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Chapter Text

Marinette felt the whipped cream slowly rise up her thighs as she said her detransformation phrase, "Spots off."

She felt her supersuit fall away as Chat Noir whispered his as well, "Claws in."

With her eyes closed, Marinette heard Tikki hush somebody, most likely Chat's kwami. 

Marinette reached into her bag for the fake miraculous as she heard Chat do something, most likely taking off his ring. Marinette reached over and felt the ring in his open palm. 

Wow, his hands are really soft. Marinette thought as she closed her partner's palm over the ring. 

Marinette began to trudge through the whipped cream to the slot in the wall. 

Just as she was about to put the fake miraculous in, she heard an explosion above her, and a gush of wind. 

Opening her eyes on instinct, Marinette looked up to see Dark Owl had blown the roof of his trap open. 

Fear gripped Marinette as she realized what this meant. Hawkmoth knew their identities now. 

Marinette heard Dark Owl laugh, "Now that your identities are known, you can't be proper superheroes and I will be the only hero in Paris!"

Marinette gritted her teeth before turning her head to look at her partner. 

It was then that Marinette's brain stopped working because Adrien Agreste was standing where her partner should be. 

___________________

Wang Fu sat on a bench in a public park, the ladybug and black cat miraculous within his pockets. The old man was quite disappointed that Marinette and Adrien had been found out by Hawkmoth, they had been exceptional heroes for the city, but at the same time he was grateful that they had still managed to beat Dark Owl afterward. Fu would gladly be forced to recruit new users over loosing the ladybug and black cat miraculous any day.

The old guardian scanned the park for potential candidates, not seeing anybody worth testing further, he got up from the bench and began to walk towards Françoise Dupont. The school had quite a few students who could be great superheroes, and Fu also hoped that he could find a replacement who could be near Marinette and Adrien. Fu feared Hawkmoth may continue to persue them even after they've given up their miraculous.

Of course, choosing holders for the ladybug and black cat miraculous was a difficult process. While anybody can use a miraculous, whether or not one can use a specific miraculous to it's fullest depends on each user. If one was not compatable with the concept of a jewel, they would not be able to bring out it's fullest potential, and this was especially true for the ladybug and black cat. Those with high compatability for the jewles of creation and destruction were somewhat uncommon.

As the guardian, Fu was a master at recognising these compatibilities. As he passed by an alleyway, Fu noticed 3 teenage boys huddled together in the back of it. Fu could easily tell which miraculous they would use best. 3 had auras of someone who would make a great goat user, one would be a great turtle, and the last would have made a spectacular bee user. 

But Fu could also tell that none of them would make good superheroes due to the wads of cash the boys were passing around and stuffing into their pockets. From their manerisms, Fu couls tell that these earnings were ill-gotten, and he continued passed the alleyway.

As he approached the school he saw a few students lingering outside the school and Fu began examining their potential once more. Many of the kids didn't have much aptitude but there were a few students that stood out. 

There was a large boy who would make a good ox or turtle user holding hands with a girl who would make a good user for the mouse, bee, or possibly dog.

A short blond girl had an incredible aptitude for the pig, the largest Fu had ever seen, and a great aptitude for the ox. She also had pretty decent aptitudes for the dog and tiger miraculous. Holding the small girl's hand was a taller girl who would make an excellent tiger user and possible an adept horse or ox user. What really caught the guardian's eye was the girl's fairly high potential as a black cat user. Fu would keep her in mind. Fu made a mental note to return to her if he found no better candidates.

As Fu examined the flow of students, he noticed something distressing. A girl with blond hair in twintails was trapped against the wall by a tall boy's arm. The girl didn't exactly look comfortable.

Moving closer, Fu overheard what the boy was saying.

"Come on, just one date? I promise it will be fun." The boy said with confident grin on his face. 

"I already said no, leave me alone." The girl said, making a move to get away. The boy blocked her escape attempt. 

"Come on, it'll be fun." The boy said, grabbing her wrist, "just let loose a little."

Fu's eyebrows furrowed in anger. He couldn't stand people like this. 

Fu began to walk towards the boy in order to tell him off and maybe give him some good old elderly wisdom from the back of his cane. However, before he could get there, a pink and black blur slammed into the boy, knocking him to the ground. Fu stopped his approach as a short girl with pink hair stood over the boy, placing one of her shoes on the boy's neck. 

Correction, she put the wheels of one of her rollerskates on the boy's neck, pressing down as she did so, which was likely painful for the boy.

"She told you no." The short girl said to the boy in a tone that was dripping with anger. 

"She's just playing hard to g-UAK!" The boy's response was cut off when the girl dug her wheels into the boy's neck a bit harder. The blond girl moved off the wall and began to back away from the scene, taking a deep breath.

"If I see you talk to Aurore again, I'll beat your ass so hard your dental records won't match with your teeth anymore." The girl threatened  and the offending boy's hand few up to cover his mouth.

The girl removed her skates from the boy's neck, as soon as she did the boy scrambled off the ground and fled in the opposite direction of the school. Fu noticed the boy's pants looked a little wet as he ran off. 

As the skater girl went to talk with the girl who had been being harassed, Fu looked at her aura.

The first thing he noticed was the miraculous hanging from her waist. 

Fu blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. Surely he had seen wrong. 

Looking again, it seemed the object was enchanted with the spells required to transfer a kwami into it, but had no kwami attached to it at the moment. It was a complex process to make such an item, Fu had never made one himself but had seen quite a few when he was a child at the temple.

Fu briefly questioned how this object could exist before he noticed that the object was a pocketwatch. 

Fu had a few encounters with rabbit holders and all of them had ended in a headache, he was sure looking into this pocketwatch would only lead to another. Fu elected to forget about the object. 

Turning his attention back to the girl's aura, Fu was quite impressed with what he saw there. The girl held compatibility with quite a number of the miraculous he protected. Particularly impressive was the girl's compatability with the bunny and dragon jewles, some of the rarest compatabilities. She would also make a great user for the ladybug, ox, snake, or monkey.

While, just like with Marinette, he could see that the girl's real talent lied in another jewel, Fu believed he had just found his new ladybug user. The girl clearly held the right qualities for an adept user from what he had just seen.

Fu had made his decision, should she accept, this girl would be the new wielder of the ladybug miraculous.

Fu walked up the girl, "That was quite impressive young lady." 

The girl blinked as she looked down at him, "Thanks old man." She answered, obviously wondering why a random old man was talking to her. 

"I was just about to give that boy a piece of my mind when you jumped in, give him a bit of elderly wisdom about how love really works." Fu continued, waving his cane in the air for dramatix effect

The pink-haired girl gave a brief scoff, "I don't think he was doing it for love."

Fu placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, covertly slipping the ladybug miraculous box into her bag as he did so, "Make sure that boy gets a lecture for me, would you?"

"Sure old man, will do." A loud ringing echoed from the school building, and the girl brushed Fu's hand off her shoulder "Well I got to get to class, stay safe old dude!"

Fu watched the girl skate off, his eyes widening as she managed to scale the steps in a matter of moments dispute being in skates.

Yup, this girl would make a wonderful superhero. 

__________________

Fu sat in the park once more, his eyes were getting sore from the constant focus of reading auras all day. He watched as the sun began to set over Paris. There weren't many people in the park this late, a few couples on dates, a handful of old folk like himself enjoying the sunset, and a mother and her daughter dueling with bokken, wooden proactive swords, on the grass. 

That last one was what Fu was most interested in. 

The girl was an impressive swordswoman, managing her own against her mother's obviously expert sportsmanship, though was still clearly struggling against her. The girl also had her eyes closed, which made it all the more impressive. Fu could tell without checking that she would make an excellent dragon, her clear drive to improve her skill was all the proof Fu would need for that decision, but checking her aura revealed something much more amazing. 

She was incompatible with a good majority of the miraculous, but she had very high compatibility for the ones she was compatible with. She would be an exceptional user if given one she was compatible with. The one that suited her best was clearly the dragon, as Fu had already concluded, but she would also make an exceptional wielder of the black cat or ox, possibly even the goat as well.

He may have just found the new black cat user he'd been searching for, but didn't get his hopes up quite yet. He still needed to text the girl's character, an especially important step when searching for a black cat user. 

Getting up from the bench, he quietly moved over to be closer to the pair. He watched as the woman knocked her daughter's wooden sword away and hit her in the chest. The girl sighed and opened her eyes. 

"Kagami, why does it seem like your skills have taken a sudden dive recently?" The woman asked bluntly. 

Fu raised an eyebrow, the girl looked to be doing quite amazing from were he was standing.

"I'm sorry mother, I've been somewhat unfocused recently." The girl, who Fu now knew was named Kagami, replied. 

Fu could tell she was lying, living 180 years let him pick up on some things, but he couldn't tell why Kagami held the truth from her mother.

"Well fix the distraction, and fast." The woman snapped back, "I won't have my daughter portraying those pathetic skills."

"Yes mother." The girl replied. 

The woman angled her wooden sword downward and began tapping the ground around her. Once she found the bench using the bokken, she placed it onto the bench and picked up a shinai. It seemed the woman was blind and used the bamboo sword as a walking stick.

This also explained why the girl had her eyes closed during her training. The girl was trying to learn how to fight blind, like her mother did, so she shut her eyes during practice. Fu was impressed with Kagami's dedication, a drive to improve was an attribute that was good for a superhero to have. 

"Clean up our equipment and meet me in the car." The woman ordered before walking away, tapping the shinai in front of her to make her way to a red car.

Kagami moved to the bench to begin putting away the training equipment and Fu walked up to her, "That was some of the most impressive sword fighting I've seen all my years." Fu said in a way that a friendly grandpa might.

Kagami turned to look at him, a confused look showing on her face for just a moment before morphing into a polite smile, "Thank you sir. I try my best." She said respectfully. 

"When I was younger I was taught a little bit of swordsmanship by Master Wong, the best swordsman of his generation." Fu sighed wistfully, "Unfortunately he passed away before we finished my training, now I haven't picked up a sword in decades." As Fu spoke, he patted Wayzz who was sleeping in his pocket.

Feeling Wayzz slip out of his pocket, Fu sneakily pointed to the tree branch hanging above him. A few seconds later Fu heard the branches above him shake a bit.

"Master would be so disappointed in me," he continued as the girl packed away her equipment, "While I wasn't one of his best students, he expected all of us to practice every day. If anybody failed to practice he made us all spar until we dropped." Fu chucked, "Ah I miss being young."

Fu heard the branch above him creak as Wayzz chewed though it. Kagami must have also heard it because she paused what she was doing to look up at it.

Moments later, Fu heard the branch crack and fall. 

Fu watched as Kagami quickly gripped a shinai from her equipment and swung it at the brand falling towards Fu. The impact was quite loud and a moment later he heard two distinct branches hit the ground behind him. 

Fu stepped back, acting very shocked, turning his head between the girl and the branches for added effect. "Oh my, thank you young lady." Fu grabbed the girl's hand that wasn't holding the shinai, "You just saved my life."

The girl gave an awkward smile as she examined her now splintered bamboo sword, "Its not a problem sir." She said while sticking the sword back into the holding bag.

"I must repay you somehow." Fu bent down and picked up her bag which was sitting by the bench, slipping the black cat miraculous in as he did so, "Here let me help with your bags."

The girl politely grabbed her bag from him, "That's not needed sir, I was only doing the natural thing."

"Alright then young lady, if you insist. Make sure to keep safe from all these akumas." Fu said as he felt Wayzz fly back into his pocket. "They're nasty business. "

"Same to you sir." Kagami said giving him a slight bow before picking her bags and walking off towards the red car.

Fu smiled at the girl as he turned around to leave. 

After he got a little ways away from the girl, Wayzz flew out of his pocket and onto his shoulder.

"Those were some great choices Master." His kwami said. 

"Glad you approve." Fu had learned to trust his kwami's opinions on such matters, Wayzz was almost always correct with such things. 

"I really hope they're nice to Tikki and Plagg. They really liked Marinette and Adrien."

Fu raised an eyebrow, "Plagg said that?"

Wayzz chuckled, "He was acting tough but we all knew he was distraught."

Fu nodded, Adrien was probably the best holder Plagg had in a long time. On that note, Fu wondered how Marinette and Adrien were dealing with the information that there were superhero partners. 

_______________________

Tom looked up at his beaming daughter holding hands with her new boyfriend Adrien, and then back down at the paper she had just asked him to sign. 

"Please Papa, Adrien and I are as love as 2 people can be!"

Tom scratched his head, "That's great honey, but," Tom placed the marriage registration paper down on the table, "I'm not letting you get married at 16."

"Why not Papa?" Marinette asked, a frown on her face.

Tom sighed, where was Sabine when you needed her?

Chapter Text

"So, because of our mistakes during the Dark Owl fight, Chat Noir and I are forced to retire as superheroes." Ladybug explained as she looked into the camera, "Chat and I can't fight an opponent who knows our secret identities, an opponent who can, and will, take advantage of our friends and family in order to defeat us."

"This isn't easy for us to do," Chat Noir spoke with a sad tone that felt unnatural coming from the normally cheerful hero, "Becoming Chat Noir was probably the best thing to ever happen to be and it won't be easy to adjust to not being a hero anymore. 

Ladybug reached over and rubbed Chat's back to comfort him.

"There should be new heroes soon, hopefully before the next akuma shows up. If not, say as far away from the villain as possible and wait for some kind of superpowered help. If nobody arrives within an hour we advised the Mayor to call in superheroes from Britain or Germany to help until new heroes are chosen."

Alix paused the video and laid back on her bed. She didn't know how to feel about the whole situation. Sure, she didn't know the heroes very well, but the pair had saved the lives of Alix and her friends more times than she could ever repay. Ladybug had even fixed her pocket watch when it had been broken. Alix couldn't help but feel attached to the heroes and therefore sad when they were forced to retire.

While Alix would never admit it, she had worries about what would happen next. Ladybug and Chat Noir seemed like the perfect heroes. They never lose, never hurt the victims, and always fix the damage caused by the battle. Because of them, the only actual consequences of akumas were mental trauma and merchandise. She was worried the next heroes wouldn't be as good, that they would fail where the originals had succeeded. 

Those worries were only amplified when she found the ladybug miraculous in her bag. 

Alix had barely listened as the kwami, who had said her name was Tikki, explained her powers. Alix was friends with Alya and when you're friends with the Ladyblogger you are basically required to know all of Ladybug and Chat Noir's powers. The polkadotted creature was now sitting on her desk, munching on a cookie as she waited for Alix to make her choice. 

"So why was I picked?" Alix asked somewhat abruptly asked, catching Tikki halfway through a bite of cookie. 

The kwami swallowed the chunk of cookie before answering, "You were picked because the guardian believed you would be a good ladybug user and a good hero." 

Alix rai9sed an eyebrow at the answer, "But how would he know that? How would he know the kind of person I am? Who even is this guardian dude?" Alix asked. 

"The guardian is someone who holds and protects the miraculous, and sometimes distributes them to heroes when the need arises. He probably saw you perform a selfless and heroic act and chose you based on that."

Alix thought about that. It did make sense in a way, most people tended to freeze in situations that require some kind of heroism. If a car was racing towards a toddler, many people would freeze with fear and shock as the child was hit, few would jump in front of the car to push the child out of the way. It was just a matter of instinct. 

Alix thought saving a girl from sexual harassment probably counted as one of those situations, and the old man who commented on her bravery probably wasn't as senile as she had originally thought. Alix kept quiet about her realization though, she figured that the kwami wouldn't enjoy the guardian, who was probably supposed to be anonymous, being recognized 5 minutes after Alix learned of his existence. 

"So is this guardian guy the reason Hawkmoth has his miraculous?" Alix asked. 

Tikki shook her head, "The guardian never gave the butterfly to Hawkmoth. Whoever he is, he shouldn't have a miraculous. "

"So how many miraculous does the guardian have?" Alix knew of the ladybug, black cat, and the butterfly, but there was also the fox, which was wielded by Rena Rouge, a hero who had shown up only once a week before the Dark Owl incident. 

"I'm sorry Alix, I can't answer that." The kwami responded, "Only the guardian can reveal his secrets to you, if he deems you trustworthy."

Apparently being given a miraculous still didn't mean she was trustworthy yet

A sigh escaped from Alix's mouth. She wasn't normally this skeptical of things, it wasn't like her. A week ago she would have jumped for joy at being given a miraculous, she would have thought it was the coolest thing to ever happen to her. However, the fact that the one she was given was the ladybug miraculous, that she would be the one to replace Ladybug, was really messing with her head. 

The main reason for this was that Alix hated being the center of attention, she avoided it as much as possible. Alix had learned that being the center of attention came with expectations, and those were simply the worst. Being the lead on a school project, the team leader for some random gym class sport, or being introduced to a group of Dad's associates at those stupid parties he goes to, they all sucked because everyone had ideas of what Alix should be doing, or should say, or should have accounted for. The only time Alix wanted to be told what she should have done is when asking a teacher about a test grade. 

Becoming the ladybug superhero would put Alix at the center of the entire city's attention. The talk of how she should have fought a villain or should have used a lucky charm would be unending, Alix had been on the Ladyblog forums, she knew what people were like. Alix would much rather be just part of the team, a side character hero who supports the ladybug user should they need it. Honestly, Alix wished she had been given the black cat, it seemed like much less stress. But now that the ladybug earrings sat in her hands, Alix had to decide whether to accept that responsibility or not, there wasn't a point thinking about other miraculous. 

As a Ladybug user Alix would have to appear at every akuma attack, no matter what, Ladybug's power to purify akumas is necessary to fight Hawkmoth, Stoneheart proved that much. It was a responsibility that could never be ignored, no matter what she was doing. Honestly that was something she could deal with. Fighting akumas sounded so awesome that she was more than willing to deal with that inconvenience.

Alix loved the feeling of adrenalin and sweat that came from a fight, that struggle against another person, the heat of working her muscles like that, the way pain feels like static while adrenalin is high, Alix loved it. Of course the hurting people part of fights Alix could do without, she didn't want to hurt anyone so she hadn't had a real fight in years, also most kids her age were a dozen or more centimeters taller than her meant she rarely stood a chance. Having a miraculous meant that she would be regularly fighting enemies that she would be on equal standing with because she would have superpowers, it would be awesome. 

What if I did say no? Alix asked herself, and began exploring that train of thought. 

Someone else would be chosen, and it wouldn't be her responsibility. Her life would go on as normal, school, friends, and regular akuma attacks that weren't her responsibility and didn't involve her most of the time. 

..most of the time. Alix lingered on that thought for a moment. Yeah, most akumas were people that she didn't know, about problems and people she had nothing to do with. But there were exceptions, times when her friends or family were the akumatized victims. When Nino had been akumatized into The Bubbler and send her dad into the sky and then threatened into making a fun party for Adrien's birthday. Alix had tried to stay strong through that whole thing for her friends, but that had been one of the most terrifying experiences of her life. Mylene had been in a near constant state of panic attack through the entire ordeal, and everyone else wasn't doing much better. Her brother Jalil had been akumatized into The Pharaoh and tried to sacrifice Alya in order to raise the dead and Alix hadn't even been there. Alix had hurt her friends herself when she had been akumatized into Timebreaker. 

Stoneheart, Darkblade, Pixelator, Horrificator, Reflekta, there had been so many times where Alix or her friends were put into danger or taken advantage of by Hawkmoth. Every single time Alix had been powerless to do anything, where she had to watch or hide as Ladybug and Chat Noir solved the problem, unable to do anything herself. Alix hated that feeling, and she was now being given a chance to change that, to be able to save her friends when they needed her and fight back against Hawkmoth. 

She couldn't say no. 

A grin appeared on Alix's face, a stupid wide grin that stretched her face muscles, "Hell yeah, I'm going to be a superhero!" She jumped up from her bed and began putting the earrings on, her ears weren't pierced but it seemed that it didn't matter, they went into her ears anyway without any pain and stayed there as if held by magic. Which made sense, they were magic earrings after all. 

"I'm glad you accept!" Tikki exclaimed, flying off of the desk, whenever you're ready to transform just say; Tikki, spots on!"

"Tikki, Spots on!" Alix shouted, and a bright flash of pink light enveloped her.

Soon after, Alix was swinging from building to building, the thrill as she swung from the yoyo and the feeling of the wind rushing against her face was the best thing she had ever felt.

___________________

Kagami stared at the tiny black creature eating currently all of the cheese that had been in the fridge. 

"Not as gooey as I like it, but it's alright I guess. You should order some camembert, that's the king of cheeses."

"So, you're saying I was chosen as the next Chat Noir?" Kagami asked the cat-like thing, ignoring his cheese comments. 

"Well you should choose a different name, you won't be very popular if you just copy the first guy." The creature answered unhelpfully. 

"So, why was I chosen?" Kagami asked. 

"Dunno, the guardian probably had his reasons." This guy was proving to be quite unhelpful.

Kagami just couldn't wrap her head around why she would have been chosen. She had only been in France for barely a month now, and Hawkmoth had been causing problems before she even arrived. She had even been akumatized herself, within 48 hours of her arrival in the city no less. It just didn't make sense, all signs point to Kagami being a bad choice to be one of the Parisian superheroes, the fact that the black cat miraculous had been given to her was baffling. 

Kagami wasn't worried about if she would do a good job or not, after all, her weapon would be a rod of adjustable length, it played to her strengths. Instead, she was worried about what Mother would think. She would have to drop whatever she was doing whenever an akuma appeared, no matter what. It would be her duty as a superhero. How would she get away from her mother during their one on one fencing practices, or during one of those stuffy formal dinner events Mother forced her to go to, or in the middle of one of the many competitions Mother has her registered for over the next year? Mother kept her schedule tighter than Adrien's father did to his. Did she have the time to be a superhero?

"Can I decline?" Kagami asked. She wasn't really sure how this worked, if she was chosen by some magical force then she didn't really have a choice, but if it was just some dude who chose her for this then she would try to decline. 

"Well, duh, of course you can. It's called free will, all you humans have it." the black creature answered, "If you don't wanna do it then just hand me the ring, I'll fly away and someone else will be chosen, no problem."

Kagami looked down at the black ring sitting in her palm, it felt heavier than it looked, definitely heavier than the family ring she wore on her right ring finger. It was just too much responsibility for her, on top of everything Mother has her doing, Kagami couldn't be a superhero on top of that, it was just too much to balance. 

She held the ring out to the black creature, "I think-"

"You should keep it, people like you usually like having a miraculous." The cat interrupted before finishing off another slice of cheese. 

Kagami paused and raised an eyebrow, "People like me?"

"Yeah, sheltered and sad with someone else controlling their life." The creature said nonchalantly, still munching on cheese. 

Kagami reached over and picked the small cat up with the hand not holding the ring, holding it up by the head with her index finger and thumb, "I am not sheltered or sad." Kagami refuted, though the last part was unfortunately accurate. 

"Most of you kids say that." The black creature wiggled out of her fingers and dove back towards the pile of cheese, "Keep it or not, whatever kid, just make sure you don't regret your choice."

Kagami looked down at the ring again. If she kept it, she would have to be a superhero for Paris, yet another responsibility on her plate to deal with. She would have a partner in the new ladybug user who she would fight alongside. Kagami wasn't used to fighting as part of a pair, fencing and kendo were single combatant sports. Her limited free time would likely be impeded by both akumas and extra studying she would have to do to make up for tutoring sessions lost to inconveniently timed villain appearances. Logically it didn't seem worth it. 

"Why did Chat Noir accept?" Kagami asked, though she wasn't too sure why she did. The previous black cat user had always seemed so carefree to her, leaping and vaulting over rooftops, fighting villains, and joking around with his partner. Kagami would sometimes spy him on rooftops as she was being driven around in Mother's car. She once even spied the hero taking a catnap on the rooftop of Françoise Dupont. At the time Kagami had thought that napping on a roof was a lazy use of his superpowers. 

"Chat Noir accepted because he felt trapped." The cat creature paused mid-bite to answer the question, "He told me that he would miss the freedom he had as Chat Noir." It then fished off the slice of cheese in one massive bite, but it kept it's eyes locked on Kagami. The look in the creature's green eyes pierced her, as if it already knew what choice she would make and was waiting for her to make it. 

Kagami turned her gaze away from the black creature and towards the window. It was just turning dusk and the sky was covered in heavy clouds, Kagami remembered that the forecast predicted a rainstorm tonight. The horizon was dyed orange by the setting sun, which made the rainclouds above the city seem darker. Looking out over the city, Kagami couldn't help but imagine what it would be like if she accepted the miraculous and became a hero, what it would be like to run across the city's rooftops like Ladybug and Chat Noir had, what it would be like to have that freedom. The idea of being able to dawn a mask and escape it all, even for a short time each day, was extremely enticing, so much so that all the logical cons of the choice began to seem unrealistically manageable. In the face of that freedom, her worries about accepting the miraculous seemed to fall away. 

A partner to bond with, the freedom to escape it all, and regular powerful opponents to hone her skills against. What better deal could Kagami ask for?

"I'll-" Kagami began to accept but paused once again as doubt crept back in. Would Mother approve of her choice should she find out? Would the proud Tomoe Tsurugi approve of her daughter becoming a hero to a city that she barely knew?

Kagami looked down at her hand, at the ring bearing her family crest that sat on her right hand. A memory pushed itself to the front of her mind. "Remember Tomoe Gozen's story, even at a time where women were not accepted as warriors she took her naginata and carved her name into history," It was a speech Mother gave her before every competition, no matter the scale, she got the same speech at team tryouts and the Japanese National Junior Fencing championship, "She never gave up and people remember her for it. Kagami, be elusive like the wind, be as powerful as a tsunami, and strike swift as lightning, make them remember you."

"I'll do it, I'll wield the black cat miraculous as a hero for Paris." Kagami said, making her commitment, sure of herself this time. She slipped the black cat miraculous onto her left middle finger, where it them transformed into a red ring with the green pawprint part turning into a gold circle.

"Alright, good for you kid. You're going to need to get me some camembert if we're gonna do this." The cat creature had finished the pile of cheese Kagami had given it, which previously been larger than it was. 

"Oh, sure. By the way, what exactly are you?" Kagami honestly should have asked that question 10 minutes ago but here she was regardless.  

"I'm a kwami, I'm what gives you powers. You can call me Plagg." the cat replied. 

"Alright Plagg, so my powers are going to be breaking things, correct?" 

"Yup! Destruction is what I'm all about! Once you're transformed you can destroy anything you touch by calling your Cataclysm!" The kwami explained, raising his hand/paw up. A bubbling black energy appeared on his hand. "Oh shit."

Kagami raised an eyebrow as the kwami lowered his bubbling hand and pointed at window, "Can you open that for me, I didn't mean to actually cast this."

Kagami, still sort of confused, obliged the kwami, pressing a button on the windowsill that caused it to slide open.  Plagg immediately flew out and zipped straight up towards the clouds. She stuck her head out of the widow and looked up to watch the kwami as it few upward, turning into just a barely visible black dot as it flew upward. 

Just as Kagami lost sight of the kwami, something changed in the sky. The clouds slit apart as if made of glass, cracks appearing in the sky and half a moment after a ear splitting KABOOM hit her ears, as if a bomb had gone off above her house. A second later rain began to fall on her head and the smell of ozone hit her nose.

Kagami pulled her head inside and wiped the rainwater off of her face. 

Had Plagg done that? Should she have not opened the window?

"Well, yours won't be nearly that powerful," Plagg said, with complete nonchalance, as the kwami flew back in the window, "Unless you really want them to be."

Kagami absentmindedly hit the button to close the window and stared at Plagg, "What just happened?"

"Kwamis aren't supposed to use their powers by themselves, we can't control it and it causes disasters. I only touched a single bird I found up there and-"

Kagami, despite herself, began to laugh at the situation. It was just ridiculous, she had been chosen to be a superhero and then her new cat friend made the sky explode. Her chuckles burst out in the middle of Plagg's explanation, much to the confusion of the kwami. 

"What?" the kwami responded, "What's so funny?" 

Kagami took a deep breath as she stopped laughing, "It's nothing little guy." Kagami began rubbing the kwami's head with her finger. 

The kwami seemed to melt into her touch, closing his eyes in pleasure for a moment before snapping back open with a glare. "No! I am not some house cat!" Plagg swatted her hand away, causing a few last bits of laughter to escape Kagami's mouth. 

"Alright Plagg," Kagami said after composing herself again, "How does this work, how do you turn me into a hero?"

Plagg glared at her for a moment longer, wiping the remanence of her scritches off it's chin with it's paw, "To transform, just say Plagg, claws out!"

"Plagg, Claws out!" Kagami called, causing the kwami to fly into the black cat miraculous on her finger and a flash of green light to brighten her room. 

A second later, Kagami was jumping through Paris using the extending rod, rain hitting her face, and feeling a sense of freedom that she hadn't felt in a long time. 

___________________

Alix found herself on one of the beams of the Eiffel Tower, watching the rain pour down over Paris. Swinging around Paris was more exhausting than she had originally thought it would be, even with a super-suit. Alix had been going for a few more extreme tricks than necessary, so she found herself exhausted after about half an hour.

One thing Alix hadn't been prepared for as a superhero was the incredible views she kept finding. Her favorite so far was the top of the Eiffel Tower. The feeling she got as she looked out over the entirety of the city was such a calming one. She would have to remember this feeling, it would make some amazing street art if she could harness it. 

Alix found that looking at Paris from above was completely different than from down below. You can see everything happening. Alix could see Andre packing up his ice cream because of the rain, she could see a mother with 2 small kids under an umbrella trying to get home, she could see an old woman tending to a garden on the rooftop of a building that Alix passed by every day but had never known about, and those were only a few things she saw from her view of Paris. 

She would probably get a scholarship if she made artwork from the feeling of this view. 

As Alix was thinking about her art plans, she heard something land on the metal behind her. 

Turning around, she was met with a girl about a foot taller than her wearing all black, most likely the black cat hero. She wore a pair of baggy pants that suddenly narrowed at the ankles to tuck into a pair of black boots. She wore a cropped shirt that showed her fairly toned abs and a black leather jacket over that which looked to have many pockets. She wore a black mask around her amber cat eyes. She had long, deep black hair pulled back into a ponytail and black cat ears on her head, which seemed more real than Chat Noir's leather ears. The only part of her outfit shared with Chat Noir's was the long leather belt flicking around behind her like a cat's tail.

A very nice costume.

"Hey, there." Alix said in greeting, "I'm guessing you're my partner. What should I call you?"

The black cat hero put her hand on the back of her neck, appearing to think, "Kishi Noir." She answered after a moment. 

"Cool name, you can call me…" Alix thought for a second. She wanted a cool name, something that would stand out from Ladybug. 

Well since the heroes always win I could be the Greek goddess of victory, Nike. Alix thought,But I can't just be Nike, I need something else.

"You can call me Nike Rouge." Alix decided, it was a simple add on but it worked well. 

"I see."

A couple of seconds of silence passed. 

"I like your suit," Nike said as Kishi sat next down to her, "Much better than Chat Noir's."

Nike saw a small smile on her partner's face, "Thanks, yours as well."

Nike looked down at her suit, she hadn't actually bothered to look at herself yet. Unlike Ladybug's suit, Nike's suit wasn't just a layer of polka dot spandex. She wore an open black jacket with red polka dots that was cropped around her stomach over a red t-shirt with black polka dots, the classic ladybug pattern. Both the shirt and jacket had no sleeves, leaving her arms bare up until a pair of black gloves with single red dots on the back of her hands. She also wore a pair of black shorts with 2 red stripes running down each side, and red tights with black polka dots on her legs. She wore red high rimmed shoes on her feet, of course with black polka dots.

Alix smiled, it was just her style. Even if having bare skin may be a health hazard when fighting akumas, she liked it. 

"Thanks, better than just polka-dot spandex right?"

Kishi gave a small nod as she looked out over Paris, "Agreed." 

A few more seconds of silence passed. 

"Not much of a talker Kishi?" Nike asked. 

Kishi didn't respond, Nike guessed the answer was yes. 

____________________

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Kagami, or Kishi as she was now, didn't know what she was doing. 

Why was she being so quiet? She wanted Nike to like her and she needed to talk to do that. But, for some reason, Kagami just couldn't find the right words and ended up staying quiet. 

Kagami punched herself mentally, she had just read a book on making friends the other day and it said that relationships were built on communication. If you wanted to make friends you had to talk to people. Unfortunately, Kagami was terrible at speaking. 

A few days after she had arrived in Paris she decided to befriend the local fencing team, so she went to the school they held practice at. But instead of, y'know, being normal and just asking to join, she demanded a duel from the strongest fencer and got akumatized when she lost. Kagami was sure the girl who said she lost still thought she was an icy bitch.

Kagami really didn't want that to happen again, she had to say something, and yet all she managed to get out was her new hero name and a polite response to a compliment. Kagami felt immensely awkward as she looked over the view of Paris with her partner, the silence feeling heavy on her now superpowered shoulders. 

Luckily, it didn't last long. Kishi was saved when her staff and Nike's yoyo rang with an akuma alert. 

Kishi pushed open her rod to reveal the tiny screen, it seemed that her transformation included enhanced vision though since she had no issue seeing it despite the size. It was operated through a few buttons under the screen, so she didn't have to worry about small touch-screen issues either. 

"Somebody's angry at the rain." Nike said, pointing to a spot across Paris. The spot her partner pointed stood out against the rain darkened Paris on account of it having a giant fiery sphere sucking up all the rainclouds. 

Kishi stood up, gripping her staff. It was time for her first akuma fight. She truly hoped she could live up to the expectations placed on her. 

Kagami turned to her partner to see a wide grin plastered on the ladybug hero's face. 

Kishi raised an eyebrow at her partner. 

"What? I'm excited." Nike exclaimed as she swung her yoyo out, "It's our first fight, it's going to be awesome!!" As Nike swung away, Kishi found she had a small smile on her face as well. 

At that moment, Kagami decided something. She decided that as Kishi Noir she would just try to be herself, and enjoy her time as a hero. She would enjoy her freedom to go where she wanted and do as she pleased for that time. She would enjoy her partner's company and strive to make a friend. She would fight to her utmost to save this city, even though she was still new to it. Kagami felt that if she did those things, she could achieve that vision of greatness that her mother saw in her.

Kishi jumped off the tower to follow her partner into their first akuma fight.

Which they won of course. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A wonderful piece of artwork portraying our heroines, made by the wonderful mantabanter go follow him and check out his other amazing stuff. 

Chapter Text

Alix had arrived early to the spot where the Zombie Skull Crushers were performing for the music festival. The band had insisted on performing in the catacombs underneath the city. Initially, the city had forbidden it due to the damage the sound could cause to the ancient site, but after Nike Rouge promised to hit the catacombs with a miraculous cure to repair any damage, they had let it happen. Alix didn't even know if that would work, but she needed to see the Zombie Skull Crushers play inside the catacombs. It was so fitting of the band to do so and she couldn't let it not happen. 

It honestly showed how much misplaced trust the city government already had in her after only being hero for a couple weeks. They should not had let this happen, promise from her or not. 

One awesome thing about being in the catacombs was that the band could be as loud as they wanted, as long as they put up supports so the roof didn't collapse on them. 

Alix had arrived early had signed a scarily dense waiver form before she was allowed to enter and was given noise mufflers so she didn't go deaf down here. Stepping into the catacombs, it was surprisingly quiet, no guitar riffs blasting through the tunnels or barely intelligible singing blasting into her ears. Alix even removed the noise mufflers for a second to make sure, but it was ghostly quiet. 

Alix went up to one of the members of the band's crew, "Why is it so quiet down here? I thought this was the Zombie Skull Crushers!"

The staff removed his own mufflers, "Could you repeat that little girl?" The staff asked. Alix kicked the man in the shins for the 'little' comment.

"I said, why is it so damn quiet? Isn't this the Zombie Skull Crushers' concert?" Alix repeated to the man as he gripped his shins. 

Another band crew walked over to Alix, "The band manager is keeping the aux cords hostage until the support pillars are up. If the band were to right play now at the volume they have in mind, the entire tunnel system would collapse and kill us all."

Alix thought that was pretty reasonable. 

In lieu of death metal music, Alix decided to do the next best thing. Explore the catacombs. 

As Alix skated down the tunnels, bones covered nearly every wall of every tunnel. There were also speakers in front of every wall in every tunnel so no matter where you were in the tunnels you could hear the band play. She also saw a lot of new looking support pillars made of wood. Alix hoped they would keep the tunnel up, she needed to be alive to cast the miraculous cure so that Zombie Skull Crushers didn't become number one on the French most-wanted lists behind Hawkmoth.

Alix thought about the history down here, she couldn't help it she lived in a family of history nerds. The graveyards of Paris had been so full that they had turned the old quarries into graveyards to attract travelers with the intricate patterns of bones. Alix passed a wall made entirely of bones, the walls looked like they would crumble at any moment. She chuckled to herself , no matter how many support beams they put up this place was going down. 

Luckily, Alix had magic. 

Alix eventually found herself faced with a blocked-off section of the tunnel, complete with actual security doors and police officers wearing ear protection. One of the officers pointed at a sign which read; Past this tunnel is illegal to enter by the public, doing so will result in a 3000€ fine or a year in prison. 

Alix normally would have found a way around them and kept exploring, but now that she was Nike Rouge she had to be ready to fight an akuma at any time. So, she couldn't afford to be arrested. She instead turned around and began to follow the cords from the speakers, hoping to find the band.Unfortunately, before she could find them an akuma alert rang out from her phone. 

A sigh escaped her lips and Alix began looking for a spot to transform. She soon found a small side tunnel free of both speakers and wandering concert attendees. Tikki flew out of her hat, her eyes narrowed at a glare towards Alix. "I still can't believe you let this happen, people are going to get hurt Alix!" 

Alix grinned at the kwami, she always seemed to worry too much, "It's called death metal music, Tikki, this is their ultimate stage." Alix gestured to the skulls around them, "Plus, I'll just heal them with a miraculous cure, it'll be fine." 

"That is not how you should be using the miraculous!" The kwami exclaimed.

"Well, let's go use it right then. Plus, Nike Rouge needs to get back here before the band starts playing or else things may end badly. Tikki, spots on!"

Nike Rouge stepped out into the larger tunnels of the catacombs, looking around for an exit. She couldn't really go out where she came in without tipping them off that she had entered as a civilian so she needed a sneaky way in and out. She scanned the ceiling and noticed what looked to be a trapdoor. She tossed her yoyo at it and pulled the handle down, the trapdoor sprung open and a ladder fell out. 

"Well that's convenient," Nike commented as she began to climb the ladder, which itself looked a little worn down but still sturdy. When she got to the top, she found herself in a dark tunnel. Nike pushed a button on her yoyo and a bright light started shining from it, the thing had a ton of useful features like that. The small tunnel was just high enough for Alix to stand up straight, which meant the tunnel was actually quite small. It was also remarkably clean for being a secret tunnel above the catacombs, the walls were also surprisingly smooth, not stone or concrete like she would expect but some kind of dark plastic or maybe glass, Alix count quite tell. 

After walking for about 8 meters, Alix found the tunnel ended and another trapdoor above her. Pushing that one open also moved some loose floorboards that were covering it. With that, Nike jumped out of the small tunnel. She found herself in some kind of kitchen, the shelves were stocked with large jars of ingredients that Alix had never seen before. There was a shelf with a few almost comically large pots and a small old man was picking one of them up and placing them on a stove, the pots were almost bigger than he was.

"Hey old man, where am I?" Nike asked, startling the old man who dropped his pot in surprise, sending it clattering and rolling on the floor, luckily it had been empty.

"Nike Rouge? What are you doing in my kitchen?" The old man asked in shock. 

"I came out of your strange tunnel to the catacombs here." Nike pointed down at the open trapdoor as she lifted his pot off the floor and set it onto his stovetop.

The old man's eyes widened slightly at the trapdoor before turning back to her, he then seemed to regain his composure, "Hmm, I wondered what that strange square on the blueprints was." The old man laughed, "How amusing."

Nike raised an eyebrow at the man, she wasn't a fool. She recognized the man from the day she suddenly found the miraculous in her bag. She decided to play along with the old man, he obviously had some reason to hide whatever he was hiding from her. "I see, sorry for breaking in, old man. You should invest in a lock for that trapdoor in the future." Nike said in a friendly tone a superhero would give to a civilian. 

"I will, thank you for protecting the city Nike Rouge." The old man said, giving her a respectful bow. 

"Don't think much of it, I'm just doing what I feel is right." Nike responded, she kicked the trapdoor closed and moved the loose floorboards back into place before moving to open a window, intending to climb out to go find the akuma. 

"Hold on Nike Rouge." The old man said suddenly, stopping Alix just before she leapt out the window. 

Alix turned back to the man, "Do you need something else, old man?"

The old man gestured to a tablet on the counter, "I've been trying to make an ancient Chinese healing potion, but the recipe is written in an annoyingly poetic way, I need a second opinion."

Nike moved over to look at the tablet, on the screen was a list of ingredients that seemed like they came from some antient poem: a branch from the dragon king's garden, a secret kept in a shell, ground up shards of fortune, and other such things. 

"I'm having trouble with the last one. It says a tear of joy, and I've tried everything, honeydew, water from the laughing fountain, drops of pure chocolate, but nothing seems to work." The old man sighed, "I figured the opinion of someone familiar with magic could help."

Alix had no idea about magic, this dude had given her the miraculous so he was clearly more familiar with magic than her, but she was familiar with strangely written historical texts. They were all her brother talked about, and Alix wanted to throw him out of a window every time he did talk about them.

"Maybe it's a literal tear of joy." She suggested, "Many texts like that aren't too cryptic, just riddled with missing historical context. You're applying the logic of the first 3 being poetic metaphors to the last one when it may be a literal description."

The old man's eyes widened at her suggestion, he seemed to think for a second before turning back to her, "Thank you Nike Rouge, that was the exact advice I needed." He turned away to begin gathering items from his shelves and Alix decided to skip the goodbyes to let him focus. She quickly climbed out of his kitchen window and immediately made her way to the rooftops in order to figure out exactly where she was. Almost immediately, Alix began to laugh as she realized she was almost 5 kilometers away from the catacombs and on the opposite side of the Seine, that tunnel had obviously not been a normal tunnel, there was some kind of magic in it. 

Scanning the horizon, Alix noticed a large red pirate ship sailing down the Seine about a kilometer away from her, which she guessed was the akuma from the alert. 

Nike grinned, she had always wanted to fight a pirate.

____________________

Adrien played the piece again, trying to play it well enough for his father's standards. He knew he was out of practice from all his time as Chat Noir, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. Adrien used to know every key and every note's position on this piano by instinct, now he was having to give it a small amount of thought, which was throwing him off. 

Adrien stopped as he found himself hitting the same wrong note as he had hit when his father had been in the room. He paused and stretched out his fingers, maybe he was so out of practice his fingers weren't used to stretching like that. 

He tried again, only to stop again when he hit the same wrong note. Adrien readjusted himself on the piano bench, maybe it was his posture. Nathalie has been nagging him for slouching recently, he might have picked up a bad habit in his posture. 

He tried once more and hit the same wrong note again and he continued to make small adjustments and continued to keep hitting the same wrong note. He tried playing that section by itself and had no problem. Then when he tried playing the entire piece again he hit the same wrong note. 

Adrien gritted his teeth, this was getting ridiculous. As he continued to try and play the piece, he continued to keep hitting the same wrong note and continued to get more and more frustrated. 

How would he be able to go to his friends' concert if he couldn't hit one note?

___________________

Kagami was on her way to City hall with her mother to listen to the Philharmonic Orchestra's performance when the akuma alert sounded. Her mother insisted that the two of them go to the orchestra's performance because it was 'the only one a Tsurugi would be seen at.' Though, Kagami couldn't complain, she enjoyed classical music and it wasn't like she necessarily wanted to see any of the other concerts. 

She had heard that a band was playing inside the catacombs with the promise Nike Rouge would use a miraculous cure afterward to reverse any damage. Kagami was interested in what band her partner was interested in, but Mother would never let her go so Kagami left the idea alone. 

"What sort of fool has Hawkmoth taken advantage of this time ?" Her mother asked. 

Kagami pulled up the akuma alert and summarized the contents for Mother, "Captain Hardrock, she controls a magic pirate ship on the Seine and is targeting the various concerts around Paris as well as police officers."

Kagami heard her mother sigh before speaking, "Tatsu, pull over." The smart car obeyed its owner's instructions and found a spot to pull over to the side of the road, Kagami immediately unbuckled her seatbelt so she could leave.

"We will wait here for the heroes to-" Mother began to say, before stopping as Kagami opened her door, "Kagami, where are you going?"

Kagami stepped out of the car before responding, "Adrien was going to his friend's concert today, which took place on a boat. I have to go make sure it's not the same boat." It wasn't a total lie, she was just going to get a lot closer to the boat than she was implying.

"Hmm." Mother didn't seem happy about that, but Kagami knew that she wouldn't be stopped. Adrien was one of the few people her mother approved of. "Don't be late to the concert and don't ruin your dress." Her mother ordered. 

 "Yes mother." Kagami replied before shutting the door, a slight frown appearing on her face. She knew that Mother expected her to take care of herself, which was why she hadn't gotten Kagami some big bodyguard like Adrien had, but a simple 'stay safe' as her daughter went towards a dangerous akuma wouldn't have been unwelcome.

Sneaking into an alleyway, Plagg floated out of her pocket, "Geez, at least with Chat Noir's dad I got the feeling he somewhat cared about his child as a person." Plagg commented, the kwami had mentioned Chat Noir's family situation a couple times, and Kagami got his implication that it wasn't terribly dissimilar to her own. 

Kagami sighed, "Mother cares, she just... shows it differently."

"Yeah, alright. Whatever you say, kit." 

Kagami furrowed her eyebrows at her kwami, "We don't have time for this. Plagg, Claws out!"

A couple of seconds later, Kishi Noir was leaping across the Parisian rooftops towards the river. As Kishi got closer, she noticed a large red pirate ship traveling west on the Seine. She figured that was what she was looking for. As she watched the ship blast apart a bridge in order to continue down the river,  a red figure caught her attention, jumping and swinging across rooftops on the other side of the river. Good, her partner had arrived. 

Kishi chuckled as she watched her partner toss her yoyo onto the top of the ship's mast without even pausing at the bank of the river, swinging in and slamming her feet into the only figure on the deck. The hit sent the lone figure flying cross the deck and into a wall and her partner also failed to hand on her feet. Kishi Noir extended her rod under her and vaulted over the river to the red ship. 

"Hey partner," Nike Rouge said in greeting as Kishi landed on the deck. Kishi extended her hand to help the ladybug hero up from the ground, which was accepted, "You ready to plunder this pirate?" 

In response, Kishi gave a small smile to her partner before bracing her feet under her and leveling her staff at the pirate villain, who was picking themself off the floor from Nike Rouge's sudden attack.

"Good to know." Her partner responded as she also took a fighting stance, clenching her fists in front of her and holding them out at their foe. 

Kishi had found herself rarely talking as Kishi Noir, and if she did it was only ever to Nike. It wasn't as if she was doing it on purpose, she just didn't know what to say. Luckily, her partner seemed fine with that, easily understanding the meanings behind her nods and smiles. 

"You dare come onto my ship uninvited!" The red-haired villain in a fancy captain's coat, who must have been Captain Hardrock, shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the heroine duo, "Liberty, Seize them!" At this command, chains began to  materialize from the walls of the ship and fly at them.

Kishi reacted by extending her rod into the floor beneath herself, launching her into the air with the the chains flying under her. Nike meanwhile somehow dodged under the chains before making an immediate dash towards the villain. Kishi retracted her staff and landed back on the floor just as the captain was punched right in the nose by her partner. Unfortunately, the moment her fist made contact, more chains immediately shot out of the walls and flew towards Nike. 

Nike noticed this and grabbed Captain Hardrock's shoulder with her other hand, then using the villain’s body to twist out of the path of the chains, grabbing the bandana off the villain's head as she did so. She launched herself off of the captain's broad shoulders and landed a few meters away

Kishi stifled a laugh, the way her partner moved was always very unpredictable.

With Captain Hardrock's attention on her partner, Kishi stepped forward and swung her weapon into the villain's side, knocking her off balance. Kagami attempted to take advantage of this by pulling her staff back and performing a low sweep to try and knock the villain over. Unfortunately, Captain Hardrock recovered her balance shockingly quickly, slamming one boot into the desk for leverage as the other came up and then slammed down on Kishi Noir's staff before her attack could land. 

Captain Hardrock lifted up a muscled arm, clearly intending to slam it down on Kishi as her weapon was pinned down, but Kishi Noir wasn't alone in this fight. Before the arm could come down, Nike Rouge reached up and covered the villain's face with the bandana she had snatched earlier. "Peekaboo!" Nike taunted as Captain Hardrock's attack faltered from the surprise, she then kicked the villain behind the knee of the leg planted on the desk, causing it to buckle and knock the captain off balance again. 

Kagami capitalized on the opportunity, she used her superhuman strength to lift her rod up alongside the villain's foot, completely ruining her balance and causing the captain to fall and slam into the deck. Kishi immediately swung her staff down at the weapon, aiming to break the large belt buckle the woman wore, thinking it could contain the akuma. Unfortunately, the attack missed it's mark as Captain Hardrock landed a quick kick into her wrist, knocking her strike off course so that it hit the desk next to the captain, a loud CLACK echoed across the desk at her staff slammed into the floor.

Fortunately, Nike Rouge was slightly more successful in that moment, planting her foot onto Captain Hardrock's face, still covered by the bandana which Nike held onto with both ends in one hand. With her other hand, she reached out and snagged the belt that looped around the villain's torso and shoulder, pulling it free of the captain's outfit. Before retreating with the belt, Nike pulled hard on the bandana, which was held tight between her foot and the captain's face, and it quickly tore into 3 pieces. However before Nike could retreat to tear the belt, Captain Hardrock reached up and grabbed the end of it, a quick tug sent Nike stumbling forward directly over the villain and onto Kishi, causing the heroines to crash into each other and topple over into a heap. 

"Ye lassies are brutal," The pirate captain commented as she picked herself off the floor. Kagami untangled herself from her partner and the two of them jumped back up into fighting stances as Captain Hardrock grabbed a small rod from her belt, a full cutlass made of solid light magically emerging from the rod as she brandished it at the pair of heroes, "as brutal as pirates."

"You aren't so bad yourself, Hardrock." Nike replied as she tore apart the leather belt with her hands. No akuma emerged and a grin that Kishi was beginning to get familiar with began to appear on Nike Rouge's face, "Show me what else you got." She said as she gestured for the villain to come at her with her hands. 

Kishi Noir stepped up next to her partner, her own weapon leveled at the pirate villain. Nike Rouge wasn't alone in this fight.

The lone pirate charged at them, immediately sending a heavy swing from her cutlass down towards Nike's head. Kagami blocked the attack with her staff, the swing was so heavy that it forced Kishi to move one hand up the weapon to have proper leverage to block. Due to this, she couldn't immediately counterattack, but it did leave an opening for her partner. Nike launched an uppercut into Captain Hardrock's jaw, staggering the villain for a moment as her face pointed upwards for a moment, allowing Kishi to push the pirate's cutlass off of her staff. Kishi fixed her grip on her weapon as Nike sent a hard kick towards Captain Hardrock's knee. 

The villain slid her foot back slightly, causing Nike's kick to hit the floor instead and knocking her slightly off balance. Kagami noticed the captain begin to pull her arm back for a swing of her cutlass and reacted with a swift swing at the captain's wrist, which connected perfectly. She lost her grip on the cutlass, it slipped from her hand and clattered across the desk of the ship. Kishi pulled her staff back to prepare another swing and Nike regained her balance. 

Captain Hardrock balled her fists and sent a left hook at Nike as Kishi thrust her staff into the pirate's ribcage, she seemed to flinch slightly as the attack landed but otherwise ignored it as Nike ducked under the captain's punch. Kishi pulled her weapon back for another swing as, with Nike still low to the ground, Captain Hardrock twisted her body to send a full-force kick towards her. Kagami tried to swing her staff down onto the villain's leg to interrupt the attack, but it landed before her swing landed. Nike blocked with her forearms as the pirate's muscular leg slammed into her, sending her flying backwards across the deck. Kishi's swing impacted with the captain's knee, knocking her off balance and leaving her stumbling for a her moments before gaining her footing again.  

"Liberty, seize these girls!" Captain Hardrock shouted, causing more chains to materialize from the walls and fly at them. Kishi quicky deflected the chains aimed at her with a few swings of her staff. 

"Ah shit!" Nike cursed from behind Kishi, turning around, Kagami noticed her prater had gotten caught by the chains while picking herself up from the captain's last attack. 

"I'll be takin' yer treasures for Hawkmoth, lassies." Captain Hardrock exclaimed, picking up her cutlass from where it had fallen and brandishing it at Kishi Noir once again. "Yer treasures for my freedom, that's the bargain this old pirate made, and I intend to make good on it!"

Kishi leveled her weapon at the pirate captain, "Not a chance." She replied simply. Kagami would have to trust Nike to free herself since the captain didn't seem keep to give Kishi time to free her partner. Kagami raised her staff and prepared to clash with the villain once more. 

__________________

Nike Rouge sat on her knees, her arms bound to her sides by chains, as her partner crossed weapons with Captain Hardrock, who was clearly Juleka and Luka's mom who had been akumatized. It slightly worried Alix that nobody but the captain seemed to be on deck, but given the magical chains that shot from the ship, she could easily guess that they were similarly bound below deck.

She could just reach her yo-yo weapon from where it sat on her belt, she slipped the end of the string onto her finger and unhooked the magical toy from her belt. Alix didn't really use this thing often during fights, it was a fine enough tool but it just didn't fit in with how Nike Rouge liked to fight, but for situations like this it tended to be pretty useful. She let out a bit of string and swung the yoyo around next to her to build up some speed. Once she felt like it was enough speed, she twisted her finger to send the yoyo head crashing into the chains, shattering one of the links and making the whole loop loosen and slip off of her. 

Nike took stock of the ship, something she maybe should have done before getting into the fight, as the sound of metal clashing against metal rang out every couple seconds from Kishi Noir's clashes with the villains. The steering wheel and ship compass sat on the top deck, there was some kind of circular cannon system in the center of the ship, and Kishi and Hardrock were exchanging blows on the lower deck. It was clear from the pirate's lack of major accessories that the akuma was somewhere in the ship itself. It was a shame, Captain Hardrock was a fun villain to fight, a simple pirate lady with a cool weapon and superhuman physique was definingly a good time in Alix's definition, but if the akuma wasn't on her person then clashing with her was kind of counterproductive and she had a responsibility to solve these things quickly, especially when Nike Rouge needed to get back to the catacombs before a certain death metal band got themselves killed without her being able to fix it.

Alix threw the yoyo into the air and called, "Lucky charm!" A swirl of pink magic appeared around the yoyo before forming into a pair of polka-dot nun chucks, which fell into her hands. Normally, Alix would love to get such a simple lucky charm, because it would mean that she could just keep beating on the villain, but she had literally just concluded that to not be the best course of action here. The nature of the ladybug's superpowers were really frustrating sometimes. 

Regardless of it being counterproductive, the lucky charm convinced Alix to rejoin the fight, she would figure it out as she went. Nike charged back into the fight just as Hardrock was about to swing her cutlass down onto Kishi, who quickly raised her staff to block the attack. Alix swung the nunchucks at the cutlass, impacting the flat side of it's magical blade before it could impact it's target, sending the swing sideways and making it miss Kishi by a mile. Now, Alix did not know how to use nunchucks properly, she was no martial artist, but she did know how to hit things with a stick on a chain, that was easy. 

Nike looked towards her partner with a smile as Hardrock recovers from her strike. Kishi gives her a small smile before taking a deep breath, it seems that handling the pirate captain alone had been challenging. 

"Ye two are gettin' on me last nerves!" The villain shouts, which only encourages Alix to fight the villain more. "Liberty, seize them!"

Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir quickly make themselves gone as chains materialize from the walls and attempt to capture them. Kishi steps back away from Captain Hardrock to dodge while Nike moves towards the villain to dodge the chains, swinging her nunchucks into the back of the pirate's knee as she does. Hardrock falls to one knee as the chains fly though the space the heroines previously occupied. Immediately after, Kishi begins to move back in, dashing forward with her sword held so she can hit the pirate's head as she's on her knee. Hardrock tries to raise her cutlass to block, but a swift kick to her wrist from Alix sends the blade skittering across the deck away from her and ensures a clean hit for Kishi. 

Captain Hardrock is launched backwards, leaving the ground for a moment before her shoulders slam into the railing of her ship, stopping her from falling overboard. The woman slumps against the railing for a moment before using the railing to pull herself up as she rubs her chin with one hand. 

"Now, It'd be fun to do this all day, but I have a concert to get to." Alix said as she swung her polka-dot nunchucks over her shoulder, mainly just to look cocky. "What do you say to just tell us where your akuma is and we can all get on with the music festival?"

"I'll never give up me freedom!" Captain Hardrock shouted in reply.

"I feel like you stretched my words a bit there."

"I'll give Hawkmoth yer treasures and make the world hear my music! Liberty, return me my blade!" From halfway across the deck, a chain materialized under where the cutlass sat, wrapped around the handle and shot towards the villain, who caught the blade and let the chain fall to the floor, where a floorboard flipped over to make the chain vanish from view.

Interesting, Alix thought, a plan forming in her head. 

"Liberty, seize them!" Captain Hardrock called out as she charged the two heroines. Kishi dashed forwards to clash weapons with the villain as Nike held back for just a moment, watching the chains shoot out from the walls of the ship. She carefully dodged the first 2 loops of chains that came at her but reached out to grab hold of the third, it's ends locking together as they came in contact with her palm. The inertia of the chain made it snap back and hit her wrist, which hurt somewhat, but she had successfully caught a chain. 

"Hardrock, I have a proposal." Nike Rouge called out, causing Kishi Noir and Captain Hardrock to pause their fight and turn towards her, curiosity and skeptics showing on their respective faces.

"That'd be Captain Hardrock to you, lass!" The villain snapped back, "And I ain't quitting no matter what ye suggest!"

"I'm not suggesting you give up." Alix replied and as she talked, shehooked the nunchuckes onto her belt and pulled out her yoyo. Using the string like a garotte wire, she cut the lock off of the chain so it was no longer a loop. "I propose a duel."

Hardrock glanced at where her cutlass and Kishi's staff were pressed against each other, "We're already duelin' lass."

"I propose a win condition then, and steaks to the duel." Nike continued working as she talked, hooking the chain onto her belt and taking out the nunchucks she cut the chain down the middle so that the nunchuck's were in 2 separate parts. "The win condition is pushing a weapon onto an opponent's neck, and we'll bet our treasures on the outcome. If you win you get our miraculous, if we win, we get the liberty." She then hooked the yoyo back onto her belt took the chain attached each end of it to either side of the nunchuck chains, using her enhanced miraculous strength to bend the chain links together. Now Nike Rouge had nunchucks with a really long chain. 

"Hmm." Captain Hardrock brought her cutlass away from where it had been locked against Kishi's staff, the magic blade disappeared and the woman began tapping the empty handle against her chin. A hollow butterfly mask appeared around Hardrock's face, a clear sign that Hawkmoth was talking with her. After a few moments, her eyes widened with some realization and the mask fell away.

"Yer tryin' te trick me out of my Liberty!" Captain Hardrock exclaimed, pointing her empty handle towards Nike accusingly, "Ye plan to wrap that chain 'round me neck and say ye've won. I'm wise to yer tricks!"

"Oh no, the chain doesn't count as a weapon. Just your sword, Kishi's staff, and the solid ends of the nunchucks." Nike countered, causing Hardrock's eyes to widen before squinting in contemplation again, and Hawkmoth's mask reappearing on her face. 

"Well ain't it the same deal ye gave me?" The pirate said, clearly speaking to Hawkmoth, which was technically correct, the main difference was just Hawkmoth's deal started this whole thing while Nike Rouge's would end it, at least that was the plan.

Nike Rouge smirked at the pirate, swinging the long nunchucks over her shoulders to seem as annoyingly cocky as possible,  "Do ye accept, or do ye flee in cowardice?"

Captain Hardrock's face morphed into an angry scowl, and the mask vanished from her face, "Ye dare call Captain Hardrock a coward? I accept yer duel lassies, and I'll win yer treasures make ye me prisoners afterwards!"

Nike moved into the fight as Captain Hardrock brought her sword down onto Kishi Noir once more, who blocked the attack. Her partner seemed to be struggling under the weight of the strike so Nike immediately swung her long nunchucks at the pirate's elbow. The captain moved so the attack only grazed her upper arm, which allowed Kishi to throw off the pirate's sword and counterattack by thrusting her rod at the woman's neck. Captain Hardrock dropped to the ground to avoid Kishi's attack, sweeping the cat hero's legs as she did. As Kishi hit the ground, Nike took the opportunity to wack the pirate in the face with her nunchucks, causing the woman to fly back a few feet and fall onto her back. 

Nike tried to go in for another attack as Hardrock was on the ground, but was assaulted by chains flying from the walls of the ship. She managed to dodge, but the akuma had gotten back up onto her feet. Nike had a wide grin on her face, this was the most fun she's had fighting an villain so far. Nike noticed Kishi standing by her side, her partner's mouth also curved in a smile.

"Ye lassies be gettin' on me nerves now." Captain Hardrock said with an angry look on her face.

"You're going to be angrier once we take your ship from you." Nike replied, causing the anger on the pirate's face to deepen. 

Nike held each end of the nunchucks in her hands as Captain Hardrock dashed forward and brought her sword down in a heavy swing onto her, blocking the strike with her chains, Alix wasted no time in executing her plan. She wrapped the nunchuck's long chain around the pirate's sword, the chains catching on the jagged edges of the sword. The pirate's eyes went wide as Nike ripped the cutlass from her grasp, throwing it across the deck along with the nunchucks, a chuckle escaping her lips as the weapons clattered across the desk.

A moment later, Kishi jumped back in and swept Hardrock's legs out from under her with her rod. As she fell Captain Hardrock called out, "Liberty, my weapon!" Causing the ship to materialize chains where the cutlass had fallen and launched it in the direction of its captain. 

Now. Nike thought. 

The ladybug hero grabbed the cutlass from out of the air and used the extra momentum to swing the sword faster than her enemy could react. Nike stopped the sword just before it buried itself into the captain's neck, the chains wrapped around the handle going limp as she did so. 

The pirate blinked a few times before chuckling, "Ye planned this from the start, didn't ye lassie?"

Alix grinned in response.

"I understand, I'm an honorable pirate. The Liberty now belongs to you two." A butterfly visor appeared over Captain Hardrock's face, she went quiet for a second before a look of anger appeared on her face, "Oh fuck off ye bastard."

Nike turned to her partner, "I believe we own a boat now."

Kishi chucked at her and raised an eyebrow.

Nike chuckled, "What? She said it belonged to us now. Check this out. Liberty, Seize her." At Alix's command, chains shot out of the walls and wrapped themselves around Captain Hardrock, who began to belt out a hearty pirate's laugh.

"Come on." Nike said, walking up to the steering deck, Kishi following close behind. "I'll let you do the honors." Nike told her partner as they stood at the ship's helm, who smiled in reply.

"Liberty," Kishi Noir spoke, "give up your akuma."

The compass in front of them cracked open and the black butterfly  fluttered out, Kishi nodded at Nike.

Nike opened her yoyo to purify it, "That's it for you little akuma." Nike said as she swung her yoyo to catch the akuma, "Time to de-evilize!"

As the white bitterly fluttered free of Nike Rouge's yoyo, the Liberty turned back into its usual repurposed party boat form, Captain Hardrock turning back into Anarka Couffaine. 

Nike grabbed the 2 ends of the nunchucks from where they had fallen when the cutlass and extra chain disappeared.

"Miraculous Nike Rouge!" She called out as she tossed the nunchucks in the air. A flood of magical ladybugs appeared and swept up the boat, a second later the ship was sitting on its original mooring spot.

Nike walked back onto the deck to where Anarka was still sitting on the floor.

"What happened?" Anarka asked, holding her head.

"You got akumatized."

"Ah, I see."

Nike heard her earing beep twice, she had to get out of here.

"Well it's been an honor stealing your ship, but I have some catacombs to get back to." Nike said quickly, "Later."

Nike swung off the ship, leapt across some rooftops before dropping into an alleyway to feed Tikki. The kwami giggled as she ate her cookie.

"What's so funny?" Alix asked her kwami.

"The ways you beat akumas is so strange sometimes."

"Not any weirder than Ladybug did." Alix retorted.

"You stole an akuma's magic pirate ship."

"I won the ship in a duel."

"You changed the photo In the picture frame labeled 'Captain' from Anarka to you and Kishi Noir when you used the miraculous cure."

Dang it she noticed. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Alix denied.

Tikki began laughing again, "I haven't had a holder as funny as you in thousands of years."

"Ya ya, laugh it up, have you finished eating?"

Tikki popped the last of her cookie in her mouth, "Yup."

"Cool, now let's get back to the catacombs before my favorite band kills themselves. Tikki, spots on!"

___________________

Adrien gritted his teeth in frustration as his father left the room once more, Adrien had failed the piece again. He had hit the same wrong note he had been hitting for the past three hours. 

Adrien glared at the piano key that had ruined his chances to go to his friend's concert. Adrien pressed his finger down on it, hearing the light note the key played. He pressed it again, and again, and again. 

How was Adrien supposed to impress his father if he couldn't play a single note correctly? How was he supposed to go out with his friends if he couldn't impress his father? 

But since he couldn't play a single note, he was trapped in the room with the piano, stuck like he was in a cage. 

Tears stung at Adrien's eyes as he thought of the irony of it. Music was made to be shared yet here he was, stuck in his room alone, hitting the same wrong key over and over and over. 

Adrien pressed down on the key again, and again, and again. His frustration drove his finger to push harder. He pushed down on the key so hard he began to strain his finger.

All of a sudden Adrien stopped pushing down, something new gripping his mind. 

Soloist, I am Hawkmoth.

Chapter Text

Adrien gritted his teeth as he heard Hawkmoth's voice in his head. He couldn't get akumatized, he was- 

You aren't Chat Noir anymore, why should it matter if you're akumatized?

Adrien felt the tension leave his body. Hawkmoth was right, why would it matter. The miraculous had been taken from him, he was just Adrien now, just as trapped as he had been before. Adrien knew the akuma was manipulating and amplifying his negative emotions, he wouldn't be thinking like this otherwise. But, with Hawkmoth's help, Adrien could escape. He could share his music with the world, he could play with anybody he wanted to. He could be free. 

Soloist, I'm giving you a magic piano that has 2 powers. One, you can turn anybody who listens to your music into your bandmates.  Second, anybody hit with the keys fired from your piano will want nothing other than to listen to the music made by you and your bandmates. Do you understand?

"Yes."

Good, all I ask in payment for your new freedom is the miraculous of Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir, do you accept?

"It will be my pleasure to play your music, Hawkmoth."

A second later a bubbly purple aura spread over Adrien and his piano from the key that Adrien had been holding down. 

As Soloist emerged from the purple magic, he looked down at his piano. He looked at the key that had caused him so much pain and strife, seeing it filled him with unspeakable anger.

This key didn't deserve to be on his piano. 

Soloist pressed down on the key, pushing it fully into the piano. A second later, the key rocketed out of the other end of the piano, embedding itself into the wall.

Looking down at the piano that was now missing a key, Soloist breathed a sigh of relief. Much better. He couldn't accedently hit a key that wasn't there after all.

Soloist grinned as he sat down at his piano, it was time to share the music. The musician began to play, beginning with a soft melody to ease people into the concert. 

As Soloist played, a cloud materialized from the feet of the piano, lifting the instrument and its player into the air. Soloist didn't falter in his playing when the cloud busted through the window of his room, carrying him out into the city of Paris. The cloud carried Soloist to his first destination, the Liberty moored on the banks of the Seine. 

After all, he wanted his lady to be by his side as he shared his music with the world.

__________________

Kagami made her way back to the car after Plagg was properly fed.

"I've returned Mother." Kagami announced as she entered the car once more.

"Was Adrien alright?" Her mother asked.

"The boat was indeed the concert he was going to go to, but he had not yet arrived." Kagami reported to her mother. 

"Good. Tatsu, resume our course to City Hall." 

The car did as it was told and the car pulled away from the side of the road, resuming its course to City Hall.

As the Tsurugi car pulled into the City Hall parking lot, Kagami's phone rang with another akuma alert. Hawkmoth was not letting up today, what did he have against music?

Her mother sighed, "Kagami?"

Kagami pulled up the live news feed. 

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news. Another akuma has appeared, interrupting the music festival for the second time." Nadja Chamack reported, an image of an akuma sitting on a cloud playing the piano visible on screen, "The akuma has not attacked anybody yet, but is heading in the direction of the main area of the music festival. The akumatized person is believed to be the fashion model Adrien Agreste, as it was first spotted bursting through-"

Kagami dropped her phone on the leather car seats and made her way out of the vehicle as fast as she could, much to her mother's dismay.

"Kagami Tsurugi, you get back in this car!" Her mother demanded, "I will not allow you to go fight an akuma!"

Kagami ignored her mother and made a mad dash towards the Seine. If Kagami knew Adrien at all, she knew that his main priority was always Marinette. Adrien always looked happiest with his girlfriend by his side.

Kagami ducked into an alleyway when she got a decent distance away from City Hall that nobody would see her do so. Kagami paused in the alleyway as Plagg floated out of her bag.

The two of them sat there for a second in a strange silence.

"Well?" Plagg said, breaking the silence, "Aren't you going to transform?"

"I was waiting for your usual annoyed remark." Kagami explained.

"Well there isn't one today, now hurry up and transform so you can beat this akuma."

Kagami raised an eyebrow at her kwami, the tiny god seemed almost... concerned? This was strange because the only time she had ever seen him concerned was when she had refused to carry 7 pounds of camembert on her at all times, claiming he would starve otherwise.

"Is there something going on?" Kagami asked.

"No, nothing is going on. Now transform!" The kwami snapped back.

Kagami did as he said, but remained skeptical, "Plagg, Claws out!"

___________________

After Officer Roger left, deeming the lowered volume fine for the music festival, the crew got back to setting up for the concert.

Marinette was really disappointed that Adrien couldn't come. He had been looking forward to the concert for weeks, only for his father to say he couldn't go at the last minute. They also hadn't heard from him since he told them that. Marinette assumed he was practicing so his father may let him go after all.

The one thing Marinette didn't expect was for Adrien to show up while playing the piano on a flying cloud. 

"Marinette, I'm here!"

Marinette watched in horror as her boyfriend descended from the sky, the cloud under him dissipating into the air and blowing around the many items on the deck of the Liberty so that the piano could land unhindered.

Adrien was dressed in a black suit with gold outlines, a white shirt underneath with a shimmering gold tie around his neck. His hands were covered with stark white gloves. He would have looked almost normal if not for the large set of angel wings on his back in the shape of a treble clef.

"Adrien?" Marinette said in shock. Marinette knew it was him, she would recognize Adrien anywhere. Marinette didn't know why this had happened. Adrien was the opposite of an akuma. He was upbeat no matter what, optimistic, endlessly kind. Marinette couldn't imagine what had pushed him to this point. 

Except for one thing. 

Gabriel… Marinette thought, her fist clenching up. That man was terrible to Adrien and Marinette wanted to sock him in the jaw.  

"Marinette, isn't it wonderful?" Adrien exclaimed, "I'm free! My father can't stop me from sharing my music anymore. I'll share my music with all the world!"

"Adrien stop, this isn't you." Marinette tried to appeal to her boyfriend.

"My name isn't Adrien anymore, it's Soloist! And I'm tired of playing my music alone!" The villain shouted.

"Adrien…"

Marinette heard somebody coming up the stairs from below deck. "Woah Adrien?" Marinette heard Nino say in shock, "What happened dude?"

"I'm not Adrien anymore!" Soloist shouted again, "And I was hoping you guys would be happy for me, and play with me by your own choice. But I was wrong, if I want you guys to play with me, I'll have to make you understand my music."

Marinette watched as Soloist began to play his piano. The song was sad, the saddest thing Marinette had ever heard. The notes were drawn out and touched delicately in a way that tugged on her soul and made her heart ache. It made her feel like she was trapped and alone, the same things Adrien must have felt trapped alone in his room. Marinette fell to her knees on the deck, tears flowing from her cheeks. How could she have been so selfish? Adrien had just wanted to be free, free from his father, free from his room, free from his responsibilities.

And now he was. 

Marinette cried as music notes materialized from Soloist's piano, floating in lines like ribbons through the air. 

Marinette didn't resist as they wrapped around her, letting the sad music surround her and consume her. 

A few seconds later, Soloist's first bandmate stood from the deck and went to stand by his side, her flute ready to play whatever song he needed her to.

___________________

Kishi Noir landed on top of a building near where the Liberty was moored, unfortunately finding that she was too late. 

Golden lines of music were materializing from a grand piano in the middle of the deck, wrapping around the people on board and disappearing a few seconds later, leaving them in fancy outfits with musical instruments in their hands.

Kishi didn't recognize most of the crew,  but she recognized Marinette. She was standing beside Adrien, wearing a sparkling red dress that slightly huged her form and fell to the perfect length that covered her feet but didn't drag on the ground. She was playing a flute along with the music played by the piano. 

She also recognized Nino, Adrien's best friend. He was standing behind Adrien with a green tux and black tie, holding a conductor's wand in his hand. 

Kishi didn't recognize any of the others.  There was a boy and a girl with hair dyed blue and purple respectively softly playing guitars, a large boy playing the double bass, a shorter blond girl playing a tuba that was almost as large as she was, and a girl with multicolored hair braids playing a cello.

The strange thing was, the only one who seemed to be playing along with the villain's music was Marinette, the rest seemed to be doing their own thing.

A few seconds later, everyone except Adrien and Marinette stopped playing.

All of the sudden, the bottom of the piano started to leak a white gas. The gas formed into a cloud beneath the piano and the feet of the musicians that had been taken over by the akuma. A few seconds later, the cloud floated off the deck of the Liberty, carrying the akuma and his new band up into the air.

Kishi overheard Adrien say something to the musicians he had controlled, her enhanced hearing came in handy sometimes, "We must continue to gain more members,  only the greatest in Paris will do! Jagged Stone, the Philharmonic Orchestra, Clara Nightingale! I will share my music with the world, the best musicians in Paris by my side! I will no longer be a Soloist!"

Kagami was willing to bet her blade that Gabriel had caused this particular akuma.

Kishi couldn't afford to wait for her partner, if Adrien was going to city hall for the Philharmonic Orchestra then her mother would be caught up in the akuma's power and Kishi couldn't allow that.

Using her pole to propel herself upwards, Kishi Noir jumped onto the cloud carrying the akuma and his band. The villain stopped playing when Kishi landed, as well as marinette, and the cloud went deadly quiet. But nobody moved, every member of the band just stared at the black cat hero, none making a move to attack her. 

So, Kishi attacked first.

Running forward, Kishi extended her rod to about double her height and swung down as hard as she could at the villain's grand piano.

Kishi had expected the piano to fold in half from her strike, but what happened instead was that the rod bent in Kishi's hand and the sound of every string inside the piano being violently vibrated at once rang across the cloud. 

The band members covered their ears from the horribly loud noise, but Kishi Noir's enhanced hearing made the sound so much worse  

The sound rang through her head like somebody had just hit her with a hammer, bringing her to her knees on the cloud. Her rod dropped so she could cover her ears, Kishi barely processed the rod rolling off the side and down into the city below. By the time Kishi's head stopped ringing, she had a splitting headache.

Kishi pushed herself up from the ground, the splitting headache making it hard to focus. She had to stop this akuma before it reached her mother.

"Kishi Noir, it's so good to see you!" Adrien exclaimed with a grin on his face, "You are a key component in the music that Hawkmoth wants me to play, I couldn't do it without you."

Kishi tried to take a step forward but found herself falling to the ground again. She could barely keep her balance with this headache.

"You know, I wish I didn't have to do this to you. I used to be just like you. I was free, I could go wherever I wanted. I saved Paris with a smile and a pun. But then, it was all ripped away from me. I was back to being just Adrien Agreste."

Kishi's eyes widened at what this akuma was saying, what Adrien was saying. Saved Paris with a smile and a pun, free to go wherever he wanted? 

Was Adrien Chat Noir?

Kishi focused back on the akuma, it made all too much sense to Kagami. Adrien was a skilled fencer and had cracked more than a few puns in the time she'd known him. With Adrien as restricted as he is by his father, the miraculous must have been the best thing that had ever happened to him. Losing it must have meant so much more than just losing being Chat Noir, it meant the loss of his freedom. Kagami knew it would be hard on her if she lost it. All of Adrien's frustrations must have come to a head today for whatever reason, ending in his akumatisation.

Kagami understood his pain. 

The sound of a piano began to flow into Kishi's ears, a jovial tune that reminded her of the freedom she had felt when she had transformed and jumped around Paris for the first time. 

Kishi didn't, and couldn't, fight the lines of music that began to cover her body, wrapping around her like a warm embrace.

A second later, Kishi stood up. Leather replaced with a sparkling black dress and green cloth gloves, a violin in her hands. 

Holding the violin bow in the proper delicate manner, Kishi began to play along to the akuma's jovial music.

_____________________

Nike Rouge was really ticked off. 

She had just managed to re-enter the catacombs unnoticed through the old man's tunnel and detransform when another akuma alert went off. By the time she had managed to get back out of the catacombs and into the streets of Paris, an emergency broadcast rang out from her yoyo. 

"It seems that the black cat hero Kishi Noir has fallen under the control of this most recent akuma, who calls himself Soloist." The news reporter reported as background footage showed a cloud flying above Paris, carrying a gang of musicians. The video zoomed in on Kishi Noir in a sparkly black dress furiously playing the violin along with a boy, who looked Adrien with large wings, on the piano. "The akumatized musician has just added Jagged Stone to his roster and is now heading to City Hall to snatch up the Philharmonic Orchestra as well." Well now Nike had a location at least, "It is advised that all citizens wear ear protection at this time, the akuma seems to control people through the sound of his music."

That gave Nike an idea. 

Closing the news broadcast, Nike opened the storage function of her yoyo, she reached in and pulled out the noise mufflers she had gotten when she arrived at the catacombs earlier that day. 

Securing them onto her ears, Nike heard the usual sounds of the city fade to a dull whisper. These would work just fine.

Nike jumped off the building she was standing on and began to swing to City Hall.

-----------------

By the time Nike arrived at City Hall, it was already too late. The orchestra was under the akuma's control and the akuma was flying around on his cloud, playing a fast-paced tune by the look of how fast he was hitting keys. The keys he pressed were flying out of the other side of the piano and regenerating underneath his fingers. The civilians hit by the keys stopped running and began to follow after the piano as it flew through the sky.

Nike noticed Marinette sat on top of Soloist's piano and playing the flute alongside his music, wearing a sparkling red dress.

Nike stayed hidden in the rooftops, watching as Soloist targeted every person he could find with his rain of keys, the crowd following behind him growing quite large.

Finally, the akuma stopped playing and looked back at his crowd, a satisfied look on his face.

"My audience!" He shouted out to the crowd, standing up at his piano bench. Alix couldn't actually hear the akuma because of the noise mufflers, but she was reading his lips with her enhanced vision. She had learned the skill in order to find out what Chloé's hushed conversations with Sabrina were about. It was worth it, Alix had managed to blackmail Chloé like 4 times already. "Me and my band will have our first grand concert at City Hall! Be sure not to miss it."

The crowd turned to chaos, people ran full speed in order to get to City Hall as fast as they could. People climbed over cars and pushed each other down to get there as fast as possible.

It was chaos.

Soloist himself flew over the crowd and back to City Hall, eyes closed and arms extended to the sky. 

It was then that Nike noticed it. There was something wrong with the keys on the akuma's piano, one was missing. Alix knew that he could fire his keys out of his piano, but she had also seen the keys regenerate after they were fired. So why wasn't that key regenerating? The answer seemed simple, that key was the akumatized object.

But that posed a bigger issue, where was it? It could be anywhere in Paris, at any concert spot, or the bottom of the Seine. Nike frowned as she realized that Soloist was probably the only person who knew where it was. How could she get that information out of him?

Nike followed the akuma back to City Hall, trying to think of a plan on the way there. Nike preferred the akumas that you simply had to fight into submission. The ones that had more complicated powers were annoying. They required careful planning and acting, neither of which Alix was bad at, but she just preferred to use her fists.

Alix watched as the akuma landed on the stage set up for the Philharmonic Orchestra, now taken over by the akuma's band members. The conductor, who Alix recognized as Nino, stood on the conductor's stand and she noticed a few more of her friends mixed in with the orchestra. Kishi was in the first row of chairs near the conductor. Ivan was playing a double bass in the back and Mylene was with the cello players. Rose was off stage leaning on a large tuba, looking a little miffed for whatever reason. Juleka and her brother were sitting in chairs near where Soloist had set down his piano.

Anarka and Alya were noticeably absent though, strange.

___________________

Alya and Anarka had been having a shouting match in the Captain's room of the Liberty. 

"Well, obviously the Liberty recognized them as the captains after they beat you in a duel!" Alya argued, gesturing to the portrait labeled 'Captain' that now held a picture of Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir.

"Impossible. Liberty is my ship, she would never betray me like that." Anarka argued back.

"Well, maybe The Liberty felt betrayed when her captain lost a duel on her deck!" 

"I refuse to give The Liberty over to them Lassies, neither of them be even 1 and a half meters high(5 foot)." Anarka snapped back at the reporter.

"And why should that matter?"

The argument was so heated that they hadn't even noticed Soloist land and kidnap everyone else on board.

______________________

Nike didn't give much thought to their absence. 

Nike began to think furiously, how could she get the akuma to tell her where the missing key was?

As Nike thought, she watched the show begin from her vantage point on the rooftops. Nino gestured with the conductor's wand and the orchestra began to play.

While Nike couldn't hear any of the music, she saw it, literally. 

As the orchestra played, golden lines of music materialized from the instruments and floated through the air like ribbons. Some floated towards the crowd members before wrapping around them, vanishing a second later leaving the person who got wrapped in a fancy outfit and an instrument in their hands. Some crowd members then jumped up onto the stage and joined in with the orchestra. Some kept sitting with their instruments in their laps, the ones who stayed in their seats had instruments of the woodwind and brass types. And now that Nike looked, Marinette wasn't playing either, she was just sitting on Soloist's piano, she was kinda just staring at him with a sickeningly sweet grin.

Soloist must only want strings to play right now, which is probably why Rose had looked miffed.

Alix knew she couldn't let this go on for too long. Akuma's like this often didn't have any concern for the health of the people they controlled, only for whatever their goal was. If Nike left this show running for too long people could seriously get hurt.

The problem was, Alix didn't have a plan. She couldn't go and try and make a deal with the akuma without taking her noise mufflers off to talk with him. She couldn't fight him since she couldn't win without getting his akumatized object, and she had no clue where that was. 

Her only option was to call her "Lucky Charm!" Alix said quietly, trying not to let the controlled crowd aware of her presence. 

A folder fell into Nike's hands. Opening it, she found 2 stapled stacks of paper. Reading them, Alix realized what they were. They were both music sheets for the same song, but one was for the flute and the other was for a duet on the piano.

The flute made sense for Marinette, but a piano duet? Nike hadn't seen any other piano players come out of Soloist's musical control. Who would play with him?

It was then that Alix realized who she needed. 

Nike began to formulate a plan.

The problem with her plan was that it would take more than the time she had left before she destranformed, and she needed the music sheets from the lucky charm for it to work.  

Nike tried to think of a solution. She could go try to get an exact copy of the music from a music shop, but Alix didn't know where one was. She could recast the lucky charm later, but there was no guarantee that it would give her the same music sheets and her plan would be a bust. 

She could… try and make the lucky charm stick around after she detransformed?

Nike would prefer that, but it broke the rules of her powers. She got the lucky charm and it vanished when she detransformed 5 minutes later. It was just the way it worked, she had no idea how to change that and Nike didn't know if she was allowed to. 

Wait, since when do I care about rules?

She figured that she may as well try something. Her plan was in the balance and what's the worst that could happen.

Alix sat on the rooftop and placed the music folder in between her hands, her palms flat on opposite sides of the object. 

Closing her eyes, Alix focused on the energy in her body that she always felt when she transformed. Alix felt the energy inside her, it was warm and coursing through her entire body. She felt a large mass of it, almost like a core, in her chest, Alix figured that was where Tikki was. Alix also felt a flat chunk of energy between her hands, the music sheets.

Alix began to gather the energy in her hands, redirecting it from the flow that Tikki was probably regulating. She shoved the energy into the music sheet, which previously felt like it was made of pure energy but quickly began to solidify. 

If Alix had to describe it, it felt like the sheets had been a fresh line of paint from a paint can. It could easily be washed off or smeared. But as it began to solidify it was like the paint drying. It could no longer be removed or smeared around.

Alix felt the music sheets solidify, starting from the middle where she was holding it and moving towards the corners quite quickly. Once the folder was fully solidified, Alix felt the core of energy in her chest shoot up into her head and out of her ears.

Correction, out of her earrings.

Alix opened her eyes and caught Tikki on top of the music sheet.

The kwami looked exhausted, Alix quickly moved to dig a cookie out of her bag.

"Are you insane? " Tikki hissed from where she laid on the polka-dotted folder, "You could have died!"

Alix raised an eyebrow at the kwami, it had hardly even felt dangerous. Alix handed the kwami a cookie.

"Humans aren't meant to control the pure energy that we kwami generate, it's simply too powerful." Tikki ate the cookie in a single bite before continuing, "Especially the energy from me and Plagg. I need more cookies, that stunt you pulled exhausted me."

Alix sat on the ground, Tikki across from her. Alix gave the angry kwami the whole bag. Alix had forcefully pulled energy from the kwami, it was no wonder Tikki was tired.

"It didn't even feel that hard. I felt like I was controlling the flow of paint in a paint can." Alix said, "I just directed it into the lucky charm and made it solid."

"It was a good thing you had something to direct it into, otherwise it would have been rampaging through your body causing untold harm."

"Its creation energy, how dangerous could it be?" Alix replied, she thought Tikki was being overdramatic. 

The kwami glared at her as she scarfed down another cookie. "Well, for one thing, cancer. Your cells would feel the need to endlessly create more cells due to the energy and would go crazy. A similar thing happens with the black cat miraculous, except it ends with necrosis."

Alix's eyes went wide. She hadn't expected the warm feeling of creating energy to be so dangerous.

"Normally I have complete control of the energy and direct it safely to your suits, magical glamour, and lucky charm. The reason you have to detransform after using your power is because using it forces a massive spike of energy from me. I keep that energy going to safe places, such as the lucky charm and miraculous cure. But that amount of energy is dangerous to keep floating around for too long in your still growing body so we Kwami set time limits so we don't hurt our younger holders."

Alix didn't know what to say, she was used to getting lectured like this but never about something this serious. 

"But you just go right ahead and grab control of the energy from me and use it to make the Lucky Charm a physical object instead of a magical one. You can't use this to summon the miraculous cure now, you know that? It's just a normal, nonmagic, music sheet now."

"Well, that's exactly what I need." Alix said with a grin, "Now if I take control of this energy again, can I choose what the lucky charm makes? Can I summon a cure completely under my control? What could I do?"

"Did you not hear me, Alix? CANCER!" Tikki flew up and grabbed the skater's face, "You could literally die!"

"Almost dying is part of the superhero job description, increasing that risk for a power increase is so textbook that I would be shocked to find a superhero story that didn't have it." Alix shrugged, "It's just part of the job description. Besides, if I do get a bit of cancer by mistake, I can fix it with a miraculous cure. Not a huge deal."

Tikki sighed and floated back down to her cookies. "It's like I'm with the Amazons all over again."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Now, are you ready to transform? Soloist won't beat himself."

"Alix, never do this again." Tikki sounded a little angry.

"I make no promises. Tikki, spots on!"

A second later, Nike Rouge was swinging away from City Hall, she needed to kidna- uh… get somebody to help her. 

___________________

Gorilla wasn't happy. He was supposed to protect Adrien, that was his job and he was quite good at it. 

However, Hawkmoth was one of the few things that Gorilla couldn't protect Adrien from. With Adrien akumatised Gorilla didn't know what to do. He couldn't protect the boy from his own emotions no matter how hard he tried. 

So, the bodyguard just sat at his desk near the entrance of the Agreste Mansion, doing nothing in particular. 

That was until somebody kicked the doors down.

Gorilla just watched as the doors few off their hinges and fell against the stairs, he figured it was probably Adrien and Gorilla refused to fight that boy, even if he was an akuma.

However, Gorilla was shocked to find that the one who had kicked down the door was Nike Rouge, superheroine of Paris.

"I've come to kidnap Gabriel Agreste." The polka-dot clad girl announced. 

Gorilla pushed the button to alert Gabriel that he had a visitor.

____________________

"I did not agree to this, return me to my home immediately or I will sue you for everything you are worth." Gabriel Agreste complained from where Nike Rouge had thrown him over her shoulder so she could swing without dropping him.

"Nope, I need you to beat this akuma." Nike would not be this close to Gabriel Agreste unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Then let me walk by myself!" 

