit."

So, this was a test. Ladydragon extended her right and let the green gem fall into it. She focussed her mind inwards and let all her distractions, desires and fears fall away. All that mattered was her friends and the millions of imperilled innocents around her. Through the Prodigious, she could sense their spirits and also the bright and vital power of the natural growths still in existence. She pushed her sense of what was good and right into the green gem and willed the dark taint of Nightshade's magic to retreat.

The Prodigious, as was Ladydragon's experience, did all the rest. The Prodigious Gem was suddenly shining like a bright green sun and a warm wave of golden light washed out in all directions. As it did so, the poisonous green vegetation seemed to be cleansed and become a more natural green. Lupus was still hovering above the gem in her palm. The little Renling closed his eyes gently and, in response, she started hearing a loud grinding noise as the cleansed plant-life began to move of its own accord. 

What was happening, she learned later that day in what Cousin Marinette called the 'after-action report' on the Miracuchat. A literal wave of plant-life literally consumed each of the fires, completely uncaring that it was being consumed almost as quickly as it could grow. However, there was so much greenery and even loam being carried up by the roots that the flames were being quickly smothered. Within minutes, the threat to the city from wildfires was already over.

Queen Bee wasn’t so easily convinced and insisted that Tempestia and Ryuuko carry out the plan and make sure that the still-smouldering areas were thoroughly doused. They’re plants so they’d need water anyway! she thought as she watched her sister and her girlfriend complete their mission.

The three heroines were standing on top of a building overlooking the park where the Eiffel Tower stood and were talking about the incident. “What I don’t get is how the corrupted plants were purified and somehow smothered the fire!” Tempestia was saying, gesticulating excitedly. “How was that even possible?”

Queen Bee saw the flash of red-yellow flame out of the corner of her eye and turned to look at Ladydragon. “Actually,” the hero of Shanghai said, “I think that I can field that one.”

“I never knew you had any kind of botanokinetic powers!” Ryuuko was genuinely surprised and maybe a little suspicious. 

The Chinese woman shifted uncomfortably and seemed to be struggling with some internal criss. At that point, there a ball of indigo light materialised above her left wrist and resolved into a Chinese-style lion. “She doesn’t,” Mei-Shi announced. “It was rather the power of another and that belongs with another. Wasn’t it, Ladydragon?”

All three Parisian heroes watched with some amazement as the emotions flashed across Ladydragon’s face: Anger, fear, embarrassment and ultimately shame and acceptance. On her way to the rendezvous, she’d actually been making excuses in her head for not doing what was right and her sacred duty. She’d told herself that the time wasn’t right and that her apprentice wasn’t ready to bear Lupus’s power. She’d been telling herself that maybe the fact that Rattus had not gone to her immediately suggested that maybe Zoe wasn’t the true Holder of the Prodigious of Virtue after all. Worst of all (and this realisation made her feel sick to her stomach), there had been the seductive feel of the power she’d briefly touched, which had filled her head with lies about all the good she could do with it.

No, the only solution to this sort of temptation was swift and decisive action. “Show me your hand, Xuetu,” she said quietly. Tempestia extended her left hand, her face filled with uncertainty. Ladydragon dropped the warm, vital-feeling Prodigious gem into its rightful Bearer’s extended palm and  took a few steps back with a gasp of relief. “My apologies, Xuetu… I am obviously not so strong as to resist such temptations… without help.” With a grateful smile, she caressed Mei-Shi’s face with the back of her suddenly achingly empty right hand.

Tempestia was meanwhile looking at the green gem with an expression of wonder. A ball of green light with golden prominences all around it formed above it and resolved into a blue-and-white wolf-anthro spirit. “Oh! Who are you?” Lupus sounded genuinely surprised.

With bright flashes of blue and yellow light, Lynx and Falco appeared and hugged the other Renling! “Lupus! You found her too!” Falco cheered.

“Er… Yes, I suppose I have!” Was the Renling blushing?!? He turned and looked over at Ladydragon. “I am pleased that you have kept your word, Bearer of the Prodigious of the Spirit.” Ladydragon wondered if her shame at her weakness showed in the smile she gave the little Renling. Meanwhile, Lupus had turned his attention back to his Renren. “I believe that you know the place where to set my gem, my Renren.”

Tempestia blew out a deep breath and picked the gem out of her palm before pressing it to the bracelet around her left bicep. For a few moments, the green light shone brighter before it took its place in its setting. one of the empty hexagons in the sigil on Tempestia’s chest filled in with the stylised wolf’s head glaring out at the world.

As the three Renlings faded from view, Tempestia’s heart filled with something that she always felt but wasn’t always self-confident enough to express: Her love for her friends, her sisters and her community and also her desire to be part of something larger and greater. Suddenly she engulfed her Master and her two sisters in a tight hug. Ryuuko looked completely paralysed with shock, Ladydragon’s eyes filled with tears of shame and relief and Queen Bee returned her sister’s embrace wholeheartedly.

