Chapter Text
Chapter 2 - Monsters Much Bigger
Chat Noir watched as the red and black hero jumped in, eyes narrowed a little, nerves tight as this new person interacted with the akumitized victim. What was he doing? Just talking outright with it? This should be taken more seriously! And oh my god -- did he just try to wrap his yoyo around a creature made up of bubbles. There was nothing solid to hold on to. What an idiot.
He quickly jumped down from the roof he was one to the lamp post the new hero found himself hanging upside from; using his staff to pop the incoming bubble and then slid down it to land in front of the man and leaned in a little to purr in his ear. “Need some help, Punaise?”
Amber eyes opened and looked into dark brown. “Punaise?”
“You. And I am Chat Noir; your partner.” He reached out and gently tugged on the string of the yoyo to get the other free. “Have you called on your lucky charm yet?”
Punaise shook his head. “Maybe now would be a good time to do that.” He popped an incoming bubble with his staff. “Quickly?”
“I don’t know how…”
Chat Noir rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Just throw your hand in the air and call out ‘lucky charm’.”
The other made a face at his tone but did as he had instructed. “Lucky charm!” He nearly dropped the rope that fell from the sky.
“Rope?” Chat Noir frowned a little. “We can’t tie this thing up, Punaise...how is that going to help?”
“It’s not like I asked for rope.” Punaise snapped defensively, looking at the rope in his hands. He looked around the campus they were standing on and his eyes caught on the fountain and then the pile of dirt for the flowers that were being planted around it. “The rope isn’t for it. Come on.” He took off running and Chat Noir followed, frowning.
He watched as the new hero dunked the rope into the fountain and then threw it on the dirt before grabbing it out and running down the street, creating a dark, muddy trail. The Cat hero started to grin as he realized what was going to happen; sprinting to catch up as there was a roar from the creature. They had noticed the mess.
“Great thinking, Buggy. Now we just need to figure out where the akuma is and we can take this thing down.”
“Akuma?” He looked over as they ran.
“Yeah...Don’t know you know what we need to do?” He shook his head and Chat Noir groaned. “The akuma is what made the victim into the creature; Clean Master. It is an item usually. Something that may not look like it belongs or they are protecting. Keep an eye out for that.” Punaise nodded and kept running, leading the monster to the open space behind the arts building where a large fan was blowing out, leading the bubble creature to right in front of it.
As the creature struggled to maintain their composure in the intense air flow, it gave the two heroes a chance to study them.
“There!” Chat Noir pointed to the chest of the creature. Punaise looked and saw that he was pointing to a porcelain looking shape with a bright red mark in the center. “The akuma should be in there.”
“How do we get to it?” Chat Noir looked around for a moment, biting his lip. “Can you distract them? I think I can get to it if you can.” the other nodded and Chat Noir quickly moved back and jumped out of sight.
“Hey, Squeakers! Watch this!” Punaise lifted the dirty rope into the air and started to twirl it around, sending mud in every direction and making Clean Master cry out in anger as they noticed the growing mess. He jumped out of the way as a stream of bubbles flew at him.
He tried to see where the cat-like hero had vanished but couldn’t see him. “Come on Kitty…” He murmured, narrowly avoiding being hit by another stream of bubbles. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he got hit with those. He yelped as he had to jump and grab a tree branch to stop from being hit, at least people were staying clear of the area.
Suddenly he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and watched as a black and purple form launched itself from the roof of a building and right towards the heart of this creature. “Cataclysm!” He heard across the way and watched as a ball of black energy form in the other man’s hand he watched the creature notice him too late and the black ball collide with the object they had tagged as the most likely thing to hold the akuma. It split down the middle, cracking open and sending a little black butterfly fluttering out. Chat Noir dropped to the ground and looked up. “Catch it! In your yo-yo!”
Punaise gave him a look but pulled his yo-yo out and swung it around. It seemed to pull the butterfly in and capture it before falling back into his hands. He touched the top, eyes worried and then froze when the top opened up and a white butterfly flew out instead. He watched as the creature turned into a man, kneeling on the ground with a broken teacup in front of him.
Chat Noir walked over to him. “Well?”
“Well what?”
He couldn’t see the eyebrows past the mask but could tell one had arched up in question. “Well, aren’t you going to clean up? Jeez, don’t you know what you’re doing?”
“Clean up? How in the world am I suppose to clean all this up!”
The other hero rolled his eyes. “Throw your lucky charm in the air and say…” He bit his lip and coughed to cover up a laugh. “Well...Say ‘Miraculous Ladybug’.” He snorted.
“What’s do funny about that?” Punaise demanded.
“Just do the thing and we can have a quick talk.” A gloved hand flapped at him.
He rolled his eyes but tossed the rope up in the air, “Miraculous Ladybug!”
He watched as a stream of red and black bugs flew out and around, setting right the mess that had been made by the creature and fighting it. He grinned a little; that was pretty neat, pun intended.
Chat Noir moved over to help up the professor that had been kidnapped and the man that was gently picking up the now whole teacup. “I believe you two should talk.” He said simply before coming back over to the other. “And we should have a quick chat before we change back.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, totally.” Punaise followed Chat Noir to the small path between the art and science buildings.
“Since you are obviously new to this, I am going to recommend you talk to your kawami as soon as you can because you could have seriously gotten yourself killed and you are the only one who can the cleansing needed to the akuma. Here are some basics I know. One, I’m Chat Noir, I’ll be helping you. Two, we each have a one-time use ability per transformation. Your’s is Lucky Charm and mine is Cataclysm. Three, no matter what, you cannot lose or give up your miraculous.” He pointed to his own ring which let out a beeping sound when he did. “And finally, that means I have to go because I am about to transform back. We can never know each other’s identities, Punaise.”
“Coccinelle.” He corrected, stopping the other from leaving.
“What?”
“Coccinelle, not Punaise. Ladybugs aren’t all female so call me that. I’m not ashamed of that.” His eyes gleamed a little and Chat Noir looked at him for a moment until both their miraculous beeped, reminding him that he had to go.
“Okay then, Coccinelle...See you around.” And with that Chat Noir took off.
When he found an empty place to drop his guise he did so, heart beating quickly. The little floating black creature appeared in front of him. “Ohhhh, so that is our new Ladybug? Tikki is going to have so much fun with that one.” Plagg cackled, before looking to the human leaning against the building. “Cheese now?”
Virgil rolled his eyes and dug into his bag, pulling out a bit of cheese. “Here you go...Guess he didn’t get the same debriefing as you gave me.”
Plagg’s “He’s new to this.” was muffled by the food currently crammed into his mouth.
“I still don’t understand what you mean by that.” He muttered, shaking his head and opening up his hoddie a little. “Come on, we need to get back to class.” Once Plagg was safely hidden in his hoodie, Virgil took off back towards class, hoping the two guys behind him would be quieter now.
Somewhere else in the city, in a dark room, pale green eyes flashed dangerously as he transformed back into his own clothes, a small purple creature floating in front of him. “Looks like Master Wu picked his ladybug. Which means we can save Paon now...We just have to get their miraculouses.”
“But--”
“No.” he pulled the curtains closed and moved to leave the room. “We get the miraculous of creation and destruction and we get to change what happened. We will save Paon and everything will be right.” He walked out of the room, the kawami barely making it out before he shut the door and grabbed his hat. “Time to get to class.”