"Too slow, we need to end this as soon as possible so the Music festival can get back on track." Alix hated Gabriel Agreste. She heard enough about him from the kids in her class, especially Nino and Chloé, to have formed a hatred of the man. But somehow, she hated him even more now that she met the man in real life. 

The man had initially said no to helping deakumatize his son, who does that?

What a selfish dickhead.

Nike landed behind City Hall and set Gabriel Agreste down as fast as she could. The dude smelled terrible.

She quickly put the ear mufflers back on, she had taken them off to talk to Gabriel.

"Ok," Nike began, "so here's the plan."

------------------

Nike landed loudly in the middle of the stage, right in front of Nino.

"This concert is terrible!" She shouted, causing more than a few angry faces, "There's no emotion to it, it's all dull music pulled straight from the sheets. No emotions behind it at all." Alix said, repeating some of the bullshit she had overheard Jalil's clarinet teacher say once. 

Nike walked over to Soloist, who had a confused look on his face. She shoved her polkadot folder of sheet music into his hands, "Play this with the people closest to your heart, then your music will soar and I might think about taking these noise mufflers off." Alix noticed Gabriel move to sit in the first row of the audience, Soloist seemed to have not noticed him. 

"But, this is a trio piece with 2 pianos and a flute." Soloist said as he read the piece, Nike reading his lips to understand him, "I'm the only piano player in my band."

"I said people closest to your heart, not people in your band. Figure it out or I'll never listen to your music." 

Nike watched as Soloist moved back to his piano to talk with Marinette. The two were facing away from her so Nike couldn't read their lips. As she watched, Marinette pulled Soloist into a hug. After being released, Soloist walked back over to Nike. 

"Have you figured it out?" Nike asked him. 

"Yes I have, and can I ask you to go grab somebody for me?" Soloist seemed a little hesitant about what he was asking, so Alix knew the plan was working.

"Who do you need?" Nike asked, already knowing the answer.

"I need my father, he and Marinette are the 2 people I care about most in this world and if I play with them we can play the greatest music ever heard, I'm sure of it." Soloist said confidently.

Alix raised an eyebrow at the akuma, faking annoyance, "Why would I grab him? There's no point."

Soloist blinked, seeming confused for a second before a sad expression moved onto his face. "I know my father's not the best but surely he's would-"

"What's the point in grabbing him?" Nike cut Soloist off, "He's right there." Nike pointed to where Gabriel was sitting.

Soloist looked in the direction that she was pointing, freezing up when he saw his father sitting in the front row. 

"Father?" Soloist seemed shocked, "You came?"

Gabriel got up from where he was sitting, looking extremely awkward, "Of course I did Adrien. I rushed over as fast as I could when I heard you were playing at City Hall." The man sounded awkward, he obviously wasn't used to saying words of support. 

Luckily, Soloist didn't notice.

"Father, will you play this piece with me? If you and Marinette play a trio with me it will be the greatest music Paris has ever heard!"

Gabriel stepped up onto the stage, "Of course I will Adrien."

A smile spread on Soloist's face before turning to his band, "I want everyone off the stage except for me, my father, and Marinette. Take your chairs and music stands. It should be empty except for my piano and a music stand for Marinette!"

The band got right to work, carrying chairs and music stands away with their instruments. The piano also began to move, a mini cloud appearing under it and moving it to center stage. Soon enough the only things on stage were the piano and a music stand for Marinette, just as Soloist had ordered.

Nike jumped off the stage and looked for a seat, she noticed Kishi in the front row with an empty seat next to her. Nike smiled at that, even when being controlled by an akuma, Kishi was still her partner.

Nike sat down and looked up at the stage. Marinette stood ready with her flute as Soloist and Gabriel sat down at the bench. Soloist seemed ready to play but Gabriel paused before touching the piano.

"Adrien, what is this?" Gabriel asked his son, an angry tone in his voice. Alix hadn't taken the ear mufflers off yet but she could read their lips from where she was sitting and Gabriel just looked angry.

Soloist blinked, "What do you mean father?"

Gabriel pointed at the missing key, "How are we supposed to play this piece with this key missing? It's essential to the piece. What kind of musician plays with a busted instrument at a professional concert? I expected better from you Adrien."

Alix grimaced. She had told Gabriel to point out the missing key and insist that Soloist bring it back so they could play, but she hadn't expected him to be this harsh. 

Soloist seemed conflicted, his face twisting in thought. A second later, he seemed to make a decision. Soloist laid his hand over the missing key and when he lifted his hand the key had returned. 

Perfect. Nike began to get up so she could break the key and release the akuma, but was stopped when she felt a hand pull her back into her seat. Nike looked to her left and Kishi was glaring at her, hand on Nike's shoulder.

"Let them play." Kishi mouthed to her.

Alix knew Kishi didn't talk much, but when she did she was always right. Nike trusted her partner, so she stayed in her seat. 

A second later, she felt the ear mufflers being taken off her head, and Kishi had taken them off. Nike reached to grab her ear protection back from her partner, "Are you insane?" She hissed at Kishi, "If I get controlled, Paris is screwed."

Kishi caught Nike's wrist as she tried to grab the ear mufflers back, "Trust me, I can feel his intentions." 

Nike blinked, she didn't know what Kishi was talking about. She could feel the akuma's intentions? Was it because of her being controlled? Either way, Nike trusted her partner. Nike returned to watching the show, without her ear protection this time. 

Soloist smiled at his father as they began to play the piece. It was a beautiful melody. It evoked a feeling of calm and freedom, like the feeling you get after a crazy adrenaline rush wears off and you feel the wind ruffle your hair and cool your sweat-coated face. 

But when Nike began to feel too calm, she bit her cheek. She couldn't let herself be taken by the music. 

Nike gripped her fist as lines of music began to materialize from the piano. She knew it was a bad idea to take the ear mufflers off, Kishi was being controlled by Soloist, of course she wanted Nike to hear the music. 

As Nike watched the lines of music float through the air, she realized they looked different from the ones she had seen before. While the ones that wrapped around people before were golden, these were a shimmering light blue. 

As Alix watched, the lines floated towards various band members that Soloist had controlled previously, wrapping around them. A second later, the lines vanished from around the band members and left a confused civilian in their place. 

The music was freeing people from Soloist's control?

As the trio continued to play the piece, more and more people were freed from the akuma's musical control. Nike watched as a blue ribbon of music floated towards Kishi, wrapping around her. A second later, Kishi's back dress had been replaced with her usual baggy pants and leather jacket.

Nike watched her partner blink a couple of times, looking around in confusion.

"Welcome back partner." Nike said, leaning back in her chair, "I liked your music."

Kishi stared at Nike for a second before her face tensed up into an angry frown. Kishi clenched her fist and stared down at her feet.

Nike frowned. She and Kishi had only been heroes for about a month but this wasn't their first brainwashing akuma. However, it was the first time either of them had actually fallen victim to one of their abilities ability, and obviously Kishi wasn't taking it well.

Nike patted her partner on the back, "It's alright Kishi, we make mistakes. It's part of being human. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Besides, if you haven't gotten captured, this wouldn't be happening right now." Alix gestured up at the stage where Soloist looked like he was having the time of his life. The grin on his face was brighter than the sparkling music lines floating through the air. Even Gabriel had a small smile on his face.

Looking back at Kishi, Nike saw that a weak smile had replaced her angry expression as she watched the father and son play together. The smile didn't reach her eyes though, her eyes were sad.

Nike didn't ask, everyone had their own demons and it wasn't her place to try and purge them.

Nike sat back in her seat and turned her attention back to the stage. The piece was almost over. The flute had cut out and the 2 piano players were playing the soft ending of the piece. As the music ended, the gold lines of music wrapped around Marinette and returned her to her usual outfit. She was so confused by her new surroundings that she lost her balance and fell onto her butt.

Nike looked around, there were no more people under the control of Soloist to be seen. They had all been freed. "Come on Kishi, it's time." Nike stood up from her chair and jumped onto the stage, Kishi followed close behind.

As the two heroes walked up to the piano, Gabriel pulled his son into a hug, "I'm sorry Adrien." Soloist looked confused for a second before melting into his father's embrace. 

Nike noticed Kishi staring at them, a sad look on her face. 

Nike turned to her partner, "If you would do the honors." She gestured to the piano. 

Kishi nodded, "Cataclysm."

Kishi's hand was enveloped in bubbling dark energy and she touched the piano. The piano began to crumble and as the decay spread to the keys a purple butterfly flew out of the previously missing key. 

Nike opened up her yoyo, "That's it for you little akuma, time to de-evilize!" Nike snatched up the akuma, letting it free once it was purified, "Stay out of trouble little guy." Nike said as the butterfly flew away.

Soloist turned back into Adrien, who seemed confused to be in his father's arms now that he was deakumatised, but melted into the hug once again.

"I'm sorry Adrien," Gabriel said again now that Adrien was no longer an akuma. Gabriel pulled away from the hug, much to the dismay of Adrien. "I've been too harsh on you, you may go to your friend's concert."

"Oh thank you, father!" Adrien pulled his father into another hug, much to the dismay of Gabriel. 

Marinette, who had been watching the exchange with tears in her eyes, turned to Nike. "Aren't you going to use the miraculous cure?"

Nike hesitated, looking at the polka-dotted folder on the floor where it had fallen after the piano had been dusted. She couldn't use that to summon the cure so she had to figure out another way. Nike pulled out her yoyo and opened up the user's guild, "Ya I totally will just give me a second."

Marinette blinked and picked up the folder, "Here you go, cast it."

"Can't," Nike said as she read the section on the miraculous cure, "I used too much magic on that thing and it's no longer magic."

"You what?" 

"Ah, here it is." Alix read the section and closed the user's guide, opening an altered form of the storage function instead, "Miraculous Nike Rouge!" She called out as the usual magic ladybugs poured out of the yoyo and washed over Paris, returning civilians to where they were before. Gabriel and Adrien were taken back to their home and Marinette and her other friends were taken back to the boat. A second later, the stage was full of chairs again for the Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Cool, she could use the miraculous cure without a lucky charm. Good to know.

Nike turned to her partner, "Well, that was interesting."

Kishi nodded, a sad look still in her eyes. "Very."

Nike noticed her partner's ring beep 3 times, Kishi herself didn't seem to notice. She seemed to be lost in thought.

Alix waved a hand in front of Kishi's face, "Hello? Earth to Kishi Noir? You need to get going, like now."

"Right." Her partner responded, running away from City Hall and into the nearby streets. 

Nike watched her go, almost wanting to follow her. Kishi had taken her failure during this akuma hard, but Nike could tell there was something else there. Something that probably had to do with her civilian life. 

Nike swung away from City Hall in the opposite direction Kishi had gone. She didn't need to recharge Tikki so she just swung all the way back to the catacombs. Maybe she could finally hear the band play without distractions this time.

___________________

Kagami detransformed in an alleyway and fed Plagg. Kagami waited until the cat was done with his cheese. 

"So, was Adrien a good owner?" Kagami asked the kwami.

"Excuse you?" Plagg asked, seeming shocked. 

Kagami blinked, "I thought you could see what happens when I'm Kishi Noir."

"I can, that doesn't mean I always pay attention. In fact, I hardly ever do." Plagg confessed with a shrug, "Now, how did you figure it out?"

"He told me as Soloist."

"Of course. Listen kit, he was great, but you really aren't supposed to know who he was."

"Why?" 

"Because… uh… I don't know!" Plagg confessed with a shout, "But I know Master was very adamant that you don't know."

Kagami sighed, what bullshit.

"Whatever, let's go Plagg. I have a concert to get to." 

Plagg groaned, "Are you really going to go to that boring orchestra concert?"

"Nope," Kagami didn't really feel like seeing her mother at the moment, "I'm going to the boat concert with Adrien and his friends."

"How are you going to convince your mother?"

Kagami smirked at the kwami, "I'm not going to tell her, let's go Plagg." Kagami opened her jacket for him.

Plagg laughed as he flew in, "I knew I've been a good influence on you!"

___________________

Adrien had rushed out the door as soon as the Miraculous cure had returned him home. Basically pushing Gorilla into the car and having him drive as fast as possible. 

Adrien jumped out of the car before Gorilla had even gotten to a stop and ran onto the Liberty. 

"I'm here! Wooooaaahhh!" Adrien tripped over one of the many items on the deck and fell onto the ground, knocking over a pile of items as he did so.

"Oh my God! Adrien!" Marinette ran over to him, "Are you alright?"

Adrien found a grin spreading over his face, "I'm purrfect now that you're here M'lady."

Marinette blushed as Adrien pulled her closer, their lips millimeters apart. Adrien made the motion to lean in and kis-

"I am also here." A familiar voice said from behind him, interrupting the moment

Adrien turned his head to see the source of the voice.

"Kagami?" Adrien exclaimed in shock. He thought her mother was forcing her to go to the orchestra performance at city hall.

"I'm a bit sick of classical music at the moment." Kagami explained.

"What did your mother say?" Adrien asked, noticing Marinette looked a little annoyed for some reason.

Kagami shrugged, "I'll find out later."

Adrien stared wide-eyed at her. This was probably the first time he had ever seen Kagami rebel.

"Oh, we got us a rebel joining us now eh?" Anarka said, jumping into the conversation. She wrapped an arm around Kagami, "Welcome to the Liberty, as its captain I welcome all rebels and rule-breakers on 'er deck."

"Um, thanks, Ma'am." Kagami said awkwardly, pushing the enthusiastic woman off her shoulders.

"Drop the pleasantries now, the Liberty is made to have fun."

Adrien smiled, he was glad Kagami was finally doing what she wanted for once. Adrien moved to get up off the ground but noticed one of the cases that had fallen over from his fall. Adrien gasped, "Is this an original ZX20.4?" Adrien lifted the case to reveal the portable piano, "I love this instrument!"

__________________

Alix hadn't bothered detranforming. She swung into the catacombs, heard that the music had already started playing, and rushed to the chamber where the band was playing after putting her ear mufflers back on.

As she arrived, her head was blasted by the extremely loud music. But it sounded wrong, like it was muffled and warped. 

Nike shrugged and pulled the noise mufflers off her head, tossing them into the crowd. 

Alix felt the music blast into her ears, so loud that she was bound to get ear damage. 

"WOOOO HOOOOOO!" Nike screamed. 

Nike noticed a few people shocked to see a superhero there, but most already knew and screamed alongside her. 

Alix was having the time of her life. 

Unfortunately, the city council had been right. The ceiling of the catacombs didn't even last an hour. 

But after a hit of magic, the audience was alive again and the Zombie Skull Crushers began blasting their music louder than before. 

It was a damn good time. 

Chapter Text

Alix stood in the locker room talking with Mylene about what they got for Miss Bustier's birthday.

"I'm giving her a braid of my hair," Mylene was saying, "Her breathing classes have really helped me out a lot." Alix opted to not comment about how giving somebody a braid of your hair was a little strange. 

"I got her a new waffle iron because she mentioned hers broke last week." Alix told Mylene. Alix noticed Marinette enter the room as she said that.

"I don't remember that, but that's a cool gift." Mylene responded before moving over to talk to Ivan.

Alix took that opportunity to stick the yellow and white polka-dotted box into her locker, before moving to talk to Juleka and Rose about their presents.

"So, what did you guys get her?" Alix asked them. 

"I wrote her a song with my brother and recorded it." Juleka mumbled, most of the words barely comprehensible. Fortunately, Alix has known Juleka since primary school and has learned to understand her.

"I made a scrapbook for her." Rose said with her usual joyful squall, "I got my inspiration from the exercise she has us do at the beginning of every class." 

Alix knew what Rose was talking about, Miss Bustier made 2 students give each other compliments at the beginning of every class. It was never fun. Half the time it was Chloé and somebody she'd offended the previous day. While sometimes it eased tensions, it had also resulted in 4 akumatisations so far. Not exactly Alix's favorite activity. 

"Oh look, Marinette's here! I wonder what she brought. Come on Juleka!" Rose pulled Juleka over to the group now approaching Marinette. Alix didn't follow the group, she instead stood behind Nathaniel who was still holding his gift in his hands, an awesome drawing of Miss Bustier as a superhero.

Alix watched as Marinette showed her gift to everyone. Alix couldn't see the gift itself, but it seemed pretty amazing judging from everybody's reactions. 

"How about you Chloé," Adrien suddenly said, turning to the blond bitch, "What's your present?"

An awkward silence fell over the room. Adrien had asked the question everybody already knew the answer to. Nothing. 

Alix sighed and silently made her way out of the locker room. Alix knew that there would be an argument about Chloé's lack of a present, it happened every year and Alix preferred to stay out of it this year. 

Alix made her way upstairs to the art classroom. She didn't feel like dealing with Miss Mendeleiev today and she had better things to do anyway. She had finally begun working on the piece of art based on the feeling she got looking across Paris on that first day being Nike Rouge. She had made a few rough sketches in her notebook in order to organize her ideas, eventually deciding on a concept she liked. 

The piece would be a bit more complex than most of her other artworks and would require more than a few stencils for the paint. She had begun making the stencils yesterday but needed more time than the couple hours art club provided after school. 

Alix waved to Mr. Monlataing as she entered, the art teacher sighed at her but didn't tell her to go to class. Alix grabbed a pile of construction paper and got to work. The art room had drawers of constuction paper that only Rose really used, for her scrapbooks, so Alix would have more than enough materials for her stencils. Alix felt Tikki pull on her hair from inside her hat, a clear sign that the kwami wasn't happy with Alix skipping class. Alix ignored her. 

Alix worked on the stencils until lunch, making good progress on them. She had gotten done a solid chunk of the stencils she needed and figured she should probably go to her afternoon classes. Nobody raised an eyebrow at Alix's absence that morning when she arrived at lunch, it wasn't the first time she had done this. 

Alix did end up doing a bit more work on the stencils during art class but stopped at the bell to go to gym class. Alix was so glad she didn't skip gym class because they played dodgeball with basketballs. It was awesome, Kim and Ivan both ended up in the nurse's office. Ivan because of Kim and Kim because of Alix. Rose went to the Nurse as well even though she wasn't hit by a basketball, but she did that a lot so Alix didn't question it. 

Finally, during last period, was Miss Bustier's class. Alix went to the lockers to grab her present along with the rest of the class, placing it onto the pile of presents with everyone else's once she got into the classroom. 

"Happy birthday Miss Bustier!" Alix said along with everyone else. 

"Oh, you're all so sweet!" The teacher said, wiping a tear from her eye.

Alix watched the teacher grab a gift from the pile of presents, it was Marinette's gift. 

"Marinette made that one!" Alya announced to the class.

Alix watched as Miss Bustier removed the cover from the box and removed the small makeup bag from inside. Alix didn't use makeup very often and didn't understand the appeal of using it every day, but she knew that Miss Bustier applied some every day so it was the perfect present for her. Marinette always had the best gift, it was a fact that the class had accepted years ago. 

This was why Alix was shocked when Miss Bustier's face reflected confusion rather than joy when she saw the gift. 

Alix watched as Marinette ran up and grabbed the bag from Miss Bustier. From the angle Marinette held it from, Alix could see what was wrong. Somebody had scribbled and drawn on the pink makeup bag with black ink, ruining the carefully made design underneath. Alix knew exactly who did it, causing her to glare at Chloé.

"I know you did this Chloé Bourgeois!" Marinette shouted at the blond. 

"A 99.56% certainty." Max announced.

"So uncool Chloé!" Alya shouted at the blond. 

"Calm down." Miss Bustier said, stepping forward, "We don't want to get upset on my birthday, now do we?" The teacher grabbed the vandalized bag back from Marinette, "Well I think this present is wonderful, It'll be my new cosmetics bag. Then I'll be able to think of both of you every time I use it." 

Alix blinked at the teacher. Alix didn't often agree with the pacifist things the teacher often said, but this was total bullshit. Sure forgiving people was cool and all, but some people just deserve a good punch to the jaw,  and Chloé Bourgeois was one of them. 

"What?" Marinette exclaimed, "You're not going to let her get away with this, are you?" Marinette turned to glare at Chloé. 

"That girl is worse than Hawkmoth!" Alya shouted, coming to Marinette's defense. 

Alix stood up in her seat, "I wouldn't be surprised if she is Hawkmoth with how many akumatizations she's caused!" Alix shouted, followed by a clamor of agreement from her classmates. Alix figured she should look into that, she could be forcing her 'Daddy' or butler or whoever to be Hawkmoth so she can… um… do whatever she wanted to do with the miraculous. Probably take selfies. 

Miss Bustier began to clap, "Students, please, calm down now. The classroom is not a place for insults and defamation." The classroom went silent, mostly to glare at Chloé.  

The teacher turned to Marinette, "Marinette, would you come with me please?" The teacher asked, beginning to walk out the door.

"What?" Marinette shouted in shock before following Miss Bustier. 

"Alya," the teacher called out before she left, "I'm relying on you to make sure things don't get out of hand while I'm gone."

As Marinette and Miss Bustier left the room, it once again exploded with complaints and insults towards Chloé. The heiress had a smug grin on her face the entire time like she was proud of what she did. 

"Just because you never had a happy birthday growing up doesn't mean you need to ruin other people's!" Rose shouted from the back of the room, it was probably the meanest thing Alix had ever heard the girl say.

The room went silent as Rose's comment sunk in and Chloé's smug demeanor cracked, turning to a face of rage. "I've had plenty of happy birthdays! Daddy got me whatever I wanted every year, there hasn't been a single year I haven't gotten what I wanted!"

Alix heard Juleka mumble something from next to Rose, since Alix was a little far away from the girl, all she caught was the word 'mother'.

Alix grimaced. She, Juleka, and Rose had been in primary school with Chloé, and back then she was a bit more honest with her feelings. Mostly through the medium of tantrums, she made the entire class aware of the relationship she had with her mother.

Chloé's face turned red with anger at the mention of her mother and she began to dig around in her pocket, pulling out a permanent marker a second later. The angry blond wordlessly marched over to the pile of presents and grabbed one, the one that Alix recognized as Rose's present, and ripped open the wrapping. Once the scrapbook underneath was revealed, Chloé uncapped the marker and began scribbling all over the heart-covered object. 

Alix watched in shocked silence as Chloé worked her way through the presents. Crushing Juleka's flash drive under her heel, tossing Alix's present out the window, ripping Nathaniel's drawing into pieces, and tossing Mylene's hair braid in the trash, The class was apparently just as shocked as Alix was because nobody made a move to stop her.

Alix was the first one to move out of her seat. Driven by anger, Alix walked up to Chloé, who was holding Ivan's present in her hand. Alix knew Ivan had been working on that for weeks, keeping it a secret from everybody so they didn't accidentally ruin the surprise of whatever was inside. Alix refused to let Chloé break it, the big marshmallow didn't deserve that.

Alix stood right next to Chloé, who turned to the girl.

"What are you going to do Kubdel? Stand there? I-" 

Chloé was cut off when Alix punched the girl in the face, Alix felt Chloé's nose break under her fist and felt a touch of wetness hit her knuckle. Chloé dropped Ivan's present and it fell to the floor, Alix heard a noise that sounded like shattering glass come from the gift as it hit the floor. 

Alix stomped out of the classroom before Chloé, or anybody else, could say anything. Alix pushed past Marinette and Miss Bustier, who were just coming back into the room, and stomped her way down the stairs.

Alix was more furious than she had been in a long time.

_________________

Marinette smiled at her teacher. Miss Bustier was right, Chloé wouldn't change just because she was yelled at or punished. Marinette needed to show her how to be a better person through action. 

"Come on Marinette, let's head back to the classroom." The teacher said, "And we'll show Chloé that being kind has many more advantages than being cruel."

Marinette nodded and began to walk back to the classroom with Miss Bustier. 

Just as Marinette was about to re-enter the classroom, she was pushed aside by a furious looking Alix who was leaving the room. 

Marinette was momentarily confused before she saw the chaos that had unfolded in the classroom. Chloé was on the floor clutching her nose and Ivan was on the floor, kneeling next to his gift with tears in his eyes, Mylene next to him trying to comfort him. Nathaniel made his way to the front of the room and picked up a pile of ripped up paper from the floor, the drawing he had made of Superhero Bustier. Rose was picking up the scrapbook she had made, now covered in black marker, Juleka was next to her, holding the remnants of the flash drive she had brought. 

Marinette was in a state of shock, frozen in the classroom door.

"SHE BROKE MY NOSE!!" Chloe shrieked from where she was lying on the ground, "Quick, I need something to soak up the blood, before it gets on my clothes!" Chloé frantically looked around before locking her eyes onto Miss Bustier's hand, "Oh, that works!"

Marinette's shock quickly turned to blood-boiling anger as Chloé snatched the makeup bag from Miss Bustier's hand and held it up to her bleeding nose. As Marinette watched her already ruined gift become stained with the blood of this selfish bitch, she found her anger boil over to levels Marinette hadn't thought possible. 

Marinette walked over and kicked Chloé in the face as hard as she could, forcing her to drop the small bag on the floor.

Marinette kneeled on the floor and picked up the blood-soaked bag. Marinette felt a tear roll down her cheek as the blood soaked through the bag and pooled onto her hand. 

Marinette couldn't believe this, she and her classmates had worked so hard on their presents and Chloé had ruined all of it. Marinette was sick of it, sick of her and her stuck-up attitude. 

Marinette wanted revenge. 

Marinette wasn't even aware of the akuma that had landed on the bag until the voice rang out inside her head.

Justice Gifters, I am Hawkmoth. Were the gifts you prepared for your favorite teacher ruined? I'll give you the power to take revenge on the girl that ruined them, as well as punish anyone else who failed to bring her a gift.

Marinette was horrified as the voice of Hawkmoth spoke to her, but not for the reason she expected. She was horrified because she didn't even want to fight his offer. She was ready to accept this power and do the supervillain's bidding if it meant she could take her revenge on Chloe. 

I'm giving all of you powers based on your gift that was destroyed. All I ask is for the miraculous of Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir. Can I count on you to deliver justice?"

Marinette heard her voice chorus with her classmates, "You can count on us Hawkmoth."

Marinette grinned as the purple magic spread out of her ruined bag, spreading across her and onto her classmates. 

It was time to make Chloé pay.

___________________

Hawkmoth smiled to himself as he released his newest villain, or villains as it was, onto Paris. The Justice Gifters were so much better than what he had been planning when he sent the akuma out for Miss Dupain-Cheng. Hawkmoth had initially been disheartened when the negative emotions from the girl had faded but found himself nearly jumping for joy when he felt the energy coming from the classroom. The negative emotions were so potent he knew the akuma would be one of the most powerful he had ever created. 

He did have one regret however, a person with powerful anger had run from the room and was too far away to be included in the group akumatization. If he had gotten them in the group it probably would have doubled the total danger of the akumatisation. It was a shame, but Hawkmoth was still very happy with what he did manage to get. 

This would be the day, he was sure of it. 

The day Gabriel would hear his wife's voice once more

_____________________

Alix found herself in the locker room, taking her anger out by punching a locker, Chloé's locker specifically. Alix left fist-shaped dents in the thin metal as the skin on her knuckle began to break and leak blood. She quickly turned her eyes away from the blood on her knuckle before she could really process it was there. Alix didn't do very well with blood. 

She had known Chloé for years and this was probably the angriest Alix had ever been at her. She had ruined Miss Bustier's birthday, and for what? Her stupid pride? It made Alix angrier than Hawkmoth ever could. 

"Alix stop!" Tikki shouted, phasing through her hat, "You're hurting yourself!"

Alix looked at the kwami, who had a concerned look on her face. Alix punched the locker again, leaving another dent. 

"Alix, this won't solve anything!" Tikki shouted, grabbing one of Alix's hands this time.

"Well, it sure feels good right now." Alix responded. Alix was too angry to do nothing right now, she needed to hit something and this locker was working just fine.

"Alix if you don't calm down, you might get akumatised." Tikki pointed out.

Alix thought about that for a second before concluding what to do if that happens.

"Then, I'll tell him to fuck off." Alix told her kwami.

"Alix!"

Alix lowered her arms and turned to her kwami, "What do you want me to do then? If I don't let my anger out on something, I'm going to find myself back upstairs and Chloé will end up in the emergency room."

"Alix, you-" Tikki was cut off when the door of the locker room burst open, forcing Tikki to dive back into Alix's hat. 

"Chloé, are you in here?" The woman who burst in shouted. It was an akumatized villain, she had dark blue hair pulled up into a bun. She was wearing a black spandex suit with a symbol that resembled a pair of dark red lips on the chest area. The color from the lips seemed to flow off the symbol and down the villain's torso and legs, leaving dark red strips down the outfit. She also wore pink sleeves that looked awfully similar to the material that Marinette's gift was made out of. 

"No," Alix responded,  "And if she was she would be on the ground." 

Alix saw the villain smile at that. Alix stiffened as she walked towards her. 

"Alix, I'm so sorry you weren't able to join us," the villain said, Alix recognized the voice as belonging to Marinette now, "But rest assured, we will get revenge on Chloé and everybody who failed to bring Miss Bustier a present."

Wait, we? Alix had a bad feeling about this. Were there multiple villains this time?

"Thank you Marinette, I'll let you know if I see her." Alix wasn't lying exactly, she would probably use Chloé as bait.

That was if Alix didn't manage to punch them into submission first.

Alix smirked as the akumatized Marinette left the locker room. If there were multiple enemies this time, it was the perfect thing to distract Alix from her anger at Chloé. Although, having to protect Chloe from the villains would definingly be difficult to do after what she had done. 

Tikki flew out of Alix's hat, her face even more worried than before, "Alix, be careful with this akuma. I have a bad feeling about this one."

"Whatever you say." Alix agreed, "Tikki, Spots On!"

Alix transformed into Nike Rouge and jumped out the locker room window. 

__________________

The akuma alert distracted Kagami from the sword fight she was having with her mother, breaking her concentration and allowing her mother to land a hit.

"Do not get distracted Kagami, you must learn to focus on the task at hand and ignore any distractions." Her mother told her. 

Kagami opened her eyes, fighting back a sigh. Her mother did not know Kagami had been practicing with closed eyes recently and had begun to think it was a problem with her concentration that was making her do poorly.

Kagami went along with it, keeping her closed eyes a secret. Kagami wanted to surpass her mother, and that meant learning how to fight just as well as her in any situation, even blinded. 

Kagami brought out her phone and checked the akuma alert. It was a group of students from Adrien's school. Looking through the pictures provided, there were 5 enemies and they all looked very different. 

Kagami paused as she recognized one of the villains as Marinette. She didn't know Marinette well, but she was Adrien's girlfriend and that made a convenient excuse.

"A group of students from Adrien's school got akumatized, one of them being his girlfriend Marinette." Kagami leaned her wooden sword onto the bench next to where they were practicing, 'I'm going to go make sure he will be alright." 

Kagami watched her mother sigh and sit down on the bench, "Come back as soon as the villain is gone." 

"Yes, mother." Kagami left her mother and ran out of the park and into the nearest alleyway.

"Dang, Pigtails got akumatized already?" Plagg chuckled as he floated out of her jacket, "I thought she would last at least another month."

"I figured this would happen eventually, Hawkmoth knows her identity and would be gunning for her." Kagami responded to Plagg, "All that matters is that we beat them. Plagg, Claws out!" A second later, Kishi Noir launched herself out of the alleyway and began running across the rooftops towards Françoise Dupont.

She made her way there quite quickly, crouching on the roof to try and read the situation before she jumped in. She saw a vaguely familiar villain in the court with a tablet and pen. He was drawing on it and what he drew seemed to appear in reality. The court had been turned into a throne room, complete with a fancy gold throne, expensive-looking rugs, and elaborate paintings on the wall. Of course, you could still see the school gym court underneath, but the villain was obviously trying his best. Sitting on the throne was a very uncomfortable-looking teacher. 

2 more villains were bursting through the various doors in the school, causing screams to ring out across the building. One of the akumas doing this had braided, multicolored hair and was wearing a fancy suit and sunglasses. Kishi recognized her as one of Marinette's friends that she had met on that boat concert.

As a student ran out from a nearby classroom, the villain's hair braids extended and wrapped around the student. The student screamed as the hair wrapped around his body. The second the hair completely covered the student, the hair's grip tightened so much that Kishi flinched, no way that student was still alive. As the hair retracted, a wrapped present fell from where the student should have been. 

The villain smiled as she picked up the box, before entering another classroom. When she exited, she had 4 more wrapped gifts in her arms. Hands full, the villain used her hair to grab the presents and move them into a growing pile of gift boxes off to the side of the court.

The last of the villains she could see was gleefully skipping around, holding what looked like a scrapbook in her hands. Her outfit looked like it came straight out of a scrapbook, many different colors of cloth covered her body, sewn together seemingly randomly. her torso was covered in paper hearts and sparkles with pictures of that uncomfortable looking teacher with her students pasted seemingly randomly on her outfit. All coming together to make a sort of dress that was just a lot to look at. 

Hold on… Kishi focused on the villain's scrapbook a little harder using her enhanced vision. The 'pictures' on the book were moving. She recognized Adrien, Nino, and Alya. She also saw a bunch of people she didn't recognize. A few were pounding on the barrier separating them from the real world while some were just sitting on the ground. Alya seemed to be recording. 

Kishi looked around for the other 2 villains but didn't see them anywhere. She did, however, see Nike Rouge land on the rooftop a little ways away from her.

Nike walked up to Kishi, "How many have you found so far, partner?"

Kishi held up 3 fingers, "One can absorb people into her scrapbook, one can manipulate her hair and turn people into presents, and the last can draw things into reality."

Nike held up her yoyo, open to a news feed, "Found another."

The sound was muted, but she could see a purple-haired villain with a guitar wearing a generic vampire cloak, except the red was replaced with purple and the cross around the neck was replaced with a flash drive. As Kishi watched the villain strummed her guitar and visible sound waves flew from the guitar and turned anybody they hit into music notes, which were then absorbed into the villain's flash drive. 

"I'm guessing the last one is on 'murder Chloé Bourgeois' duty." Nike said as she hooked her yoyo back onto her belt. 

Kishi wasn't surprised Chloé was the root of the issue, the girl caused an akuma nearly twice a week, and was akumatized herself nearly once every 2 weeks.

"Which one do you think holds the akuma?" Kishi asked her partner. The duo had dealt with a few villain pairs in the past, but this was the first time they had to deal with such a large group of them. It was going to be a tough battle. 

"Based on some information I got from one of their classmates, Alix, it seems that their akumatised powers are based off the gift they were giving their teacher for her birthday, all destroyed by Chloé Bourgeois." Nike explained, "The presents were a scrapbook, a framed drawing, a lock of hair, a makeup bag, some glass object, and a flash drive with a custom-made song."

Kishi did quick match up in her head with the presents and villains, but had one extra. "So the last villain either has the makeup bag or the glass object." She surmised. 

Nike shook her head, "Alix met the leader of this group, the one with the makeup bag. It's a possibility that there's a 6th villain with some kind of glass related powers. He could be able to hide in glass objects or attack through reflections, maybe. I don't actually know what it could be but stay alert just in case."

Kishi thought for a second, "Since the makeup girl is the leader, she likely has the akuma, right?"

"And she's probably going after the Bourgeois girl, so its time for us to play Chloé keep away again." Nike sighed and pulled out her yoyo again, pushing a few buttons, she held it up to her ear.

"Alright, where are you?" Nike asked the person on the other line, who Kishi guessed was Chloé Bourgeois, "Alright, we'll be there soon." Nike hung up. "She's trapped in her closet because our missing villain is in her room."

Kishi nodded and launched herself off the school roof with her rod, heading towards the Bourgeois Hotel, Nike followed close behind her. 

A few minutes later, the superhero duo landed on Chloé's balcony. Looking in the room, Kishi noticed that Chloé had already been caught, the closet door was ripped out and had been thrown halfway into one of the windows and the akumatized Marinette was holding her in the air by her ankle. She didn't look good. Her nose was obviously broken and her face and clothes were covered in blood. The blood was also running down her forehead now that she was being held upside down.

"Shit-" Nike muttered as Kishi got ready to open the balcony door. Kishi looked over to see her partner blink deeply a couple of times, a hand moving up to touch her head for just a moment. Kishi had never really seen her do that before. 

Nike looked over and held up a hand, assumedly reading the concern from Kishi's face, "I'm not the greatest with blood, but I'll be fine. Don't worry."

Kishi nodded as she pulled open the balcony door.

"Maybe Miss Bustier would like it if we donated a fresh set of organs to the nearby hospital." The akumatized Marinette said as she shook Chloé, "I'm sure the cancer patients would love to have some new hair."

"No! Not my hair!" Chloé shouted, grabbing her head.

Kishi walked into the room, Nike close behind her, "Don't worry Chloé, we won't let your organs leave your body." Nike said as she got into a battle stance, "Your hair is up for debate though."

"Nooooo!!!!" Chloé screamed.

The akumatized Marinette sighed as she saw the heroes, "I was hoping to make her suffer a little longer, but I guess I have to take care of you two." Using the hand that wasn't holding the dangling blond, the villain reached into a pocket that Kishi hadn't noticed before, pulling out a small bag. From that small bag, she pulled out a tube of lipstick.

Kishi noticed Nike drop her battle stance, "I know we should be saving Chloé," her partner said, "But for some reason, I find it hard to stop akumas when they're giving Chloé Bourgeois the karma she deserves."

Kishi nodded in agreement. She had never talked to the girl as Kagami, but she had heard enough about the girl from Adrien and saw enough of her as Kishi to have built a solid hatred of the girl. Although watching her hang upside down with a bloody nose was a bit much.

As Kishi watched, the akumatized Marinette applied lipstick to her lips and kissed Chloé on her shin. The blond immediately stopped struggling and was set down by Marinette, laying on the ground with a blank expression. 

"Now Chloé, go find the nearest hospital and donate your hair." the villain ordered, "And get your nose checked out while you're there."

Kishi watched as Chloé got up and walked off wordlessly, heading out the door. 

"Now I can deal with you too." The villain said, turning to the heroes. Kishi noticed Nike return to her battle stance. "I am Bloody Kiss, leader of the Justice Gifters.  Unfortunately, in order to continue the party for our teacher, we need to give Hawkmoth a gift first. Shatterer, if you would."

Who's Shatterer? Kishi briefly thought before remembering Nike's warning of a glass related villain.

Kishi suddenly felt something slam into her side, sending her flying into the wall. Quickly jumping back to her feet, Kishi looked for what hit her. What she saw wasn't much. Close to where she had been standing, there was what looked like a crack in the air. The crack seemed to vaguely resemble the shape of a fist with an arm attached to it. As Kishi watched, the cracks seemed to recede, soon vanishing so that the villain was completely invisible once again. 

At least he's not inside reflections. He seemed to be invisible unless his glass body received cracks. Those cracks also seemed to heal quickly. This guy wouldn't be easy to deal with, but a pseudo invisible enemy would be easier than fighting a reflection.

Kishi extended her rod towards the spot where she had last seen the glass villain, she didn't hit anything, meaning they had moved. Retracting her rod, Kishi closed her eyes. Vision wouldn't help her against this one. 

Kishi focused on her other senses, mostly her hearing. She heard Nike clashing with Bloody Kiss, making creative comments about what type of presents she thought Hawkmoth deserved. Kishi tuned them out and focused on trying to find Shatterer. She heard footsteps, quieter than what a large glass man should make but still audible to her enhanced hearing. A second later, Kishi also heard a rush of air close to her. Dodging backward, Kishi managed to avoid Shatterer's attack. Kishi extended her rod into the area she guessed Shatterer's head would bebe, dropping her rod once it slammed into the invisible enemy. 

Grabbing the glass man's arm, Kishi flipped the villain over her shoulder, slamming him into the ground. 

Opening her eyes, Kishi saw that the villain's body now had so many cracks in his body that Kishi could see his frame. Kishi recognized him as one of Adrien's friends, the large boy that had been playing the drums. His name was Ivan if Kishi remembered correctly. 

Kishi noticed the cracks were already beginning to heal, so she decided to do something about it. Since Bloody Kiss introduced herself as the leader, she probably had the object. If Kishi could take Shatterer out of the fight, the 2 heroes could team up on Bloody Kiss and hopefully end this whole akumatisation quickly. 

Kishi grabbed the glass villain's foot and began dragging him to the balcony. He didn't put up much of a fight, she figured the cracks somehow hindered his movements. Once Kishi brought the villain to the balcony, she once again tossed the him over her shoulder. This time, instead of hitting the ground, Shatterer went flying off the edge and down to the street below.

Kishi knew that the villain would probably heal and be back, so she quickly ran to help her partner with Bloody Kiss. Nike was engaging in hand-to-hand combat with her, Yoyo still attached to her belt. It was a strange sight, Bloody Kiss kept trying to kiss Nike and Nike kept trying to punch her in the jaw. Every so often Nike would make a grab for Bloody Kiss's makeup bag, not to any avail. 

Kishi picked up her staff, extended it, and swung it at Bloody Kiss's head. The villain tilted her head to dodge the attack, then reached up to grab the rod. Kishi grabbed the wrist of the villain's arm that held her rod and pulled to knock her off balance.

With Bloody Lips distracted with Kishi and slightly off balance, Nike grabbed her other wrist. With both of the villain's hands held, Nike took the opportunity to grab her yoyo and wrap the villain up in the string.

She tried to escape, but Nike had her wrapped up well, hands and feet, so all she could really do was wiggle. Kishi grabbed her rod from Bloody Kiss's hand and watched as Nike reached inside the villain's pocket and grabbed her red makeup bag. 

"Well, this akumatisation went by fast." Nike said, tossing the bag between her hands, "We didn't even have to deal with most of the villains." 

Good thing too, Kishi thought to herself. The other 4 villains would definitely be a massive pain to deal with. 

"Wait!" Bloody Lips called out, "If you purify our akuma now, you'll never get to see bald-Chloé!"

Kishi raised an eyebrow at that comment. Kishi wasn't about to let a group of villains continue to terrorize Paris just to see Chloé Bourgeois bald, and Nike wasn't going to either. 

At least that was what Kishi thought. She was proven wrong when the yoyo string fell off Bloody Kiss and returned to Nike's hand. 

"You're free to go ma'am, but I am keeping this," Nike stuck the makeup bag into her pocket, "And I'm tearing it as soon as I see Chloé's bald head."

Kishi stared at her partner with an incredulous look as the villains ran away, jumping off the balcony. Was she serious? Nike would let a villain continue to terrorize civilians just to see one girl she didn't like in an embarrassing situation? Really?

Nike sighed as she noticed Kishi's stare. 

"Ok, listen. I go to the same school as that girl, and she is just the worst. Seeing this will be really therapeutic for me." Nike said, apparently trying to defend her actions.

Unfortunately, this only made her actions here worse. She was letting her friends and classmates continue to suffer under the villains, just so she could see Chloé bald. Kishi continued to glare at Nike.

"Literally everybody in my school would have done the same! That girl is the worst!" Nike continued.

Kishi glared at Nike for a second more before sighing. The situation wasn't worth getting angry over. Well, it was worth getting angry over, but Kishi wasn't about to. Besides, Nike had the akumatized object, so she could just break it once they took some pictures of Chloé. 

"Alright partner, let's go back to the school. I want front row seats for the show." Nike said with a grin as she ran out to the balcony. 

Kishi smiled as she followed her. It always made Kishi smile when she saw how much fun Nike had with akumas.

Kishi leaped off the balcony, extending her rod to propel her off the building as she did so, following Nike back to Françoise Dupont.  

_________________

Nike landed on top of the school roof, Kishi landed close behind her and looked down on the court. Not much had changed from the last time, the only differences being the large pile of presents near that had been gathered and the many seats holding very scared-looking students. The number of students was probably about a fifth of the student population, while the number of presents was probably double that. She had no doubt those numbers were correlated. Akumatized Mylene was busy arranging a pile of flowers, akumatized Rose was writing something in her scrapbook and Evillustrator was drawing an ice sculpture of Miss Bustier. Miss Bustier herself looked just as uncomfortable as the last time Alix had seen her.

Nike turned to her partner, "Come on, let's go get some better seats." Nike leaped off the roof before Kishi could respond, landing in front of the first row of seats. Conveniently, there were 2 seats open. Nike and Kishi sat down just in time for the akumatized Juleka to walk in along with Bloody Lips, they had apparently met up on the way back here. Nike assumed Shatterer was also there, if he wasn't straight-up dead from Kishi having chucked him off the balcony. Nike noticed the villain's eyeing them, but they didn't make any moves to attack the heroes. 

Nike watched as the akumatized Juleka removed her flash drive from where it was hanging around her neck and placed it to the side of the present pile, right next to Nathaniel's drawing of Miss Bustier as a superhero, now in one piece. She also noticed Bloody Kiss pull the akumatized Rose aside to talk in a hushed whisper that Alix couldn't quite make out, even with her enhanced hearing. Evillustrator had finished his ice sculpture and was now creating a surround sound speaker system covering the court. 

A few minutes later, Evillustrator drew 6 smaller thrones, 3 on either side of Miss Bustier. Nike watched as the 5 visible villains went and sat on these thrones, the last throne seemed to strain under an invisible weight at the same time. 

Bloody Kiss, who was seated directly to the left of Miss Bustier, leaned over and whispered something to the teacher.  Immediately after, the teacher awkwardly stood up in front of her throne.

"Um, welcome everybody to the party put together for me by the… uh… Justice Gifters." Miss Bustier said, sounding incredibly uncomfortable, "While I would prefer a party with less malicious magic, I'm glad my students went through the trouble to set this up." Miss Bustier had an incredibly forced smile on. Nike did notice her pleading looks at the 2 heroes, so she gave the teacher a thumbs up, which seemed to calm her down a little. "Um.. without further delay, let's get to the presents."

All the visible villains smiled as she said that, the akumatized Mylene used her extending hair to grab a present out of the pile and bring it to Miss Bustier, this one had rainbow wrapping paper surrounding it.

"Made from, Marc Anciel." Miss Bustier's forced smile somehow became more forced as she read the label, obviously not liking the idea that a student was used to make this present. 

Opening the rainbow wrapped gift, Miss Bustier pulled out a book, " The Adventures of Captain Cowgirl, oh what a fun book!"

As the time went by, Miss Bustier opened more gifts until the pile was about half gone. The gifts were all quite strange and obviously tailored to the interests and hobbies of the person used as material. The names that Alix recognized had gifts that fit this idea. Aurora's gift was an umbrella, Théo Barbot's gift was a statuette of Miss Bustier, and Principal Damocles's gift was a plush of Miss Bustier in an owl costume. This resulted in a bunch of strange gifts, such as a set of dominos with various images of Miss Bustier on them, a sexy cat costume, and a spelunking kit. 

Just as Miss Bustier was setting down the aforementioned spelunking kit, the present Nike had been waiting for arrived.

The present opening stopped as Miss Bustier's eyes widened at the figure walking in the front doors of the school. Nike started laughing as Chloé walked in the door. Her walk was robotic and her face was blank, and there was a bandage on her nose. And her hair was buzzcut. 

Nike nearly fell out of her chair laughing. Chloé Bourgeois, the girl who had been constantly saying how much better her hair was than everybody's, was now basically bald. Nike got out of her seat and pulled up the camera on her yoyo. She began to take pictures from every angle she could think of. 

Nike couldn't have asked for anything better to soothe her anger from earlier.

"Oh, Chloé." Nike heard Miss Bustier say with pity. 

Nike let her laughter die out before reaching into her pocket and grabbing the makeup bag with the akuma in it, intending to rip it in half now that she had seen what she wanted.

"Now!" Alix heard Bloody Lips yell.

Nike instinctually jumped away from where she was standing. It was a good thing she did too because a second later akumatized Mylene's hair was occupying the area where she had been standing. 

"Keep her busy, Entangler!" Bloody Kiss shouted as she jumped off her chair and started to run at Nike. 

Alix noticed that only half of Entangler's hair was still after her, while the other half was now wrapping around Chloé in order to turn her into a present, which still didn't make it easier to dodge. Nike kept dodging backward to avoid the hair as Bloody Kiss ran towards her. 

Nike looked over to see that Evillustrator was shooting missiles at Kishi while akumatized Juleka blasted music at her. Kishi dodged backward as a crater appeared where her feet were, dodging under a few missiles as she did so. She didn't look especially happy.

Nike leaped up to the second floor to try and get a second of rest from Entangler's hair. Alix positioned her hands to rip the makeup bag in 2 but was interrupted when Bloody Kiss leaped up to the second floor and made a grab for the bag. Nike had to let go of the bag with one hand to block a punch aimed at her head by Bloody Kiss, nearly dropping the bag as she did so. 

"Shit." Alix cursed as she flipped backward to put space between her and Bloody Kiss. How was she supposed to destroy this thing if she was being constantly hounded by the villains?

Suddenly, Nike remembered what her partner's power was. 

"Kishi!" Nike shouted to her partner.

Kishi dodged another hit from Shatterer before looking up at her. Nike waved the bag at her and Kishi nodded. Nile leaped off of the second floor while sending the bag flying towards her partner. 

"Scrapper!" Bloody Kiss called out.

Nike watched in horror as akumatized Rose chucked her scrapbook into the path of the makeup bag. 

"Cataclysm!" Kishi called out, reaching out to grab the bag as it flew towards her. Unfortunately, the scrapbook hit the bag just before Kishi could grab it. The bag vanished as it hit the scrapbook and an image of it appeared inside. A second later, Kishi's hand collided with the scrapbook. As the scrapbook disintegrated, the various students that had been stuck inside spilled out, as did the makeup bag. 

Nike hit the floor a second later, and immediately made a dash towards the bag, which had fallen on the floor. But, as Nike ran, the bag was picked up by an invisible force, Shatterer obviously. As the glass villain lifted the object, Kishi grabbed at it but had to retreat due to Evillustrator increasing his barrage of missiles. Nike was also distracted as Entangled continued her assault.

Nike gritted her teeth in frustration as Shatterer tossed the bag up to Bloody Kiss, who was still on the second floor. As Bloody Kiss caught the bag, her laugh echoed across the school.

"Now that I have this back," Bloody Lips shouted as Nike continued to dodge Entangler's hair, "I'm going to destroy you, and gift your miraculous to Hawkmoth!"

A smile materialized on Nike's face, this fight was getting good. Alix could feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins, and it felt amazing.

Also, Alix had the Bald Chloé pictures, so it was turning out to be quite a good day.

Her only complaint was that Entangler was getting awfully annoying, how was she supposed to have fun fighting somebody as skilled as Bloody Kiss or with a cool gimmick like Shatterer when she was constantly being chased by a mass of hair trying to presentify her?

As Nike tried to think of a way to get Entangler off her back as she dodged past Adrien, Alya, and Rose.

Wait, Rose?" 

Alix took a second look, confirming what she had seen. Rose was now deakumatized. But why? Nike hadn't captured the akuma yet

The obvious answer was that her present was destroyed. If you destroy the same present that Chloé had previously destroyed, they lose their akumatisation. It was probably how Hawkmoth managed to akumatize 6 people with one butterfly. More power for a greater weakness. 

Or maybe it wasn't that at all. Alix didn't really know how the moth miraculous specifically worked. What she did know was how to take villains out of the fight.

Nike looked towards the pile of presents, sitting next to it was Juleka's flash drive and Nathaniel's drawing. 

The problem was that Alix couldn't get close to them with Entangler constantly attacking her, although she now had a plan for that.

"One of you!" Nike shouted at the group of people who had rematerialized when Scraper was defeated, "Stop her!" Nike pointed at Entangler. 

Immediately, Adrien lept into action. He leaped behind the villain and put his hands over her eyes. Alix respected his action, especially since she thought he was the one in the group least likely to attack an villain. 

"Guess who?" He said as Entangler's hair went wild, she apparently couldn't control the magic hair well when she couldn't see it. 

Nike breathed a sigh of relief and called her "Lucky Charm!" Alix shouted, causing a polka-dotted Japanese katana to fall into her hand.

Cool, Nike had always wanted to use a katana

Nike made a sprint towards the table holding the gifts but was stopped when Bloody Kiss blocked her path. 

Nike dodged a punch thrown by the villain, followed by a kiss. Nike made a slash at the her with the sword, causing her to remember that she had absolutely no sword skills. Bloody Kiss caught her sword, pulling it towards herself. This motion also pulled Nike towards the villain, forcing Alix to headbutt Bloody Lips to prevent getting kissed. 

Bloody Kiss let go of the sword and Alix remembered that you don't have to use a sword to fight with a sword. Taking advantage of the flinch caused by her headbutt, Nike jammed the sword into the ground. She then used the sword in a similar way that Kangaroos use their tails and kicked the villain in the face with both her feet.

This further stunned the her, and Nike used the opportunity to kick Bloody Lips in the side, sending her flying into Entangler, who was now free from Adrien after turning him into a gift box. With nothing in her way now, Nike smashed Juleka's flash drive and Nathaniel's drawing with the butt end of the katana and watched from the corner of her eye as the akumatizations fell away from them both. 

From the other corner of her eyes, Nike noticed Entangler's hair coming for her once again.

Dodging away, Nike took the opportunity to toss the sword to Kishi. Alix figured her partner could use it better than she could. 

Unfortunately, the sword didn't make it to Kishi, instead, it hit Shatterer judging by how it stopped and left a massive crack in midair, and then fell onto the ground.

"Entangler, focus on Kishi Noir with Shatterer!" Bloody Kiss ordered, "I can take care of Nike Rouge on my own."

"Can you though?" Nike asked, giving the villain a smug smile and doing the 'come at me' gesture with her hand. Bloody Kiss closed the distance between them and threw a kick at Nike, which she caught. With her opponent's leg in her hands, Nike twisted her body to throw the villain over her shoulder, slamming her into the ground. 

"What are you doing on the floor? I thought you said you could take me." Nike taunted.

Bloody Kiss jumped up and threw a punch towards the hero's nose. Catching this attack, Nike grabbed the villain's head with her other hand and raised her knee, then pulled the villain's face down to smash into her knee. Bloody Kiss stumbled back from this attack, giving Nike another opportunity to attack. Nike sent a punch towards the villain's nose, only to have her hand caught. Nike attempted to use her other hand to land a hit, but that was caught as well. Bloody Kiss twisted her body to the side and slammed into Alix with her shoulder, sending the superhero into the pile of presents. 

Nike barely felt her impact into the pile due to the adrenalin. Noticing that Bloody Kiss was coming in for a kiss, Nike picked up one of the boxes by her hand and slammed it into the villain's face. Alix tried not to think about how the box was a student that she probably knew.

At that moment, Nike noticed Kishi run by her. Her partner now had the sword in her hand and was running full speed towards Entangler. Nike watched as Kishi got close to Entangler, nimbly dodging the hair that was trying to capture her. When Kishi was close enough, she swung her sword so fast that Nike could barely see it. 

A second later, the hair that had been flying through the air fell limp. Entangler was standing with a new shiny bald head, her hair braids all having fallen to the ground. She was only there for a second through, as the akumatisation fell away and Mylene was left in her place, full head of hair. 

Nike had her attention pulled back into her own fight as Bloody Lips ripped the box from her face and hit Alix in the stomach. Nike in turn kicked her in the stomach, causing the villain to stumble backward. 

Fortunately, removing Entangler from the fight did not return the students to their human form. This was fortunate because some of the presents had been opened and Alix really didn't want to see all that. 

Nike's mind ran at mach speed due to the adrenalin. While she would love to continue this battle because it was fun, she needed to end it and restore all the people who have been absorbed or presentified. She was a hero after all. How could she end this fight without having Kishi simply murder the villains? She had no idea where Ivan's present was and Bloody Kiss was a bit too much for Nike to be able to defeat by herself, keeping the villain busy was about the best she could do and she couldn't do that forever. Alix looked at Kishi as she blocked another attack from Bloody Kiss. Her partner currently had her eyes closed while fighting Shatterer, much like she did in the hotel room.

Then it struck her, both Bloody Kiss's kick to the head and the realization that they didn't need to take out Shatterer to defeat this akuma. All they needed to do was take out Bloody Kiss, and if they could destroy her lip gloss then she would probably disappear like the rest of the villains. 

Recovering from the kick to the head, Nike caught the Bloody Kiss's next punch before sweeping her legs out from under her. Nike grabbed a ribbon from a nearby present before sitting on Bloody Kiss's back, She grabbed the villain's hair to pull back her head and violently rubbed the ribbon over her lips. Once the ribbon was sufficiently dyed with blood red lipstick, Nike used her grip to slam the villain's head into the ground multiple times before leaping off and dashing towards Kishi and Shatterer.

"Kishi! Switch!" Nike yelled. When Kishi looked over, Nike mimed the action of applying lipstick before leaping up and slamming her shoulder into Shatterer's head. She could see his form due to how many cuts Kishi had left in the big glass villain's form. 

As Nike fought Shatterer, the scratches on his body began to disappear, making it very hard for Nike to fight him. From the corner of her eye, Nike saw that Bloody Kiss had gotten up and grabbed the lipstick from her bag to reapply it, as she needed lipstick on her lips for her power to work, just as Alix guessed. Just as she raised the tube to apply it to her lips, Kishi swung. The tube of lipstick was cut in half, and the akumatisation fell away from Marinette. A second later, Kishi also slashed the makeup bag that was still in Marinette's hand. 

The akuma fluttered from the bag and the akumatisation fell away from Ivan as well. Nike removed her yoyo from her belt and opened the purifying pocket of the yoyo.

"That's it for you little akuma." Nike Rouge said as she swung the yoyo, "Time to de-evilize!" Nike caught the akuma, purifying it within her yoyo, then letting it go, "Stay out of trouble little guy."

Nike grabbed the katana back from Kishi and tossed it into the air, "Miraculous Nike Rouge!" She called out, causing the magical ladybugs to flow across the school, restoring the students and removing the decorations that Evillustrator had drawn. Alix also took this opportunity to fix the presents that Chloé had ruined. Alix also, reluctantly, restored Chloé's hair and fixed her nose. 

Nike wordlessly held her hand out to Kishi, who slapped it with her own. 

"Good job partner." Nike said.

"Same to you." Kishi responded with a smile as her ring beeped twice, "Goodbye."

"Later." Nike responded as her partner vaulted off. 

Nike looked around, everybody had been returned to their classrooms and the court was empty. Nike took that opportunity to sneak back into the locker room to detransform. But before she did that, Alix got out her yoyo and saved the pictures on her phone, as well as backing them up externally.

Detransforming, Alix fed Tikki and went back upstairs to Miss Bustier's room.

"Ah Alix, there you are." Miss Bustier said as she walked in the door, "Now that everyone's here we can continue opening the gifts."

"Miss Bustier, after what happened, are you really going to let Chloé go without punishment, right?" Alya said as Alix moved to her seat, smirking at Chloé as she walked by the girl. There was no way Chloé could talk her way out of this one, everyone had been a witness to her crime. 

Miss Bustier sighed, "I will settle the matter in private later, and I will see to it that Chloé is punished. However-"

"Punished for what?" Chloé interrupted with a smug tone, "There are no presents broken, there's nothing for me to be punished for." 

"Chloé, nobody said anything about broken presents.." Marinette pointed out.

Chloé looked momentarily panicked, "Shut up Dupain-Cheng, there's still nothing for me to be punished for."

Alix clenched her fist, knowing what would happen next. Chloé would use this logic to evade punishment, also using her father's position as mayor to threaten the school. It pissed Alix off to no end.

However, as Alix was getting angry, she remembered something. She still had those pictures of Bald Chloé.

"Oh hey Chloé, check out these cool pictures that Nike Rouge just sent me." Alix held out her phone to Chloé after getting up the pictures she had taken earlier, "Don't you think those celebrity gossip magazines would love this?"

"What are you going on about Kubd-" As Chloé's eyes saw the picture on the phone, her face went white as a ghost, or as white as it could go with all the makeup she wore.

"That's not real right?" Chloé said hopefully, "It's just photoshopped, right?" 

Alix heard Miss Bustier sigh, "Unfortunately, those are real." The teacher confirmed, much to Alix's joy, "As an akuma, Marinette forced you to do that to yourself."

"Wait, what did I do?" Marinette asked, 'I can't see the picture."

Marinette leaned forward to try and see the picture, causing Chloé to practically pounce onto Alix's phone, slamming it to the desk. 

"I'll take whatever punishment I'm given," Chloé said to Alix in a whisper. "Just never show those pictures to anybody, ever."

"Fine," Alix whispered back, "I won't show anybody, for now."

Alix closed the photo and put her phone away, content with the results of her blackmail. 

"Alright then," Miss Bustier said, "Due to the interruption that Hawkmoth caused, I only have time to open up one present before school ends." Multiple students raised their hands, most likely to insist that she open theirs. Miss Bustier waved at them to put their hands down, "I have already decided which one to open, I will open the rest tomorrow." 

Alix smiled as Miss Bustier picked up Ivan's gift. The big guy had worked hard on his gift and it had been broken, and then restored. Alix thought it was right that his was the first gift opened, opened without incident at least.

As Miss Bustier opened the black wrapping, a frame of some kind was revealed from underneath. As the teacher removed the gift from the wrapping, Alix heard her gasp, "Ivan, this is beautiful." As the item was fully removed from the wrapping, Miss Bustier turned the item around. Alix couldn't help but gasp at what her eyes showed her, it wasn't what she expected at all.

The item was a framed piece of glass art. It was a stained glass recreation of the class photo in the park. Ivan seemed to have captured every detail of the picture, from their smiles to the designs on their shoes. Mylene also seemed a bit more detailed than the rest of them, but that wasn't too surprising. Also, Miss Bustier had been added into the picture, standing behind Alix.

"My uncle is a famous stained glass window maker," Ivan said in a shy voice, "He helped me make this and helped me every step of the way." 

"Hold on!" Chloe burst out, standing up in her chair, "I wasn't in this picture, why am I on this?"

Alix reexamined the glass picture, Chloé had in fact been added to the picture. The bench had been slightly extended so Chloé was sitting in between Max and Alix, with Sabrina standing behind her between Alya and Kim. 

"Well, it's a class picture and we were missing 2 members of our class, also I was already adding Miss Bustier in so I figured I probably should." Ivan explained, "Should I not have?"

"Well… I mean… I…" Chloé stammered, seeming unsure what to say, "It's fine, not like I care."

Alix smiled as she noticed the small smile on the blond's face. Alix sometimes forgot that Chloé wasn't a complete heartless bitch, just a mostly heartless bitch. Just enough of a soft core to her frozen heart for somebody to wiggle in by actually caring about her, however rare seeing how much she pushes people away. 

Alix smiled from her seat as she watched her classmates each get up from their seats to get a closer look at the glass artwork. Everybody commenting on how good various details of their clothing or face look, with Alya snapping pictures of the whole event. The only one who doesn't say anything is Juleka, who instead goes over and gives Ivan a hug. That made Alix smile since Juleka rarely gave hugs to anyone, so this must have meant a lot to her. Alix also noticed Alya snapping a pic of the moment, she had to get Alya to send her that later.

By the time class ended, it seemed everyone was in a good mood, even with Max ranting off the small percentage of the chance of any other present topping Ivan's. 

Alix found herself in the art room after school, hoping to channel this feeling of friendship or whatever to an art piece. Alix set up her workspace, grabbing her paint cans and a canvas before putting on her gas mask. She decided to wing the drawing. While she could work on the art price she had been making stencils for all day, she didn't feel that the feeling she had right now was right for that. 

As Alix shook her paint cans, she decided what she would make. She would make a freehand painting of the class surrounding Ivan's glass, all admiring it. Ivan would be the one holding the object, so Alix grabbed a can of black paint to make her first spray on the blank canvas. 

____________________

Kagami had little motivation to join D'Argencourt-Sensei for fencing practice that day. The man refused to allow her to practice with her eyes closed, and that was the only way she wanted to train at the moment. 

About halfway through the practice, Kagami found an excuse to leave and snuck up to the art room. She didn't know the art teacher, but he never complained or kicked her out when she sat in his room so Kagami liked the man. Kagami enjoyed coming to the art room to draw, it was her secret hobby that her mother didn't approve of. Kagami loved drawing, capturing the action or shape of a person in a single instant, drawn with your own hand. It was something beautiful to Kagami.

Normally when Kagami snuck up to the art room there wasn't anybody else there, other than the teacher, since fencing practice started later and ran longer than most clubs at the school. But today, there was another student in the room. It was a short girl wearing a dark long-sleeved shirt with green snakes coiling around her arms under a dark grey tank top, black jean shorts, and multicolored shoes. Her hair was a pinkish-red color and she was wearing a gas mask since she was spray painting onto a large canvas that covered one of the walls. 

Kagami had never seen somebody do this before, sure she knew about spray painting but usually only saw it as graffiti in more run down areas of a city. Kagami had always assumed that it was one of the more messy versions of paint, harder to control and get the paint where you want to go. However, the girl in front of her shattered this assumption. Her sprays of paint all seemed intentional and very well controlled. She seemed to be painting a crowd of people, all looking at something that hadn't been painted yet. 

Remembering what she had come here for, to draw, Kagami removed her drawing notebook from her bag and opened it to a blank page. Strangely enough, Kagami found herself unable to draw anything except for the girl in front of her. Kagami drew her in a few poses, all looking at the girl's back. One of the girl reaching up to spray a higher spot, another of the girl leaning in close to her canvas to spray some details, and another of the girl making wide strokes across her canvas.

Kagami did worry that the girl would get angry that she was being drawn without her permission, but Kagami was having so much fun drawing her that she didn't think about it too much. 

Kagami especially had a lot of fun drawing the girl's clothing. Most clothing of the people Kagami drew were either servants or just random people, neither option ever had very interesting clothes. Drawing the snakes on the girl's sleeves as she moved her arms made her think about the 3d of the drawing and how the snakes would wrap about the arm and how to make that look realistic. It was quite fun.

As Kagami was drawing the girl shaking a paint can, the girl took off her gas mask and walked over to a cabinet that was near where Kagami was sitting. The girl tossed one of her cans into the trash bin as she walked over, so Kagami figured one of her cans must have run out. Kagami watched the girl rummage through the cabinet full of paint cans, pulling out a can with a yellowish label.

The girl didn't even seem to notice Kagami as she walked back over to her canvas, putting her gas mask back on and shaking her new can. Kagami watched as the girl continued the figure she had been working on before she got the new can, using the can on what seemed to be the hair of the figure. As the girl continued to paint, and Kagami continued to draw her, the figure she was painting became more defined. 

Was that Adrien? Kagami thought as she looked a little harder at the figure. It was definitely the right body type and hair color, the color of the shirt also matched the one Adrien often wore. 

Now that Kagami looked a little harder at the painting the girl was making, she saw a couple more figures she recognized. She recognized Ivan, Marinette, Nino, and a few more of Adrien's friends from that boat concert whose names she couldn't remember. 

Was this girl a friend of Adrien's?

And if so, could he introduce her?

Kagami couldn't exactly place what drew her to the girl. It could be her rebel aesthetic since Kagami had been thinking about rebellion a lot more recently, probably due to Plagg's influence. It could be her art skill that Kagami sort of wanted to learn more about. Maybe it was just because Kagami thought the girl's pink hair was awesome. Maybe all of the above. 

All Kagami knew was that she wanted to get to know this girl some more. 

As Kagami was thinking, her watch began to buzz, indicating the end of Fencing practice and time for her to leave. Kagami closed her notebook and placed it back in her bag. As Kagami picked up her bag to leave, she took one last look at the girl's painting. She seemed to have finished the base of the painting and had begun working on the details, starting with Ivan. Kagami silently wished the girl luck in making her painting a success before leaving the room. 

Making sure D'Argencourt-Sensei wasn't on the court so she could sneak out to the car without him knowing she hadn't actually left before.

"Tatsu, what's my schedule for this evening?" Kagami asked the smartcar.

"Master Tomoe has signed you up for a new class on the Russian language, which will be one hour every other day after fencing." The car responded in its robotic tone, "Then, you will join Master Tomoe for a small business dinner. Then the day will end."

Kagami sighed, her mother hadn't even asked her up before signing her up for a new language class. This would be Kagami's fifth language after Japanese, Chinese, English,  and French. She already wasn't the best English speaker, and throwing another language into her mind probably wouldn't help.

Kagami sighed, she just wanted time to be herself, but she never got any.

Chapter Text

Alix had no idea how the animals managed to escape from the zoo. There wasn't an akuma around and last Nike had heard there were no animal-based supervillains in Europe, the last one, Pet Shop, had been taken down by a Scandinavian hero last month. Alix figured somebody at the zoo was probably going to get fired.

Nike figured she should probably leave the more calm animals to animal control and should take care of the more dangerous animals herself. Nike had already taken care of the hippos and lions, carjacking the hippos' jaws open and putting muzzles on the lions and then tying them up and locking them in cars. The gorillas she simply wrestled into submission and she raided a store for meat to lure the Panthers into a van.

Also, Kishi hadn't shown up, so she had done this all on her own. It had been quite fun, but the hippos had been quite annoying and having somebody to help her definitely would have been great.

After calling the zoo to tell them where all their animals were located, Alix detransformed and made her way to the movie theater. Kim and Max had managed to get their hands on enough tickets for everybody in the class to see Mechamonkey vs Cybersharks 3 and Alix wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to see a free movie. 

Alix found Max waiting outside the movie theater for her, "You're the last one to arrive, even Marinette beat you here." He said as he held out a ticket for her.

"Uug, how embarrassing." Alix said as she grabbed the ticket.

"I've noticed you've been disappearing without explanation 230% more often recently and you are 40% later to get-togethers," Max pushed his glasses up his nose, "Is there a reason for this?" 

"I'm just really busy recently," Alix gave a purposefully vague answer, she couldn't exactly tell him that she had gotten the ladybug miraculous.

"I see." 

Alix entered the movie theatre and grabbed a bag of popcorn and a soda before heading to the auditorium showing the movie. She sat next to Rose and behind Nino, mainly so she could kick his seat if he and Alya got too lovey-dovey during the movie. Adrien didn't manage to show up, so Marinette sat between Alya and Max. 

As soon as the studio logo appeared on-screen to signify that the movie was starting, some people in the front rows started to get out of their seats and run to the back of the theater room. Also, whatever made the people leave their seats began to move up the rows quite quickly.

What was happening?

As soon as Alix thought that, Marinette leaped up to stand on her seat and Alix felt her shoes become wet. Looking down, Alix saw that the theatre was beginning to flood, the water was rising so fast that It was halfway up Alix's seat only seconds after she noticed it. A second after that the doors leading to the hallway burst open, letting in more water.

"Okay, who left the faucet running?" Alya asked sarcastically as the water level continued to rise. Alix sent the blogger a quick glare. 

"The stairs!" Marinette shouted, and pointed to the emergency stairs, "Quick!"

Everyone made a dash for the stairs, or swam more accurately as the water was about that level now. 

At least for Alix it was. 

Alix was one of the last ones to make it to the roof because, along with Alya and Marinette, she was helping the people who were having a harder time getting up the stairs. Alix watched the stairwell fill with water seconds after she made it up. 

Looking around, it wasn't just the theatre that was flooded, the entire city had been. The water level was higher than most of the buildings in Paris, many buildings only had their vent pipes above water. Alix noticed a few people on the roofs around them, but not nearly as many as there should be, worryingly few. This was obviously the work of an akumatized villain , so Alix began searching for a way to escape and transform. 

"My circuits are sensitive to water." Markov said in a worried tone.

A second later, Kim dove off the rooftop and into the water, fully clothed. While it wasn't the dumbest thing Kim had ever done, jumping into a body of water obviously created by a super powered villain was definitely high up on that list. 

"Come on guys," Kim yelled back at the group still on the rooftop, "I can teach you to swim in 2 seconds flat Markov. You just put your arms like this and you push your legs, it's kind of like being a frog." Alix noticed Max was watching Kim with an amused smirk, "In fact, it helps to think as a frog too."

A second later, the consequence of diving into akuma-water hit Kim in the form of a pink-skinned mermaid in a black swimsuit leaping out of the water and landing on Kim, pulling the boy under the water. 

"KIM!" Max shouted.

As Alya and Marinette ran to the side of the rooftop to look for Kim, Alix thought up a plan to get away. Looking around the flooded streets, Alix found what she was looking for. There was a bus floating just underneath the surface of the water just a little ways away, she could use that to trick her friends. 

Alix began tapping on her hat to get Tikki's attention. She wasn't just tapping randomly though, Alix was using the Morse code that she had learned last year to mess with Chloé and Sabrina, who often used Morse code to secretly talk in class. While the word she knew best was wrinkle, because Chloe fell for it way too many times, she could still make other words with a bit of thought. 

B-U-S W-I-N-D-O-W. Alix tapped to Tikki.

Then, Alix began her plan. 

She took off her hat and set it on the ground so that Tikki could get to the bus by phasing through the building. Alix then began to remove her socks and shoes, which did not go unnoticed by the others. 

"Alix, what are you doing?" Alya asked.

"I have an opportunity to swim through the streets of Paris," Alix said as she stuffed her socks into her shoes and then dropped the shoes into Alya's hands, "I'm not letting this opportunity pass by."

"A villain just kidnapped Kim." Alya pointed out.

"Kim is on a swim team, I wouldn't be surprised if the villain was after him specifically." Alix argued.

While it was a risk, since it could just be a villain that wants to drown literally everyone, Kim had come from the swimming pool and this water smelled chlorinated. Alix dove off the rooftop before Alya could say anything more.

While the water did smell chlorinated, it also tasted salty but felt like it was perfectly clear, there was no salt sticking to her at all. Ignoring the strange, and probably magic, water, Alix swam out a little ways from the rooftop until she was right next to the bus. 

"Alix, there is a 67.3% chance this does not end well for you." Max said.

"It's fine, there's no monster in sight." Alix called back as she swam to the side of the bus that the group couldn't see her anymore, "It was obviously just after Kim."

Alix saw Tikki inside the bus, she had opened all the bus windows on the side that the others couldn't see. Alix hooked her foot on the frame of one of the open windows. 

"Hold on," Alix called out, tapping into the acting skills she had learned in 6th-grade theatre class, "Something just grabbed my-"

Alix quickly yanked herself under the water, using her foot and the window frame to do so. Now completely underwater, Alix swam down a little more and kicked off the bus and into an alleyway. She swam through the alleyway and then behind another building whose roof was above the water. Only then did she surface. 

Alix looked around, nobody seemed to have spotted her. She could still hear her friends panicking about her disappearance. There was also nobody on the roof she had surfaced next to, luckily. 

Tikki emerged from the water next to Alix. 

"Alright, we're alone. Tikki, spots on!" Alix transformed into Nike Rouge and pulled out her yoyo. There was a water breather in the yoyo which Nike was fine with using because she didn't use the yoyo in combat much anyways. 

Diving down once more, Nike noticed 2 figures swimming near the bottom. She recognized them as Kim and the mermaid that took him. She only saw them for a second before they turned the corner and vanished from view. Nike swam after them. 

As she swam, Nike noticed that there were fish in the water. She saw all kinds of fish, colorful tropical fish, sardines, bass, bluegills, catfish, sharks, and even a dolphin. Initially, Nike didn't think much of it, until she realized that that should be impossible. There were both freshwater and saltwater fish here, in the same water. Freshwater fish shrivel up and die in saltwater and saltwater fish inflate and blow up in freshwater. It shouldn't be possible. 

Also, there are no dolphins in Paris aquariums. The last one had been moved to a safer location because of a protest Mylene organized 4 months ago. So why were there dolphins here?

Pushing the issue to the back of her mind, Nike continued to follow the villain through the flooded streets, she became sure that this villain had been after Kim specifically. She had placed a bubble of air over his head so he could breathe and was half dragging him along as she swam. 

She also took the time to examine the villain a bit more. The mermaid had pink shin and a black swimsuit that went down her legs. Speaking of legs, she still had them, despite her feet seemingly having been merged together to create a fin that both her legs connected to. This strange fin had the effect of making a sort of closed-loop between her legs that Nike could potentially take advantage of in battle. She had horns on her head and wore some kind of black bracelet on her wrist, which Nike figured held the akuma. 

Nike figured she should probably beat this villain as soon as possible because there were probably a lot of dead people from the flood, people who got trapped in buildings or in cars when the water came. Oddly enough though,  Nike didn't see any bodies floating around though.

Nike grabbed a piece of loose rebar that had probably floated out of an alleyway and chucked it at the villain like a harpoon. Her aim was perfect, the rusty price of metal cut through the water in a  straight line towards the villain's wrist, but the mermaid somehow sensed the attack and turned to catch the metal rod at the last second. 

"You dare try to attack my prince!" The villain shouted, "I, Syren, will destroy anybody who tries to harm my prince!" 

Nike hadn't been aiming at Kim, but couldn't clear the misunderstanding because of the yoyo covering her mouth that allowed her to breathe but prevented speech. 

Syren, who had a better name than most villains recently, began to charge at Nike. Grabbing a broom that had been floating nearby, Nike snapped off the broom part and chucked the piece of wood at the villain like a harpoon. The wood shattered into splinters on the villain's horns and barely slowed her charge.

A second later the demon mermaid slammed her head into Nike's stomach. It hurt and Nike definitely felt a rib or 2 break. 

Pushing through the pain, Nike grabbed Syren by the hair and slammed her head through a nearby car window. Nike could feel the water slowing her movements. Out of the water she could have thrown the villain through both windows and out the other side of the car with the force she exerted just shoving Syren through the one window. Fighting an aquatic opponent under the water would not be easy in the slightest.

Shaking the glass out of her hair, Syren grabbed Nike's arm and tried to throw a punch but had her hand caught. With both her hands now preoccupied, Alix kicked Syren in the face, which was a lot easier when you didn't have to worry about losing your balance. 

After the kick, instead of being angry and in pain, Syren was smirking at Nike. Alix was confused by this because usually people did not smile when you kicked them, until she happened to look in the side mirror of the car and saw something large and grey swimming at her. Nike quickly released Syren and used her now free arm to pull herself into the car through the smashed window. A second after she did so, a hammerhead shark barreled through the spot she was just in. 

Holy shit. Alix cursed to herself. If Syren could also control the animals in the water then this fight would be much more difficult than she thought it would be. She would definitely need Kishi for this one.

Nike needed a way to escape. Looking around the car, she didn't see much except for the removable headrests and a bag of Doritos.

Actually, those would do. 

Nike grabbed the Doritos as Syren swam into the car and made a grab for her neck. Alix ripped the bag open and the mermaid swam straight into the resulting cloud of orange dust. 

"My eyes!" Syren screamed. Nike would have taken the opportunity to grab the akumatized object, but the first thing the villain did after being blinded was cover her bracelet with her other hand. 

Instead, Nike swam around the blinded villain and removed the headrest from one of the seats and then shoved one of the Syren's legs into the area between where the 2 rods at the bottom of the headrest normally entered the seat. She then put the headrest back, trapping the villain's leg between the headrest and seat and keeping the villain in the car as Nike swam away. 

After breaching the surface, Nike climbed up onto the nearest rooftop and removed the yoyo from her mouth. She could feel her broken ribs healing from Tikki's power, but it still hurt a lot now that the adrenalin had worn off. It also tickled a bit and having your ribs tickled felt very strange. 

Opening her yoyo-phone, Nike sent Kishi Noir a message that included her location and information on Syren. 

Then, Nike sat down and waited for her partner to arrive.

__________________

Kagami had been practicing her sword skills with her mother at the time the water arrived. She had basically tackled her mother when she saw the building-sized wave of water coming at them. Kagami and her mother would have been swept away if Kagami had not stabbed her bokken into a nearby tree, luckily they had been practicing kenjutsu and not kendo, she would not have been able to stab a shinai into a tree. As soon as the flow of the water had settled, Kagami swam up to the surface with her mother. 

After helping her mother onto a nearby rooftop, Kagami checked her phone. There was no akuma alert, most likely because the alert center had been flooded. There was no need for one anyway, it was painfully obvious that a villain had appeared. 

The problem was that meant that Kagami didn't know where the villain was, she had to search the entire city for it or wait until somebody else contacted her. 

But before she worried about that, Kagami needed an excuse to get away from her mother. 

As she looked out over the flooded city, Kagami realized just how high the water was. It was an average of 4 or 5 stories high and covered most buildings in the city, buildings with roofs and levels above water were few and far between. 

Suddenly, Kagami had a thought, Wasn't Adrien's house only 2 stories? While she knew that the roofs in the Agreste mansion were higher than post buildings, it still only measured about 3 stories compared to other buildings, it would be completely underwater with this water level. 

And thus, Kagami found herself using the same excuse she often used.

"I'm going to go check on Adrien." Kagami told her mother, before diving into the water. She swam in the general direction of the Agreste Mansion because Kagami knew her mother would notice if she didn't and get suspicious.

After swimming far enough away, Kagami hid behind a wall of vent pipes that stuck out of the water. Looking around, she didn't see anybody so she let Plagg out of her jacket pocket. 

"Uuug," Plagg groaned, "I hate water!" 

"No way to avoid it this time, Plagg Claws Out!" Kagami said, transforming as she did so. 

Taking out her rod, Kishi Noir extended the rod so that it sent the cat heroine far above the water level. With her enhanced balance, Kishi was able to balance at the top of the rod and stay up there even when the rod wasn't secured to anything. She always knew that her abilities were enhanced to absurd levels by the miraculous but doing things like this always reminded her of just how much. 

From her high vantage point, Kagami searched for either the villain or her partner, but while searching she noticed something odd. There was a person in the water in the distance. While Kagami couldn't make out many details even with her enhanced vision. She could tell the person was wearing red but that was about it. 

As she watched, something pink leaped out of the water and dragged the person under. She figured that was probably the villain . Lowering herself to the ground, Kishi was about to vault over to the area where she had seen the villain grab that civilian, but stopped.

How was she supposed to fight an underwater opponent? Her rod had a mode that turned it into a water-breathing device, but then she couldn't use the rod in a fight. While Kishi was decent at hand-to-hand combat, her true skill was when she had some kind of weapon. 

As Kishi thought of a solution, an idea popped into her head. She still wasn't too far away from the spot where she had been training kenjutsu. She could grab a bokken from the equipment and use that as a weapon for the fight. All of the bokken she and her mother used had their family insignia carved onto the bottom of the hilt, but that would be easy enough to shave off with her enhanced strength. It was risky, but she did need a weapon.

Kishi vaulted to the area where she and her mother had been training and dove in. The equipment had been sent all over the park from the sudden wave of water, but Kishi quickly found a bokken. It was one of the longer ones and made out of very sturdy wood, it would suit her needs. Vaulting out of the water, Kishi leaped over to one of the many brick structures covering the vent pipes and started rubbing the bottom of the sword on the rough surface. A minute later the insignia was replaced by a slightly rough surface of wood. 

That would do. 

Kishi was just about to stick her rod onto her mouth, dive down, and begin the search for the villain, when the rod buzzed with a message. 

Nike Rouge: villains named Syren. shes strong, seems to be able to control the fish swimming around the city. 

Nike Rouge: -location.nr-

Nike Rouge: ill explain once you get here

Kishi placed the bokken on her back, the magic from her suit making it stay there, and began vaulting to the area that Nike gave her. On the way there, she realized something, there were weirdly few people around. The number of people on roofs were far fewer than the number of people in Paris. This made sense in theory since flooding a city in the time span of only a few minutes would cause numerous people to drown, especially those in buildings. However, Kishi saw no evidence of people drowning, namely no dead bodies. It didn't make a lot of sense. 

Kishi sidelined that train of thought once she spotted Nike sitting on a rooftop. Landing next to her partner, Kishi noticed that Nike was holding her ribs.

"You okay?" Kishi asked, causing a few of the other people on the rooftop to stare at her with wide eyes. Kishi knew her reputation as the quiet and stoic hero but she didn't think it earned shock just from speaking. 

"Just a couple of broken ribs, it should heal up any minute now." Nike explained. 

Kishi was a little jealous that the ladybug miraculous gave a slight healing ability, she thought it would be very useful. Kishi did know why Nike had healing and she didn't, it was just one of the subtle differences between the miraculous that you can only see when close enough to directly compare them. The black cat enhanced the user's senses, balance, and speed more than the ladybug does. On the other hand, the ladybug gives a healing factor while enhancing aim and reflexes more than the black cat. 

Kagami thought the black cat suited her very well, it enhanced her fighting style perfectly and Kishi felt that that made up for the lack of healing. 

"Syren has kidnapped a boy named Kim." Nike began to explain, "My guess is that she's in love with him because she called him her 'prince'. She also gives a nasty headbutt." Nike stood up from where she was sitting, seeming fine other than a slight wince, "She's also really fast, and since being underwater water slows our movements and not hers, faster than us."

Kishi noticed a small smile forming on her partner's face. She knew how much fun Nike had with powerful akumas. If a villain had enough power or an interesting enough gimmick, that grin appeared on Nike's face. She enjoyed the battles, that much was clear. Kishi was familiar with people like that, people who enjoy the thrill of a challenging fight weren't uncommon in the martial arts world. 

While logically Kishi knew that superheroes shouldn't enjoy the thrill of fighting the villains, she couldn't blame Nike for enjoying it. Kishi also enjoyed fights that pushed her limits and challenged her skills. Defeating a powerful enemy that you had been struggling against was a wonderful feeling. 

"I also have a guess where she went." Nike continued, "There's a public pool a couple of blocks from here. She was swimming in that direction, and the chlorine smell from the water makes me think that it must have something to do with this villain." Nike rubbed her rib a little before grabbing the yoyo off her belt, "You ready to go, partner?"

Kishi nodded as she turned on underwater breathing mode on her rod and put it on her mouth, Nike doing the same with her yoyo. 

The two heroes dove into the water together. As soon as the bubbles cleared, Kishi looked around. There were quite a few fish swimming around, minding their own business. No villain in sight. Kishi looked to her partner, who waved for Kishi to follow her before swimming away. 

Kishi followed, and soon enough the 2 heroes were floating in front of a cyan building with a sign that read 'Pool'. 

Kishi made eye contact with Nike and began to gesture to her. She held up both her index fingers and had them point in the same direction before pointing them away from each other and moving them away from each other, she then turned her fingers to be pointing them at each other and had them touch.  

Split up and attack from opposite directions.

Nike nodded, seeming to understand, and began swimming to the entrance of the pool. Kishi followed and the 2 heroes entered the building, splitting up to swim down opposite ends of the hallway. 

The 'split up and enter the pool from opposite sides' plan unfortunately meant that Kishi had to swim through the male locker room to enter the pool. She hesitated for a second before pushing the door open. She had heard that boys' bathrooms were disgusting and she didn't have high hopes for locker rooms. 

Kishi entered the room and looked for the exit, trying to ignore the smell of the air she was breathing out of the silver rod. The locker room was shaped like an L and Kishi had entered from the bottom of it while the exit was at the top of the shape. Kishi swam over the lockers and made her way to the exit, which was just past the shower area. There were a few pieces of clothing floating around, including a pair of underwear. Kishi made sure to give these objects a good amount of space when swimming around them. 

Swimming through the shower area, Kishi saw a grey creature emerge from behind one of the curtains. Grabbing the bokken from her back, she held it up to block the attacker. As the creature wrapped its teeth around her weapon, Kishi realized it was a tiger shark. Pushing the creature off her bokken, Kishi realized something else, there was a pair of underwear stuck on the fin of the shark. 

It was then that Kishi realized why no dead bodies were floating around.

____________________

Nike emerged from the girl's locker room at the same time that Kishi emerged from the boy's side. She felt bad for Kishi, Alix knew first hand just how nasty boys could be since she hung out with mostly boys.

Looking around the pool, Nike noticed a few key changes. Other than the expected everything floating around, the lifeguard chair had been turned into a kind of throne with normal chairs having been stacked up in order to hold those small palm trees that were usually kept in the entrance. Pool noodles were arranged to make a peacock tail-like backing to the chair and there was an air bubble around the whole thing. 

Sitting on the chair was Kim, who looked weirdly calm given his circumstances and instead looked more impressed by the chair than anything. But this was Kim, so Alix wasn't surprised by that behavior.

"This is the pool where the old me tried to pour her heart out to you so many times." Syren was saying, Nike could hear her weirdly well despite being underwater and all, but this was magic akuma-water so she wasn't all too surprised.

"Uhhh, but I've never seen a Syren at the pool." Kim responded. 

Nike blinked. Did this guy not realize this was an akumatized villain? Paris randomly floods and he is taken by a pink fish lady and he didn't once think that this was an akuma? Alix knew that Kim wasn't the brightest of their friend group but she didn't think he was this oblivious. 

Fortunately for Kim, Syren seemed to find this charming, as she giggled and held up her wrist to show Kim her bracelet. 

Kim's eyes widened, "Ondine?"

"I'm your Syren now, and you could be my merman," Syren said, reaching her hands into the air bubble, "It only needs a kiss and you'll become just like me." the mermaid grabbed Kim's cheeks and pulled him toward her, which made Kim lean hilariously far forward in his seat.

"You mean I could swim as fast as you?" Kim asked. 

As this was happening, Nike noticed Kishi swimming up towards the ceiling. She probably intended to use it as a launchpad for a sneak attack, or at least that's what Nike would do if she had a weapon. 

Figuring that having 2 underwater enemies would not be great, Nike grabbed a chair that was floating near her and broke off a leg, then threw the leg at the villain like a harpoon. 