After a few moments, Tempestia took a step back. She took a brief glance at her Prodigious, now with the green gem glowing with the stylised image of a wolf’s head just visible in its core. “Okay…. let’s see if I’ve got this…” She extended her right arm, palm out and, abruptly, a small weed growing nearby in the rooftop guttering exploded into bright life, its roots filling the plastic water-drain and its suddenly vibrant flower turning to the sun and shining beautifully. The flower stem extended and, much to everyone’s shock, it deposited its flower into Ladydragon’s hair above her right ear, making the other woman blush. Then the plant turned to a grey-brown husk and crumbled away

“Wow…!” Queen Bee shook her head as she considered the blushing Shanghai woman’s new hair decoration. “So, I’m thinking that maybe I’m going to no longer need help figuring out who this mystery person is that you’re crushing on?”

Tempestia blushed and shook her head hurriedly. “Not her; that was just me thanking her for her teaching.” She looked at the flat rooftop for a moment. “Now… Lupus!” The blue-white flame cleared and an aqua blue wolf with a white mane, bib and socks was in Tempestia’s place. She jumped up rest her forepaws on her sister’s chest and gave her a slobbering canine kiss.

“Yuck! Okay! Enough!” Queen Bee spluttered in embarrassment.

~*~*~

Lord St John Graham de Vanily smiled at LIla as she entered his study with a curtsey and a murmur of “I hear the Lion’s Roar!” 

“My dear Iris; tell me, have you ever seen anything like this before?” Lila looked over at what her employer was indicating and her eyes bulged open. It was a silvery-white raven, sitting on the corner of his desk and flickering in a way that made it look like some manner of proejction. “I know what you are thinking, my dear: That this is some manifestation of the Raven Miraculous and is here as an emissary of dear Audrey’s? Well, no. Actually I have seen this form of magic before but not in this specific form.” The Leo Villain turned his gaze back to the spectral raven. “I wanted you here to witness this and ensure that I miss nothing. Now, protective spirit, speak your caster’s message.”

The creature’s beak opened and, much to LIla’s shock, a woman’s voice emerged. One that was so oily, insincere and filled with cunning that Lila might have imagined herself sounding like that one day. “My dear Leonidas, I am Nightshade. I have sent my Patron to you as it is, of course, the only means I have to contact one such as yourself. 

“We are two people with common interests and common enemies, sir. You covet the Miraculous for yourself and, like you, I am kept from my goals by the simple existence of the group known as Team MIraculous. Three times now, these interfering children have kept me from the revenge that I fully intend to take from the people of Paris and the destruction that I intend to bring on that foul city. 

“It occurs to me that you and I can be of use to each other. I have access to powers very different from that of the Miraculous in many ways and you have unlimited wealth and access to resources. If we combine these together, we can both get what we want: the Miraculous gems for you and, for me, the endless despair of those who live in the hell that was once known as Paris.

“Come to the rooftop offices of TVFr in Central Paris - either you or some agent of yours - as the next full moon rises over Paris. There I will tell you what I can offer and you can tell me the price that, in turn, you wish me to pay for your aid.

“I hope that this will be the beginning of a most fruitful and victorious relationship for both of us, no matter how long or short.”

Lila watched as the raven faded away into a few silvery wisps of light. She sighed. “I suppose that I should go to Paris, then?”

Her employer chuckled. “No, I already have instructed one of my more mundane agents to make the contact. No, I want to know… Do you know who this is?”

Lila shook her head. “I know of Nightshade, sir. However, I have never met her and we both know how simple it is to use magic to disguise a voice.”

St John nodded. “Agreed; however, I find myself wondering if we can trust someone with such a strong pre-existing motivation that may not match with our own.” The man thought for a moment, his fingers steepled before his face. “Well, we will see what she tells my representative. Worst comes to worse, perhaps you will be able to acquire her powers for us when we visit Paris again, irrespective of whether she wishes for them to serve the Lion. Tell the others to prepare to travel and send word to Audrey and Tsurugi-san.”

Lila nodded and with another repetition of the mantra of the Lion’s Pride, she made her escape. 

She waited until she was some distance away in one of the manor house’s endless warren of corridors. “Spiica, did you ever see that magic before?”

Spiica was floating alongside her. “Actually, I have. That is known as Patron Spirit. It is an expression of the caster’s soul and used primarily as a protection against certain types of wraith.” The little wolf spirit shot her Holder a thoughtful glance. “As you can see, it is also usable as a message carrier. It can literally find anyone on the planet, no matter how well hidden, so long as you know who you’re looking for.”

LIla nodded thoughtfully. “So, whoever this is must know our dear ‘master’ on some level. Maybe she’s even worked with him before?” Spiica didn’t respond and instead watched as her Holder visibly considered this new situation. “It’s clear that he wants me to permanently enthrall her. Is that even possible?”

“Hypothetically, yes,” Spiica responded. “However, the drain on the caster’s life-force makes it, at best, an arrangement only good for a few years.” Lila sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew that it would come to this eventually. Enchantress was never going to be more than a temporary ally for one like Leonidas and, live or die, it would only be in a way that he would find useful. “What do you think?” Spiica asked.