"Yes Kim, you'll be my prince and we'll rule this underwat- Ack!" Syren's response was cut short as the chair leg struck her right between the horns. The chair leg then fell into the air bubble and hit Kim in the nose. This caused Kim to fall off the chair and fall directly on one of the miniature palm trees that Syren had set up around the chair. 

Nike would be worried about him, but she had seen that boy fall from a 2 story building onto a fire hydrant and walk away without even a limp, so she didn't bother. Instead, she turned her focus back to the villain, who was now furious.

"How dare you hurt my prince!" Syren shrieked at Nike, "You'll pay for this!"

As Syren turned to swim at her, a black blur flew down from the ceiling and slammed into the villain. Syren fell into the air bubble, landing on her stomach with Kishi's shoulder ramming into the villain's back. Kishi rolled off Syren and made a stab at the bracelet with her wood sword, Syren responded by spinning on her stomach and slapping Kishi with her fin. Syren escaped the air bubble by grabbing the edge of the pool and pulling herself back into the water. 

Nike used the side of the pool to rocket herself at the villain as it entered the water, headbutting the Syren in the back. Seemingly unphased by this attack, Syren turned and slammed her elbow down between Nike's shoulder blades. This attack sent Alix flying downward, her chest slamming against the floor of the pool. Alix felt a couple of ribs crack, again, but pushed through the pain and flipped to face upwards. Seeing Syren's fist flying at her face, Nike reacted by reaching out to grab the villain's arm and pushing it to the left. This action caused the attack to land just slightly to the left and Nike to move slightly to the right. 

It was just enough, the punch grazed Alix's ear and hit the pool tile beneath her. Nike heard the tile crack and saw dust float into her vision. 

Shit, that was close. Nike thought as she took advantage of the grip on Syren's arm to flip the villain onto the pool floor. Nike kicked off the villain's stomach and swam up, aiming for the air bubble where Kishi still was. As she swam, she watched Kishi throw her wooden sword towards her. As the sword flew past her head, Nike looked down to see the weapon hit Syren directly in the neck, who had been just about to grab her ankle.

Surfacing into the air bubble, Nike removed the yoyo from her mouth to take a deep breath.

"We're at a bigger disadvantage than we thought we were." Kishi commented.

Nike gritted her teeth as she felt Tikki's energy begin to heal her ribs. Prior to what she had previously thought, this fight was not fun. It was a one-sided beat down, Nike was barely managing not to get mauled and had no chance of creating an opportunity to grab the akumatized object. Syren simply had too many advantages, her mobility and speed were much higher than the theirs and while the force they could output was a fraction of what it normally was, Syren had no issues cracking stone.

Nike eyed the villain, who was floating outside the air bubble. Kishi's wooden blade sat as a pile of splinters at the bottom of the pool.  As she watched, a purple butterfly visor appeared above Syren's face.

"But Kim is in there!" Syren said in reply to whatever Hawkmoth had told her. 

Hawkmoth probably told her to take down the air bubble. Nike thought. While that wouldn't be the worst thing, it would be really annoying to not have a space where they could take a breath. 

"Cataclysm." Kishi said, calling destructive energy to her hand. 

Nike blinked, Why would Kishi call her Cataclysm? She began to look around for whatever she planned to cataclysm but couldn't see anything. Nike noticed Kishi looking at her expectedly and realized why she had called her power. If Syren removes the air bubble then they won't be able to say the words to call their power. 

"Lucky Charm!" Nike called out, causing a polka-dotted pair of handcuffs to fall into her hands. 

Just as Nike had the lucky charm in her hand the air bubble popped and water rushed into the space where air once was. It's not as if the air floated to the top of the building either, it simply vanished.

As Nike rushed to put the yoyo back onto her mouth so she could breathe, Syren swam past her and rushed to grab Kim. The villain breathed out an air bubble for the boy and then dragged him in one of the numerous closets that lined each level of the pool, shutting him inside before turning back to them. 

Nike began to look around the pool for items to use with her lucky charm. However, despite the simple nature of the item, Alix couldn't seem to form a solid plan. She was sure of one thing though, those handcuffs belonged on Syren's wrist.

Nike's thinking was interrupted as Syren came charging at her horns first. Alix reacted by grabbing the villain's horns, which simply caused Syren to begin pushing her backward. Just before Nike was slammed into a wall, she pushed Syren's head down so she swam between her legs and headbutted the wall. 

Nike took that opportunity to wrap her legs around Syren's neck and grab one of the villain's hands. She managed to attach one side of the handcuffs to the villain's wrist as she began swimming full speak at a concrete pillar, obviously intending to slam Nike into the said pillar. 

Quickly jumping off the evil mermaid, Alix kicked Syren in the back and knocked her into the metal railing. 

"You two give me seasickness!" Syren shouted, "So I'm going to sink you!" As Nike watched, Syren grabbed onto the metal railing and ripped it out of place. The villain then threw the railing at Nike. 

Are you fucking kidding? Nike thought as the metal structure flew at her at incredible speeds. She didn't even have time to react before it smacked her in the head and the world went black.

___________________

Kishi knew that she couldn't let Nike swallow any of this water, if she did then Paris was doomed. She had been focusing on keeping Nike breathing throughout this battle and seeing her pass out was absolutely terrifying. 

As Syren began to swim towards the unconscious hero, Kishi took a deep breath and took her rod away from her mouth. Pointing the rod towards the villain, Kishi extended the rod. It slammed into Syren's side and sent her flying into one of the many doors lining the upper levels of the pool building. 

Kishi quickly put her rod back up to her mouth and swam over to Nike. The yoyo was still over her mouth so she hadn't breathed in any of the water, but there was a massive bruise on the hero's forehead. Kishi could see the bruise slowly shrinking due to the ladybug miraculous's healing factor, but she would still be out for at least a minute probably.

At that moment, Kishi's ring beeped 3 times, Nike's earrings did the same a second later. 3 minutes left. Kishi had to keep Syren busy until Nike woke up and beat the villain with her lucky charm. 

Or maybe Kishi would defeat the villain on her own, either one would work. 

As Syren exited the room she had been thrown into, picking splinters out of her hair, she glared at Kishi.

Kishi took a fighting stance and made the 'come at me' gesture to Syren.

The villain fell for the taunt and charged directly at Kishi, her horned head angled for a headbutt. As Syren came in, Kishi grabbed onto her horns, which forced her elbows to bend and her hands to press right up against her stomach. As Kishi began to be pushed through the water by Syren, she squeezed the horns on her head as hard as she could. A second later, the villain's horns gave in, shattering in her grip. 

"AAUGH!" Syren cried out. She stopped swimming and grabbed at her broken horns, "My horns!"

Kishi looked around, they were near the edge of the pool. Specifically, they were near the metal ladders that normally would help people get in and out of the pool. Looking back to Syren, Kishi noticed that the villain still had the lucky charm handcuffs on her left hand, and Kishi suddenly had an idea. 

Taking advantage of the panic from the now hornless villain, Kishi grabbed the other end of the handcuffs and attached them to the metal ladder. 

That should make the fight quite a bit easier. Kishi thought as she went to grab the bracelet on Syren's wrist, only for her hand to be grabbed by the villain's still free arm. 

"I won't let you!" The villain screamed so loudly that Kishi's head began to spin, enhanced hearing had drawbacks, "I am meant to be the queen of this underwater city with Kim as my king! I won't let you stop me!"

Before Kishi could properly react, she was hit in the head by Syren's legs and sent flying across the pool. Kishi slammed into the metal ladder on the opposite side of the pool. Kishi found herself stuck, with her shoulders wedged between the steps of the ladder. Kishi tried to break free, only to end up doing nothing. Kishi started to panic a little, she couldn't see anything but the tile of the pool behind the ladder and she couldn't really move her arms.

Alright, deep breaths, just think of a way to- Kishi's thought was cut off when she tried to take a breath, only to have her mouth fill with water. 

Her staff had been knocked out of her mouth by the strike. 

Kishi began to struggle as hard as she could while also trying to not swallow any of the water. Unfortunately, her struggling was in vain, she was lodged in the latter way too well. She couldn't reach the ladder with her hand that still held the bubbling power of Cataclysm. 

Nike, save us. Kishi thought as her body forced her to try and take a breath, only to have water fill her lungs. 

It was then that Kishi blacked out.

____________________

Alix woke up to a strange sight. 

She was floating above the pool, looking down on it. A pink figure near the ladder and a black figure stuck in between the steps of the other ladder. 

What is happening?

A second later, Nike remembered everything, Syren, Kishi, the pool, and the metal railing that had knocked her out. 

Her hand flew to her mouth, the yoyo was luckily still there. Nike heard her earrings beep 2 times. 

Shit. Nike cursed, she had been out for a full minute. That was quite a lot of time in a fight, especially against an akumatized villain. 

As Nike took in the situation she realized a couple of things. The villain was handcuffed to the metal ladder, Kishi was stuck in the other metal ladder, and Kishi's rod was floating in the middle of the pool. Which meant Kishi was stuck without a way to breathe.

Nike began swimming as fast as she could towards Kishi's rod. As soon as her fingers were wrapped around the rod, Nike turned to swim to her partner but froze. 

Kishi had begun glowing a bright blue light, blindingly bright. Nike shielded her eyes as it engulfed her partner. It vanished as suddenly as it appeared, but so did Kishi. 

In the place where Kishi had been stuck now sat a black scaled swordfish with a black ring on its long nose-blade thing, the blade was also bubbling with dark energy. 

What in the actual hell? Nike thought as the fish escaped the metal ladder and looked around before locking its gaze on Nike.

And the fish charged. 

Nike dodged to the left of the fish, which seemed slow after dealing with Syren, and grabbed its tail as it swam past.

Ah, that's why there were so many fish and no corpses. Nike thought, finally figuring out the mystery. Syren's water turned people into fish when they breathed it in. 

Alix steeled her resolve, the fate of Paris was resting on her shoulders. While she didn't prefer to think about that fact every time there's an akuma, she preferred to simply have fun fighting a fun opponent with her cool powers, but sometimes she needed to focus, especially now that her partner was a fish.

Nike formed a proper plan in her head just as Fish-Kishi slipped out of her hand and turned to attack her once again. Dodging the fish's attack again, Nike quickly swam to grab one of the pool lane dividers which were freely floating around the area. After grabbing the end of it she began swimming towards Syren, who was struggling against the handcuffs. Dodging a swordfish attack aimed for her head, Nike grabbed Syren's leg.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Syren complained. Nike ignored her and shoved the end of the pool divider between her legs. Grabbing the side she pulled through, Nike began swimming to the other metal ladder.

While Syren was handcuffed to the ladder, the rest of her limbs were still combat-capable, and since Syren had an overwhelming strength and speed advantage, that meant that Nike still couldn't destroy the akumatized object without disabling the rest of her limbs. Even if Nike threw an item at the bracelet with perfect aim, Syren could block with her other hand or use the limited movement still available to her cuffed arm to dodge it. Nike needed to eliminate that limited movement in her cuffed hand, the fact that she could block with her other hand, and the fact that she can move her 'tail' freely.

Nike began to tie the ends of the pool divider around Kishi's rod while also making the divider go through the gaps in the ladder. As soon as that was done Nike began to spin the rod like a baton. As the rod spun the attached pool divider began to twist up, making it shorter as a result. 

"Aurg! How dare you!" Syren shouted. As the divider shortened it pulled Syren to the other ladder. However, since she was attached to both pool ladders and one of those attachments was pulling her closer, she was being stretched. It was like one of those medieval torture devices that stretched people out, except underwater. Syren couldn't move her cuffed hand or her legs at all, and the fact that she couldn't move her other hand didn't really matter.

"I'm going to turn you into a goldfish!" Syren shouted as she began to tug on the handcuffs. 

Nike heard the other ladder begin to creak under the force that Syren was exerting and decided now was the time to end this. Nike placed the rod on the ladder in such a way that it didn't allow the divider to untwist and looked around. 

Where is Fish Kishi?

Suddenly hearing something behind her, Nike jerked her head to the side. As she did, the black swordfish pierced through the area where her head used to be. Nike once again grabbed the swordfish as it swam by, this time holding it with both hands. 

The ladybug earrings beeped once and Alix took a deep breath from her yoyo, this would be tricky. She was throwing a fish like a harpoon and she needed to aim perfectly, any mistakes would cost the lives of many people. 

Alix released her breath and threw the fish. 

The fish flew faster than a bullet, but it seemed to fly at a snail's pace from Nike's perspective. 

As the fish neared Syren, the villain began to reach out to catch the fish's sword with her free hand but pulled back when she realized the fish's blade bubbled with cataclysmic energies.

A millisecond later, the fish's blade came in contact with the bracelet, cutting straight through the object as it turned it to dust.

Nike breathed a sigh of relief as the Akuma fluttered out. 

Nike swam over to the now very confused girl and removed the handcuffs from where they were locked using the handcuff key she always kept in her pocket. Y'know, just in case.

She also removed the yoyo from her mouth, she wouldn't be able to breathe without it but she had enough air to say the phrase she needed.

"Miraculous Nike Rouge!" Nike shouted as she threw the handcuffs up. It immediately turned into a mass of magical ladybugs that exploded to cover the entire pool before going elsewhere to fix the rest of the city. 

Now that Nike had plenty of air, she turned her attention to the black butterfly currently trying to fly away.

"That's it for you little akuma." Nike said as she opened the akuma purifier on her yoyo, "Time to de-evilise!" Nike caught the dark bug in her yoyo, releasing it a second later as a pure white butterfly. 

Nike noticed the first thing Kishi did after being un-fishified was jump to the second level of the pool and shut herself in one of the many rooms, most likely to detransform. Nike thought that was a good idea and followed suit, entering a room a few doors down from Kishi's.

The transformation faded 10 seconds after Alix shut the door. 

That was way too close. Alix thought as she caught Tikki in her hands. 

"You did well today Alix." Tikki said.

"I did do pretty well, didn't I?" Alix responded as she fished a macaroon out of her pocket for Tikki. She had bought a box of individually wrapped macaroons from the Dupen-Cheng Bakery and, while they got a little smushed sometimes, Tikki seemed to enjoy them, especially when Marinette made them. 

"Maybe I shouldn't praise you, it'll all go to your head." Tikki said as she took a bite of her macaroon.

"What? I'm the most humble person I know." Alix said with a smirk.

"Uh-huh, sure you are." Tikki said with a smile, "The most humble person alive, who named their superhero identity after the Greek goddess of victory."

"That's me, you may bask my glory." Alix responded with a goofy smile.

Tikki began laughing and Alix couldn't help but join her.

"You're a fun holder Alix." Tikki said as she finished her snack, "I forgot how fun it was to banter with somebody like this."

Alix smiled at that, she had a lot of fun talking with Tikki like this. Even if Tikki was a little bit of a killjoy sometimes, Alix thought that she was a really good companion to have around.

"That's why I do it, but come on I have to get back out there. Tikki, Spots On!"

Nike walked out of the room to find Kishi already out and leaning on the banister, a serious look on her face.

"What's up, partner?" Nike asked, "Did you think something was fishy about that battle or something?"

That got a small smile from Kishi, "Your puns ate cat-astrophic" Kishi retorted before her face turned back to a serious expression, "Don't you think that today's villain was more brutal than any other we've faced?"

Nike couldn't agree more, most of Paris had been turned into fish and Hawkmoth seemed alright with leaving it that way as long as he got the miraculous. 

"What could be so important about these miraculous that you would be willing to massacre an entire city to get it?" Kishi asked, apparently thinking the same thing Nike was.

The pair went quiet for a moment. If villains kept getting more powerful, they would need help to defeat them. A memory from months ago came to mind, Alya was showing the class the footage of the new hero Rena Rouge. Had the guardian picked Rena Rouge or had Ladybug? Can I pick heroes to fight by my side or do I have to rely on the guardian to choose? 

"Who knows?" Nike said in answer.

Kishi didn't respond to that, instead jumping down to the ground floor of the pool building and leaving from the front door. 

Nike watched for a second as Kim practically tackled the de-akumatized girl with a hug. The girl looked overwhelmingly happy by this development and Alix figured it was time for her to go. Leaving through the side doors that lead to the fire escape, Nike began to swing back to the movie theater.

_________________

Kagami swung her sword once more, a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and flowed over her closed eye. Her attack was blocked and reflected. Regaining her stance, Kagami listened for the next attack and heard the air move to her left and moved to block. However, she was a second too late and her mother's bokken hit Kagami's shoulder. 

Kagami opened her eyes and took a deep breath, she had been dueling her mother without break for an hour now. She hadn't won once.

"Kagami, your reaction time is absolutely atrocious." Her mother critiqued, "It almost feels like an armature who hasn't overcome their fear of a strike, one who freezes when a strike comes their way." Those were harsh words, even from mother. Kagami had overcome the reaction to freeze when she was a small child.

Sensing an attack when you can't see it was difficult, it took concentration and more time than she could afford. However, Kagami knew it wasn't impossible to master. If her mother could do it, Kagami was sure that she could also master it. 

Kagami sat on the bench, grabbing her water bottle and taking a drink. The water brought her mind back to the akuma fight earlier that day, the water filling her lungs and afflicting her with Syren's power. She was also reminded of the conversation she had with Nike Rouge at the pool as Kishi Noir. 

"Mother," Kagami said without thinking, "What's so important that somebody would sacrifice a city for it?"

Tomoe seemed shocked by this sudden question but quickly hid her shock. "Everyone's priorities are different, Kagami. What is priceless treasure to one could be seen as garbage to another. There is no true way to know what someone would do anything for." 

That wasn't exactly a comforting answer, nor did it answer the question that had been on her mind since the end of the fight with Syren earlier that day. However, it did bring another question to Kagami's mind. "Mother, what would you do anything for?"

Her mother was quiet for a moment, an unreadable expression on her face. She turned to Kagami, "You. I would do anything, including sacrificing a city, for you, Kagami." She answered, staring down at Kagami.  

Kagami didn't know what answer she was expecting, but it wasn't that. "You would, mother?"

"If my hands were forced to do so, I would."

Kagami capped her water bottle and picked up her bokken once again. If her mother would sacrifice a city for her, then Kagami must be worthy of that. 

"Mother, let's continue." Kagami said, standing up from the bench. 

"It's almost time for your Russian class Kagami." Tomoe pointed out. 

"I will study for double the time tonight, I must improve right now." Kagami said with determination.

Tomoe seemed to consider this for a moment, before grabbing her own bokken once again, "Very well, I expect results."

Kagami closed her eyes and went in for an attack.

___________________

Alix skated circles around her friends as they walked down the street. They had missed the movie because of Syren so the theater had given them new tickets to the showing in a couple of days. Kim still hadn't returned to the group and Alix guessed he was with the girl who had been akumatized. 

As Alix looped around the group again, everyone's phone rang out with a notification sound. Pulling out her phone, Alix found it to be from the group chat that held everybody in her friend group, it was mainly used for scheduling group events like today but this message was a little different. 

"Finally." Alix heard Nino mumble as he looked at his phone. An excited squeal came from Rose and Max mumbled something about this being sooner than his calculations.

The message was a selfie of Kim with his arm over the shoulders of a very flustered girl with red hair and freckles, the same girl who had been Syren, with a caption reading, "Guess who just got a girlfriend!"

Alix smiled as she looked at the message. She had known Kim for years now and had seen the idiot go after all the wrong people, mostly bossy brats who want nothing to do with him. Alix remembered a time in middle school where she had to carry Kim to the nurse's office after his confession to Richie Bâtard, a stuck-up son of a rich businessman, had gotten him beaten within an inch of his life. Richie had since moved out of Paris, but Kim had simply moved on to the next bossy brat, Chloé Bourgeois specifically. Alix was glad to see he had gotten himself a nice person to be his girlfriend. At least Alix hoped she was nice, she had only met the girl as Syren after all, but even as an akumatized villain the girl was better than Chloé. 

"To the pool!" Alya shouted after she read the message, "We must meet this girl!"

"Let's go!" Rose said in agreement, "I can't wait to meet her!"

"I think we should let them be." Marinette jumped in, "We should let the new couple be alone for a little while. I know when Adrien and I got together we found somewhere to be alone together and just talked for hours. We should let them do the same thing."

Alix had to agree. She had a girlfriend a couple years ago, but the relationship ended due to bad communication. It had been a long time friend of hers but Alix had barely spoken with her since they broke up. Communication was the grounds for a healthy relationship and Alix figured that Kim and this girl deserved some time to let that communication happen.

Alix noticed a few disappointed faces in the group, but mostly understanding ones. Everyone wanted to meet this girl because Kim was their friend but also knew they needed to give Kim some time. 

"How about this," Alix says, "We buy another ticket for Mechamonkey vs Cybersharks 3 and invite her."

"Superb idea Alix." Max said, with the other members of the group all nodding in agreement, "In the meantime, we can all go to my place and play some video games."

"Oh! I can make a cake to celebrate!" Rose suggested.

"You aren't making anything until I get my revenge for you beating me in Mario Cart!" Alya said in challenge.

"It's not Rose's fault," Juleka muttered, "you're... just bad."

"What? I am not!" Alya shouted, "Nino, back me up here."

"Sorry babe," Nino said, "But Juleka is right, you're really bad."

Alix followed behind the group with a smile, jumping in the conversation when Alya dared to claim that she was the best at Just Dance. Everyone knew that Alix was the Just Dance Queen and she would not tolerate slander against that fact.

And so Alix bantered with her friends all the way to Max's house, where she kicked everyone's butt at Just Dance and then got her butt kicked in Ultimate Mecha Strike 3 by Marinette. 

Alix let herself forget about the conversation she had with Kishi at the pool and the questions it made in her mind. They would be answered in time so there was no sense worrying about it.

Besides, if the answers took too long to come to her, she would just find the answers herself. 

Chapter Text

Alix was just finishing up her homework when Alya burst through her bedroom door, followed by Rose, Juleka, and Mylene. Tikki, who had been eating a doughnut on Alix's desk, drove through the desk to hide from Alix's friends.

"Alix, have you heard?" Alya asked as she grabbed Alix's shoulders.

Alix raised an eyebrow at her friend, she was way too excited so Alix figured it must have to do with the heroes. Did she finally get footage of Kishi speaking?

"What are you talking about?" Alix asked, pretty confused.

"Move, I need to show you something." Alya said as she pushed Alix, making her chair roll away from her desk. Alya leaned down and began typing on Alix's keyboard, a few seconds later the screen showed an interview with that new pop star Clara Nightingale. Alix knew the artist but didn't listen to a lot of her work, it just wasn't her style.

"You've come to Paris to film the video for your next song, titled Miraculous. " Alec the TV host read from a paper in his hand.

"I really admire and adore the heroes of the miraculous, they're just marvelous. They protect this city without a mistake, so an homage to them I had to make."

Oh, that's cool. Alix thought. She knew that a few artists who had been saved by the heroes that then dedicated their next work to them, Alix herself had a few portraits and a couple of statues of her and Kishi stashed in a secret storage locker across Paris, but this was the first time she heard of a non-french artist making dedicated works of them.

"Auditions will be held at the Grand Paris Hotel, am I right?" Alec continued, "A little birdie told me you already found your Ladybug and Cat Noir, care to share the good news?"

"My lips are sealed, but soon they shall be revealed." Clara responded, doing a little spin, "We must still cast Nike Rouge, Kishi Noir, and extras, by the way, so come on out and audition today."With that, the interview ended and a screen with a phone number and the audition venue address appeared on the screen. 

Alix was still confused, this didn't answer why Alya had burst-into-Alix's-bedroom-unannounced levels of excitement. 

"Alright, and?" Alix asked for more clarification.

"Come on, you'll understand once we reach the venue!" Alya said, grabbing Alix's hand and lifting her out of her chair. As Alix was pulled to the door, she ripped her hands out of Alya's grasp. Alix was still in her pajamas, which meant she was in her underwear and a large Jagged Stone t-shirt she stole from Juleka, who herself had stolen it from Luka, and therefore refused to leave her room. 

"Jeez, let me get dressed first." Alix said.

"Oh, right." Alya said, scratching her neck, "Sorry." 

As Alya left the room, followed by Mylene and Rose, Juleka turned to Alix, "Ya, uh, we don't know what's happening either." Juleka informed her before also leaving the room, shutting the door behind her. 

As Alix got dressed, Tikki came out of her hiding place and floated up to her.

"Whatever Alya is planning, make sure not to try out for the part of Nike Rouge." Tikki said, sounding concerned. 

"I wouldn't want to play Nike Rouge anyway," Alix assured Tikki as she pulled on her usual black and green shirt, "Besides, Alya probably just wants to be an extra in the video and then post 'behind the scenes stuff on the Ladyblog." 

"Just promise you won't do anything to jeopardize your identity." Tikki said.

"I promise Tikki." 

After putting her hair up in her usual style, Alix grabbed her hat and let Tikki fly in. Alix then opened the door and walked out to her friends, "Alright, let's go."

-----------

As Alix entered the tryout venue, she noticed how long the lines were for the Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir tryouts. It hadn't even been half an hour since people started lining up and both lines were out the door. The extras line by contrast was so short that Alix's group got to stand inside the building. Alix also noticed, with some frustration, that there were a lot of 10-year-olds in Nike Rouge's line.

"Hey Juleka, maybe you could try out for Kishi Noir." Rose suggested as the group stood there.

"Huh?" Juleka said in response.

"I'm serious!" Rose continued, "The most we know about Kishi Noir is that she's quiet and knows how to use a sword, that fits you!"

Alix couldn't help but agree, on the surface, Juleka seems very similar to Kishi. Both dark-haired, quiet, and Alix had witnessed more Couffaine sword fights than she could count. Although, Kishi was less anxious and less expressive than Juleka. 

"But, I, what if…" Juleka tried to argue but apparently found no words. 

"Great idea, but not now." Alya cut in, looking excited still, "If you go to the back of that line now, you'll miss it."

"Miss what?" Mylene asked. 

Mylene's question was answered as Clara Nightingale took the stage in the front of the venue.

"Thank you for coming, all of you, this is like a dream come true!" Clara said as she wiggled around in her strange forever-dancing way, "Together we'll all dance and sing, and it will be awesome and amazing!"

At this point, Alya was bouncing with excitement, and Alix still didn't know why. Was she just an extreme Clara Nightingale fan or was there another reason?

"Now, our star's identities, I must confess, are Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste!" Clara exclaimed, gesturing to the left where Adrien and Marinette were walking on stage. 

Oh shit. Alix's eyes went wide as she watched Adrien and Marinette walk up to the stage in Ladybug and Cat Noir outfits. No wonder Alya was so excited, her best friend was going to be in Clara Nightingale's video. Also, Marinette looked almost exactly like Ladybug, they did a really good job with her makeup or something.

Alix heard Rose squeal and Juleka mutter something as Alya shouted, "That's my girl! That's my best friend up there!"

Alix felt Tikki move around inside her hat for some reason.

"We already have our original two, but our current heroes will be played by you," Clara announced to the line of people, as the staff at the front of both the Nike Rouge Line and the Kishi Noir line let the first people up on stage.

How the audition worked was that both the wannabe Nike and the wannabe Kishi would individually act out a fight against one of those bottom-heavy punching towers that got back up when you hit them with Hawkmoth's face taped to it, and then they would try to act a fight out together. If Clara liked one of the actors she would keep them to act with the next person in the other line. Alix noticed that Clara was keeping a lot of Kishi Noir actors for a couple of rounds of acting before sending them away, probably because the character of Kishi is harder to pin down with the limited footage the public has of her. Alix felt a small sense of pride about the fact that she's probably the one who knew Kishi Noir the best. 

In contrast to Kishi's line, the Nike Rouge line was getting shorter by the minute, a lot of 10 year olds sent away on the verge of tears. Alix could see why the line was going so quick, the impressions of her were terrible. People seemed to see her in a similar way to Chat Noir, cracking jokes constantly with a goofy grin. While Nike made the occasional pun, most of her best quotes were when she was taunting enemies, trash-talking them. Cat Noir also taunted akumas, he did it mostly to distract them during Ladybug's plans or to get them away from civilians. Nike Rouge taunted her opponents to get a better fight. Big difference. 

A couple of hours later, Adrien and Marinette had gone back to the makeup truck and the end of the Nike Rouge line had entered the building, the Kishi Noir line still extended outside and Clara was beginning to look a little stressed.

"Hey, maybe we should move to the Nike Rouge line." Alya said, "At least try."

"As friends of the Ladyblogger, we probably know the heroes better than most." Rose pointed out. Alix had to agree, Alya made them watch a lot of footage.

However, because Alix was Nike Rouge, she couldn't do that. She could try for Kishi Noir, but that would stir questions about why she was trying for Kishi but not Nike and that would be a pain to get out of. So, Alix would just stay in the extra line.

"Playing a lead role sounds like a pain," Alix said, not actually lying l, "I'll stay here."

"I'll also stay." Mylene jumped in, "I don't think I have the confidence to play such an important role."

Juleka muttered something to Rose, causing the blond's face to light up, "Juleka, that's an amazing idea!" The girl shouted.

Alix raised an eyebrow at the couple, "What idea?"

"Juleka said she would try for Kishi Noir if I was her Nike Rouge." Rose explained, "It's so cute!"

"Rose, I think you may be too bubbly to be Nike Rouge." Alya pointed out.

Alix somewhat agreed, but she had also seen Rose poison the school bully on multiple occasions after they messed with Juleka so Rose was not to be underestimated.

"Even if you two get in line, there's no chance you would get put up on stage together," Alix pointed out, "The lines are too uneven. By the time Juleka makes it on stage Rose would have gotten sent away long ago."

"Hey! There's no guarantee I would even get sent away!" Rose argued, "I could be just the actor that Clara was looking for, my skill dazzling her! Then I just wait until Juleka gets her turn and we can dazzle her together and be cast together!"

"Or you could just ask to act together." Alya suggested, "Clara is putting quite a bit of focus on how well Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir work together. If a pair acts well together I'm sure she would go for it, even if their actual impressions aren't exactly what she wants."

Alix thought about that, Alya did have a point. There had been a few halfway decent impressions of Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir up there, but they had done terribly when put with another actor and then were sent away. 

"I say go for it." Alya said encouragingly, "What's the worst that could happen?"

Oh, that question. Alix loved that question. It allowed Alix to tap into her 'creative' side to answer it and show people just how terribly their plan could go if not properly thought out. It was a question that most of Alix's friends had learned to not ask around her, but Alya was still new to the group.

"Well, you could be allowed to do it, therefore skipping the line and angering the people already in line. You could then completely bomb the audition and get kicked out. Then the crowd would riot because Clara let you two cut in line for that terrible performance, Clara gets injured in the riot and her career ends. All your fault." Alix said with a completely straight face, "But I agree with Alya, you should go for it."

The group went quiet as they stared at Alix.

"Why do you feel the need to do that?" Mylene asked.

Alix shrugged and turned to Juleka, who looked noticeably anxious, "I think you'll make a great Kishi Noir, Jules." Alix reassured the goth, giving her a pat on the back.

"Alix is right." Alya said, "Not about the disastrous failure bit, about Juleka being a great Kishi Noir. While we don't know a lot about her personality, 2 out of 3 things we know about Kishi Noir also apply to Juleka. Kishi is confident, quiet, and is a proficient sword wielder. Juleka may not be so confident, but she is quiet and is a proficient sword wielder." Alya explained, "If you just act confident you should get the role."

"I believe in you Juleka," Rose said encouragingly, "all you have to do is be as confident as you are when we play Super Pinguino together!"

"ROSE!" Juleka exclaimed, a blush spreading across her face.

"Come on Juleka let's go take these rolls for ourselves!" Rose said enthusiastically as she grabbed Juleka's arm, pulling her under the ropes and out of the extras line.

Alix watched as the two girls began making their way towards Clara Nightingale. They were momentarily stopped by one of her bodyguards but were allowed to talk to Clara after a second. Alix couldn't hear exactly what Rose and Juleka were saying, but she assumed it was just them explaining that they wanted to audition together.

"Your idea has allure, but I'm not quite sure." Clara said, her words being picked up by her microphone and sent through the speakers, "It wouldn't be very fair, everyone has been waiting so long over there." Clara seemed to think for a second, "I like your plan, it's a good one indeed, and I have an idea to make it succeed. If you wait at the end of the Nike Rouge line, I'll let you show me how well your talents combine."

While it was confusingly worded because of the rhyming, Alix understood what Clara meant. Clara couldn't just let them completely cut in line, so she told the girls to wait at the end of the Nike Rouge line and she'd let them audition together. Alix liked that Clara was willing to bend some rules for her art, she could respect that.

Maybe Nike Rouge would visit the video shoot later on.

As Rose and Juleka turned to walk to the end of the Nike Rouge line, the door to the avenue burst open, and in walked…

Ugh, Chloé.

The heiress walked into the room with an evil grin on her face before she began shouting, "Your first mistake was casting Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" Chloé stuck one finger up in the air, "Your second was not casting me!"

"Your third was not submitting permit A-38 as stipulated in the circular B-65, which you can only get at counter C on the third floor of city hall, which has been closed for renovations until August." Mayor Bourgeois jumped in, walking in behind Chloé, "Which means you don't have a permit to shoot anywhere in France, Including Paris." The mayor dumped a pile of documents into Clara's arms.

"What?" Clara responded, seeming confused, "I… I don't understand."

"It means," Chloé said, stepping in front of her father and in front of Clara, "No more dancing, no more singing today." Chloé grabbed Clara's microphone, the one she had been holding since her career began, "The Nightingale can spread her wings, and fly away!" Chloé rhymed as she threw the microphone into the air.

"No!" Clara shouted as she dropped the papers and went after her microphone. Alix stared in horror as Clara kneeled down to pick up her microphone, now cracked and chipped in various places. "The video needs to be shot here, in Paris, the capital of love, the city of the miraculous heroes." 

Oh shit, she stopped rhyming.

"This ruins all of my plans!" Clara said, microphone held to her chest, "I'm so sorry, my beloved fans."

As Alix watched Clara Nightingale start sobbing and running away to one of the dressing trucks, she found herself getting angry. She was sick and tired of Chloé ruining the things people worked so hard to build just to fulfill her stupid, selfish, and cruel desires.

Alix pulled the barrier ropes over her head and began walking towards Chloé, fully intending to rip her a new nostril. As Alix was storming up to Chloé, a hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks. Looking over her shoulder, Marinette stood there. She had taken off her Ladybug mask and had a disappointed look on her face, most likely directed at Chloé. Marinette shook her head at Alix. Alix knew what Marinette thought about fighting, Marinette believed that conflict was best resolved with words. Alix thought words had their place, but sometimes people needed sense knocked into them.

Right now was one of those times. 

Shrugging off Marinette's hand, Alix continued towards Chloé. 

Chloé was busy clapping her hands at the crowd, "This show is over, you all have to leave now." Chloé said, followed by her stupid laugh.

Suddenly, Alix heard the crack of a whip just as Chloé and the mayor suddenly developed a pink glow around them. Alix stopped in her tracks and looked up to see a figure with a purple suit covered in stars and hair that reminded Alix of Harley Quinn. The pink whip she held vanished into the wand she held in her hand, sort of like a lightsaber did. 

That was definitely an akumatized Clara Nightingale.

Goddammit, Chloé. Alix thought as she began to back away

"Sing, dance, or rhyme, or you'll be frozen in no time!" The akuma shouted.

Alix backed up until she was near the side of the stage, where she then ducked down and crawled behind the stage. Figuring that appearing from behind the stage would make it obvious that Nike Rouge was at the audition as a civilian, Alix began looking for a way out of the venue. She knew that she wouldn't be able to leave the front exit without being hit by the akuma, so she needed another exit. Looking around, Alix saw the back exit to the venue on the wall behind the stage and dashed for it. Alix made it into the back hallways of the building and began looking for an exit, finding a fire exit a second later that lead out into a small alleyway. Looking around, Alix didn't see anyone around so she lifted her cap and let Tikki fly out. 

"This akuma seems like a pain, this fight is going to be insane." Tikki said with a smirk. 

Alix groaned, she hated rhyming. The last time Alix had rhymed was when she was 8 and they were doing poetry in class, and she hated it. Finding 2 words that rhyme that also made sense to be in the same sentence was hard, not to mention the strange linguistic cartwheels you need to do to get the rhyming words in the right places was a pain. Rhyming had its place, and that place had nothing to do with Alix.

"Let's get this over with." Alix said with a sigh, "Tikki, Spots on!"

Transformed into Nike Rouge, Alix grabbed the yoyo from her waist and used it to swing herself to the roof of the venue. Up there, Alix found the akuma standing on the roof, whipping the crowd below. Alix had gone to the roof to try and scout where the akuma was and make a good plan for attack, but this worked too.

Sneaking up behind the akuma, Nike jumped up and locked the akuma in a chokehold. "Come on Clara, you should know I punch akumas." Nike said as the akumatized idol struggled against her, "If you give up your akuma now, I'll give your actor a few tips on how to be me." This was the first time Alix had tried to bargain with an akuma, she really didn't want to deal with rhyming.

"I'm not Clara anymore, I'm Frightningale forevermore!" The akuma shouted as she elbowed Nike in the ribs, causing her grip on the akuma's neck to slip. Slipping out of Nike's arms, Frightningale materialized her pink whip from her wand and began to snap it at Nike.

Dodging a blow aimed at her head, Nike swung her yoyo out to entangle Frightningale's legs. While she preferred to use her fists in combat, Alix didn't see another option in a fight like this. She couldn't really get up close and personal with an akuma who had a weapon with adjustable length that activates its ability with a single touch. While Alix hadn't stuck around long enough to see exactly what the pink aura the whip gave did, the pink statues she could see through the glass roof of the venue gave her a pretty good idea.

Pulling on the yoyo string attached to the akuma's legs, Nike pulled Frightningale's feet out from under her. The swing of the whip aimed for her torso sailed far above her head.

Nike analyzed the villain for possible akuma locations. The only places she saw were the whip-wand or the visor the akuma was wearing. Although Alix doubted it was the visor, as Clara hadn't been wearing any kind of glasses before her akumatization, it never hurt to consider all possibilities.

"That all you got, Nightingale?" Nike taunted as she began to spin her yoyo fast enough to make a shield, which was not as easy as Ladybug made it look.

"I told you, I'm not Nightingale anymore. I'm Frightningale for all to adore!" The akuma shouted as she jumped up and cracked her whip at Nike once again.

Blocking the strike with the yoyo shield, Nike began to advance towards the akuma, blocking following strikes with her shield. 

"It's only a matter of time," Frightningale said as she continued to bombard Nike with her whip, "Till you'll be forced to dance and rhyme!"

"We'll see about that." Nike said as she blocked another crack of Frightningale's whip.

As the whip was going back to Frightningale, Nike stopped spinning the yoyo and threw it at Frightningale. The yoyo wrapped around the akuma's neck and Nike yanked on the yoyo, causing the akuma to come flying towards her. When Frightningale came within grabbing distance, Nike grabbed the back of the akuma's head and slammed it into the glass ceiling below them.

The glass didn't shatter from the impact of Frightningale's face, but it did crack pretty severely.

Nike made a grab for the Frightningale's whip-wand while the akuma was still shocked from getting slammed into glass face first, but the akuma recovered quicker than expected. Activating her whip, the akuma began flailing the pink whip around wildly, forcing Nike to retreat since she didn't want to dance and rhyme.

As the akuma got up from the glass, visor shattered and fell off her face, Frightningale cracked her whip at Nike so fast that she barely had time to think. Nike dropped to the ground, the pink whip flying just above her head.

"Slamming my face against the glass, your behavior is just so crass." Frightningale said as Nike got her yo-shield spinning again, "I'm just trying to make this world a better place, and if you can't see that then you're a disgrace!"

Where are you, Kishi? Nike thought as she blocked another attack from Frightningale.

Just after Nike thought that a long metal rod slammed down onto the akuma's head, slamming her down onto the glass once more. This time, however, the glass gave out, shattering the ceiling and sending Frightningale falling back down to the venue below.

Kishi landed on the roof and retracted her rod.

Ah, there she is.

____________________

Kagami's day had been boring, more so than usual.

First, her mother was in Germany for business so her kendo and kenjutsu lessons were canceled until next week. Instead, Kagami had 2 hours of self-practice and an extra Russian class. This sucked for a variety of reasons, the main one being that she couldn't really work on sensing an opponent's movements with her eyes closed if she had no opponent. Luckily, this also meant she could sneak away quite easily as Kishi Noir.

It has taken a few minutes of vaulting across the Parisian rooftops to get to the location of the akuma, but Kishi had spotted the rooftop battle quite easily.

While Kishi did find the sight of Nike sitting on the ground while blocking attacks with her yoyo mildly amusing, Kishi knew that her partner needed help and jumped in. Noticing the glass roof of the building was cracked pretty badly, Kishi had slammed her rod down on the akuma as hard as she could in order to send the akuma through the glass. Kishi figured that sending the akuma through the glass would give Nike time to explain the akuma.

As Kishi landed on the glass roof and retracted her rod, she sent an inquiring look to Nike. Getting up from the ground, Nike hooked her yoyo back onto her belt and walked up to Kishi.

"The akuma calls herself Frightningale and, from what I can tell, if she hits you with her whip you'll have to sing, dance, or rhyme or you'll be frozen like those guys down there." Nike explained, pointing down to some pink statues inside the building.

"Never seen you use the yoyo in combat before." Kishi pointed out.

"I really don't want to rhyme." Nike said before jumping through the hole in the glass, landing directly onto Frightningale.

Kishi couldn't help but agree with that, since French was not her first language and she would undoubtedly have trouble constantly rhyming. She didn't know if being silent would get her frozen though, and she didn't want to test it.

Jumping through the hole into the building below, Kishi did a roll as she hit the ground to lessen the impact of the floor. Quickly looking around, Kishi found Nike blocking Frightningale's attacks with her yoyo once more. Kishi extended her rod towards Frightningale's hand, but her attack was noticed and the akuma changed the target of her whipping to Kishi. Since her rod was too far extended, Kishi was forced to deal with the whip by dodging it. Kishi dodged to the right to avoid the first crack of the whip, which hit the ground where she had been standing and left a burn mark on the ground. The second she had to duck under, and the third never came since Nike managed to wrap her yoyo around Frightningale's ankle and bring her to the ground.

Rod now de-extended to a reasonable length, Kishi leaped at the akuma and made a stab at her wand-whip with her rod. Frightningale moved the wand just enough for Kishi's attack to miss and hit the floor beneath them. A second later, Kishi was caught off guard as Frightningale twisted her body to hook her ankle behind Kishi's neck, the akuma then pushed Kishi's chin directly into the concrete. 

The magic of the miraculous kept the attack from doing any real damage, but it still hurt quite a bit.

"Forget about me, Clara?" Nike said from behind where Kishi was entangled with the akuma. A second later, Kishi heard an impact and Frightningale was sent flying off of Kishi and into the side of one of the many trucks inside the building.

Kishi stood up while rubbing her chin. "Thanks." Kishi said to her partner.

"No problem," Nike grinned at her, "How have we not gotten hit yet?" 

"Don't jinx it." Kishi responded as she turned back to Frightningale to see the pink whip directly in front of her face.

Kishi felt the pink whip slap her across the face and her body started glowing pink light.

"Ah shit, we got hit." Nike cursed, and Kishi was unsure if she rhymed on purpose or not. 

"Sing, dance, or rhyme, or you'll be frozen in no time!" Frightningale rhymed, doing a little spin.

Kishi thought carefully before she spoke, "This is really bad for me," Kishi whispered to Nike, "French isn't my first language you see.

Nike seemed to think for a second, "Try being silent, the effect may stay absent." Nike suggested, "And don't forget to dance, we still have to save France." Nike began doing a little wiggle with her body which apparently counted as dancing. Kishi began to mimic Nike's little wiggle so she didn't freeze.

"This is no cause for alarm," Nike said, "Because I still have my Lucky Charm!" Nike threw her yoyo in the air and a bottle of spice fell into her hand. Kishi looked at the bottle in her partner's hand, it was labeled Thyme.

"A bottle of Thyme? At least it makes for an easy rhyme." Nike said as she looked around the building.

Kishi turned her attention back to Frightningale, who had a purple butterfly visor over her face and a nasty grin. Kishi gritted her teeth and charged at the akuma. However, she was forced to stop when her arm began to turn into pink crystal. Kishi stopped her charge and began doing the stupid wiggle-dance once again and her arm turned back to flesh.

How could she fight if she had to constantly dance, sing, or rhyme?

Kishi knew she had 2 options, dance while fighting or sing while fighting. Dancing to no music while also fighting sounded incredibly impossible, so Kishi really only had one option.

Start singing in the middle of an akuma fight.

Kishi flicked her gaze to the corner of the room where a group of civilians were hiding, she had been hearing their whispers all battle due to her enhanced senses. Alya Césaire was peaking around the corner of one of the trucks and filming this whole thing on her phone. If she sang it would definitely go viral.

Oh well, she didn't have time to worry about that right now.

"I have a plan and it is dope," Nike said, still doing her wiggle, "I need you to throw her into that rope." Nike pointed to the rope that was used to separate the lines for the event, "Then you need to cover her face with this spice, then we should be able to put this akuma on ice." Nike tossed the bottle of Thyme to Kishi.

Kishi nodded to her partner and Nike ran back to the ropes, probably to prepare them for her plan.

Kishi looked around and took note of her surroundings. Frightningale was about 8 steps in front of her and Nike and the ropes were about 5 steps behind her. Frightningale was about half a foot taller than her and had her whip in her hand. Kishi could do this with ease.

Kishi closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and began to sing. Kishi didn't have a plan for what she would sing, she just sang. So Kagami sang the song that she knew best, a Japanese lullaby that her mother used to sing to her before bed. Her mother hadn't sung the song since Kagami was 11, but the lyrics were still ingrained in Kagami's head. The first 2 verses of the song told the story of Tomoe Gozen, the female warrior known for her strength and bravery in a time when female warriors were not well accepted. Tomoe Gozen was the role model of the Tsurugi family, a fact that the third verse made apparent. The third verse sang how a Tsurugi must be as strong as Tomoe Gozen and as brave as her. 

It was a song that rang through Kagami's head often.

As Kagami began to sing the first verse, she kept her eyes closed and took a step forward.

One step, two steps, three steps. Kagami heard the crack of a whip and the sound of the air moving for the whip. The whip was coming, aimed at her left side. Kagami held up her rod to block the attack and felt the force of the whip hit her rod.

Four steps, 5 steps  6 steps. The whip cracked again. It was higher this time, aimed for her head. Kagami blocked it with her rod once again. She heard Frightningale say something, but she ignored it.

7 steps and 8 steps. Kagami reached out and grabbed the akuma by the collar. Kagami then broke the lid off the bottle of thyme with her thumb and poured the spice into the face of the akuma.

"AAAUUGG!" Frightningale screamed as the spice entered her eyes and nose.

Kagami then opened her eyes, turned, and threw the akuma towards Nike.

Frightningale sailed through the air into the divider ropes. As the akuma landed, Nike wrapped the ropes around the blinded akuma. As the akuma writhed in pain from the spice in its face, Nike wrapped the entire line of divider ropes and poles around the akuma. Frightningale was completely trapped in a ball of ropes and poles.

Kishi stopped singing as the first verse of the song ended and began doing the little wiggle-dance thing again. She watched as Nike fished under the divider ball for the whip-wand. It took a second, but Nike pulled it out and cracked it over her knee, causing the purple butterfly to appear from the object.

Nike made eye contact with Kishi and Kishi knew what she wanted. Kishi threw over the empty spice bottle to her partner.

"Miraculous Nike Rouge!" Nike said as she threw the spice bottle into the air where it exploded into thousands of magical butterflies that flew around and fixed the damage the akuma had caused. Kishi was freed from the rhyming curse, the frozen people were returned to normal, the smashed roof was fixed, and the rope dividers were placed back where they belonged. Frightningale dissolved in the bubbly way akumas do, leaving a girl in colorful clothing in her place.

As Nike captured the akuma, Kishi turned her gaze to where the Ladyblogger was standing. She was still filming. Kishi walked over to the girl, the girl's face turned into a smile as Kishi got closer.

"Kish Noir, hi, I'm Alya Césaire, owner of the Ladyblog. If possible could you stick around for an interview?"

"Were you live streaming?" Kishi asked, ignoring the girl's question.

Alya shook her head, "No, I don't live stream akuma battles anymore just in case something bad happens." Alya responded.

Thank God. Kishi thought before speaking again, "Mute the part where I sing, having people know I speak another language could risk my secret identity."

Alya gave Kishi a smile and a thumbs-up, "You got it, but can I get an interview in return?"

Kishi thought about that, it wouldn't hurt anything and it was the least she could do. "Sure, but not today." Kishi promised, "I'll call you when it's convenient for me."

With that, Kishi made her way back to Nike and the akuma victim.

"Kishi's key trait is her complete confidence in battle," Nike was saying to the de-akumatized girl, "Also, she's not silent all the time, if it's something important, like battle plans or information about the akuma, she won't hesitate to speak up."

Kishi raised an eyebrow at her partner. What was she saying?

"Kishi, meet Clara Nightingale." Nike said, gesturing to the de-akumatized girl, "She's making a music video on the heroes of Paris and needed more info on our personalities for her video since we don't really interact with the public much." 

"Nike Rouge, your information has been a godsend," Clara jumped in, "but I'm wondering if Kishi Noir has anything to say about her friend?"

Kishi thought for a second, a few of Nike's traits stuck out in her mind.

"She's a complete battle maniac, obsessed with finding a good fight." Kishi explained, "And if a fight bores her or scares her, she ends it really fast. When she's in a good battle she has this really big grin on her face." 

"Ok, ok, enough exposing me!" Nike jumped in, "Alright Clara, I'll go deal with your little filming issue. You continue your audition." Knowing Nike, that meant she was going to threaten a government official.

"Thank you both so much, you really are the best. I shall make this video the best of my career, I'll work without rest." Clara said as Kishi and Nike began to walk away.

As the superhero duo walked out of the venue together, Nike turned to Kishi, "So what was that song about?"

Kishi sighed, she had been hoping Nike would ignore that, "Frightningale said I could sing, dance, or rhyme. I decided singing was my best option."

"Understandable, anyway I gotta go." Nike said as they stepped outside.

"Don't get arrested." Kishi said as her partner's earnings beeped.

"I'll try not to, later Kishi!" Nike threw her yoyo and swung off towards City Hall. 

Kishi vaulted onto the rooftops and made her way back to her house, she needed to get back to her kendo practice.

_____________________

After threatening the mayor of Paris, Alix made her way back to the audition. Detransforming in a nearby alleyway before she snuck in through the back of the venue.

Alix was stretching as she walked back into the main room of the venue, all that yoyo swinging had tired her arms out. Some of Clara's staff were watching her but Alix ignored them and walked over to her friends. Mylene and Alya were in the extras line again while Rose and Juleka had made it to the front of the Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir lines respectively, Rose was also the only one in the Nike Rouge line. They had probably taken advantage of the fact that everyone ran away when the akuma appeared to make it to the front. Clara was off to the side of the stage on the phone with somebody.

"Hey." Alix said as she rejoined Mylene and Alya in the extras line.

"Alix! Where were you?" Mylene asked.

"We haven't seen you since the akuma appeared." Alya added.

"Fell asleep in my hiding spot." Alix lied as she ducked under the ropes, "Why are we still lined up, didn't the mayor say Clara couldn't film?" Alix said, feinting ignorance.

"That's what we're wondering, Clara told us to line up again, but she's been on the phone for the past 10 minutes." Alya explained.

Just as Alya explained this, Clara took the phone away from her face, put it in her pocket, and took out her microphone. "I have good news my fans, we can continue with my plans!" Clara said in the microphone, "It's Nike Rouge we owe for the ability to combine this show. Now let's not waste this chance, come up here and show me how you dance!" Clara waved her hand at the Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir lines, although she did look a little nervous when she saw the nearly empty Nike Rouge Line.

Rose and Juleka walked up onto the stage and Clara's face lit up, "Oh, I remember you two! You wanted to show me what your combined talents could do!" 

"Hi, I'm Rose!" Rose said for introduction, "and this is my girlfriend Juleka."

"Oh how fitting," Clara responded, "Now let's see your acting."

Alix ignored that comment. People had been shipping Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir together since their first battle, and nothing was going to end it. Alix figured the best thing she could do was ignore it.

"Alright, I'll go first." Rose said, stepping to the center of the stage.

Alix watched with interest as Rose closed her eyes and took a breath. Alix had seen Rose act in a few school plays and she had been pretty good. Alix was also a little more interested than most since Rose was going to be playing Nike Rouge, her alter ego.

Rose released her breath and opened her eyes, instantly turning to the punching bag and entering a battle stance. At first, it looked like a lot of the other performances, at least until Rose threw her first punch at the punching tower.

As her strike landed, Rose's mouth twisted into a super wide grin, one that Alix knew well. It was the same kind of grin she often saw when watching footage Alya had gotten of Nike Rouge's fights. It was the same grin that Alix got when fighting a fun opponent as Nike Rouge.

While Alix was a bit miffed that that stupid grin was her defining feature, she had to admit it made Rose's performance the best one yet.

"That all you got?" Rose taunted the punching tower, "My grandma would make a better villain than you!"

Alix had used that insult last week when dealing with a bodybuilder akuma, she had gotten punched through 3 walls for it. Although the insult didn't work for Rose, Alix had met Rose's grandmother and she definitely would have made a better villain than that guy.

Rose punched the tower a few more times before moving behind the tower and grabbing the opposite side of where Hawkmoth's face was taped on and slamming it into the floor.

That made it official, this was the best Nike Rouge impersonation. Alix loved smashing akuma's faces into things.

As Rose let the tower right itself back to the upright position, she dropped the battle-grin for her usual inviting smile and she gave a bow to Clara.

"That was incredible, I must commend," Clara said, clearly happy with Rose's performance, "Now let's see the talents of your girlfriend!"

As Juleka picked up the replica of Kishi's rod they used for the audition, Rose walked over and whispered something into her ear. A smile grew on Juleka's face as Rose said whatever it was. Rose went to stand by Clara and Juleka moved to stand in front of the punching tower on the stage.

Alix watched as Juleka closed her eyes and took a deep breath, holding the rod in her hand. Suddenly, Juleka's expression shifted to a confident look as she changed her stance to a battle one. The look wasn't exactly the same as Kishi's, but it was pretty darn close. 

Without opening her eyes, Juleka swung at the punching tower. The punching tower swung to the side from the strike. Before the tower had an opportunity to right itself, Juleka went for another attack, this time aimed at the top of the tower which connected despite the top of the tower having swung half a meter to the left from the first attack. Juleka's next attack was a stab, aimed directly at the Hawkmoth face taped to the punching tower. The rod pierced straight through the paper and the leather covering of the punching tower, the sawdust that filled the tower began leaking out as Juleka removed the rod. Only then did Juleka open her eyes, her glare at the punching tower definitely fit the role of Kishi Noir.

Unfortunately, the glare fell away a second later as Juleka's face morphed into a worried expression, probably because she broke the punching tower. As Juleka began muttering something, Clara jumped onto the stage and threw an arm around her shoulder.

"After seeing so many great factors, I must choose you two as my actors!" Clara said into her microphone, "Now that you are my dozen candidates, we must get you into your outfits." Clara gestured to one of the trucks inside the venue and one of Clara's staff guided the two girls into one of the rooms, probably to get them fitted.

"Good job guys!" Alya yelled out to the two girls.

"We knew you could do it!" Alix yelled as Rose and Juleka turned to them, Rose with a huge grin on her face while Juleka had a small, but bright, smile, they were both really happy. Rose gave them a double thumbs-up before they disappeared into the changing trailer.

"Now the rest of you can go, or staying is fine," Clara said, talking to the rest of the people in the Kishi Noir line before turning her attention to the extras line, "We shall now start with the extras line." 

___________________

A couple of weeks later the class gathered in the library to watch the finished music video. Nathaniel and Max hadn't shown up, neither had Chloe or Sabrina. Well, Chloe hadn't been invited.

The class pulled up the library chairs around the library's TV to watch it. There weren't enough chairs for everyone so Alix and Adrien ended up standing to the side and Rose sat on the floor between Kim and Marinette.

The video started with a short battle of Ladybug and Chat Noir battling against a made-up akuma, it showed Ladybug collect the akuma and heal the city. All in time with the music of course. It showed small recreations of some of Ladybug and Chat Noir's more memorable battles, like Copycat, Princess Fragrance, and Dark Cupid. The kiss from the Dark Cupid fight was in time with a line that said 'love, always so strong' which Alix thought was fitting.

Then it showed Dark Owl and the villain seeing their civilian identities, which was symbolized by their masks falling off their faces and accompanied by softer music. Dark Owl then vanished and Ladybug and Chat Noir were shown as 2 silhouettes holding the masks in their hands. 2 more silhouettes walked into the frame and Ladybug and Chat Noir handed the masks to them, accompanied by a verse of soft singing. The camera followed the 2 new silhouettes as they walked away from Ladybug and Cat Noir, put on the mask, and jumped into an akuma fight, revealing themselves to be Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir.

The video showed a few short recreations of Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir's fights before the final chorus came, Alix saw herself in the background in a few of those. During the final chorus, all 4 heroes came on screen to charge against Hawkmoth and have a fight. The video ended on a freeze-frame of Hawkmoth wrapped in Ladybug and Nike Rouge's yoyos while Chat Noir and Kishi Noir held their rods to his neck.

"That was so awesome!" Rose squealed, jumping up from the floor.

Alix had to agree, it was pretty dope. Adrien and Marinette had played Ladybug and Chat Noir really well, Rose and Juleka also did fantastic jobs. They really captured the fun that Nike Rouge had with a good akuma fight and Kishi's confident personality.

Music wasn't half bad either.

"Girl, that was awesome!" Alya said, crushing Marinette into a hug.

"It was really fun too, especially since I got to work with all of my best friends." Marinette said.

"Aww, Marinette!" Rose said as she joined Alya in hugging Marinette, Juleka then leaned over from the second row of chairs to join in the hug. Mylene also joined in a second later so Alix figured she should also join in, so she did.

As the hug broke apart, Adrien walked up and pulled Marinette out of her seat. "I also had a lot of fun," the model said as he dipped Marinette down, "But hugging is boring." Adrien then kissed Marinette, deeply. Alya snapped a picture and Rose squealed.

"Get a room!" Kim shouted at the couple.

Alix moved behind Juleka and whispered in her ear, "Maybe you should try the same thing with Rose." Alix watched, very amused, as Juleka's face turned bright red as she looked at Rose.

It was a fun day

Chapter Text

Alix had no idea how Adrien managed to convince his father to reserve an entire row of front-row seats for his friends. While she knew next to nothing about the fashion industry, she was pretty sure having a large chunk of the front row seats occupied by fashion nobodies at an event like this was not a good thing.

Also, he put Chloé's mother, who is apparently majorly important in the fashion industry, in the second row. She got so angry by this that she stormed out, which Alix guessed would not be good for Gabriel's career.

Well, it's not like Alix cared. In fact, she almost hoped that Gabriel's career would fall into shambles because then Adrien wouldn't have to model anymore.

Seeing Gabriel Agreste as a fast-food worker would be very satisfying.  Alix thought.

As Alix began to imagine what Gabriel Agreste would look like in a McDonald's outfit, the show started.

The first model was the one everyone was waiting for, Adrien Agreste wearing the hat Marinette designed. Alix watched as Adrien walked down the catwalk with his model's strut, winking at Marinette as he walked past her. As he neared the end of the catwalk, he stopped to let the people with cameras snap pictures. 

Suddenly, there was an explosion of golden glitter at the end of the catwalk behind Adrien. After the dust settled a golden woman stood there.

"A fashion show without the queen of fashion, literally unacceptable!" The golden woman yelled, hitting her staff on the ground. Alix guessed she was probably Chloé's mother akumatized, the over-inflated ego and the annoying way she talked gave it away.

"Woah, I didn't know fashion shows had explosions!" Kim commented, looking excited.

"Kim, that's an villain." Max corrected him, "There is also a 78% certainty that she will be angry at us for being in the front row. We should evacuate immediately."

"Where is that ungrateful Gabriel Agreste?" The akumatized woman shouted, "I demand he kneel before me!"

"My father isn't here!" Adrien responded, looking like he was fully willing to throw hands with this akuma.

"Well, If fashion disaster daddy isn't here, I'll just have to settle for Agreste Junior!" The golden akuma said as she spun her staff in her hand, before pointing it at Adrien, "You're fired!" A golden beam of light emerged from the staff and struck Adrien, who turned into a golden statue, a shocked look on his face.

"Adrien!" Marinette screamed as she jumped up onto the stage, holding Adrien's petrified face between her arms.

"Ah, you're Gabriel's little contest winner, that seat should have been mine! You're fired!" The akuma shot another golden beam at Marinette, turning her into a golden statue along with Adrien.

Alright, it was time to go.

As the audience dissolved into a desperate run towards the main exit, Alix slipped out the side exit, which very few others seemed to have seen. She ran into the first door she could find before letting Tikki fly out from under her cap.

"High maneuverability and an instant win attack? This one won't be fun." Alix groaned. Not to mention the glitter, Alix hated glitter. 

"I don't think Hawkmoth makes akumas with 'fun' in mind." Tikki pointed out.

Alix knew Tikki was right, but that didn't mean she couldn't be annoyed about it. "Tikki, Spots On!"

After transforming into Nike Rouge, Alix burst out of the room and began to run back towards the catwalk.

Unfortunately, as Alix was running, she collided with someone else running in the other direction.

Alix stayed on her feet because of the balance and strength the miraculous gave her, but the civilian she ran into was knocked to the ground. Alix moved to help the person up, figuring that a superhero probably shouldn't mow somebody down and keep running.

Oh wait, it's just Kim. Alix realized, abandoning her move to help the boy up, I don't feel as bad now.

"Oh hey, Nike Rouge." Kim said, looking up from where he was laying on the floor and showing no sign of pain, "Have you seen my friend Alix? She's short with pink hair and has snakes running down her shirt sleeves. I thought I saw her running this way."

"I passed somebody like that as I entered, she was going pretty fast on some roller skates so she's probably long gone by now." Alix lied. This wasn't the first time she had to split off from her friends to go fight an villain, and also not the first time she ran into one of her friends after transforming, so she had a few excuses planned.

"Tell me which way she went, I bet I can catch up." Kim said as he got off the floor and back onto his feet, "I'm pretty fast."

Eh, it should keep him busy for the duration of the akuma fight , "I think she was going down Général Eisenhower avenue." Alix told the boy.

"Thanks, Rouge!" Kim said, shortening her name in a way literally nobody else would, before running off towards the exit. 

Alix continued moving back to the catwalk to confront the akuma, not running into anyone else along the way. Bursting through the door, Alix took a fighting stance and looked around.

Where was she?

There were a few golden and glittery statues in the room, including Mayor Bourgeois, but no akuma in sight. Alix also felt like something was missing from the scene.

Alix scanned the room once more before her eyes landed on the middle of the catwalk and realized what was missing.

Where were Adrien and Marinette?

___________________

Kagami had considered going to the fashion show where Marinette would 'make her debut', as Adrien put it, but ultimately decided not to go. She had already missed 2 Russian lessons, a fencing practice, and about 6 kenjutsu practice hours due to akumas. If she missed anything else someone may alert her mother. Kagami also had no interest in fashion, especially western fashion. So the invitation Adrien had given her sat untouched on her desk. 

The Tsurugis, despite being one of the top producers of high-quality fabric in the world, had never had much interest in fashion. Most of Kagami's clothes were made to be practical over stylish, made to allow fluid movement without discomfort with an excess of pockets built in. Kagami's go-to outfit, of which she had several sets of, had 4 pockets for hidden blades, a special anti-theft pocket for her valuables, a jacket made optimized for ripping into strips in case of a medical emergency, and shoes with special hidden blades made for slashing the Achilles tendon. 

There were also quite a few blades in her suit as Kishi Noir, but she had yet to use those in combat.

As Kagami reviewed formal Russian speech, she took a peek at the time. It was about time for the fashion show to start. Kagami sincerely hoped that Marinette did well. 

While Kagami originally did not like Marinette, thinking she was another empty-headed Adrien fangirl, but after getting to know the girl Kagami realized that she was mostly wrong. Marinette was a smart and hardworking girl. Even if she was a little bit of a clutz, Marinette was talented and worked hard to accomplish the things she set her mind to. At least that was what Kagami thought after spending some time with the girl.

As Kagami thought about Marinette, her phone alarm went off and cut off her thoughts. It was time for kendo practice. As Kagami put away her Russian study materials, her phone went off again, this time for an akuma alert. Checking it, Kagami's fist curled into a fist. A villain had appeared at the fashion show and had taken both Adrien and Marinette captive.

Oh, it's personal this time. Kagami thought as she looked around for Plagg, Where was that little cheese vacuum?

Kagami found him in his 'cheese box', which was one of Kagami's cupboards where Plagg stored his cheese. The kwami had also made a small bed in there where he often went to sleep because her room 'smelled too much like Sugarcube', as he put it. If Plagg didn't like it, that meant she used a good air freshener.

"Plagg, let's go," Kagami said to the kwami as she was assaulted with the horrid stench of his cheese, making her momentarily wonder if being Kishi Noir was worth having to deal with this smell. Plagg was laying on his back, a piece of half-eaten cheese by his side, and the 'cheese box' noticeably more empty than it was that morning.

"Ugggg," Plagg groaned, his paw thrown over his forehead, "Too much cheese… can't… move..."

Kagami raised an eyebrow at the kwami, knowing the lazy cat was full of shit.

"I've seen you eat more cheese in an hour than you have this entire morning, and you were fine." Kagami pointed out, "Come on, I've got a villain to fight."

"Welp, it was worth a shot." Plagg said, dropping the act and shoving the half-eaten cheese slice beside him into his mouth before floating out of the box, "Let's get this over with."

"Plagg, Claws out!" Kagami called, transforming into Kishi Noir. Kishi swiped the invitation off the desk and quickly read the address written on it, before leaping out the window and beginning to vault to the Grand Paris, the location of the event.

However, once Kishi had made it 3 blocks away from the Tsurugi Mansion, she watched a mass of golden light zip above the roofs of Paris. It was going so fast that Kishi Noir had no hope of catching up to it. She quickly realized that the mass was headed directly towards the Agreste Mansion, most likely going after Gabriel. 

Kishi found highly mobile villains like this incredibly irritating. Often they zipped around the city and took care of whatever petty revenges they had before going after the miraculous. Kishi herself had only encountered 2 of this type of villain themselves, but watching a few interviews of the original Parisian hero duo from the Ladyblog revealed that Ladybug and Chat Noir seemed to share her sentiment. Trying to chase these villains from place to place was a waste of time, so Kishi figured the best strategy was to try to catch them on route and force a fight that way. 

So that's what Kishi did. Standing on the highest rooftop she could find, the cat hero watched the direction of the Agreste Mansion with her rod raised like a bat, waiting for the golden glow to pass by again. It didn’t take long for Kishi to spot the golden glow zipping above the city again. Using her advanced vision, Kishi calculated the trajectory of the flying mass and swung her rod, extending it quickly as it swung. 

The swing hit perfectly, Kishi felt an impact as the rod directly hit the golden mass, causing it to explode into a large cloud of glitter. Something yellow flew from the glitter cloud and down to the streets of Paris. A second later, however, the golden glitter cloud reformed and carried on its course, seemingly undisturbed by Kishi’s attack. 

If the viillain, or what Kishi assumed was the villain, was unaffected by her attack. What had she hit? 

Kishi didn’t worry about it for long as the golden mass of glitter zipped off in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, a popular spot for villainsto set up traps or an arena for the heroes. Kishi began vaulting over to the tower, completely forgetting about whatever her rod had come into contact with.

_________________

Chloé Bourgeois was extremely lucky to survive after being knocked out of the magic transportation of Style Queen. Kishi Noir’s attack had narrowly missed Style Queen’s rose, the akumatized object and the only part of the villain unable to turn into glitter after being attacked. Instead, the attack hit Chloé directly down the middle of her body, striking her head and down her back. The unfortunate girl was immediately knocked out and accelerated to such a fast speed that Style Queen had no hope of catching the girl before she reached the ground, should the villain have bothered to try. 

Instead, the unconscious heiress flew at a downward angle directly through an open window leading to an apartment located above a bookstore. After bouncing off a well-placed mattress and through an open doorway, Chloé landed in a pile of beanbags, temporarily relocated upstairs so they would be out of the way while the flooring downstairs was being redone. 

Even after the miraculous cure swept over her and healed her horrible bruises and massive blood loss, Chloé would stay unconscious for another few hours until the bookstore owner found her and woke her up with the smell of lemon and honey tea. 

__________________

Nike Rouge stood at the top of the Eiffel tower, on top of the radio tower that topped the Parisian landmark, and looked over the city below. She was looking for signs of where the villain may have gone, such as people running through the streets in fear , an explosion of glitter, or a building collapsing into a pile of glitter. Unfortunately, Alix didn’t see any signs of the glittery villain anywhere despite her enhanced vision, but she did notice Kim running full speed through an otherwise empty street. 

A second later, something caught her eye. Something golden came out of the Agreste Mansion and flew above the rooftops of Paris with great speed. This speeding golden object suddenly exploded, probably hit by Kishi who was standing on a nearby rooftop, but soon reformed and kept on its path. Luckily for Nike, Its path seemed to be heading towards the Eiffel Tower. Alix moved down to a spot where she could see down the middle of the tower just as the golden mass touched down on one of the middle levels of the tower, revealing Style Queen in all her glittery glory. 

Nike watched as the villain hit her staff on the floor, causing a stream of golden glitter to manifest from the staff. The stream took shape and solidified into a large glitter platform with golden statues of Adrien and Marinette laying on it, their eyes closed and hands crossed over their chests. There was also a small vase between the couple’s heads and Style Queen took a golden rose from her hat and placed it in this vase, before erecting a glittery barrier around Alix’s glittery friends and the rose. 

Well, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, I’ll just have Kishi cataclysm it. Nike thought and immediately regretted it when Style Queen looked up, locked eyes with Nike Rouge, and erected a second barrier over the first one.

“Well, shit.” Alix cursed. If there were 2 barriers then cataclysm wouldn’t get them to the rose. Kishi would have to cataclysm one, run off to feed her kwami, then come back and cataclysm the other. In that time Style Queen would have erected 3 more barriers since it didn’t exactly seem difficult for her to do.

Hoping that the barrier wasn’t one of those harder than steel bullshit magic barriers, Nike Rouge jumped from her high position, aiming directly for the barrier. Landing on the barrier revealed it was a bullshit barrier and sent painful shockwaves through Nike’s legs without so much as a crack on the glittery barrier.

“You are ridiculous, Nike Rouge, utterly ridiculous if you think you can break that.” Style queen said mockingly before aiming her staff at the hero, “You’re fired!” 

Style Queen sent a golden blast at Nike Rouge from point-blank. Nike barely managed to dodge by throwing her body backwards, the beam flying just above her nose. This dodge sent Alix sliding down the circular surface of the barrier and onto the floor on the other side of the barrier from Style Queen. Quickly flipping so her feet were once again on the floor, Nike quickly moved around the barrier and went on the offensive herself, sending a punch directly at the glittery villain's face.

The punch never landed. Or it did, but not in any way Nike expected. Instead of a solid face, Nike's fist went right through the glitter, straight through the villain's face with very little resistance. The lack of a solid surface at the end of her punch sent Nike stumbling forward, directly through the legs of the glittery villain, which also crumbled away with no resistance. Trying to ignore the glitter now up her nose, Alix turned to the villain, now had no legs and only half a head thanks to Nike's attack and a pile of glitter sitting where her feet should be, nocked loose of the villain's form from her attack. Her arms, torso, and remaining half a head turned to look at her, gravity seeming to have no effect on her form.

Then the pile moved, the pile of glitter on the ground began to fly up and reassemble into Style Queen's legs and face. In a matter of seconds the villain was completely back to normal. 

“Are you fucking kidding?” Nike cursed as Style Queen laughed.

“Your pathetic little attacks can’t touch the Queen of Style! You can’t even touch me!” The villain boasted, much to Alix’s irritation.

At that moment, the cavalry arrived. Kishi Noir crashed down on the villain with her rod, spitting the villain in half and once again leaving dust on the ground, more spread out than a pile though as Kishi's attack spread the glitter around the area.

“She’s immune to physical attacks.” Nike informed her partner, watching the pile of glitter on the floor begin to move back to Style queen.

“That… is a problem.” Kishi responded. They both knew that their best strategy involved hitting the villain until they hit the object broke or the villain gave up, having an invulnerable enemy and an inaccessible object posed a real problem.

Alix figured she should probably use this time to call her “Lucky Charm!” Alix called out, tossing her yoyo up into the air. A second later, a large, cylindrical, glass jar with ladybug spots fell into her hands. It seemed a little familiar, but Alix couldn’t place it.

As Nike considered the use for the tall jar, Style Queen reformed in front of the duo, “Your efforts are ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! Give up now and I’ll help you redo those horrid outfits.” The villain said in an attempt to negotiate, which completely failed because Nike liked her outfit quite a bit, and Alix had the feeling that Kishi didn’t care all that much.

As Nike thought about what she could do with the jar, she realized where she had seen it before. The mysterious old man had many of these jars in the room on the other side of the trapdoor in the catacombs, some kind of kitchen Alix guessed. Was her lucky charm telling her to visit the old man? Alix was aware that he had been the one to sneak the miraculous in her bag, so he was obviously important, but Alix had no idea what else he had. Also, Nike couldn’t just leave Kishi to fight Style Queen alone, it was too much of a risk. Alix needed to reduce the risk Style Queen posed before she could leave Kishi alone with the villain. 

After thinking about it for a second, Nike Rouge had a plan. Making eye contact with Kishi, Nike gave her partner a signal, Alix tapped her head and pointed to the villain . Get her head. Then, the two heroes charged. Nike went at Style Queen head-on while Kishi circled around to get behind the villain. Nike removed the jar’s lid as she ran and stuck it in her pocket and placed the jar under her elbow.

“Insolent brats!” the villain shouted as she pointed her staff at Nike, “You're fired!” A beam of glitter light was shot at Nike, who dodged under and ran under the villain's arm. 

Alix punched Style Queen in the elbow holding the staff, severing the arm from the rest of the villain's body. As the staff and severed upper arm began to fall to the floor, Nike grabbed the staff before it hit the ground and turned into a dust pile.

Just as Nike caught the staff, she felt a rain of glitter fall onto her back, which she assumed was Kishi blowing the villain's head apart. While Style Queen was unable to properly combat her, due to having no head, Alix took the glittery staff and jammed it top first into the jar. The staff began to dissolve into a pile of glitter as it hit the bottom of the jar. After stuffing as much of the staff into the jar as possible, including the hand style queen had been holding it with, Alix grabbed the lid out of her pocket and placed it back onto the jar, trapping the glitter inside so it couldn’t return to the villain and regenerate back into a staff. At least, that's how Nike hoped it worked. 

Alix turned to Kishi, “I’ll be right back, keep her busy for me.”

Kishi swung her staff at Style Queen’s half regenerated head, scattering it once more and making the villain's legs stomp with rage. “Be back quick, they’re dissolving.” Kishi pointed at Marinette and Adrien behind the double barriers, their feet collapsed into a loose pile of glitter.

Nike nodded before taking a running jump off the side of the tower. Alix kept the jar in one arm as she swung over Paris towards the old man's house. She then found an empty street about 5 blocks away from her destination and slipped through the sewer cover there. Once in the sewers, Nike tossed the jar full of glitter into the murky liquid, hopefully ensuring that Style Queen couldn't get her staff back even after Nike detransformed and the jar disappeared. Alix turned a few corners before detransforming, just in case.

Alix then made her way to the ladder that led to the street that the old man's house was on. Alix had memorized the layout of the sewers a few years back when used the walls down here as a practice canvas for her art, but now she had the art room at school and she would just buy an art studio once she left school. Alix refused to paint down here again, it smelled terrible. Alix had recently refreshed herself on the layout since it seemed useful knowledge to have while moonlighting as a superhero. Alix exited the sewer after checking that nobody would see her.

After locating the old guy's house, Alix realized that it was also a massage shop, so she just walked in. The waiting room was decorated with Chinese art and only had a couple of chairs, which were empty. Alix rang a bell that was sitting on a small table near a closed door.

"Coming!" Called out a voice that Alix recognized. A second later the door opened and a short man with grey hair in a floral print shirt walked out. Alix caught a look of shock on his face as he saw her, but it was quickly replaced by a salesman's smile, "Hello young lady, do you need something?"

Alix raised an eyebrow at the man. She wasn't buying his act.

The man sighed, "Come in Nike Rouge, I'm guessing you came for a reason." The man turned around and walked farther into the building, gesturing for Alix to follow him. Alix followed.

The man led Alix to a room that was decorated with a few simple objects, a couple of dressers, a few Chinese objects, an old-fashioned record player, and a mat in the center. It was probably the room used for his massage business. The old man sat on the mat with his legs under him and Alix sat across from him with her legs crossed. 

“First of all,” the man said, adopting a serious expression to his face, “How did you figure out I was the one who gave you the miraculous?”

“There were only so many people who could have snuck that box into my bag between my house and when I noticed the box at school, and a wise old man who watched me save my friend from harassment seemed like the most likely option.” Alix explained as quickly as she could, she needed to get back to Kishi. 

“I see, and you know where I live because of my trapdoor.” the old man said, stroking his beard, “I assume your Lucky Charm sent you here?”

“Got it in one, old man.”

“I see.” The man then stood up and walked over to the old-fashioned record machine. He then opened a hidden plate on the front of the device. He pushed some buttons and the device opened up to reveal a black and red box that looked very similar to the box the ladybug miraculous had come in. The man picked it up and sat back down across from Alix. As the old man placed his hands over the top of the box, it opened up to reveal many more miraculous. “Nike Rouge, pick an ally you can trust to fight alongside you on this mission. Choose wisely, such powers are meant to serve the greater good. Once the mission is over, you must retrieve the miraculous from them and return it to me.” the old man told her.

Alix looked at all the various pieces of magic jewelry before her, there were a lot of choices and Alix couldn’t choose. Not because she had trouble doing so but...

“I have no idea what any of these do,” Alix admitted, “except for the fox, I know what that one does.” Alya wouldn’t shut up about Rena Rouge to this day despite her only appearing one time and probably never again, Alix for one was sick of it, and everyone knew that Nino was a little jealous. 

“Do you want the long version or the short version?” The old man asked her. 

“Very short version.” 

The old man began pointing to each miraculous individually, “Barrier, illusions, freezes target, split into many small versions of yourself, see target’s dream, disrupt enemy powers-” That one caught Alix’s attention, disrupting Style Queen’s powers may be just what they need to defeat her. 

Alix picked up the gold circlet that the old man had pointed to, “I’ll take this one."

"Ah, the monkey miraculous. A powerful ability indeed." The old man said.

"The money miraculous hu..." Alix knew exactly who she was giving this to.

__________________

Nike Rouge found Kim near the Trocadéro Gardens, resting on a bench. He had probably run here full sprint hoping to catch up to Alix, who had never gone this way to begin with. The rest of the garden was empty, evacuated due to the villain deciding to use the nearby Eiffel Tower as her base. The bench Kim was sitting at was also out of view from the tower due to a tree, so there was no chance of being spotted by Style Queen, or by extension Hawkmoth, so Kim’s identity would be safe. 

“Hey, dude.” Nike said in greeting as she landed in front of him. 

“Nike Rouge! Are you sure Alix went this way? I can’t find her.” Kim blinked a few times, “Wait, shouldn’t you be fighting the villain?”

“Actually, that's why I’m here.” 

Kim’s eyes went wide at this statement, “Oh my god, am I the akuma?” Kim began examining his body to make sure that he was not a villain in spandex. 

“Of course not.” Nike hit Kim on the side of the head, “I need your help.”

“From me?” 

“From you.” Alix fished the black and red box that the old man had placed the monkey miraculous in out of her pocket and held it out to Kim, “This is the miraculous of the monkey, which gives the power to mess with powers. I need you to help me defeat Style Queen using this miraculous, and then you have to give it back to me afterwards. Got it?”

“Sure, I’m all for being a superhero.” Kim said, grabbing the box. As Kim opened the box, a bright orange light emerged from it and began zipping around Kim before solidifying into a Kwami. Kim poked the Kwami with his finger, “So what's this little plush monkey?”

“I’m no plush, my name’s Xuppu, you nitwit!” The kwami yelled at Kim before sticking out its tongue. 

“My name's not nitwit, It’s Kim!” Kim then grabbed the sides of his mouth, pulled them out, and began flopping around his tongue at the kwami. 

The two then went back and forth making the dumbest faces and accompanying noises possible at each other. Alix considered joining in but decided that since she did that often as Alix, it would risk revealing her identity.

“Get on with it.” Alix said to the two moronic monkeys. 

“Geez, alright.” Xuppu said, “You say Show Time to transform and Nap Time to detransform. Say Uproar and spin the Ruyi Jingu Bang and an object will appear, throwing this object at the enemy will mess up their powers.” Xuppu said very fast and blandly as if he was reciting something he found thoroughly uninteresting, “Got it?”

Kim gave a thumbs up.

“Good, now transform!” Xuppu demanded as Kim placed the circlet onto his head. 

“Xuppu, Show Time!” Kim shouted. Xuppu was sucked into the circlet and a few seconds later Kim stood in what was basically a Sun Wukong cosplay of the highest degree. 

“Alright, let’s go, monkey king.” Nike said, grabbing him by the collar and swinging off the ground. 

“Actually, I think I’m going to go with King Monkey.” Kim said.

“That's the same thing.” Alix pointed out. 

“No, it’s not.” 

______________________

Kishi ended up having more trouble with the unarmed Style Queen than she had expected. Without her weapon, the villain resorted to using her speed form to slam Kishi into walls and hope the ring fell off. It didn’t work, but it still hurt. After being slammed against the wall by a speeding ball of glitter 8 times, Kishi had learned how to dodge the villain's speedy attacks. Even if she found herself unable to dodge an attack, a well-placed strike from her weapon would halt the villain long enough for Kishi to get out of the way. It was exhausting though, and Kishi knew she couldn’t keep it up forever. 

As Kishi did a backflip to avoid another attack from Style Queen she noticed Nike return to the fight, along with someone else. Another hero by the looks of it, his head was about at Nike’s level even while squatting, which he was doing for some reason, and wore a costume with obvious inspiration from Sun Wukong, the monkey king from Chinese mythology. Kishi hadn’t been aware that there were other miraculous, but it made sense. Creation, destruction, and evil butterflies didn’t exactly seem like a good trio.

Style Queen’s attacks stopped as she took a human shape once again. “What did you do with my staff?” Style Queen yelled at Nike. 

“Oh, that? I tossed it into the sewers.” Nike answered with a vague gesture behind her.

“Pft-” Kishi couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, which gave Nike a look of great amusement.

“You-you-” Style Queen said with her one remaining fist clenched.

“So what’s this lady's deal?” The new hero asked Nike. 

“You know the logia fruit from One Piece?” Nike asked. 

“Of course, I’m caught up with the show.” the new hero responded, sounding weirdly proud about it.

“It’s that but with glitter.” Kishi failed to understand the reference, and Style Queen raised an eyebrow at this description of her powers.

The new hero was quiet for a second, “Have you tried using glue?” he asked.

“Actually, I hadn’t thought of that. Lucky Charm.” Nike tossed her yoyo into the air and a second later a large bottle of glue dropped into her hands. Nike proceeded to open the bottle and poured the glue all over her fist, “Kishi, get ready!” Nike shouted before charging at Style Queen. 

Before Nike reached her, Style Queen dissolved her human shape and rushed at Nike, sending the ladybug hero slamming into one of the tower’s support beams. Unfortunately for the villain, a good amount of glitter stayed attached to Nike’s hand, which then dripped off into a pile of glue and glitter on the floor. As this happened, Kishi moved to stand next to the barrier holding Adrien and Marinette.

As Style Queen reformed, she was missing her left ear and a decent part of her left cheek, “Ha! Your little plan didn’t- AH!” The villain grabbed at the missing chunk of her head as she realized it was gone.

“King Monkey, you're up.” Nike said, pointing at the pile of glitter glue on the floor. 

“Alright, Uproar!” King Monkey shouted, spinning his staff and tossing it up into the air. When it fell to the ground a plush rabbit also fell into his hands. King Monkey then tossed this plush directly into the pile of glitter glue. 

As Kishi began to raise an eyebrow at this strange action, Style Queen began to explode. Her left leg dissolved and shot into the sky, her handless arm and a good chunk of her torso also changed into a glitter blob and began zipping around the area. Her remaining leg and torso then dissolved into a pile of dust, which her head fell onto. “What did you do to me?!” The villain shouted with rage as the double-layered barrier transformed into a simple picket fence. Marinette and Adrien, legs restored but still glitter statues, got up and began dancing the tango. Adrien held the golden rose in his mouth as he and Marinette danced 

Kishi blinked at the strangeness of it all. What was happening?

As Adrien dipped Marinette, they froze into statues once more. This allowed Kishi to restore her composure and she grabbed the rose out of Adrien’s mouth. “Cataclysm.” Kishi said, causing the golden rose to dissolve in her hand and the dark butterfly to flutter out. 

“That was awesome.” Nike said as she walked over and snatched the akuma out of the air with her yoyo.

“That was strange.” Kishi responded. 

“But still awesome.” Nike argued as she tossed the glue bottle into the air, “Miraculous Nike Rouge!” 

The magical ladybugs swept up the mess that Style Queen had made, including the akumatized woman herself who had been sitting on the ground confused. Marinette and Adrien had also vanished, most likely transported back to the Grand Paris. 

“That was cool but much less eventful than I imagined being a hero would be. I imagined more intense chases and whacking people with my staff.” King Monkey said, swinging his staff like a bat to emphasize his point.

“The actual danger from this villain was mostly resolved by the time you got here, but we just didn’t have any way to bring her down.” Kishi explained before turning to Nike, “I want an explanation soon.”

Nike shot Kishi a thumbs up before turning to King Monkey, “It’s more eventful when you’re doing this every day, which you will not be doing.” Nike grabbed King Monkey by the back of his collar and took her yoyo off her hip before turning to Kishi, “I need to find a spot where this guy can take off his miraculous and get back to what he was doing before. I’ll text you an address where you can get everything explained, but you have to go as a civilian for security reasons. see ya.” With that Nike swung off, carrying King Monkey by the collar. 

Kishi then began vaulting back home, she had kenjutsu practice to get to.

______________________

The fashion show began where it left off before the akuma attack, basically the beginning. Alix was sitting by Kim once more and found it very funny how obviously full of energy Kim was, but any attempt to ask him why was met with an unconvincing ‘What? I’m not excited.’ Alix had returned the monkey miraculous to the old man, whose name was apparently Wang Fu, and promised to return after the show to get a proper lesson on what the miraculous are capable of. Tikki also seemed to really want to talk to Fu about what Alix had done during Soloist, the whole manipulating the miraculous energy deal. However, supporting Marinette came first, Alix was cool like that. 

The strangest thing happened just after the show started though. Gabriel appeared and wrapped Adrien in a hug. The entire audience was shocked, and the ones who had cameras took many pictures, and Adrien seemed to melt into what was probably the only affection from his father all year. It was heartwarming, but also a little sad. 

After the show, Alix found herself standing outside the building waiting for Marinette and Adrien alongside her other not-famous friends. At one point during their wait, Sabrina came by to ask if anybody had seen Chloé, which nobody had. It took about half an hour for Marinette and Adrien to finally emerge from the building, and about 15 more minutes to wave off the press and paparazzi.

“Guys, guess what?” Marinette said, practically vibrating with excitement. 

“What happened girl?” Alya responded.

“Audrey Bourgeois invited me to work for her in New York!” Marinette squealed, causing a gasp from Alya. 

“Oh my gosh! That's incredible!” The reporter said with excitement.

“That’s so cool Marinette.” Mylene said with a smile as Ivan wrapped Marinette in a hug. 

Soon enough everyone circled Marinette, congratulating her and making plans for a goodbye celebration, all but 3 that is. 

Alix, Rose, and Juleka shared worried expressions, well Rose’s expression was less worried and more ‘about to burst into tears’. The girls remembered very well all of Chloé’s tantrums about her mother, none of which painted a very pretty picture of the woman. Kim, Nino, and Marinette had joined the school the year after Chloé had stopped these tantrums so they weren’t aware of just how bad Audrey Bourgeois was. Alix knew that Chloé and Marinette were very different, both in how they reacted and who they were as people, so Marinette would probably be fine, but she was still worried. If Audrey treated her daughter as badly as she did, how would she treat Marinette? 

It was then that Rose walked up, wrapped Marinette in a hug, and started crying. This caused Kim to also cry, and then Mylene and Ivan joined the waterworks.

“Bunch of crybabies.” Alix muttered, holding back her own tears

“You guys don’t have to be so worried,” Adrien said, “I’m going with her.”

“How did you convince your dad?” Nathaniel asked. 

“I told him that if he didn’t let me I would stop modeling and make him pay me for my work.” Adrien explained, “He didn’t seem happy but agreed as long as Gorilla went with me.”

“I’m gonna miss you, bro.” Nino said, wrapping Adrien in a hug.

Eventually, the hugfest ended and the group left for the Liberty for a celebration party. 

It was a while before Alix ended up returning to Fu’s shop. 

_____________________

Chloé had no idea where she was or how she had got there. She was lying on a pile of variously colored beanbags. The walls were bright orange and dotted with photos of people Chloé didn’t recognize. One thing Chloé did recognize was the smell of lemon and honey tea, it was one of her favorite drinks, she often drank it whenever she had an exhausting day. Chloé had ordered her butler to have a large amount of the tea ready for when she returned home that day. 

“Oh, you’re awake.” A man’s voice said from her left. Turning to the voice, Chloé saw a tall man with long, dirty blond hair standing at a stove in a small kitchen making the tea that she had been smelling.

“Where am I? Who are you?” Chloé asked demandingly.

“You’re in the apartment above the Mots Chaotiques Bookstore and I’m the owner, David.” The man explained, “And before you ask, I have no idea how you got here either. I was planning to check my security camera after I made this tea.” The man poured a cup of the yellow liquid into a cup, “You want some?”

“Yes.” Chloé answered. As David walked over to give her the cup, Chloé tried to remember how she had ended up here. Chloé hated reading, why was she in a bookstore?

She had been at the fashion show with her mother, trying to impress her, and…

And what?

It was all a blur. She remembered her mother getting akumatized, but not much else.

What happened with Mom?  Chloé wondered as she sipped the tea.

“Sorry for the mess, I wasn’t expecting visitors.” David said suddenly, breaking Chloé out of her thoughts. She hadn’t noticed a second ago, but the apartment was a mess. There were books stacked up in dangerously high piles all over the apartment and one of the rooms was stuffed full of bookshelves. Just being this close to so many books began to give Chloé a headache. 

“Here we go,” the man said, doing something on a tablet, “I found it.”

“Found what?” Chloé asked. 

“How you got in here,” David explained with a puzzled look on his face, “But it only leaves me with more questions, here.”

The man handed Chloé the tablet, which had up the security feed from a camera in the upper corner of the room. As she watched, Chloé watched herself fly into the room from a doorway offscreen, already unconscious. As the sped-up footage played, Chloé watched the yellow bean bag she had landed turn a deep red, before magical butterflies swept into the room and healed her, but leaving her unconscious. 

“So, any idea how that happened?” David asked, holding his hand out.

Chloé shook her head as she handed the tablet back to the man. How had she ended up a bloody mess inside this man’s apartment? She didn’t remember getting attacked, or much of anything for that matter.

Did Mom do this to me? Chloé wondered. The thought scared Chloé. Audrey had never been what one would call kind to Chloé, but never abusive. Even as an akumatized villain, her mother wouldn’t actually hurt Chloé, she wasn’t that bad.

Right?

“You alright?” David asked suddenly. 

“I’m fine,” Chloé snapped, “Why wouldn’t I be-” Chloé’s voice died in her throat when she realized her hand was shaking.

“Do you need help?” The man asked. 

Chloé hated that question. She didn’t need help, she was the daughter of the mayor of Paris and the greatest fashion icon in the world. She was exceptional, she was better than all of the other idiots around her. Why would she need help?

Chloé took a shaky breath, causing a look of concern from David. Chloé hated it. 

“I need to go.” Chloé said before jumping up from the beanbag. She finished off her tea in one gulp and tossed the cup to David, who wasn’t ready and let the cup fall to the floor. 

“Um, bye?” The man said, sounding a little caught off guard by Chloé’s sudden anger.

Chloé quickly located the door out of the apartment and down to the bookstore, where she left as fast as she could. What did that moron know? Chloé’s life was amazing, her parents were rich, she could do whatever she wanted, and Sabrina was as loyal as a dog. What would she need help with?

My life is great. Chloé repeated in her head, almost trying to convince herself. 

But she wasn’t convinced.

_____________________

Kishi got Nike’s message later in the evening while doing a run over the roofs of Paris. Kagami had been busy with her studies for the past 5 hours and was feeling a little restless. The address was to a massage shop on the west bank of the Seine. Kagami had transformed while in her bedclothes, so she put off visiting until tomorrow. 

After doing her usual patrol route, Kishi vaulted up to the beam of the Eiffel Tower that was both high up and made it so the tourists climbing the tower couldn’t see her. It was a good spot to peacefully enjoy the view. As Kishi Noir enjoyed the view, she realized that one of the buildings was moving.

Not just moving, growing. 

The building was covered in the purple gunk that signified the magic from the moth miraculous and was expanding rapidly. In a matter of a few seconds, the purple mass was the size of multiple city blocks and half the height of the Eiffel Tower. The mass then detached itself from the ground below and started to float upward. As it climbed higher above the city, the dark purple mana solidified into a floating island with a solid marble castle on it. As the castle floated higher, Kishi realized what building the castle had grown from.  

This castle had been the Agreste Mansion. 

Chapter Text

Gabriel made his way down to his secret basement lair, and then over to the glass coffin where his wife slept. Gabriel placed his head against the portion of the glass above his wife’s head, “He’s leaving me, Emilie.” the man whispered, “How am I supposed to keep our family together?”

Emilie, of course, did not answer. 

Gabriel sighed, stood back up, and removed his tie. “Nooroo, Dark wings rise.” Gabriel transformed into Hawkmoth. After opening the large window, Hawkmoth grabbed a nearby butterfly and charged it with dark power. 

“Fly my little akuma, but be patient, for the king is not yet ready for his crown.” Once the akuma began its flight, Gabriel canceled his transformation, “Dark Wings fall.”

As his kwami reappeared from the miraculous, Gabriel removed the moth miraculous from where it was pinned on his shirt. 

“Nooroo, I renounce you.” Gabriel said, causing the kwami to disappear, and then placed the miraculous into the box he kept nearby for just this purpose. The man then made his way out of his lair and back up into his office.

Gabriel sat at his desk and pressed the button on his desk that activated the microphone that went directly into Nathalie’s earpiece, “Bring Adrien to my office.” Gabriel caught sight of his akuma hovering outside the window of his office, waiting for sufficient amounts of negative emotion.

It wasn’t long before Adrien walked in.

_____________________________

Adrien had just finished packing his things when Nathalie called him to his father’s office. Adrien had Gorilla bring his suitcase out to the car and went to see his father. Gabriel was sitting at his desk.

“I don’t want you to go.” the man said, ignoring any greeting. He was obviously referring to going to New York with Marinette. Adrien had threatened to stop modeling and make Gabriel pay him for all his work if he wasn’t allowed to go.

“I’m aware, father.” Adrien responded. 

“You aren’t ready to go to America.” Gabriel continued.

“You're right, I’m not. But I’m going anyway.” 

This comment caused Gabriel to sigh, take off his glasses, and rub the bridge of his nose, “ … like his mother.” Adrien heard his father mutter.

“Marinette doesn’t know anyone in New York, so I want to be with her so she isn’t alone.” Adrien explained, “Also, I-”

“I understand your reasoning, Adrien.” Gabriel said, cutting him off, “I still don’t want you to go.”

“Why not Father?”

“Because you are still a child!” Gabriel exclaimed, slamming his fist down on his desk, “You don’t understand the world and the dangers of going into it.” 

“I’m not a child anymore!” Adrien retorted, “An-”

“Don’t you raise your voice at me!” Gabriel shouted, standing up from his chair. 

“And I don’t understand the world, because you won’t let me!” Adrien continued. 

Gabriel’s face twisted with rage, “I did it to protect you!” 

“All you did was cripple me!” Adrien retorted.

“I am your father, and I know what's best for you! You will stay here and return to homeschooling, modeling be damned!” Gabriel ordered. 

Adrien was done with his father. After finding out the love of his life was one of his best friends, Adrien and Marinette had sat down and talked through everything. During all those talks, Adrien realized just how little he was prepared for life. He had never been taught how to properly deal with emotions and his idea of a relationship was basic, half based on romance anime he had watched as a pre-teen. His sheltered childhood left him unprepared for the real world

He had also realized just how controlling his father was, and Adrien wasn’t having it anymore. 

“I’m going.” Adrien firmly told his father, “I’m supporting the girl I love in New York, no matter what you have to say about it.”

A look of shock crossed Gabriel’s face, followed by a look of pure rage. 

Adrien didn’t let his father get a word out before turning on his heels and walking out of the office. 

As Adrien made his way back up to his room to make a last check that he wasn’t leaving anything important behind, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. Adrien had just stood up to his father for the first time, he had told his control freak of a father no, and it felt great. Adrien felt free, freer than he had ever felt as Chat Noir. 

And then that feeling of freedom was suddenly replaced with pure fear as the black mana of an akumatization spread across the walls and floor of his room.

__________________________

Alix found Paris strangely dark as she stepped outside of Fu’s shop. The streets and house were so dark that one would think it was a new moon that night, despite it still being a few hours to sunset. Looking up, Alix found the problem. A large mass of rock was floating above her at that moment and she was standing in its shadow. 

“The hell did Hawkmoth cook up this time?” Alix mumbled to herself as she watched the large mass slowly float above her. She had never seen such an enormous akuma before. Sure, there had been some big ones before, easily larger than 4 story buildings, but none of them compared to the massive structure she saw now. This thing dwarfed anything she had ever fought, easily bigger than 9 city blocks and God knows how tall.  

Alix had a feeling this wasn’t going to be a fun akuma. 

Slipping into an alley, Alix let Tikki out from her hat. 

“I don’t think I can punch this one.” Alix stated. 

“That’s one way to put it,” Tikki responded, “The good news is that akumas with massive structures tend to be fairy physically weak. Once you find the villain within the structure, you should be able to dispatch them with ease.”

“I wish I could just punch them.” Alix grumbled, “Tikki, Spots on!” In a flash of light, Alix became Nike Rouge. 

Nike began swinging after the large structure as it floated above Paris. As she swung she noticed 2 things. First that it was slowly gaining altitude, and the second that it was headed directly towards the Eiffel Tower.

Of course, Alix thought, Everyone goes for the Eiffel Tower.

Alix sped up and beat the structure to the Tower, where she found her partner waiting for her there. 

“Hello,” Nike said in greeting, “I think it might be trying to perch on top of the Tower.” 

“That is likely,” Kishi responded, grabbing around Nike’s waist as she did so. She extended her rod straight up, lifting the duo into the sky. It wasn’t the first time Kishi had lifted her like that, but Nike still found the action a little embarrassing. Alix also noticed how hard Kishi’s muscles were under her leather jacket, but quickly turned her attention back to the task at hand. 

From her new lofty vantage point, Nike could now see what was on top of the floating island. It was a castle. The castle was made of entirely white marble. Alix didn’t know much about architecture, but she could tell that it was built to be a fortress. There was a large wall with 4 large rooks in each corner of the wall, each rook had a large flag pole on the center, each sporting a purple flag with a moth design on it. The wall surrounded a structure that looked like a large spike stuck into the ground. It was roughly diamond-shaped and started quite large at the base before all edges faded into the tower to make a circular dome at the top. This dome was a dark purple and had a window on one side. 

“Certainly an interesting design,” Kishi commented. 

“Looks kinda… phallic,” Nike added. 

“I mean, look at who this akuma is. “ Kishi said, gesturing to a spot in the distance. 

At first, Alix wondered what she was looking at, but then she noticed that a building was missing from the Parisian skyline. The Agreste Mansion was gone, the land where it should be instead sporting a massive hole in the ground, and Alix had a pretty good guess where it went.

"Ya, that guy is a huge dick." Nike agreed, "Let's go kick the shit out of him." Alix tossed out her yoyo and latched it onto one of the flagpoles. Kishi let her pole shorten to normal length as Nike tugged on the yoyo and pulled the duo towards the floating structure. As Nike got closer, she noticed that people were standing in formation at the top of the rooks. 

No, not people. Statues? 

4 white marble statues stood around the flagpole of the rook that Nike and Kishi were about to land. One had a bow and sculpted clothes that made it look like Robinhood, another was made to look like a knight and held a classic longsword, the third held a large double-bladed battle ax and had clothing made to look like a hunter who had skinned a lion and wore it as clothing, and the last was the strangest. The last one held nothing and wore only a loincloth, ew. Its head was bald and stood with its arms behind its back. Alix knew from experience that if an akuma had no visible weapon, it was packing some strange power and she assumed that also applied here. 

As Nike and Kishi landed on the battlements of the rook, they watched the statues with a close eye. The statues didn't move an inch despite the 2 girls landing directly in front of the archer statue. Kishi nodded to Nike and the due jumped from the battlements onto the same surface the statues stood on.

And that's when they activated.

The knight, hunter, and bald statues all turned their heads towards the heroines as soon as they touched the floor and the archer began reaching for its quiver. 

And they moved damn fast for stone statues.

Not half a second after landing, Alix was forced to drop to the floor to avoid the stone arrow flying towards her eye. She heard Kishi blocking a strike but didn't have time to focus on it as the hunter sent his battle-ax crashing down on her. Unable to roll out of the way in time without losing something, Nike opted to block the strike with her yoyo string. 

Blocking a strike from a battle axe with a single string was not easy by any means. Alix's muscles went into overdrive trying to ensure that the ax didn't chop her in half. It worked, but by the time the ax stopped her string had made a sizable cut into the ax and the ax was about an inch from Nike's nose.

Alix hopped up from the floor and threw the yoyo so it wrapped around the axe and, with a hefty tug, crushed the stone ax into a mass of loose rock. The hunter, now holding only a long stick, started to retreat. Nike tossed her yoyo at the fleeing statue, intending to do to it the same she had done to its ax, but her yoyo was knocked off course by a stone arrow and hit the battlements. 

Nike's eyes locked onto the archer, who already had another arrow on his string. Alix thought quick and kicked a small chunk of the ax at the archer. The rock hit the bow's string and sent the archer's shot off into the distance and Nike took the opportunity to close the gap between her and the archer. Grabbing the archer's bow in her hands, Alix snapped the stone weapon in two.

Unfortunately, this didn't seem to bother the archer and it pulled out one of its arrows and stabbed down at Nike's hands. Alix quickly pulled her hands back and backed up a few feet to consider her options. The archer and hunter were now essentially out of the fight and Kishi had just shattered the Knight's sword. The bald one still hadn't made a move and was standing back just watching. 

"Get down!" Kishi shouted. 

Nike dropped to the ground just as the hunter's large hands snatched at the area where her head had been a few seconds earlier. Shit that was close

She took the opportunity to grab the hunter's arms and judo throw the statue into the archer. Unfortunately, the hunter was heavier than she expected and didn't go very far, the hunter's feet just barely collided with the archer's knees. Luckily, this small collision was enough to knock the archer off balance. This gave Alix the opportunity to wrap her yoyo around the archer's torso and arms and crush the statue into a pile of debris. 

As Alix pulled back her yoyo, Kishi slammed her stick down onto the prone hunter, pulverizing its head and shoulders. Nike looked over to see the knight had been turned into a pile of rubble as well.

The 2 heroines tuned to the last statue, the bald one, who had yet to move an inch since the fight began. 

The bald statue then shocked them both by splitting his head open like it was a book and showing them that he had a fucking laser cannon in his face.

As the cannon fired, both girls dropped to the ground as the laser flew above their heads, hitting the battlements behind them and completely obliterating them. 

Holy shit! Alix cursed internally, Lasers?!

The statue's face closed and then continued to stare at them. 

Was that it? 

"Do you hear that?" Kishi asked, her cat ears pointed directly at the robot.

"Wait, those things work?" Kishi said, poking the leather ear, which responded by flicking as normal cat ears do.

"Of course they do, now listen." Kishi snapped.

Nike focused on her hearing, at first not hearing much except the wind and her own adrenaline-fueled heartbeat. But as her heart slowed she became aware of a slight wiring noise coming from the direction of the bald robot.

"I think it's recharging." Kishi commented.

That was enough for Nike to risk it. She charged the one remaining statue and punched it in the head so hard that it shattered and revealed the laser cannon underneath. Hopping up onto the statue's shoulders, Nike ripped the device out from the statue's neck and tossed the offending device off the side of the battlements. 

Where it exploded, sending the entire castle rumbling and Kishi holding her ears.

Nike leaped off the statue, knocking it down in the process, and walked over to her partner, "Sorry about that." Alix apologized.

"It's fine." Kishi responded, cat ears pinned to her head, "It was probably rigged to explode anyway. Also," Kishi pointed along the walls were a set of statues were coming from either direction, most likely the ones from the other rooks, "I think you got the rest of them on us."

"Great." Nike sighed, she hated army akumas.

_________________

Kishi sat on the battlements and stretched her arms. The knights had moved fast, but predictably. So while it hadn't taken too much effort to disarm them and take them out. Unfortunately, 2 at one had posed a problem and they managed to get a few hits on her arms. While her suit prevented serious damage, it still hurt and Kishi could practically feel a few places starting to bruise. The 4th knight, who had arrived with its squad after she and Nike had taken out 2 sets at the same time, only ended up wearing her down more. Her arms were sore and Nike had been rubbing her fists so the duo decided to take a breath before storming the main fortress. 

After all, they were only on the outer walls.

The structure was now floating directly above the Eiffel Tower and the view was immaculate, you could see the entire city and then some. Kishi's tail flicked to and fro as they watched the small bustle of the city below. A news helicopter flew around the floating island and Kishi could vaguely hear the newswoman talking, but she couldn't make out specifics over the spinning of the helicopter blades. 

Despite being on an akuma fortress, it almost seemed peaceful.

Almost. 

It wasn't too peaceful because the heroines didn't know what was coming and were slightly dreading it. They had taken a look at the insides of the castle walls and were dreading the upcoming fight. While there wasn't much except the base of the tower, the tower entrance was guarded by 4 sets of statues, which meant 16 statues overall. And that was just the entrance. Neither of them knew what waited inside. 

Kishi was dreading the fight, she was sure she could win but was dreading the long fight ahead. This would take hours. Kishi had to be up at 2 am tomorrow as Kagami to catch a flight with Mother over to America to make a business meeting at noon. She knew her mother would insist she practice her English the entire flight.

So, guess she wasn't sleeping tonight.

Suddenly, Nike stood up, "You ready?" She asked.

Kishi nodded. Ready as I'll ever be she thought as she also stood up.

The 2 made their way over to the middle of the battlements where they were nearly above the front gate. Kishi looked down from their vantage point, 4 sets of statues guarded the ornate front door. A set sat on each side of the door and 2 more sets sat on either side of the path you would normally enter the castle from if you didn't jump to the top of the battlements. The doors themselves were huge, easily 2 stories tall, and were cut into the slanted sides of the building itself. They were made of some purple stone with designs carved into them. What caught Kishi's eye was an inscription at the top that read, 'This fort guards family and the countless ones who protect it.'

Nike pulled her yoyo out and cracked it like she was holding a whip, though it was more of a twang sound than a crack, "I'm going to take out an entire set at once." She announced. 

Kishi raised an eyebrow.

"What? I have a yoyo so sharp that it can cut steel." Nike explained, "It's a lot more useful in combat than I first thought." 

Kishi nodded, during the last fight she had sliced one of the hunter's heads clean off and hurled it at an archer who had been pestering her. It was a good yoyo.

Kishi considered her method of attack. Unlike Nike, Kishi could only take out 2 statues max with a sneak attack. The statues stood in sets of 4, one of each type of statue in each set. Kishi could nail 2 of these statues with a plunging slash, but the question was which 2 should she take out.

After running through her options, she decided to take out the archer and knight of her group as they were the most annoying.

Kishi flashed Nike an 'ok' sign, and Nike signed back, counting down with her fingers, 'three, two, one'

They pounced. 

Kishi slammed her stick down onto unsuspecting knight and archer statues while Nike caught an entire set of statues in her yoyo before crushing them into rubble.

The knight had been the one that Kishi had landed on and it was reduced to rubble, the archer was hit by her extended rod, but not the full force of her attack. The archer's head and arms were destroyed, the main body was still intact but it fell to the ground lifeless nonetheless. Kishi immediately had to dodge the hunter's ax as it slammed down onto her, missing her but managing to reduce what was left of the archer to rubble.

During their fights on the battlements, Kishi had figured out that the bald one only shot if it was directly attacked or all other statues in its set were destroyed, assumedly to avoid collateral damage. It also didn't try to defend itself. 

Kishi took full advantage of this as she stabbed her rod directly into the laser statue's face, then extended her rod to make it completely pierce the statue. Kishi immediately retracted her rod and leaped away as the damaged laser cannon self-destructed, also taking out the hunter who was too slow to get away.

Kishi didn't get to celebrate her victory before an archer from another set had their bow aimed at her. Kishi couldn't dodge since she was still in the air from her leap and couldn't dodge, so she extended her rod directly at the archer, breaking his string as it hit and sending his arrow directly into the statue's foot where it simply bounced off. She landed on the statue, breaking its head off and causing Kishi to ride it to the floor.

Kishi took a split second to check on Nike. The ladybug hero had already taken out the hunter and was now trying to deal with the knight. The archer also lay as a pile of rubble beneath the hunter's ax, which she presumed was Nike's doing and not infighting.

Sure in her partner's safety, Kishi focused back on her own battle, where she only had 3 statues left. The knight and the hunter both charged her. Kishi quickly managed to send the knight's sword flying into the air as she dodged a downward slash from the hunter, almost losing a foot in the process. The knight, weaponless, stepped back as the hunter swung again, this time a sideswipe. Kishi saw an opportunity and dodged backward, as the ax swung in front of her she slammed her fist down on it and broke the ax before it finished the swing. The hunter immediately dropped his ax and went for a grapple, but Kishi ducked under his arms and knocked its head off with her rod. The knight's sword then began to fall to the ground, but just before it could land Kishi grabbed the stone blade from midair and threw the weapon at the knight's head. The knight was killed by his own weapon and, like clockwork, the laser statue opened its face to fire. Kishi picked up what was left of the hunter's battle-ax, just the handle and rod, and chucked it like a spear at the laser cannon. The stone rod penetrated the cannon and caused the statue to explode.

Kishi looked over to her partner, Nike's battle also seemed to be over judging by the lack of standing robots and amount of rubble.

"You ready to go in?" Nike asked.

Kishi nodded.

As the 2 heroes approached the purple door it swung open on its own, seemingly inviting them in. Kishi exchanged a look with Nike. It was obviously a trap, but what other choice did they have? If Kishi cataclysmed the entire tower Adrien could get hurt. 

So they pressed onward. The front door opened into a large room that seemed to take up the whole base of the tower. The room was mostly empty. There was a stairway on the opposite end of the room and 4 arches carved into each corner. These arches didn't seem to go anywhere, all but one of them had intricate carvings and you could only go a meter or two inside them before you were met with a stone wall.

"Welcome to my fortress heroes!" A familiar voice said from the other side of the room. Kishi watched as Gabriel Agreste walked down into the room from the stairs at the other end. The akumatized man looked strange. His hair was now a silver color matching his white marble castle and stretched all the way down to his knees. He wore a suit that looked like it was made of marble and wore a marble bowtie. Basically, the dude was marbled up.

They immediately attacked him. 

Crossing the room as fast as they could, Nike kicked the man in the side while Kishi bashed his chin with her weapon. The akuma fell off the stairs and landed on the floor where…

Where he shattered into chunks of marble.

"Should've known he would have doppelgangers." Nike grumbled. 

"How rude." Gabriel said, another one of him walking down the stairs. As soon as this one touched the ground, the stairs retracted up into the ceiling.

"Now then," Gabriel said, "Welcome to my fortress, it will be the last place you ever see." 

"Doubt that." Nike responded.

"I am Wardad, and I will make sure like my son is-" 

"Wardad? You're a werewolf?" Nike interrupted. 

Wardad blinked, "What? No, of course not. That's ridiculous, I'm the Warden-dad."

"God that's a terrible name." Nike chuckled, Kishi nodded her head in agreement,  it was a really bad name. 

"No matter!" Wardad continued, "I shall keep my son here, safe from the horrors of the world until the day he is ready!"

"I don't think you know what a warden does." Nike responded.

"Shut up." Wardad snapped. 

"How long do you plan to keep him here?" Kishi asked.

"Forever!" The akuma yelled, "I will keep him safe forever! And for the crime of trying to break him out, you shall die to the hands of my army of statues!" 

Suddenly, Kishi heard the loud marching of the statues reverberate through the room. She turned around to see that statues were walking out from the arches in the corners. Marching from out of the stone just beyond the arches were the statues, one kind from each arch. The 2 arches adjacent to the front door released the knights and archers while the arches adjacent to the stairs spit out the hunters and the bald ones.

A line of statues marched out of each arch. The 4 lines converged in the middle and the statues began to split off into sets which immediately began to attack.

The archer of the first set was the first to attack, shooting an arrow at Kishi's head. Kishi moved her head to the side to dodge and the arrow instead buried itself in the head of the Wardad statue.

Kishi charged in. 

________________

Nike smashed the head of another hunter, leaving another broken statue on the ground before having to immediately dodge another laser attack. The lazor attacks have almost become welcome at this point. She and Kishi had busted up so many statues they could never keep track, but when a laser attack came they knew they had destroyed an entire set and were hopefully making progress. 

At least that was the idea. 

In reality, every time they destroyed a set another came through the arches. The duo had tried to clogg the arches with broken statues, but the broken statues had been slowly reabsorbed by the floor and the arch was unblocked a couple of minutes later. 

Neither of them could use their powers since they were still on the first floor and, since it was an akuma's structure, there were no safe places to detransform.

As Nike smashed another statue, she began to cough. She tried to stop the coughing but she had been breathing in so much dust from these statues that it was getting a little hard to breathe.

"Watch out!" Kishi shouted, her pole shooting out and smashing a hunter who had been about to drop his ax on her.

I need to end this, fast. Alix though. Unfortunately, it was a little hard to try and make a plan when she constantly had to dodge attacks from the army of statues surrounding her.

As the coughing let up, Nike heard the sound of a laser beginning to fire. She looked up to realize that there was a laser statue standing right above her.

Having zero time to dodge, Nike took out the yoyo and spun it to make a super-fast to make a shield. As one may guess, spinning a yoyo fast enough to make a laser blocking shield was really hard, and it took up most of Nike's energy and both hands.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nike saw an archer aiming a shot at her.

Shit, As Nike continued to struggle and Kishi was also busy trying not to die, the archer fired. Nike had no time to dodge and no available limbs to catch the arrow with.

So she used her teeth. 

Alix caught the stone arrow between her teeth, feeling a few pieces of them chip off as she did so. Nike cussed to herself as she spat out the arrow, she had a dentist appointment next week. She really hoped the magic ladybugs would fix that.

As the laser faded, Nike immediately jumped up and kicked the offending statue's head off. The statue fell to the floor and the head sailed across the room and hit the hunter's arch, where it exploded. The arch cracked and its ornate carvings of hunters hunting things began to fall to the floor. A hunter that had been walking out of the stone froze before falling to the floor, only half formed.

Nike's eyes bulged, she could destroy the arches? She wished she knew that an hour ago.

Nike sought out another laser statue and immediately ripped its head off and chucked it into the hunter's arch where it exploded. This time, the entire arch collapsed, crushing a hunter or two underneath. 

"Kishi," Nike called out, "Wreck the arches!"

Alix heard a crash a bit away from her and then saw Kishi leap into the air. Her partner used various statues as platforms and hopped her way over to the archer arch and smashed it with one swing.

"How did we not figure this out sooner?" Kishi screamed in frustration.

As Kishi made her way to the knight arch, Nike decapitated a couple more bald statues and used their heads as bombs to wreck their own arch.

About ten minutes later the two heroes sat on the ground, surrounded by broken statues as they caught their breath.

"I'm so mad it was that easy." Nike said, punching the body of an archer.

"45 minutes." Kishi said, checking the screen on her rod, "That took us 45 minutes to figure out that we need to destroy the arches." 

"I'm going to kick Wardad's ass, deakumatise him, then kick his ass again." As Nike said this, the stairs to the next floor lowered down once again.

The heroes took a few more minutes rest and drank some water bottles Nike pulled out of her yoyo before heading up. Walking up the stairs they found…

The same room but smaller.

"Fuck this." Nike decided, "Kishi if you would?"

"Cataclysm." Kishi said, then placed her hand on the wall.

The entire marble building began to turn black and crumbled to dust.

"Lucky charm." Alix called out as the floor beneath them gave way. A large net fell from the sky and fell into her hands. Kishi grabbed the other side of the net as the two heroes landed on the ground. As the sound of Adrien screaming came to her ears, Nike and Kishi held the net up and a couple of seconds later Adrien Agreste fell directly onto it, unharmed.

Wardad landed on the ground a few meters over, bouncing and screaming in pain.

As the black dust from the destroyed tower rained down around them, Nike walked over to Wardad and picked the unconscious akuma up by the collar. She grabbed his stone bowtie and crushed it in her hands, causing his akuma to fly out.

"Fuck you, you stupid butterfly." Nike said as she caught the akuma in her yoyo. 

"Hey, that's not your normal line." Adrien said, looking a little bothered by it. 

Nike ignored the boy and crumpled up the net before tossing it into the air, "Miraculous Nike Rouge." Nike tossed the net into the air and the resulting magic swept the group off the floating island before removing the island and restoring the Agreste Mansion. 

The father and son were taken back home and the 2 heroes found themselves on the top of the Eiffel Tower.

The two heroes stood there for a second. 

"I'm going to bed." Kishi said.

"Good night." Nike said, also too tired to properly talk, before the 2 separated, swinging their ways across Paris.

_________________

Marinette sat in the helicopter across from Audrey, waiting for Adrien. The woman had been surprisingly ok with waiting for Adrien but was now getting irritated.

"How dare that imbecile hold up my plans because he got akumatized." Audrey complained, "I discovered him, how dare he inconvenience me like this!"

Mariette was getting real sick of her already.

"I'm here!" A voice called out, "Don't go!" 

"Adrien!" Marinette yelled, turning her head to see her boyfriend running towards the helicopter, his bodyguard carrying his luggage behind them.

Adrien hopped into the copter and sat next to Marinette, "My dad really didn't want me to go." 

"I heard." Marinette giggled, showing him the akuma report from the Ladyblog.

"Alright now that you're here, let's get doing!" Audrey demanded, "We're an hour behind schedule! Pilot, take off!" 

"Hold on," Adrien said, "My dad had one condition for me going."

Audrey groaned, "What?"

"He said I had to take my bodyguard." 

On cue, Gorilla climbed into the helicopter, sitting next to Audrey and squishing her against the wall. The woman looked extremely angry.

"Whatever! Let's just go!" The woman screamed.

As the helicopter blades spun and lifted the aircraft off the ground, Marinette looked out upon the city. It would be the last time she would see it for a while, and it made her a little homesick already.

Adrien put his arm around her shoulders, "I'm going to miss Paris." He said. 

Marinette nodded in agreement, "But I think it's in our best interest to leave." 

Her fashion career hadn't been the only thing motivating her to accept Audrey's offer. Both she and Adrien had already been akumatised and Hawkmoth kept sending villains after their friends and family. They simply knew too much about the miraculous. They knew where Fu lived, where the miracle box was, what each miraculous does. If they stayed they would only be endangering the city and themselves.

And that's why Marinette got on the plane, leaving her city, family, and friends behind and setting off to make a new life in America.

Leaving Paris in new hands.

__________________

Chloe was hiding behind a tree as the helicopter took off. She couldn't believe it. Her mother had taken Dupen-Cheng to New York and not her own daughter. Mother hadn't even asked if Chloe wanted to go, she just left. 

Once Chloe thought about it, Audrey had never shown the slightest scrap of care for Chloe. For years her mother had ignored her, forgotten her name, and insulted her. 

"But why mommy." Chloe muttered to herself, curled up behind a tree, tears flowing down her face, "Why don't you love me?"

Chapter Text

Kagami sat on a bench inside Françoise Dupont. There was a mishap with her schedule and she ended up having been dropped off at the school despite there not being fencing lessons that day, even being dropped off an hour earlier than fencing practice usually would happen. Of course, Kagami wasn’t about to call her mother to report this error and give up on the extra free time, so she had decided to practice her drawing. Coincidentally, the students also seemed to have an hour of spare time, their last-period class having been canceled for some reason.

She had her sketchbook out and was sketching a few of the passing students. As the students began to clear out, either heading upstairs into various club rooms or out the front door, Kagami found herself with many fewer targets. She ended up sketching a boy sat underneath the stairs. He wore a red hoodie over a rainbow tie-dyed t-shirt and black fingerless gloves on his hands. His jeans were ripped in a few places and rolled at his ankles as well as a silver belt with some chain loops hanging down from them that also resembled his belt. His boots were black but reflected every color of the rainbow as if oil had been rubbed on them and his nails were painted black. The boy was scribbling in a black notebook and seemed pretty focused on whatever he was writing. 

After getting a rough outline and drawing the broader details, Kagami began filling in the details of the boy. She drew the design of his belt, the rips in his jeans, and the swirling design of his tie-dye shirt. 

As she began to work on drawing his messy black hair, she looked up to get another reference look and made eye contact with the boy. The boy blinked at her, he seemed to notice that Kagami had been sketching him. Kagami stopped moving her pencil and blinked, she didn't know what to do. Normally when she was caught drawing someone she would just awkwardly walk away from the area. However, Kagami came to this school quite often and may see this boy again, so she figured that she should at least explain what she was doing to him. Kagami closed her notebook before standing up and walking over to the boy. 

He obviously hadn't been expecting her to do this since his eyes went wide and he began to scramble to his feet. He then hit his head on the bottom of the stairs above him and sunk back down to the ground. 

When Kagami reached the boy, she sat herself down on the ground in front of the boy and held out her hand, "Hello, I'm Kagami Tsurugi." Kagami introduced herself, a key component for making friends. 

"Um, hi." The boy accepted her handshake, "I'm Marc." The boy was pushing his notebook into his jacket, he was clearly trying to keep whatever was in there a secret.

"My apologies for drawing you without your permission Marc," Kagami apologized as she pulled out her sketchbook, "I'm not typically around people with a fashion sense like yours so I wanted to sketch you while I could." Kagami showed the boy her drawing of him in her notebook.

"Woah, that looks amazing." The boy said, leaning over to look at her sketch. After examining the sketch, he moved his hand to turn the page back. The boy snapped his hand back before he completed the action though. "Oh um,"

"It's alright, you can look." Kagami said. 

With Kagami's approval, Marc turned the page of her sketchbook to look at her older drawings. "These are really good, do you post these anywhere?"

Kagami shook her head, "I only do this as a hobby."

"Even as a hobby, the world deserves to see this art. The proportions are perfect, the shading is wonderful, and your attention to detail is just stunning. You should definitely share your work." 

Kagami blinked a few times, she had never received such praise for her artwork before, "Oh, um, Thank you." 

"Oh, sorry. Was that too much?" Marc said, pulling away from her sketchbook.

"No, you're fine," Kagami assured the nervous boy, "It's just that my artwork has never been complimented like that before and I'm not too sure what to say."

Marc paused for a second in thought, "Y'know, my friend Marinette had been trying to get me to go to the art club and show off my writing, maybe you should go there and show off your drawings."

“Oh, you knew Marinette?” Kagami asked. 

“Ya, she was one of my few friends and was always trying to get me to branch out and show people my work. But…” Marc trailed off. Kagami understood, Marinette and Adrien had been her only real friends and they had left her alone when they left for New York. While Kagami had met Adrien and Marinette’s friends at that boat concert, she didn’t feel comfortable walking up to them and acting as if they were friends, since they were only acquaintances. 

Suddenly, Kagami had an idea, “Let’s go in together.”

Marc blinked at her, “What?” 

“If we go in together, it will make it less awkward for the both of us since all the attention won’t be on one person.” Kagami explained. 

“Well, uh… it's not everyone’s attention I’m avoiding, but…” Marc trailed off before he could finish his thought. 

Oh, I see. Kagami recognized someone with a crush when she saw one. Back at her old school in Japan Kagami had been the matchmaker of the school. Whenever someone came to her and told her that they had a crush on another student, she would be the one to help them confess. Her methods were straightforward and got results and so people kept coming to her. 

“All the more reason.” Kagami said, “Let’s go.” Kagami closed her sketchbook and stood up. 

“Alright then.” Marc said, also standing up.

Kagami walked up the stairs with Marc close behind her and made her way to room 33, the art room. When they got there, Kagami found the room quite quiet. Nobody talked and the only sounds were the scribble of pencil, the noise of rock music leaking through someone’s headphones, and the occasional spray of an aerosol paint can. It was quite peaceful, which sort of made it harder to go in since it would mean disturbing the peaceful atmosphere. 

Maybe this is why Marc found it so hard to go in.

However, Kagami had made up her mind, so disturb the peace she shall. Kagami turned around and gave Marc a questioning thumbs up. She got a nervous smile as a response which Kagami deemed as good enough and walked into the room. 

Nearly as soon as she entered a couple of heads turned to see who had entered, including the teacher who had been looking at the artwork of a student. “Ah, Kagami, welcome.” the art teacher greeted her before noticing Marc behind her, “And you’ve brought someone along with you.” 

“Hello, “ Marc responded awkwardly, trying to hide his notebook under his jacket, “Um, I’m a friend of Marinette’s and she had wanted me to come here so… here I am. “ 

“I ran into Marc downstairs and we decided to come in together.” Kagami explained. 

“Ah, so you’re Marc, Marinette told us about you before she left. Welcome to room 33 where we let our creativity run wild. Everyone can create what they want, in any way they want. .” The teacher explained before moving towards a familiar blond girl with headphones in, the source for the leaking rock music in the room, “Rose here is writing lyrics for her rock band. The man walked over and lifted one of Rose’s headphones from her ear, “Rose, I’d like you to meet Mark and Kagami.”  The teacher dropped the headphone back onto the girl's ear before she responded. 

The girl looked up from her notepad and threw her arm up to wave at them, “Hello Kagami! Nice to meet you, Marc!” The girl yelled. Kagami remembered her from the band on the boat from the Music Festival. 

“Alix is our expert in street art.” the art teacher introduced the short pink haired girl who Kagami had drawn a little over a week ago. Her wall now showed a more general street art with no sign of what she had been working on before. Kagami wondered what had happened to it. 

“And Nathaniel-” The teacher began 

“He likes to draw people in skinny suits.” Alix interrupted. The red-headed boy crumbled up a piece of paper and chucked it at Alix, causing chuckles from both of them. It seemed that they were good friends. 

“Welcome you guys. As you’ll find out,  the good thing about this place is you can say whatever you want and no one will judge you, or only in good fun.” Nathaniel said in greeting. 

Marc didn’t respond and instead moved over to look at whatever Nathaniel had been drawing, “I saw your drawings on the school website, but they’re nothing compared to the real thing.” Marc said, leaning in to see the drawings better, “The movement, the expressions, the attitudes. They’re all so…” Marc trailed off as he looked to his left and made eye contact with Nathaniel. 

Nathaniel smiled at the boy, “Thanks, that's nice.” 

Marc pulled back from Nathaniel and a blush spread across his face, “Sorry, but it’s true, I’ve never seen drawings so… uh… capturing.”

Ah, so he’s the one. Kagami thought. It seemed obvious to her from Marc’s body language and flustered tone that Nathaniel was the object of the writer’s affection. Kagami didn’t see the appeal, the boy looked quite weak, but she wouldn’t judge. Everyone had different tastes after all. 

“You’ve shown up at the perfect time Mark,” The teacher said, “We were told how you’re always writing and Nathaniel here is looking for a scriptwriter.” 

Marc’s eyes went wide at the suggestion, “Huh? Me? A scriptwriter? Oh no, I don’t write that kind of stuff. I mean, I don't write anything interesting.” The boy rambled, obviously flustered, “Sorry gotta go. “ The boy dashed the door, “Thanks for every- Woah!” 

Marc was caught before he could make it out the door by Alix, who grabbed him by the arm, “Hold on man, Nathaniel doesn’t bite.” The girl said, “Give him a chance.” The girl pulled Marc back over to Nathaniel. 

“What? No, I… That's not-” Marc tried to protest, but didn’t manage to get words out. 

Alix moved Marc back in front of Nathaniel and then moved to stand next to Kagami. 

“Marc, people are often way too hard on the things they create themselves,” The art teacher said, placing a hand on Marc’s shoulder, “We compare our work to the work of others and determine that it isn’t good enough, even when that is far from the truth. We can’t trust your own judgment of your writing because of your bias, we have to determine your skill ourselves. So how about you let Nathaniel read some of your writing, and he can determine if you’re the writer he needs?” The teacher suggested. 

“I think that’s a great idea.” Nathaniel said

“Well, I guess,” Marc muttered in agreement as he removed his notebook from inside his jacket, “Let me just find a story that- AUG!” As Marc flipped through his notebook, his fingers fumbled the notebook and he dropped it. . The notebook fell directly into Nathaniel’s hands.

“The Tale of Mightillustrator and Wordsmith, by Marc Anciel.” Nathaniel read from the notebook. 

“Wait seriously?” Alix exclaimed before moving behind Nathaniel and looking over his shoulder to also read the story. 

“Wait, that one is…” Marc’s protests fell on deaf ears as Nathaniel and Alix were already reading the story, realizing this Marc seemed to freeze up. 

As they read the story, Kagami watched Marc's face get redder and redder as Nathaniel and Alix kept reading, she guessed it was probably more Nathaniel though. Marc was fidgeting with his fingers and had a very nervous look on his face, the boy looked very uncomfortable. Kagami was about to go up and grab the notebook as Nathaniel turned the page once more. 

“Woah.” Nathaniel said, prompting a flinch from Marc. Kagami definitely needed to put a stop to this. 

The art teacher got there first however and grabbed the notebook out of Nathaniel’s hands, “I think that’s enough, Marc doesn’t look very comfortable with you reading that.” The teacher handed the notebook back to Marc. 

“Oh, I’m sorry Marc, I didn’t realize.” Nathaniel apologized. 

Marc once again tucked his notebook into his jacket, “Jus- Just forget about it.” Marc responded before walking out of the room. 

The group was silent for a moment. 

“Welp, that killed my mood, I’m going home.” Alix said. She began to clean up the paint cans she had taken out. 

Dang it. Kagami had been hoping to get to know Alix and ask her about that painting she had been making last time. 

“I feel quite inspired after reading that,” Nathaniel said, taking out a new sheet of paper, “I think I’ll stay a bit longer.” 

“Alright buddy, see you tomorrow.” Alix said as she shoved her paint cans back into the cabinet. 

As Alix left the room Kagami glanced at her phone. She had no texts so obviously the scheduling error hadn’t been figured out yet, meaning she still had time. Kagami sat in a chair and pulled out her sketchbook. Kagami began sketching Nathaniel as he drew whatever it is he was drawing, probably people in skinny suits if Alix was to be believed. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Marc was freaking out. 

Nathaniel had read his stupid story. His story where he made Mightillustrator, Nathaniel’s one-time akumatized form and now his fictional superhero alter-ego, a superhero partner to his own fictional alter-ego, Wordsmith. The story where he wrote his fictional alter-ego to have a crush on Mightillustrator. Nathaniel, the boy Marc had been crushing on for weeks, had read that story.

And Marc was freaking out. 

Marc curled up under his comfortable spot under the stairs. Marc had seen Nathaniel’s reaction to his writing. He had watched his eyes go wide as he read the title and he had heard the boy’s ‘Woah’ as he had read. Marc knew what that ‘woah’ meant, it meant ‘woah, this guy is a weirdo. He’s shipping us together, what the fuck.’ Marc wanted Nathaniel to like him, but now that would never happen. Marc would have to move schools to never run into him again. If that didn’t work he would have to move to America and join the circus. What if Nathaniel tracked him down and had him arrested for writing about him without permission? Marc couldn’t survive in prison, he could barely use a butter knife without cutting himself. 

If only he had never written that story. Why couldn’t he have written something normal, like Parry Hotter fanfiction? Then at least he could have been friends with Nathaniel. Marc was fine with only being friends, he didn’t need romance. Marc had been longing to work with Nathaniel but now he never would. 

Marc removed his notebook from his jacket and opened it to the page reading ‘The Tale of Mightillustrator and Wordsmith, by Marc Anciel.’ Why had he written this stupid story? This story had ruined everything, he would never work with Nathaniel now. 

Marc pulled out his eraser from his pocket. If only this stupid story hadn’t been written. Marc thought as he rubbed away the title. I could be making a comic book with Nathaniel.  Marc erased the title and his name before turning the page and beginning to erase the story itself. Stupid story. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Marc wished everyone could just forget. Forget him, forget his story, and forget today. He wanted everyone to forget so that he could redo it, show Nathaniel a good story instead of this stupid one. Marc ripped the page from rubbing it with the eraser too hard and moved onto the next page. 

Marc’s movements froze as the dark butterfly landed onto his eraser and merged with it, turning the pink eraser a black color. 

Erasor, I am Hawkmoth. You wish for people to forget your follies? You want a second chance to make things right? I’m giving you the power to make people forget anything and everything you wish. In return, you will seize the miraculous of Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir and bring them to me. Do we have a deal? 

“Nobody will even remember I was there.” Marc said in agreement before he tossed the eraser onto the ground. Before the black object hit the floor, it grew into a hovercraft for him to stand on. 

Marc stood on his hovercraft and let the akumatization take over his body. A second later, Marc was no more and Erasor was taking to the skies. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Alix exited the locker room the see a villain fly off the ground and immediately head to the art room. 

Well, so much for going home. Alix thought as she skated back into the empty locker room. 

Tikki floated out from her hiding spot, "It's a good thing you left when you did Alix, that villain went straight for the art room."

Alix nodded, "Unfortunately, Nathaniel is still in there, and I have a feeling that this guy might be after him. Tikki, Spots on!"

Alix transformed into Nike Rouge, climbed out of the locker room windows, and swung onto the roof. She saw the villain's hovercraft, which looked to be an eraser in the shape of a fighter jet, parked outside of the art room while the villain itself was standing just inside the doorway shouting something. Nike leaped down to stand behind the villain. 

"-and now I will erase that memory so I can start over from the beginning," The villain was saying as he raised his weapon, some sort of crossbow fashioned out of an open notebook, and aimed it at Nathaniel. "Eras- AAK!" Just as the villain fired, Nike kicked him behind the knees and locked him in a chokehold as he fell backward,  one arm braced behind the villain's head so he couldn't slam his head back against her nose. The shot went wide and hit the ceiling of the art room.

"What unfortunate timing you had, getting akumatized just as the hero was passing by." Nike remarked as everyone gasped at her sudden appearance.

"The unfortunate one is you, Nike Rouge!" The villain retorted as he aimed his gun at Nike's head, "Erasure!"

To dodge the near point-blank shot, Nike spun on the balls of her feet with the villain still in her arms before releasing the chokehold and dropping to a squat. The unexpected movement cause the villain's shot to hit the doorway above her as he lost his balance and fell to the floor. Still on the floor, the villain aimed his weapon at her once again and fired. Nike had to throw herself backward to dodge as the projectile, which Alix noted looked to be an eraser, flew just above her nose. After the eraser flew past, Nike kicked off the ground before she lost her balance and then pushed off the ground with her hands to backflip onto the table Nathaniel had been drawing on.

"Persistent aren't ya?" Nike said as the villain also picked himself off the floor. This was the first time Nike got a good look at him. He was half eraser pink and half completely transparent. His left half was the transparent half but the transparency switched sides on his head, feet, and hands. This meant one hand and foot was seemingly floating with nothing attached while the other side's hand and foot were invisible. The transparency went back to its normal side for his eyes and mouth, which made his left eye and half his mouth seem to float in midair while the right side of his face was featureless. Only the hair on the transparent side of his head was visible and the other side looked bald and he wore a half invisible hood that was invisible over his visible hair. His entire form was also very blocky, like he was a low poly character from a game made in the early 2000s. His shoulders, elbows, and knees were just pink spheres that his blocky limbs rotated around on. He held his notebook turned crossbow in his invisible hand.  He was very strange to look at.

"I am Erasor! I will erase my past and write my own future!" The villain shouted, "To ensure this, I must erase you, Nike Rouge!"

"Marc, is that you?" Nathaniel asked the villain.

"I'm not Marc anymore!" Erasor shouted, "I am Erasor now! I will erase your memory of me and start over! I'll erase that horrible story from your mind so that I have a chance of working with you!"

Alix blinked, what was this dude talking about? His writing was great, Nathaniel had loved it and so had she. Alix would have to clear up the misunderstanding after this was all over.

"What?" Nathaniel responded, "Marc, your writing was-"

"Silence!" Erasor shouted as he fired a shot at Nathaniel. Nike thought fast and kicked Nathaniel's pencil case off the table and into the path of the eraser. The projectile hit the pencil case and vanished in a puff of pink, pencils scattering as the case hit the floor.

Nike needed to get away from civilians, she couldn’t fight a villain while protecting all these people. She had to either keep him distracted so everyone could escape or get him out of the room and fight him somewhere else. Alix didn’t know how she could get Erasor to leave, but she could definitely keep him distracted so everyone else could. 

To her left, there was a potted plant sitting on top of a painted piano. There were 2 statues in the room currently and Alix knew that there was a cabinet in the back of the room full of cans of spray paint. She could use that. 

Nike kicked the potted plant into the villain's face, the pot shattered and the villain's face was covered in dirt. Erasor got dirt in his eyes and had reeled back in shock. Taking advantage of this, Nike leaped forward and grabbed onto the villain's half-invisible hood then threw him into the first statue on the far side of the room, causing the villain to arc over several students and Mr. Monlataing as he flew. The statue shattered on impact and Nike quickly dashed to the cabinet and grabbed a can of spray paint.

“Run!” Nike shouted at everyone as she shook up the can. 

As the civilians began to flee, Erasor picked himself off the ground and aimed his weapon at Nathaniel once again. Nike leaped up and kicked the head off the second statue and sending it flying into Erasor. The statue’s head struck the villain in the arm and sent his shot flying into the wall. Alix then used the torso of the statue as a launchpad to jump at the villain. As she slammed into the villain she used her free hand to grab Erasor’s visible forearm and pin it against his chest, ensuring he could not fire at her. 

“Get off me!” The villain shouted. 

Nike responded by spraying orange paint into the villain's eyes. 

“AAAURG!!” Erasor, now blinded, lashed out violently and threw Nike off him with a sudden burst of strength. Nike landed on her feet halfway across the room and immediately had to block a shot with the spray can in her hands. Erasor began firing wildly and without any sense. Pink erasers fired from his weapon flew across the room and Alix decided it was time to retreat. 

Nike backflipped out of the room and shut the door behind her. As soon as she had the door shut Alix heard a loud crash as the windows that made up the art classroom wall shattered. Looking over, Alix noticed that the eraser-hoverboard that had been parked outside the room was gone, most likely having been the thing that shattered the windows as it went to its owner. 

A second later, Erasor flew out of the art room, now riding his hovercraft. His face was now covered in smeared orange paint and his hands were also covered in orange. “You’re going to pay for that Nike Rouge!” The villain aimed his weapon at her, “You won’t even remember how to walk! Erasure!” Erasor fired more erasers at her and Nike dodged backward. 

“I seem to be walking just fine!” Nike taunted as she turned the corner, an eraser hit the wall in front of her as she turned.

“Not for long you wo-” Erasor’s threat was interrupted by Kishi Noir jumping down from the roof and whacking the villain with her staff. He was sent flying off his hovercraft and crashed into the court below, leaving a few cracks in the ground. The hovercraft chased after it’s owner a second later and Kishi landed next to Nike. 

“Welcome to the party.” Nike said in greeting. 

Kishi gave a nod in response before locking her gaze back onto the villain, who was climbing back onto his hoverboard. 

“Just give up dude!” Nike shouted to Erasor, “It’ll make this easier on everyone!” 

“I’m not giving up until I’ve erased my mistakes from everyone’s minds!” Erasor responded as he flew upwards, “I’m tired of you two, I’ll come back for you once I’ve erased Nathaniel’s memories!” The villain flew up into the sky and then out of sight.

Nike and Kishi gave chase, they leaped onto the roof of the school and followed the him as he flew above the streets of Paris. Alix pulled out the yoyo as she ran, if this was going to be a chase she would need a long-range weapon. She threw the yoyo at Erasor and wrapped the string around him. Alix planted her feet and pulled on the yoyo to stop the villain’s momentum. With the villain stopped, Nike began to spin her yoyo around with the villain still wrapped up in the string. Erasor was pulled off his hoverboard and spun in circles above Nike’s head. Once a good amount of speed was built up, Alix released the villain and sent him flying into a nearby chimney. As Nike retracted her yoyo, Kishi leaped in and slammed her rod down on Erasor’s weapon while the villain lay prone among the rubble. The notebook-crossbow just crumpled like paper so Kishi picked it up and ripped it in half, but no akuma flew out. 

“Must be in his hoverboard.” Nike noted. 

Kishi nodded and leaped over to land on the pink hovercraft, “Catacy-Woah!” Nearly as soon as Kishi landed on the flying eraser, it began to move under her, the hovercraft moved wildly and unpredictably. It seemed all Kishi could do was keep her balance. Nike pulled out her yoyo once more in order to catch her partner, but before she could throw it the behavior of the hovercraft suddenly changed. 

The hovercraft began flying directly towards Erasor, who was picking himself up out of the rubble. As Kishi flew closer to the villain, he raised his fingers to point a finger gun at Kishi. A second later, Erasor’s weapon materialized out of fucking nowhere into his hand, fully repaired and aimed directly at Kishi.

“Kishi!” Nike threw her yoyo at the villain, hoping to throw off his shot, but it was too late. The hovercraft pulled Kishi close enough that Erasor had a point-blank shot. The pink eraser hit Kishi’s forehead and sunk right in.  

The hoverboard dropped Kishi onto the rooftops in front of Erasor and Kishi flopped to the ground, seemingly unconscious. “How does it feel to have your entire being erased, Kishi Noir?” The villain laughed as he placed his invisible foot onto Kishi’s unconscious body, “Now to take her miracul-” Erasor was cut off as Nike slammed her fist into his half-invisible jaw. The villain was sent flying off the rooftop and down to the streets below, his hovercraft following him soon after. 

Nike picked up her unconscious partner and retreated. She had to get Kishi to a safe spot before continuing this fight. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Ivan stood within the crowd gathered outside of city hall, booing the mayor as he gave his speech. His girlfriend Mylène next to him holding a sign and chanting “Space is no dump” as the mayor talked. 

“Thanks to our ‘Space Dumpster Program’ all our trash is now stored in orbital dumpsters, making Paris the cleanest city in the world!” The mayor said through the microphone

Ivan couldn’t believe the mayor was going through with this plan. Space dumpsters were a terrible idea. Not only did it begin the pollution of the one place still untouched by humans, space, but it also wasted numerous valuable resources. The fuel used to send these dumpsters up could be used for much better purposes and the trash inside them could be recycled and- 

Ivan’s lost his train of thought as he noticed something pink flying above city hall. As Ivan focused on it he realized it was a person, or half of one at least. The pink half-man flew behind the mayor before stopping. 

“Trash? How dare you insult my writing!” The pink half-man yelled. 

The mayor turned back to look at the half-man, “Writing? I don’t believe I said-”

“Silence!” The half-man pointed a notebook-weapon-thing at the mayor, “Erasure!” A pink projectile fired from the weapon and stuck the mayor. The mayor fell over, unconscious, causing the police officers stationed around the area to rush up to the man. 

“The rest of you as well, how dare you make fun of me!” The half-man screamed, “Erasure!” The pink man began firing on the crowd, his pink projectiles hitting people and causing them to fall to the ground. 

Ivan froze up, he didn’t know what to do. This was an akumatized villain right? They needed to run, Mylène would be scared and-

Ivan looked down at Mylène, making eye contact with her just as a pink object hit her in the forehead. Mylène’s eyes fell shut and she fell into Ivan’s arms, her sign falling to the ground. 

“Mylène?” Ivan holding his girlfriend, “MYLÉNE!” 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Alix decided that the best place was Fu’s house. However, since it would obviously be suspicious for the superheroines of Paris to enter some random guy’s house during an active akuma attack, Nike went through the catacombs entrance she had found during the Music festival. 

She laid the unconscious Kishi Noir down on the floor of Fu’s kitchen, or whatever it was, and left the room before dropping her transformation. Tikki reemerged from the miraculous and floated up to Alix, “Be careful Alix, the miraculous ladybugs should return Kishi Noir’s memory after you defeat Erasor, but if Kishi sees you detransformed right now I’m not sure if she’ll remember afterward or not.” 

“Don’t be seen by my amnesiac partner, got it.” Alix responded as she pulled a piece of candy out of her pocket and handed it to Tikki. 

Alix walked to the main room of the small building and opened the door, “Fu, It’s an emergency, Ki-” Alix shut her mouth as she noticed that Fu had a customer in the room, it was a massage shop after all. 

“My dear granddaughter, what’s the problem?” Fu asked, clearly acting to fool the customer on the mat. 

Alix played along, pulling out those 6th-grade theatre class skills, “Oh Grandpa, my girlfriend got hit by an akuma’s attack and now she doesn’t remember me!” 

“Oh my poor grandchild,” Fu acted sad before turning to the customer laying on the mat, “You. get out. I must console my granddaughter.” Fu pushed the customer out of the room and turned back to Alix. “Girlfriend?” The old man asked with an eyebrow raised. 

“Don’t look too much into it, I had to make it up on the spot.” 

“I would not forbid it.” Fu said with a small chuckle before his face turned serious, “Now, what happened?”

Alix explained the situation with the akuma and how Kishi got hit. 

“-and so I left her in your kitchen and came to get you.” Alix finished explaining. 

“I see,” Fu said, rubbing his beard. The old man stood up, “Let’s go check on her.”

“Tikki, spots on.” Alix transformed into Nike Rouge as she followed Fu back to his kitchen. She couldn’t let Kishi see her as Alix, it was too risky. Fu pushed the door to his kitchen open and Nike noticed that Kishi was not where she had been laid. Kishi was now awake and looking around in confusion. As she noticed Fu and Nike enter the room, Kishi grabbed the nearby broom and brandished it like a weapon. 

“あなたは誰か. どうしろって言うんですか” Kishi said, none of which Alix understood, sounding quite confused,  “なぜ何も思い出せないのですか.” 

Nike glanced at Fu, who looked back and shrugged, “Don’t look at me, I do not speak Japanese.” 

Alix stepped in front of Fu and held her arms in the air, showing Kishi that she had no weapon, “We aren’t here to hurt you. We’re on the same side.” Nike said, not entirely sure if Kishi would even understand her. 

Kishi seemed shocked as Nike finished speaking and blinked a couple of times. She seemed confused, but it didn’t seem like it was the confusion that came from not understanding the language someone spoke, so that was promising. 

Kishi opened and closed her mouth wordlessly before speaking again, “How is it that I understand and speak your language?” 

Well, that makes things easier. “You probably learned it at some point, I guess. That's not important right now.” Nike answered, “You are a superhero and you got hit by a villain’s attack that caused you to lose your memory. I can bring your memory back, but we have to beat the villain first.”

Kishi blinked, "Super hero?"

"We beat up bag guys with magic powers given to us by jewlery , the specifics aren't important," Nike explained, "What is important is beating up this specific bad guy so we can get your memories back."

"What of these 'magic powes' do I posses?" 

“Generic stuff like super strength, senses, durability, and balance, but your unique power is to destroy anything you touch.” Nike explained. 

Kishi looked down at the broom in her hands before looking back up at Kishi and raising an eyebrow at her.

“You have to call out a certain word to activate it and you turn back into a civilian 5 minutes after using it.” Nike explained. 

“I see.” Kishi said, setting down the broom, “And that word is?”

“The activation word is ‘Cataclysm’.” Fu said, stepping out from behind Nike. 

“And who is this?” Kishi asked, gesturing to Fu. 

“He’s our boss.” Alix simplified. 

“That is one way of putting it.” Fu responded. 

“By the way,” Alix turned to Fu, “Could I get a miraculous?” 

Fu nodded before turning and walking out of the kitchen. Nike followed close behind and Kishi also followed. The group went back to the main room of the building where Fu removed the miracle box from inside the gramophone before kneeling on the mat and presented the box to Alix. 

“Nike Rouge, pick an ally you can trust to fight alongside you on this mission. Choose wisely, such powers are made to serve the greater good. Once the mission is over, you must return retrieve the miraculous from them and return it to me.” Fu said. 

Nike raised an eyebrow, “Didn’t you give me that speech last time?” 

“I enjoy being dramatic, do not ruin my fun.”

Nike shrugged and looked over the box. She needed a miraculous that could prevent them from being hit by Erasor’s attacks again. “I think,” Alix said as she pointed to the bracelet on Fu’s wrist, “that I need the turtle.”

The guardian’s eyes widened for a second before narrowing in thought as Fu stoked his goatee, “Would the ox not work?”

Alix thought about that. The ox could guard them if whoever used it stood in front, but the turtle was far more versatile since you could choose where to put the shield. “It could, but the turtle would be much safer.”

Fu nodded in understanding and slipped the bracelet from his arm, Wayzz disappearing into it as he did so. “Do you have someone in mind?” He asked as he handed the miraculous to her. 

“I do, but I’m not sure how I’ll convince him.” Nike admitted, “I’ll figure it out though.” Nike stored the miraculous inside her yoyo and stood up. 

“What were all those items?” Kishi asked. 

“You’ll remember later, follow me.” Nike answered and began to walk out of the room, followed by Kishi. Alix went back to the kitchen and jumped back through the trapdoor. A few seconds later the pair was back in the catacombs.

“There are so many skulls here.” Kishi said, eyes wide as she looked at the walls. 

“It’s less creepy when you know the history behind this place.” Alix remarked, “Come on.”

Nike led Kishi out of the catacombs and back onto the streets of Paris. She explained to Kishi how she could travel using her rod and they set out to search for Erasor. 

They didn't have to search long as the villain, predictably, had gone to the Eiffel Tower and shouted his demands to the news helicopters who came to investigate. Nike and Kishi stopped on a rooftop a little ways away from the tower.

“That's the villain that took your memory.” Nike pointed out Erasor as he flew around the tower, “Stay here and watch him as I go get someone to help us beat this guy.”

Kishi nodded and Nike swung off towards City Hall. Last she knew Ivan and Mylène had been protesting the Mayor’s new trash program or something. Honestly, Alix didn’t remember half the stuff those two protested about. 

When Nike got to City Hall it was clear that Erasor had been there first. A bunch of police officers were shoving a very confused Mayor into an ambulance, many people were either still passed out or looking around in confession. 

“Mylène, it’s me, Ivan. Don’t you remember?” Nike heard Ivan say, he sounded desperate. Turning her head to the voice she found Ivan holding Mylène’s shoulders. Mylene looked shocked and scared. She had probably been hit, “I’m your boyfriend, we came here together to protest against the Mayor.” 

“I don’t know who you are!” Mylène screamed as she struggled against Ivan’s grasp, “Let me go!” Ivan let go of Mylène and she ran off down a nearby street. Ivan fell to his knees and covered his face with his hands. 

Alix wished she could console the boy. Ivan was a good friend of hers and Alix hated seeing him like this. However, Alix also knew that the best thing she could do for him was defeat Erasor and return Mylène’s memory.

Nike leaped down from the rooftop and landed next to Ivan. She placed a hand on his shoulder which caused him to look up at her, also allowing her to see that he was crying. 

“Would you like to help me defeat the villain and fix all this?” Nike asked him. 

Ivan blinked a couple of times before nodding. “I would do anything for Mylene.” He said. 

Nike nodded back, “Come with me then.” Alix grabbed Ivan’s arm and lifted him up as she swung off the ground. She carried Ivan to a rooftop a couple of blocks away before setting him down again. 

Alix pulled the turtle miraculous out of the yoyo and presented it to Ivan, “This is the miraculous of the turtle, which allows you to create shields. You will help me defeat Erasor and then give it back to me. Got it?”

Ivan nodded as he grabbed the miraculous from Nike’s hand and placed it onto his arm. As he did so a green light emerged from the miraculous and floated around Ivan’s arm once before materializing into a kwami in front of Ivan. Ivan stepped back in shock. 

“Hello! My name is Wayzz, pleasure to meet you.” The kwami said in greeting. 

“Wha- What are you?” Ivan asked. 

“I am a kwami, a special creature that can grant you superpowers.” Wayzz responded. 

“Oh, alright. How does it work?” Ivan asked. 

“To transform you say ‘Wayzz, shell on’ and to activate your power, you call ‘Shelter’ to activate your ability and create a shield wherever you desire.” the kwami explained. 

Ivan nodded, “Wayzz, shell on!” Wayzz was sucked into the bracelet and a green light enveloped Ivan. Then the light faded, Ivan was a superhero. 

His entire outfit was green, as expected. The outfit was mostly light green with extra dark green armor covering certain areas. He had armor on his shoulder that also ran down his arm to form elbow pads, his knee pads also went down to protect his shins, and his mask went around his head instead of covering his nose. His gloves were black on the back and green in the front, his boots were black with green soles, and the tuft of blond hair above his forehead had turned green. The section of the suit covering his chest and stomach had more dark padding but this time with thin black horizontal lines running through it. On his back was a large green shield that looked like a turtle’s shell. It seemed that the miraculous weapons changed size with their user because the shield on Ivan’s back had a diameter that looked to be equal to Alix’s height. 

“Let’s go.” Nike said, a little miffed at being reminded of her small stature as she ran across the rooftops of Paris. Ivan followed behind her as she leaped across rooftops back to the spot where Kishi was waiting. 

“Kishi, meet… uh.” Alix trailed off as she realized Ivan hadn’t come up with a hero name yet. 

“Teraturtle.” Ivan supplied. 

“Nice to meet you, Teraturtle.” Kishi said, holding out her hand, which Ivan shook. 

“Kishi also got hit, so she might be a bit out of it this fight.” Nike explained. 

Ivan’s eyes went wide at this, apparently impressed that Kishi got her memory wiped and was still fighting. 

“Alright, let’s focus on defeating this villain.” Nike said and Kishi nodded in agreement. “Lucky Charm.” A second later, a large baby harness fell into Alix’s hands. It was an upsized version of those harnesses parents would wear so they could hold their babies without using their arms. 

Nike looked at her two partners and came up with a plan, and then chuckled. 

She was about to put Kishi Noir in a baby harness. 

A minute later, the plan was ready. Nike and Kishi each grabbed one of Teraturle’s arms and used their weapons to leap up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. At the top, Ivan put the baby harness onto his back and Nike strapped Kishi in, Teraturtle holding his shield in his hand. She was quite grumpy about being put into a baby harness, even if she had no memories, her pride was still there apparently. Nike wrapped her yoyo around Teraturtle’s waist. She grabbed Kishi’s rod and extended it to the length she needed before wrapping the yoyo down the length of the rod. What she now had was essentially a very long fishing rod. 

“Hey, Erasor!” Nike called to get the villain’s attention, “You look like somebody’s Underwatch OC!” She shouted to taunt the villain, “And your writing sucks!” She added for good measure. 

Erasor turned away from the news camera he was monologuing into, “How dare you! I will erase your entire being!” The villain aimed his weapon at her, “Erasure!”

Nike dodged the shot and readied herself to throw.  “Form a shield around his gun as soon as you’re in the air buddy.” She ordered before she swung the rod outward. Since the yoyo was wrapped around the rod, Ivan was lifted off his feet and flung into the air, along with Kishi on his back. The due flew in an arc through the air until they got the right velocity and Nike loosened the yoyo so it fell off of Teraturtle. 

“Shelter!” He called as he flew directly towards the villain. A spherical green shield formed around Erasor’s hand a second later. 

Despite this, Eraser still tried to fire at the incoming turtle hero, which had no effect as the projectiles simply hit the green shield around his hand. “Get this thing off me!” Erasor yelled as he swung his hand around, desperately trying to remove the shield. 

As Ivan flew through the air, he dropped his shield so that it was sent falling to the ground below, he needed his hands open after all. As soon as he got close enough, Teraturtle grabbed ahold of Erasor’s hovercraft and hung on as his momentum died so he was dangling from the pink object. 

“Hey, get off!” Erasor screamed as Kishi removed herself from the harness and climbed onto Teraturtle’s shoulders. 

“Cataclysm!” Kishi called as she touched the hoverboard.

“Noooooooo!” Erasor yelled as the hoverboard crumbled away and a purple butterfly flew out. A second later the akumatization fell away and Marc was turned back to normal and fell through the air along with Teraturtle and Kishi. 

As Nike swung her yoyo out to capture the akuma, Kishi caught Marc and extended her rod directly downward. Teraturtle and Kishi held onto the pole and slid safely to the ground. 

“That's it for you, little akuma.” Nike said as she caught the akuma within her yoyo, purifying it before releasing it again, “Stay out of trouble little guy.” 

Nike leaped down from the Eiffel Tower to where her partner stood with Teraturtle and Marc. 

“So, this guy isn’t a villain anymore?” Kishi asked Teraturtle. 

“No, his akuma has been purified.” he answered, “Did Nike Rouge not explain this?”

“She kept saying that I would remember later.” 

“And you will.” Nike said as she landed next to them. She held out her hand and Teraturtle handed her the baby harness, “right now, Miraculous Nike Rouge!” The magical ladybugs exploded from the harness as she tossed it into the air. They swept over Kishi before flying off to the rest of Paris. 

Alix watched as Kishi’s eyes went wide as she looked around, “How did I-” Kishi put a hand against her head. 

“You good Kishi? Memory come back now?” Nike asked, placing a hand on Kishi’s shoulder. 

“Everything is a bit fuzzy from after I got hit, give me a second.” Kishi responded before her eyes focused on Teraturtle, “Who is this?”

“I’m Teraturtle,” he answered, holding out a hand to Kishi, “Nike Rouge asked me to help.”

“Right, I remember her grabbing a miraculous.” Kishi ignored Teraturtle’s hand and seemed to think a bit more before turning to Nike and narrowing her eyes, “You put me in a baby harness.” 

“HAH!” Alix barked out a laugh before clearing her throat, “I mean, it was essential to being able to defeat Erasor.” Nike said in a serious tone. 

Kishi smiled and shook her head before raising her rod, “I have to go, I’ll see you later Nike.” 

“Later Kishi!” Nike called to her partner as she vaulted away. She turned to Marc, “Hey man, maybe talk to the people who read your writing before jumping to conclusions. It’s probably not as bad as you think.”

“Thank you Nike Rouge.” Marc said before running off. 

“Alright, let’s go.” Nike said to Teraturtle. She had to get his miraculous back to Fu. 

— — — 

Nike placed the turtle miraculous into the yoyo before swinging up and onto the top of city hall. She watched Ivan emerge from the alleyway she had left him in and look around. A few seconds later, Mylène ran into view from a nearby street. Alix watched the couple lock eyes before running to hug each other. Alix smiled as she swung back to Fu’s shop. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kagami picked up her sketchbook from where she had dropped it in the art room. The room was empty, everyone having fled when Erasor attacked. Kagami looked around the room, everything was so colorful and fun. Her sketches contrasted against the room, being colorless and dull. Maybe Mother had been right, maybe she wasn’t good enou-

“Woah, are those yours?” A voice from behind Kagami said. 

Kagami swung around, a little startled.

“Um, sorry.” Nathaniel said, “Did I startle you?” 

“No, of course not.” Kagami lied.

“Oh is that me?” Nathaniel asked, pointing to the half-finished sketch of him inside her sketchbook. 

“Yes, I apologize if you didn’t want me to draw you.” Kagami said. 

“No, it's cool, I’m honored to be used as a model for someone’s art.” The boy said as he moved back to the table where he had been drawing before. Kagami looked over at his art, he seemed to mostly draw Ladybug along with what looked to be his akumatzed form that Kagami had seen when he was akumatized on his teacher’s birthday. 

“You still draw Ladybug?” Kagami asked. 

“Of course, Ladybug saved me and my friend’s lives so many times, I can’t stop just because she retired. Ladybug and the other heroes are an inspiration to me.” Nathaniel explained, “I’ll admit I was a little bummed out when she and Chat Noir announced their retirement, but I know they’re still out there somewhere, protecting Paris in their own way. They never gave up on us, so I won’t give up on them.” Nathaniel paused and blinked, “Sorry, I was rambling.” 

“No, it’s fine.” Kagami thought about Marinette and Adrien in New York. Sure Marinette was achieving her dream of being a fashion designer, but she had left her family and friends to do it. Kagami could almost guarantee that a major reason she left was so that Hawkmoth couldn’t take advantage of her knowledge of the miraculous. Kagami thought that was honorable. 

Kagami picked up one of Nathaniel’s drawings, one of Ladybug and his akumatized form fighting an akuma that looked like an Egyptian god, it was black and white. In fact, most of the drawings the boy had laid out of the table were only drawn in pencil. 

“Do you ever color your drawings?” Kagami asked. 

Nathaniel shook his head, “The type of art I usually draw works best in black and white. When you color something that you didn’t draw to be in color, it has the possibility of ruining the art.” Nathaniel explained, “Art doesn’t have to have color to be good. To be good, art has to convey the emotion or message you want to convey, if you don’t then there isn’t much point. At least that's my opinion on the matter.”

“I see.” Kagami felt a lot better about her art now. 

“Hey Nathaniel, look who I found!” A voice called from the doorway. Kagami turned to see Alix standing there with Marc. 

“Marc!” Nathaniel rushed over to the other boy, “You left so fast earlier that I didn’t have time to tell you what I thought.” 

“Oh ya, I’m sorry about that. I-” Marc began. 

“Dude your writing was awesome!” Nathaniel exclaimed. 

Marc blinked, “Really?” 

“Ya! Your descriptions were so descriptive and your dialogue felt so real.” Nathaniel gushed, and he seemed genuine to Kagami. 

“However, your character names could use work.” Alix jumped in, “I mean, what kind of name is Carn Leicna?”

“Even so, I would be honored to make a comic book with you!” Nathaniel offered.

“No! It would be my honor!” Marc said, grabbing Nathaniel’s hand with both of his. 

Kagami smiled at the scene, all that chaos was caused by one misunderstanding. 

At that moment, Kagami felt her phone buzz. Checking it revealed it to be her mother, who had finally realized the scheduling error. 

“I’d love to see the finished product.” Kagami told the two boys. “But for now I must be going.” 

‘Thank you for everything!” Marc said as she left the room. Kagami left with a smile on her face. 

That smile vanished as soon as she got into the car, where her mother was waiting for her. 

“Why did you not call me as soon as you realized there had been an error?” her mother asked. 

“I wanted to take the opportunity to work on my drawing.” Kagami explained. 

“I thought I told you to give up on that. Art is not something that will make you successful, only those with exceptional talent can do that and you are not good enough.” Her mother said sternly. 

“But mother, I-” Kagami began. 

“We will speak of this no further, we have a dinner meeting with Mr. Agreste today and you will study up to the minute we get there to make up for all this wasted time.”

Kagami pushed back a sigh, “Yes mother.”  

Chapter Text

Alix was used to being the third wheel, mostly to Juleka and Rose. She would even say that she was a professional third wheel, seamlessly switching from cockblocking the front two wheels and creating situations where they can be adorable together. Just last week she had found herself third-wheeling with Kim and Ondine since Max couldn't make it to their hangout due to Markov catching a virus. She spent her time embarrassing Kim by telling Ondine the stories of a few of his exploits and tickling Kim's armpit every time he reached up to put his arm around Ondine. At the end of the day, she managed to track down Andre the Sweetheart's ice cream man and let them eat ice cream together as they watched the sunset. Alix had quietly watched as she ate her ice cream, once scoop orange and one blue moon.

Unfortunately, her talent tended to fade when she became the fifth wheel, and even more so when she was the seventh. Alix hadn't known it was going to be a couple's event when she had agreed to watch the World Cup fireworks with her friends. Unfortunately, now that she was in Alya's apartment she couldn't just leave. 

Alya and Nino were playing Just Boogie on the TV while Alix, Myléne, and Juleka watched from the couch. Rose and Ivan were throwing together a picnic basket in the kitchen since Rose had the idea of having a picnic in the park after the fireworks. Only Juleka seemed to realize Alix's plight as she sent Alix a small smile. 

Nino finished off the dance with a ballerina pose which sent giggles sounding around the room. 

Just then, the front door opened, "Aw shoot, did I miss the ballet?" A deep woman's voice called out from the entranceway. 

Alix turned to see a tall muscular woman walk into the room. She wore a yellow crop top and yellow shorts with short black leggings underneath. She had black pads on her elbows and wrapping around her fists. She wore black knee-high boots with yellow toe caps and yellow headgear on her head. Her headgear, crop top, and boots all had the same spider logo on them, colored black on her clothing and headgear and yellow on her boots. 

"Nora, is your match over already?" Alya said to the new arrival, probably her sister if Alix had to guess. 

Nora dropped her bag onto the ground, "First round total knockout! As usual!" She answered as she boxed the air in front of her. Nora leaned down and threw her arm around Alya, "I've told you a hundred times not to call me Nora in front of other people, little sis." Nora whispered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear her before turning back to everyone else in the room, "The name's Anansi, like the spider." Nora said, planting a foot on one of the dining chairs and making a sign with her fingers.

Alix blinked at Alya's older sister and turned to her friends, "Is anyone else reminded of Kim during middle school?"

"HAH!" Nino burst out into laughter and leaned on Alya's shoulder as he laughed.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad!" Rose called out from the kitchen in Nora's defense. 

"It was pretty cringe." Juleka mumbled and Mylène nodded in agreement. 

“Wait, what did Kim do in middle school?” Ivan asked as he finished making the final sandwich for the basket. Ivan had moved in the year after Kim had stopped doing it so he wouldn’t know about it, especially since Ivan didn’t like Kim for a good while after they met.

Alix stood up from the couch and struck a dramatic pose, “I am going to be the best swimmer in the world, better than Michael Phelps!” Alix said, deepening her voice and changing poses regularly to better imitate her friend, “They will call me, The Seahorse! They’ll know my name from here to Sydney!” Alix flopped back down onto the couch and returned to her normal voice, “It was all he talked about for months!”  

“He entered the Paris swim competition and lost in the pre-qualifiers.” Nino added.

“It was soooo sad!” Rose exclaimed as she packed the drinks into the basket. 

“Well, he did win the County Athletics Tournament last summer, that was impressive.” Myléne added. 

"And it boosted his ego to the moon!" Alix added. He had been so cocky for the next three months Alix had considered taking his ego down herself, luckily an akumatized villain did it first.

"Wait, you mean that kid?" Nora asked as she snatched a sandwich from the pile Ivan had made and took a bite. Ivan's face twisted in annoyance but he didn't say anything and began making another sandwich to replace it, "Didn't Dad almost maul him when he got akumatized?" 

"Yup, that's him." Alya confirmed.

"Hu, crazy. Anyways, what are you guys doing here so late, don't you all have school tomorrow?" 

"We're going to see the World Cup fireworks from the Place de la Concorde Ferris wheel." Alya told her sister.

"Oh hell no!" Nora exclaimed after scarfing down the rest of the sandwich, "The rest of your little friends here can go, but you're staying here, it's way too dangerous!" 

“What? Noooo!” Rose squealed, “But Alya is the one who organized this!”

“Yeah, no way dude! We’re not going without Alya!” Nino shouted back. 

“Listen I appreciate you worrying about me and all,” Alya jumped in, “But I’m not a little girl anymore. Besides, Mom and Dad are totally cool with it!” 

Nora shook her head, “There have been way too many akumatized peeps in Paris these last few weeks. Do you know how many times you’ve been in direct danger?”

Nora kind of had a point there. Due to Alya’s job as the number one superhero blogger in Paris, Alya tended to run towards the villains instead of away. Quite a few times a villain had scooped her up to use as a hostage against her and Kishi. It got really annoying.

“So you’re staying home, safe and sound. Period!” Nora demanded. 

“That’s so ridiculous! The twins were akumatized right here at home!” Alya retorted.

Alix exchanged glances with Juleka and Myléne, they also seemed to have realized how awkward this was. Rose also looked uncomfortable with the entire thing and Ivan was making more sandwiches than needed probably to avoid just listening to them.  It was supremely awkward but Alix could understand how infuriating siblings were, especially when she had one as moronic as Jalil. 

“Well that would have never happened on my watch,” Nora said as she slammed her fist on the table, “I won’t let anybody mess with my family!” 

“Awww.” Rose sighed, the apparent energy of familial love making her forget how uncomfortable she was. 

“Oh ya, you mean like the other day at the square?” Alya retorted. 

Alix raised an eyebrow and looked towards Juleka, knowing that she and Rose had been hanging out with Alya a few days ago. 

“Nora attacked a dude in a banana costume, she thought he was a villain or something.” Juleka muttered with a shrug, “Kinda crazy.”

“That’s not important!" Nora snapped, "There's no telling what might happen! What if the Ferris wheel stops working 'cause some akumatized dude refused to pay his fair? Once you flyweights can actually defend yourselves like me," Nora attacked the air in front of her, miming a punch, elbow strike, and knee strike to prove her strength, "then we'll talk about it."

"Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir would kick its ass before it could do anything, we'll be fine." Alix pointed out. 

"Uh hu, and what if Miss Kitty is chasing a mouse and the beetle got stepped on? What will you do then?"

Alix's eyebrows angled downward, you get trapped under Gigantitan's foot one time-

"I can protect Alya if I had to!" Nino shouted.

Alix raised an eyebrow at that. Nino wasn't exactly the toughest guy, in fact, he was quite weak. A few months back the class had an arm wrestling tournament in gym class, because Mr. D'Argencourt was a terrible teacher. Nino had come in dead last, even losing to Chloe who thought muscles gave you wrinkles and sweat was your beauty leaking from your skin. Then again, arm wrestling was a terrible way to determine strength so maybe Nino had a chance.

Maybe. 

"Oh yeah, and how are you planning to defeat the villain?" Nora took a ballet pose, "A dance-off?" She mocked before bursting out into laughter.

"I- I'd do anything to protect Alya." Nino said, looking at the ground now.

"Awwww, Nino…" Rose said.

"Hmm, okay, Alya can go out with you guys," Nora said as she moved to the dining table, hope flashed in everyone's eyes. She sat down and slammed her elbow onto the table, " If , you beat me in an arm wrestle." The hope died.

"Please, don't arm wrestle on my account." Alya cut in, "I don't need to be protected!"

Nino hesitated for a second before he stepped forward to sit across from Nora and took her hand.

"Nino!" Alya shouted.

"I'm gonna beat you, and then I'm taking Alya to see the show!" Nino declared.

"HAH!" Alix barked out a laugh at the declaration causing all of her friends to turn to her with disapproving stares, "I mean, you can do this Nino!" She lied.

"Alya, you be the ref." Nora said.

"This is ridiculous!" Alya complained as she moved to stand at the end of the table. She placed her hand on top of Nora and Nino's interlocked hands, "Nora, you're the worst. Start." Alya removed her hand and the match began.

HYAAAAA!” Nino screamed as he began to push on Nora’s hand. Nino was obviously putting all his strength into it but Nora wasn’t budging. In fact, she looked bored. 

“Really? Is this all you got?” Nora asked, sounding thoroughly unimpressed. 

Nino began to push harder, probably as hard as he could manage. Nora let out a yawn. 

“Alright, this is boring,” Nora said as she slammed Nino’s hand down onto the table, “Anyone else want to try? If any one of you can beat me I’ll let Alya go.” 

Everyone turned to Ivan, who had begun packing the sandwiches into the basket. Ivan had come in second during the arm wrestling tournament, losing to Kim but beating Rose. Ivan paused what he was doing as he noticed his friend’s gazes.

“Me? Guys, I’m not so sure if-” Ivan started to reject the idea, but was cut off. 

“Come on Staypuff, you look like the only one who would give me a decent match.” Nora jumped in. 

“You can do it, Ivan!” Myléne encouraged him. 

“Uh, alright.” Ivan moved around the kitchen counter to sit across from Nora. Nino stood up to let him sit down, looking dejected. Alya wrapped her arms around him and whispered something into his ear that Alix couldn’t make out.

Ivan sat down and locked hands with Nora, his hands larger than hers. Alya once again moved over to be the ref and placed her hand onto Ivan and Nora’s interlocked hands. “Begin.” As Ivan began pushing Nora’s hand moved back just a bit before moving back to the middle. 

“Oh, the marshmallow actually has some muscle on him.” Nora said, sounding like she was slightly impressed, “But not as much as me.” Nora slammed Ivan’s hand down onto the table. 

Ivan stood up and looked around the room, “Sorry guys, I tried.” 

“If we don’t go soon we’ll miss the fireworks.” Rose pointed out as she began placing the sandwiches into the basket.

Alya sighed, “Forget it, just go without me guys.”

“Aw fuck no!” Alix shouted along with the rest of her friend’s shouts of disagreement, most less vulgar than hers. This was getting ridiculous and Alix was sick of it, but the problem was that she couldn’t do much about it. Most of her strength was in her lower body so she had no chance of beating Nora. 

However, Alix could be her in another way. 

“How about this,” Alix said as she stood up from the couch, “ you and me have a quick spar, and whoever lands the first blow wins. If I win, Alya goes with us. If you win she stays here.” Alix saw several eyes go wide at her challenge.

Nora raised an eyebrow at her, “I don’t make a habit of fighting children, I’ll have to decline” she said as she stood up. 

“You scared?” Alix taunted. 

“You’re like half my size, Pinky.”

“That means you’re scared of someone half your size. I thought you were supposed to be strong, Anansi.”

Nora’s eyes narrowed and her eyebrows bent downwards, “Fine, but don’t cry when I hurt you.” 

“Nora!” Alya shouted as Nora walked past, obviously opposed to the idea of her sister fighting one of her friends. Alix took a fighting stance as Nora stepped in front of her and also took a fighting stance. 

“C’mon ref!” Alix shouted. 

“Oh no! I am not condoning this!” Alya exclaimed as she threw her hands up in frustration. 

Alix shifted her gaze down towards Juleka, who shrugged and stood up. Juleka put her arm between the two, “3. 2. 1. Start!” Juleka leaped back and landed on the couch as Nora threw the first punch. 

The punch was aimed at Alix’s head but slower than when Nora had punched the air earlier, it seemed that the older girl was going easy on her. Alix moved her head to the side to dodge the attack and grabbed Nora’s forearm. Using her opponent’s arm to lift herself off the ground, Alix jumped into the air to send a kick directly into Nora’s jaw. Her opponent caught her attack by grabbing Alix’s leg and holding on as Alix fell upside down. 

Nora raised an eyebrow at Alix as she held her upside down, “You went for a kick to the jaw when you’re half my size?”

Still upside down, Alix shrugged, “I was going for style points.” 

Nora sighed, “Alright kids, Alya is stay- OOF-” Alix punched Nora in the stomach as she talked, causing the girl to drop her. Alix landed on her hands and pushed off the ground to flip onto her feet. 

“Alix wins!” Juleka announced.

“WHAT?” Nora shouted. 

Juleka shrugged, “She landed the first hit.” she muttered in response. 

“No! I don’t accept this! Pinky tricked me! Alya is staying here and-” 

“That’s it, Nora!” Alya shouted, cutting off her sister, “You lost, deal with it! I’ve had it with your overprotective big-sis smothering! I’m going out with my friends and I don’t care what you think! Alya out!” Alya dramatically began to walk towards the door but stopped to gesture for everyone else to follow her.

“Don’t take the loss too hard Anansi.” Alix said as she ran past Nora. Rose picked up the picnic basket and ran after Alya and everyone else followed behind, leaving Nora in the apartment alone. 

Glad that’s over. Alix thought as she followed her friends out of the building. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

“Kagami.” Mother called from the doorway. Kagami was in her room studying when Mother suddenly entered the room, “Prepare for kendo practice.” 

Kagami blinked, “Mother, my schedule-”

“Your schedule has been cleared for today. Now do not make me repeat myself.” Mother said, cutting Kagami off. She seemed cross for some reason, “I will meet you inside the dojo in 10 minutes. And leave your cell phone here, I want no distractions.” With those orders, Mother walked off.

Kagami quickly put away her textbooks and changed into her bōgu before making her way to the dojo. The dojo was a building Mother ordered constructed in the backyard of the Tsurugi mansion before they had moved. Mother insisted on teaching Kagami inside of a proper dojo instead of a randomly allocated room inside the mansion. The dojo didn’t look too aesthetically pleasing from the outside, not that Kagami or her mother cared, but the inside was made to resemble the dojo that Mother had learned kendo from her father. 

Kagami entered the dojo, her cellphone set on vibrate and tucked into a pocket under her bōgu. While it was against her mother's direct orders to have it on her, she needed to be aware of any akuma appearances so she could deal with them.

Mother was standing in the middle of the dojo with Suzuki-san, Mother’s personal assistant, standing beside her. Mother had on her own bōgu and held her shinai in her hand, “Kagami, your performance has been appalling lately.” she said, “D'Argencourt-san tells me that your fencing performance has been fine, so today you and I are going to figure out why you have developed a fear of real weapons.”

Kagami gritted her teeth at the statement, “I have developed no such fear Mother!”

“Then pick up a shinai and prove it!” Mother shouted. 

Kagami grabbed a shinai from where they sat on the wall and pulled her man mask over her face before moving to stand in front of Mother. Kagami closed her eyes as Suzuki-san moved away from Mother and to the side of the room. 