Lila’s smile was cruel. “Oh, I think that I have finally got something to tell dear Marinette and that ridiculous spy I’ve been keeping dangling.” She looked at the Spirit of Charm and smiled. “Tell me, Spiica…? How would you mount the Leo Miraculous on a woman’s clothing?”

Chapter Text

Marinete wasn’t exactly an engineer at the same level as Max. In fact, she was about as far as you could get from that. However, she had designed and realised some mechanical gadgets in her time and she had a near-instinctive understanding of design and aesthetics. Maybe that was why she was the one Max asked her to help him out with this. 

She’d just finished fitting a tan elbow-length glove with green piping with a cell-phone, provided by Max, mounted on it. It didn’t take her too long to realise that it was actually only the shell of a cell-phone but contained very different software and capabilities. “So, this is a remote control for your exo-suit?”

Max smiled in a way that Marinette was glad to see lacked condescending. “Not really as much as a remote interface. So long as the MAX suit is powered up, I can remotely access all its functions, get it to fly to me and even assemble itself around me!”

“More importantly, it is also a remote access portal for me!” Markov added in a smug tone. “I only need to plug into its remote access port and I, too, can remotely operate the exoframe!”

Marinette raised her eyebrow. “I would have thought that you could do that anyway through the cell network!”

Markov looked at Max with what appeared to be some kind of stink-eye look although his emoji ‘face’ didn’t change. “Sadly, I have not yet persuaded Max to add a cell-phone transceiver and SIM card interface to my chassis.”

“He is a slave to cat GIFs! Who knows how much credit he’d use up!” Max replied in a fake whisper, making Marinette giggle at the little robot’s clear look of offence.

~*~*~

Audrey Regine was far from the most tactful of women. If she thought something was ridiculous then she said so. The only exception to this was if it was in her best interests to present a facade of professional or personal respect to someone from whom she wants something.

For this reason and this reason alone, she was not heaping abuse on the woman standing with her in the private flight terminal at Paris Orly airport. The woman could not be more laughable if she’d tried, wearing what looked for all the world like a Halloween Witch costume, right down to the green fishnet stockings and high-heeled boots. She had an absolutely stunning self-assured smirk on her face when Audrey and Tomoe had arrived for their meeting with St John Graham de Vanily. She’d been told to expect the amateur supervillain known as ‘Nightshade’ but hadn’t been prepared for just how laughable her appearance would be.

Even her need to present a false facade of respect to dear old St John’s latest pawn would not have been enough to restrain Audrey if it were not for the decoration that the woman was wearing at the point where the cups of her basque corset met. Audrey had seen it before, worn by King Cash. She could also sense the power burning from what was certainly one of the Prodigious Gems in the centre of the five-pointed platinum flower. She knew how unpredictable these were and she wasn’t about to start a fight with someone bearing such a power unless she was sure that she would win.

At that moment, the access door to the air bridge to St John’s personal Boeing 737-800 opened and a stewardess in the uniform of Graham Media stepped out. “We hear the lion’s roar!” the black-haired woman declared, her face blank and her eyes unsettlingly stern and fanatical. 

Audrey deliberately adopted a posture of insouciance as Felix and Iris were the first out into the small reception area between the skybridge and the terminal proper. She smirked at the younger woman. “Oh, hello, darling! Hasn’t dear St John had you killed yet?” 

Iris quirked her eyebrow but showed no other reaction. However, Audrey knew that her barb had struck home and that she’d probably earned the dangerous psychopath’s ire. She didn’t care; in her view, since that fiasco at the concert, the value of this alliance with The Lion of Crime was rapidly fading (and she was going to tell the High Council so at their next meeting). The time when she tore the Virgo Brooch from the school bully’s corpse (actual or soon-to-be) was getting closer.

“Settle down, Audrey. Let’s at least attempt to be allies,” St John snarled as he stepped into the reception area with his remaining daughter as usual nearby presence as his shadow. The Lion of Crime turned to the smiling Nightshade. “I see you have the gem that you claimed. That is one of the few reasons I’m indulging you with this request for an alliance. I do hope that you are more consistently useful with it than its previous Holder.”

Nightshade doffed her ridiculous ponty witch’s hat and smiled, curtseying deeply. “Sir, I believe that you will find that an Oldblood witch is always the better option to use magical tools!”

There was a brief pause. One of Tomoe's eyebrows quirked sceptically and Audrey's mouth dropped open in genuine astonishment. You… arrogant bitch! the blonde supervillain thought without the slightest awareness of just how self-unaware that thought was.

"That is a bold claim," Lord Graham de Vanily said aloud. "Time will show if it is justified. Now, you implied that you require resources to carry out your plan?"

Nightshade grinned "Yes, rare but relatively inexpensive. Give me what I want and I will give you Team Miraculous – Helpless and beaten!"

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