The man mask made it harder to hear the sound of Mother’s attacks due to the layer of cloth over her ears. While it took more focus, Kagami made out the sound of Mother’s shinai swinging downward, aiming for the top of her head. Kagami blocked it just before it hit. 

“Slow!” Mother shouted as she quickly moved her sword to strike Kagami in the side. Kagami takes a step back as she hears her mother pull her blade away and hold it out in front of her. 

“HAH!” Kagami shouted as she made an attack at Mother’s side. 

“Pathetic!” Kagami’s attack was blocked and Mother landed a strike on her wrists before she could react, “If this was a match I would have already won, Kagami, and it has not even been 30 seconds!”

Kagami grimaced as she held her shinai out in front of herself once again, knowing Mother does the same as their weapons lightly make contact. 

“Your attacks are predictable and your reactions are slow. You feel like a novice who does not know her way around the blade.” Mother reprimanded her, “Are you afraid of getting hit or afraid of hitting others?” Mother made a jab at Kagami’s throat which Kagami barely managed to knock away, “Or perhaps both?” 

“Neither one, Mother!” Kagami made a downward slash at Mother’s head but was blocked and Mother promptly counterattacked and sent her shinai into Kagami’s side?

“Then what has you so afraid? What makes you slow? Why have you reverted back to the skill of a novice?” Kagami blocked an attack aimed for her wrists but Mother hit her in the head a second later, “Why are your attacks weak? Why are your counterattacks predictable? Why-”

Kagami’s phone buzzed from within her pocket. 

Mother stopped her assault, having heard the buzz, “I told you to leave your phone in your room, Kagami. You disobeyed me.” 

“Mother, I-” Kagami tried.

“Silence! I will not hear your excuses! Suzuki!” Mother’s assistant came at her call and reached under Kagami’s bōgu to pull her phone from her pocket. Suzuki-san turned on the phone for a moment and Kagami opened her eyes to glance at the screen. It wasn’t an akuma, just a text from Marinette. Suzuki-san held down the power button until the phone shut down completely before placing it into her own pocket. 

“Your phone will be returned to you only after we have figured out why you are floundering your shinai as if you have just picked it up for the first time in your life.” 

“But Mother, I-”

“Then and only then!” Her mother shouted, “Now, let us continue.”

Kagami once again closed her eyes and readied her shinai, this was going to be a long day. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

“Sorry girls, no food allowed on the Ferris Wheel.” The employee said as Alix tried to board a car with Rose and Juleka. Alya, Nino, Mylène, and Ivan had gotten on the previous car and were now looking down at them. They were boarding the last few cars available and the fireworks would be going off any minute now, they couldn’t afford to waste time. 

Alix grabbed the picnic basket from Rose, “You two head up, I’ll stay down here and hold onto the basket.” 

Rose gasped, “But Alix, you’ll miss the view of the fireworks!”

Alix shrugged, “My view will be fine from down here, I’ll leave you two alone to be all sappy and romantic up there.” Alix pushed the couple into the car and waved them goodbye, “Cya afterward.”

Her friends waved her goodbye as Alix walked away from the Ferris Wheel to a spot where she could get a good view. She found a nearby bench facing the spot where the fireworks would be launched and sat down, placing the basket next to her. She located her friends in the wheel as it began to run. Just as the car with Alya, Nino, Mylène, and Ivan reached the right side of the wheel the fireworks began firing off. Her friends all crowded to the window that faced the show. 

Just then something flew past the Ferris wheel, something that looked like a person. It landed on the center of the Ferris wheel. 

It was a villain, brown and yellow with 6 arms and it looked vaguely familiar. As Alix watched it began shooting webs from it’s mouth and clogging up the Ferris wheel. A few seconds later the wheel stopped moving, halted by the web the villain had created in the center. The villain began climbing upward, Towards the car holding her friends. Alya had pulled out her phone and was filming as the villain approached. 

People in the area began fleeing, leaving their cars in the road and fleeing by foot. The villain grabbed the cart holding her friends, ripped it off the wheel, and jumped down to the ground, jostling everyone inside as she slammed it to the ground. The villain punched through the glass of the Ferris car, shattering it. The villain reached in and grabbed Alya with 4 arms.

“Now that Pinky isn’t here to bail you guys out, let’s see how you’ll protect your girlfriend, Cappy!” the villain seemed to think for a moment before tucking Alya under two of her arms and reaching back in the car for Mylène, “Same for you Staypuff!” It was then that Alix realized why the villain’s whole strong spider theme seemed familiar, this was definitely Nora who had been akumatised by Hawkmoth. 

“Mylène!” Ivan shouted as the villain leaped up onto the Egyptian obelisk in the center of the plaza.

“Come and get her if you’re not flyweights!” The villain called as she leaped off the obelisk and began jumping down Champs-Élysées backward, shooting webs as she went, covering the street with webs. Nino and Ivan wasted no time as they ran off down the street. 

Alix needed to transform but all the people with an aerial view from the Ferris Wheel prevented her from simply ducking behind a car. She figured her best option was to follow Ivan and Nino and come up with a plan on the way. 

She began to run down Champs-Élysées after them, climbing over cars and crawling under webs as she needed to to get around them. Alix could see Nino way ahead of her, he was moving fast. Ivan seemed to be having a little trouble past the webs due to his big size and was a little behind Nino. As Alix reached the Champs-Élysées Fountains she split off to a side street and found an alleyway where she let Tikki out of her hat. 

“I think this one’s my fault, Tikki.” Alix admitted to her kwami.

“Then let’s fix it before anybody gets hurt.” Tikki responded. 

Alix nodded, “Tikki, spots on!”

Transformed into Nike Rouge, Alix leaped onto the rooftops and began running along Champs-Élysées. It would be difficult to swing down the street with all the webs covering it so Alix kept to the rooftops. It wasn’t long before she passed Ivan but Nino was still a ways ahead. 

Damn, he’s going fast. It made Alix smile at how much he was willing to do for Alya. He was totally going to get murdered for his troubles, but it was sweet. 

As she ran, Alix pulled out her yoyo-phone and called Kishi Noir but got sent straight to the voicemail, meaning she wasn’t transformed. 

“Kishi we got a villain heading down Av. des Champs-Élysées with 2 hostages. Oh, hold on.” Alix watched as far ahead of the villain shoot a web onto the inside of the Arc de Triomphe and stick her 2 hostages onto it, “I think it’s making it’s a base at the Arc de Triomphe. Get here soon, this one looks pretty strong.” Nike cut off the voicemail and stuck the yoyo back onto her belt. Alix picked up her pace, Nino had managed to get even farther ahead despite her avoiding the obstacles by being on the rooftops and her physical boost from the miraculous.

Around 10 minutes later, Nino reached the Arc de Triomphe while Alix was still around a block away. Nike watched as a very out of breath Nino ran up to the villain's web. 

“Anansi, you let Alya go right now!” Nino shouted before pausing to catch his breath again, “And Mylène too.” He added after a second. 

“Oh yeah?” Anansi said from where she was crawling on her web before leaping down to stand in front of Nino, “And how exactly is a weak little flyweight going to force me to release my prisoners?” 

As Nino charged at Anansi, Alix threw her yoyo and latched it onto a street light in the distance before pulling herself to it for momentum. Angling herself so her feet flew first, Nike slammed into the villain as it grabbed Nino’s head to block his futile attacks. The villain flew back from the unexpected attack and bounced a couple of times on the concrete before slamming into a nearby abandoned car.

“The cavalry has arrived!” Nike announced as she landed on her feet in front of Nino. Alix checked her yoyo for any response from Kishi, which there was none. 

Anansi got up from the ground, “Wow, pretty strong for a beetle, aren’t ya?” 

“You’re not bad for an arachnid.” Nike responded before turning to Nino, “You should get outa here dude, you’re going to get killed.” 

“I’m not leaving! My girlfriend is-” 

“Well at least go get a weapon then, you ain’t doing shit with your bare hands.” Nike advised, “A hammer, piece of rebar, a broom, anything is better than nothing when facing an opponent with more reach than you.”

“What about you? I don't see a weapon on you.”

Alix smirked, “I’m a superhero, I am a weapon.” Nike ducked down to dodge Anansi’s first punch as Nino ran off to find a weapon. As Anansi’s attack sailed over her head, Alix grabbed one of the villain's long legs and pulled on it, causing her to lose balance and fall to the ground. While the villain caught herself from hitting the ground using 4 of it’s arms, it didn’t stop Alix’s fist from slamming into her stomach. Anansi’s arms slipped out from under her and crashed to the ground, cracking the pavement below. 

A second later one of the villain's arms grabbed Nike’s head and threw her at full speed into an abandoned bus nearby. Alix crashed through the windows and slammed into a row of seats inside. While it hurt, it didn’t seem to do any major damage, not to her at least. As she climbed out of the bus, Nike looked around for any sign of her partner. Instead, she saw a car flying through the air straight for her. Alix hit the ground to dodge out of the way and the car slammed into the bus behind her

“Ding, ding, ding! Bells ringing! Round three! Fight!” Anansi shouted as she lifted another car. 

What happened to rounds 1 and 2? Alix thought as she dodged another car, And where the fuck is Kishi?

As Nike got in close range of Anansi once again, Nino came back armed with some kind of metal rod with the end looking jagged and sharp. Ivan also appeared from the mess of webs on Champs-Élysées and looked pissed when he saw Mylène stuck up on the villain's web. Alix angled herself with her back towards the web so that Anansi wouldn’t notice their approach. 

As Nike kept dodging Anansi’s attacks as the two boys approached, her rows of left and right hooks pushed Alix back and closer to the arch behind her. As Alix got under the Arc de Triomphe itself she grabbed some barrier rope poles and threw them into the villain's arms.

“What do you think you’re- Woah!” Alix wrapped her yoyo around Anansi’s legs as she spoke and yanked hard, sending the villain crashing to the floor. The two approaching boys, now right behind Anansi, stabbed down at the villain's head as it hit the ground, Nino with his rod and Ivan with his fist. 

Unfortunately, Anansi managed to free her arms from the mess of ropes and use her 2 top arms to catch the boy’s attacks. The villain ripped the rod out of Nino’s hand and threw it to a nearby wall, the impact causing it to fold in half and crack the wall before falling to the ground. Anansi used her grip on Ivan’s arm to pick him up and slam the boy into Nike, sending them both to the ground.

“You really thought that would work, flyweights?” Anansi taunted, still on the floor and unable to get up due to her wrapped up legs. 

“Thought it was worth a shot.” Nike responded as she picked herself off the ground, “How about this?” Alix pulled the yoyo string tight and began to swing it around in a circle, picking Anansi off the ground and spinning her around with it. After she built up a good velocity, Nike loosened the string and released the villain’s legs, sending the spider villain flying towards a wall at high velocity. Unfortunately, before impact, Anansi caught the wall with her 6 hands and simply stuck there, the attack seeming to do no damage at all

“I’m sorry, was that supposed to do something?” The villain taunted, “I heard that Nike Rouge was supposed to be a good fighter? Or was that all rumors?”

Nike scowled at the villain, this was bad. Normally Alix enjoyed strong villains but this one was just too much. Its strength far surpassed hers and its defenses were incredible, plus the extra limbs gave her so much of an advantage that Nike could barely touch her. If Kishi was here then she might stand a chance but she had no clue where her partner was. 

Alix looked at Ivan, who was picking himself off the ground. She could go and get the turtle, and maybe even something for Nino. It would make the fight a whole lot easier but Nike doubted that the two boys would survive long enough for her to go get them and come back. 

“You and your friend get out of here, it’s too dangerous for a civilian to be here right now.” Alix said to Ivan, she probably shouldn’t have involved them in the fight in the first place. 

“I’m not leaving Mylène alone!” Ivan exclaimed, “Can’t you give me the-”

“Do you think I carry them around on me?” Nike cut him off, “You need to get out of here before you get hurt, I can’t fight a villain if I have to protect civilians, so leave!” Nike leaped to the side as Anansi sent a line of punches into the concrete where she was just standing, cracking it. 

“See, even the beetle thinks you guys are flyweights!” the villain laughed as she continued to assault Nike. 

Alix swept the villain's legs out from underneath it, “That’s not what I said!”

Anansi caught her fall with her right arms and swung her leg at Nike’s head, “It’s what you meant!” Alix ducked under the attack and grabbed the villain's leg. She used this hold on Anansi’s leg to turn and flip the villain over her shoulder and onto its back. 

“Flyweights will always be flyweights! Useless and unable to protect those they care about!” Anansi said as she flipped onto her feet, “Anansi is here to beat that into your stupid heads!”

Alix dodged another row of punches as she saw Nino pick up the bent rod, his face full of rage. Ivan picked up one of the poles from the barrier ropes and held it like a weapon.

Kishi, please arrive soon. Alix thought as she dodged Anansi’s assault. 

“Give me Alya back!” Nino shouted as he charged at the villain. 

“Let Mylène go!” Ivan shouted as he also charged. 

“Oh?” Anansi said as she turned her head to see the two boys charging from separate angles, “The flyweights are at it again.”

“Why don’t you focus on me!” Nike shouted as she jumped up to punch the villain in the chest. Anansi caught her attack with one of her middle arms. 

“I’ll deal with you in a minute.” The villain said as she swung and threw Nike out from under the Arc and slammed into an abandoned car. Nike jumped up but could only watch as Ivan made it within range of the villain. Anansi grabbed his weapon as he swung at her, the villain then ripped it out of his grasp and crumped it between her hands. The akuma dropped the hunk of metal and slammed Ivan with a row of punches. The large boy flew backward and hit one of the corners of the Arc, slumping to the ground a second later.

“IVAN!” Alix shouted, hearing her voice tear as she screamed. Her hand shook as saw her friend’s head slump in an all too familiar way. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw the blood leak from his head, staining his hair and flowing down to his shirt. 

Alix's head began to pound. Her mind began pulling up memories she'd rather not think about. Her own heartbeat pounded in her ears as she watched in horror the scene before her. 

Her mother standing in the doorway. 

Ivan’s limp hand slid to the ground.

Jalil’s science fair trophy on the shelf above.

Nino raised his weapon as he ran, screaming something lost to Alix's ears. 

The argument.

Mylène’s face was panicked as she tried to twist her body to see what happened to her boyfriend. 

“You don’t understand me! I hate you!” Alix had screamed.

Anansi’s laughed as Nino swung the bent rod at her stomach. 

Mom’s sad face.

The villain caught the pipe and tossed it into the web above them, laughing as Nino went in for a punch. 

Alix slammed the door as hard as she could, shaking the doorframe and walls.

Nike grabbed her yoyo with shaky hands. 

Mom’s scream from the other side of the door.

Anansi picked up Nino by the head. 

The sound of something hitting the door and sliding down.

Nike clenched her fist. 

Opening the door. 

Anansi pulled a row of arms back for a punch. 

The trophy on the ground, her mother slumped against her legs, her head wet and hair turning the wrong color-

Nike punched herself in the face, hard. Alix felt her jaw crack as she was brought back to reality. She threw the yoyo, wrapped it around Nino, and tugged hard. He was yanked out of Anansi’s grasp and flew into Nike’s arms. Alix retraced the yoyo and dropped Nino to the ground. 

“Stay here.” She told him sternly.

“But Al-”

“STAY HERE!” Alix snapped as she began walking back towards the villain. This needed to end. She needed to kick Anansi’s ass and heal Ivan. She had no more time to waste. 

“Aw, is the little beetle angry?” Alix threw her yoyo back and wrapped it around a nearby car as Anansi approached, “Why don’t you skitter back your dumpster and -SHIT!” Alix pulled the string tight and lifted the car off the ground, swinging it up and then back down onto the villain. Anansi caught the car with her 4 upper arms while her lower arms crossed, “Oh, you’re throwing cars now? I already did that last- GAH!” As Anansi held the car above her head, Alix jumped up and landed a right hook on the villain’s jaw. 

The villain dropped the car on its side and made a grab for Nike, but missed as she backflipped off the villain's chest and out of her reach. Alix landed on top of the overturned car and bent down to open the door. She ripped the door off the car and tossed it at Anansi. The villain caught the door and Alix used the opportunity to leap onto the villain, wrapping her legs around the villain's neck. Nike punched her in the face 6 times before Anansi dropped the door and grabbed Alix’s waist with 2 arms and threw her off. 

Nike's back slammed against the bottom of the car and Anansi held her face, “You annoying little bug!” Alix stood up and grabbed the central axle of the car and ripped the entire thing from the car. Now armed with a weapon as large as her opponent with tires on the end, Nike charged once again. Alix jumped up and slammed a tire against Anansi’s head, pulling the weapon back as the villain made a grab for it. Nike landed on the ground in front of Anansi and made a direct stab at the villain’s chest with the front of the axle. Anansi caught the tires on the end and stopped the attack. 

“No matter what weapon you have, I will always be stro- AAG!” Alix put all her strength into the stab and the axle snapped, the tires Anansi held breaking off and the rest of the axle stabbing into the villain’s chest. It didn’t do major damage, but it did manage to rip her outfit and draw blood, which enraged Anansi. 

“You pest!” she screamed as she took hold of the axle with all 6 arms and yanked it from Nike’s grasp. Alix pulled out her yoyo and threw it at the villain. Nike maneuvered the movement of the yoyo so that it wrapped around the axle and the 6 hands holding it. She pulled the string tight and the villain’s arms were all trapped. Alix grabbed the opposite end of the yoyo and pulled on both ends so that Anansi was lifted off her feet and sailed over Nike’s head before slamming into the concrete. Then she did it again, and again, and again. After about 8 slams against the concrete, the akuma was effectively unconscious, groaning in pain and eyes half shut. 

Nike kneeled down to the akuma’s head and dug her fingers under Anansi’s headgear on both sides. Alix ripped the headgear off the akuma, tearing it as she did so and releasing the black butterfly. Nike removed the yoyo from the now deakumatized Nora’s arms and opened the capture function. 

She wordlessly captured the akuma and released the purified butterfly. Realizing she hadn't even used Lucky Charm, Alix opened the cure function of the yoyo and held it up, “Miraculous Nike Rouge.” The magical ladybugs poured out of the yoyo and swept over the city, cleaning up the webs, fixing the damage, and healing everyone harmed. 

Alix watched as the magical ladybugs swept over Ivan, healing him and picking him up off the ground. Alya and Mylène were placed onto the ground and Nino ran up to Alya and wrapped her in a hug. Mylène ran up to Ivan to embrace him. Nora was also healed, now laying on the ground confused. 

“What happ-” Nora began, but was cut off when Nike grabbed her by the shirt and hit her in the jaw with a right hook, causing everyone around to gasp. 

Alix’s hands were shaking, her breathing was picking up and her heartbeat was pounding in her ears. Her brain was bringing up memories that she didn’t want to remember and triggering emotions that she didn’t want to feel. Her head felt soaked with sweat and her nose was creating an imaginary scent of iron. Her legs shook as she remembered the feeling of the wet hair on her legs and her hands shook violently as she remembered the feeling of her mother’s soggy clothes under her fingers. 

Nike turned and took a step away, but nearly fell due to how hard her legs were shaking. She tried to throw the yoyo to a distant rooftop but couldn’t muster the strength causing the yoyo to fall limply to the ground. 

She could feel everyone’s eyes on her. She shouldn’t do this here. She had to leave and get somewhere that nobody would see. She had to go. She needed to leave. She needed to be alone. 

She felt a hand on her shoulder, “Nike Rouge, are you alright?” Alya asked her voice dripping with concern.

Alix turned and grabbed Alya by the shirt, “I’M FINE!” She shouted. She didn’t need anyone’s concern. Alix was strong. She was the friend that everyone could rely on and trust to help them. She was Nike Rouge, superheroine of Paris. She was strong. She was fine. 

Alya’s eyes were wide and her hands were up in the air. 

Alix caught a sob from escaping her throat as she dropped Alya and backed away. Alix felt tears fall off her mask as she turned away and began to walk away. She forced herself to walk, each step she had to resist the urge to fall to the ground and fold in on herself. Alix made her way to the street before once again pulling out her yoyo. Alix forced her arm to exert enough strength to throw the yoyo onto the top of a nearby building, hooking onto a flagpole, even if all the limb wanted to do was fall limply to her side. The yoyo pulled her onto the rooftop and Alix again had to fight the urge to collapse, but this time she lost. 

She didn’t even manage to land on her feet as she landed, just collapsed onto the roof as her yoyo retracted. She barely knew what building she was on, only that it was high up and away from others. The concrete of the rooftop under her was cool as she let the sobs free from her throat. Her cheeks grew cold as the wind chilled her tears as they flowed. Her legs curled up and her arms found their way around her knees and her head fell into the space they made. 

Her mind replayed the memory on loop, every single detail of the day seeping into her soul and making her tears flow faster. The grief and guilt she felt pooled in her brain and muddled her thoughts until they were a soup with no real substance. She felt something vaguely warm and reassuring inside her chest, but its glow paled to the darkness of her memory. 

And that’s where she sat for who knows how long, curled in a ball on an unknown rooftop, memories hitting her harder than any villain ever could. She didn’t know how much time passed. She didn’t register the sun sinking below the horizon or the stars beginning to shine in the sky. She didn't notice the black butterfly flapping its wings, circling her as it looked for an opportunity to take control, looking for any desire or wish it could grant. However, it found nothing but grief. 

Eventually, she lost consciousness, exhausted from the emotions she had been forced to feel. Nobody saw, nobody knew, nobody helped her. Nike Rouge, hero of Paris, cried alone until her brain stopped looping the memory. 

And that’s just the way she wanted it. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kagami was sore, tired, and sweaty. Kagami had been hit by Mother’s shinai more times than she cared to count and even Mother was running out of things to shout at her. Mother had blocked every single one of Kagami’s attacks and Kagami only managed to block around 20% of Mother’s. As the training went on Kagami started to get better at sensing the attacks coming, but soon the fatigue slowed her movements so much that she could barely block the simplest of attacks. 

“Kagami you bring dishonor to the Tsurugi name.” Mother said, “I have no clue why your swordsmanship has fallen so low but it is unacceptable.” Her mother chided her. Kagami gritted her teeth, she hated the idea of bringing dishonor, but also knew that to improve she must take drastic measures. For progress, she was willing to make sacrifices and this was one she had to do now. 

“Suzuki, clear mine and my daughter’s schedules. My daughter and I will do nothing but eat, sleep, and train until whatever has hindered her swordsmanship has been cut down.” Mother ordered. Kagami gritted her teeth, that would be a problem. She had other responsibilities, being Kishi Noir, so she couldn’t stay here that long. She would have to learn quickly. 

“Tomoe-sama, before I do so, I must ask. Are you aware that Kagami-san has had her eyes closed this entire time?” Suzuki-san asked. 

“She what?” Tomoe exclaimed, “Kagami, is this true?” 

Kagami looked away from her mother, “It is.”

“Why Kagami?” 

She didn’t want to answer. Kagami wanted to learn to overcome her mother by herself, adjusting to blindness just as Mother had. She did not want to accept that she could not learn it without Mother’s guidance. 

“Kagami answer me!”

“Mother, I want to surpass you.” Kagami answered truthfully, “I want to be the pride of the Tsurugi family, but how can I do so when you fight blind as well as I do with sight? How can I call it victory when I hold such a large advantage over my opponent? So, I closed my eyes and gave up my advantage so I may learn to fight as you do.” 

Mother lifted her man mask from her head and dropped it to the ground. She walked over and wrapped her arms around Kagami. “You are my daughter, and so I also want you to surpass me. I will never hold anything from you that I have the ability to teach, all you must do is ask me, Kagami.”

Kagami wrapped her arms around Mother, “Thank you, Mother.” It was the first time in a long time that Kagami had received a hug from her mother. It blew away all the soreness and contempt that had been growing the past hours and replaced them with hope and a path to success. Also, it simply felt warm in her mother’s embrace which filled Kagami with joy. 

A few seconds later, Mother released her. “Come Kagami, we both smell ways that no Tsurugi woman should and our stomachs are empty. Let’s go inside.” Mother placed an arm around Kagami’s shoulder. 

“Yes, Mother.” Kagami said with a smile. 

— — — — — — — — — — — —

By the time Alix awoke it was already midnight. She was still transformed and her yoyo was still where she had left it wrapped around a flagpole. She got up, grabbed it, and swung back home. 

“Tikki, spots off.” Alix called after climbing into her room through the window. Tikki materialized from her earrings and fell onto her open hands. She looked exhausted. 

“Sorry Tikki.” Alix said as she grabbed a box of cookies from under her bed. 

“It’s alright Alix.” Tikki responded, “Do you want to talk-”

“No.” Alix responded as she pulled out a few cookies for her kwami. Alix took her phone out of her pocket and threw it onto her bed before taking off her shoes. She didn’t want to look at her phone right now, her friends were all probably wondering where she had gone and Alix didn’t want to deal with that at the moment. 

Alix left Tikki eating and left her room for the kitchen. Dad was sitting at the dining table with a stack of papers and his laptop, probably doing work. 

“Oh Alix, I didn’t see you come home. “ He said.

“Well, I’m here.” Alix responded as she stepped into the kitchen. She opened the freezer and pulled out a tub of ice cream. As she grabbed a spoon she noticed Dad's face turn worried as he noticed the ice cream. 

“Everything alright?” He asked, knowing that Alix only did this when it happened. 

“Peachy.” Alix walked back to her room, “Tell Jalil I’m stealing his beanbag.” Jalil has a massive beanbag in his room that one could just sink into, especially when you were Alix’s size, and it was the most comfortable place in the house.

“He should be in his room, you can tell him yourself.” Dad responded. 

Alix hadn’t expected Jalil to be home since he went to a fancy smart kids high school for future historians and lived in a dorm there. He normally was only home on weekends and even then tended to stay in his room working on his nuts conspiracy theories. 

Alix made her way to Jalil’s room and knocked on the door. 

“Yes?” He called out. 

“I’m coming in.” Alix announced before opening the door. Jalil’s room looked like a crazy person lived inside, mainly because one did. His walls were all covered in copies of various papyrus scrolls and every surface had piles of replica artifacts on them. He had like 5 corkboards full of thumbtacks and strings and books covering the floor. There was barely space to walk and it stunk of sweat and unwashed bedsheets. “I’m taking the beanbag.” 

Jalil was on his bed reading a book that Alix didn’t care to read the name of, “Alright, it’s in the closet. Don’t spill anything on it.” 

“Yeah, whatever man.” Alix responded as she moved to the closet, probably the cleanest place in the room, and pulled out the beanbag.

“Happen again?” Jalil asked. 

Alix grunted in response and left the room, she carried the beanbag to her room and threw it into the space between her bed and closet. She grabbed her laptop and flopped down onto the beanbag. She noticed Tikki’s gaze but didn’t acknowledge the kwami as she pulled up My Little Horsie on her laptop. 

Alix hated this show. It was ridiculous and had way too much friendship magic bullshit. It was too colorful and the character’s voices were way too high pitched. Alix only ever watched it on the shittiest days because despite how shit the show was it always managed to lift her mood. She would never admit to anyone that she watched this show, it was a secret that she would take to her grave. 

“What episode you watching?” Jalil said as he walked into the room. 

She would also take it to Jalil’s grave if he ever told anybody. 

Tikki hid as Jalil walked in and threw himself onto her bed, his nasty socks all over her pillows so that he could also watch the show, “Ooh, cookies.” He said, grabbing the box of cookies that Alix had left on the bed, “I love this episode.”

“Stupid brony.” Alix said before stuffing a scoop of ice cream into her mouth. 

“You’re watching the show too.” he pointed out. 

“That’s different, I’m a sad 15-year-old girl and you’re a nerdy boy in his senior year of high school.” 

“I thought you believed in gender equality. ” 

“Yeah, for everyone but you.”

“Stupid tomboy.”

“Stupid dork.”

The two fell silent after that, watching the show as they ate their sweets. Every so often Jalil would lean in to dip a cookie in the melting ice cream and Alix would have to fight him off with her spoon, a smile on her face. 

And soon enough, Alix fell into a peaceful, memory-free, sleep.

Chapter Text

Alix had slept till noon and was now late for school. Yesterday's events had tired her out and she had stayed up way too late with Jalil so she had slept through all her morning classes. While she was relieved to find that no akumas had appeared that morning, she also knew that this meant a villain would probably appear this afternoon.

Alix had woken up near the beginning of lunch so she had time before her afternoon classes. She took a shower and ate a sandwich that Jalil had left for her before pulling on her skates and heading to school. Since she had time, Alix took the longer route to school that was more fun to skate since it had extra stairs and handrail for cool tricks. Alix got to school a few minutes before lunch ended and decided to check the Ladyblog after placing her skates in her locker.

Alya had posted nearly nothing about Anansi, despite it being one of the closest akumatizations she's ever been to. A few people were asking about it but Alya had responded by saying that the situation was a personal family matter and she wouldn't be talking about it.

Alix knew that Alya was lying, because she had no chill and had talked extensively about Sapotis when her little sisters were akumatized, but was grateful nonetheless. Alix really didn't want people to know what had happened yesterday.

The bell rang to signal the end of lunch and Alix made her way to class. She got there first and settled into her seat just as everyone else began to pour in.

"Alix!" Rose examined as she walked into the room, immediately running up to her. The rest of the 'girl squad' followed close behind her. "We were sooo worried when you disappeared yesterday!" 

"And then you didn't show up this morning." Myléne added as she sat down beside Alix.

"You didn't respond to our texts." Juleka mumbled.

"Seriously girl, where did you go?" Alya asked.

"Sorry guys, a friend of mine had a sudden emergency and I had to dip." Alix lied, she didn't like lying to her friends but she couldn't tell them the truth, "Then my phone died. It was a whole thing and I ended up sleeping through my alarm this morning. Sorry for worrying you."

"We're just glad to know that you're alright." Myléne said.

"Next time just send us a text before you leave." Alya said.

"Alright class, get to your seats." Miss Bustier said as she walked into the room, "We have a lot to get through today so let's get started."

Everyone moved to their seats as Miss Bustier moved to the front of the room and began talking about the reading from last night that Alix hadn't read. It wasn't as if she needed to because it was history and Alix's brain was stuffed with more historical knowledge than she cared to admit. Alix stared out the window as Miss Bustier taught her lesson. 

It was a nice day outside, a few white fluffy clouds floated through the otherwise clear blue sky. Fall was over halfway through and it was a perfect day to go out and do some stupid stunts on her rollerblades. Alix began to wish she had skipped school today, it wouldn't have been particularly difficult.

As Alix watched the skyline, a purple glow on the skyline caught her eye, especially odd seeing as it was midday. She watched as the purple glow began to grow brighter and become more pronounced. 

No wait, it wasn't getting brighter, it was getting bigger. 

Alix continued to watch as the skyline darkened and the glow appeared before closer and closer buildings. 

No, not bigger. It was getting closer.

"Alix, is there something outside more interesting than my lesson?" Miss Bustier called to her.

"Yes, actually." Alix answered, "Probably an akuma."

"Oh, of course." Miss Bustier answered just as the purple glow swept over the buildings across from the school. 

A second later the glow swept over the school and Alix was hit with a sudden spike in heat. The walls, desks, and floor turned into a red stone and the air was so hot that it was hard to breathe. The window also turned to stone so Alix had no view outside. The lights turned to stone so the room went dark.  Alix began to sweat as the room essentially turned into a sauna. It felt like one as well as water bottles began to melt and the water evaporate. 

"AHHH!" Chloe screamed, "My makeup is going to run!" Alix rolled her eyes at her.

"AHH!" Myléne shrieked as a glowing blob of lava fell from the ceiling onto the desk in front of her. Looking up, Alix saw that the pipes on the ceiling above them were dripping with lava, the red stone they had been replaced with falling apart. The lava cast a faint glow over the room. 

"Out of the room everyone, it's not safe here!" Miss Bustier called. 

"The door won't budge!" Nino screamed as he tugged on the doorknob. The hinges of the door had also turned into red stone and had fused with the door and wall.

"Move, I got this!" Kim shouted as he pushed past everyone. He slammed his shoulder against the door, snapping the hinges and causing the door to fall into the hall, Kim falling on top of it. Kim picked himself off and flexed as everyone exited the room.

The sky had turned a similar shade of red to the stone that took over the building. The court down below had its lines turned to rows of lava and the ceiling overhang was beginning to crumble downward.

"This stone is too soft to support buildings." Max stated as he leaned down to examine the broken door, "This building will soon collapse and I expect that a similar thing is happening across Paris. I suggest we evacuate immediately."

"We need to get everyone else about then!" Alix said, looking towards the other classroom doors. Some were broken down with students streaming out but some remained shut, "Kim, Ivan, go around and bust down any doors that the students inside can't manage." The two boys nodded, "Everyone else, go try to open the front door of the school. I'm going to go see if anyone is in the restrooms." Alix slid down the stair railing and rushed to the door to the locker room.

The locker room door had been left slightly ajar when it changed into red stone so the hinges were left at a slight angle. Alix pushed on the door and felt it swing back a tiny amount. When Alix stopped applying force the door swung back just past where it had been before and swung back. Alix pushed again and let it swing back but this time as it swung away from her she pushed again, pushing it farther and placing strain on the stone hinges. Alix continued this, causing the door to swing slightly farther with every push and placing more and more force on the hinges, until finally-

Crack! The hinges broke and the door fell inward, crashing onto a row of lockers and breaking into multiple pieces. Alix slipped into the corner of the room and let Tikki out of her hat. 

“Let’s be quick with this one Alix, a lot of people are going to get really hurt.” Tikki said. 

“Agreed. Tikki, spots on!” Alix transformed into Nike Rouge and threw her yoyo to smash the red stone that had replaced the windows at the top of the room and leapt out. She made her way to the school roof and looked out across Paris. 

It was honestly horrifying. All of Paris had turned into weak red stone and many buildings were collapsing under their own weight. Alix watched as in the distance Montparnasse Tower crumbled and fell to the ground, unable to hold itself up, probably killing many people. The streets were turned to lava and the cars turned to the red stone, doomed to sink into the lava along with whatever was inside. Any grass was also turned into pools of lava, dooming anyone who had been in parks. 

Alix leaped off the roof as she noticed a mother and her baby standing on the top of a bench sinking into the lava. Nike threw her yoyo and wrapped it around the pair and pulled them to safety, catching them in midair and landing on the red stone sidewalk. 

“Thank you, Nike Rouge!” The woman said as Nike set her down. 

“Don’t thank me yet, I still have to fix this mess.” She responded before leaping onto a nearby rooftop.

This is so much worse than Syren . Alix thought as she ran, scanning for any sign of the villain as she went. She needed to end this as soon as possible and fix the city. This villain was so much worse and so much more destructive than any previously. Nike tried not to think about how many people were either already dead or in grave danger right now. 

What the hell would be worth this much suffering? Alix questioned as she ran.

Nothing is. She answered herself, Absolutely nothing. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kagami had been studying in her room when the purple light swept over Paris. Her textbook had turned to stone and her room had suddenly turned dark as the lights also turned to stone. Kagami took her phone out of her pocket and turned on the flashlight. Everything was now made of a red stone that smelled of sulfur, everything except for her lunch that is. It seemed that food was unaffected.

“My cheese!” Plagg shouted as he phased through his now stone cheese cabinet, “All this heat is going to ruin it! Hurry up and transform so we can give this villain a beating for messing with my cheese!”

Kagami rolled her eyes, “Plagg, claws out!” She could see a lot better as Kishi Noir since she had night vision. Kishi smashed through the stone that replaced her window and slipped out, leaping to the roof. 

All of Paris had turned into a hellscape. The streets were replaced with lava and everything else had turned to red stone. Kishi watched as a bus slowly sank into the lava, her advanced hearing picking up on the screams leaking out the open window. Kishi split her rod into 2 and leaped over. She stuck the rods into the lava and extended them so they sat under the bus. Using the edge of the sidewalk as leverage, Kishi lifted the bus out of the lava and then extended her rods to the other sidewalk so that the bus sat on the rods above the lava. Kishi lifted the rod on her side so that the bus slid to the side of the sidewalks opposite of her. She set the rods back down and leaped over the street of lava to the opposite side. Kishi punched the bus door open and let everyone out onto the sidewalk before picking her rods back up and placing them back into one rod, letting the bus sink once more. 

She got a ‘Thank you, Kishi Noir’ from every passenger but Kishi knew that she had only saved a handful of the people affected by this akuma. Without a word, Kishi picked her staff back up and leaped up onto the rooftops and began scanning the city for the villain. She forced herself to ignore the uncountable amount of cars sinking into the lava, knowing that saving them would only delay solving the actual problem. 

Kishi pulled up the call function on her rod and called Nike, who didn’t respond. Probably not transformed yet. Kishi hoped that she hadn’t been in a car when the akuma struck. Kishi began going towards the Eiffel Tower, hoping that the akuma would be there or at least run into it on the way. 

Upon arrival at the tower, Kishi found it no longer standing. Only three legs of the tower still stood, the fourth being crushed under the rest of the tower and probably having been the one to give out. Something caught the corner of Kishi’s eye and turned just in time to watch the Montparnasse Tower crumble apart and crash down under its own weight. 

How horrible. Kishi thought. Her mind couldn’t help but drift back to the conversation she had with her mother after Syren. 

"Mother," Kagami had said , "What's so important that somebody would sacrifice a city for it?"

"Well, there are 2 things people would do anything for," Mother had answered, "Power and loved ones."

So which does Hawkmoth want? Kishi wondered. 

Before she could think too hard about it though, her rod buzzed in her hand. Nike was calling. Kishi picked up. 

“Any leads?” Nike asked, it seemed she was all business today. Made sense considering what was happening.

“No.”

“Alright, where are you?”

“Eiffel Tower.”

“I’ll meet you there.” Nike hung up. 

As Kishi waited for Nike to arrive, she leaped down to the nearest street and poked the lava with her rod. The lava was very hot and showed no signs of cooling down. It was also a lot less viscous than lava should be, from what Kishi could see it was a similar viscosity to honey. Kishi wasn't a lava expert but that didn't seem normal.

One thing that was right though was that the lava was incredibly hot. Even with the miraculous suit giving her far greater heat resistance than the average person, Kishi could still feel the intense heat radiating off the lava heating up the air. The burning hot air hurt as she breathed it in and sweat flowed down her face and dripped off her chin. 

Kishi knew that the longer she stayed in this environment the more it would drain her stamina. It had only been around 10 minutes since the hell-scape appeared and Kishi already felt tired just from the heat around her, and the villain hadn't even appeared yet.

Speaking of the villain, as Kishi poked the lava with her rod, an orange hand shot out from the lava and grabbed it. The hand pulled on the rod, likely trying to pull Kishi into the lava, but Kishi stood her ground and pulled the rod away from the lava, pulling out the hand and the person it was attached to. The figure that was pulled out of the lava let go of the rod before Kishi slammed it against the ground land and landed on its feet a little ways away. 

The villain's skin was bright orange and shone like the lava it had emerged from. He wore armor made from some kind of blue crystal that shone with a small purple glow. In one hand he held a longsword made from the same blue crystal his armor was made out of and shone with the same dim purple glow.

Also, he was a child, short and small. Probably around 12 if his height was anything to go off of. 

"Hello little ocelot, have you come out of your jungle to play with me?" The villain asked, his voice confirming her suspicions that he was young.

Ocelot? Jungle? Kishi had been called a lot of strange things by a lot of villains, but this was probably the most random. She had no idea what he was talking about.

Kishi readied her rod at the villain, preparing for combat. A villain talking crazy was no reason to hesitate.

"Oh, you're hostile? I needed your loot anyway!" The villain charged at her, pulling his sword back for a swing as he ran.

Kishi blocked the armored villain's swing with her rod before counterattacking by slamming her rod into the villain's stomach. Her attack bounced off his blue armor and the villain responded by slamming his sword downward at her. 

Kishi dodged backward and the villain's sword slammed into the ground where she had been standing, cutting straight through the red stone.

"My armor has prot 5! You can't hurt me with a stick!" The villain shouted as he pulled his sword from the ground.

It almost sounded like he was describing what abilities he had, but Kishi couldn't understand what he was trying to say. Instead of trying to understand the ramblings of a villain, Kishi charged in for another attack. She aimed her strike at the villain's chin but was blocked. The villain swung his sword at her head and Kishi dropped into a crouch to dodge it. While down there, she hooked her foot behind the villain's knee and pulled his leg out from under him. The villain crashed to the ground and his sword fell from his hand, falling to the ground a few meters away. 

"No! My sword!" The villain shouted as Kishi dashed over to the fallen sword.

Well, this was easy. Kishi thought as she reached for the sword. "Catacy- woah!" Just as she was about to dust the sword it suddenly moved away from her, shooting across the ground and back to the villain's hand.

"Haha! I have Loyalty on my sword so it will always return to me!" The villain shouted, Kishi still barely understood.

"Hold on, that's an illegal enchant!" Kishi looked up to find that Nike had arrived, standing on top of a nearby building.

"Who cares? I'm NetherLord! I can do whatever I want!" The villain responded.

Nike leaped down and landed next to Kishi, "Sorry I took so long, it's hard to swing around Paris when all the buildings higher than 2 floors are collapsing. I had to come on foot." Kishi heard Nike's labored breathing, the heat was obviously getting to her as well, "This is him huh? Let's kick his ass."

Kishi nodded and readied her weapon once again.

"2v1? That's not fair!" Netherlord shouted, "Luckily I have a few tricks up my sleeve!" The villain placed his sword onto his back and reached behind him. A second later the villain had 2 chunks of mineral in his hand, one looked to be metal and the other was some kind of black rock. As Netherlord struck the 2 chunks together, a stream of flame shot out from where they struck.

Nike and Kishi leaped in opposite directions to dodge the flames before both charging the villain from each side. 

Netherlord looked at the two heroes charging them and threw his chunk of metal into his hand with the rock and struck them together to send a stream of fire at Kishi as he reached behind himself to pull out a large rectangular shield, easily the size of the villain’s torso. 

Where is he getting these items? Kishi wondered as she dodged to the right to avoid the flames. Nike had her attack blocked by the shield and went in for a leg sweep, only for Netherlord to smash the shield down onto her leg. Kishi extended her rod so it smashed into the top part of the shield and tilted it upward in the villain’s grasp, lifting it off Nike’s leg and allowing her to escape. Nike leaped back a few feet from the villain and Kishi did the same. 

“Fucker’s got a lotta tricks.” Nike commented as she caught her breath. They were both breathing heavily as the unbearably hot air and the rush of combat both combined to drain their stamina.

“Should I destroy the shield? Kishi asked, raising her hand bearing the black cat ring.

“No, it’s large and clunky enough that we can get around it. His armor is the real issue,” Nike responded. Kishi agreed, if they could get past his armor they may be able to knock him around enough to open an opportunity to win. The chest piece was the most vital piece to hit since it protected his entire torso. Without it, his torso, neck, and chin would all be open; the best spots to hit, other than the head,  if you want to stun your opponent.

Kishi nodded to her partner, who nodded back, and they both charged in once again. This time Kishi charged the side where the villain held the shield and Nike charged the side where he held his fire starters. Kishi shortened her rod and attacked it to her back as she charged. As Netherlord sent a stream of fire at her partner, Kishi send a punch at the villain. Her attack was predictably blocked but Kishi immediately hooked her foot under the shield and pushed upward. The sudden upward force of the shield made it arc upward and swing back and knock Netherlord in the helmet.

“Cataclysm!” Kishi shouted as she shot her hand forward to make contact with the armor covering the villain’s torso. As she touched the crystal armor with her hand it turned black and crumbled to dust. 

“My daimond chestplate!” Netherlord shouted in rage. Kishi saw him remove his arm from the strap on the back of the shield and a second later his hand grabbed Kishi’s forearm surprisingly quickly, the shield clattering to the ground soon after, “Take this you bothersome ocelot!” The villain bent his other arm so instead of pointing at Nike, the flint and steel pointed directly at her head. 

“Forget about me noob?” Nike shouted as she sent a kick into the villain’s arm holding the minerals just as he clicked them together. The attack seemed to be mostly blocked by the villain's blue armor covering the arm, but it managed to knock the resulting stream of fire a couple dozen centimeters away from Kishi’s head. While it was nice that her head wasn’t melted by the flames, her arm wasn’t so lucky. The stream of flames hit her forearm and hand almost directly.

And it hurt.

Kishi could have sworn that the flesh was burning through the suit and turning into puddles of goo. A few seconds in she was screaming and it felt like her arm was about to fall off. Kishi fell to her knees and vaguely processed Nike slamming her fist into the villain’s chin. The fire stopped hitting her arm which helped a little and Netherlord released her arm. Kishi was pulled away by her partner and dragged around 20 meters away from the villain. 

Kishi’s brain processed the pain and began to work properly again and she got her feet under her as Nike stopped running. The pain faded to a level that wasn’t unbearable as her arm wasn’t being directly blasted by flames and Kishi could think again. Looking down at her arm, she found her gloves  and end of her jacket melted, sagging and stretching down with gravity. She didn't know exactly what the miraculous suit was made of, but she knew how durable it was, if the suit was damaged that was a sure sign that her skin underneath was probably also damaged. The damage was most prominent at her wrist, which was where the fire had mainly struck and faded as it went farther from it. Kishi gingerly poked her wrist with her other hand and shocks of pain through her body. 

Kishi turned to her partner, “This is my dominant hand.”

Nike bit her lip in thought. Both of them knew that this meant that Kishi was essentially out of the fight since fighting with her non-dominant hand was not especially helpful. “I’ll hold down the fort here, you go to... um,” Nike’s eyes drifted to Netherlord, who was picking his shield off the ground and moving it behind his back where it vanished, “their place and see if they have anything that could help.” Her partner obviously didn’t want to risk giving Hawkmoth information about Master Fu. 

“You sure?” Kishi didn’t want to leave Nike alone in these conditions, while the villain itself was fairly standard, the environment around them made it extremely difficult to fight for any amount of time without major fatigue.

Nike nodded, “I’ll be fine, if need be I can just stall by using my mobility.” She wiped sweat from her forehead as she spoke, her heavy breathing betraying her words. However, Kishi also trusted her partner to keep her word. 

Kishi looked back at her partner one more time before leaping away from the battlefield and using her rod to boost her jump. She needed to be quick, if Nike was left alone for too long she could be in serious danger. Vaulting across Paris turned out to be a bit difficult when she only had her non-dominant hand and the streets were full of lava, but she managed with minimal near-death experiences. She had vaulted away from the battlefield in a misleading direction so had to change directions to make her way to the guardian’s house. 

Once she arrived near the massage shop, Kishi dropped into a nearby alley and dropped her transformation. As soon as Plagg popped out of her ring, the pain in her arm flared up. Her arm didn’t look good, it was red and looked wet, blisters were forming on her wrist and the heat in the air around them caused it to hurt more. It looked to be mostly a second degree burn as small blisters formed on her hand and forearm. Her wrist looked a little more serious, slightly blackened and oozing something Kagami didn't want to think about.

“Sorry kitten, I tried to dull the pain as much as I could.” Plagg said as he floated into her jacket and pulled out a slice of camembert.

“It’s fine, Plagg.” Kagami said as she let the arm fall loosely to her side. It hurt like hell, but it would be healed after they defeat Netherlord. For now, Kagami just had to bear it. 

Plagg downed his cheese before slipping into the inside of her jacket. Kagami left the alleyway and made her way to Master Fu’s shop. As she made her way there, she passed by many people who had decided that the open air was better than being inside. People sat with their backs to buildings or inside the doorways where the doors had been smashed down. . Everyone was breathing hard and sweat covered everyone. A little girl sat behind a red stone bush with a small dog laying a few feet away from her. The dog was panting hard and had its eyes closed as it lay limp on the floor. The little girl had tears running down her face as she softly petted the dog’s head. Kagami gritted her teeth and kept walking. What was happening was horrible and Kagami wanted to end it right away. 

Kagami made her way to Fu’s shop and found the door shut tight. When the hinges had been stoned they had also fused with the wall and stopped working. Kagami took out a small knife from her sleeve and sliced through the thinnest parts of the hinges, leaping out of the way as the door crashed down a second later. 

On the inside of Master Fu’s shop, Kagami found that the doors were already knocked off their hinges and on the floor. She found Master Fu in his kitchen, or at least she assumed it was Master Fu. He had activated the turtle miraculous and was standing in the middle of the room with 2 vials in his hand. 

His outfit also looked different than what Kagami expected him to look like when transformed. His expected green outfit and shield, which he currently wore as a hat, also had flame patterns on them and the edges of the shield had green flames flickering out of it. 

“I thought you might come, this villain posed quite a challenge even with the protection the miraculous suits give.” Master Fu said. 

“Do you have anything that can help us, Master?” Kagami asked. 

He nodded, “Within the Grimoire, there are recipes that when consumed by kwami allow them to use extra powers. One such recipe allows users to bear extreme heat and stand in flames as if they were not there.” Master Fu held the vials in his hand out to Kagami, she guessed that they used to be glass, but they were now the same red stone as literally everything else. Kagami noticed another vial, already opened and empty, on the counter behind Master Fu. 

“Ah, man!” Plagg floated out of her pocket and groaned at the sight of the vials, “I hate transforming!” 

“And you prefer this?” Kagami asked, gesturing around them.

“Good point.” Plagg grabbed one of the vials, popped open the top, chugged the contents, and dropped the vial on the floor. A shiver ran through the kwami before a flash of light covered Plagg’s body. When the light faded Kagami saw that his whisker-antennas and tail had small green flames flickering on the ends of them. “PyroPlagg!” The tiny god said unenthusiastically as he struck a pose, coughing a second later, “Man, I hate that one. It’s so spicy! And look at me! How am I supposed to enjoy delicious camembert like this?”

“Thank you, Master Fu.” Kagami said, giving him a slight bow. 

“It is it who should be thanking you. Now, go put a stop to this madness.” The guardian said, “Also, come back later and I’ll give you the full set of the power-ups.” Fu gestured to the counter where racks of vials sat, each holding 7 vials.

Kagami nodded before turning to Plagg, “Meet me in the alleyway outside.”

“What? Aren’t you going to transform?” Plagg asked expectantly. 

“I can’t have Kishi Noir running out of a random old man’s house, and I am not letting you in my jacket when you are on fire.”

Plagg groaned and floated to the wall before passing through it and Kagami made her way out of Fu’s house to meet him in the alleyway a few houses away. 

“PyroPlagg, claws out!” Kagami called after making sure nobody could see her. Plagg was sucked into the ring and she was transformed into Kishi Noir. Kishi didn’t bother taking a look at herself before leaping onto the rooftops and going full speed back to the battlefield. She had to make sure that Nike was alright and get this potion to her. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Contrary to what she had promised her partner, Nike Rouge was not doing fine. In fact, she was kind of getting her ass handed to her. 

Despite the ridiculous nature of the villain, like seriously it was a Craftmine akuma, the environment and the annoying tricks that Netherlord kept pulling out were seriously wearing her down. He had managed to ignite a stream of fire so close to her face that she barely had any time to dodge and the stream of fire directly hit her ear and singed off all the hair on that side of her head. She had tried to flee the battle but the villain had pulled out a fishing rod and yanked her back into the fray. He was slow but his attacks were incredibly strong, his downward sword swings were nearly impossible to block. She had tried to block one with her yoyo string but the weight of his strike was so much more than she could handle, she barely dodged out of the way before it crashed down the ground where she had been standing and sent cracks through the red stone that measured several meters. 

Alix was not having a good time. 

Eventually, it became too much. Her lungs felt like they were burning and she did not have the strength to continue the fight. Nike tried to flee again but Netherlord pulled out the fishing rod again and yanked her towards him. She didn’t have the strength to fight back as Netherlord grabbed her and smashed her onto the ground so that her shoulders were laying on the sidewalk curb and her head was dangling just above the street of lava. 

“Now that I’ve defeated you, I get your drops!” Netherlord said as he reached for her earrings. Alix tried to breathe but the air near the lava was so hot that her lungs were rejecting it. She couldn’t even twitch her finger, let alone fight back, as Netherlord’s fingers inched closer to her ear. 

She couldn’t lose, she couldn’t fail here of all places. All of Paris was relying on her to save them from this hell that Hawkmoth had created and she couldn’t even move. She had been chosen to protect the people of this city and she couldn’t fail now. 

Alix forced her leg to move. She forced her knee to bend and she forced it to lift off the ground. She forced her lungs to accept the burning air and she forced all her strength into one attack. One hit. 

And she kicked Netherlord in the nuts. 

“ARG! What the f-” Netherlord shouted before he went flying off of her. The villain disappeared from her view and a second later Kishi stepped into it. Nike felt her partner grab her arm and pull her up. She had to lean on Kishi to stay upright as the duo walked away from the lava street to where the air was cool enough for Alix to breathe. 

“You said you would be fine.” Kishi said, sounding worried. 

“I did say that.” Nike responded. Her mouth felt like a desert and unfortunately, she doubted she would find any water with Paris like this. 

Nike watched as Kishi pulled out a cylindrical object from her pocket and popped the top off of it before sticking it into Nike’s mouth. “Swallow,” Kishi commanded as a spicy fluid poured into her mouth. The spiciness hurt her mouth but Nike forced herself to swallow the liquid, “Now say, ‘Power up.’”

“Power up.” Alix said, barely audible as her mouth felt like it was about to crack apart from the heat. A second later, her suit flashed with light and she felt her suit change. 

And suddenly, she could breathe again. The air felt cool and flowed into her lungs easily. The heat around her faded away and she felt the pain from the burn on the side of her face fade to a dull ache. 

Nike looked up at her partner and realized that her costume had changed. Her partner had green flames painted on her jacket's forearms and pants and real green flames burning on the back of her hands. Her hair had turned into a bed of black flames and her mask had changed shape to look like flames surrounding her eyes. 

Looking down, Alix realized that her costume had changed too. Flames now shot out from her gloves and boots and her vest had changed to have a flame design at the bottom that reached halfway up the vest. The pattern on her t-shit had changed from just polka dots to a red and black flame tessellation. Her hair felt light and no longer tickled the back of her neck so she assumed it must have also turned to flame. Opening the camera function on her yoyo confirmed that her hair had turned to pink flames. Her flames raged stronger than Kishi’s flames which gave the impression that Nike had more flame than her partner. 

“Damn, what is this?” Nike asked as he got her feet back under her. Being able to breathe felt so great; she would never take cool air for granted ever again. 

“Master gave it to me, I don’t know the specifics. He said there was more though and to go back later.” Kishi responded. 

Nike thought for a second about their new costumes, “Do you think we need new names?” She asked. 

Kishi raised an eyebrow at her. 

“What? New outfits, new names. It just makes sense!” Alix argued. 

Kishi breathed out a small laugh, “Call me Jigoku no Kishi then.”

Nike nodded, "And you can call me Nike Flegómenos.”

“I’m just going to continue to call you Nike.” Kishi responded

Nike barked out a laugh and looked around for Netherlord. She found the villain picking himself up out of the rubble of the wall the Kishi had thrown him into. 

Alix cracked her knuckles, “Let’s kick this guy’s ass.”

Kishi nodded and pulled her rod out. Nike noticed that she was holding it in the hand that had previously been burned. 

The duo charged. 

Netherlord responded by scrapping his flint and steel together, sending a stream of fire at the heroines. The duo ran straight into the flames without slowing down and felt nearly nothing. 

“You ate a god apple didn’t you!” The villain shouted as he put his flint and steel away and pulled out a bow and arrow. He fired a few arrows an arrow at each of them, the arrows bursting to flame as they flew. Kishi blocked the arrow aimed at her using her rod while Nike caught the arrow aimed at her just before it hit her in the nose. 

Nike slit to a halt and took aim. A second later she threw the villain’s arrow back at him. The arrow sailed through the air and sliced through Netherlord’s bowstring before flying just under his armpit and embedding into the stone behind him. The villain dropped his bow and took out his sword as Kishi made it within melee range of him. 

Nike took her yoyo from her belt and threw it into the air, “Lucky charm!” she called. A second later a rubber ball fell into her hands. Just as she was thinking how she could use this, Netherlord reached behind him and pulled out a bluish-green orb. It was an ender pearl, and Nike knew exactly what to do. 

As the villain broke from his battle with Kishi and threw the pearl hard as he could, Nike calculated its arc and threw her ball to intercept it. The red and black ball hit the pearl at the height of its arc and Netherlord was teleported to its exact location. 

“AAHHH!” Netherlord screamed as he fell and his sword slipped from his grasp. Nike leaped up and grabbed the sword, only holding it for a second before throwing it to her partner. Netherlord crashed to the ground and Nike landed in front of him.

Alix grabbed the villain by the collar, “Listen here Shitmoth, if you ever make another city-wide akuma like this again, I will personally rip out 4 of your teeth for each one you’ve made. And I will make it hurt. ” Nike dropped the villain, who now looked terrified. She looked over and gave a nod to her partner, who nodded back. 

“Cataclysm.” Kishi said, causing the sword in her hand to crumble to dust, a black butterfly fluttered out of the dust a second later.

Nike opened the purification function on her yoyo and swung it out to capture the akuma, “That’s it for you little akuma.” Alix released the purified butterfly into the air, “Stay out of trouble little guy.” 

Nike walked over and picked up the polka-dotted rubber ball from where it had fallen before tossing it into the air, “Miraculous Nike Rouge!” The magical ladybugs exploded from the ball and swept over Paris. The red stone vanished and the buildings were pulled back to their original forms. The red sky turned back to blue and the streets returned to asphalt and cobblestone. Cars were returned to the street and the people inside them shouted for joy. Montparnasse Tower returned to the skyline and the Eiffel Tower was returned to its proper height. Nike’s ear and Kishi’s arm were healed and Paris returned to how it was.

Nike took a deep breath as she looked out onto the Paris skyline, “That fucking sucked.” She declared as Kishi walked up to her.

Her partner nodded in agreement, “I’m going to go back and learn more about these potions since I have spare time right now.” Kishi said, “Make sure to go by later.”

Nike threw up an ‘ok’ hand sign and turned to the now deakumatized boy laying on the ground. 

“What happened?” The kid said. 

“You were akumatized by Hawkmoth and we saved you.” Nike explained. 

“Seriously?" The boy said. He seemed to think for a second, "I was playing Craftmine with my friends and they kept pushing me into the lava when we tried to build in the Nether. I guess that's how Hawkmoth got me."

Nike sighed, Hawkmoth seemed to have no standards. “Can you get home? She asked the boy.

He patted his pockets before pulling out a smartphone, “Yup, I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” Nike turned her attention away from the boy and back to Kishi, “Tell him I’ll be there around 5.”

Kishi nodded before leaping into the air and vaulting away. Nike took out her yoyo and pulled herself up onto a nearby rooftop. On her way back to school she purposefully let a few people get some pictures of her new outfit because she thought it was dope. Of course, she took the long route back to school so that she could get there after history class ended. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kishi dropped into an ally close to Master Fu’s home just as her transformation faded. She fed Plagg a slice of camembert, let him eat before placing him into her inner pocket, and made her way back to Master Fu’s shop. She found him in the kitchen, placing a rack of vials in a cabinet where many others like it were laid out. 

“Ah, Kagami, you’ve returned.” the guardian shut the cabinet and made his way over to her with a piece of paper in his hand, “As you may have guessed the fire potion you used today was not the only one. There are 7 in total, each one giving unique abilities and resistances for the user.” Master Fu handed her the paper in his hand and Kagami looked over it. Other than the fire potion, there was an aqua potion, an ice potion, a space portion, and a few others. Each one looked very useful. 

“I need both you and Nike Rouge to have these potions on you at all times, as you never know when you may need them.” The guardian advised. 

Kagami looked at the rack of vials and how large it was, “That is… impractical.” 

Master Fu laughed at her comment, “Do not worry, I do not expect you to carry around a case of vials with you, I have prepared something special for you to carry.” He moved over to his fridge and pulled out a wide cylindrical box, one of many that Kagami saw in the fridge. The box was placed into Kagami’s hand and she opened it to see 7 slices of camembert, each with a different colored rind. 

“You refrigerated them?” Plagg shouted as he emerged from her jacket, sounding annoyed, “Gross! Good cheese is meant to be warm, gooey, and with the slightest hint of mold. Making it cold ruins all of that!” the small god complained. 

Kagami fought back the gag that always appeared when Plagg spoke of his cheese preferences, “Thank you, Master, I will put these to good use.” 

“And don’t get me started on this one!” Plagg floated over to the box and pointed to the slice with the red rind as he continued his rant, “Camembert with a spicy rind? Are you trying to kill me?”

Kagami placed the lid back onto the container and placed it in her pocket, stopping Plagg’s rant as she did so. “Nike Rouge should be coming by later, sometime around 5 o’clock.” Kagami told the guardian. 

Master Fu nodded, “Thank you for letting me know.”

“Come one, let’s go home!” Plagg insisted, grabbing her sleeve and pulling her arm in the direction of the door, “Thinking about all these gross flavors has made me hungry for some good camembert.”

“Goodbye Master.” Kishi said as Plagg continued to pull on her without any effect. 

“Goodbye Kagami.”

Kagami opened her jacket and Plagg flew back in. She then left the guardian’s home and went back to her room to continue her studies.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

After school, Alix went to Fu’s house and left with a rack of vials containing 7 magic potions. She didn’t really know what she would do with them. Fu had said that they could be contained within anything since only the ingredients themselves mattered, but Alix didn’t know what she would put them in. Fu had informed her that he had made cheese with potion rind for Kishi’s kwami, with a little help from the bunny miraculous to age the cheese, so she assumed she could bake them into some kind of pastry for Tikki. However, Alix had zero baking talent, she couldn’t even make toast right, so she had no clue how she would manage that. 

Alix slipped into a nearby alleyway and transformed into Nike Rouge in order to swing back home. She was forced to carry the vials in one hand as she swung since the rack was too large to fit into the magical storage space of the yoyo. As she swung over Paris, Alix continued to consider what to do. She could turn the potions into a powder and place them into small capsules, but Alix really didn’t want to carry around an assortment of strange pills with her and she also doubted Tikki would like them that much. She could also…

Alright, she was out of ideas. 

Just then, Nike swung above the Dupen-Cheng bakery and an idea popped into her head. 

Alix dropped down to the street and pushed open the door to the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. The store was going to close in half an hour and there were only a couple of customers in the store, all of which turned to look at her as she walked in. Nike strolled up to the counter where Marinette’s father was taking the order of a customer. 

“Um hello, can I help you?” the large man asked. 

“Indeed you can,” Alix placed the rack of vials on the counter, “I need the services of a baker.” 

— — — 

A couple of hours later, Nike Rouge picked up 3 boxes of mini-macaroons from the Dupen-Chang rooftop, each containing a set of magical macaroons. She noticed Marinette’s mom watching her from the trapdoor leading down into the house and sent the woman a thumbs up before leaping off the building and swinging her way back home. 

Alix detransformed after climbing into her window and placed a box of mini-magic-macaroons on her desk and placed the other 2 boxes in her mini-fridge. She opened the one she had set on her desk and inspected them. They looked good, all the potions were accounted for and they looked very delicious. 

Tikki floated over to take a look, “They look so good!”

Alix picked up the purple one, “Well, we have to see if they work.” she said. She was definitely only thinking about testing if they worked. Definitely not thinking about how dope it would be to fly around the earth going several times the speed of sound. Totally not. 

Tikki licked her lips, “I agree, we can’t be let down in the middle of an akuma attack.”

Alix tossed the macaroon at her kwami, “Tikki, power up!”

Chapter Text

“That’s it for you little akuma,” Nike said as she captured the purple butterfly that had flown out of the broken ice skates, letting the purified white butterfly free a second later, “Stay out of trouble little guy.”

As Frozer turned into a man in white clothes, Kishi handed Alix the flamethrower that she had summoned with her lucky charm. "Miraculous, Nike Rouge!" Nike called out and tossed it into the air, causing it to turn into magical ladybugs that swept over the city and unfroze it. 

The frosty villain had been the third city-wide akuma in three days. It really pissed Alix off that Hawkshit kept making them even after Alix had threatened him with grievous bodily harm. She was confident that she could always win, that wasn't the problem. It pissed her off that Bitchmoth decided to get millions of innocent civilians involved in their magical game of capture the flag.

Frozer hadn't been as bad as Netherlord, since all the civilians had been frozen solid and were likely not conscious, but it still meant that Hawkmoth would be missing 12 teeth once Alix found him.

The man on the ground looked up at Nike and Kishi, "What happened to me?"

"You were akumatized." Nike answered.

"Oh yes I remember now, the Mayor is shutting down my ice rink because I have no students! It's such a terrible tragedy!" The man said, sounding very passionate, "Won't you help me Nike Rouge? Fix this terrible injustice?"

Alix sighed, Clara Nightingale had let it slip during an interview that Nike had been the one to get the Mayor to undo his bullshit with her music video. Now every time someone got akumatized because of something the Mayor did, they expected her to fix it.

"Listen dude, my job is to fight villains. Unless the Mayor plans to turn your ice rink into a villain layer, I do not care." Nike told the man. 

"He is doing something close, turning it into an indoor gym! How heinous!" 

Nike sighed and turned away from the man. Kishi had already left and Alix decided to do the same and swung away. She had a feeling that she would be seeing Frozer again.

Alix dropped her transformation in the alleyway behind her home. It was before noon on a weekend so the streets around the Louvre were quite crowded so it would have been hard for her to slip into her window undetected. It was a bit risky to detransform right behind her house, but she was still in her PJs and didn’t feel like being in public.

Alix made a beeline for the fridge, she had woken up to Tikki yelling and found her room being transformed into ice. She barely had time to throw Tikki the magicaroon and transform before the ice overtook her room, let alone eat breakfast. She threw two pieces of bread into the toaster, handed Tikki a macaroon, and went to get her phone from her room. Alix checked her phone as she walked back to the kitchen. There was a message from Nathaniel

Emo Tomato: remember that were recording the video today

Emo Tomato: u better not forget

Emo Tomato: ill be over in 20 minutes

Sent 15 minutes ago

Alix cursed to herself. She and Nathaniel had teamed up for the history assignment that Miss Bustier had assigned. They had to make a small documentary about a famous person from French History. Miss Bustier had said that they were allowed to partner up if they chose, so they did. The funny part was that Kim had decided to do his alone, Alix was looking forward to seeing what kooky shit he made. 

Alix had convinced Nathaniel that they should do their project on Gilbert du Motier(Lafayette), mainly because it made the research part very easy. Jalil's current conspiracy theory is that the man had some kind of magical necklace that let him lead troops with incredible efficiency. Jalil was currently researching every aspect of the man's life and also collecting journals of the men who had been under his command. It was obviously nuts, but Jalil allowed Alix to use his research and she took full advantage of it.

The script was already finished and Alix had purchased a costume to wear for the video, so all that was left was to film the thing and edit it into something that would give them a passing grade. They had agreed to do it today because they were both free. Also, Marc was busy and couldn’t hang out with Nathaniel, which Alix was sure had some bearing on his choice. Alix tapped out a reply as her toast cooked. 

Sk8R Lyf: bro i just woke up

It only took a few seconds for Nathaniel to respond. 

Emo Tomato: sucks cuz im at your front door.

Just as she received the message, the sound of the doorbell rang through the house.

Shit, Alix thought as she tapped out another reply. 

Sk8R Lyf: let me change my clothes first

Instead of a reply, Alix got another ring from the doorbell. And another. And another. 

Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be? Alix thought as looked over to check her toast, only to realize that she had never turned the toaster on. Alix tossed the bread back into the bag and ran to her room. Dad and Jalil weren’t there and Alix knew that Nathaniel knew that, which meant he would press the doorbell until she opened the door. Alix threw off the too-big tanktop that she used for PJs and pulled on a Zombie Skull Crushers t-shirt that she’s fairly sure was clean. Now dressed in a somewhat socially acceptable way, Alix went and opened the door for Nathaniel. 

“Good morning, sleeping dwarf.” Nathaniel said in greeting as he pushed the doorbell one final time, “You look terrible.”

“I woke up 2 minutes ago.” Alix lied. She had actually woken up an hour ago, but she had to battle an akuma so it didn’t really matter. 

“You ready to film?” He asked as he walked in. 

“Not even a little bit.” Alix said as she shut the door. “You bring the microphones?” 

Nathaniel pulled out a small ziplock bag from his pocket that held what looked like a few black wires. They had asked Alya if they could borrow one of her small microphones that hid inside your clothes, like the ones actors used. Alya had some because of her Ladyblog work and had agreed to lend them a couple so Nathaniel had gone over that morning to get them

“You buy the costume?” Nathaniel asked as Alix spread some jam onto her toast. 

Alix nodded, “It’s in my room. Do you mind if we grab something to eat before filming? I’m starving.”

“I don’t mind, I can show you Marc and I’s most recent chapter while we eat.” Nathaniel agreed, “Did you not set an alarm?” 

“I did, it should have gone off half an hour ago but didn’t for some reason.” It wasn’t a lie, her alarm clock had been turned to ice. She had just already been out of bed. 

“Ah, well Paris was made of ice half an hour ago, so I guess I can forgive you.”

“Seriously? Damn akumas.” Alix played dumb as she ran a hand through her hair to fix her bedhead, adding in a sigh to sell the act, “I’ma go get ready, you wait here.”

Nathaniel gave her a thumbs up and Alix headed to the bathroom where she did all the normal morning things before going back to her room. There Alix changed out of the basketball shorts she had worn to bed and the t-shirt she now realized was probably dirty. She changed into her normal punk fashion. It didn’t exactly matter what she was wearing for the video since Nathaniel was the one playing Gilbert du Motier. All of Alix’s roles were the smaller characters and essentially consisted of her putting on one of the 6 jackets she had bought and saying a few lines. Alix grabbed her hat off her hat rack and looked around. 

“Tikki?” Alix looked around for the kwami. A second later the kwami fazed through the wall and floated down to Alix.

“Here!” Tikki said as she landed on top of Alix’s head. Alix smiled and put on her cap before heading back to the living room where Nathaniel was. 

“You ready?” he asked, he had sat himself down on the couch and gotten out his phone to pass the time. 

Alix nodded, “We can head to the cafe on the corner of the next block. After that, we’ll grab the costumes and head to the park and film. Sound good?”

“As long as you’re paying.” Nathaniel answered as he got up from the couch. Alix pushed him back onto the couch and dashed to the door. 

Alix opened the door and turned back to Nathaniel, “Last one there pays.”

“What! No!” Nathaniel scrambled up from the couch and chased after her. 

She won of course. 

— — — 

Alix was still forced to pay since Nathaniel hadn’t brought any money, but it had been funny to see him sprinting to try and catch up to her so it was worth it. 

The two friends now sat across from each other while they ate their ‘breakfast’. It was really lunch since it was noon but who cares. Alix had gotten a croissant with blackberry jam and a small cup of coffee with a generous amount of sweeteners. She had a feeling that Hawkmoth was going to make another akuma today and she needed the energy. Nathaniel had gotten a baguette with both strawberry jam and honey to slather onto it as well as a café au lait. 

“-this is the final concept for our first main villain.” Nathaniel said as he showed her a sketch. The villain in the sketch was an evil scientist-type man in a white lab coat and those glasses that obscured his eyes with a black spiral. He also wore a too big wrinkled t-shirt half tucked in and his hair was messy. “He injects random people with his experimental brainwashing concoctions that give them superpowers in order to work towards his goal of having a superpowered army. The whole plot of season one will be about finding out who is turning all these people into villains and trying to put a stop to it. In the end, the heroes find his lair and he injects himself with a bunch of his serums to combat them.” 

Alix nodded. She already knew about what their first villain would do, but this was the first time she had seen his design. Nathaniel had a habit of forgetting that he had already explained things to people and explaining them again. Alix has had the plot of the comic explained to her 4 times now, each time with more detail added as the plot got more fleshed out. It got a little annoying but Alix had been friends with Nathaniel for years and knew that his head was up in the clouds more than it was on his shoulders, so she endured it. 

“I have some drawings for future cover arts here.” Nathaniel said as he pulled out a few papers from his folder and handed them to Alix, she looked them over. One was of a woman who seemed to have plant powers, her hair was made of vines and she had Word Smith wrapped up in a load of vines. Mightillistrator was facing off against her, in the background the Eiffel Tower was covered in vines and snapped in half. Another drawing had a bald man shooting lasers from his fingers, one of the lasers was hitting the Arc de Triomphe and the two heroes had looks of shock on their faces as a corner of the arch melted. The last drawing was a villain shooting electricity from their entire body, their clothes had a punk athletic and they wore roller blades, in the background the Louvre pyramid sat shattered and the shards were smoking as they sat on the ground. The villain was holding Mightillistrator by the neck and WordSmith was writing the word ZAP in the air. Alix knew that the last one was based on her, she had requested electricity powers because it was an awesome power.

“Dude these are awesome.” Alix said as she looked at them. They probably weren’t finished as some areas weren’t colored in and some background details were left out, but they still looked amazing. “I like how you’ve destroyed the three most famous structures in Paris before resolving the first villain.” Alix joked.

Nathaniel gave a small laugh before talking, “Well, they won’t actually-”

“YOU'VE DONE WHAT?” A loud voice screamed from the table next to them. Alix assumed the man’s outburst had nothing to do with her but was unfortunately proven wrong when the man got up from his table and slammed his hand down onto theirs, “What are you little menaces plotting?

Who the fuck was this guy? He had on an expensive-looking black suit that had pearls on it instead of buttons. His hair was slicked back, which Alix guessed was him trying to look fancy but all it did was show his receding hairline.

“We’re talking about a comic book I’m making.” Nathaniel answered, leaning away from the man.

“Oh, so you’re one of those mentally incompetent artists who think that destroying national treasures makes your story better. Well let me tell you something kid, it doesn’t!” The man shouted as he snatched the papers from Alix’s hand, “The Eiffel Tower is a cornerstone of French culture and you covering it with vines in your little artwork proves that you are a traitor to the French people!” He threw the first drawing onto the ground. “The Arc de Triomphe is a memorial to the brave men and women who died fighting for this glorious country! Under it lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and by attacking in your stupid story you have proven your complete ignorance of the lives lost so we may stand her today!” He threw the second drawing to the floor. “And the Louvre is a piece of majestic architecture that holds an incredible amount of incredible art within its walls. By shattering the pyramid at its center you have proven yourself to be ignorant of any form of good art and that you should not be allowed to call yourself an artist!” He threw the third drawing onto the floor, “The fact that you dare to make art at all is an insult-”

“Who the FUCK do you think you are?” Alix shouted, cutting the man off. She stood up from her chair and grabbed the man’s tie. She pulled him down to her eye level, “ You interrupt a conversation that has nothing to do with you! You insult my friend and call him a traitor! You throw his hard work onto the floor and dare to act like you’re hot shit! What is wrong with you?” Alix let go of his tie and pushed him away from her, the man fell onto his ass.

“How dare you touch me with your filthy hands!” The man shouted, sounding disgusted by the idea, “I will have you arrested! I will have you put into jail for the rest of your miserable little-”

“Get out of my café!” A voice yelled from behind Alix. The owner, a large bearded man in a pink apron, approached from the direction of the service counter, “I will not have you harassing my customers!” For a second, Alix wasn’t sure whose side the man was taking, but it quickly became clear. The owner moved past Alix’s table and grabbed the suited man by the collar and began dragging him towards the exit. 

“Let me go! I was defending France from these traitors!” The suited man yelled as he struggled against the owner. 

“You were harassing a couple of kids!” Another customer shouted at him. Alix hadn’t noticed in her rage, but everyone in the café had watched the man’s rant.

“I was doing my duty as a French citizen!”

The owner threw the man out the front door and dusted his hands off, “If I ever see you back here again, I will call the police!”  The owner shouted and shut the door on the man. 

As everyone in the cafe began to clap, Alix turned her attention back to Nathaniel. His eyes were open with shock and his arms were pulled to his torso. His mouth was slightly open like he was about to respond but couldn’t find the opportunity and his eyebrows were angled upward. Alix made eye contact with him and they shared a silent ‘what the fuck’. 

Alix leaned down and picked up the drawings from the floor, the one depicting the Arc de Triomphe had a shoeprint on it. Fucking asshole, Alix thought as she tried to brush it off. Seriously, how high of a horse do you have to be on to start publicly bullying a teenager for his art decisions? “Here, he stepped on one of them tho.” Alix said as she handed the papers back to Nathaniel. 

“It’s alright, I was thinking about scrapping this one anyway. It’s not as cool as the other two.” Nathaniel said as he examined his papers. 

“To be fair, the other two are really cool.” Alix pointed out, causing a smile to spread across her friend's face.

"You're biased, one of them is you." He said as he put his drawings back into his folder.

"I am an impartial judge in all things." Alix lied. 

"And I'm captain of the fencing team." Nathaniel retorted with an eye roll and a small smile, "Anyway  let's hurry up here, I'm pretty sure some of these people think we're on a date."

"Barf."

"Thanks, Alix, I really needed that confidence boost today." Nathaniel said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Alix finished off her croissant while Nathaniel finished off his baguette with alarming efficiency. They drink the last of their respective drinks and left. Once outside, Alix noticed the man across the street. He also noticed her and began making his way toward the crosswalk. Luckily, all it took was one stern glance from Alix to make him visibly hesitate before turning around and stomping down the sidewalk away from them.

After making their way back to Alix's place, Nathaniel sat back down on the couch and held his stomach with a satisfied look while Alix went to her closet to grab the costume. The costume was a good costume. It had the blue cape-thing, the gold ridges, and gold buttons, the uncomfortably high turtle neck, the weird fluffy white part on the collar, the red and gold belt, and the knee-high leather boots. It looked just like the uniform in all those portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette.

"Jeez Alix, how much did that cost?" Nathaniel said upon laying eyes on it.

"Not too much, this historical theater across town was selling some old costumes so I picked it up there." Alix told him. Alix had loads of money but she didn't like spending loads of money, mainly because it reminded people she had loads of money. If people remembered that she was loaded, they might lump her in with Chloe. Alix did not want to be lumped in with Chloe.

"Oh cool." Nathaniel said as he grabbed the outfit from her. 

Alix flopped down onto the couch as Nathaniel slipped into the bathroom to change. As she waited, she pulled out her phone and pulled up the Ladyblog. Alix had been keeping up with the blog more ever since she became Nike Rouge, it was a good source of information since Alya had people all over the city working for her to get information about akuma attacks. A lot of the times the Ladyblog had a post on a villain appearance before an akuma alert even sounded.

This time, Alix noticed something new at the top of the blog. It read ‘Days Since Kishi Noir Promised Me an Interview’ and had the number 21 below it. 

“Well, that's a little petty.” Alix murmured to herself as she saw it. She had forgotten that Kishi had promised Alya an interview after Frigtningale, and Kishi had likely forgotten as well. She knew Kishi had been busy, sometimes busy enough not to show up for akumas, so it was understandable that a small promise like that had slipped her mind. 

Resolving to remind Kishi about it later, Alix scrolled down to see the most recent post. Alya had interviewed with that ice skater dude who had been akumatized into Frozer. Alix didn’t bother watching the interviewer since it was 18 minutes long, but she did scroll through the replies. The responses were mostly supportive of the Mayor’s decision to make a new indoor gym because apparently people thought there weren’t enough of those in Paris. Alix didn’t understand since she enjoyed exercising outside and so did her exercise buddy Kim, but basically the ice skater got nearly zero sympathies. 

Alix typed out her own comment, ‘Ice skating is overrated anyway. Rollerblading is way cooler.’ and sent it off. 

A couple more minutes passed before she heard the bathroom door open, “Um, Alix. We have an issue.”

Alix looked up from her phone, “What seemed to be the probl- HA!” The outfit was way too big on Nathaniel. The blue coat of the suit went down to his thighs so the belt wasn't even visible, the collar went up to his ears, the cuffs flopped around past the ends of his hands, and the clothes showed a distinct bagginess when they should be a tight fit. Alix burst out in laughter at the sight of her best friend in the baggy uniform. 

“Alix! This is a serious problem. How are we supposed to film like this?” Nathaniel asked, “I can barely walk.” The knee-high boots had probably been inconvenient when they had fit, but now they went up just past his knee which made it much more inconvenient. 

“Ok but also consider this, it is really funny.” Alix suggested.

Nathaniel made a face that Alix knew meant that he was trying to look serious but really wanted to smile, “We could… um… go to Marinette’s and have her fix it.” He suggested. 

“Nathaniel, buddy, we are not flying to New York to have Marinette fix our Gilbert du Motier costume.” Alix said as seriously as she could. 

“Ah, forgot about that.”

“Honestly, Bustier might boost her grade if we make her laugh. Let’s just film the documentary like this.” 

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes at her, “You planned this, didn’t you?”

“God I wish I was smart enough to have planned this.”

Nathaniel sighed, “Fine, but if things go wrong you’re taking the blame. 

“Gladly.” Alix said with a chuckle, “Now let’s go. 

Alix grabbed the bag of various jackets she needed for her roles and the two left the Kubdel house and began the walk to the decided filming location. In order to walk in the large boots, Nathaniel had to do this weird waddle movement and it was fucking hilarious to watch. He also went so slow that Alix had to pull him across crosswalks so that he made it across before the walk sign turned back to stop. Also, Alix was, of course, cracking many jokes about the situation.

Eventually, Nathaniel got sick of it and pulled off the boots. This made the ends of the too-large pants that he had stuffed into the boots tumble to the floor. Alix laughed as Nathaniel rolled up the pant legs so he could walk. 

"Y'know, this is a lot more embarrassing than I thought it would be." Nathaniel says as they walk, the boots sitting on his shoulder.

"Walking down a busy Paris street in a military costume or wearing a military costume that's way too big?" Alix asked.

"Both."

"If it bothers you that much, we can switch roles." Alix suggested, she wouldn't mind wearing the uniform too much.

Nathaniel looked down at himself and raised an eyebrow at her, "Alix, I think this thing would swallow you whole."

"Ohhh, so we're making short jokes now?"

Nathaniel raised his arms in a shrug, making the too-long sleeves flop downward, "I'm just saying that I look a lot more like Lafayette than a formless blog of clothing would."

Oh ya, he was making short jokes. "And I'm sure that Gilbert du Motier having tomato-red hair is much more historically accurate." Alix retorted.

"Hey! My hair is all-natural." Nathaniel said as he swished it.

"And I still call bullshit on that." Alix had met Nathaniel's mother and she was the blondest woman Alix had ever met. If his hair was natural, she would eat her skates. She had no problem with Nathaniel dying his hair, her own bathtub was stained permanently pink with how much hair dye she had used over the years, but she expected him to own up to it at least.

"Whatever, Marc likes my hair." Nathaniel murmured.

Now that piqued Alix's interest. "Speaking of Marc," She said with a small grin on her face, "how is that going?"

Nathaniel glanced at Alix reaching back to scratch his neck, but was blocked by the collar of the outfit. Nathaniel knew she wasn't talking about the comic. "You know it's not like that, Alix." Nathaniel replied, not sounding too convincing, "Besides, I don't even know if he swings that way."

"Bullshit, have you met Marc?" Alix countered

"Oh please, everyone knows your gaydar is weak. You thought Alya was a lesbian when she arrived."

"I was half right!" Alix retorted. Alya was pan, she had told them a few weeks after school started. "And even if I'm only half right about Marc, he'll still date you!"

"Alix, I don't kno-" Nathaniel suddenly stopped speaking and his gaze locked onto something above Alix's head, "What the fuck."

Alix spun around to see a glass diamond floating in the air around 10 meters away from her. The diamond looked like 2 Louvre pyramids put on top of each other and floating inside the diamond was a man. The man looked like a walking French flag, his left side was blue, his middle was white, and his right side was red. He wore a suit and held a pearl the size of his head between his hands. His hair was slicked back and-

Oh goddamn it. This is the asshole from the cafe. Alix realized.

"I found you, you traitorous brats!" The man shouted from his floating Louvre diamond, "And now you dare wear the uniform of our soldiers! You will pay for this! Prepare yourself to face the power of the monuments you disregarded in your attempt at art!" As he said this, the pearl in his hands glowed slightly and small glass daimonds began to materialize from the glass surface of the larger diamond and fly towards Alix and Nathaniel.

Shit! Alix cursed to herself. This villain was after her and Nath specifically so it would be harder to get away and transform. In order to do so, she would have to use Nathaniel as bait and Alix refused to do that to her friend.

Thinking quickly, Alix grabbed one of the large boots that Nathaniel was holding and used it to block the projectiles flying at them. "Nathan, get outta here!" She shouted as she knocked the last one away, "I'll hold him off!"

"Do you think you can combat Paris's wonderful architecture with a boot?" The villain laughed.

"Alix, I can't just leave you!" Nathaniel shouted back.

"Just go! I'll be fine, I'm a good fighter." Of course, she was better when she had her skills enhanced by ancient magic, but whatever. 

Alix blocked another wave of the glass pyramids with the boot as she heard Nathaniel drop the other boot to the ground and run away in the opposite direction. As Alix knocked the last projectile away, she pulled her arm back and threw the boot at the villain. While the boot hit the glass, it didn't do much and simply bounced off before falling to the floor.

Alix stuck out her tongue at the villain, "Catch me if you can asshole!" She turned and ran in the opposite direction that she guessed Nathan had run down. She didn't see him in front of her as she ran so she guessed she probably made the right choice.

"Get back here and face punishment!" The man in the glass pyramid shouted. Alix heard the sound of glass shattering on the sidewalk behind her as she ran and guessed that the man had chosen to chase after her.

Alix wasn't just running aimlessly, she had a plan. The man's glass diamond was definitely too large to fit through the entrance to the Louvre Pyramid. If she could make it there and slip inside, she could get away from the villain and slip out a side exit to become Nike Rouge.

As Alix ran, she passed by many people, many of whom gave the stank eye and she dashed down the sidewalk. Alix didn't really have the time to tell them why she was running tho. Unfortunately, as she ran she also heard screams from the people behind her, which were all abruptly cut off a few seconds after hitting her ears. She knew that the villain chasing her was probably hitting the people she was running past with his glass pyramids, but she couldn't stop and help them. She had to escape and become Nike Rouge so she could defeat this villain. If others got hit, she could fix them later. I'd she got hit, she couldn't fix anything.

At least that's how she rationalized it, she still felt like an asshole.

"Stop running you little traitor!" The man chasing her shouted as she leaped over a moving car to avoid getting hit while crossing the street. She was nearly at the Louvre, in fact, she could see it n-

Where the fuck was the pyramid?

As Alix made it to the Louvre square, she found a massive hole where the Louvre pyramid should be. The pyramid was gone, and Alix guessed the man chasing her had something to do with that. His glass diamond probably looked like the Louvre Pyramid for a very good reason.

Alright, she needed a new plan. She could try to enter the Louvre and lose the villain inside, but there were too many innocent civilians in there for her to seriously consider that idea. Also, her father would be seriously pissed if she led an active akuma into the museum.

Alix stopped moving her feet and slid to a stop. The villain chasing her hadn't expected this and he continued forward and sped past her. She then turned left and continued running.

"Stop running and let me hit you, traitor!" The man shouted as he continued to fly after her.

Alix's new plan was to slip into one of the many shops in the area and slip out a backdoor to get away. Honestly, it was probably the plan she should have started with since this dude's glass diamond would never fit through any normal-sized door.

Alix crossed the street again, nearly getting run over three times, and made her way to a row of shops. She ran into the first door she came to, some kind of clothes store. Looking around, Alix noticed that there weren't too many people inside the shop. Good, Alix didn’t want to put more people in danger. There was a door labeled ‘employes only’ behind the cash register.

“Sorry, there's a villain chasing me!” Alix said to the employee as she jumped the service count and threw open the door. Going through the door revealed a room full of rows of clothing and many boxes she assumed also contained clothing. The clothing racks were as tall as she was so they would make a good place to hide, but she also needed a way out. There were 2 other doors in the room, one labeled as a bathroom. Alix moved to the other door and threw it open. 

It was a broom closet, Alix was screwed. 

A began to hear crashes and screams from the store and figured she had to do something. She ran to the bathroom and shut herself in. As soon as she locked the door she heard the sound of wood splintering apart followed by a crash in the room she just left. She took a solid guess that the villain just broke down the door. 

Alix looked around the room. It was a small room, maybe around 6 square meters, there were no windows and no way out. The villain chasing her was in the room behind her and she couldn’t escape. 

“Where are you hiding, little traitor?” Alix heard the man say, followed by the sounds of metal clothes racks being thrown against the wall, “Come out and face your country!” 

Alix surveyed the bathroom once again. While walls, white floor, toilet, sink, hand dryer, and a waste bin. Not exactly anything she could use. She may be able to shove the trashcan over his head and dodge past him, but Alix figured that the crashes she heard in the other room weren't from him throwing small glass pyramids around, so he probably had other powers. 

Alix looked up, and found her way out. 

The air ducts.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kagami took off her jacket and threw it onto her bed. She reeked of sweat and her wrists were sore from Mother’s strikes. Kagami had just finished kendo practice and felt sore. She made it home from the last akuma fight just before they were scheduled to begin and was forced to rush to get ready. 

Mother was teaching her how to fight without her eyes and it turned out to be much more difficult than Kagami imagined. Mother said that she needed to feel where her own openings are and anticipate the opponent’s strikes. She also needed to ‘feel the space her opponent took up’, which Kagami didn’t understand how to do. So basically, she needed to memorize her own and her opponent’s forms and anticipate the way her opponent would attack and react off that. Mother said that to achieve this she had to get in touch with all her other senses, which was proving quite difficult.

Apparently, she had to use all her senses, not just hearing as she had been trying previously. Touch, smell, hearing, and taste all came into play according to Mother. Kagami didn’t understand how one could use taste during a sword fight, but Mother said that every sense was important. 

Kagami wished she could get in the bath and read the newest manga she had picked up. Romance mangas with outlandish concepts were her guilty pleasure of hers, this particular one had 4 astronauts going to Jupiter getting into romantic hijinks while stuck together on the ship. It seemed that the author had failed science class because nearly none of it was scientifically accurate and in reality the crew should have been dead in the first chapter. The romance itself was weird and a little concerning about how much the characters focused on it instead of things like the life support systems.

It was garbage and Kagami loved it.

Kagami had the afternoon to herself since It was the second Friday of the month. However, she had to catch up on her studies. All the akuma attacks had taken so much of her study time that she was starting to fall behind. The highest score she got on last week's tests was a 92, clearly unacceptable. 

After checking that Plagg had enough cheese to keep him from bothering her for a few hours, Kagami sat down at her desk and pulled out her Russian textbook. Russian had been her lowest score, an 87, so she would start with it today. 

Just as Kagami began to focus on the Russian, the sound of an akuma alert sounded from her phone. 

She sighed and flipped the textbook shut. Of course, Hawkmoth couldn’t stop himself from creating villains at the most annoying times possible. 

Kagami opened her phone and checked the alert. This particular villain apparently absorbed the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Pyramid, and the Arc de Triomphe into some orb and had powers corresponding to each of them. It seems he was currently somewhere near the Louvre museum. 

“Plagg, let’s go.” Kagami called to him. 

The kwami floated through the door to his cheese cabinet and up to her, “Seriously? Again? Can’t that asshat let us have one day off?”

Kagami raised an eyebrow at him, “Plagg he also sent one a few hours ago. Either way, it wouldn’t have been a day off.”

“Wait, that was today?” Plagg said incredulously as he turned to the clock on the wall, “Damn, time is crazy.”

“I think it’s your bio-clock that's crazy.” 

“Funny that you think that this body is made out of anything biological.” He retorted, “Let’s get this over with already.”

Kagami decided to ignore the first comment, “Plagg! Claws out!”

After turning into Kishi Noir, she leaped out of her window and vaulted onto the rooftops. Around 10 minutes later, Kishi landed on the roof of one of the sections of the Louvre. Below her, the glass pyramid that normally sat in the middle was gone, just like the report said. Looking around, Kishi also saw that the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe was also missing from the skyline.

Scattered around the area were a strange amount of paintings and statues. The paintings were all flat on the ground, they all showed a different person, all in a state of distress. Very few paintings shared the same art style and the frames of the paintings all varied wildly. The statues all showed people in the middle of a scream or trying to run away. Kishi was fairly sure that these pieces of artwork used to be people, all transformed by the villain’s attacks. It was probably a power he got from absorbing the Louvre Pyramid.

It didn’t take long to find the villain. A man wearing a suit and painted in the colors of the french flag walked out of a store on the street parallel to the Louvre. While the strange fashion itself didn’t confirm it was an villain, the metal constructions protruding from his back did. They looked like large extra arms, larger than the man himself, except they were made out of a familiar brown metal and they were mostly hollow. Instead of solid metal they were 3 sections of familiar-looking cross bracing rolled together to make arms, at the end the 3 sections separated into finger-like things. The french-painted man was raised off the ground by two of these arms and 2 others were above him, his real hands were busy holding a pearl the size of the man's head. Kishi guessed that this was the ability he got from absorbing the Eiffel Tower as his arms looked similar to the structure. 

Kishi began to formulate a battle plan. Villains with extra arms were always pretty annoying. Extra arms meant extra options for both attack and defense. They could block with one set of arms and immediately counterattack with another set. It was a great advantage. Luckily, it seemed that this villain had a great weakness as well. Kishi guessed that the orb in his hands was both the akumatized object and the object he needed to use his powers. The orb was big and a target, one good hit with her rod would probably break it. He also had to hold it with both his hands, meaning his real hands were occupied at all times. 

This villain probably wouldn’t be too difficult. 

Someone landed on the rooftop behind Kishi, she knew it was Nike by the sound of her boots on the rooftop. 

“Man, getting away was a pain in the ass today.” She grumbled as she moved to stand next to Kishi. 

Kishi nodded in understanding. Lately, her excuses had been quite weak, it was kind of hard to make excuses to leave when your mother controls your schedule and you have very few friends. Luckily there had been very few villains appearing in the middle of practice sessions recently so it wasn’t a huge problem, but still annoying. 

“We should focus on the pearl.” Kishi said. 

“Agreed. You do a frontal assault and I’ll sneak up from behind.” Nike said.

Kishi turned and raised an eyebrow at her partner. Normally Nike Rouge, the battle junkie she was, loved charging straight at the villain and getting a good fight. Sneaking up from behind just wasn’t her usual first strategy. 

Nike noticed the look and sighed, “Listen, I have a lot to do today. I want to finish this quickly.” 

Kishi nodded, she understood a busy schedule. She flashed her partner an ‘ok’ sign and leaped off the rooftop, landing right in front of the villain. She wasted no time with introductions and went straight for the pearl, stabbing at it with her rod. The attack was blocked by one of the villain’s metal arms. 

“Ah, Kishi Noir. The hero of Paris who isn’t even a French citizen!”

What? “I am a citizen.” Kishi corrected him. She had passed her french citizenship test easily on the first try. 

“Lies! Just look at you!”

Oh great, he’s racist. Kishi realized. Hawkmoth sure knew how to pick the most despicable people to give magical powers. 

Kishi went in for another attack. She broke her rod into 2 staffs and used one to knock the Eiffel arm blocking the pearl way, the other she used to make another stab at it. The villain dodged the attack by bending one of the arms holding him off the ground, he moved downward and Kishi’s attack stabbed just past the villain's forearm instead of hitting the pearl. Kishi went in for another attack. However, before her attack got near, Kishi was grabbed from behind by one of the Eiffel arms and thrown against a wall. The concrete cracked as she hit it but hardly damaged her due to the protection of her suit. She had dropped one of the halves of her rod, but she was quickly in a battle stance once again. 

Looking up, she saw her partner standing on the roof behind the villain. Nike nodded at her and Kishi charged at the villain once again. The rod she dropped was on the ground between her and the villain. As she ran, the villain sent his 2 available Eiffel arms at her. Kishi leaped between the two arms and extended her rod so that both ends of it stuck into gaps in the arms, locking them together. She extended the rod more so that the arms moved away from her and dropped back to the ground in front of the rod she dropped. She lifted rod into her hand with her foot and then leaped at the villain once more. As Kishi leaped up, Nike jumped down and wrapped her legs around the villain's neck from behind. Nike jammed her fingers into the man’s eye sockets, causing the man to scream out in pain.

“I will destroy you, traitors!” The man screamed as the pearl between his hands began to glow slightly. 

Just as Kishi was about to smash the pearl with her rod, 2 more Eiffel arms materialized out of the villain’s back. One grabbed Nike and threw her onto the concrete below, the other wrapped around the villain and slammed into Kishi. She was sent flying to the ground, bouncing a few times on the concrete before getting her feet under her again. She looked up at the villain just in time to see the rod she had jammed into the villain’s arms be thrown towards her head. Kishi caught the rod just before it hit her nose and put the two ends of her rod back together. 

“Man, nobody told me he could make more arms.” Nike said as she picked herself up off the ground, having landed a few meters away from Kishi. 

“Call your lucky charm, it may help.” Kishi suggested.

“On it. Lucky Charm.” Nike said as she held out her yoyo, a second later a mortar and pestle, the bowl and tool used to crush herbs for medicine, fell into her hands. It didn’t seem particularly helpful, but the lucky charms rarely did.

As Nike stared at the object, the villain moved to attack once again. Kishi jumped backward just before one of his Eiffel arms down onto the spot where Kishi had been standing, cracking the concrete. An attack was also sent at Nike, who dodged it in a similar manner. 

“You girls cannot defeat me! I am Patriot, the embodiment of French masculinity and power! Two little girls with a bowl cannot beat me!” The villain shouted.

“Bruh, what a loser.” As Nike insulted the man, she threw the polka-dotted mortar and pestle at the villain’s head. The villain dodged it easily, “I’ll be right back Kishi, need to go grab something.” Nike announced before leaping up onto a nearby rooftop and swinging away. 

Oh, so it had been one of the ‘you need to go to the guardian’ lucky charms. Nike was likely going to grab another miraculous and recruit a temporary hero, like Teraturtle and King Monkey. In the meantime, Kishi had to keep Patriot here occupied. It wasn’t a fun role to play, but Nike trusted her to do it and she would do it well. 

Kishi once again took a battle stance as Patriot started laughing, “At least one of you has enough sense to run from my awesome power!” 

Kishi charged at the villain. As she ran, she had to dodge the villain’s attempts to grab her with his Eiffel arms. As one of them tried to grab her from the side, she jumped above it and then used it as a launchpad to jump at Patriot. Knowing that her goal was now to buy time and not break the pearl gave Kishi more options for attack. The fact that both of his hands were occupied also gave her many options.

Instead of attacking the villain, Kishi instead landed on him, standing on the base of the metal arms protruding from his back. Reaching around the man’s head, she grabbed the villain’s white tie and removed it from around his neck. She undid the knot as she dodged an attack from one of the Eiffel arms. Kishi then bent down and covered the villain's eyes with the tie, then wrapped it around his head and tied it on the other side so Patriot was blindfolded. With Patriot blinded, Kishi leaped off the villain’s back and onto a nearby rooftop just as the villain began to swing his Eiffel arms around frantically. 

“You bitch! Get this off of me!” Patriot shouted. He tired to use one of his metal arms to grab and remove the blindfold, but the metal fingers were too large and couldn't get a hold on the tie. Kishi leaned on her rod and watched as the villain began to grind his teeth together in frustration, “I’ll kill you, you insolent brat!”

Kishi raised an eyebrow at the villain. He didn’t seem particularly powerful, certainly not powerful enough to need to grab another miraculous. His arms were annoying, but it wasn’t as if it was impossible to get around. Kishi had managed to be on the villain's back long enough to tie a blindfold on him, so surely she could get a good hit on the pearl easily. 

So why did the lucky charm say they needed help?

As Kishi pondered this, the pearl started glowing and Patriot began yelling once again. “I am going to destroy all of the traitors in the god-forsaken city! Starting with you Kishi Noir!” As he yelled, the pearl’s glow intensified. As the light from the pearl turned into a blindingly bright light, Kishi’s instincts screamed at her to run away as fast as she could. 

Trusting her instincts, Kishi turned away from the villain and began running away. As she leapt across the rooftops, she heard the sounds of stone cracking apart and glass shattering. She heard a loud crash of what she guessed was a building collapsing. After running around 6 blocks away, Kishi stopped and turned back to see what had happened.

It took Kishi a second to process what she saw. A large stone structure resembling the Arc de Triomphe had appeared.. On top of the Arc was a glass diamond resembling 2 Louvre pyramids stuck together, the bottom tip of the diamond was embedded into the Arc and Patriot floated in the middle of the glass diamond. As Kishi watched, Hundreds of Eiffel arms materialized from the edges of the diamond and a singular massive arm materalized from the very top. The tie covering the villain’s eyes had slipped down to his neck and there was a demented grin on his face. 

The orb glowed once again and the stone surface of the Arc de Triomphe began to ripple like a pond when a stone was thrown into it.  As the stone rippled, the surface began to change shape. Chunks of stone rose out of the rippling surface and formed themselves into various firearms. Kishi wasn’t very knowledgeable on guns, but she recognized that the Arc was now covered in hundreds of machine guns. On top sat 4 massive guns that Kishi was sure qualified as cannons sat on each side of the spot where the glass diamond sat. 

The area around the structure was destroyed, as one might expect to happen if the Arc de Triomphe was dropped into the middle of a normal sized street. The buildings that once stood where the structure now stood had been pushed aside and into other buildings. A radius of one block of destroyed buildings surrounded the structure on all sides. 

Kishi blinked as she looked at the structure. The villain had combined all three of his powers and created a fortress. She had no idea how she could even combat this. There was no way that she could counter that many arms, she was fairly sure that if she got too close she would get shot at by the guns, and she guessed that he could still do whatever move he used to turn people into artwork. The structure could attack her no matter what direction she tried to attack from, so Kishi was stuck. Then again, the structure also couldn’t move and Kishi was around 5 blocks away from it, meaning that it couldn’t attack her. Hopefully, that meant that Patriot was also stuck.

It was a stalemate. Kishi couldn't attack him and he couldn’t attack her.

Luckily, Kishi knew just the person she needed to break the stalemate. She sat down on the rooftop and waited for Nike to return. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Alix slipped into an alleyway near Fu’s shop and transformed into Nike Rouge once again, now with the goat miraculous in her possession. 

The goat miraculous seemed like the best choice. While not the most combat effective miraculous, it was very versatile. The ability to create whatever object the user chose was valuable. Unlike the lucky charm, which often gave her weird junk, the goat could give her something useful, like a gun. Also, Alix knew exactly who she would give it too. 

She pulled out her yoyo as she leaped up onto the rooftop and opened up the tracking function. One of the yoyo's many abilities was that she could get the exact location of any phone she had the number too. She hadn't used it very much but it was useful now.

As Nike typed Nathaniel's number into the yoyo, her eyes caught something weird on the skyline. It looked like the Arc de Triomphe with a diamond on top of it and a Lovecraftian horror was growing out of the diamond.

Damn, how bad did Kishi piss this fucker off? Alix wondered just as the yoyo's map zoomed in on Nath's location. Examining the map, it seemed that he had hid in an alleyway about 8 blocks away from where the akuma had first appeared. He had run pretty far, but it shouldn't take Nike more than a couple minutes to get to him. Nike shut the yoyo and then threw it so it wrapped around a flagpole a little ways away.

After a few minutes of swinging through Paris, Alix made it to her destination. She landed on a rooftop adjacent to the alleyway and looked down. Seeing Nathaniel's tomato red hair next to a dumpster, she jumped off the roof, slid down the wall, and landed in front of Nathaniel.

He had been drawing, the piece of paper placed onto his folder with the folder sitting resting on his knees. He also had headphones in so he didn't notice Nike land in front of him. He looked very relaxed for someone who was hiding from a bloodthirsty villain.

Alix reached over and flipped the folder up so it hit Nathaniel in the forehead.

"AAH!" Nathaniel exclaimed with shock, dropping his pencil as he did so in order to remove his headphones, "Nike Rouge?!" 

"The one and only."

"But, should-shouldn't you be fighting the villain?" Nath asked, stuttering a little in his confusion, "Alix, she-"

"Your friend is fine, I saved her before she got hit." Alix told him, "I'm actually here because I need your help."

Nathaniel's face immediately fell, "You need bait don't you."

Alix thought how pessimistic Nathaniel could be sometimes. It was one of the many reasons they got along so well. "Na, if I needed bait, I would have used your friend Alix." As she talked, Nike pulled out her yoyo, opened the storage, and pulled out the goat miraculous. "Actually, I have a miraculous that I think you would be perfect for you." She held the twin hair clips out to Nathaniel.

Nathaniel's eyes widened and his mouth flapped open an closed a few times without words as he processed this, "Hold on, hold on. You want to give me a miraculous?" Nathaniel exclaimed.

Nike nodded, "That is what I said."

"But- I-I wouldn't be a good hero. I ran away when Alix stood up to the villain. I'm a coward. You should give the miraculous to her, not me!" Nathaniel said, reaching out to push Alix's outstretched hand away.

Alix looked down at the boy and sighed. Nathaniel could be really dumb sometimes. "Listen man, I expect people to run from villains. A normal civilian stands no chance against an akumatized person. Anyone who doesn't run is a fucking idiot who I have to save from getting killed. If I thought that every person who ran from a villain was a coward, then I'd be a shit hero. I was given this miraculous to protect people who can't protect themselves, and now I'm giving you the ability to do the same." She thrust the miraculous towards the boy, "Will you help me?"

Nathaniel's eyes had gone wide during her speech, but then hardened to a determined expression. He reached out and grabbed the hair clips from Alix's hand. "Alright, Nike Rouge, I'll help you." He said as he stuck the miraculous into his hair, "What do I do?"

Instead of answering him, Nike stayed silent. A second later, the goat miraculous began to glow with white light. A ball of light floated off the hairpins and zipped around Nathaniel a couple of times before moving down to the ground, floating just above Nathaniel’s drawing which had fallen on the ground. After a second, the ball of light materialized into Ziggy, the goat kwami. 

“Ooohh! Are you an artist? I love art!” The kwami exclaimed as she examined Nathaniel’s drawing. 

“This is Ziggy, the kwami of passion.” Alix introduced the distracted creature. 

“Kwami?” Nathaniel said, tilting his head at the creature.

“Kwamis are the beings that inhabit the miraculous and give us superheroes our superpowers. Ziggy here is the goat kwami of Passion. She’s very, well, passionate.”

Ziggy floated up to Nathaniel, the paper now in her hands, “You're such a good artist. Do you think you could make a drawing of me and my friends?” she asked. 

“Um, ya, maybe.” Nathaniel answered, sounding a little lost. 

“Ziggy, focus, please.” Alix cut in. This is what happened you let out creatures who haven't been outside in decades. 

“Right, yes. Focus.“ Ziggy said. The kwami floated downward, placed the paper into the folder that had also fallen on the ground, and then floated back up to Nathaniel. “I am Ziggy, goat kwami of paaaaassion.” The kwami said with a bleat, she obviously had been too focused on the drawing to have heard Nike introduce her before, “With my powers, you can use Genesis and create anything your mind can imagine. You can either create one non-magical item or enchant an existing item with magic. The only limit is your imagination.” Ziggy explained excitedly.

Nike raised an eyebrow at that. Fu hadn’t told her about the enchantment part of the goat miraculous. Did he keep that from her on purpose?

“And the 5-minute detransformation timer after you use your power.” Alix added since it didn’t seem like Ziggy was going to.  

“That too.” The kwami agreed.

Nathaniel nodded, “Got it, how do I transform?” Nathaniel asked.

“You have to say. Ziggy, let’s raaaam!” Ziggy answered, bleating as she said ‘ram.’

Nathaniel paused, “Do I have to do the bleat too?”

Alix shook her head side to side in response.

“Oh, alright. Ziggy, let’s ram!” Nathaniel shouted and Ziggy was sucked into the hairpins once again. There was a bright flash of grey light as Nathaniel transformed. When it faded, he was a superhero. 

Transformed, Nathaniel wore a suit that was mostly black but had a white section that went up to his shoulders in a V shape starting from his lower abdomen. It had a zipper in the center and the slider of the zipper was a hollow metal triangle that currently hung just below his neck. He had a collar of white fur that wrapped around the back of his neck and onto his shoulders before falling loose, long enough to go to just below his chest. His black boots had a mass of white fur at their top and his white gloves had a mass of white fur at their ends. His mask was mostly white with only the section between his eyebrows and the top of his nose being black. He had black horns on either side of his head that curved upward. Also, his hair was a slightly darker red than before, not too much darker but just enough for Alix to notice. 

In his hand he held what Fu had described as a paintbrush, but to Alix, it looked more like a spear. It had a white teardrop-shaped tip and a circular bit just below the tip made of a grey metal. Below the head of the spear was a section made out of a more bronze-colored metal with white lines running through it that glowed blue. The teardrop head of the spear also reflected a slight rainbow of color around its edges. The rest of the weapon was black with a few white stripes near the end. 

Honestly, he looked really cool. He looked confident and suave, even if Alix knew that Nathaniel was the opposite of both those things. 

“Alright Nike Rouge, let’s go save Paris.” Nathaniel said. 

“Hold on. There’s one thing we have to do first.” Nike told him. 

“What is it?” He asked. 

Alix pointed to his costume, “What is your superhero name?”

“Oh ya, that is pretty important.” Nathaniel said as he tilted his head in thought, “You can call me… hmm…Caprikid. Ya, you can call me Caprikid.”

Alix tilted her head in thought, “Hmmm. It’s alright, but I’m not sure about the whole ‘kid’ part. I’m not sure I want to remind Paris that all of their superheroes are teenagers.”

“I’m sure your height already does that.” 

“Excuse you?” Alix said in warning. This dude has been a hero for 2 minutes and was already making short jokes.

“Nothing.” Nathaniel said with a slight chuckle, “I think I’ll stick with Caprikid. It’s the only goat-related name that I can think of that sounds remotely cool.”

Nike thought about it for a second before a smile appeared on her face, “Capriqueer.” She said, trying to hold in the laugh.

“HAH!” Nathaniel burst out laughing at the suggestion. He covered his eyes with his hand as he laughed and leaned on his paintbrush-spear. “I’m so mad that I’m laughing at this.” He said as he tried to quell the laughter.

“Alright Caprikid, hehe, let's get going.” Nike said, interrupting herself with a couple of breaths of laughter.

“I can’t believe Nike Rouge makes queer jokes.” Caprikid said with amusement before jumping upward. He pushed himself off alternating walls of the alleyway to climb upward until he reached the rooftop and landed on it. “Come on, let’s go kick that guy’s ass!”

Alix sighed and threw her yoyo upward so that the string wrapped around a chimney above her. She pulled herself off the ground and landed next to Nathaniel, who was looking at the massive structure that the villain had created.

“Wow, that’s big.” He said to himself. 

“Ya, he wasn’t nearly that size when I left. Kishi really pissed him off.” Nike explained. 

He bit his lip, “Do you think she’s alright?”

“She’s fine. It takes a lot more than this to take out my partner.” She assured him, “Come on, let’s find her.”

The two began running across the rooftops towards the structure. It was about a kilometer away so it shouldn’t take too long to long to get there with the enhanced speed that the miraculous gave them.  As they ran, Nike noticed that she had to run a little faster than she normally did to keep up with Caprikid. Alix was normally way faster than Nathaniel, so the goat miraculous must boost speed a lot more than the ladybug did.  

As Nike and Caprikid got within 5 blocks of the structure, the yoyo on her waist began to vibrate. Kishi was calling. 

“Hold up.” she said to Nath as she stopped, he stopped a couple of meters in front of her. Alix picked up the yoyo, opened it, and put it to her ear. “Hey Kishi, we’re nearing Patriot’s new toy. What‘s up?”

“Look left.” Kishi said. 

Nike looked to her left and saw Kishi sitting on a rooftop a couple of blocks over. Her left leg was outstretched while her right was bent upward so that she could rest her right arm on it. One end of her rod rested on her shoulder while the other was in the grasp of her right hand. She looked quite relaxed, she must have been there for a while. 

Alix made her way over to her partner with Nathaniel following close behind. Once they got close enough, Kishi looked Caprikid up and down for a second, “I didn’t expect the goat.” Kishi said. 

“Which one did you expect?” Nike asked.

Kishi seemed to think about it for a second, “Either the dragon or the horse.”

Alix could admit that either the dragon or the horse would have been good options. They both were good options for getting hard-to-reach akumatized objects. However, “Now that wouldn’t be as fun, now would it?” 

Kishi’s lips curled into a slight smile as she shook her head. Alix knew that Kishi was a very practical person, she always tried to end akuma fights as fast as possible. Nike, on the other hand, tried to enjoy fights before ending them, get a good adrenalin rush. When they had first started fighting villains Kishi was a little bothered by this behavior, but nowadays Kishi seemed amused by it. 

“So, what do you call yourself?” Kishi asked Nathaniel.

“Call me Caprikid.” he responded.

Kishi nodded in response, “I suggest a long-range attack. Getting close to that fortress will only spell disaster.”

Alix considered that. A long-range attack did seem like the best option but the problem was that there was a barrier between them and the villain. “We’d need to get past the glass diamond first.” Nike said, “If we can’t do that then we aren’t getting anywhere.”

“I could create a rocket launcher or something.” Caprikid suggested.

“Hold off on that, maybe this will help us think.” Alix said, holding her yoyo out in front of her, “Lucky Charm.” The red energy of her power poured out of her yoyo and formed an object above it. A second layer, a spear as long as Kishi was tall dropped into her other hand. It was a simple pole with a long, triangular-shaped, head that came to a sharp point at the end.

“So, we stab him?” Caprikid suggested.

“I wish it were that easy.” Nike said in response. A normal spear would be useful against a normal villain. Unfortunately, they had to fight a fortress. A normal spear just wouldn’t cut it. 

But what if they made it not a normal spear?

Nike turned to Nathaniel, “I need you to make me a giant crossbow. Wait, there’s a word for that. Make me a… a… ballista. That's it, a ballista. Big ass fucking crossbow.” 

Caprikid nodded and looked around, “I’m going to need a flatter rooftop.” The rooftop they were currently on was a residential building with a slanted roof, not an ideal surface for a ballista. 

“Alright, go find a better one.” She commanded. Nathaniel nodded and ran off to find a flatter rooftop. Nike turned to Kishi, who had gotten off the ground, and held the spear out to her, “I need you to infuse this spear with a Cataclysm.”

Kishi blinked a few times at the request, “You need me to what?”

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

“Ok, so do you remember the music sheet I used to defeat Soloist?” Nike asked. 

Kishi nodded her head. Nike had said she ‘used too much magic on that thing and it's no longer magic’. Kishi still wasn’t exactly sure what that meant.

“That started out as a normal lucky charm, but I needed more time than 5 minutes to set up my plan. I didn’t want to risk the lucky charm being something different the next time so I took control of the miraculous energy away from Tikki and pumped magic into the music sheets until they became a normal item, not a lucky charm.” Nike explained, “So, I figure that if I could do that, you could put a Cataclysm into an object instead of your hand. Infusing the object with the power to obliterate the next thing it touches, just like your hand when you use Cataclysm.”

Kishi considered the idea, it seemed plausible. If Nike could alter the physical state of her lucky charm object, then Kishi should be able to place her cataclysm inside of an object instead of her hand. The problem was that Nike hadn’t explained the process very well.

“What do you mean you ‘took control of the miraculous energy’? How did you do that?” Kishi asked. 

“Ummm, let me think.” Nike said, “I- I closed my eyes and I focused on the warm feeling that I always felt when I transform. I focused on that energy and I felt where Tikki was inside my body and the energy she was producing, and I,” she made a snatching motion with her hand, “grabbed ahold of it and funneled it into the music sheets. After that-” Nike paused, “Oh, that's right. I’ll be right back. Hold this.” Nike put the spear into Kishi’s hand before leaping off the roof and down to the streets below. 

Kishi considered what her partner had said. She said that she felt a warm feeling when she transformed and she had focused on that. Kishi felt no warmth when she transformed, instead, she felt a feeling of freedom, a feeling of excitement. When she transformed she felt the weight of responsibility leave her shoulders. The pressure Kagami felt to always say the right thing and act the right way was completely forgotten about, replaced with an energy that made her want to run, jump, and fight. An energy that reminded her of Plagg’s free spirit and his refusal to do literally anything she asked of him. 

Kishi sat down on the rooftop again, legs crossed beneath her this time. She placed her rod onto her back and grabbed the polka-dotted spear so that the spearhead was between her palms, the end of the spear resting on the ground. Kishi closed her eyes and turned her focus to her body. She felt the stone beneath her and the wind at her back. She felt her ponytail brush against her back between her shoulder blades. She felt the spear in her hands, warmer than metal should be. Faintly, she felt the feeling of the magical suit against her skin. She felt all this, but it wasn’t what she was looking for.

Kishi focused harder, she needed to go past her 5 senses and find the freeing energy she felt whenever she transformed. She searched for the feeling that made her forget who she needed to be and pushed her to be whatever she wanted. The feeling that injected her with enough energy and power to fight villains. Kishi searched through her body for that feeling. She searched her head and found nothing. She moved down and searched her shoulders, nothing, and all the way down her arms, nothing. She searched her stomach, nothing. She moved down to her legs and searched there, nothing. 

Finally, Kishi searched her chest. There, she found something. The smallest spark of energy, like a firefly in a pitch-black room, directly where her heart sat. Kishi focused on the spark, pulling all her focus to it. The feeling of the concrete beneath her and the wind on her back fell away as she focused on this tiny speck of energy in her chest. As she focused, the spark became more. The spark burst into a candle flame. The candle flame grew as if fuel was being poured onto it until it felt as intense as a campfire. The campfire took form as she focused on it, turning into a ball of energy the size of her heart. 

Then she began to feel the energy flowing out of the ball. Paths of energy flowed to every corner of her body, entering every muscle and every bone. She felt the energy being poured into her skin, creating and sustaining her magical outfit. She felt the rod on her back, a crystallized mass of the energy. She also felt the object between her hands, the spear. It was made from a different energy than what was inside of her. The spear’s energy felt warm and bright while the energy inside her felt more subtle and freeing. 

Kishi took her focus back to the ball of energy in her chest, the core of the energy. She focused on the core and imagined grabbing hold of it. As she did, the felt something change. The paths of energy around her body began to weaken as she held the core, becoming fainter by the second. Kishi let go of the core, this wasn’t right. As she let go, the paths of energy began to grow stronger once again, returning to the way they were before. 

She couldn't take control of the energy as Nike had said, it felt way too dangerous. She needed to try something else. 

Kishi focused on the core once again, feeling the ball of energy burning inside of her. This time, she imagined placing her hand on top of the ball. As she did so she felt the energy whisper in her mind, asking what she wanted. 

I want the cataclysm inside the spear instead of my hand. Kishi whispered back

The energy stayed silent, not whispering back. Instead, Kishi felt what it wanted, It was waiting for her action. 

“Cataclysm.” Kishi whispered. 

As soon as she called the word, she felt the core within her chest explode with energy. If the energy before had been like a campfire then now it burned as intensely as an industrial furnace. The energy burned so brightly that Kishi struggled to keep her concentration on it. The energy licked at the edge of her consciousness as she watched it grow within her chest. 

Suddenly, the energy began to move. The ball of burning energy moved from her chest to her shoulder, leaving the core behind as it traveled down the pathways of her body. She felt it funnel through her arm and past her elbow. She felt it flow into her hand before moving into her fingers. As the energy touched the tips of her fingers, it left her body. The energy inside her body collided with the warm energy of the spear. The energy halted, as if the spear was rejecting the opposing energy. As the energies clashed, Kishi felt the core’s annoyance.

Suddenly, the energy broke into the spear, but only through her thumb. As the energy in her other fingers stayed still, energy flowed through her thumb and into the spear. She felt the spear’s warm energy begin to vanish, replaced with the cool feeling of steel. As the warm energy was pushed back, the rest of her fingers began to pump energy into the spear. 

Kishi felt the warm energy be pushed back into the shaft of the sphere and the energy that flowed through her take residence within the head of the spear. The spearhead was filled with energy as if it was a sponge absorbing water. Soon enough the spearhead was full to the brim with destructive energy, so much that Kishi felt the waves of it on her hands. 

She turned her focus back to the core, it was larger now, about double its original size. Kishi removed her hand from it, thanking it as she did so. 

Kishi opened her eyes and the world came flooding back into her senses. The concrete beneath her, the wind on her back, and the ponytail brushing between her shoulder blades. She lost track of the energy pathways in her body and could no longer feel the core of energy in her heart. However, she could now see the spearhead turned black and bubbling with the cataclysmic energy usually stored within her hand. 

She had done it. 

Kishi carefully stood up, grabbing the spear by the shaft and making sure the head didn’t touch anything as she lifted herself onto her feet. Just as Kishi got her feet under her, Nike leaped back onto the rooftop, holding a large trench coat in one hand. “When I did this before, I got detransformed immediately after so you should wear th-” Nike trailed off as she saw Kishi standing with the spear already bubbling with cataclysmic energy, “Or you can do it without detransforming, that's cool too.” Nike threw the trench coat behind her and off the rooftop. “Let’s get started then.”

Kishi looked around and noticed that a ballista now sat on a rooftop a couple of buildings away. It was large, about twice the height of Caprikid who was already the tallest hero there. The base of the contraption was circular and it had three levers on the side as well as a circular crank. It had two bowstrings on either side of the grove in the center where she assumed the spear would be placed. 

Kishi leaped over to the rooftop where the ballista sat, careful with the spear in her hand, with Nike following close behind. She arrived and stood a little ways away from Caprikid, just in case. Her partner walked directly up to him. 

“Dang, I missed you using your power.” Nike said, sounding a little disappointed. 

Caprikid shrugged, “You didn’t miss much, I just drew a vague outline of the ballista in the air and it created what was in my mind.”

“How does it work?” Kishi asked. 

The new hero turned to the weapon he created, “Well, you put the weapon into the center here and lock it in place by closing that latch up top,” he explained, pointing to each part as he explained. “It has a full 360-degree swivel and up and down movement for aiming the shot. After you aim at your target, you lock the swivel with the first lever, and the vertical movement with the second.” He showed the movement of the ballista and pointed to the levers as he explained, “To pull back the bowstrings, you crank this wheel here. And to fire the weapon you pull the final lever.” Caprikid turned to them as he finished explaining, “Got that?” 

Kishi gave a thumbs-up as Nike nodded her head. “So,” her partner asked, “does it work?”

“Umm,” he hesitated for a second, “Probably?”

Kishi narrowed her eyes at him as Nike shrugged her shoulders, “Good enough for me. Hand me the spear Kishi.” She held her hand out for the spear. 

‘Probably’ was not good enough for Kishi. Unfortunately, she also knew that they did not have the time or another spear to test with. They would all detransform in a few minutes and the spear would disappear as well. Kishi doubted she could get the energy core, which she now realized was probably Plagg, to do the spear thing again. This was their only chance. 

Kishi handed the spear to her partner. 

She watched as Nike climbed up the ballista and loaded the spear into  the weapon. Nike climbed down and Kishi moved to stand next to Caprikid. 

“You both do realize that if the spearhead touches the ballista, it will turn to dust.” Kishi warned them. 

The new hero tilted his head at that, “Which one will turn to dust? The spearhead or the ballista?” He asked. 

Kishi considered that. The creation energy originally present in the lucky charm had been pushed out of the spearhead, so it was likely that the spearhead was currently made completely of destructive energy. Which would mean… 

“Both.” Kishi answered. 

“Shit.” Caprikid responded. 

“Don’t worry, I set in in the ballista so that it won’t touch the sides once pulled back. It should be alright.” Nike jumped in, “Now let’s aim this bad boy.”

As Nike and Caprikid worked on aiming the ballista, Kishi turned her eyes to the fortress that they were aiming at. It was strange. It had been well over 20 minutes since Patriot had made the fortress and he hadn’t done anything since. Patriot had been sitting there in his glass diamond doing nothing for 20 minutes, it didn't make sense. Akumatized villains were never this passive, something had to be going on. 

Kishi pulled her rod out and pushed one of the cat paw buttons on it. The bottom and top of the rod both slid open to reveal glass, turning the rod into a telescope. She placed it up to her eye and looked towards Patriot, floating in the glass diamond. His eyes were closed, but he didn’t look asleep. He looked like he was focusing. 

Focusing on what? Kishi wondered as she watched him. His pearl was glowing, casting a small glow onto his chin. His pearl only glowed when he generated something with his powers, like making new Eiffel arms or summoning an artillerized Arc de Triomphe. What was he doing to make the pearl glow? None of the arms on top of the glass diamond were moving and the guns on the Arc remained inactive. Kishi saw no sign of activity other than the glow of the pearl. 

She didn’t see any activity. 

That's when it hit her, there was an entire section of this structure that she couldn't see. A good portion of the bottom of the Arc de Triomphe was blocked from her view by the other buildings in the area. 

Kishi deactivated the telescope function and moved her rod to be perpendicular to the ground. She extended the rod, holding onto it so it sent her straight up into the air. Once Kishi got high enough to see over the builds and get a view of the bottom of the fortress, she saw what she had feared. 

Hundreds of metal arms stuck out of the bottom of the artillerized Arc and was spreading them outward. The arms were getting longer by the second, stretching into sewer grates, through doors of buildings, and through the streets. Hundreds of Eiffel arms were headed their way and they had no idea. The closest arm that Kishi could see was only half a block from the rooftop where the ballista sat. 

Kishi shortened the rod and lowered herself to the ground, “Hurry, Patriot is about to attack from below. He’s been creating arms in our blind spots and sending them towards us.” Kishi informed them.” 

“Seriously? Shit!” Nike exclaimed. 

“We only have the horizontal aimed, and the vertical will need to be even more precise.” Caprikid said. Kishi looked and the first level was the only one pulled as he said. “We still need to crank the bowstrings back, which will probably take just as long.”

“Well, you need to half that time.” Kishi said as the first metal arm rose up from the street and up to the rooftop, “They’re already here.” She pulled her rod back and swung at the arm. She made direct contact and the arm went flying backward and hit the building across the street from theirs, the hand of the arm going through a window.

She left a large dent in the arm, but that evidently didn’t mean much as the arm picked itself up and out from the shattered window and moved to attack once again. Just then, a sewer grate in the middle of the sidewalk was thrown open and an arm emerged from the sewer. An arm also broke through the glass of one of the windows in the building across the street from them, and another appeared from around the corner. 

Kishi sighed, knowing these were only the few in the front of the pack, and jumped into battle. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Nathaniel was cranking the ballista as hard as he could. Nike Rouge had gone off to join Kishi Noir in the fight against the metal arms once the aiming was finished, leaving him to crank the ballista back by himself. Unfortunately, that had turned out to be the hardest part. 

The ballista crank was stupidly difficult to move. It took Nathaniel a good 5 seconds of pushing his muscles at full capacity to rotate the crank around one time. The ballista needed 15 rotations of the crank to pull the bowstrings fully back. By the 5th rotation, Nathaniel felt his muscles ache, he wasn’t sure if he would make it. 

Halfway through the 8th rotation, a severed section of a metal arm flew over him and hit an arm that had been about to smash down on his creation. Looking over, Nike Rouge gave him a thumbs up from the next building over, where she was fighting off 4 arms at once, several severed arms laying at her feet. Apparently, her yoyo string was sharp enough to cut steel, which was terrifying.  

As he finished up the 10th crank, Nathaniel felt saw something move behind him through the reflective surface of the ballista. Turning around, he saw that an arm had snuck up behind him without Nike Rouge or Kishi Noir noticing. The metal arm shot forward, its three cross brace fingers extended to grab him. 

Caprikid pulled his paintbrush off his back and swung at the arm. His attack struck the arm between two of its fingers and sent the arm flying to the side. Wasting no time, he dashed forward as the arm flew back and stabbed his brush down onto it. The weapon broke through the arm and came out the other side. Nathaniel pushed down harder and stabbed the brush through the rooftop so that the arm would be trapped. 

As the metal arm wriggled to try to get free, Nathaniel moved back to the crank. 

Being a superhero wasn’t as glamourous as he once thought. Sitting here cranking the stupid ballista sucked. His muscles hurt and he was constantly at risk of attack by metal arms. It was stressful on both his mind and muscles. 

He probably wasn’t going to say yes next time. 

Then again, he hadn’t even defeated his first villain so he shouldn’t decide to quit just yet. 

As Nathaniel began the 13th crank, his brush was placed in front of him. He momentarily stopped cranking to grab it from the hand holding it, which belonged to Kishi Noir. Looking behind him revealed that the metal arm he had pinned down had been cut down and pushed off the edge so only the fingers remained on the roof. 

How the fuck did she cut steel with a circular rod? Nathaniel wondered with awe and fear as he placed his brush back onto his back. He continued cranking. 

Finally, the 15th crank came to an end. The crank locked up as the bowstrings were pulled back to maximum capacity. The spearhead still bubbled with black energy, meer millimeters from hitting the ballista in some places. 

“It’s ready!” Caprikid called to the heroines currently fighting. He thought he should let them know. 

“Then fucking fire!” Nike Rouge shouted back. She had a point. 

Nathaniel reached up and grabbed the third and final lever. His muscles felt like jello from the cranking and sweat was dripping into his eyes. As he was about to pull, he noticed a metal arm had snuck past Nike and was just to the right of him. 

Caprikid smirked at the metal hand, “Too late, fucker.” He flipped his middle finger at the arm as he pulled the lever

BOOM!

The resulting shockwave from the spear breaking the fucking sound barrier knocked Nathaniel onto his ass. The ballista shook quite hard, but didn’t collapse or break, from the impact. 

Nathaniel turned his eyes to the fortress above them, specifically to the center of the glass diamond. As he watched, the spear hit the diamond dead on. The glass structure began to dissolve into black dust, but the spear didn’t stop there. The spear kept going, or at least the shaft did. The spearhead had dissolved on impact with the glass diamond, but the shaft of the spear sailed forward. 

It shot directly into the pearl in Patriot’s hand. 

Nathaniel watched as the pearl in his hand shattered into too many pieces to count at this distance. With the enhanced vision he got from the miraculous, he saw a black butterfly float out of the destroyed pearl. 

With his pearl destroyed, Patriot lost his powers. The metal arms fell limp onto the streets or rooftops, falling wherever they stood, Patriot himself began to fall towards the ground as his glass diamond fully turned to dust, removing his levitation, the guns on the  Arc de Triomphe crumbled away and the metal arms sticking out of the diamond began to fall towards the ground. 

“Fuck ya!” Nike shouted as she tossed her yoyo towards the collapsing fortress. A second later she tugged on it and was pulled towards it. She had to capture the akuma and restore the city after all. 

Nathaniel flopped down onto his back. He was exhausted. His arms felt like jello from the cranking, his face was caked in sweat, his hair was probably a mess, and his brush was still on his back so laying down like this was uncomfortable. 

It felt great. 

Being a superhero is fucking awesome , Caprakid thought as he watched the magical ladybugs fly above him, some coming down to wash over him. The magic cleaned his sweat and made his arms much less sore. 

When he got up, Paris was back to normal. The Eiffel Tower was back on the horizon, the Arc de Triomphe was no longer a block away from the Louvre Museum, and the sky was clear of weird diamonds with metal arms. 

And he had been the one to help fix it. 

This was the best. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Nike Rouge left Nathaniel a couple of blocks away from Place de Vosges, the place they planned to shoot the video at, goat miraculous inside her yoyo. She had taken advantage of the miraculous cure and moved both the costume’s boots, left on a street corner, and Nathaniel’s folder, left in the alleyway, back to Alix’s house. 

However, before Alix could collect them and meet up with Nathaniel, she had something else to do. She had told Kishi to recharge her kwami and then meet her back at the ballista. Alix dropped into an alleyway not too far from where she had dropped off Nathaniel and detransformed. 

Alix didn’t have any food for Tikki on her so she had to drop into a nearby bakery and grab a small box of macaroons for the kwami. After swallowing two of them, Tikki was ready once again, Alix slipped into an alley and transformed into Nike Rouge. There were still 4 macaroons in the box so Alix took them to share with Kishi. She knew that Tikki wouldn't want more because the kwami had a whole box of macaroons from Tom and Sabine’s bakery at home, her favorite. 

A couple of minutes later, Nike Rouge landed on the rooftop next to the ballista. Kishi was already there, sitting near the edge of the building with her feet dangling off the slides. There were a few civilians down below taking pictures, Kishi gave them an awkward-looking wave. She still wasn’t used to the popularity. Then again, neither was Nike. 

“You want a macaroon?” Alix asked as she sat next to her partner.

Kishi looked at the box in Nike’s hand, “Never heard of this place.” She said. 

“Neither have I. I didn’t have anything on me to recharge with so I bought something at the closest bakery.” Nike explained, “Doesn’t hold a candle to Tom and Sabine’s tho.”

Kishi picked up a macaroon and took a bite, “I agree.” She finished the rest of the macaroon in one bite, “So, what are we going to do with this?” Kishi asked, gesturing to the ballista behind them.

Nike shrugged, “I’ll probably get the mayor to sell it to America or something.” The American President, a hero named ‘Victory’, loved to buy new and interesting weapons from other heroes. Alix didn’t know too much about it but she was fairly sure she would buy a ballista that shot spears faster than sound. They needed it out of Paris so Hawkmoth couldn’t use it against them and that seemed like a good way to do it. “I actually wanted to talk about something else.” 

“What is it?” 

Alix took out the yoyo and opened up the internet. She pulled up the Ladyblog and showed Kishi the ‘days since I was promised an interview’ thing at the top, “You owe someone an interview.” Nike explained. 

Kishi’s eyes widened as she saw the screen, “This… had completely slipped my mind.”

“Slipped mine too. I was only reminded when checking the blog this morning.” She admitted, “How about we solve this as soon as possible. You free tonight?”

Kishi nodded as she handed Nike back the yoyo. 

“Cool, let’s do it at 7 then. I should be done with my stuff by then.” Alix suggested. 

“Sounds good to me.”

“Cool, make sure to send the Ladyblogger girl a message to tell her about it. Or just drop by her house on your way back home. Either one.” Nike stood up and threw her yoyo so it wrapped around a chimney a few buildings away, “Later Kishi.” Alix pulled on the sting and was pulled away from her partner.

From there, Alix detransformed behind her house and made her way inside to grab the items she needed, as well as put on her skates to make the trip faster. She stuffed the boots and Nathaniel’s folder into a backpack and made her way out the door. She needed to meet back up with Nathaniel now. 

Chapter Text

Kagami couldn’t sleep.

Getting to sleep was not often an issue for her. She was normally so tired by the end of the day that she fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. However, today had not been a normal day. Mother was attending a gala in London thrown by a business partner so there had been no kendo or kenjutsu practice. Mother had also found out about her dropping test scores and organized her schedule so she would do nothing but study. There hadn’t even been an akuma attack today, meaning Kagami got no meaningful physical activity. 

Kagami wasn’t tired, she still had energy to burn.

Luckily, she knew just what to do on days like this. She threw off her blanket and swung her legs off the side of her bed. She flipped the switch on the small lamp by her bed to light up the dark room. Kagami wondered if Plagg was awake, he had been unusually active today. While he normally would have spent the day sleeping and eating stinky cheese, today he was weirdly fidgety and spaced out. 

Kagami got out of bed and walked over to Plagg’s bed cabinet, the cabinet next to his cheese cabinet where the kwami set up his bed. She opened the door to check on him. She didn’t exactly know what she was expecting to see, but Plagg tucking a sock replica of himself into bed was not it. Confused, Kagami just stared at the scene for a few moments. 

Plagg froze as he noticed her open the cabinet. He turned to make eye contact with her before looking back down at the sock replica of himself. “This isn’t what it looks like.” He assured her. 

Kagami hoped it wasn’t, because she had no idea what this looked like, “Then, can you explain it?” She asked. 

“Uhm. No.” Plagg answered, “Goodbye.” The kwami flew upward a few inches before diving back down and phasing through the floor. 

Kagami sighed. Plagg was a real pain to deal with sometimes. She knew that he would either be sneaking down to the fridge to steal some fancy cheese or leaving the mansion entirely. She figured it was the latter since Plagg had already raided the fancy cheese 3 times that week and the supply was running low.

She moved to the window and opened it to keep an eye out for the fleeing kwami. Sure enough, a few seconds later she saw Plagg appear out of the wall of the mansion below her window.

“Plagg, get back here.” Kagami ordered the kwami.

With a heavy groan, Plagg obeyed. He floated upward so that he was floating in front of Kagami. “What?” He asked.

“Where are you going?”

Plagg broke eye contact, “Out.” 

Kagami felt like she was scolding a child, which was ironic since Plagg was several million times older than her. “Plagg, you need to stay near me in case an akuma shows up. Sneaking away from me is dangerous. Now, tell me where you were going.”

The kwami sighed, “Fine. Tonight is Nooroo’s 3500th cycle, basically his birthday. Due to this, if a bunch of kwami gather in the box tonight, we can link with Nooroo and find his location.” Plagg explained, “Thing is, kwami cycles last hundreds of years, so this is our only chance.” 

Kagami’s eyes widened. This was huge. The timing was almost too perfect. If they could get into contact with Hawkmoth’s kwami then they could find him tonight .

“You didn’t think to mention this? It’s kind of a big deal.” 

“Master doesn’t approve of the plan, he thinks it’s too dangerous to be away from our holders.” 

“Well I think it’s a risk worth taking. We’ll go together, Plagg.” Kagami said, pulling her head back into the window. She moved to her closet and pulled out a black sweatshirt she bought last year while in a particularly rebellious mood. It was made out of lower quality material than anything else she owned and she had planned to wear it to a business gala her Mother had thrown. She didn’t end up going through with it so now the sweatshirt served to cover her nightclothes whenever she needed to go fight villains at night. Sure, it didn’t make a difference while she was transformed, but occasionally she had to drop into an alley to feed Plagg and she couldn’t let anyone see her in her nightclothes then or her identity might be at risk.

She also grabbed the key Fu gave her and put it into her pocket. It unlocked the backdoor of his shop so she could get inside without having to go through the front.

“Sugarcube and I planned to meet up and go to the box together, so I’ll go ahead of you and-”

“Plagg, claws out!” Kagami called out, cutting off her kwami. 

“Y’know, I should have expected-” Plagg said as he was sucked into the ring. 

Now transformed into Kishi Noir, she leapt out the open window and jumped out onto the Paris rooftops. She stretched and took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the cool night air, she had been stuck inside all day and it felt nice to be under the sky. It had been cloudy all day but now the clouds had moved on and left the night sky remarkably clear. She could see a surprising amount of stars in the night sky. Apparently, the mayor’s light pollution clean-up programs were having results after all.

After taking in the night, Kishi began running across the rooftops towards Master Fu’s shop. She had to convince him that finding Hawkmoth was worth being temporarily separated from the kwamis. On the way there, she saw something small and red on a rooftop sitting on a yellow can of spray paint. Kishi stopped running and landed next to the red thing on the paint can. Sure enough, it was a kwami, Nike’s kwami most likely. 

“Oh, hello Kishi Noir,” The kwami said in greeting, floating up from the paint can so they were at eye level with Kishi. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here. I’m Tikki, Nike Rouge’s kwami. Did Plagg tell you about tonight?”

Kishi nodded at the kwami, “We should hurry, tonight could end it all and I don’t want to miss it.” 

“Okay then. Could you carry this can for me? It’s a bit awkward for me to carry.” Tikki asked. 

“Oh, ya, sure.” Kishi bent down and picked up the can of yellow spray paint. Why does Tikki have a can of paint? She wondered as she picked it up.

Tikki then began flying off in the direction of the guardian's shop and Kishi followed. When they got to the shop, Kishi dropped into the alley behind the building and dropped her transformation. Plagg emerged from her ring, arms crossed with a pouty look on his face. “I wanted to fly here myself y’know!” Plagg said, sounding irritated.

Kagami fished the key out of her pocket and stuck it into the backdoor of Fu’s shop, “We don't have time for you to flirt with your girlfriend.” She said as she got the door unlocked and stepped inside. 

“Sugarcube is not my- UHG!” the kwami retorted as he followed after Kagami.

The back door connected to a storage room within Master’s shop, one of only 4 rooms in the shop. The room was dark but the guardian kept things tidy so Kagami managed to navigate through the room without stubbing a toe. The hallway was also dark, but there was a light shining from under the door leading to the massage room where Master kept the miracle box. He was probably in there. 

Kagami opened the door and stepped into the room. Master Fu was asleep on the mat in the center of the room, a book over his face. Wayzz was sitting on the handle of the gramophone hiding the miracle box. Seeing their entrance, the green kwami got up and flew up to them, “Kagami, what brings you here tonight?”

“I caught Plagg sneaking out and he told me everything. We must discuss this with Master Fu.” Kagami explained. 

“No, we don’t.” Plagg said from behind her. 

“Yes, we do. He is the guardian of the miracle box, we must respect his decisions.” She countered. 

“Kagami, this is the best chance we have to find Hawkmoth, we can’t afford to waste it.” Wayzz said. It seemed that even the guardian’s kwami thought his decision on the matter was foolish. 

“And I agree,” Kagami assured the kwami around her, “and I will do my best to convince him. But we must obey whatever he decides. Wayzz, please wake him up.”

Wayzz nodded and floated down to the sleeping guardian. The green kwami grabbed the man’s shoulder and shook, “Master, wake up. Kagami is here.”

Master Fu sat up immediately, the book on his face being flung across the room. “Hu? What? Wayzz, what’s wrong?” He said, his mind clearly still muddled from sleep. He turned and saw Kagami, “Kagami, what are you doing here? Has something happened?”

“Master, I’ve come to discuss the issue of Nooroo’s cycle. I believe your initial decision was unwise.” Kagami explained. 

“Oh, I see.” The guardian rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Please, give me a moment to clear the sleep from my head.” Kagami waited as Master Fu adjusted his position so his legs were crossed under him. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, raising and lowering his hands along with breathing. After a few deep breaths, the guardian opened his eyes and gestured to the space across from him on the mat, “Please sit, let us discuss the matter.”

Kagami nodded and moved to sit across from Master Fu on the mat. She folded her legs under her in proper seiza form, setting the can of yellow spray paint down beside her as she did. “Master, Plagg informed me that you are against attempting to contact Nooroo tonight. I believe that this opportunity cannot pass us by. If we can contact Hawkmoth’s kwami, then we could take him down as soon as tomorrow. Wasting this chance is foolish.” Kagami told him. 

“Kagami, I am not against trying to contact Nooroo, I agree that it is a wonderful opportunity. I am against Tikki and Plagg leaving their wielder's sides to-” The man stopped his sentence midway as his eyes landed on Tikki, floating behind Kagami. “Tikki, what are you doing here?”

“Plagg and I were planning to sneak into the box and join in the ritual to contact Nooroo.” Tikki explained.

“You snuck away from your wielder? I expect this from Plagg, but not you!” Master Fu exclaimed. 

“Hey!” Plagg cut in, “I resent your statement, no matter how true it may be!” 

“Plagg did try to sneak out, but I caught him and made him tell me everything.” 

“I didn’t sneak out!” Tikki replied, “A- HUrP-” Tikki was cut off when a mass of pink bubbles forced themselves out of her mouth, “Excuse me, Nike Rouge gave me permission to come after I explained everything to her.”

Master Fu sighed, “That reckless girl.” he muttered. 

“Well to be fair, Master, I would have allowed Plagg to come alone as well if he had not mentioned that you object to the plan.” Kagami said in defense of the kwami and her partner. Nike had been wise to let Tikki come. 

“I see. Kagami, let me explain why I object to this. The inside of the miracle box also holds a pocket dimension for the kwami, their home. It is impossible for any human to open the entrance to this space. If a villain were to appear while Tikki and Plagg were inside the box, there would be no way to contact them. We would be forced to wait for them to finish before any hope of combating the threat. It is simply too dangerous.” The guardian explained. She could see his logic, it was a danger for the kwami to be inaccessible in case of an akuma. “The other kwami in the box are free to attempt to contact Nooroo all they wish, I would and could not stop them. But Tikki and Plagg must stay with their holders, it is too risky to allow them to participate.”

Kagami considered this. Master’s concerns were valid, Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir need to be available at all times in case of a treat to Paris. They would not be available if inside the kwami’s magical world. There were 14 other kwami in the box, surely they would be enough to cont-

The other kwami! Something clicked in Kagami’s head, an idea to get around the inaccessible world of the miracle box. If the kwami lived in this world, then that means they are pulled from this world when their miraculous is removed from the box. Taking a miraculous and putting it on is the only way to forcefully remove a kwami from this world.

“Master, could you please take out the miracle box? I have a plan.” Kagami asked.

Master Fu raised an eyebrow at her, “Alright.” The guardian got up from the mat and moved to the gramophone. He pushed the secret buttons and inserted his code, causing the gramophone to open up and reveal the miracle box. He picked up the box and moved back to the mat, sitting back down and placing the miracle box between them. “Now, what is your plan?”

Kagami reached over and opened the lid of the box, causing the drawers holding the zodiac miraculous to also open. “You said that when inside their magical world it was impossible to communicate with the kwamis. However, there is a way around that. If I do this-” Kagami pulled the black cat ring from her finger.

“Hey! What are you doing!” Plagg shouted. Kagami ignored him. 

“-and place it into the box,” She set the ring in its place in the center of the miracle box. Plagg turned into a mass of green light and shot into the ring. “Plagg is now inside the kwami’s world, correct?”

Master Fu stroked his beard as he watched, “Indeed. I think I see where you are going with this.”

“Now by putting the ring back on,” Kagami picked the ring back up and slipped it onto her finger, causing Plagg to reappear once more from a mass of green light. “I pull him out of the world instantly. Therefore we have a way to pull the kwamis out of the box in the event of an akuma attack.”

“Indeed we do.” Master Fu said with a smile on his face, “You are a wise girl, Kagami. Very well, Plagg and Wayzz may join the other kwami in contacting Nooroo.”

“YES!” Plagg exclaimed. 

“However,” The guardian continued, “Tikki cannot and must return to her holder.”

“Aw, come on!” Plagg shouted.

“I’m sorry, but we cannot risk having Nike Rouge unavailable for an akuma. Return to your holder Tikki.” 

“But Master-” Plagg objected.

“It’s alright Plagg.” Tikki cut in, “Having two extra kwami in the ceremony will boost our chances of contacting Nooroo significantly. Master is right, I need to be available so Nike can transform.” The red kwami turned to Kagami, “Thank you Kagami. I’m sure your efforts will end up with us being able to contact Nooroo.”

Kagami nodded at the kwami. She hoped Tikki was right. However, there was another thing. Kagami picked up the spraypaint can and held it up, “What should I do with this?”

“Oh, that’s a gift for the other kwami. Have either Plagg or Wayzz bring it in.” Tikki explained.

“I’ll bring it in.” Wayzz said, grabbing the can from Kagami’s hand. The turtle kwami carried the can down to the miracle box. When he got close, a blue magic circle appeared and opened into a portal that Kagami assumed led down into the kwami’s magic world. Wayzz and the paint can flew down into it. 

“TIme to find Nooroo!” Plagg shouted as he followed Wayzz down into the portal. A second later, the blue portal shrunk and vanished. 

Kagami looked at Tikki as she slipped off her ring and placed it back into its spot within the box. The kwami looked sad. She obviously wanted to help find her friend. 

“Alright Tikki, go.” Master Fu commanded as he slipped the turtle miraculous from his wrist and placed it into its designated spot. He then closed the lid of the box, making the zodiac’s drawers also retreat into the box. 

Tikki nodded and flew off, phasing through the wall to leave. 

And so Kagami was left alone with Master Fu to wait for either the kwami or an akuma. It was silent for a minute. 

“So, do you know how to play Go?” Master Fu asked. 

Kagami nodded, “I am quite formidable.” Her grandfather loved Go and Kagami played a game with him every time he was around. Mother had been quite angry at him for it since it took away from her training time.

“Oh? Is that so?” The man stood up from the mat and moved to a drawer. He pulled out a Go board, “Let us play then.”

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Alix was awoken by the sound of a door loudly slamming shut. It had been so loud that Alix thought there might be an akuma. She had shot upright so fast it made her head dizzy, or maybe that was the remaining grogginess in her head. 

She turned on her lamp and looked around the room. It was empty except for her. Tikki was out doing some kwami spell to try and locate Nooroo so it was even emptier than usual. 

Alix sighed and got out of bed. It had sounded like her bedroom door being slammed shut so she figured she should probably check it out. There might be an intruder in the house. 

Alix made her way across the room, careful not to step on anything with her bare feet. Her room was a little messy at the moment. Her laundry basket was overflowing and there were food wrappers, bottles, and some other random junk scattered around the floor. She definitely needed to find time to clean up.

Alix stepped over her skates, laying in the middle of the floor. Unfortunately, between the increasing amount of both akuma attacks and homework recently, her schedule was a little tight. If she wanted time to clean she would need to cut time from her skating practice and that wasn’t happening. 

Alix made it to her door and grabbed the handle. Just what was going on? 

Maybe Jalil is just messing with me. Alix thought. She had dumped a cup of water on him when he fell asleep on the couch a few days ago as revenge for him eating her food from the fridge. It was right up Jalil’s alley to get revenge through something dumb like slamming a door really hard. 

Alix pulled the door open and- 

A familiar body fell against her. 

She choked on her own breath as she felt the wet head of the body collide with her chest and slide down to rest against her waist. Her body started to shake as the wet hair fell into her hands, leaving streaks of red as it slid down her palm. 

No, not again. Alix thought, Not again. Not again. Not again. Not again! Alix tasted vomit as she felt the warm liquid seep into her tank top and basketball shorts.

This had to be a nightmare. It has to be. It’s a nightmare! I have to wake up! Alix was panicking. She didn’t know what to do. She took a step backward. The body’s wet head slid down and slipped off her, falling between her thighs. The body’s shoulder’s landed on her knees, threatening to make them give out.

I need to wake up. I need to wake up. I need to wake up. Alix took another step backward, removing one leg away from the body’s shoulders and causing the other shoulder to slip down to her shin. With one more step Alix was fully separated from the body in front of her.

Alix watched the body slump to the floor, lifeless. The taste of vomit in her mouth solidified, Alix managed to step back two more times before she had to lean over and throw what was once her dinner onto the floor. 

Her mouth hung open and she stepped backward one more time, hardly noticing her foot brush against the wheels of her rollerblades.  It’s not real. I just have to wake up. It will disappear. Alix told herself.

Through her blurry vision, Alix saw the dark stain leak onto her carpet where the body’s head had fallen. The stain grew fast and soon touched the pool of her vomit, making Alix painfully gag, choking on nothing as she did.

I need to leave. I need to wake up and then- Alix’s foot landed on a water bottle when she tried to take another step backward. The bottle rolled under her foot and sent her falling. Alix’s vision was thrown upward so she was looking at the ceiling instead of the floor. 

Then Alix’s head hit her bed frame. 

And everything went black.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Jalil was up way later than he should be. He had found a small museum on the other side of France with a complete diary of a French soldier who worked directly under Gilbert du Motier. Jalil hoped that the diary would give him some more information about the Marquis de Lafayette’s necklace, which Jalil was sure was magical in nature. He had failed to find any scans of the book or a separate transcription of its contents so he was trying to get in touch with the museum director and work something out.

Unfortunately, it was nearly midnight, so Jalil wasn’t getting any responses.

The young historian sighed and pushed the button to turn off his monitor. He wouldn’t get anywhere this late at night. Jalil got up from his desk and, feeling sore from sitting for so long, stretched. 

He shut his eyes as he reached his arms far above his head. He probably shouldn’t have stayed up this late. Jalil had been at home for the past week due to his school dorm having its flooring redone but that was finished now and he had to return tomorrow. The school had excused his attendance due to this so Jalil had been skipping all his non-history classes, but he had to be in class at 7 am tomorrow. The hour drive to the campus and the hour it would take him to get ready meant that he would have to get up at 5 am at the latest. Staying up this late had been a terrible idea. 

Jalil finished his stretch and opened his eyes. Suddenly, he felt a sense of vertigo. Had he always been this tall? His computer was farther down than it should be and the ceiling seemed close enough to reach out and touch. No, he shouldn’t be this tall. Had everything shrunk?

He suddenly became aware of his arm. It looked strange. It was too muscular, too large to be his arm. He was also wearing some kind of gold bands around his wrist and forearm. His skin was covered with some kind of dark black material. The arm looked vaguely familiar.

“No! It can’t be!” Jalil shouted as he realized what had happened. He leaned down and looked at himself in the reflection of his shut-down computer monitor. 

He had turned into the Pharaoh again. 

“No! No! No! No! No!” He couldn’t be the Pharaoh again! As the Pharaoh, he had spouted so many incorrect things about Egyptian mythology! He was supposed to be an expert in mythology! 

Why was he the Pharaoh again? He hadn’t been akumatized, right? There hadn’t been a terrorist whispering into his mind and he seemed fully conscious. He still thought of himself as Jalil, not the Pharaoh. Was he really akumatized? 

“This is a nightmare.” Jalil groaned. 

Suddenly, an alert went off on his phone. From the sound of it, it was an akuma alert. Jalil tried to pick his phone up from his desk, but the Pharaoh’s fingers were so large that he couldn’t get a proper grip on it. 

“Urg!” Jalil groaned. Surely him being the Pharaoh again was the fault of whatever villain the alert was for.

He moved over to his window, or at least tried to. Jalil wasn’t used to being this tall and muscular. On his first attempt at taking a step, he lost his balance and began to fall over, just managing to catch the edge of his desk. 

Alright, new plan. 

Jalil got onto his knees and crawled over to the window. As the Pharaoh, he was still taller than his normal height while on his knees so he had no issue pulling back the blinds and looking outside. The scene outside was chaotic. People were being chased by various things that seemed to have no rhyme or reason. As Jalil watched, he saw giant spiders, robots, clowns, other people, a large desk with teeth, and a hoard of zombies. In the middle of the street was a large donut-shaped sinkhole with a terrified woman on the small platform in the center. 

Nightmares. It was a nightmare akuma. 

Now it made sense why Jalil had turned back into the Pharaoh. He fucking hated the Pharaoh and how confident he had been about things that were wrong both morally and academically. Jalil also realized how lucky he had got off here. Most people out there were running for their lives or completely panicking while stuck in the middle of a sinkhole. Jalil was glad his greatest fear was just being his akumatized self. Some people were probably dealing with crippling fears right-

Oh my God, Alix. Jalil realized. He knew exactly what his sister’s greatest fear was and how much pain it caused her. She was probably having a panic attack right now. 

Jalil immediately ditched the window and began crawling towards the door. He needed to get to Alix right now. 

As Jalil crawled out the door, he turned to look at Alix’s door just down the hall and his fears were confirmed. A familiar figure was laying on the ground just inside Alix’s open bedroom doorway. He saw the trophy lying on the ground in the corner of the hallway, a trophy he had thrown away years ago. The air smelled of blood and vomit and Jalil felt a similar sense of panic as the last time he saw the scene. 

She’s not real. Jalil told himself as he started to crawl towards Alix’s room. But Alix is, and I have to get to her.

Jalil gritted his teeth as he made it to the doorway. His mother’s corpse lay in front of him, just as lifeless as the last time. He had to crawl over her to get to Alix. There was no other way. 

It’s not real, He told himself as he placed a shaky hand on the floor just inside the doorway, just to the right of her waist, Just a magic fake. She’s not here. The smell of blood was so strong he could taste it. 

Jalil pushed himself forward, his torso was now past the doorway. He put his hand in front of him. The carpet was wet next to her head. It’s not real. He told himself again. It’s just a magic fake. He pushed on. 

He could see Alix now. She was slumped against the side of her bed, her head leaning on the bedframe. Was she unconscious? Was she alive? Jalil quickened his pace, only paying the vomit on the floor the slightest attention so he didn’t stick a hand or knee in it.

When he got to Alix, he put the Pharaoh’s large hand’s under her and lifted her off the floor and onto her bed. His sister felt like she weighed as much as a feather, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that he was the Pharaoh right now. 

Jalil gave his sister a look over. She wasn’t bleeding anywhere, though her clothes were smeared with blood. Fake blood . Jalil reminded himself.  There was vomit on her lips and her breath smelled like stomach acid due to it. She was still breathing and the back of her head only had a small bump on it, hopefully, nothing major. She seemed fine, just unconscious. 

“Shit.” Jalil cursed, “Fuck you Hawkmoth.” Jalil hated this. He hated that some psychopath with magic jewelry was messing with the fears of an entire city. He wanted to do something to stop it, to stop this asshole from messing with his family, but knew he couldn’t. 

How could he? Jalil wasn’t strong. He was as skinny as a noodle and he had no chance in a fight. All he could do was history. Even when given the muscular body of the Pharaoh, he couldn’t even walk .

What good was he?

“Alix! Wake up, we need to- Alix?” A high-pitched voice said, cutting into Jalil’s thoughts. 

What was that? Jalil turned around as fast as he could and looked around the room. Nobody was there. 

“Who’s there?” Jalil shouted, “Show yourself!”

“Oh, Alix. What happened?” The voice said. It was behind him again, on the bed now. 

Jalil spun around once more and found the source of the voice. A small red… uh… fairy thing? It was floating above Alix’s head and looking down at her. 

“Hey! Leave my sister alone you- you- you whatever you are!” Jalil shouted, “Are you what did this to my sister? I won’t let you hurt her anymore!” Jalil took a swing at the creature. 

“Ahh! Wait a minute, I’m-” 

“Are you the villain? I won’t let you hurt Alix anymore!” Jalil said, “I-I’m an akuma too. Ya. I have powers, probably.” Jalil had no idea if he actually had the Pharaoh’s powers or not. “I’ll take you down!”

What the fuck am I doing? Jalil wondered. 

“I’m not the villain!” The red creature yelled, “I’m just- uhh- y’know what. I am the villain! Grrrr, I’ve been foiled.” Jalil raised an eyebrow. What was this thing talking about? First, it says it isn’t a villain, then it says it is? The creature floated downward towards his sister, “So I’ll just take these magic evil earings I placed on her and be on my way.”

“Oh no! You are not touching my sister!” Jalil swatted the creature away from Alix’s unconscious body.

“Give me my earrings or your sister will never wake up!” The creature said, adding an attempt at an evil laugh at the end.

Jalil narrowed its eyes at the creature. Something wasn’t adding up. This thing had seemed concerned for Alix when it first appeared, but now it was acting like it had done this to her. Also, why did it want her earrings? Jalil had found it weird when his sister had started wearing earrings, but he remembered that she had them before today. This creature was claiming it was the akuma and it put the earrings on her to cause the nightmare, when that simply wasn’t true. 

Jalil took a good look at the creature, noticing something he hadn’t before. The red creature had a large black spot on its forehead and 2 more on the side of its head. Red and black spots, like a ladybug.

Suddenly it clicked. There was a connection between ladybugs and earrings that nearly everyone in Paris knew about. The ladybug miraculous. 

“My sister… is Nike Rouge.” Jalil realized.

“AHH! This is bad!” The creature exclaimed.

Jalil ignored the creature as his brain continued to run at full speed. If Alix was Nike Rouge, and Alix was unconscious, then Nike Rouge can’t fight the akuma. If Nike Rouge can’t fight the akuma then the magical ladybugs can’t restore the damage so…

The body will stay there. It will be there when Alix wakes up. The nightmare will never end. Paris will stay like this forever.  

He had to do something.

But what?

Jalil’s eyes landed on the earrings Alix wore. What if he was the one to fix it?

Jalil reached for the earrings. He tried to remove the earrings, but the Pharaoh's fingers were too large to properly remove them. 

How the hell did Hawkmoth expect me to grab these? Jalil wondered. He looked up to the creature floating above Alix. Its expression was panicked as it watched him grab at the earrings. Its hands, well not so much hands but whatever, were definitely small enough to get the earrings off. 

“Can you help me?” He asked. 

The creature blinked at him, “Help you?

“Yes, help me. Somebody has to be the ladybug hero!” Jalil near shouted. 

“You?” 

“Yes, me! Do you see anyone else around?” He shouted before sighing, “Look, I want to help my sister. She doesn’t deserve this. ” Jalil gestured to the body behind him. “I’ll give them back, I promise. But right now…” Jalil trailed off. He didn’t know what he was doing. 

“Alright then.” The creature said with a sigh. Jalil watched as the creature floated down to Alix’s ears and removed the earrings. It took them and floated up to his head, or the Pharaoh’s head as it was right now, and attached them onto his ears. 

“Thank you.” Jalil said, “Now, what do I do?”

“First of all, I’m Tikki, the ladybug kwami. I am what gives users their powers and allows them to transform. With the power of the ‘Lucky Charm,’ you will summon an object that will help you defeat the villain. It may not seem obvious how at first, but if you figure it out it will be a great help in the battle.” the creature, Tikki, explained. Jalil knew about the lucky charm, everyone in Paris did. The kwami thing was new to him. “You also must capture the akuma within the yoyo once you break the akumatized object. If you don’t the akuma will multiply and create a large number of villains. You must not let that happen.” 

Jalil nodded, “I think I understand.” He remembered Stoneheart, the first and last time an akuma had failed to get purified. He wouldn't make that mistake.

“Good, to transform you say ‘Tikki, Spots on.’ To detransform, you say ‘Spots off.’” 

“Alright then.” Jalil took a deep breath to steady himself. He was slightly freaking out at the idea of being a superhero. “Tikki, Spots on!” As he said this, Tikki’s form collapsed into a ball of pink light and shot into the earrings and a pink flash enveloped his body. When the light faded, Jalil was transformed. 

He was back to his correct size, which was nice. It seemed that the miraculous had wiped the nightmare away. Jalil stood up and looked down at his sister, with blood-stained clothes and vomit on her mouth. He couldn’t just leave her here like this, even if the ladybug magic would fix everything.

Jalil picked up Alix and carried her out of her room and into the living room, something he didn't have the strength to do normally, where he set her down on the couch. He grabbed a blanket from the closet and threw it over her, also tucking her in. He went to the kitchen and grabbed a paper towel and then moved back to Alix and wiped the residue from her lips.

“I’ll fix this, sis,” Jalil said to his sleeping sister, “Just leave everything to your big brother.”

Then he left. He went to his room and climbed out the window. He threw the yoyo so it latched onto a flagpole across the street. He gave the yoyo a tug and it pulled him off the ground and to the rooftop. The landing was a bit awkward but he managed to keep his feet under him. 

Jalil looked around. Other than the chaos caused by the nightmares, he saw no sign of the villain. He also didn’t know where Kishi Noir was and had no idea how to communicate with her. 

But Jalil did know one thing. He was going to find the bastard that hurt his sister and make them pay.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kagami was not winning. The 186-year-old man was way better at Go than she was. Master Fu had taken 3 groups of her stones before she managed to take a single stone of his, and even that was part of his plan to take 2 more groups of her stones. She was being outplayed by a wide margin.

“I thought you said you were formidable, Kagami.” the guardian bragged.

“A lion also believes it is formidable before it faces the dragon.” Kagami replied.

“Hoho, thank you for the compliment.” the man chucked.

Suddenly, Kagami heard something. Some kind of singing from outside.

“The Sandboy just checked in, now nightmares can begin!” The voice sang. 

“Master, do you hear- hu?” Kagami begin to say, but was interrupted by a cloud of yellow and purple dust floating down from the ceiling and falling onto the two of them.

“What is this?” Master Fu said as he waved at the dust.

“Probably something from an akuma.” Kagami said, “We should-” As she spoke, three white sheets flew out from behind the divider in the corner of the room. 

“Fu! We are the ghosts of the order of the guardians of the miraculous!” The floating sheets yelled, “You caused our downfall and lost two miraculous!”

“Master, get behind me!” Kagami said, leaping up from the mat and putting herself between the ‘ghosts’ and the guardian, “Get out the miraculous!”

“Those are my cleaning rags.” Master Fu commented.

“It’s probably something caused by that dust. We should-” 

“KAGAMI!” A familiar voice shouted from out in the hall, cutting Kagami off for the third time in the past minute. She was getting sick of people interrupting her.

It was then that the door leading into the room was suddenly kicked open. Kagami barely had time to react as Mother burst into the room and charged at her, katana in hand.

“Mother?” Kagami explained as she threw herself backward, Mother’s slash cutting through the air where Kagami’s neck had just been.

“You have disappointed me for the last time Kagami! You do not deserve the Tsurugi name!” Mother screamed as she threw another slash at Kagami, this time aimed at her stomach. Kagami threw herself to the floor and slid between her mother’s legs. While on the floor, Kagami grabbed her mother’s ankle and yanked on it as hard as she could. Mother almost lost her balance but stabbed her katana into the floor to keep it. “Your dirty tactics are a disgrace to our family!”

Mother stabbing her weapon into the floor gave Kagami enough time to get to her feet without getting attacked. “Master, the dust brought our nightmares to life!”

“Yes, I got that! Wayzz, Shell on!” A flash of green light lit up the room for a second before vanishing. “Shellter!” A green barrier appeared around Nightmare Mother, trapping her inside.

“Kagami!” Mother shouted as she slashed at the barrier, having no effect whatsoever.

“Thank you Master.” Kagami said to the now transformed guardian.

“Think nothing of it.” He said as he handed her the black cat ring. “So, you fear falling short of your mother’s expectations?”

Kagami nodded, “They are quite high, overcoming them is not easy.” 

“I hope I have not increased that burden.” 

She shook her head, “No. In fact, Master, I think what you’ve given me helps me escape that fear.” Kagami slipped the ring back onto her finger, causing Plagg to appear in a ball of green light. “Plagg, claws out!” She called, making the kwami once again disappear.

“I will keep your nightmare locked up here. You-” Master began, but was cut off. 

“You destroyed us! You! You! You!” The flying cleaning rags shouted.

“Oh! You don’t think I know that?” Master snapped at the rags.

Kishi reached up and grabbed the rags out of the air and ripped them to shreds with her claws before they could respond.

The guardian breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank you. Now, please go find the villain that did this and defeat him.”

Kishi nodded before running out of the door. She left the building through the backdoor and leaped onto the rooftops. Looking around, she found the city in chaos. The streets were full of people running from whatever nightmares the villain had created for them. Hoards of bugs, police, former akumatized villains, dinosaurs, vaguely defined shadow creatures, it was quite the colorful assortment of terrors.

She took out her rod, set it vertical, and extended it to carry her up into the air. Now with a higher vantage point, Kishi scanned the city, looking for either her partner or the villain. With her enhanced vision, she found both. A few blocks to the south was a person flying around on a pillow, spreading dust below it as it flew. Far to the east, she spotted a figure in red running and leaping across the rooftops. 

Kishi figured that she should wait for Nike to arrive before engaging the villain. The pillow riding akuma didn’t seem particularly combat-oriented. Its pillow was most likely the akumatized object but it was also a huge target. Kishi figured she could harpoon the pillow with her rod and end the akuma right there. However, if Nike wasn’t there to purify the butterfly and cast the cure, things would get really out of hand. So, she waited for her partner, watching Nike’s progress across the rooftops while also keeping an eye on the villain’s flight path. 

As the red-clad figure got closer, Kishi realized that something was off with the figure. Something about the way they were moving was different from Nike. As they got a little closer. she also noticed their hair was different, brown instead of the pink color Nike's hair was. 

Kishi extended the top of her rod by about half an arm's length and then removed the new length of the rod. She pushed one of the paw buttons on the section of the rod she just removed, causing the ends to open up and reveal its telescope function. Kishi put the telescope up to her eyes and focused on the red figure.

Through the telescope, Kishi saw that the figure was definitely not Nike Rouge. The figure was a male with reddish-brown hair, about chin length, and combed back so it fell behind his head. His mask was pure red and also had goggles attached. The mask also framed his face. It ran down his cheekbones and the two sides came together on his chin, where a circular black section protected his chin. His outfit was mostly pure red with sections of polka dot armor that covered his shoulders and framed his chest, stomach, and thighs. He wore more of that polka dot armor around his wrists and stopping at his fingers, his fingers covered with a layer of black material. He wore the yoyo around his neck as if it was a necklace. 

Kishi stuck the removed part of the rod back onto the pain rod and then pushed herself forward, breaking her balance and making the rod below begin to fall towards the ground. The villain could wait, Kishi needed to find out who was wearing her parter’s miraculous. And, if need be, take him out.

Once the rod was about 45 degrees from the ground, Kishi extended it more to give herself some more speed before shortening the rod down to normal length. That last bit of speed gave Kishi just the right speed so that she landed in front of her target just as he landed a jump over an alleyway. The man’s eyes widened as she landed in front of him. Before he could say anything, Kishi used her rod to sweep his legs out from under him, sending him to the ground. With the thief on the ground, Kishi planted a foot onto his chest and pushed her rod against his throat.

“Who are you?” Kishi questioned.

“Oh um. Hi.” The man answered, obviously caught off guard, “I don’t really have a name yet. But, um, you can call me… Zelus Rouge? I guess.”

Kishi narrowed her eyes at him, that really wasn’t the answer she needed.

“Why do you have Nike’s miraculous?”

“Oh, I’m her replacement for the night. She’s… Well, she’s out of commission right now.”

That was too vague of an answer, Kishi didn’t like it. She pressed the rod a little harder against his throat.

“Alright, alright. Ease up!” Kishi eased up slightly, “She got knocked out by her nightmare. I’m her brother. I’m just trying to help out my sister!”

Kishi had no way to know if Zelus Rouge was telling the truth. Due to having to keep secret identities, she didn’t know all that much about Nike’s life. Nike once mentioned that she went to Françoise Dupont, and that was the extent of Kishi’s knowledge of her partner’s civilian life. Nike had never mentioned having a brother, but she also never mentioned not having a brother. This guy could have just stolen the miraculous off Nike. 

Kishi gave Zelus Rouge a closer look. She could see a vague resemblance to Nike in his face, though it was hard to tell due to the masks. Hie eyes were a similar shade of blue to Nike’s, maybe just a little darker. She couldn’t discern much from the hair color since Nike’s hair was pink, obviously dyed. His arms were also very thin, a severe lack of muscle tissue on this guy's arms.

His lack of muscle mass was probably what kept Kishi from ripping the earrings off and taking them back to Master Fu. 

Kishi wouldn’t call Nike’s arms ‘buff’ but she definitely had some muscle on them. From the difference in their muscle mass, Kishi could tell that Nike could easily overpower this scrawny guy. Honestly, it would be insulting to her partner to even insinuate that someone this weak-looking would be able to overpower her and steal the miraculous.

Kishi took her rod away from Zelus’s neck and removed her foot from his chest. “If I don’t see Nike back in action tomorrow, I’m skinning you when we next meet.”

“Ya alright, that shouldn’t be a problem.” He said as he sat up, “I hope.”

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion hit her ears. Kishi turned to see a large explosion go off to the west. Somebody must have failed their bomb diffusion nightmare.

And died. They were definitely dead. That explosion was huge.

“We need to end this fast.” Kishi said as the wave of heat generated from the explosion hit her. Paris was in absolute chaos.

“I agree, do you know where the villain is?” Zelus Rouge asked.

Kishi nodded and pointed southward where she had last seen the villain flying on a pillow, “Let’s go.” She began running across the rooftops. 

“Oh, we’re running now.” Kishi heard the temporary ladybug hero say before he began to run after her. 

The villain was quite easy to pick out as they flew above the rooftops of Paris, dropping evil sand on the residents below. Now getting a better look at the villain, Kishi realized that it was probably a child who got akumatized, given their small stature. They wore a bodysuit that resembled the stary night sky and their skin was blue. Their hair shot up from their head like some kind of anime character and curled up on the edges. 

“The Sandboy just checked in. Now nightmares can begin!” The villain sang as his pillow showered sand on the buildings below. 

Kishi stopped on a rooftop a little ways behind Sandboy and took out her rod. She would end this villain before he even noticed her by harpooning her rod through his pillow. She adjusted her rod to a good length for javelin throwing and took a stance. Kishi wasn’t an expert in javelin tossing, her preferred weapon was a sword after all, but she did know the basics. With the enhanced abilities the miraculous gave her, she shouldn’t have a problem hitting her target. Provided the villain didn’t notice her she should-

“Villain! I am Zelus Rouge! By my hands, you shall pay for what you have done to Paris!” Zelus Rouge shouted, causing Sandboy to turn around and notice both him and Kishi. 

Kishi turned to the temporary hero and glared and him. Why did he do that? They had the perfect opportunity for a sneak attack and he had ruined it! Also, why had he started talking like that? 

Zelus noticed Kishi’s glare, “Uh. Did I do something wrong?”

Kishi signed and lowered her rod. She adopted her usual fighting stance. Guess they were doing this the hard way.

“How will you fight your greatest nightmare?” Sandboy shouted. He began flying at them, shooting blasts of nightmare sand at them as he flew. 

Kishi leaped to the side to avoid the blast of sand and Zelus jumped in the opposite direction. As she dodged the sandblasts, Kishi noticed a purple butterfly mask appear over the villain’s face. The attacks of sand stopped for a moment as Hawkmoth spoke to the villain. 

“Understood Hawkmoth.” Sandboy said, turning his pillow towards Zelus. The villain began to focus his attacks on the new hero. 

Of course, they’re targeting him. Kishi inwardly complained. She took a few steps back before taking a running leap off the rooftop. As she flew through the air towards Sandboy, she extended her rod to about double her height. When she got close enough to the villain, she swung with full force.

Her attack struck the villain square in the chest. The force of her attack knocked Sandboy off his pillow and send him through the glass window of a nearby building. A second later the flying pillow flew after the villain, unfortunately not cutting itself open on the shattered glass.

Kishi landed on top of a car parked along the street. As she shortened her rod to its usual length, Zelus landed next to her. 

“Thanks, I don’t know if I could have dodged for much longer.” He said

“It’s not over yet. Sandboy is targeting you since you’re new and inexperienced. Call your lucky charm now, you might not have time later.” Kishi ordered.

“Ya. Alright. Lucky Charm.” Zelus called, holding up the yoyo. The flurry of pink energy that erupted from the yoyo solidified into a pair of polka-dotted goggles. “Goggles?”

“Figure it out.” Kishi said as Sandboy flew out of the shattered window she had sent him through, “He’s back.” She took a combat stance once again.

Sandboy sent a blast of sand at them and the two heroes jumped in opposite directions once again. Kishi landed on a car across the street and watched as Zelus dodged another blast of sand aimed at him.

Kishi broke her rod into two pieces. She stuck one piece onto her back and extended the other piece to javelin length. She took the proper stance and threw the rod at the villain, aimed at the pillow. However, Sandboy was paying her attention this time. The villain flew upward about a meter and the rod flew harmlessly under the villain.

“You can’t defeat your nightmares that easily! The villain shouted, continuing to throw sand at Zelus.

Her attack might have missed, but Kishi had planned for that. She took the second section of the rod, stuck it vertically, and raised herself upward. Once she was about a little higher than Sandboy, she held her hand out and willed her rod to return to her hand. The rod obeyed and began flying back to her. On the way back to her hand, the rod slammed directly into Sandboy’s head, locking him off his pillow once again and sending him crashing onto the concrete below. 

Kishi had learned that she could call her rod back to her while fighting Bubbler a few days ago. She had gotten trapped inside a bubble without her rod and had tried to do it, not expecting it to work, so she wouldn’t have to use her cataclysm to escape. It had worked.

Kishi dropped back to the ground and reattached the two sections of her rod. She dashed over to the fallen villain and stuck her rod against his throat. “Give up your akuma and we can end all of this.” Kishi offered. She felt a little bad about beating up a child and wanted to offer him a peaceful resolution.

“Never! Nightmares never surrender so neither will I!” Sandboy shouted, pointing a finger at Kishi. Glancing up, she noticed the pillow now aimed at her. She jumped backward and a blast of sand hit where she had been standing.

She looked over at Zelus, who was catching his breath on the opposite side of her from the villain. She sent him a questioning glance. Zelus looked down at the goggles in his hand before turning back to her with a shrug

Kishi analyzed the situation. They had Sandboy surrounded, he had little chance of getting back onto his pillow with both heroes standing on either side of him. However, they weren’t aiming for the villain, they were aiming for the pillow, still flying above them. Sandboy seemed to be able to control the pillow even if he wasn’t on it, meaning surrounding him meant nothing since they could still be attacked. They needed to keep the pillow still long enough to get a solid hit in and Kishi didn’t know how to do that, nor did she know how goggles would help.

As Kishi thought, she noticed the purple butterfly outline appear in front of Sandboy’s face once again. As she watched, Sandboy’s mouth curved into a grin, “That’s a great idea!” the villain said in response to whatever the supervillain had suggested. 

Sandboy turned his attention upward to his pillow as the purple mask vanished. He pointed at the pillow and it rotated so that it floated perpendicular to the ground. The villain then began to spin his finger in a circle and the pillow did the same, beginning to fly in a small circle above him. The pillow then began to generate the evil sand as it spun, and Kishi realized what Sandboy was doing. By spinning around as it was, the pillow was throwing sand all over the area, and the faster it spun, the farther the sand went. The way the sand was spreading now, it was impossible to dodge.

However, this also meant that the pillow had predictable movement and she could hit it easily.

Kishi once again split the rod into two pieces as the sand fell onto her, manifesting whatever Kishi Noir’s nightmare was. She ignored the sand. If she could beat the villain fast enough, it wouldn’t matter what her nightmare was. She used one of the rods to launch herself upwards towards the pillow and held the other in her hand to attack once she got close.

Unfortunately, Kishi never got close. As her rod carried her upward, Zelus’s yoyo appeared and wrapped around her. She was pulled out of the air and over to Zelus.

“What are you-” Kishi began to shout but was stopped as Zelus stretched the goggles over her head and placed them over her eyes.

“Your mask vanished.” Zelus said in explanation.

My mask vanished? Kishi repeated in her mind. It must have happened when the sand hit her. It must be my nightmare. She realized. But why?  

“Oh, thanks.” Kishi said. She would have to think about that later, “What about your nightmare?”

Zelus looked down at his arms for some reason, “Well, I don’t-” Suddenly, Zelus was thrown to the floor by a red figure.

“How dare you take my miraculous!” Nike, sitting on top of Zelus’s chest with a hand on his throat, yelled “And Zelus Rouge? Come up with your own name!”

This must be his nightmare. Kishi reacted quickly, grabbing the back of Nightmare Nike’s sleeveless sweater and lifting her off Zelus. She threw her fake partner into the window of a nearby car, shattering the window and sending Nike inside the car.

“Pillow! Now!” Kishi shouted at Zelus. He would have zero chance against Nike so it had to be his job to break the pillow.

“Got it!” Zelus jumped up from the floor and threw his yoyo at the pillow. Nightmare Nike kicked the door of the car off as Zelus pulled the pillow, wrapped up in the yoyo, back to him. He wasted no time ripping it in half. Nightmare Nike jumped at Zelus as he captured the akuma but Kishi knocked her away with a swing of her rod. She took off the goggles and covered her face with her hands to hide her identity.

“Miraculous Zelus!” Kishi heard the temporary hero call. She then felt her mask reappear on her face.

Uncovering her face, Kishi saw the magic ladybugs erase Nightmare Nike from existence and clean up the magic sand before flying off to the rest of Paris. Finally, it was over.

Kishi turned to Zelus, “Go give the miraculous back to Nike.”

Zelus nodded, “Will do.” Kishi watched him throw the yoyo upward before being pulled onto the rooftops. A second later he was out of sight.

Kishi turned her attention to the kid sitting confused on the concrete. “Hey kid.”

“Woah! Kishi Noir!” The kid said before pausing, “But, who was that?”

Kishi held a finger to her lips, “That’s a secret. Now, how do I get you home?”

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Jalil climbed into his bedroom window. “Tikki, spots off.” In a flash of light, the suit vanished and Tikki reemerged from the earrings, falling limp into his hands. “Are you alright?” He asked the kwami. 

“I just need some food.” She responded.

“Oh, alright.” Jalil looked around his room. He didn’t bring food in here as a rule. He had too many important papers and research notes in here to risk a spill. Jalil carried Tikki out of his room and went to the kitchen. As he passed the living room, he noticed that Alix wasn’t where he left her on the couch. The magic ladybugs probably put her back in bed. “Anything in particular?” He asked the kwami.

“Sweets.” 

“Oh, alright.” Jalil went into the cabinet and pulled out a box of cookies. He took a couple out and handed them to Tikki. After eating the cookies, the kwami flew off his hand.

“Now then, give me the earrings.” She ordered him. Jalil complied and removed the earrings. He handed them to Tikki.

“Thank you, Jalil.” Tikki said.

“Oh, ya. No problem.” He felt a little awkward talking to the kwami. He really wasn’t supposed to know it existed so he didn’t know what to say. Luckily, Tikki solved that problem by flying off toward Alix’s room. He didn’t hear the door open or close, which was weird, but the creature was magic so who knew what it could do. 

Jalil put the box of cookies back into the cabinet and left the kitchen. He should really go to sleep. It was 1 am and he had to wake up at like 5. On his way back to his room, Jalil’s eyes landed on Alix’s door. Everything looked normal now. No corpse in the doorway, no smell of blood, no trophy on the floor. Jalil thought of opening the door to check on his sister but decided against it in case he woke her up by accident. 

Jalil went to his room and laid down in bed. He didn’t really know what to do now. He figured he should be freaking out to some degree. He had learned that his sister was Nike Rouge and then he had taken her miraculous to fight a villain. A lot had happened to him in the past hour, a lot of crazy shit, but somehow all Jalil felt was a sense of loss. 

Jalil felt a tear roll out of his eye and down his face. He wiped it off just as another appeared. 

Maybe seeing Alix’s nightmare had affected him more than he thought.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

After bringing the kid back home, Kishi made her way back to Master Fu’s house. She dropped her transformation in the adjacent alleyway and entered through the backdoor once more. She found the guardian still in the main room, lounging on his mat and reading the book that had been on his face when she had first arrived. The aggressive Mother spawned from the akuma was gone and the miracle box was no longer on the mat, likely put back within the gramophone.

Before Kagami fully made it through the doorway, Plagg flew past her and zipped across the room to Wayzz, who was sitting on the gramophone crank.

“Did it work?” Plagg asked the turtle kwami. Hearing Plagg, Master Fu looked up from his book and took notice of Kagami’s arrival. He placed a bookmark into his book and set it down.

“I don’t know. I haven’t reentered the box yet to check.” Wayzz answered.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go check!” Plagg exclaimed, he grabbed Wayzz’s hand (fin?) and pulled him into the air. Kagami was unable to get a word in before the two kwamis flew into the head of the gramophone and down its tube towards the miracle box.

“So impulsive.” The guardian murmured as the kwamis vanished.

Kagami figured that the kwamis entering the box now was likely fine. Hawkmoth had just sent an akuma out and the chances of him sending another were unlikely. Late-night akumas by themselves were rare, but Kagami had never seen back-to-back late-night akumas before.

“So Kagami, what brings you back here?” Master Fu asked her. 

“Master, someone else was using the ladybug miraculous tonight.” Kagami told him..

The guardian’s eyes went wide, “What?” He exclaimed, “Please, tell me more.”

“He claimed to be Nike’s brother, calling himself Zelus Rouge.” Kagami explained, “He told me that Nike had been knocked out by her nightmare.”

Master Fu began rubbing his goatee as Kagami spoke, “Do you believe him?”

“Well, I don’t know if Nike has a brother. We don’t discuss our personal lives. What I can say is that he did seem genuine. He helped me defeat the akuma and protected my identity when my mask vanished. He also looked too weak to be able to take out my partner.” She answered.

“I see.” The guardian responded, continuing to stroke his beard as he thought. Then, he stopped stroking and focused on Kagami, “Hold on, your mask vanished?”

Kagami nodded, “When the sand hit me as Kishi Noir, it caused my mask to vanish. I didn’t notice and continued to attack, but Zelus Rouge pulled me away and placed goggles, summoned via lucky charm, onto my eyes.” She explained, leaving out how uneasy it made her that that had been Kishi’s nightmare.

“I understand. So Nike’s identity had been discovered by her brother and yours was put at risk.” Master Fu let out a heavy sigh, “What a stressful night this has been.”

“I apologize, Master.”

The guardian shook his head, “It is not your fault. Now, please tell me about the fight, in detail, please. Leave nothing out, no matter how unimportant it may seem.”

And so Kagami did. She told Master Fu about the entire battle, starting from when she left his shop to when she took the child home. She included her interactions with Zelus as well, just in case. Master listened intensely as she spoke. After she finished, he stayed silent for another few minutes, deep in thought.

“It sounds to me that your identity is most likely safe.” Fu said, “By your description, it is unlikely the villain saw your face and Zelus is unlikely to recognize you even if he got a good look.”

Kagami let out a sigh of relief that she didn’t know she was holding, “And about Nike?”

The guardian began stroking his beard again, “I’ll have to speak with her. She does have a brother, so that is likely true. The fact that he now knows her identity is the issue.” he explained, “I will discuss it with her before making a decision. Depending on Nike’s judgment on her brother’s character, I may take her miraculous and choose another ladybug hero.”

“Oh, I see.” Kagami didn’t know what to think of that.

Oh, wait. Yes she did. That would suck.

Kagami really enjoyed Nike Rouge’s company. She was fun-loving while also being reliable. Her excitement toward fights helped mitigate any stress Kagami might have with fighting villains. She enjoyed hanging out with Nike after fights and the sparing matches they would have on occasion. Being Kishi Noir without Nike Rouge wouldn’t be as much fun.

“Do not worry Kagami, I will most likely not take her miraculous.” Fu explained, seeming to notice her anxiety, “The fact that her brother was willing to take up the mantle of a superhero to help his sister tells me plenty about Zelus’s character. I simply wish to be certain of that. I also can’t switch who holds the miraculous too often. The more the holder changes, the more people know the secret of the miraculous, and the more myself and future holders are at risk of discovery.” he assured her.

“That is comfor-” Kagami began.

“AAARRRGG!” A scream coming from the gramophone cut her off. Kagami turned to see Plagg, the source of the scream, shoot out of the head of the gramophone, closely followed by Wayzz.

“Plagg, please calm down.” the turtle kwami pleaded with the angry cat kwami. 

“Why should I calm down? We failed, Wayzz! We couldn’t even get a connection established!” Plagg screamed back, “Nooroo is stuck with an absolute psychopath for a holder on his cycle, and we failed to contact him! The efforts of 14 kwami couldn’t establish a connection across just a few kilometers! I’ve seen just 4 kwami forge a connection from across continents! Why the fuck did we fail?” 

“Well, um… I- I don’t know.” Wayzz answered, lowering his head.

“Plagg, please calm yourself.” Master Fu jumped into the conversation, “Nooroo was transforming Hawkmoth at the time, that must have made it harder too-”

“We had 14 kwami!” Plagg screamed, cutting the guardian off, “16 if you count when Wayzz and I were in there. A transformation should have been irrelevant! We should have linked up with Hawkmoth, used the connection to track him down, and then saved Nooroo! But we somehow fucking failed!” Plagg ranted.

Kagami’s eyes were wide as she watched the scene. This was the first time she had ever seen Plagg angry. His normal lazy, cheese-loving, apathetic self was nowhere to be seen as he shouted at Master Fu and his kwami. Kagami was suddenly reminded that Plagg was an ancient and powerful deity.

“Plagg! Nooroo can take care of himself. He’s just as-” Wayzz began.

“Have you ever had an abusive holder Wayzz?” Plagg asked, cutting the turtle kwami off.

“I- um,” 

“Have you ever had a holder abuse your power for their own personal gain? A holder who treated you like a slave to do their bidding? A holder who would refuse to feed you for weeks if they lost a fight, telling you it was your fault for being weak? A holder who isolated you from everyone and everything you care about? A holder who used your powers to conquer, maim, and murder other humans? Have you ever had a holder like that Wayzz?”

“Well I- I can’t say that I have.” Wayzz admitted, his voice quiet.

“Well, Nooroo has. He’s had a lot of them. He’s had so many that Tikki had to develop a magic to combat his power when it was used for evil.” Plagg wasn’t yelling anymore, but his tone was hard and full of emotion, “And let me tell you, as a kwami who has also had a ton of the most deplorable holders wearing my miraculous. It doesn’t get any easier.” Kagami saw tears begin to form at the edges of Plagg’s green eyes, “In fact, it tends to get a whole lot harder.”

Kagami reached out and put her hand under Plagg. The black cat kwami dropped from the air and fell into her palm. He fell onto his side on her palm and she felt his tears moisten her hand. Using two fingers on her other hand, Kagami began stroking his small head.

“I just want to save him.” Plagg muttered, his anger completely lost, “He’s my best friend, damnit.”

“We’ll save him, Plagg.” Kagami said as she stroked his head, “I promise.”

“I’ll hold you too that.”

Kagami smiled at the kwami before turning back to Master Fu. “I'm going to take Plagg home now. He needs rest and cheese.”

“Hmmm. Getting you two home is a good idea, but you can’t transform how Plagg is now and I don’t want a young lady walking home this late at night.” the guardian said, “Give me a second.”

Master Fu moved to the gramophone, opened the secret panel, and imputed the code to open it up. Once the miracle box was revealed, the guardian opened it and pulled out a pair of black glasses, the horse miraculous. He unfolded the glasses and placed them over his eyes, causing the horse kwami to appear.

Kagami would be fine if she walked home, she could defend herself just fine, but she appreciated that she wouldn’t have to explain to Mother why she was out at 1 am. “Thank you, Master.”

“Think nothing of it, Kagami. Kaalki, full gallop!.”

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

After Sandboy was defeated, Gabriel was back to his workstation designing the pieces for his next line. Becoming Hawkmoth had thrown his work schedule out the window. His sleep schedule was also sporadic and lacking. However, he knew that it would all be worth it in the end.

In the end, once he defeated Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir and stole their miraculous, he would-

Gabriel felt movement in his back pocket. The sudden distraction threw off his train of thought.

Goddamn it, Gabriel cursed to himself. How was a man supposed to get an evil internal monologue going if the enslaved god in his back pocket wouldn’t stay still?

“Nooroo.” Gabriel called out. He felt the kwami phase out of his pocket in response. Nooroo floated around to be in front of Gabriel.

“Yes, Master?” The kwami asked him.

“What is wrong?” He asked the kwami.

“I- um… What exactly are you asking, Master?” Nooroo asked.

“You’re all fidgety tonight. What is bothering you?” 

“Oh, well, you see.” Nooroo began to bend his arms and legs inward to make himself smaller, just like he always did when Gabriel made the kwami explain something to him. “As I told you before, tonight was my cycle, or birthday.” Gabriel did remember Nooroo mentioning something like that. “Kwamis can communicate with each other on their cycles as it is the time when a kwami’s magic resonates greatest with the universe.”

Gabriel’s eyes widened. This was new information. If kwamis could communicate with each other on their cycles, and tonight was Nooroo’s cycle, then by using Nooroo he could communicate with the other kwami. He could then find them and enslave them, after that he would-

“By gathering in the miracle box, kwamis can harmonize and link with each other, thus gaining a line of communication.” Nooroo continued.

Shit, Gabriel cursed to himself. He didn’t have the miracle box, so he couldn’t use this opportunity to his advantage. What a waste. Maybe next year he could-

“Kwami cycles last several hundred human years, so this opportunity will never happen again in any now-living human’s lifetime. Of course, the exact timeframe varies from kwami to kwami.”

Gabriel sighed. Of course.

“So why are you explaining this to me?” Gabriel asked. He was just getting more and more frustrated as he learned more.

“Well, this communication is only possible within the hour of the exact moment of the cycle. That timeframe for my cycle passed while you were transformed earlier, and nobody-” Nooroo paused and his voice lowered significantly, “tried to contact me.”

So he’s lonely and has given up hope of being rescued. Gabriel realized. While this was a good thing for him, an obedient kwami is a good kwami after all, it was still annoying for Nooroo to be depressed. He wouldn’t be able to think properly if he felt the kwami constantly shifting around in his pocket. It was so distracting.

Gabriel had to somehow cheer Nooroo up without compromising their relationship as master and slave. Words of encouragement would be weird, rubbing the kwami’s head would be awkward, a gift… might work. He could give the kwami a gift but he would need an excuse. A reason for a gift other than cheering the kwami up. 

Right, it's his birthday. Gabriel realized. The perfect excuse.

There was still one thing left to figure out, however. What would he give the kwami? Any normal gift, like an ornate pen, was out of the question. Nooroo couldn’t use such things. Gabriel refused to waste time designing an outfit for this creature. So what was left was food. Food would work. He hardly fed Nooroo anyway so the kwami would be delighted at a choice meal.

“Nooroo,” Gabriel called to gain the kwami’s attention, which had drifted out the window as Gabriel had been thinking, “Since it is your birthday, I will procure you any food you ask of me. One meal of anything you wish.”

Nooroo’s eyes went wide with shock before a grin burst onto its face, “Really Master?”

Gabriel nodded.

“Well then, I want camembert!” The kwami exclaimed.

And that night, Nooroo dined on a plate of camembert.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Alix felt like shit when she woke up. She faintly remembered the nightmare she had. It had been about Mom again. She didn’t know why she had dreamt that, nothing had happened yesterday to trigger her memories that she could remember.

Shit brain bringing up shit memories while I’m asleep . Alix cursed to herself as she wiped the crust from her eyes. She was caked in sweat and she had a headache. Not the worst morning she could remember, but it was still annoying.

Alix got out of bed and went to the kitchen. She had a science test that morning and she did not feel well enough to focus on that. She could skip, but she wasn’t sure if  Ms. Mendeleiev would let her make it up. She would just chug an energy drink and act like she wasn’t suffering.

In the kitchen, she found Jalil pouring coffee himself a cup of coffee, using one of the portable foam cups instead of a mug. Alix glazed at the clock, it was 7:30 so Jalil should already be in class.

“What are you doing here?” She asked as she opened the fridge and searched for an energy drink. She found a can of Bluebull behind the milk.

“Overslept. I found this museum across the country with a full diary of a soldier under Gilbert du Motier. I was trying to-” Jalil answered, beginning to ramble.

“Nevermind, forget I asked.” Alix cut him off. She was too tired for his crazy this morning.  As Alix cracked open the can of Bluebull, she noticed Jalil raise a slight eyebrow at the drink. “Had a nightmare last night and I fell like shit. What about you?” Jalil didn’t usually drink coffee, he said it dulled his mind.

“I said I overslept, not that I got enough sleep.” Jalil answered.

“Ha! Fucking nerd.” Alix laughed.

“Whatever adrenaline junkie.” He shot back as he put a lid onto his coffee cup. He moved from the kitchen and grabbed his bag off the couch, “Tell Kishi Noir that Zelus said hello.” He said as he pushed open the front door.

“Ya alright.” Alix responded as he left.

Wait. 

What?

___________

Rough sketch of Zelus Rouge

Chapter Text

Alix sat cross-legged across the mat from Fu. Sandboy had terrorized Paris the night before last, and Alix had only just made time to visit his shop. She had put it off a little because she was a little scared that her miraculous would be taken away. There had also been a late-night akuma last night that had cut into her sleep, making two nights in a row without an undisturbed 8 hours. Hawkmoth was testing her patience.

Alix just finished telling Fu the entire story, leaving out only what her nightmare was since that was need-to-know information. Kishi had told Nike what she knew, but Alix had to get the full story out of Jalil. Fu was currently deep in thought, stroking his beard.

Alix found it hard to wrap her mind around the fact that Jalil had used her miraculous. Her nerdy brother had become a superhero who, according to Kishi, hadn’t done half bad. He had apparently been fairly good at dodging. He also looked like a total nerd. Somebody had uploaded photos of Zelus Rouge to the Ladyblog and the blog was flooded with theories of who he might be. The most popular theory was the correct one, that Zelus was Nike’s brother, which was impressive since they didn’t have his name. They were calling him Nicolas Rouge at the moment.

“Tell me more of your brother. What is your opinion on him?” Fu asked her, pausing his beard stroking.

Alix thought for a moment before answering. “Well, he’s a massive history dork. He’ll hyper-fixate on a specific king, saint, military leader, piece of jewelry, or whatever grabs his interest and study it for months. Right now he’s convinced that Gilbert du Motier had some magic necklace that let him lead troops better." Alix explained, waving a hand to dismiss his weird theory. "He can be spacy and antisocial, but he’s a nice guy. He has a problem where he can forget to eat for days at a time when he finds a lead on his research. Sometimes he’ll make Dad mad by trying to grab some important historical object to prove his crack theories.” Alix remembered the almost year-long stretch of time where every single thing Jalil researched had something to do with reviving the dead, “He’s passionate about what he cares about, embarrassingly so, but he means well.”

“Hmmm, I see. Do you trust your brother?” 

“Do I- hu..” The question caught Alix off guard. She scratched her head as she considered the question. Jalil was annoying, but she wouldn’t call him untrustworthy. She thought about the times he would help her calm down after a nightmare or sit with her as she ate ice cream and watched My Little Horsie after a bad day. Sure, he was insufferable embarrassing, but- “Ya, I trust him.” She answered.

“Very well then, I shall also trust your brother to keep your secret.” Fu said, “So long as he tells no one else, you will keep your miraculous.”

Alix let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. It was relieving that Fu didn’t take her miraculous, being Nike Rouge was awesome. It would be terrible to lose that. Also, Jalil would probably beat himself up over it and Alix didn’t want to deal with that. “Thanks, man.” She said to the guardian.

“Think nothing of it. The fact that your brother took up the miraculous to protect you from your nightmare tells me enough about him, I simply wanted your input before making a decision.” Fu told her.

Alix blinked, “Really?”

“Indeed.”

“Cool.” Alix glanced at the clock on the wall. Class was starting in 15 minutes and it would take her 15 minutes to get to the school from here. It would be close even if she left that instant, “Well, good chat Fu, but I gotta go.” She picked herself off of the mat and threw her backpack onto her back.

“Goodbye, Alix.” The guardian said as she left.

Alix pulled on her skates outside Fu’s shop and began racing to school. It was Hero’s day and Miss Bustier had been hinting that she had a surprise planned for them. Alix didn’t want to be late.

As she skated down the streets of Paris, Alix passed many people celebrating heroes' day. Kids dressed up as their favorite heroes ran around helping whoever they could find with parents chasing after them. Stores were decorated with posters and designs of the ladybug and black cat heroes, selling special Hero’s day merchandise. Alix knew that across the city was a parade with 7 large floats of Parisian heroes, she had passed by them that morning. Along with the retired Ladybug and Chat Noir, there were floats for Nike Rouge, Kishi Noir, King Monkey, Teraturtle, and Caprikid. It was impressive since Caprikid’s first appearance was only a week ago.

And yet, despite all this celebration, Alix still had to go to school. 

It was complete bullshit that high school students still had to attend school on Heroes’ Day when literally everyone else seemed to have the day off. Even most businesses let their employees off for today, all the younger school kids got the day off, but high schoolers didn’t.

Apparently, the reason for this lay somewhere in the bullshit landscape of politics. According to Dad, it was because of a small party of people who thought that superheroes were illegal vigilantes and should be arrested. Most agreed that these folks were morons, but the head of the board of education was one of these morons, so high schoolers were stuck in school.

Alix made it to school minutes before it started and went to the locker room. She threw her skates into her locker and made her way up to class. Alix stepped through the classroom door just as the bell rang.

“Cutting it close, aren’t you Alix?” Miss Bustier said as Alix made her way to her seat, 

"Still made it on time though," Alix responded.

"If you're early, you're on time. I'd you're on time, you're late." Bustier recited before moving on. “Now class, I have a surprise for you today.” Alix did a fist pump under her desk, she knew it. “For my good deed this Hero’s day, I managed to get into contact with Lila while she is on her diplomatic journey across the globe. This week, she is in the kingdom of Achu. Everyone, say hello.” Miss Bustier picked up the projector remote from her desk and pushed a button. The projector powered on and projected a video call with Lila up onto the screen. Behind her was a wide window showing the sunrise over the capital city of Achu.

“Hello everyone!” Lila said in a sing-song voice. 

“Hi, Lila!” The class responded in sync.

“We can’t wait to know what you’ve been doing since our last video chat.” Miss Bustier said, “Tell us about your week in the kingdom of Achu.”

“It’s absolutely amazing. Prince Ali invited me and my parents to his gorgeous palace. It’s so beautiful and the people are so kind and skilled here. I’ve never tasted such delicious food. Also, Prince Ali is a joy to talk to!” Lila told them. 

“Isn’t he!” Rose exclaimed in agreement

Damn, that's crazy. Alix thought. Diplomats sure end up doing some cool things.

“I miss you guys so much!” Lila kept talking, “It’s so hard being away on this magical trip, so far from my friends, and especially on Heroes day.”

An ‘awwww’ sounded across the classroom. 

Alix wasn’t the closest to Lila, she was a bit too peppy for Alix’s taste, but she was a cool girl. Lila was closer to Rose and Alya, but Alix had spent a little time with her. She was so nice it was almost like having a second Marinette.

“Lila, what good deed are you planning on this special day?” Miss Bustier asked her.

“Today, I’m going to talk with Prince Ali about a plan I’ve been working on during my travels. In each country I’ve visited, me and my diplomat parent have met with the leaders and talked with them about reducing pollution. Today, I’m going to introduce the same idea to Prince Ali and his parents, and I’m optimistic they will agree.” Lila explained.

Holy shit, high bar to set, isn't it? Alix thought. People who went above and beyond like that really were impressive. Alix had just made some shoes for this Heroes day.

“Oh, that’s incredible, Lila. Thank you on behalf of planet Earth!” Miss Bustier said.

“Well, sure. Superheroes like Ladybug and Nike Rouge might save lives, but they couldn’t care less about the environment, so somebody has to come to the rescue.” Lila said.

Alix frowned at that. She did care about the environment. Well, she cared about Mylène who cared about the environment, so it was more of a ‘friend of a friend’ thing. Also, taking care of the environment wasn’t really her job, so maybe Lila had a point. 

“That’s not true!” Mylène exclaimed, “Nike Rouge convinced the mayor to end the space dumpster program and instead put that money into recycling programs. She does care about the environment.” she paused, “I don’t know about Ladybug though.”

Alix smiled at Mylène. It felt good that her friends were willing to defend her alter ego. 

I wonder what miraculous would be best for Mylène. Alix began to wonder. The mouse seemed good, but it was a bit too situational. Maybe a miraculous with a stronger power could give Mylene more courage-

“Well, I’m sure the heroes would be very impressed with what you’re doing.” Miss Bustier told Lila, returning Alix’s thoughts to the conversation at hand.

“Thank you for your encouraging words.” Lila said with a smile, “I’m sorry I’m getting tired. I woke up early for this call. As you can see behind me, the sun is just rising here. I’d like to get more sleep, so let’s end the call here. I’ll see you guys soon!” Lila said waving goodbye. 

Alix paused for a second. She could have sworn that Achu was a few hours ahead of France not behind. Then again, Alix had never been that great at geography, so she ignored the thought.

“Thank you so much for calling us Lila, and good luck with your project.” Miss Bustier said before hanging up on Lila and turning back to the class, “Well, it won’t be easy living up to Lila’s standards, but let’s not forget we can all be heroes for this one day. We may not all have Prince Ali as a friend but-”

Well, Rose does. Alix thought as Mr. Damocles burst into the room, wearing his owl costume, and interrupted Miss Bustier. 

“But we do have imagination! Hoo Hoo!” The principal said as he snatched the projector remote from Miss Bustier, pushed a button, and made a photo of Nike, Kishi, and the temporary miraculous users appear on the screen. Along with himself, badly photoshopped in. “This year, we’ve had superheroes in Paris, protecting us from the terrible Hawkmoth. They’ve shown us that heroism is beyond comic books and fairy tails. Heroism is real, and it is up to you to show how the heroes have brought out the best in all of us, by being everyday heroes!”

Alix thought that the hundreds of other superheroes around the globe showed heroism was real way before the miraculous heroes did, but she held her tongue. Their principal was a weirdo and Alix did not want to get into a conversation with him.

“Now, what heroic deeds have you all planned?” Miss Bustier asked, “Nino?”

Nino stood up from his seat, now next to Alya with the front row empty, “Well, I gotta admit, I never used to do anything for anyone before. But the miraculous heroes have shown me what being cool’s really about. So this year, I’m gonna visit the elderly residents down at the local retirement home and play them all their favorite tunes.” Nino sat down as the class clapped.

“Alya?”

Alya stood up, “Last year, I wrote an article about equipping public buildings with disabled access. But, after seeing the miraculous heroes going that extra mile every single day, I decided that I too could do better. So, I got the mayor’s approval to improve facilities so that handicapped kids can actually attend our school!” Alya said, followed by a round of applause from the class. Alix had noticed that it was a requirement to climb a set of stairs to enter this school, which was kind of fucked up. It was awesome that Alya could change that.

“Ivan?”

“Oh well, uh.” Ivan said awkwardly as he climbed out of his desk. He was too large to stand between the seat and desk so he had to stand in the aisle, “A family friend’s house burned down a few days ago and they lost all their stuff. My family has a bunch of furniture in storage, so me and my dad are going to load that into a truck and bring it to their new place.” The class clapped as he got back into his seat. 

“Nathaniel, what about you?” Miss Bustier asked.

“Well, I’m actually doing mine with Alix.” Nathaniel explained as he stood up, “We made some custom skates for some friends who have never skated before. We’re going to take them out and teach them how to skate.” 

“Oohhh! Who are you taking?” Mylene asked as a few students started to clap. 

“Marc and Kagami.” Alix answered, but, given Mylene’s expression, this wasn’t enough of an explanation, “They come to art club after school. Marc is making a comic with Nathaniel and Kagami… um.” Alix tried to think of a way that Mylene would know Kagami, but came up empty.

“Kagami came to the Kitty Section concert during the music festival, right?” Ivan jumped in, providing information that Alix hadn’t known.

“Wait, wasn’t her schedule just as strict as Adrien’s?” Rose asked, “How will you get her to come with you?”

“I’ll just do a friendly kidnapping.” Alix answered, “Like Nino used to do with Adrien.”

“I got into so much trouble from those.” Nino added, “Mr. Agreste’s secretary called my mom. It was weird.”

“Oh. Adrien’s fencing friend!” Alya jumped in, apparently just now realizing who they were talking about, “She’s cute.” 

“Surely you aren’t talking about Tsurugi!” Chloe jumped in, a sneer on her face, “Her fashion sense is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” Chloe swished her ponytail, “I am much cuter.”

“Ya right Chloe,” Alya retorted, “Maybe you’d be cute if you weren’t such a bi-”

“Alright, class!” Miss Bustier said while clapping her hands, “Let’s get back on track. Chloe, what are you doing today?”

“Nothing! This holiday is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous!” Chloe responded.

“Chloe donated a bunch of her old clothes to charity this morning.” Sabrina jumped in.

“Sabrina!” Chloe shouted.

Alix sighed. Chloe had always been really weird about hiding her Hero’s day good deed. She claimed that she ‘had a reputation to uphold’.

“That’s very kind of you Chloe.” Miss Bustier complimented.

“Yeah, whatever.” Chloe said, trying to brush off the complement, “Let’s just move on.”

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kagami slept in that morning, which was nice because there had been a late-night akuma last night. The reason she was able to sleep in was that her schedule was completely clear for the day.

Today was a French holiday known as Hero’s day, a day to celebrate the people who risk their lives to keep France safe. This included both superheroes and normal heroes such as firemen, ambulance drivers, and sewage workers. However, most people tended to focus on superheroes. It was also tradition for everybody to do one good deed on Hero’s day, saying that it was their chance to be a hero just for one day.

All of her tutors had asked for the day off and D'Argencourt-sensei wasn’t holding class that day, so Kagami’s schedule mainly had been wiped clean. Mother had cleared the last of her schedule, her kendo and kenjutsu training, saying it was her good deed for Hero’s day. 

Kagami thought that the good deed part of Hero’s day was ridiculous. If you were going to do a good deed, you shouldn’t need to wait for a holiday to tell you to do it. You should just do it when you think of it. She wouldn’t judge anyone for following the tradition, but she wouldn’t participate herself.

Kagami got out of bed and got dressed in her usual outfit. Once dressed, she moved to Plagg’s cabinet and pulled it open. Inside, she found the kwami sleeping on a small cushion, a half-eaten slice of camembert in his hands. 

Lazy cat. Kagami thought with a smile as she flicked the cheese out of his hand. When he didn’t wake up, Kagami picked up the kwami and placed him in her pocket. She would wake him up later. Kagami placed her wallet, phone, a box of transformation cheese, and a box of normal cheese into her inside jacket pockets and left. 

On her way out of the house, Mother’s assistant stopped Kagami to ask where she was going, but it was a short exchange and Kagami left the house unhindered.

Outside her house, Kagami found Paris in a festive mood. Every building she passed was decorated with the themes of the inhabitant’s hero of choice, another Hero’s day tradition. Many were decorated with red with black polka dots or black with green paw prints, posters, and other symbols of the heroes included in the decorations. However, many decorations weren’t about superheroes. A good amount of buildings held decorations based on firefighters, medical professionals, police officers, and educators. Kagami even saw a house decorated in honor of crossing guards. It was heartwarming seeing all the effort people had gone through.

There were many more people on the street than normal. Kagami saw many families with kids who would get really excited whenever they saw a house themed around superheroes, especially the ladybug houses. Couples walked the streets hand in hand, admiring the decorations together on their way downtown for their date. An older woman handed out bags of cookies to passersby. It was a peaceful sight.

Kagami ate the cookies the old woman had given her as she walked downtown. They were good cookies.

Soon after she finished the cookies, Kagami made it out of the residential areas of Paris and made it to an area with more shops than homes. Most of the shops she passed also had decorations centered around heroes, mostly superheroes. A lot of shops were advertising ‘Hero’s day only merchandise’ and restaurants advertised ‘Hero’s meals’. Little children ran around in hero costumes, casing adults that were playing the villain. Kagami watched one of the dressed-up children run into the road to avoid another child’s yoyo attack. Normally Kagami would be concerned by this, but the street was devoid of cars at that time. The streets had been cleared for a parade that was apparently scheduled to run through that street.

People were lined up on the edge of the road and looking down the street. Peering down the street herself, Kagami saw a giant parade balloon Ladybug turning the corner onto the street quite a few blocks down.

Deciding to sit and watch the parade, Kagami looked around and found a cafe with fenced-off outdoor seating. She went inside to get a table and was given an outdoor seat at her request. She looked over the menu as more people began to gather to watch the parade.

Inside the menu, Kagami found a piece of laminated paper that read ‘Special Hero Meals’ at the top. There were 4 items on this extra menu; a Ladybug meal, a Chat Noir meal, a Nike Rouge meal, and a Kishi Noir meal. The meals each contained a sandwich and a side. They were respectively advertised as sweet, cheesy, spicy, and powerful.

After a brief consideration, Kagami decided to order the Nike Rouge meal, alongside a cup of tea. She wasn’t sure what flavor ‘powerful’ was going to be and she wasn’t a huge fan of cheese lately. This was also technically her breakfast, so she didn’t want anything sweet. Of course, something spicy for breakfast was kind of weird, but Kagami was curious what a meal based on her partner tasted like.

The wait for her food wasn’t too long and Kagami had her food in front of her by the time the first balloon, Ladybug’s balloon, was within a block of the cafe. Kagami ate her food as she watched the parade pass by her. The floats looked well made and captured a good amount of details in the hero’s costumes, though the eyes looked a little cartoonish. After Ladybug came Chat Noir, followed by Kishi Noir and then Nike Rouge. After Nike followed the temporary heroes in the order that they had appeared; King Monkey, then Teraturtle, and finally Caprikid. Oddly, the Caprikid balloon seemed less well-detailed than the other balloons.

As she watched the parade, Kagami wondered how Nike was celebrating the event. Was she enjoying the sights with her family, or was she just enjoying the day alone like Kagami was? Had she gotten up early to perform a good deed, or had she used a day to catch up on sleep? Kagami realized that she didn’t know much of anything about her partner.

The revelation was a little sad since, after Adrien and Marinette left for New York, Nike Rouge was definitely the person she was closest to. It made Kagami a little lonely to realize that she knew nothing about her closest friend. Of course, she also knew that she wasn't supposed to know a lot about her partner, which made her feel a little better.

It wasn't like Nike was her only friend. She had her friends in the art club and Marinette's friends had made it clear that they would always be willing to hang out with her.

Maybe I should reach out to them today . Kagami thought, her eyes drifting from the floats to the people watching them. Everyone was watching the parade with their family and friends, while Kagami was watching alone with only a sandwich to keep her company. It wasn't a great feeling.

Kagami finished off her food, paid the bill, and left. The Nike Rouge meal was good, spicy enough that it had a kick but not so much so that it was unpleasant. It had been a little soured by her thoughts though.

Kagami began walking in the opposite direction the parade was heading. She wondered where to go next. Maybe she could find one of her friends, surely Alix would-

“Are those the heroes?”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“Look, Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir are there too!”

“Are they fighting?”

“Oh my god!”

A clamor from behind her interrupted Kagami’s thoughts. Turning around, she found everyone’s heads turned upwards towards the hero floats. Following their gaze, Kagami also looked up to the floats.

On the float, Kagami saw herself , Kishi Noir, fighting a color-swapped Ladybug, black with red spots as opposed to the normal red and black spots, on top of Caprikid’s float. As she kept watching, she noticed Nike Rouge on top of Teraturtle’s float fighting a Chat Noir dressed in white instead of black. Chat Noir, or Chat Blanc now, grabbed Nike by her hair and threw her onto the Caprikid float, where she collided with Kishi and caused them both to fall over

This is impossible. Kagami thought. Kishi Noir couldn’t be fighting up there because Kagami was down here. That also couldn’t be Ladybug and Chat noir because Marinette and Adrien were in New York, way outside of Hawkmoth’s range. It couldn’t be real.

As Kagami pondered how impossible this was, Nike and Kishi picked themselves up and took battle poses. The akumatized Ladybug and Chat Noir said something that Kagami couldn’t make out before resuming the fight.

It must be a trick from Hawkmoth. Kagami decided. She peeled her eyes from the fight and looked around. Everyone’s attention was glued to the fight above them, either recording it on cell phones or just staring with a horrified expression. Nobody was paying attention to what was happening on the ground, so Kagami used the opportunity to sneak away.

She slipped into a nearby alley and pulled Plagg out of her pocket, still sleeping. She shook the kwami to wake him up.

“Hu? Wha- How did-” Plagg stammered as he woke up, “Oh, hey Kagami.”

“Sorry for waking you, Plagg, but it’s an emergency.” Kagami quickly explained, “Plagg, claws out!”

“HUh? But I haven’t had my morning ch-” Plagg complained as he was sucked into the ring.

Kishi Noir wasted no time leaping out of the top of the alley to the rooftops above. Turning her eyes to the floats, she found the ‘fight’ already over. ‘Kishi Noir’ crumbled to dust at Chat Blanc’s touch and he picked up her ring when it fell to the floor. Nike was nowhere to be seen but Ladybug held something in her hand that looked like earrings.

“We’ve won!” Chat Blanc shouted laughing, “Hawkmoth has won!” 

“Fear, people of Paris, for there is nobody left to protect you! HAHAHA!” The akumatized Ladybug added before she and Chat Blanc leaped off the float and onto a nearby rooftop. As the pair began running away, Kishi gave chase. She had to catch these fake akumatized heroes and make them tell her what was happening.

As she chased them, something seemed off. They were weirdly quiet. Even with her enhanced hearing, Kishi heard no footsteps from them she didn’t hear them breathe, nor did she feel any air being displaced as they ran in front of her. It was strange, almost as if they were-

The duo of akumatized heroes vanished between her eyes, seeming to fade out of existence.

-Illusions.

Shit, Kishi cursed to herself. She should have known.

Kishi opened the call function on her rod and called Nike. She didn’t answer and it went to voicemail.

“Nike, Hawkmoth made illusions of us fighting an akumatized Ladybug and Chat Noir. We lost in this illusion and they took our miraculous.” Kishi said into the voicemail, “I’m not sure what his goal is, but watch out.” She closed the rod and stuck it back onto her back. 

What does Hawkmoth have to gain from this? Kishi wondered. Faking Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir’s deaths would surely put a damper on Hero’s Day, but one appearance in front of a camera will dissuade fears. He might get an akumatisation from a particularly distraught Parisian, but he had surely used an akuma to create that illusion. He was using an akuma to create negative emotions across Paris, Kishi didn’t see the point.

Kishi turned her eyes to the horizon as she thought, and she noticed something strange. Something was flying into the sky, some kind of swarm. She took out her rod and activated the telescope function. She pointed the telescope at the swarm and looked through.

All at once, she understood Hawkmoth’s plan. 

And a swarm of crimson butterflies swarmed the city.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Alix went to the art room with Nathaniel for lunch. They were putting the finishing touches on Kagami’s skates. Nathaniel had put way too much time and effort into Marc’s skates, which looked awesome, but hadn’t finished Kagami’s skates as a consequence.

Nathaniel had been in charge of designing and painting the design onto the skates. Alix was in charge of everything else, which consisted of buying the parts and building the skates. Alix build all her own skates, if she didn’t she couldn’t wear them comfortably. Building skates for others just meant she had to make a larger size, it wasn’t too difficult.

“I can’t believe how hard you went on these.” Alix said, holding one of Marc’s skates in front of her face. They looked really awesome. Nathaniel had made a rainbow gradient to start, red at the toes and purple on the heels, and then drawn on a tessellation with a book-shaped pattern. The lines of the tessellation were also a rainbow gradient, but ran in the opposite direction from the first, making the design fade out a little between the yellow and green. The gradient was smooth and looked near flawless, like it was painted on by a robot.

“I was inspired.” Nathaniel responded.

“Inspired by the fact that they were for Marc.” Alix teased.

A blush spread across Nathaniel’s face, matching his hair, “Of course not I- He’s just a friend.”

“Hmmmm, sure buddy.” Alix responded, her suspicions of Nathaniel’s crush only reinforced.

“This one-sided teasing is so unfair.” He complained.

“Not my fault you’re a bisexual disaster.”

“Seriously, you don’t have a crush on anyone?”

“Nobody comes to mind.” Alix hadn’t had a proper crush since she broke up with her girlfriend Sam a year ago. Being a demiromantic lesbian had its ups and downs. Up, she was tease-proof when it came to romance. Down, she had to get to know girls to fall for them, and Alix hung out with mostly boys. It wasn’t like Alix was dying for romance though.

“What about Rose, or Juleka? You’ve known them forever.” Nathaniel offered.

Alix considered it for a second, “Na. Neither is my type.” Rose was too peppy and Juleka… actually Juleka would be fine, but Alix just didn’t see her that way.

“You’ve only dated one person, how can you have a type?”

“I know what I like.” Alix answered vaguely. She refused to tell any of her friends that her type was girls that could kick her ass.

“You-” Nathaniel began, but was interrupted as Alix’s phone began ringing. The ringtone was Star Wars music, the ringtone Alix set for Jalil’s calls. Jalil hated Star Wars, and that's exactly why Alix had set his ringtone to it.

“I’ve gotta take this.” Alix said. Jalil never called her and it was almost always an emergency when he did, that or he did something really stupid that would piss off Dad and he needs her to bail him out.

Alix stepped out into the hall and answered the call, “What do you want?”

“ALIX?” Jalil screamed into the phone, Alix held the phone a little ways from her ear in response, “Are you alright? What happened? I saw you-”

“Hold on- Jesus.” Alix cut him off since he wasn’t making sense, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“On the news, I saw you, or, I saw Nike Rouge get disintegrated by an akumatized Chat Noir. And I thought you were dead, I just-" Jalil stopped talking, probably trying to get his thoughts together.

What is he talking about? Alix wondered. Disintegrated by an akumatized Chat Noir? There hadn't even been an akuma today.

As Alix tried to price together Jalil's ramblings, she looked over the railing to the basketball court below. On the court, Alix saw many people grouped up and looking at phones, all watching something. This combined with what Jalil had said, Alix figured out that there was something serious going on.

“Alix, what’s going on?” Jalil asked.

“Don’t know, I’ll call you back when I find out.”

“Alix, hold on I-” Jalil started, but Alix ended the call.

Alix ran over to the stairs, jumped on the railing, and slid down to the first floor. She ran over to a small group containing Kim, Ivan, and Max, all looking down at the phone Max was holding.

“What the hell is going on?” Alix asked.

“It’s Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir, they- they-” Kim tried to talk, but he seemed a little emotional.

“Look,” Max said, holding up his phone. Alix looked at the screen. It seemed to be playing the news.

“Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir defeated by Ladybug and Chat Noir, both in the clutches of the terrible Hawkmoth! This is Paris’s worst nightmare!.” Nadja Chamack read out before turning the camera to Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale.

That’s impossible. Alix thought. She clearly hadn’t been defeated by anyone, she hadn’t left school all day.

“Our heroes defeated? Nothing will ever be rock and roll again!” The rockstar said, strumming his guitar. 

“We’ll have to cancel the concert?” Clara asked, distraught. Jagged extended his arm and pulled Clara to his chest.

“You’re right Clara, there’s no sense in celebrating Heroes Day either.” Nadja remarked. However, whatever she was about to say next was interrupted by a commotion off camera. The camera turned to reveal a swarm of crimson butterflies flooding the skies.

Alix began putting pieces together as Nadja was overtaken by the crimson butterflies. The city thought that she and Kishi were dead, defeated by an akumatized Ladybug and Chat Noir. Alix was not dead, so Kishi was likely also fine. Hawkmoth got a power-up somehow and could now akumatize as many people as he pleases.

Alix wasn’t exactly sure how he had done it, but she didn’t have time to think about it. Right now she needed to do two things. One, keep Kim and Ivan from getting akumatized, she would probably need King Monkey and Teraturtle later. Nathaniel would likely be fine in the art room. Two, transform and meet up with Kishi.

Alix looked up to see a swarm of red butterflies decent onto the school. She would have to focus on number one for now.

“This is just some stupid ploy from Hawkmoth. I don’t believe this for a second.” Alix said.

“Alix wh- That claim has no evidence!” Max responded.

Out of the corner of her eye, Alix saw Chloe akumatized and turned into Antibug once again. She needed to be quick, “Evidence? Nike Rouge would kick Ladybug’s ass, what more evidence do you need?” Alix stated as if it was the most factual thing in the world. It wouldn’t convince Max, but she wasn’t trying to convince Max.

“Alix is right!” Kim agreed, “Nike Rouge is too cool to lose that easily!” The swarm of butterflies that had been gathering around Kim began to fly away.

“Kim, what are you- AHH!” Max began, but was overtaken by a butterfly before he could finish and turned into Gamer, but colored red.

“Kim, spread the word. Nike Rouge can’t have fallen that easily, and neither should we. Keep as many people from getting akumatized as possible.” Alix told him.

“I got it!” Kim responded before running off to another person to spread the word about how awesome Nike Rouge is.

Alix then turned to Iv- 

Where did Ivan go?

Alix looked around and located Ivan cowering in the corner with Mylene. As she watched, a butterfly overtook Mylene and turned her into Entangler, but colored red. Ivan backed up but tripped on nothing and fell onto his ass.

Shit, Alix cursed as she dashed over to Ivan. She swatted away a butterfly that had about to land on Ivan. she grabbed the back of his backpack and pulled him to his feet. “Come on Ivan, we have to go!”

“But Mylene-” Ivan began as she dragged him away from Entangler.

“Will be fine!” Alix interrupted him, “The heroes will save her!”

“The heroes are gone, Alix!” Ivan argued.

“I don’t believe that! This is some bullshit that Hawkmoth made up in order to scare people! Look around you Ivan,” Alix gestured to the red butterflies around them, “Why would he do all of this if he had already won? Besides, even if they are gone, we have more heroes. We have King Monkey, Teraturtle, and Caprikid. I doubt they’ve given up hope, so you shouldn’t either.” Alix really fucking hoped they didn’t lose hope, she would need all the help she could get.

She watched Ivan’s fearful expression harden as she talked. He gripped his eyes shut for a few seconds before opening them again, this time free of fear, “You’re right Alix. They’ll save us.”

“That’s the spirit. Now,” Alix shoved Ivan through the boiler room door, “Stay in here until this is all over.”

“Oh, ya definitely. I will be staying here.” Ivan responded, a terrible liar as always. Alix shut the door. 

Ok, now for step two. Alix needed to get out of here and transform. Looking around the room, she saw a lot of red villains and not much way to get around them. A couple of them were also looking at her. She definitely needed to get out of here.

She made eye contact with Kim, who shrugged at her and ducked into the locker room. He obviously hadn’t done a very good job of reducing akumatisations. It seemed like everyone she knew except for Miss Bustier and Mr. Damocles were akumatized 

Alix began to slowly walk towards the stairs, “Hey guys, don’t mind me. Just passin through.” Refecta and Entangler gave her the stink eye as she passed, “Just goin upstairs to hide for my life.” 

Princess Fragrance grabbed her hand as she passed by, “Why don’t you join us, Alix? It’ll be so much fun, and I can make it painless.” She offered, holding up her perfume gun.

Danger! Danger! “Oh, ya. I don’t wear perfume. Jalil has asthma.” Alix said in excuse as she pulled her arm out of the villain's grasp, “I’m just going to go upstairs and paint until the blows over.”

“Aw, what a shame.” Princess Fragrance said, sounding disappointed.

Alix made it to the stairs and ran up to the second floor as fast as she could. There weren’t any akumatized people up here, so she was safe. Alix looked over the edge at the crowd of villains standing on the court. They weren’t looking at her anymore, the red butterfly outline in front of their faces now took their attention. Hawkmoth was talking to them.

As the villains received their orders, Alix scanned the crowd. There were a lot of annoying villains down there, some of which she had never fought. Mylene had turned back into Entangler, Alya was Lady Wi-Fi, Sabrina was Vanisher, Aurora was Stormy Weather, it seemed that almost everyone she knew was a villain at that moment. What made it more annoying was that many of them had annoying attacks that were basically an instant win, like Princess Frangrance’s perfume or Reflecta’s transformation beam. With so many villains, Nike Rouge would have her work cut out for her.

Kinda weird how Mylene was the only one to get the akumatized form from Miss Bustier’s birthday. Alix thought as the butterfly frame vanished from the villain’s faces. The army of red villains began to move, walking out of the front door and out of the school. Alix wasn’t exactly sure where they were going, but she guessed it was to wherever Hawkmoth was.

“Come on Alix,” Alix heard Tikki whisper from under her hat, “We need to gather the team.”

“Hold on.” Alix responded, still watching the court below. A lone red butterfly outline was left floating in the air near the entrance to the locker room. It was either a glitch in the matrix, or Vanisher had stayed behind, likely receiving special orders. She could easily guess what special mission the invisible villain could get, following Nike Rouge back to the Miracle Box.

Alix slipped into a nearby classroom and, after making sure that it was empty, let Tikki out of her hat.

“Jesus, what kind of garbage did Hawkmoth do to pull this off?” Alix wondered out loud, “I thought he had a one butterfly limit.”

“There are many ways for a user of the butterfly miraculous to get around this restriction, Hawkmoth isn’t the first one to do so.” Tikki told her, “But for now, we just need to stop him.”

Alix nodded in agreement, “Tikki, spots on!”

Now transformed into Nike Rouge, Alix pulled out her yoyo and opened the call function. She had two messages from Kishi, but she would listen to those later, she was a little busy. Nike called Kishi, her partner picking up very quickly.

“Good to hear from you partner.” Kishi opened.

“Same Kishi. Listen, I need your help.” Nike said, getting straight to business. This was a high risk situation.

“Yes?”

“I’m at Françoise Dupont and there's an invisible villain who stayed behind when the rest all left. I think her orders are to follow us back to Fu.” Nike explained, “She hasn’t seen me as Nike yet, so I’m not being followed yet, but it is a risk.”

“You want me to take care of her?” Kishi asked.

“Yup. I’m going to climb out a window and sneak into the sewers. You come here and deal with the villain.” Alix didn’t want to admit it, but she didn’t really have the correct skills needed to deal with an invisible person following her. However, she knew that Kishi did, so Nike would leave it to her partner.

“Understood.”

“Thanks, Kishi. I’ll meet up with you after I grab our temporary heroes.” Nike said before hanging up.

Following her plan, Alix snuck out of the window and climbed into a sewer grate on the adjacent street, hoping that Vanisher hadn’t spotted her. Just in case, she rounded the corner in the sewer and stood waiting for a few minutes. Nike waited there, just in case Vanisher followed her, until she got a text from Kishi saying that the problem had been taken care of. After that, she continued through the sewers and made her way to Fu’s neighborhood. Alix detransformed before emerging from the sewers in order to be sneaky and made her way to Fu’s shop.

“Shit’s gone sideways, old man.” Alix informed Fu as she pushed open the door into the main room of his shop. The old guardian was pacing around the room, he stopped pacing as she entered, “I need every miraculous I’ve ever borrowed.”

“I always knew that one day, Hawkmoth would realize just how powerful he could be.” Fu said as he opened the secret panel on his gramophone, “Today is that day.” He imputed the code and the gramophone opened to reveal the miracle box. Alix moved to her usual position on the mat as Fu moved the miracle box to the mat and set it between them, “Alix Kubdel, pick allies you can trust to fight alongside you on this mission. Choose wisely, such powers are meant to serve the greater good. Once the mission is over, you must retrieve the miraculous from them and return them to me.”

“Yup.” Alix responded as she grabbed the monkey and goat miraculous. It was like her 17th time hearing Fu’s little speech and they barely felt like words at this point. She held out her hand and Fu slipped the turtle miraculous off of his wrist and handed it to her. Alix stuck the miraculous into her pocket as Fu picked the ox miraculous out of the box and placed it into his nose.

“Alright, I’ll get these back to you after I save Paris.” Alix said as she stood up. Kishi was waiting on her so she had to get going.

“Hold on, Alix.” Fu said as she turned away, causing her to turn back, “You need as many heroes as possible right now, why not take more?”

Alix sighed, “I need people who have used miraculous before. I don’t have time to train new heroes.” Also, all the friends she would trust miraculous with were under Hawkmoth’s thumb right then.

“Well then, you have one more option available to you.” Fu told her, “Someone I think could be a great help to your team.” 

Alix scanned her brain for anyone else in Paris who had used miraculous. Ladybug and Chat Noir? Rena Rouge?

Fu grabbed the dog miraculous out of the miracle box and held it out to her, “You did say you trusted him, Alix.”

Oh.

That’s who he was talking about.

“Ya, you’re right.” Alix begrudgingly admitted as she took the dog miraculous from the guardian, “Thanks.”

With that, Alix left.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

After dealing with the invisible villain and catacysming her crimson akuma, the formerly invisible girl ran off to spread the work of Nike and Kishi not being dead. Kishi hoped that would keep more people from getting akumatized.

After recharging, Kishi followed the crowd of crimson villains to see where they were going. She followed from a distance so she wasn’t noticed. She found them going to the Eiffel Tower, a move so predictable that Kishi was mad that she hadn’t seen it coming.

Kishi watched from atop the Trocadéro as the villains lined up in rows in front of the tower, the largest villains closest to the tower but the rest just lined up in whatever order they got there. Kishi figured that Vanisher couldn’t have been the only villain with a special task so she also scanned the surrounding area and up the tower as more crimson villains arrived. She saw Siren nearby in the Seine, Darkblade seemed to be acting as a commander, Netherlord was making weapons on some sort of gridded table and handing them to Darkblade’s minions, who then handed them to some of the less combative villains like Refecta, Frightningale, and Prime Queen. Frozer was a the top of the Eiffel Tower doing seemingly nothing and another figure was peeking out from a hiding spot near the middle of the tower, though Kishi couldn’t make out who it was.

“Got our work cut out for us.” Kishi murmured to herself.

“You got that right.” A voice responded from behind her. Kishi spun around to see King Monkey standing behind her, “And we’re going to kick ass!” he said enthusiastically. 

A second later Caprikid landed on the roof, followed soon after by Teraturtle. “Man, you guys are quick.” the turtle hero said sheepishly, “I was the first one to get my miraculous, but the last one to arrive.”

“Well to be fair, turtles aren’t exactly known for their speed.” King Monkey replied.

Kishi looked around for her partner as they spoke, but saw nobody else approaching. 

“Where’s Nike?” She asked the other heroes.

“She said she had one more miraculous to deliver, and that it was a little out of the way.” Caprikid told her, “Now, can someone fill me in here? I was just painting during my lunch and Nike Rouge burst in and said that Hawkmoth had taken over the city.”

King Monkey opened his mouth as if he was about to explain, but paused and an unsure look appeared on his face. He closed his mouth and sent Kishi a questioning look.

“Hawkmoth made an illusion of an akumatized Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting Nike and I. In this illusion, they won and Nike and I were killed. Paris was sent into despair and Hawkmoth took advantage of that to akumatize a large number of people.” Kishi explained.

“I thought he could only send one akuma at a time.” Teraturtle said.

“Normally yes. However, it seems he found a way around that.” Kishi answered.

“He probably made a villain with the power to boost powers, who then boosted his power.” Nike elaborated as she landed on the roof, along with a second person. The person with her was about as tall as King Monkey, but not nearly as muscular. He was quite thin, in fact. His figure was familiar.

He wore a brown and black collar, the dog miraculous, around his neck. He wore an open brown jacket over a brown and white suit. The suit was all white under the jacket, from what Kishi could see, except for a small triangle pointing down from his collar. The color of the suit changed to brown at the waist with an exception of white lines going down the sides of his legs down to his boots, which were white with brown soles. Instead of a proper mask, he wore a pair of white goggles with brown tinted lenses. On his head was a brown headband-like thing, but much wider. It came up from his ears and wrapped around the top of his head. A pair of floppy dog ears were attached to the headband, which covered his real ears from sight. Kishi didn't see the weapon of the dog miraculous, a brown ball with white details, but assumed it must be inside the man's jacket.

"Zelus?" Kishi guessed.

The dog hero nodded, "It's good to see you again, Kishi Noir." Zelus held his hand out to her. Kishi took his hand and slightly awkwardly shook it. 

"He's not going by Zelus though." Nike informed them, "Barkk objected to him reusing the name he used with Tikki. Apparently, it's rude to reuse names between kwamis."

Kishi hadn't known that, but it was good to know that if she ever needed to use other miraculous. She turned her gaze to not-Zelus and raised an eyebrow, silently asking for his new name.

“I’ll be Kalbatal.” Nike’s brother announced.

The name sounded Arabic in origin, but Kagami wasn’t sure what it meant. She didn’t speak the language and her only real exposure was a few classes a few years back that Mother had placed her in, but quickly pulled her out of when the Tsurugi’s only important Arabic-speaking client didn’t renew their contract.

“Guys,” Teraturtle pointed to the Eiffel Tower, “is that-” Everyone turned and watched as Hawkmoth, dressed in red instead of purple, landed on one of the middle layers of the tower. Prime Queen sent one of her drones up to him. A second drone flew over and floated near where the group of heroes was gathered. Hawkmoth already knew they were there.

“Nike Rouge, Kishi Noir. Behold my powerful army and have no doubt that today belongs to Scarlet Moth!” The supervillain announced, his voice being carried to them through the drone floating near them.

“Dumbass just exposed his lie.” Nike muttered. Kishi agreed, by speaking to them directly like this, Hawkmoth confirmed that the scene on the floats was fake. That hopefully meant that nobody else would be akumatized and his army would stop growing.

“We’ll see whose day it is once we kick your ass!” King Monkey shouted back.

“Ya!” Caprikid cheered in agreement. “We’ll defeat your army!”

“And we’ll save everyone you took control over!” Teraturtle added.

Nike pulled out her yoyo and tossed it at the drone. The string wrapped around the drone and Nike pulled it to herself. “Listen here, Shitmoth. I'll assume you can hear me through this thing.” Nike spoke to the drone, and hopefully to Scarlet Moth, “Just because you painted your condom costume red, doesn’t mean you can beat us. We have something you don’t, and we’re going to use it to kick your ass.” she turned to Kishi, “You got anything to add?”

“You will never win.” Kishi told Scarlet Moth, just so he knew. 

Nike then ripped the propellers off of the drone and tossed it into the air. Kishi pulled out her rod and swung at the drone, extending the rod as it swung. The drone smashed into many pieces and fell to the ground.

“Alright, what’s the plan?” Caprikid asked.

“And what’s this ‘something’ we have that Scarlet Moth doesn’t?” Teraturtle asked.

“It’s-” Nike began.

“If you say the power of friendship, I’m taking you to a doctor.” Kalbatal cut in.

“I’ll help him drag you there.” Kishi added. It wasn’t like Nike to say that kind of stuff. She normally just smashed villains’ faces into concrete.

An annoyed but amused look crossed Nike’s face before turning serious again, “It is not the power of friendship.” she clarified, “None of you guys have ever been called out together, that wouldn’t make sense. No, what we have is the monkey miraculous.” King Monkey grinned at that and Nike grinned back. “Alright, here’s the plan.”

— — — 

The plan was simple enough, but relied too heavily on the chaotic nature of the monkey miraculous for Kishi’s liking. She had seen the Uproar power cause some crazy things to happen, but she had a few doubts about whether it could incapacitate an entire army. However, whatever it did, it would surely be better than trying to fight an entire villain army with only 6 people.

Kishi stood on the end of the Trocadéro rooftop farthest from the Eiffel Tower, and was facing the said tower. Next to her stood Nike, holding King Monkey’s staff, the Ruyi Bang. On the opposite end of the rooftop, facing away from the Eiffel Tower, stood Kalbatal and King Monkey, holding the dog miraculous's ball and a round cow plush summoned from Uproar respectively. Teraturtle and Caprikid stood to the side.

Kishi raised her rod like a baseball bat and Nike did the same with the Ruyi Bang. Kishi readied herself as Kalbatal assumed a pitching position, King Monkey followed suit with his cow plushie.

Kalbatal threw first. His ball flew towards Kishi and she responded by swinging her rod. She struck the ball with the best combination of power and accuracy she could manage, with her target being Scarlet Moth, standing near the middle of the Eiffel Tower. As soon as her rod struck the ball and sent it flying, King Monkey tossed his plushie at Nike. Nike responded by swinging the Ruyi Bang in order to strike the plushie just as Kishi had done with the ball. 

Kishi was unsure if hitting a plushie like a baseball should have the same effect as an actual ball, but Nike pulled it off. The cow plushie flew in nearly the same path as the brown ball, just a few meters behind it.

The entire team of heroes watched the two objects arc through the air towards Scarlet Moth. The supervillain was too busy stroking his own ego by making the akumatized villains chant ‘Hail Scarlet Moth’ to notice the projectiles coming towards him. 

Unfortunately, he did notice as they got closer. Once the projectiles got close enough, he turned his head to look before looking back down. Scarlet Moth held out his cane directly into the path of the ball. The ball collided with the top of his cane and the supervillain let out a laugh as the ball bounced off the cane and began to fall to the ground below the tower.

“Did you really think you could defeat me with a ba-wHU?” Just then, the cow plush struck him in the side of the head, then bounced off and onto the floor of the tower. Hawkmoth looked mildly confused, but mostly angry, as he began to change colors.

Wait, change colors? Kishi almost did a double-take. The villain's red outfit began to change into a rainbow gradient starting with red at his head and ending with purple at his feet. Also, he wasn't the only one changing colors. His entire army did so as well. The crimson army changed into a rainbow of different colors. The entire army seemed to freeze for a few moments.

"Alright, the first one to reach Hawkmoth gets to skip him like a stone!" Nike shouted before leaping off the Trocadero rooftop and running towards the tower, and therefore towards the army.

"Hell ya!" King Monkey shouted before following suit.

Kishi also jumped off the rooftop and began running at the army, hoping the power of the monkey would prevent them from getting killed.

Kalbatal had jumped off along with Kishi. As they ran next to each other, he held out his hand and his ball flew back into it.

As they got close to the backline of the army, something happened that nobody expected. Stormy Weather, now colored green, turned her umbrella at a still-red Rogercop next to her and sent a bolt of lighting into him. The akumatized police officer was sent flying into a nearby blue villain that Kishi didn’t recognize. 

“I will claim their miraculous in the name of Jade Moth!” Stormy Weather shouted as she turned her umbrella towards Kishi and shot lighting at her. Teraturtle leaped in front of her and blocked the lighting with his shield. 

“No! I will claim it for Violet Moth!” A purple Bubbler appeared from the crowd and swung his bubble wand, creating three bubbles in front of him. One bubble enveloped Stormy Weather and began to take her upwards while the other two flew towards the heroes just as they passed the purple villain. King Monkey knocked one bubble away with his staff, tossed back to him from Nike, and towards one of Darkblade’s servants, who got enveloped and taken up. Darkblade himself was now orange and fighting a yellow mime-looking villain who had an invisible sword. 

The second bubble was kicked into the air by a blue Reflecta and out of the way. The blue Refecta then pointed her hand-crystal at Kishi. Before she could fire, a yellow pause button appeared on the side of her head and a yellow akumatized Alya appeared from the crowd, “For Gold Moth!” She shouted. Kishi swung and extended her rod so it slammed against her phone, which shattered and deakumatized her as a yellow butterfly flew out.

“They’re fighting each other?” Caprikid exclaimed as the group of heroes ran, various colored villains fighting all around them.

“Let ‘em! Less work for us!” Nike responded. 

This is insanity . Kishi thought as she dodged a blast of energy from some villain in the crowd. She had fallen back to keep up the rear of the group, occasionally taking out villains who sent attacks towards the heroes. Running through a battlefield of hostile enemies who were all infighting proved to be very difficult, especially when a lot of them have instant win attacks.

Kishi constantly scanned her surroundings as they ran. She saw a green punk-rock looking villain phase through other villains. The green villain leapt up at the giant blue ice cream villain and phased through, coming out the other side a second later with a fat man holding an ice cream scooper. A yellow Gigantitan wandered off as a giant purple monkey began throwing various colored villains around the battlefield. A large orange geometric robot villain began shooting other villains and turning them into balls of energy, which it then absorbed and got bigger.

“ARg!” Kishi’s attention snapped away from the chaos and to King Monkey, who had screamed as his left arm and leg were grabbed by a blue Entangler’s hair. Nike, the closest to him, reacted quickly and grabbed the sword arm of a nearby Darkblade knight and forced them to slam their sword down, slicing through the hair and freeing King Monkey. Entangler was then hit in the side of the head by a red playing card, thrown by a red villain some distance away, which caused her to stop attacking and instead bend down and wriggle around on the ground.

Nike made it out of the crowd of villains first, closely followed by King Monkey and Caprikid and the trio began racing each other up the tower. Caprikid took the lead fast, but was slowed by a green villain with a guitar attacking him. Nike stopped climbing momentarily to take care of a blue Frightingale, so King Monkey took the lead. 

Kishi sidestepped the task of climbing up the tower by extending her rod under her and pushing herself upward as Kalbatal and Teraturtle began climbing. 

When Kishi landed on the layer of the tower that Scarlet Moth had been standing on, she found King Monkey had reached him first, standing behind the supervillain. Scarlet Moth, or maybe it was Rainbow Moth now, was too preoccupied glaring at Kishi as she ascended towards him to notice the hero behind him. King Monkey, instead of announcing his presence to the villain, simply swung his Ruyi Bang at Hawkmoth's head at full power. 

However, instead of the expected reaction, of Hawkmoth being sent flying, the attack simply went through him, causing the supervillain to mist and vanish. 

An illusion.

While King Monkey stood confused, Kishi landed in front of him and scanned the surroundings. She looked up to see yellow fox-like villain jumping down at King monkey from above, a flute held like a knife. Kishi jumped upward and caught the villain’s arm, then swung the villain away and let go. The fox villain was sent flying off the edge of the tower and down to the multicolored brawl below.

After landing, Kishi peered over the edge out of curiosity. The fox-like villain landed in a pile of melted ice cream from a previously defeated villain. After picking herself out of the pile, she was hit by a beam of energy. The yellow villain dissolved into a mass of energy and was absorbed by the giant robot villain, who then grew twenty feet taller and an extra set of arms.

Then Frozer, colored green, jumped down from the tower, landed on the robot, and turned it to ice before leaping down to join the battle below.

"Holy shit." Kishi cursed. This was complete chaos.

Just then, Nike landed behind her, followed by Caprikid, Kalbatal, and Teraturtle. "Where's Hawkmoth?" Nike asked, looking around.

“Right here.” Hawkmoth replied, stepping out from behind a metal beam a little ways away, hands in the air, though still holding his cane, “And I surrender.”

Kishi shared a glance with Nike, who seemed to believe the supervillain’s statement just as little as she did.

“My army is infighting, I can't communicate with any of them, and the last card I had up my sleeve was just thrown off the edge.” Hawkmoth explained, giving a less than convincing act of being defeated, “I have nothing left to fight you with. I surrender.”

“Fine then,” Nike responded taking a single step towards him, “Hand me your miraculous then.”

Kishi noticed the supervillain’s brow furrow for just a moment before he responded, “You may take it, I won't resist.” 

Kishi glared at the villain. It was obvious what he was planning to do. As soon as Nike got close enough, he planned to attack her. Kishi knew Nike wasn’t stupid enough to fall for that, but she was impulsive enough to play along.

“Alright cool.” Nike responded as she began to walk toward the villain. Kishi noticed Kalbatal take out his ball as Nike began to walk toward the supervillain.

As predicted, as soon as Nike got within Hawkmoth’s attack range, he dropped the act and swung his cane down at her head, mouth curled in a demented grin. 

“Fetch!” Kalbatal called as soon as the supervillain began his attack, tossing his ball into the air. As Hawkmoth swung his cane down at Nike, Kalbatal’s ball raced towards the cane. 

They collided just before the cane hit Nike, who instead of trying to block, had pulled her fist back. As the ball hit the bottom of the cane, they both vanished, and teleported into Kalbatal’s hands.

Now without his weapon to connect the force of his attack with a target, Hawkmoth stumbled forward, almost losing his balance. 

And immediately getting punched in the jaw by Nike.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Punching Hawkmoth felt really good.

Sure, Alix liked fighting, but she didn’t enjoy hurting people. She liked the adrenaline rush gained from fighting, the hurting people was just something that happened, she didn’t enjoy it.

This was the first time she felt good hurting another person. And as weird as that felt, she knew that Hawkmoth fucking deserved it. In fact, it was the least of what he deserved.

So many of Alix’s friends had been heavily traumatized by this fucker. Multiple times Alix had to help Mylene through a panic attack when a villain attacked the school. She had comforted a distraught Juleka back when Rose had been akumatized, who was convinced the whole thing was somehow her fault. Alix had protected Sabrina from so many villains hell-bent on killing Chloe that Chloe herself had thanked her. She had listened to Jalil’s insufferable rant about how wrong The Pharaoh was in so many aspects so many times that she was about to snap. 

Being able to punch the asshole at the center of that felt really good.

With Nike’s punch, Hawkmoth fully lost his balance and fell to the floor, the extra force of her punch causing him to roll a couple of times.

“Did you really think that would work?” Nike asked the supervillain. It was the most predictable shit in the world, yet he had still gone for it.

“It doesn’t matter.” Hawkmoth responded, beginning to pick himself up off the floor., “I will do anything necessary to defeat you.”

“Yeah, that might be a cool line if you weren’t, y’know, a terrorist,” Caprikid commented.

“Your plans will always fail as long as you terrorize innocent people, because people will always oppose you.” Teraturtle told the supervillain, stepping forward.

“Ok, now that was a good line, because we’re the heroes.” King Monkey commented as Teraturle swung his shield at Hawkmoth’s head.

Hawkmoth caught the turtle hero’s attack and sent a punch at Teraturle’s jaw. Nike smirked as Ivan’s head didn’t even budge from the terrorist’s strike. Teraturle then sent an uppercut into Hawkmoth’s jaw, sending the villain flying a foot into the air and landing sprawled on the floor several meters away.

“That was for the first time one of your akumas scared my girlfriend.” The turtle hero said, voice dripping with anger, “only 116 hits left.”

“Come on man, leave some for the rest of us.” Nike said, stepping in front of him. She held out her yoyo, “Lucky charm.” The magical energy appeared around her yoyo before rising and materializing as a polka dot pickaxe. As she thought about what to do with that, King Monkey leaped in front of her and slammed Hawkmoth in the side with his staff. This time Hawkmoth took the attack without being knocked to the ground and counterattacked, throwing a punch at King Monkey’s head. Fortunately, Caprikid jumped in and knocked Hawkmoth’s arm away before swinging his paintbrush staff at the villain’s head, sending him staggering backward.

Nike stuck the pickaxe on her back and jumped into the fight. Before Hawkmoth could fully recover from Caprikid’s attack, she jumped in and grabbed the back of his head. She pulled his head down so he lost his balance and she slammed his face into the metal floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Alix was going to beat the shit out of this asshole.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

Kishi stood next to Kalbatal and watched the ‘fight’ unfold. Well, it was less of a fight and more of a beatdown. Hawkmoth attempted to land hits every so often, but they either bounced off without much effect, were dodged, or got redirected. It was brutal.

“Uhh, do you think we should help?” Kalbatal asked, slowly spinning Hawkmoth’s cane in his hand.

Kishi shook her head, “I think they have things covered.”

“Oh ya. I guess.” he turned to her and held out the cane, “did you want to break this or?”

“Oh, right.” Kishi said as she took the cane from Kalbatal. Kishi figured that Hawkmoth’s new powerup was likely centered in an object and the cane was the only thing Hawkmoth had on him so it was a simple deduction. “Cataclysm.” 

The cane crumbled to dust once Kishi called her power. Almost as soon as she did, the rainbow colors on Hawkmoth’s suit vanished in favor of his usual purple. This didn’t change the fact that he was getting knocked around by 4 superheroes, but it did solve another problem. 

Looking over the edge, Kishi saw that the remnants of Hawkmoth’s army were all losing their akumatized forms and turning back into confused civilians. The multicolored butterflies released from the villains breaking each other’s akumatized items were all purified into regular white butterflies. However, that didn’t mean the effects of their powers vanished. There was a giant frozen robot, and a pile of ice cream, people remained frozen by both pause signs and ice, people were floating in bubbles high in the sky, and many other various things were left by the army’s powers.

This definitely needed to end fast.

Kishi considered joining the 'fight' and just knocking out Hawkmoth. However, the supervillain already looked like his consciousness was on the edge, so she just stayed put. Nike could handle it.

— — — — — — — — — — — — 

“Hey Nike, didn’t you say I could skip Hawkmoth like a stone since I got up here first?” King Monkey asked as Teraturle landed his 24th hit, bouncing Hawkmoth off the floor.

‘Hmm, I did say that.” Alix began to think about how to make that happen. Something like that may actually knock the supervillain out. He was surprisingly tenacious and good at guarding his miraculous when 4 superheroes were all grabbing for it. She looked around for her options. If she was going to skip a man like a stone she would need space and a lot of power.

The interior of the Eiffel Tower wasn’t lacking in space for most things, but Nike did need more space for her plan. She looked around at what could be used. In front of the tower was Gamer’s frozen robot which was about as tall as the layer of the Eiffel tower they currently stood on. That could work as a surface for King Monkey to jump from. He could then use his staff to…

Ya, that would probably generate enough force. Nike decided.

“Alright, go stand on that frozen Robot and wait for my signal. Then jump and swing as hard as you can.” She told King Monkey, “And if we do it right, Hawkmoth will skip like a stone.”

“Alright! Let’s do it!” He exclaimed as he ran and lept off the tower, landing on the frozen robot a little ways off. He almost slipped off the robot as he landed, but managed to gain enough leverage to stop.

Alix turned her attention back to Hawkmoth. Kishi had joined in the fight now. Nike guessed that Hawkmoth had begun to fight back in a meaningful way with just Teraturle and Caprikid against him so Kishi had jumped in.

Nike began running towards the fight, “Kishi, knock him sideways!” She shouted.

Without missing a beat, Kishi used her rod to sweep the supervillain’s legs out from under him and he began to fall to the side. Just before he hit the ground, Nike arrived and stuck her foot under him, and pushed him upward. That push sent Hawkmoth up to about the height of Nike’s head, just where she wanted him. 

Hawkmoth had reacted to this by putting up his arms to guard his chest, probably expecting some midair attack. His arms being positioned in front of his chest made Nike's plan all the smoother. She threw her yoyo at him and made it wrap around his torso and arms many times, trapping the terrorist within the unbreakable string.

Nike then began spinning him around above her, increasing his speed as she continued to swing him around. Hawkmoth screamed various insults at her as she swung him around but she tuned him out.

Once Alix felt he was going at a good speed, she shouted to King Monkey, “Batter up!” As she called the signal, she made her yoyo let Hawkmoth go, sending him flying at high speeds in the direction of King Monkey, though flying far above.

As the yoyo returned to her hand, King Monkey leapt up from the frozen robot and into the air. He held his staff over his shoulder like a bat, ready to hit the terrorist flying toward him.

“Extend, Ruyi Bang!” He shouted as Hawkmoth got close.

Alix’s eyes went wide as King Monkey’s staff grew to incredible size. It grew so that its length quintupled in size and its width became easily twice as thick as its wielder's legs. Nike hadn’t been aware it could do that.

King Monkey swung his massive staff and an honestly frightening speed, as if it weighed nothing at all, striking Hawkmoth with way more force than Nike had anticipated. In response to this strike, the terrorist was sent flying like a bullet in the opposite direction, flying through the opening at the center of the Eiffel Tower and out the other side. Nike quickly dashed to the opposite edge to watch Hawkmoth hit the river and bounce multiple times on the surface before clearing the river and slamming into a stone wall on the opposite side, going immediately limp.

“Holy shit.” Nike cursed to herself. She wouldn’t be surprised if he was straight up dead after that. It had been so much more extreme than she had imagined.

“Wasn’t that awesome, Nike Rouge?” King Monkey said, approaching from behind her, “I’ve been saving that just for a day like today!”

Alix was almost speechless as she turned to face King Monkey, but she found the words, “Dude, that was fucking awesome!” She shouted, making a grin appear on Kim’s face. “Since when could you do that?”

“Uhh, always. I think?” He replied, “That was the first time I’ve tried it though. I heard it could be done so I tried it.”

The ‘heard it could be done’ part would seem weird if Alix didn’t know what Kim had been hyperfixating on Sun Wu Kong for the past few weeks. He had tried to read Journey to the West but got bored fast. He instead began to watch so many old movies featuring the character and many Journey to the West summary videos. Alix had been told so many ‘cool monkey king facts’ over the past few weeks that Kim was managing to actually tell her things that she hadn’t known.

Nike then remembered that they were fighting a super-terrorist. This conversation could wait for later, ‘Alright, he looks knocked out. Let’s get over to him.”

“Agreed. Let’s hurry.” Kishi said, waking up and taking out her rod. She held it out and extended it so that it grew to extreme length, reaching all the way to the opposite bank of the river that Hawkmoth had landed near and up to the edge of the Eiffel Tower they stood on.

“Sick.” Alix said. She took out her yoyo and looped the string around the rod once before jumping off, creating a kind of zipline that took her down to the enemy. Everyone else opted to just run on top of the rod down to the bottom, but Alix thought the zipline thing was cooler, so that's what she did.

Once the team reached the bottom, they all stood looking at Hawkmoth. The terrorist looked to be unconscious, he was slumped against the wall with his eyes closed and a small break in his head covering letting a small trickle of blood flow down his face.

Nike watched as Kishi lifted his head with the end of her rod. She then reached over and opened one of his eyelids before dropping the supervillain’s head to go limp once again.

“He’s not faking.” Kishi concluded, “He’s really unconscious.”

The group of heroes was silent for a moment as that information sunk in. If Hawkmoth was unconscious, that meant they had won. They could take his miraculous and the entire thing would be over.

To Alix, it felt unreal. Hawkmoth had been an active force in Paris for well over half a year now. Alix couldn’t think of a single person who hadn’t been influenced by the villain’s attacks. Every interaction with another person was weighed down by the risk of negative emotions popping up and Hawkmoth taking advantage of them. It was terrifying and the fact that was about to end felt too good to be true.

“So, it’s over?” Teraturtle said, breaking the silence.

Kishi stepped back from the terrorist and looked toward Nike. Alix nodded in response and walked forward. She bent down in front of Hawkmoth and looked at him. The villain’s face spawned such anger in Alix that she wanted to punch him once again, but she restrained herself since she knew that such an action might wake him up.

Nike's eyes moved down the butterfly miraculous situated in the middle of Hawkmoth’s chest. The tool used to terrorize an entire city for half a year. Alix took a deep breath in preparation to take it off, hoping the man under the mask wasn’t anybody she knew. 

However, before Nike could reach for the brooch, something happened. A dark blue feather floated down from above her and landed on the brooch, then fused with it.

A feather? Nike thought, Didn’t the peacock miraculous power have something to do with feathers?

Suddenly, a mass of dark blue energy began to form in the small space between Hawkmoth and Nike. Alix jumped back and took a fighting stance, “It’s not over guys!” She called.

The mass of bubbling dark blue energy grew and shaped itself into the form of a person before solidifying. Emerging from the energy was a woman with light blue skin, dark blue hair, and purple eyes. She had some sort of hat thing above her right eye that was transparent on the edges that covered that eye and styled like a peacock feather. She wore a blue coat that went down to her legs and ended in a front slit and had a tail resembling peacock feathers. She had darker blue tights on her legs and black high heel boots. She also held a fan made of peacock feathers that seemed to be her weapon.

“Today is not the day you triumph, little heroes.” The woman said, “I am Mayura and I will not allow you to take Hawkmoth’s miraculous.” The new supervillain stated before pulling her arm back in the beginning of a swinging motion.

Alix’s intuition told her that this wasn’t going to be a normal attack and acted on instinct, pulling out the pickaxe her lucky charm gave her and stabbing it into the ground below her. Just as she did, Mayura swung her fan towards the heroes, making a powerful gust of wind stir up and slam into the heroes. 

Nike’s legs were swept out from under her but she stayed in place by holding onto the pickaxe stuck into the ground. Unfortunately, the rest of the heroes had no such object to keep them grounded and were swept up by the wind. Alix heard multiple splashes behind her, indicating her allies were falling into the river behind them.

As the wind continued to try and push Alix away, she watched as Mayura picked up the unconscious Hawkmoth and leap upward, clearing the wall in front of them and up onto street level. Nike glared at them as Mayura looked back at her one more time before running out of sight. Only then did the wind stop.

Alix immediately got back onto her feet and jumped up towards street level to chase after the fleeing supervillains. Unfortunately, she found no sign of them. She didn’t even spot any drops of Hawkmoth’s blood. It was like they had just vanished.

“Damn it!” Nike screamed out into the streets. The butterfly miraculous had been right in front of her, and she had failed to grab it. On top of that, there was a new supervillain to deal with.

Alix took a deep breath. No matter how mad she was, she had other things to deal with. Her partner and team had been flung into the Seine river and while she knew most of them could swim, she also knew that Jalil couldn’t. 

Alix jumped back down to the bank of the river and scanned the water. Kishi and King Monkey had already left the water, Kishi by balancing near the top of her extended rod and King by standing on the top of his enlarged staff. Caprikid was treading water a little ways away from the shore, he was closest to the shore.

For a moment she didn’t see Teraturle or Kalbatal, but they broke the water a second later, Teraturle holding Kalbatal as he broke the surface. As Teratule began to swim to shore, Nike took out her yoyo and tossed the line to him. She knew from experience that it wasn’t too easy to swim while carrying someone. 

Kishi and Kim landed on the shore next to her and Nate made it to shore without trouble. Alix pulled Ivan and Jalil to shore. From there the team sat in silence for a minute, partially trying to shake the dirty Seine water off their suits and partially trying to process what just happened.

“So, he got away?” Kishi asked, breaking the silence.

“Ya, he did.” Alix answered, dropping to the ground and sitting cross-legged. Despite how short the battle had been, she felt exhausted, “Sorry guys.” Alix punched the cobblestone floor beneath her a few times and cursed under her breath.

“It’s not your fault.” Teraturtle told her, “Nobody expected him to have an ally.” Ivan’s voice sounded calm, but his creased brow betrayed how he actually felt.

“What was up with her anyway?” Caprikid asked, “She appeared out of thin air!”

Kishi looked at Nike, “Peacock miraculous?” She asked simply.

“Most likely.” Alix answered before turning to the rest of the team, “The peacock is the second lost miraculous, with the power to turn emotions into living creatures called sentimonsters. She called herself Mayura and it seems like she’s decided to side with Hawkmoth.” she explained. 

The team was silent for a moment as they took in this information. The one to break this silence was King Monkey. 

“Does anyone else get the vibe that this Mayura chick is Hawkmoth’s boss or something?” He asked.

Nike raised an eyebrow at him. The idea seemed to come out of nowhere. She was about to speak up and dismiss the idea when Caprikid spoke up. 

“He’s got a point, if you think about it.” the goat hero added, “She has scheming big boss energy.”

Nike began to consider the idea. It had been 6 months since Hawkmoth appeared and not a single word about this Mayura chick. Only when Hawkmoth was literally about to lose his miraculous did she appear, and she didn’t even do it in person. She sent a magical clone to do it for her. Definitely scheming final boss actions.

“She was certainly better dressed than Hawkmoth.” Kishi added.

A very compelling point. 

“Y’know, I think you’re right.” Nike agreed, “Hawkmoth clearly isn’t strong or smart enough to do all this on his own. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.”

“I mean, that or she’s like his wife or something, and the peacock miraculous is just a last resort thing.” Jalil suggested, “Maybe it’s like damaged or something.”

“Nah, not likely.” Alix dismissed, “These things are made of magically hardened magic wood and steel. You’d have to do something stupid like drop it in lava to damage them.”

‘Hmm, fair enough.”

Just then, Nike’s earrings beeped twice, counting down her detransformation. She needed to get going. King’s golden circlet also beeped, but only once. He quickly waved the group goodbye before quickly leaping away to detransform.

Alix picked the pickaxe out of the ground and threw it up into the air, “Miraculous Nike Rouge!” She called, causing the pickaxe to explode into magical ladybugs which spread across Paris. While Nike couldn’t see most of the former battlefield below the Eiffel Tower, she saw the giant frozen robot get removed, so she was sure everything was fine now.

“Welp, that was fun. As much as I would love to celebrate how bad we kicked Hawkmoth’s ass, I have stuff I need to get back to.” Alix told everyone, “Head to the usual spots, I’ll come to gather your miraculous after I feed my kwami.” She said to the temporary heroes before turning around and preparing to jump off.

“Nike.” Kishi called out as she was about to leave, causing Nike to turn back, "Later tonight, would you like to meet up and explore the Heroes' Day festivities together?"

Alix blinked a couple of times, this was the first time Kishi had ever asked to hang out. Also, her wording and tone was weirdly formal for the situation, but it wasn't too unexpected coming from Kishi.

"Sure, I’m down. Text me the details, anytime after 8 works for me! See you later, Kishi!” Alix tossed her yoyo at a distant building as she said this and then swung away with a wave.

— — — 

After collecting the miraculous of the other temporary heroes, Nike made her way to collect the dog miraculous. Since this was the first time Jalil had been called as a miraculous holder, they didn’t have a set meetup spot. Alix had just told him to meet her on the roof of the building they lived in, it seemed like a good place as any.

As Nike landed on the roof, she found Jalil already detransformed and feeding Barkk a stick of beef jerky. Jalil always had a stick of beef jerky on him just in case he got too engrossed in his work and forgot to eat for a few days and needed something quick. Alix had told him that a single beef jerky stick would not be enough to compensate for starving for multiple days but he refused to carry anything more substantial on him.

“Al-uhh- Nike, you’re here.” Jalil said as he noticed her land. He got up from where he was sitting on the ground.

Barkk scarfed down the rest of the jerky stick before zipping around Jalil’s head and coming to a stop in front of him, “It was so nice meeting you Jalil! Meeting a new user is always so much fun!” the kwami exclaimed.

“Uh, yeah. It was nice to meet you too Barkk. Do you think we’ll meet again anytime soon?” Jalil responded, the second part being directed at Nike. 

“Uh, probably.” Alix told him, “The dog miraculous is very useful and you’re available most of the time, so Kalbatal will most likely come back.”

Jalil narrowed his eyes at her, “What do you mean I’m available most of the time? I’m a busy guy!”

“See you next time Jalil!” Barkk explained, distracting Jalil and keeping Alix from having to respond.

Jalil smiled at the kwami, “‘Till next time.” He said with a wave as he took off the collar, causing Barkk to vanish in a brown light and zip back into the miraculous. Jalil then handed the miraculous to Nike.

“Thanks for your help, bro.” Alix told him as she put the miraculous into her yoyo storage, “couldn’t have kicked Hawkmoth’s ass without you.”

“I’m sure you could have. In any case, Thanks for trusting me with something so important,” Jalil rubbed his neck, “I… didn’t know you trusted me that much.”

“Dork,” Alix flicked his forehead, “you’re my brother. Of course I trust you.”

Jalil’s eyes widened for a second before a smile appeared on his face, “I won’t let you down, sis.”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” Nike told him as she began readying her yoyo for a throw, “I’ll see you later!” Alix threw the yoyo and swung away, heading to the guardian’s place to return the miraculous.

— — — 

By the time Alix made it back to the school, lunch was over and people were returning to their classrooms. She followed suit and made her way back to Miss Bustier’s room. Upon arriving, she found most of her classmates already there, Kim seemingly hadn’t made it back yet and Chloe was also missing. Alix would have made her way to her seat, but Ivan had stolen it to be able so he could sit my Mylene. The two were leaning against each other with their eyes closed and holding each other's hand. The two looked so incredibly wholesome that Alix refused to interrupt them and simply went to the back and sat next to Nathaniel. Nathan was working on Kagami’s skates and looked to be about done.

The design of Kagami’s skates was much different than Marc’s. Alix had made Kagami’s skates a little differently. Instead of making a more modern-looking skate, tightened with straps with mostly plastic on the outside, Alix had made an older type with leather on the outside and tightened with a shoelace. Also, Alix did not know how to work leather, but she was nothing if not stubborn. So, during the week before last, she had been calling Marinette who walked her through the process. The end result was a skate that looked professionally done if you didn’t squint too hard. 

The leather on the outside had extra stitches to add a pattern of evenly-sided diamonds along the whole thing to match the look of Kagami’s fencing uniform. Nathaniel had opted to paint the whole thing red to keep with this theme but had also added an extra layer of artwork. In a slightly darker and more glossy paint, Nathaniel had painted a mini version of that one famous Japanese wave portrait on the outer sides of each skate. On the inner sides he had just written Kagami’s name in a fancy way. It was an am azing design. Nathaniel had apparently decided on it because he barely knew anything about Kagami and the design was sick as fuck.

Nathaniel was near finishing the final layer of paint just as Miss Bustier walked into the room.

“Good afternoon class. I hope you all stayed safe during the attack today.” The teacher said in greeting.

“Half of us were akumatized, Miss,” Alya informed her.

Alix did a quick count, “Actually, I think it was more than half.”

“Oh, right. Well lucky for us, our amazing heroes saved us all.” The teacher exclaimed as she did a scan of the room, “Now, does anyone know where Kim and Chloe are?”

Many eyes immediately drifted to Sabrina, who was typing on her phone with a worried expression. Alix checked her own phone, finding a text from Kim. 

Muscle Brain

school is pribably getting canseled for today

not going back

tell max to meet me at the arcade

As Alix wondered why Kim didn’t just text Max this, Sabrina spoke up. 

“Um, not sure. Chloe isn’t responding.”

Miss Bustier frowned at that, “I'll contact her parents if she doesn't show up. Does anyone have news on Kim?”

Alix raised her hand, “He got lost.” She announced, covering for him.

Miss Bustier sighed, “I’m sure he did. Now class, just because our local supervillain created a magical army for himself and took over the city, does not mean we won’t do any learning today. Now, does anybody remember what we discussed yesterday?”

Mylene raised her hand. As Miss Bustier was about to call on her, and Alix resigned herself to the boredom of literature class, the loudspeaker clicked on and Principal Damocles’ voice flooded the room.

“In lieu of today’s attack, I have decided to cancel school for the remainder of the day. Teachers, please release your students at this time and students please enjoy the Heroes day festivities. Thank you”

Alya was out of the room before the announcement ended and Nino was running after her seconds later. Miss Bustier sighed as she placed her clipboard onto her desk. Sabrina quickly shuffled out of the room, eyes glued to her phone as she typed furiously at the screen. Juleka and Rose casually strolled out hand in hand, followed by Mylene and Ivan doing the same.

“Hey Max, “Alix called out as Max picked up his bag and began to walk out, “Kim says to meet him at the arcade.”

Max nodded in acknowledgment, “Are you also coming?”

Alix shook her head, “I got other plans today, I’ll see you guys tomorrow tho.”

Alix waved Max goodbye as she heard Nathaniel place down his paintbrush with a sigh, “It's done.” He announced as he stretched his arms over his head.

Alix turned back and picked up the skate, not grabbing the parts with wet paint of course. The paint was still visibly wet. “We’ll need to put on a finisher to protect the paint once it dries, which will take bit. Then we should let the finisher dry before using these. It'll take a good hour or so before it's ready to go.” Optimally she would have it sit for a full day but life wasn't perfect.

“I should have finished this yesterday, I know, sorry.” Nathaniel apologized, “I went too hard on Marc’s pair.”

“Yup, love makes you do stupid things, buddy.” Alix teased. 

Nate’s face turned as red as his hair, “I am not-”

“Alright, let's head to the art room, I have some finish in there we can use once this dries.” Alix said, getting out of her chair with the skate in hand. The other skate was in the art room, already finished yesterday and with a finisher already applied.

“Ok.” Nathaniel gathered his things and stood up. As they walked out the door, Alix waved goodbye to Miss Bustier.

Getting to the art room, Alix hung the skate up by tying its laces onto the outstretched hand of one of the many statues in the room, so it could dry without tipping over. Nathaniel sat down in a nearby chair.

“So, I know we planned to call Marc and Kagami after school, but school ended early. Should we just call them now or..?” Nathaniel asked, trailing off at the end.

Alix considered it. The skate needed a couple of hours to dry, but just sitting here and waiting would be boring.

“Ya, let’s call them now.” Alix decided.

“Cool.” Nathaniel pulled out his phone to contact Marc and Alix did the same to contact Kagami.

It was time for their Heroes’ day to really begin.

Chapter Text

Chloé Bourgeois stared into her mostly empty closet. It felt so wrong. The closet had been full that morning, almost overflowing with countless outfits she had either purchased or been gifted to her over the past year. So full she could barely see the walls behind the clothes and worth so much money that it required a passcode to enter. But now, the lines of racks sat empty, her shoe racks, previously full, now only held a few of her more comfortable pairs, and her enormous amount of jewelry was reduced down to a few pieces that her few friends had gifted her over her life. The vast majority of her wardrobe now sat in cheap cardboard boxes in the back of some secondhand charity store that Sabrina had introduced her to.

Chloe now sat staring into the near-empty room, both basking in and horrified by the emptiness. Horrified because she knew the value of what she had gotten rid of. By her own rough math, her closet had been worth at least 2 million dollars. Some outfits she had just gotten rid off were so limited edition that not even her status as Style Queen’s daughter could have gotten it for her. For a few outfits, she had laid wait outside of expensive boutiques for weeks just to get her hands on them. Her collection of outfits was one of Chloe’s best bragging topics. It had been incredible, yet she had thrown it away.

She was basking in it because she knew just how grand of a scandal it would cause. Every single party dress, pair of high heels, and gold lined  hat she had donated that morning had been given the Style Queen seal of approval, ensuring that the article was seen as a masterpiece. 

If someone threw out or, worse, donated one of those masterpieces, it was seen as a betrayal of fashion itself. People had been ruined over this. Inspiring designers found to have gotten rid of one of these articles had their reputations trashed overnight. Your name would be blacklisted from every Style Queen boutique in the world, and even some not associated with Style Queen won’t sell you clothes. You couldn’t buy fabric from any distributor known to have a scrap of quality to their product. You were ruined.

And Chloe had just donated every single Style Queen masterpiece she owned.

She was going to be in some deep shit.

But that was the point.

If some other nobody designer or celebrity had done this, they would just be ruined with no upsides. Their career would be flipped on its head and they would be shunned forever by the fashion world. End of story. Life over.

However, as the daughter of Style Queen. It was a bit different for Chloe.

Never before had someone so closely tied with Style Queen disrespected her brand. People around Audrey Bourgeois treated her world like law and her brand like a sacred relic. To disrespect her would be to disrespect fashion itself. Nobody else around her had any reason, or desire, to anger the Queen of Style. Therefore the scandal Chloe would create would be unprecedented.

It may even call into question the entire brand of Style Queen. The media would have a field day with the story and the fashion world would look on in horror as a scandal as big as a hurricane blew through the industry, with Chloe in the center. 

And then, with all that, Chloe may just get her Mother’s attention.

At least that's what she hoped would happen. Audrey may just disown her and the world would laugh at sad little whats-her-name and move on.

“Oh, this was a terrible idea!” Chloe exclaimed, pacing back and forward in her shell of a closet, “Is it too late to go back? Can I un-donate my clothes? Is that possible?” Her phone vibrated near constantly from her back pocket, a bombardment of notifications. She was afraid of what they would be about considering the fashion war crime she had just committed. 

Amid her panic, her mind drifted back to the fateful day weeks ago when everything had changed. When Style Queen visited Paris for the first time in years, only for Chloe to be ignored and left behind once again. She still didn’t know what had happened that day, what Mommy had done to her while she was akumatized into Style Queen. All Chloe knew is that she was left bloody and unconscious in some random house after trying to connect with her mother. 

The rest of that day had been a blur in Chloe’s mind. She couldn’t remember how she got home from that bookstore. She couldn’t remember what she did during the next akuma attack that day. And she couldn’t remember how she found herself hiding behind a tree as Mommy’s helicopter left. 

What Chloe did remember was the horrific puzzle she had finally organized that day, and the realization that it brought. Audrey Bourgeois couldn't care less about her. She didn’t care to remember her daughter’s name, she had disregarded the present Chloe got for her, and she had not even noticed Chloe’s disappearance after the akuma attack.

When Audrey left Chloe behind without even so much as a goodbye, Chloe realized just how little she cared. Chloe wasn’t worth even a scrap of her attention.

So, after an embarrassing amount of tears, Chloe began to scheme. She put together a plan to get her mother’s full, undivided, attention. Chloe went after the only thing that she knew her mother actually cared about, her brand.

Chloe was going to become the most unimaginably annoying thorn in the Style Queen’s side.

Chloe took her phone out of her back pocket and checked her notifications. Sabrina had been messaging her, asking where she went. Earlier that day, Chloe had woken up in the middle of a battlefield full of villains all colored strangely and had run home as fast as she could, apparently forgetting to text Sabrina about it before enacting her crazy revenge plan. According to Sabrina, school had been canceled so there was no need to return, not that Chloe was planning to anyway. Chloe sent Sabrina a message to come to her room ASAP before checking her other notifications.

The next thing she saw was that she had over 700 notifications from Instagram. Yup, people had found out about her donation, it hadn’t even been an hour since the clothes had left her closet. She ignored Instagram and went to check Twitter, sure enough, the hashtag #stylequeencrimes was trending alongside her name.

“Sure caught on fast didn’t they.” Chloe mumbled as she scrolled through the site. She quickly found that one of the workers at the secondhand store realized that they had tens of boxes of Style Queen approved masterpieces and leaked this fashion crime to the internet. Everyone knew it was her due to the stickers Chloe had put on every box that said ‘Donated by Chloe Bourgeois’ alongside a cartoon version of herself giving a thumbs up.

Normally Chloe would relentlessly hunt down and ruin anybody who tried to stir controversy about her but now that secondhand store employee was her favorite person of the hour.

Chloe turned off her phone and placed it on one of the empty shelves in the closet. People would be looking for any response or explanation from her. Chloe would give them nothing. No response, no explanation, no acknowledgment of the situation at all.

Instead, she would do something that will make everyone much, much angrier.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock, Someone began incessantly knocking on Chloe’s door, knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-

“Okay! Cut it out already!” Chloe yelled as she went over to the door, unlocking it and throwing it open, “WHAT??” On the other side of the door stood Sabrina, breathing heavily as if she had just run several blocks and up several flights of stairs, which she likely did. Well, she had gotten here fast, good. 

“What do- ah huh- need- whew ahh- Chloe?” Sabrina asked, desperately trying to catch her breath as she spoke.

“Jesus. Catch your breath first.” Chloe told the girl, “Then come in.”

Sabrina entered the room while Chloe made her way to grab her purse and credit cards. After a minute which Chloe spent getting ready, Sabrina managed to catch her breath.

“Chloe!” Sabrina exclaimed, “I told you this was a bad idea, you’re being canceled right now!” Chloe was treated to Sabrina shoving her phone into her face, twitter pulled up to the #stylequeencrimes tag she was looking at a few minutes ago,

Chloe pushed the phone away, “I know.”

“What are we going to do?” Sabrina asked, half panicking.

“Sabrina, do you still have that list of all the boutiques in Paris that weren’t Style Queen approved?” Chloe asked. She made Sabrina make the list so she could avoid them. 

Sabrina nodded, “I have it on my phone.”

“Good, pull that up. We’re going to all of them.” Chloe announced. This was a great plan. It would make people so angry to see her replace her entire wardrobe with non-style queen approved clothes. It was genius.

Sabrina hesitated, “Chloe, you do know that that’s hundreds of stores right?”

Chloe paused for a second. She was good at shopping but not that good. “We’ll go to the highest rated ones!” Chloe amended as she began to walk out the door, purse in hand and cash ready to be blown through.

“And what about the ones that Style Queen said were bad?” Sabrina asked.

“What? Ew no! I still have standards, Sabrina! Jesus.”

— — — — — — — — — — 

Kishi dropped into an alley not too far from where the group had split up and dropped her transformation. She caught Plagg as he flew out of her ring and pulled a slice of cheese out of her bag for him to eat. 

“I’m sorry Plagg, he got away.” Kagami told the kwami. She knew how much the black cat wanted to free his friend Nooroo.

Plagg scarfed down the slice of cheese before responding, “I know. It's not your guys’ fault.” the kwami floated off Kagami’s palm, “You guys really beat the shit out of him, and that's worth something.”

Kagami smiled at that, “Next time for sure, we’ll save your friend.” 

Plagg gave a nod and flew into Kagami's jacket before she stepped out of the alleyway.

Leaving the alley, Kagami found the streets full of people. The festive earlier had multiplied, changing from festive to an almost party-like environment. People blasted music in the streets and started dancing. Lines formed around blocks for any store selling superhero merchandise, causing crowds of cheap costumed people to gather. People were passing out bottles of alcohol to help with the party. It was a very chaotic situation. Kagami noticed Miss Couffaine heading up an impromptu arm wrestling contest at a nearby cafe, multiple bottles of alcoholics at her feet

The people of Paris flaunted their joy and their pride of the heroes who protected them, almost as a form of protest against Hawkmoth. In a city where your emotions can be turned against you at any moment, a gathering like this was like having a barrier around yourself.

Although, the atmosphere was a bit too much for Kagami. Being around inebriated people always made her a bit anxious and she knew that all the noise and crowds of people would eventually give her a headache. Kagami quickly made her way through the streets and past the downtown area where all the partygoers were. 

Now out of the busy downtown area, she found the city to have a much calmer atmosphere. She saw many people walking about, admiring all the festive decorations like she did earlier, families and couples just enjoying the day. Every park she passed by had people gathering on blankets with picnic baskets. Laughing together and enjoying each other's company. This was also a protest against Hawkmoth in a way. What better way to combat one who preys on fear than to be merry and peaceful with the ones you love?

Kagami also decided it would be best to do something similar. She took out her phone and opened the group chat Alix had added her into, as well as Nathaniel and Marc. It was the first group chat Kagami had been invited to. There were only a handful of messages sent in it, most of them asking about Kagami’s schedule. Kagami began typing up a message. 

I’m available today if you guys would like to get together.

Just before Kagami sent the message, her phone interrupted her with a call from Alix.

Oh, good timing. Kagami thought as she answered the call. “Hello, you’ve reached the cell phone of Kagami Tsurugi.” Kagami answered. 

“Aw man, I think it went to voicemail.” Kagami heard Alix say. 

What? “No, it did not.” 

“Huh? Kagami?”

“Yes Alix?” 

“Dang you answer the phone really seriously.” Alix said. Kagami had been taught to always give her name when answering the phone. She’d been answering the phone like this for years, she didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. “Anyway,” Alix continued, “Come to the art room, Nathaniel and I have something for you.”

A gift? Her lips curled into a smile. Kagami loved gifts. It was rare that she received one.

“Alright, I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” Kagami answered. 

“Woah, seriously? It was that easy?” Alix exclaimed, “I thought for sure I’d have to do something like fight your mom to get a few hours of your schedule cleared.” 

“You would lose,” Kagami responded, “Also, I have a clear schedule for Heroes’ Day. My mother said it was her ‘good deed’ for the day.”

“Really? Cool. I like your mom better than Adrien’s dad already.” Alix said. Kagami did not appreciate her mother being compared to Mr. Agreste, but she understood the comparison. To an outsider they would seem similar.

“I will meet you at the school, Alix.”

“Alright! See you then Kagami!” Alix exclaimed before ending the call. 

Kagami pulled the phone away from her ear and looked down at it. She saw her reflection in the glass and noticed that she had a small grin on her face. It was nice to be reached out to by a friend. 

Kagami opened Tatsu’s app and instructed it to pick her up. She was quite a distance from the school. Kagami sat on a nearby bench and soon enough the red car was buzzing her phone and pulling up in front of her. Kagami climbed in and instructed it to take her from the school and to avoid downtown. Fifteen minutes later, Kagami was in front of the school. 

Kagami entered the school and saw a group of kids on the court playing dodgeball. Kagami had never played dodgeball before, but she was fairly sure it was meant to be a team sport. This group was playing some other version with no teams, just individuals running around the court and hurling red rubber balls at any poor soul who may have caught their eye. 

It honestly looked like good fun, but Kagami had Alix and Nathaniel waiting on her. She began to walk past the court on the way to the stairs. As she was walking, Kagami noticed a red sphere at the corner of her vision begin to grow larger. She quickly shot her hand up and the red rubber ball slammed into her hand, coming to a stop. It began to fall to the floor but Kagami grabbed it with her second hand to keep it in her grasp. 

She looked over at the court and raised an eyebrow at the boy directly across from her, who blinked a couple times before realizing his mistake, his face turning to an apologetic smile. 

“You’re out dude, she caught your ball!” Somebody shouted. 

“What? Hell no!” The boy shouted back, “She isn’t playing, I threw it that way by mistake!”

“Doesn’t matter, go sit your ass down!” They shouted back. 

“That’s bullshit!”

“You’re out, dickweed!” Someone else shouted, standing up from where they were sitting on the floor

“Fuck you Leon! Sit down! You got out first, you don’t get a say!” Another shouted. 

Kagami could tell this was going to end up in a big shouting match before long if it didn’t sort itself out soon. She figured she could solve this fairly quickly. Kagami held the ball in one hand and pulled her arm back before shooting the ball towards the boy who was arguing about himself being out. A second later the ball hit the boy directly on the side of the head, causing him to stumble.

The entire court turned towards Kagami. 

“He’s sure out now.” Kagami said before brushing her hands off and continuing her walk towards the stairs. 

As she ascended the staircase, the court erupted into laughter and excited shouting. 

“Holy shit!!” 

“No fucking way!!”

“Dude she destroyed you!”

“FUCK!” The scream of a boy who knew he had lost.

Kagami chucked as she made it to the second floor of the school. She then made her way to the third floor and entered the art room. 

“Hey, Kagami!” Alix shouted with a wave as she entered, beckoning Kagami to sit in a chair next to her. Alix, Nathaniel, and Marc sat around one of the tables, a pile of papers spread out between them. Kagami sat down next to Alix and looked down at the table. The spread out papers seemed to be pages of the comic Nathaniel and Marc were making together, Adventures of Mightillistrator and Wordsmith. 

“Oh, hey Kagami.” Marc said with a smile and a wave. Kagami gave a wave back before turning her attention down to the papers. She had to guess probably about 40 pages were spread out on the table, they looked to be colorless comic pages. None of the pages had any dialogue on them, they were also covered in various guidance lines and sticky notes. Like just a rough draft of some sort most likely. There was also a pile of cut out dialogue bubble shapes on the table, logically for testing where dialogue boxes would best go. They were putting a lot of effort into this.

“You guys have made quite a lot of progress.” Kagami commented. Last time she had seen their work on the comic they were still workshopping designs for the characters. It had been a while since she had any real free time.

“Yeah, we ironed out the entire plot of our first season and are working on our first issue now." Marc supplied.

“We’re still trying to figure out the process though.” Nathaniel commented, gesturing to the pile of drafts on the table, “Creating something this elaborate takes a lot of planning. Neither of us are used to that.”

Marc nodded, “I’m used to just planning out major plot beats and then writing on my whims for the rest, but now Nathaniel and I have to workshop every line to fit with the page it’s going on. We have to get together to plan the pacing of every page. I’m just not used to telling my stories like this,” Marc explained, “But it is a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, telling a real story with my art is more difficult than I thought it would be. It's fun though.” 

“That’s wonderful you two.” Kagami responded. She definitely looked forward to reading the final product when it was finished. The two were putting their all into it. 

“So Kagami, what’s going on with you these days?” Alix asked, turning the conversation, “We haven’t seen you in so long.”

“Unfortunately, Mother has kept my schedule particularly tight lately.” Kagami answered, “My training time for my kendo and kenjutsu have increased while my time at the fencing club has been reduced, so I’m around the school less often.” Kagami reached into her bag and pulled out her sketchbook, “Although, I have found some time to work on my art between lessons.”

Kagami opened the book to the more recent pages. These pages were covered in more experimental drawings, drawing people in unusual poses that she hadn’t ever seen them do or even adding imaginary aspects to the drawings. Some of these more successful drawings were of her mother and attendant with their roles switched, Alix with snakes wrapped around her arms as if they had lifted straight off her outfit, and Marinette holding Adrien in a princess carry. She wasn’t used to drawing anything but what was in front of her so Kagami ended up using the forms of the people who had stuck in her mind the most. 

“Woah, look at that!” Alix picked up the sketch book to examine the drawing of herself better, “That’s so cool! Look at the details of the snakes!” 

“I would if you let us see it, Alix.” Nathaniel grabbed the book from her and held it between him and Marc, “Woah.”

Kagami couldn’t help but smile as her friends looked at and complimented her art, especially the stuff she worked hard on. The snakes had been a particular challenge for her, their slithery shape not one she encountered often so making it look realistic was difficult. She ended up watching videos of snakes for a little while in order to get it right.  It had been an extremely fun and satisfying drawing to finish. 

"I think I've actually seen Marinette hold Adrien like this." Nathaniel commented, pointing at the drawing.

Alix leaned over and grabbed the notebook once again, "Oh, she totally has," she confirmed as she saw the drawing, "Adrien got hit in the back of the knee with a basketball one time and fell. Marinette freaked out, picked him up, and ran him to the nurse's office. Nobody could believe she had that kind of strength."

Kagami wasn't totally surprised. Marinette was Ladybug after all.

"I wonder how Marinette's doing right now." Marc commented

"Do you not follow her Instagram? She's doing great." Alix answered, “She just got one of her designs approved to be in some major drop for the company, she was really excited.”

Kagami also followed Marinette on her socials and was very proud of her friend for achieving her dreams. Her and Adrien were going on a celebratory trip to Niagara Falls. Kagami was looking forward to seeing the photos from the trip. 

“Is that your mom, Kagami?” Alix asked, pointing at the drawing of Mother and her assistant.

“Yes, and her assistant Susuki-san.” Kagami explained. The drawing had been interesting to do, but not much of a challenge since the two often kept similar levels of seriousness in their posture.

“What’s up with the shades?” Alix asked.

“My Mother is blind.” Kagami explained simply.

“Oh shit, seriously? That sucks, she’ll never get to see your artwork” 

Kagami blinked a few times, “I- I never-” The thought had never occurred to Kagami. It was impossible for Mother to appreciate her art, no matter how good Kagami got at it, It was a part of her life that her mother could never be a part of.

Is that why Mother is so opposed to me pursuing this path? Kagami briefly wondered before shelving the thought. She was among friends, she couldn’t get contemplative now. She would have to deflect the topic. 

“Well, what does your Mother think of your art, Alix?” Kagami asked. She kind of did want to know how other parents perceived their kid’s arts.

At this question, Alix froze for a brief second before her fingers interlocked and her eyes moved downward. Kagami also noticed Nathaniel’s head snap away from the conversation he and Marc had slipped into. 

“Oh, my-” Alix paused, “My mom isn't-” Alix paused and clenched her fingers against each other, “she’s- gone.” she got out. 

The mood in the room sank. The next moment of silence felt incredibly heavy. Kagami felt awful for bringing this up, the subject seemed emotional for Alix. Nathaniel was looking between them with a concerned look and Marc looked a little confused.

“Oh, I'm sorry.” Kagami broke the silence and apologized. "I didn't mean to-"

“No, you didn’t know. It- It’s fine.” Alix responded. The girl took a large breath in and with the exhale, stood from her chair, “I’ve been sitting down too long. I need to move around.” she declared. 

Kagami needed to keep the interaction going, or move in a better direction. Hopefully she might be able to redeem herself from bringing up a dead parent. Hopefully, she could keep in Alix’s good graces and be invited out again.  She needed something great.

“They’re playing dodgeball downstairs.” Kagami suggested. It seemed like a good way to move around, which was what Alix was looking for. 

“They are? Perfect!” she exclaimed, beginning to walk quickly towards the door.

“I will join you!” Kagami decided, also standing up from the chair.  The game seemed interesting enough, even if Kagami didn’t know the rules.

“Awesome! Let’s go!” Alix said, already halfway out the door. Kagami power walked towards the door and by the time she made it out Alix was jumping onto the stair’s railing and sliding down. Following her, Kagami made her way down the stairs down to the court. 

“Alright, you guys ready to lose?” Kagami heard Alix shout as she made her way down the final set of steps.

“Hey! Alix!” A few of the boys shouted. Apparently she had played with these guys before. 

“You ain’t winning again!” One of the larger boys shouted, “I’ve been working on my throwing arm!” 

“Let’s see it then!” Alix shouted back.

As Kagami made it to the ground floor, the boy threw the ball at Alix with all his strength. Alix sidestepped the ball and it flew past her, directly towards Kagami. Kagami extended her hands and caught the ball in her arms. It did have quite a bit more power than the ball she caught earlier. 

“Oh my god it’s her!” Someone shouted. 

“Alright! New players, new game!” A boy shouted, standing from where he had been sitting on the ground, “Let’s do this!”

All the players got up from the floor and began moving around the court, eyeing Kagami as she had the ball. Kagami didn’t fully know the rules, but she wasn’t going to break the competitive energy by asking. Kagami pulled her arm back and launched the ball at the closest person to her. 

She would likely have fun anyway.

— — — — — — — — — — 

Alix, naturally, won the first game. Kagami had gotten out early due to her punching a ball flying at her, which she apparently didn't realize she couldn't do. Kagami actually won the second game once she fully understood the rules.

After a third game, which Alix won, they realized they had burned 40 minutes and many of the players began to leave. Alix, feeling refreshed, made her way back to the art room, with Kagami following close behind.

Entering the room, Alix saw Marc and Nathaniel huddled together over a few comic pages. Marc looked up as the two girls reentered the room but Nathaniel remained absorbed in his work.

"We return from battle victorious!" Alix announced as she made her way back to the table.

"What?" Nathaniel's attention snapped away from the comic to notice her ,"Oh, cool.” Nathaniel blinked a few times to reenter the real world as Alix and Kagami sat back down. 

"You were quite impressive out there, Alix." Kagami commented, "It seemed like your throws always hit their target."

"That's because they did," Alix gloated, "I've been playing against some of those guys for years, I know how they dodge." Alix didn't normally try that hard while playing, it was more fun that way. However, today she was letting out stress and felt like dominating the court.

"You were pretty good too, Kagami. Don't think that I missed that causal backflip you did. That was sick." A couple guys had tried a pincers technique on Kagami, one threw a ball at her head on and one from behind. Kagami had caught the ball in front of her, backflipped over the ball behind her, and threw the ball when she landed, getting the guy behind her out. It was insane.

"We should play again sometime. I believe I could win next time." Kagami responded.

"Oh? Is that a challenge?" Alix grinned at the proposal.

"It might be." 

Alix got up from the chair, a grin on her face, "Alright then, let's head back down! I'll show you how good I am."

"Very well." Kagami accepted with a smile, also beginning to stand up.

"Hold on." Nathaniel spoke up, interrupting them. “Alix, before you run downstairs again, please check if the paint is dry."

"Oh right." Alix had almost forgotten about the rollerskate hanging from a nearby statue's outstretched hand. She had gotten so worked up from dodgeball that she had forgotten about the things she had called Marc and Kagami here for in the first place.

Alix walked over to the drying skate and examined it. It seemed dry and the paint looked even and smooth. It looked finished, it just needed a finish coat to keep it looking good long term.

As Alix moved to a cabinet to grab the leather paint finish she had bought for this, Kagami spoke up. "What are you doing?"

"Finishing the thing we called you here for." Alix answered, grabbing a cloth and lightly soaked some of the liquid into part of it. She grabbed the skate and began to gently apply the finish to the paint.

Technically, according to Marinette, leather paint doesn't need a finish as long as you prepared the leather correctly. Alix definitely prepared the leather correctly, but, in her mind at least, it also felt wrong not to put a finish onto paint. It was extra protection to keep the paint looking better for longer, why would she not.

"A roller skate?" Kagami asked.

"Yup, Nathaniel finished this one late." Alix explained, "Nathaniel, if you would."

As Alix continued to apply the finish to the paint, Nathaniel reached under the table, into his bag, and pulled out the other 3 skates, Marc's pair and Kagami's already finished skate.

"This is me and Alix’s good deed for today." Nathaniel explained, "Though, it's really just an excuse to get you two to come skating with us." 

"How dare you expose my evil schemes." Alix joked. Nathaniel was correct though. Alix had a hobby of making skates for new friends she made to try and get them to skate with her. She regularly went skating with Nathaniel, he was the only one willing to do it regularly. Kim and Max just weren't very good, and didn't seem inclined to get better. Juleka, Rose, and Ivan were too busy with their band. Alya and Nino were too busy with their jobs, her website and his DJing. Mylène used to come sometimes, but she broke her pinky toe last year and hasn't come since.

"This is amazing." Marc gawked at his pair of skates, “This pattern almost looks machine painted.” 

“Nope, all by hand.” Nathaniel bragged. 

“That is incredible.” Marc looked up from the shoe and Into Nathaniel’s eyes, “It feels like every time you show me your art, I’m always blown away by your incredible skill. You're just so incredible.”

“Oh- I- uh- wha-” Nathaniel tried to form a reply, his face as red as his hair. A second later Marc’s brain seemed to catch up and his face turned equally red. 

Alix, watching this scene, only thought of one thing. Hmm, yup. They’re gay.

Finishing the first coat of the leather finish, she hung the skate back on the statue. Alix wanted to apply a few layers to ensure the paint’s long term wellness.

Kagami was also examining her skate and Alix decided to focus on that instead of the disaster across the table. “What do you think?”

“The art is nice,” Kagami commented, “but I think the thing that really shines here is the craftsmanship here. This leatherwork is quite good and the leather itself seems like a decent quality.” Alix hoped the quality was good. Marinette had sent her to a special store halfway across Paris to get the stuff and then had spent hours a day coaching Alix on every step. Alix had worked harder on this pair than on any other skates she ever made. Mostly because Kagami was really cool and Alix did not want to give her something unimpressive. 

“You know a lot about leather?” Alix asked. 

Kagami shrugged, “My mother runs a textile company and has looked into expanding into the leather industry, but never did. My knowledge on it doesn’t run too deep.”

“Yeah, mine neither. Marinette guided me through making this over the phone. You should see the pile of failed attempts.” Sitting inside a box in Alix’s room was a pile of failed leather scrap. There was so much that Alix felt bad wasting it, but had no idea what to use it for.

“So, how long will the other skate take to finish?” Kagami asked.

"I want to put at least one more layer of finish on, so about 20 minutes." 

"I'm going to go downstairs and try these on!" Marc suddenly exclaimed, his face still as red as his obvious crush's hair as he leaped up from his chair. Skates in hand he half-ran out of the room.

Alix glanced over at Nathaniel, his face equally as red as Marc's. He was fiddling with a bracelet that he normally kept under his jacket sleeve, a nervous habit of his. 

"Just gonna let him run off like that?" Alix asked him, a slight tease in her voice.

"Alix I told you, it's not like that…" 

"Marc doesn't have any knee and shoulder pads, not to mention a helmet. He'll hurt himself if he puts on the skates without 'em." Alix said, pretending not to notice Nathaniel's state of gay panic, "You gotta go get some for him."

“Oh um, right.” Alix watched Nathaniel process her statement as the gay panic subsided, “You’re right. You put those in my locker, I should-” Nathaniel stopped his sentence short and got out of his seat, picked up his bag, and made his way out the door. He had left a bunch of comic papers scattered on the table. Alix began to gather them and put them back into the folder they came from, placing the folder in Marc’s bag which was still under the table. 

“Please tell me you’ve noticed as well.” Kagami said. It was obvious what she was referring to. 

“It would be hard not too.” Alix answered, sitting back down. The two boys were hopelessly crushing on each other but neither seemed to be willing to do anything. “But Nathaniel won’t even admit it’s a crush.”

“I think Marc knows it’s a crush, but he’s too deep in his own head to do anything about it.” Kagami explained, “It’s frustrating to watch.”

Alix nodded. They seemed fine while working on the comic, but literally any other type of interaction led to red cheeks and swift exits. She agreed, it was painful to watch.

“It’s almost as frustrating as Marinette and Adrien were.” Alix said with a sigh, “Almost.” 

“I think my normal methods for these types of things would only scare them.” 

Alix raised an eyebrow, “Normal methods?” Kagami had methods for dealing with crushes?

“I would either help them make a confession or just tell them myself and make them talk about it..” Kagami explained, “It worked well.”

“Yeah, those won’t work.” Alix agreed. Neither of them could work up the confidence to do that and neither would believe the other had a crush if someone else told them. At least, they wouldn’t believe Alix, she teased them about it too much.

“They need to be confident that the other feels the same before either will say a word. Otherwise, both will take this to their grave.” Kagami said, summing up the situation pretty well.

“They need non-comic related time together.” Alix added,  “If they spend all their time together on the comic they won’t focus on each other and nothing will get done.”

“But since they won’t do that by themselves, we need to increase the amount of group activities we do in order to increase their time with each other.”  

Alix grinned, she and Kagami were on the same wavelength, “And maybe during those activities we happen to regularly get put into pairs and sometimes get separated.”

“Which hopefully would lead to them becoming more confident with each other.” Kagami extended her hand.

“And one day, admitting their feelings.” Alix grabbed Kagami’s hand, and the plan was set.

The hand grab itself ended a little awkward because Alix grabbed her hand in the way she was used to grabbing Kim’s. More like they were about to arm wrestle instead of shake hands, like Alix guessed Kagami intended. Kagami hesitated for a second at that, seeming a little confused before letting go. But whatever, the plan was set regardless. 

Alix was extra happy with the plan because it meant that she could spend more time with Kagami, which she was excited about. Marinette and Adrien had been really excited when they heard that Kagami had made her way into the art club. While working on the leather, Alix had heard a few stories about Kagami which made Alix excited to get closer with the girl, she sounded awesome.

This was going to be great. 

— — — — — — — — — — 

Marc sat in the locker room. He had taken his boots off and had put one skate on. He was currently messing with the straps. He didn’t really know how tight it was meant to be. It seemed like a simple thing but Marc was overthinking it. He would tighten one strap, loosen another. It felt a little loose so he tightened both of them. Was that too tight? Loosen them back up. His toes probably shouldn’t be able to move, right? Tighten one of them again. He sat there doing this for a few minutes before he was interrupted by the door opening. Marc turned to see Nathaniel walk into the room. Marc felt his face turn red and he tried to turn his attention back to the skates, silently hoping Nathaniel was here for something else.

Marc had gotten too excited back in the art room. He had said too much with too much enthusiasm and now Nathaniel probably thought he was a weirdo. Seriously, who gets that excited over a pair of skates? Not that the skates were a bad present. They were wonderful, Marc just-

“I’d recommend putting those on outside.” Nathaniel suggested suddenly, cutting off the dialogue Marc was having with himself, “Unless you feel like scooting down the school steps on your butt.”

Marc took a second to process that as he turned over to look at Nathaniel, who was opening his locker. Marc suddenly remembered the big set of stairs in front of the school. Marc would definitely fall if he tried to go down those in skates. He would probably break every bone in his body.

Marc pulled the skate off his foot and stood up. He opened his locker to put his boots inside before picking up the skates and starting to walk out of the locker room.

"Um, thanks." Marc said as he began to push the door open.

"Hold up." Nathaniel called out as he was digging through his locker. Marc watched as Nathaniel pulled out pairs of shoulder and knee pads from his locker. It looked like he had a whole box of them in the bottom of his locker. After pulling out two pairs of each, Nathaniel grabbed his own pair of skates from the shelf directly above the box. His skates looked as if someone had pressed a comic book page directly onto them. Two characters Marc didn’t recognise fought their way around the skates in a looped battle. As usual with Nathaniel’s art, it was breathtaking. The linework was incredibly well done and the colors were perfectly done to make every detail pop. It was so incredible, Nathaniel was amazing. Every time Marc saw something Nathaniel had poured his passion into it almost made him fall in-

No no no no no-no. Marc chastised himself mentally. Nathaniel is a friend, friends don’t think about each other like that. Well, I mean, they do complement each other. Nathaniel is awesome, and he should know that. But I mean like- uhh . Marc’s brain began to lag trying to figure out exactly what he did mean. Friends supported each other, they definitely recognised each other’s talents and accomplishments, they appreciated the gifts the other gave. But they didn’t- they didn’t- 

Marc’s brain stuttered like it ran on windows 98.

Friends didn't fall in lo-

“Here, you’ll need these.” Nathaniel said, holding out a pair of elbow and knee pads.

“AHH!” Marc leaped backwards, startled by how close Nathaniel was suddenly. Well, he wasn’t that close, like an arm distance away or so. But still close!

Marc collided with the door, which threw off his balance and threw open the door, causing him to fall onto his ass, and the door to hit him in the side when it tried to swing close. 

Owch.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Nathaniel asked. 

Marc pushed the door away and quickly got up. “Yeah yeah, fine. I just uh,” Marc combed his brain for an excuse as the door once again tried to swing closed and hit him on the ass, “I- uh, saw a spider.” 

“Oh fuck na!” Nathaniel screamed,pushing the doors aside and running past Marc to escape the locker room. Marc moved out of the way off the door and let it swing close behind him. 

“I think you left your locker open.” Marc mentioned.

“The spider can have my stuff.” Nathaniel replied, a shiver running through him, “Creepy motherfuckers. Why do they have that many legs?”

"Yeah, uh, creepy." Marc awkwardly agreed. He still wasn't quite over the topic of his little internal argument. If anything, Nathaniel's reaction to the idea of a spider only made him more attrac-

NOOO!!! Marx mentally beat his thoughts away with a mental metal baseball bat. NATHANIEL! IS! JUST! A! FRIEND! Bad feelings! Bad!

"Oh yeah. Your pads." Nathaniel held out the pairs of knee and shoulder pads to him.

"Uh- Yeah, thanks." Marc responded awkwardly as he snatched the pads and made his way out of the doors to the school steps. He sat down on the bottom step and began to pull on the rainbow skates. A few moments later Nathaniel sat down beside him and began to pull on his own skates.

Marc paused as he began to tighten his straps, remembering the problem he was having earlier. How tight should these be?

Nathaniel seemed to notice Marc's hesitation, "What's up?" He asked.

"Oh um-" Marc hesitated. Would he look dumb if he asked this? He couldn't look stupid in front of Nathaniel he-

NO! This was a totally normal question. Marx has had no skating experience before, this was completely fine to ask.

"How tight do I make these?" Marc asked after reassuring himself.

"Oh right, that's pretty important," Nathaniel responded as he tightened his own, "You want it to feel snug, but not too tight. If it's tight enough to be painful then you'll be distracted while skating. If they're loose then you can't control yourself as well." He explained.

"I see." Marc tightened his skates accordingly and then put on the knee and elbow pads.

After putting on everything, Marc made his first attempt to stand up with wheels on his feet. And he failed. Marc barely got his butt off the ground before the wheels rolled and sent him back onto his ass. "Ok then." Marc muttered. He didn't expect to run into a hurdle just trying to stand up but here he was.

Turning to Nathaniel, Marc found him quietly laughing at Marc's failure to get to his feet. Nathaniel gave Marc a smile after his laughter died out, "Grab onto something, it makes it easier."

Marc looked around for something to grab onto. He saw a concrete post across the sidewalk, the kind that lined sidewalks to keep cars from crashing into buildings. That would work. Looking around, Marc didn’t see too many people around, people were too busy celebrating Heroes day to be hanging around a school. Marc flipped around so he was on his knees instead of his butt and crawled his way across the sidewalk to the concrete post. Marc did his best to ignore the stares of the few people across the street watching him.

Marc grabbed the post and used it to steady himself as he tried to get off of the ground. He went slowly, trying his best not to fall again. He needed to get off his knees and to his feet first. First, he went for his right foot, which went fine. Trying to get his left foot on the ground did not go so well. As soon as both pairs of wheels were on the ground, he lost his balance and his feet almost flew out from under him. If he wasn't holding onto the concrete post with both hands, Marc would be on the ground again. 

"You gotta stand straight up." Nathaniel suggested, skating up to him, "It's harder to balance when you're bent over watching your skates."

Marc hadn't really been conscious of it, but he had his neck turned down, watching the skates as he tried to balance. Maybe that's why the skates wouldn't stay still, his center of balance was off. Still holding tight to the post and now aware of Nathaniel watching him, Marc straightened his posture to correct his balance. 

It was immediately quite a bit easier to gain his balance, the skates didn't try to roll backwards when he set them down so he managed to actually get standing within just a few tries.

"I got it!" Marc exclaimed as he managed to stay upright. He was still holding the post with one hand to steady himself, but he was on his feet regardless. He briefly turned down to look at the skates again but felt himself begin to roll backwards slightly and immediately stood straight again. "Now what?"

"Now you let go and stand on your own." Nathaniel said, pointing to his hand still holding onto the concrete post.

"What? No! I'll fall!"

"No you won't."

"I absolutely will."

"If you're scared of falling you can hold my hand." Nathaniel offered casually, extending out his hand.

Marc's mental faculties ground to a halt for a brief moment before he forcibly booted them back up

He is teaching you how to skate. He meant NOTHING by that. Marc told his own brain. Our relationship is nothing but PLATONIC!

As Marc mentally composed himself to answer the question with a totally casual 'sure, why not', Nathaniel's eyes suddenly went wide and he pulled his hand back in a single, sudden motion. The motion made him roll backwards a few feet, away from Marc. Nathaniel's face turned red and he pulled in the hand he offered close to his chest.

"I-  I didn't mean that in like a- like a romantic way." Nathaniel explained, stammering as he did so, his face turning a deeper red, almost as deep as his hair. "I uh- just- um. Skating."

"No, no. It's cool. I didn't- uh- didn't even think about it like that." Marc lied.

"Oh, yeah. Me neither." Nathaniel agreed awkwardly.

As the two fell silent, the situation became more awkward as Marc continued to stare at his cru- uhh- friend's blushing face. Marc hated when this happened, it was so awkward, but he couldn't stop himself sometimes. Nathaniel's blushing face was- it was like- Marc just-

Ok, so Marc didn't know exactly what Nathaniel's blushing face was, or what it made him feel. He just didn't have words for it. It just made him feel something. And that something, whatever it was, made him lose his reason. Which was why Marc hadn't looked away yet.

What broke Marc out of his trance was  Nathaniel pulling his sleeve down and beginning to fidget with a bracelet underneath. Marc was fairly sure that meant Nathaniel was nervous.

Looking away from Nathaniel, Marc focused his attention back on the rollerblades and his hand still holding the concrete post.

"Right. Let go, you said." Marc muttered before he let go of the post. He was less nervous than before, probably because this was less scary than the awkward silence that would follow if he had just stood there.

Shockingly, he did not fall over. He did, however, begin to roll forward, very slowly, towards Nathaniel. “Oh, uh. Now what do I do now?" Marc asked. He waited a few seconds, getting slowly closer to Nathaniel. Nathaniel gave no response. "Nathaniel?"

“Huh, wha-” Nathaniel responded, blinking repeatedly. Marc could tell he wasn’t really paying attention.

“How do I control myself?!” Marc half screamed, inching closer to Nathaniel.

"Wh- what are you-"

"The skates! What do I do?!" Marc exclaimed, his skates bringing him closer to Nathaniel. The two boys were so close now that Marc could almost lean in for a ki–

"Why are you so close!?" Nathaniel asked, his face blushing a deep red once again.

"I'm sorry! I don't know how to-

Bump

Marc collided with Nathaniel. It was soft, since Marc was barely moving, so neither one of them fell over. Although that was a blessing and a curse. Marc was now pressed up against Nathaniel. Their chests were touching and Marc could feel Nathaniel's breath begin to quicken from the hot breath on his ear. He could smell Nathaniel's hair, it smelled like citrus. It was familiar, Marc had used Nathaniel's shampoo once, showering at his place after accidently spilling a glass of milk onto his own head. He could feel Nathaniel's chest rise and fall with every breath. Marc felt his face begin to flush.

Marc had absolutely no fucking idea what to do. He had never been this close to Nathaniel. He had never been this close to any boy before. The only people he had ever hugged was his mom and rarely his dad.

Marc's arms were frozen at his sides. It was like they had been petrified. He was scared to move them for SO MANY REASONS right now.

He considered throwing himself back and falling down to escape this, but knowing his luck he would knock Nathaniel down as well and he would fall on top of Marc in that typical anime romantic way and then things would be really awkward and Marc would have to run away, move to Australia, and change his name to Sherman.

He might have been slightly panicking.

"Marc, why are you so close?" Nathaniel asked him. Marc could feel every goddammit word directly into his ear. He could not take this shit.

Marc gathered as much brain power as he had left to form a response, "Sorry, I don't know how to move on these and this just kinda.. happened."

"Yeah, uhm, well- that's… okay. I'll just…" Nathaniel responded before beginning to move backwards, away from Marc.

Before Marc could ask how Nathaniel had just moved backwards with wheels on his feet, Marc glanced at his face. Nathaniel's face was an incredible bright red, more red than Marc had ever seen him. It was quite a sight, and Marc found himself unable to look away.

Oddly enough, as he continued to stare at Nathaniel's bright red face, Marc felt the blushing in his cheeks fade. It was as if the sight of Nathaniel's deep blushing face was blowing away his anxieties. It was a familiar feeling. It was the same thing that happened whenever he and Nathaniel worked on the comic, or whenever he saw something that Nathaniel had poured his seemingly unending passion into. It was a feeling that left Marc in awe and made his worries float away.

He couldn't put a name to this feeling. Well, he could , but he wouldn't. He was not ready to jeopardize the best friendship he's ever had by putting a name on this feeling.

However, looking at Nathaniel's bright red face in front of him put a small thought in Marc's head. What if naming that feeling wouldn't actually jeopardize anything? Sometimes it felt like it would be the best decision he could ever make.

— — — — — — — — — — 

Kagami and Alix made their way out of the art classroom, skates finished and ready to go. Alix pulled out a key and locked the door as they left. Kagami had no idea if a student should be allowed to have a classroom key but she did know that it wasn't her business.

Kagami followed Alix to the locker room, one of the lockers was left open and Alix grabbed some elbow and knee pads from it before closing it. She then opened what Kagami assumed was her own locker and pulled out a pair of skates covered in street art designs. Alix then opened a third locker and gestured for Kagami to come over.

Walking over, Kagami found the locker full of non school related items. The bottom layer had a pile of rollerskates, some painted, some unaltered, one was covered in making tape and half painted. The second layer just held a ton of spray paint cans. The hooks where one would usually hang jackets and the like held 4 helmets instead and the top section held a cardboard box labeled 'prank supplies'.

"Is this your locker?" Kagami asked Alix, her next question being where her school materials were.

"Yes and no, grab those helmets by the way." Alix answered, "It's my locker from last year that ended up unassigned this year. Once I figured that out, I cracked the new combination and now it's mine again."

Kagami grabbed the 4 helmets from the locker. One was covered in street art designs, similar to Alix's skates, Kagami figured that was Alix's helmet. Two of the helmets were simply black and the last was red with a green leaf painted on top, like a tomato. 

Once Kagami had the helmets, Alix shut the locker with her foot and the two made their way out of the locker room. 

"Have you skated before?" Alix asked as the pair walked towards the school door.

"I'm quite good at ice skating." Kagami answered, "I've never done roller skating before."

"Hmm, alright." Alix paused, seeming to think on this, "You should be fine. The principles are similar, you should be fine. Just don't try to stop like you do on the ice, you'll fall."

"I appreciate the advice." 

Walking outside, Kagami immediately noticed Marc and Nathaniel on the sidewalk, both wearing skates and pads already. They were just kind of… standing there. Neither one was moving and they were staring at each other. Nathaniel's face was incredibly red, almost worryingly so. Marc was staring at Nathaniel with an interesting expression that Kagami would describe as a mix of awe and… admiration, maybe?

They had clearly missed something.

Alix also seemed to realize that they missed something as she immediately sprung into action. Alix grabbed 2 helmets from Kagami, the tomato and one of the black ones, and dumped everything else she was holding into Kagami's arms.

"Ack! Alix!" Kagami exclaimed, her arms suddenly very full of skating gear. Kagami watched Alix quickly pull out her phone and snap a picture before moving in, dashing down the remaining steps.

"You guys flirting without helmets on? Alix asked, putting the tomato helmet onto Nathaniel. "That's dangerous." And the black helmet on Marc.

All at once the strange atmosphere that they had walked in on vanished. Marc's strange expression was dropped, instead turning to confusion as he reached up to touch the helmet that had been placed on his head. Nathaniel looked at Alix and Kagami in confusion for a moment before taking the tomato helmet off his head. He looked at the helmet with a smile, but then he glanced at Marc and his expression changed to a more sour look.

Nathaniel walked up to Alix as she was grabbing her things from Kagami's arms, much to her relief because she had things quite precariously balanced. "Hey Alix, do you think we could, um, switch helmets today, maybe?" Nathaniel asked quietly.

"Hmm? Why, wha'sup?" Alix asked as she secured her helmet on her head.

"I mean it's a great helmet and all but it's a little-" There was a short pause as Nathaniel glanced behind him at Marc, "embarrassing."

"MhmHmm." Alix hummed at Nathaniel, "And I'm sure Marc being here has nothing to do with that." Alix began putting on her elbow and knee pads as she spoke, "My helmet wouldn't fit you anyway, your head is too big."

"More like you're too small." Nathaniel responded.

Alix sent Nathaniel a quick death glare before grabbing her skates from Kagami, "If you want a different helmet, you have to trade with Marc or Kagami." Alix said before sitting down on the bottom step to pull off her shoes and put on her skates.

Nathaniel turned to Kagami with a hopeful smile on his face.

Kagami sighed. She definitely did not wish to wear the tomato helmet, but she also figured that if Nathaniel was forced to wear the silly helmet he would be even more embarrassed and anxious around Marc while they skated. Kagami didn't want to have to watch that for the next few hours.

"If you would feel more comfortable wearing this helmet, I would not mind switching." Kagami told him.

"Thank you Kagami!" Nathaniel exclaimed, grabbing the black helmet from her hand and handing her the tomato helmet, "I really appreciate this." Nathaniel put the helmet onto his head and skated back over to Marc, who was still in the same spot as before. Kagami guessed he didn't know how to move.

Kagami went and sat down next to Alix on the bottom step, placing the gear in her arms next to her. She put on the shoulder and knee pads and then the helmet.

"Pff." Kagami heard some light snickering from beside her. She turned to Alix to see her with a hand covering her mouth and her eyes pointed purposefully away from Kagami.

"Does it look that strange?" Kagami asked, feeling a little silly wearing the helmet.

Alix pulled her hand away from her mouth and flashed her a smile, "No, no. It looks wonderful ." Alix assured her, but sounded a little too amused about it to be completely trustworthy.

"Oh hey! I'm doing it!” Marc shouted, looking over, Kagami saw him beginning to move, quite slowly, with his arms extended at his side, “What now!?”

“Maybe I should have made him quad skates,” Alix commented, “He is definitely going to fall.”

Kagami pulled off her shoes and began putting on the skates, “It took me an hour just to balance properly the first time I got on the ice. I think he's doing fine.”

“Oh you’re going to fall too.” Alix told her, prompting Kagami to raise an eyebrow at her, “There won’t be a zamboni out here to smooth out the street. You’re gonna hit something and you’re gonna fall.”

“We will see.” Kagami responded as she tied the laces on her skates, “What should I do with my shoes by the way?” Kagami would not make it back up to the locker room on skates, she didn’t know how to deal with the stairs.

“Oh right, I’ll take them back to my locker. We probably should have taken them off before.” Alix held her hand out and Kagami handed over her shoes. 

Kagami watched as Alix stood up, turned around, and began climbing the steps. Kagami had no idea how she wasn’t falling backward, but she figured it was experience. Alix was even skipping steps as she climbed.

Getting to her feet was a little more difficult than she expected. Kagami knew how to get to her feet if she fell on the ice, and the concept here wasn’t too different. She did have to shift her balance slightly differently to adjust for the extra movement the wheels gave her compared to ice skates, but it wasn’t too challenging. 

Once on her feet, it became more familiar. The movement was similar enough to ice skating that Kagami found her instincts kick in and she could skate around with relative ease. The rollerskates had less deceleration than ice skates did, that would take some getting used to.

"Alright, let's go!" Alix shouted. Kagami turned to watch as Alix leapt up onto the side of the staircase and rolled down, leaping off at the bottom. This momentum from that sent her rolling past them but she turned around and stopped next to Kagami. "Where should we go?"

Kagami raised an eyebrow at that, "You haven't made any plans?"

"We almost never do." Nathaniel explained  skating close to them, "We just kind of skate around the city until something cool catches our eye. Usually a cool cafe, some weird tourist shop, or Andre's."

"The Mayor's?" Kagami asked. It seemed a little odd for a few teenagers to visit the Mayor.

"Na, different Andre." Alix clarified, " The Sweetheart's Ice Cream Man."

"Never heard of him." Kagami admitted.

"Wait seriously? Woah!!" Marc exclaimed, almost falling as he made his way to the conversation but managing to stay upright. "But he has the best ice cream in Paris!"

"Alright guys, we have a goal!" Alix announced, "We're going to get ice cream from Andre!"

"Alright then, so where's his shop?" Kagami asked.

"He doesn't have a shop, he has a cart and he moves around the city. You can never guess where he's going to be." Nathaniel explained, "We have to find him."

"Max has been compiling data on his spots in order to make an app to find him." Alix said as she took out her phone, "According to the data, his most common spots are near waterways in the first 8 arrondissements. Especially on bridges. Dude likes bridges."

"Well ya, bridges are romantic." Marc commented.

"Are they?" Alix asked with a skeptical look on her face.

"Oh course! Some of the most romantic places in Paris are bridges, like the Pont Des Arts." Marc argued.

"That is one bridge." Alix countered, "Also the romance there was more about the locks on the fence on that bridge than the bridge itself. Also also, that bridge almost collapsed from the weight of those locks. That doesn't sound very romantic."

"It is not just about the locks. Locks as a symbol of love is weird anyway. Bridges connect land otherwise divided, bringing them together and opening infinite opportunities for those who travel them. Just as love connects people and allows them to do and become so much more than they were before. It's beautiful and very romantic." Marc explained enthusiastically. 

"Hmm, I guess." Alix agreed.

“Well, if you don’t like bridges, what do you think is romantic, Alix?” Marc asked her

Alix took a second to think about it before responding, "I think rooftops are pretty romantic."

"Rooftops? Okay Cat Noir." Nathaniel joked. Kagami let out a small laugh in response. 

"No seriously. Do you guys remember Marinette's little rooftop balcony she has?" Alix asked.

"I only really hung out with her at school." Marc admitted.

"Yeah, I've also never been to her house." Nathaniel said.

"Same for me." Kagami added.

Alix sighed, "Alright, listen. When you find a nice roof, which there are a lot of in Paris, it can feel like your own personal corner of the city. You can watch the night sky and listen to the sounds of the city beneath you, which feel farther away when you’re on a roof. It’s incredibly relaxing.” Alix explained, “And if you were to share that with someone else, I think it would be really romantic.” 

Kagami nodded in agreement. That did sound quite romantic. 

“Alix, my friend,” Nathaniel began with an incredulous look on his face, “How much time do you spend on rooftops?”

“A normal amount of time.” Alix responded, defending herself.

"I don't spend any time on rooftops." Nathaniel countered. 

"Same here. No rooftops." Marc added.

Kagami noticed Nathaniel glance towards her as if waiting for her to als jump in. Kagami stayed quiet. She spent quite a bit of time on rooftops, as Kishi Noir, but she couldn't reveal that fact.

"Okay, maybeI I spend more time on rooftops than the average person, but…" Alix paused for a moment, " Nevermind, let's go find Andre!" Alix pulled away from the group and began skating down the sidewalk. Nathaniel turned around and began skating after her.

"Hold on! I want to hear more about this!" Nathaniel called after her.

Kagami watched the two skate away and turned to Marc. The two of them had skated away in the opposite direction from where Marc was facing.

“Do you know how to turn around?” Kagami asked him. From what Kagami saw, he had probably never skated before.

“No.” Marc admitted, “Do you?”

Kagami knew how to turn around on ice skates, and the roller blades were similar enough. “Probably.” She answered. It didn’t matter too much because she was facing in the opposite direction Marc was and could follow her two more experienced friends should she wish, but she decided to not leave Marc alone. Plus, she could use this time to talk with him.

“You have a crush on Nathaniel right?” Kagami asked, she was never the type to beat around bushes.

A shocked look covered Marc’s face, “Wh-Where did this come from?!” Marc exclaimed. A slight eyebrow raise from Kagami completely changed his expression to a more bashful one, “Well, yeah. I think I do.”

Kagami nodded. It was good he could acknowledge it at least. “I think you should tell him.”

“No! No no no!” A panicked look appeared on his face, “I can’t! I- I’m perfectly happy like this! I don’t need to…” Marc trailed off.

“You might be happy now, but you would be happier if you were honest.” Kagami encouraged. 

“But what if he says no? What if he thinks I’m weird for having these feelings about him. He’ll stop being my friend and throw out our comic and-” Marc began. 

“Marc,” Kagami cut him off, “Is Nathaniel the type of person to hate someone for the way they feel?”

He paused for a moment before shaking his head, “No. He’s really kind and he accepts me for who I am.”

“Then you should confess.”

Marc was silent for a moment before his face began to turn red, “I- maybe….”

“Oops, almost forgot about you two.” Alix said, coming from behind Marc and skating a circle around the two of them.

Nathaniel was following close behind, “So did you go to Marinette’s just to hang out on her roof?” He seemed to still be on the topic of rooftops.

“No! Of course not!” Alix answered. 

“Then why were you on the roof!?” Nathaniel asked loudly. 

“We just hung out there sometimes!”

“On the roof?!!”

“It’s a nice roof!”

Kagami leaned over to Marc, “I'm having trouble knowing if this is still a friendly argument or not now.” 

“Same.” Marc answered, “But I think… it’s still friendly.” Marc did sound a little unsure. 

“So you and Marinette were like… roof buddies?” Nathaniel kept it going.

“What? No? This was not an exclusive thing with Marinette and I!” Alix countered. 

“Then why were you on the roof?” 

“It’s just somewhere we moved for a change of scenery sometimes! It’s a cool spot with a decent view. Sometimes during a sleepover I’d move up there when Alya’s snorin a little too loud. It’s not that complicated Nathan!”

“Why did it leave such a romantic impression on you?” Nathaniel asked.

“Why are you so interested in this topic?” Kagami cut in to ask Nathaniel.

“Hey, I’m just trying to understand the brain of my good friend Alix.” Nathaniel said, shrugging his shoulders with his palms in the air. 

“I’m going to take out my brain and beat you with it.” Alix threatened. 

The threat was so ridiculous that Kagami couldn’t help letting out some laughter, “What does that even mean?” Kagami said between laughs. Marc was also letting out some light laughter. 

Alix and Nathaniel joined in the laughter a second later, now the whole group was laughing at the ridiculous threat.

“Alright, Alright.” Alix said, breaking out of the laughter, “Are we ready to go?”

“Marc still doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Kagami pointed out.

“Oh right, C'mere Marc, let me give you some pointers.” Alix grabbed the hood of Mar’s jacket and dragged him to the area next to the staircase where the sidewalk gave them more room.

“So, have you skated before?” Nathaniel asked Kagami.

“I’m quite good on the ice.” 

“Oh cool. I’m not as good on the ice. The movement is more… um,” Nathaniel paused, probably looking for the right word, “abrupt, if that makes any sense. On rollerblades you have to roll with it a little more.” He explained, “No pun intended.”

Kagami nodded, that made some sense. She could already feel how the roller skates gave her a little less control than ice skates. 

“So, how long have you and Alix known each other?” Kagami asked, mostly to keep them from dipping into an awkward silence. 

“About 4 years now. She was the first person to approach me when I first moved to Paris.” Nathaniel answered with a smile, “And she’s stuck with me ever since.”

“How nice.” Kagami responded. 

The conversation dried up fast. Kagami was not very good at small talk. And neither, it seemed, was Nathaniel.

“So, um. How long have you been in Paris?” Nathaniel asked a little awkwardly. 

“Only a couple of months. My Mother moved here to be closer to her main business partners.” Kagami answered, “The only person I knew was Adrien.” She didn’t even know him that well either. They had only met briefly years prior at some important gala.

Nathaniel nodded in understanding, “Moving sucks. You just get picked up and moved somewhere else. You lose all your friends and have to start again somewhere new.”

“Indeed.” Kagami agreed, although it wasn’t like she had any real friends in Japan. Her classmates there never acted like her piers, they just acted friendly while keeping their distance. Even the couples she helped get together hardly talked to her afterward. Nobody had contacted her since she moved away. Adrien had been the first person to ever treat her like an equal.

“I want to thank you for inviting me out today.” Kagami said, “And for helping create these rollerblades for me.”

“Oh yeah, you're welcome. I mean, it was Alix’s idea, but um. Sorry for not finishing yours on time.” Nathaniel responded.

“I did not mind waiting with Alix, she’s good company. Besides, it seems like it allowed you and Marc to have some quality time together.” 

Nathaniel’s face blushed red before he responded, “I- um. I don’t know what- That’s not- We didn’t- Yeah, sure.” 

Kagami smiled, this confirmed something happened while they were alone. She watched Alix take Marc around the corner of the building, probably teaching him how to turn on the skates.

“Nathaniel, do you like Marc?” Kagami asked, being a little blunt, but not overly so.

This question gave Nathaniel pause for a few seconds, “Uh, yeah. He’s become a really good friend of mine.”

“Not what I’m asking. I’m asking if you like Marc,” Kagami ramped up her bluntness, it almost seemed like Nathaniel was living in Egypt, “As something more than a friend.”

Nathaniel turned his eyes away and sighed, “Not you too-”

“I promise, I am not joking or teasing.” Kagami assured him, which made him look back at her, but with a suspicious glint in his eye nonetheless, “Given how you act around each other, I believe you do.”

“Oh, well, um.” Nathaniel failed to get words out for a second as he pulled down the cuff of his jacket and began fidgeting with the bracelet underneath. Kagami had noticed him doing that earlier after Marc had bombarded him with compliments. It seemed to be some kind of nervous tick, “I just don’t know. Marc is- amazing. He’s smart, talented, extremely passionate, his sense of style is just awesome, and the way he talks about me is-” Nathaniel's eyes seemed to lose Kagami as he began to list Marc’s qualities, but suddenly snapped back to her, “So, I mean. It- it's possible.” He finished.

“You should discuss your feelings with him.” Kagami suggested. 

“What!? No! I can’t do that!” Nathaniel exclaimed, “It’ll ruin everything!”

Kagami paused for a second, not entirely sure what to do. If she was being honest, all her romantic advice came from romance mangas, and she wasn’t entirely sure what to do here. Nathaniel seemed worried that his crush would ruin his friendship with Marc. That itself wasn't too uncommon, she had read about it enough, but this scenario was unique to her. Marc and Nathaniel weren't childhood friends, they had only met about a month ago. Neither one of them was the oblivious sporty type, they were more intelligent artist types. She hadn't read any stories where 2 intelligent people who had recently met were too scared to confess because it could ruin their friendship. The situation was new to her and Kagami wasn't exactly sure how to proceed.

"I'm sure it would go perfectly fine." Kagami tried to assure him.

"I'm just not sure, Kagami." Nathaniel responded.

Kagami would have said more but Marc came skating back around the corner once again, followed soon by Alix. "Hey! I'm doing it!" Marc exclaimed as he successfully turned the corner.

"See? Told you it wasn't that hard." Alix was saying as she skated past Marc and up to Kagami and Nathaniel, "He's a fast learner."

Marc came to a somewhat turbulent stop, flailing his arms a little as he slowed, almost falling over in the process. "Yeah, this isn't as hard as I thought it would be." 

"He only fell once, It's pretty impressive." Alix commented. The fall must have happened around the corner, because Kagami hadn't seen it.

"Really?" Nathaniel reacted, "That's crazy! I couldn't tell you how many times I fell the first time." 

"28." Alix, who had assumedly been there, answered.

Nathaniel blinked a few times, "Why do you know that?"

“I also fell quite a lot the first time I was on the ice.” Kagami related, “Marc must have a high natural sense of balance.”

“Uh, yeah.” Marc said, “I’ve always been pretty alright on my feet.”

“Alright, we’ve stood around long enough. Let’s go!” Alix exclaimed, “I’ll race you guys to the river!” She pointed in the general direction of the Seine. 

“Alright, I will show you my speed.” Kagami agreed to the challenge. She could tell the plan to make Marc and Nathaniel spend time together was already underway.

“Wait what?” Marc reacted as Alix took off.

“Guys! Hold up!” Nathaniel shouted as Kagami also took off.

“Try to keep up!” Alix shouted as she skated across the street, disregarding the crosswalk since the street was empty.

“I will do more than that!” Kagami responded as she increased her speed to keep up.

Kagami smiled as she chased Alix through the streets. 

— — — 

“There he is!” Nathaniel shouted as they approached another bridge, one of the ones crossing the river to Île de la Cité, the island that held Notre-Dame. 

After arriving at the riverbank with Alix, with Alix of course winning the little race they had, the two girls had decided that the outing would be more fun if everyone stuck together. But that didn’t mean the plan was a bust. The two boys had caught up a good few minutes later, choosing to skate at a more casual pace. Kagami had talked to Marc about it and he said they had a normal conversation, and normal conversations between them was the goal. So she figured it was a success. 

While waiting, Kagami had struck up a fun conversation with Alix about how she began rollerblading. She apparently had a friend, now ex-girlfriend, who she had been skating with since childhood. Kagami had spoken about how she learned to ice skate. It was a fun conversation, Kagami enjoyed learning more about her new friend. 

After that the group stuck together and skated along the river, crossing bridges every so often to change things up and look for this ice cream man, who they eventually found. Just as predicted, he was on a bridge, his small ice cream cart commanding a line down the bridge. The line was mostly full of couples, fitting of the man’s title of the Sweetheart’s Ice Cream Man.

Kagami had ended up falling on the way there. There had been a particularly rough patch of ground that was almost cobblestone. The rough terrain was too much for Kagami’s ice skater’s instincts and she had ended up losing her balance. Alix’s expression as she helped Kagami was a definite ‘I told you so’ look.

The group also got into line for Andre’s cart, Kagami and Alix purposefully stood so that Marc and Nathaniel stood side by side in front of them, making them look like a couple. It took about 20 minutes to make it through the line in front of them, but soon enough Marc and Nathaniel stood in front of Andre. 

“Ahh! Two young boys here to see me today. I’ve never seen you two here together. A love in its infancy, might I guess?” The large man said in a heavy Italian accent.

Kagami let out a bit of quiet laughter as the ice cream man mistook Marc and Nathaniel for a couple. She noticed Alix doing the same. Kagami couldn’t see the boys faces, but she would bet they had just turned bright red.

“What? No, We’re-” The two boys started at the same time.

“-not a couple.” Marc finished.

“-just friends.” Nathaniel finished.

They turned to look at each other for a moment, confirming to Kagami that their faces had turned a bright red. They gave each other forced looking smiles before turning back to Andre.

“Uh- two separate cones please.” Nathaniel told the man.

Kagami watched the Sweetheart’s Ice Cream man raise an eyebrow at the two clearly-in-denial boys before returning to his previous smiling demeanor, “Very well, a cone for each of you! After all, friendship is a type of love too! For the dark haired boy, a scoop of red velvet, for the roaring passion he feels, and a scoop of blue moon, to symbolize how you are head over heels.” The man pulled a scoop of bright red ice cream and a scoop of turquoise ice cream from his cart onto a cone in the shape of a champagne flute, put a cherry on top, and handed it to Marc. “And for the red haired boy, a scoop of my special rainbow swirl, for the special bond you share, and a scoop of mint chocolate, for the color of his stare.” He said, adding a cherry and then handing it to Nathaniel. “You boys enjoy my ice cream today, and maybe next time you two will have something new to say!” 

“Uh- huh- ho- yeah. Thank you Andre.” Nathaniel responded, seeming to struggle with his words.

“Yeah, thanks.” Marc also said. 

“No problem boys, I hope your relationship lasts a lifetime.” The man then paused and grabbed something from the cart behind him, a phone with a credit card reader attachment, “Now I hate to ask, but how will you be paying today?”

“Oh, I’ll pay for them!” Alix said, stepping forward, “You two can go sit down, we’ll be with you in a second.” Marc and Nathaniel made their way to a nearby bench as Alix and Kagami moved forward, a little farther apart than they were before. 

“Ah! A new face! Wonderful! I am Andre Glacier, the Sweetheart’s Matchmaker! I help everyone in Paris find love with my magical ice cream!” The man introduced himself in a passionate way.

Kagami wasn’t sure about ‘magical ice cream’, the ice cream he handed Marc and Nathaniel didn’t seem magical. It was likely just how he marketed himself, and that fit a city like Paris. 

“Separate cones please.” Alix told the man.

“Very well, an order for each of you. For the girl with pink hair, I’ll start with a scoop of black sesame, it's a bit different but for you I’m sure it works just fine. Next a scoop of matcha, a unique flavor for the side you have yet to divine. And a scoop of honey to finish it off, for her piercing eyes that are a bit feline.” Kagami watched as Andre took out scoops of black, green, and then a golden brown ice cream for Alix’s cone, placed a cherry on top, and then handed it to her. For a moment, Alix looked a little shocked by the ice cream, which Andre also seemed to catch as well. 

“Is something wrong with it?” He asked, sounding concerned. 

“No, na. It’s just different from what I normally get.” Alix said. “It’s not bad, I was just a little surprised.”

“Ah I see. That happens sometimes. I’m not sure what changed, but I hope you enjoy these flavors as well.” Andre told her before turning to Kagami, “And for you, my dear,” He turned to his cart and pulled out a scoop of a pink ice cream and then a scoop of a green ice cream, “A scoop of guava and a scoop of lime. Their flavors something I'm sure you will love, given time.” Andre added a cherry and handed her the cone.

“Thank you very much.” Kagami said as she accepted it. She found it a little strange that the man chose his customer's ice cream for them, but didn't say anything due to how passionate he was. It seemed to be more of an artistic passion than a business, which was probably why it was so popular.

Kagami walked over to the bench that Marc and Nathaniel had gone to, Alix stayed behind for a moment to pay.  She found Marc and Nathaniel sitting on opposite ends of the bench, slightly angled away from each other. Both their faces were bright red, likely due to how unsubtle Andre had been with their ice cream flavors.

Kagami sat down next to Marc, who had begun to eat his ice cream. Kagami also began to eat her own ice cream, the lime scoop had a definite tart, sour flavor, with just a hint of sweetness. It wasn’t a flavor she associated with ice cream but it did taste shockingly good. The scoop of guava was very different, quite sweet and a little flowery in flavor with just the faintest hint of acidity, but not a citrus acidity. It was very good and the flavors actually contrasted well without being a shocking difference. The Sweetheart’s Ice Cream man definitely knew his ice cream. 

“Is it good?” Marc asked her as Alix sat down between her and Nathaniel.

“Yes, it is very good.” Kagami responded before eating a little more, “How about yours?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s really good.” Marc responded.

Kagami lowered her voice slightly, “It seems even the ice cream man can see your crush.” 

“Kagami that’s-” Marc glanced past her towards Nathaniel, who had slipped into a conversation with Alix, “that’s not fair, he’s magic.”

“It’s not magic when it’s that obvious.” Kagami replied.

“No, it's magic because he gave me these flavors before I ever met Nathaniel.” Marc defended, “When Nathaniel didn’t even know who I was.” 

“That’s-” Kagami paused. That definitely didn’t make sense. The flavors Marc had definitely reflected Nathaniel, but if he had gotten these flavors even before meeting Nathaniel. That was surely something supernatural.

Kagami didn’t believe superstitions, but she believed magic was real. The miraculous on her finger was proof enough of magic. Maybe this Andre guy had some kind of magic after all, or maybe he was just very good at reading people.

“Either way, I believe your best option is to discuss your feelings with Nathaniel.” Kagami reaffirmed, “Magic ice cream or no, your feelings are more than friendship, and Nathaniel deserves to know.”

Marc took a long stare at his ice cream, “I think, maybe-”

“What are you two whispering about over here?” Alix asked, turning away from Nathaniel.

“AHH, nothing! We’re-” Marc reacted. 

“We were discussing whether or not Andre’s ice cream really had magical properties to it.” Kagami said to cover for him.

“Oh, it totally does!” Nathaniel exclaimed, “Like all of the couples in our class have incredible stories about Andre’s ice cream.”

“Especially Marinette and Adrien,” Alix jumped in, “They had gotten ice cream from him separately a few times, and they could tell that their cones represented each other, even though Andre had never seen them together. When they finally went together, Andre shouted in joy how they were ‘together at last’.”

“Thousands of couples say that Andre knows them by name and always gives them the same flavors.” Marc jumped in, “He’s told people things about their feelings that they’d never told anyone before. His ice cream reads your soul.”

“He’s either magic or a supergenius.” Alix stated.

Kagami blinked, it seems that there was more to this debate than she previously thought, “Do you really think people can have magical abilities like that?” Kagami asked.

"Oh yeah totally. Juleka's brother, Luka, can like hear people's souls as music. He's so sensitive with his ability that he can't attend normal school because of the all the music he hears from everyone around him." Alix explained.

Kagami recognised the name, she believed it was the cyan haired boy she had met when she had gone to that boat concert. She had talked with him a little, he seemed very nice. She wondered what her soul sounded like to him. She would ask the next time they met.

"Alix, what flavors are those?" Nathaniel asked her, “They’re different from last time.”

"Black sesame, matcha, and honey." 

"They taste good?" 

"Oh yeah, really good." Alix answered before finishing off the scoop of honey ice cream.

"Your flavors changed?" Marc asked, "That's a really big deal."

"Is it?" Alix responded skeptically.

"Oh yeah. It means someone new came into your life that you share a special connection with." Marc explained, "Can you think of anyone?"

Alix paused for a moment, "Um, Kagami, maybe. I don't know man."

"You seem very invested in this ice cream." Kagami commented.

"Of course I am, it's magic ice cream!" Marc defended.

"It's not that magical." Alix countered.

"Any magic that can read people's hearts like Andre does is important enough magic in my book." Marc argued, "Anyway, you said it might represent Kagami?"

"I mean, maybe? I don't know!" Alix looked at Kagami and shrugged, Kagami gave a small shrug in response, "She's my only 'new' relationship recently."

"So, you think the ice cream is saying Alix and I are going to fall in love?" Kagami asked. It didn't seem very likely to Kagami, they had only met a few weeks ago.

"Not necessarily, as Andre said, friendship is a type of love too! You could be destined to form just a great bond of friendship." Marc continued. 

"Yeah, a great friendship!" Nathaniel backed up.

Kagami made eye contact with Alix, who also seemed to understand their point. "You guys are projecting this a little too hard." Alix stated.

Kagami chuckled a little as Marc and Nathaniel's faces began to blush red again.

"Besides, if this ice cream does represent Kagami, what does the green mean?" Alix asked, quickly changing the topic.

"Green is not my color." Kagami said. She much preferred red. 

"I don't know. Alix, what was the little rhyme he gave you?” Nathaniel asked.

“The rhyme? Uhmm, first scoop is different but works fine, next scoop is unique for a side I’ve yet to divine, and the last scoop was for her eyes.” Alix said, summarizing the rhyme Andre had told her.

“That didn’t rhyme.” Marc pointed out. 

“I was paraphrasing.” Alix responded.

“So it’s about a part of Kagami you don’t know about yet.” Nathaniel said, turning his eyes to look at her. 

Kagami gave him a shrug, “I can’t think of any green related secrets.” Actually, she absolutely could. She had a miraculous on her right middle finger that turned black and green when not disguised, along with a matching tiny god in her jacket pocket. At the moment the ring was red with a circle of gold on the front, so no green on her. 

“It doesn’t matter too much, it’s still good ice cream.” Alix stated

“Agreed.” Kagami agreed, it was good ice cream.

“I guess, yeah.” Nathaniel gave in.

“I’m sure we’ll find the answers in time.” Marc added. 

“We? Focus on your own ice cream there.” Alix responded with a small smirk.

“What? Mine?” Marc startled slightly at this. 

“Yeah, what do you think your ice cream means, Marc?” Alix pushed, “I mean, Andre’s rhyme when he gave it to you mentioned you being head over heels, so it’s clearly romantic. Who do you think it’s about?”

Kagami thought this was a tad bit mean of Alix, given Nathaniel was right there and Marc clearly wasn’t ready to talk about his feelings yet. However, Kagami would agree that it was quite funny to tease the boys about their mutual crushes. 

“Red velvet and blue moon right?" Kagami joined in, "Who do you think that is, Marc?" 

"Who knows?" Marc asked, looking away from the group.

"Could be anyone." Nathaniel murmured, also looking in the other direction.

"Damn, they're almost in the Mediterranean." Alix commented just as Kagami was finishing off her scoop of lime, causing her to laugh before she could swallow. The laugh caused the ice cream she had just eaten to come spewing through her lips.

Kagami covered her mouth a moment later, she felt a blush appear on her cheeks just as Alix began to laugh. On her other side, Marc also began to laugh. Kagami pulled out a small packet of tissues from one of her jacket pockets and began wiping off her mouth. As Nathaniel also began to laugh, Kagami found her lips curling up into a smile. She found herself downright grinning as she stuffed the tissue into a plastic lined pocket in her jacket, one specifically for small pieces of trash.

Kagami felt… good. Despite the embarrassing ice cream spit-take she had just done, being surrounded by laughing friends felt good, it felt really good. It felt right, like she belonged here. Oddly, Kagami felt like she had just satisfied an inch she hadn't known was there.

It was the first time Kagami had felt like she was really part of the group. She had always been the person who had to ask to come along. The friend of a friend who everyone else kind of knew. A bit of an outsider, she didn't know everyone and they didn't treat her the same as everyone else.

Adrien had been the first to treat her as a friend and equal. He had been the first person her age to make her feel like she could be herself. Around him, she didn't feel like she had to be a Tsurugi, she could just be Kagami. Marinette had been the second, after she and Adrien started dating. It was nice, but it felt a little different. Whenever Kagami hung out with them she felt like a third wheel. It wasn't like Adrien treated her any differently, he and Marinette were just so romantic with each other that she just felt a little out of place.

But here, with this group, eating 'magic' ice cream on a bridge, with her custom rollerblades on her feet, and a weird tomato helmet on her head. It was weird, but it felt right.

As her friend's laughter faded away, Kagami felt a few tears escape her eyes and fall down her face. She definitely didn’t want to cry, she was really happy right now, but the tears came out regardless.

"Oh hey," Alix noticed first, putting a hand on her shoulder, "You good Kagami?"

"Yeah, I, uh." Kagami wiped her face as Marc and Nathaniel also turned their attention to her, "It’s nothing. I just-” Kagami paused, a little unsure herself about why the tears were there. There was only one reason she could think of. “Ever since Adrien and Marinette left, I think I've been…" Kagami trailed off, a little unsure of what she was saying and a little scared of continuing.

"Lonely?" Nathaniel provided, voicing her thoughts pretty succinctly.

"Yes, that." Kagami wiped away another tear, "You three invited me out today and I- uhm.." Kagami felt her words fail her. She didn't know what she wanted to say, or what she was trying to get across. It was also pretty embarrassing trying and failing to talk like this. How did Marc do it so often?

She wiped away a few more tears. It was embarrassing, her friends had invited her out, made her these nice skates, and bought her ice cream, and here she was crying. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be-"

"Kagami, come here." Alix said, despite being right next to her.

As Kagami turned her body towards Alix, she was suddenly pulled towards Alix, her arms wrapped around Kagami. 

"Oh, um-" Kagami wasn't exactly sure what to do. Alix held her tight, her arms felt stronger than Kagami would have guessed. She noticed Nathaniel holding Alix’s ice cream in one of his hands. Nathaniel flashed her a smile as he put Alix’s ice cream in his other hand, holding both his and Alix’s with one hand, and then grabbing Kagami’s ice cream out of her hand.

Hands free, Kagami softly, and a little awkwardly, put her hands around Alix as well. “It’s alright, Kagami. We’re your friends, a few tears won’t change that.” Kagami felt one of her tears flow down her face and drop onto Alix’s shoulder, “Especially not happy ones.” Alix slowly pulled away. Kagami almost wanted to pull her back, the hug had felt good, but she stopped herself, letting her hands fall into her lap. Alix’s hands stayed on Kagami’s shoulders for a second longer, “These are happy tears right?” Alix asked, a slightly concerned look on her face. 

A small laugh escaped Kagami’s mouth before she responded, “Yes, definitely.” Alix let go of Kagami fully and took her own and Kagami’s ice cream from Nathaniel.

“Thank you.” Kagami said as Alix handed her ice cream back to her.

“For what exactly?” Alix asked before beginning to eat her ice cream again.

Kagami considered what to answer. Thanks for the hug? The ice cream? The skates? Inviting her along? For treating her normally? For being her friend?

“Everything, I guess.” Kagami decided. The answer didn’t make a ton of logical sense, but Alix responded with a grin. 

“I’d hug you again, but this black sesame stuff is really good and I’m not handing it to Nathaniel again.” Alix pointed to the side of the black scoop, where there was a small smudge of color, “Look, he got his gay ice cream on it.”

“It’s rainbow swirl!” Nathaniel exclaimed in response.

“Gay.” Alix responded.

Kagami felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her attention away from Alix and Nathaniel’s banter. She turned to see Marc, his eyes looking a bit moist. “Kagami, if you hadn’t gone with me to the art room that day, I probably would have never really met Nathaniel, or Alix. I’d probably still be alone under the stairs, too afraid to share my writing with anyone.” Marc dabbed at his eyes with his jacket sleeve as they welled up with tears, “I just can’t thank you enough, you really changed my life.”

Kagami put her own hand on Marc’s shoulder. It honestly felt a little awkward and she wasn’t sure if it was really the right thing to do in that moment, but she felt like some physical contact was right and wasn’t sure what else to do. “Had you not been there, I would not have gone in myself.” Kagami told him. 

Marc responded to this by throwing his head back and looking straight up at the sky. Kagami blinked at him, she wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. 

“What are you doing?” She asked as she wiped away the last of her tears from her eyes. She hoped they were the last ones at least.

“If I cry, it’ll ruin my makeup.” Kagami heard emotion in Marc’s voice as he reached up to dab at his eyes with his jacket sleeve again.

"I wasn't aware you wore makeup."

"Just a little to cover my eye bags, and a little eyeliner sometimes." Marc explained, lowering his face back down and blinking whatever tears remained in his eyes away, "It's cheap stuff so it runs way too easily."

"Alright guys," Nathaniel began, getting up from the bench to stand in front of the three of them who were still sitting, "I propose a toast!" He held out his ice cream in front of him.

"A toast? Really?" Alix questioned, raising an eyebrow at Nathaniel.

"Yeah! Why not?" Nathaniel responded, "A toast to our friendship, and a promise to never betray it! How's that sound?"

Marc began to laugh and he held his ice cream out and tapped the bottom of his champagne flute shaped cone with Nathaniel's.

"Alright then, to friendship!" Alix agreed, raing her ice cream cone to meet with the boys' cones.

Kagami felt the smile on her lips grow into a full grin as she raised her ice cream as well. She had made a lot of toasts before, in all kinds of places with all kinds of people. She had made toasts in the largest ballrooms, using expensive glasses, and using wine centuries old. However, this toast, made with half eaten ice cream cones in the middle of a bridge, was definitely the first one that meant anything to her.

— — — — — — — — — — 

Chloe ordered her servants to put the bags onto her couch. She would have Sabrina and Jean-Pierre sort and organize them later. She had been shopping at non Style Queen approved boutiques for about the past 6 hours, she was exhausted. Her feet hurt from all the walking so she desperately wanted a foot rub from the Hotel’s masseuse. Unfortunately that would have to wait. After all, she was busy stirring controversy. 

Chloe would have continued shopping if she could. However, people had begun to find her and follow her from store to store. Fashion reporters and bloggers hoping to get a scoop on the greatest style crime in history, Chloe had been ignoring them for a while, but eventually they got too annoying so she ended her shopping spree. In terms of amount of clothes, the clothes she bought would barely fill 10% of her closet. If she wanted to fill her closet one again she would need a few more shopping trips, but that would come later. 

She entered her closet and grabbed her phone off the empty shelf. The battery was half dead just from the notifications coming in and keeping the screen on the whole time. Only a couple of them actually caught her eye. She had a missed call from Adrien, it was at least nice to see he remembered she existed after ditching her in Paris to be with his ridiculous girlfriend in New York. She also had about 30 missed calls from Daddy, he had also been trying to call Sabrina while they had been out shopping but Chloe ordered Sabrina not to answer. Chloe quickly cleared her thousands of notifications and then muted them. She didn’t care at all about all the losers online giving their worthless opinions.

Chloe left her closet and shooed all the servants out of her room, except for Sabrina. Chloe then walked over and took a few selfies with her bags of new clothes sitting in the background behind her. Choosing the cutest one, Chloe posted it to Instagram with the label of 'Updating my wardrobe!!'. Seconds after she posted it, hundreds of comments appeared. She scoffed and handed her phone to Sabrina. "Go plug this in." She ordered and Sabrina immediately took it and went to plug it in.

"Jean-Henri!" Chloé called out for her butler, the man obediently coming through her door a second later, "Move all this to my closet, and organize it too!" She ordered and he immediately began, grabbing the bags from the couch and moving them into her closet.

Chloé pulled off her shoes and laid back on her couch. Creating this controversy was such hard work, she was absolutely exhausted. She felt like she deserved a nice long break.

"Sabrina!" Chloé called out and the ginger girl was in front of her a second later, "Turn on a show I'll like, and call the masseuse. I want a foot rub." She ordered, "and tell her to bring her good oils, none of that flowery shit she uses on the guests."

"Yes Chloé, anything else?" 

Just then, someone began knocking on her door, "Chloé darling, it's Daddy. May I come in, dear?"

"Uhg, go open the door." Chloé ordered.

Sabrina scampered over to the door and opened it. Daddy walked through the door, holding a tablet with both his hands.

"Darling, your mother would like a word with you." Daddy said, walking over to her, he turned the tablet around to show a video call with her mother on the other end.

Normally, Chloe would be ecstatic that her mom actually wanted to talk to her. Chloe literally could not remember a time her mother had ever initiated a conversation with Chloe. Audrey simply could never be bothered to acknowledge her daughter. But now that Chloe had disrespected her precious brand, she suddenly wanted to talk.

Chloe wasn’t stupid, she could see exactly where her mother’s priorities lay.

Although the idea of grabbing the tablet and begging for her mother’s forgiveness was in the back of her brain, she pushed the thought away. Chloe needed to focus if she wanted any amount of attention from her mother.

“What do you want?” Chloe asked, adding as much acid to her voice as possible as she inspected her nails to look uninterested. 

“How dare you!!?” Audrey spit back at her, “You gave masterpieces to some shitty store where poor people buy each other’s clothes! I barely tolerated a nobody like you wearing those in the first place but now-”

“UUUUUHHHHHGGGGG!!!!” Chloe groaned loudly, cutting her mother off, “I was just clearing the outdated clothes from my closet. What's the problem?”

“Outdated!? OUTDATED!?” Her mother screamed in response, “I am the goddess of the fashion world, you are a nobody who was lucky enough to be my daughter! How dare y-”

“Uhhhg!” Chloe groaned again, “Can we do this later? I’m busy right now.”

“WHAT? You misr-” Audrey began but Chloe reached over and hit the end call button.

“Sabrina! Order us some smoothies from the kitchen! And I believe I told you to put on a show for me to watch!” Chloe shouted. 

“Yes Chloe! Coming right up!” Sabrina responded

“Chloe, darling, did you just hang up on your mother?” Daddykins asked her as if he hadn’t just watched her do it.

“Yeah, what about it?” Chloe responded as if she didn’t know what was about it. She did. Nobody hung up on Audrey Bourgeois. Not unless they wanted their life ruined. Even if you didn’t work in fashion, there was a good chance Audrey Bourgeois could ruin your life. You did not disrespect the Queen of Fashion itself. 

And Chloe had done just that, She had donated Style Queen masterpieces. She had called the Queen of Fashion outdated, and she had hung up on Audrey Bourgeois. A triple combo of doom. The ultimate slight on the queen’s name. The thing that angered her more than anything else in this world. 

Disrespect.

“Honey, you know what your mother is like. You’re making me scared for your safety..” Daddy said, tapping his fingers on the tablet in his hands. “And mine…” he added at the end. 

“ What- ever. Now, get out of my room. I want some time to myself.” Chloe ordered, gesturing for him to leave.

“Chloe, my princess, I really think we should discuss this a little more.” Daddy said, annoyingly not leaving as she ordered, “This is very serious.”

“Oh, blah! How serious can it be, she’s not even in France, she’s over in New York!” Chloe exclaimed, getting up from the couch. She began to push her father out of her room. Her father, ever the weak man, let it happen.

“Chloe, please!” Her father pleaded as she pushed him out the door.

“Maybe I’ll talk to Mom, when she bothers to remember my name!” Chloe yelled as she slammed the door. She let her demeanor crack a little with that last sentence. But once she slammed the door she let the facade fall fully. Chloe slid to her knees in front of the door. The mix of anger and despair in her stomach made her unable to keep her balance. 

“A nobody…” Chloe repeated to herself. That’s what her mother had called her. That’s what her mother thought of her. Not as a daughter, or family, or anyone important. Just another nobody.

Chloe quickly pulled herself together. She had to seem cool and confident. If she got akumatized people would just say she was an emotional teenager and her controversy stirring would be for nothing. It would all go down the drain. 

She got off the floor and turned around just in time to lock her eyes onto the akuma fluttering just outside her window. She sent it a glare and it turned around and flew the other direction. Good. 

“Sabrina! Why haven’t you turned on the show yet?” Chloe yelled across the room. 

“I ordered the smoothies and told the masseuse to come up with her good oils. I was just about to find a show for you.” Sabrina told her. 

“You should have put on the show first so you weren’t keeping me waiting!” Chloe chastised the girl, “You’re ridiculous, Sabrina, utterly ridiculous!”

— — — — — — — — — — 

After finishing the ice cream, the group had rushed back to the school to grab their shoes and bags before the doors got locked. After that the group went and met up with Kim and Max at the arcade. Nathaniel enjoyed the arcade, it was a fun place even if it tended to be a little old school. He ended up showing Marc the ropes on a lot of the games while Alix and Kagami went head to head at every game that allowed them to compete. They spent an especially long time at the DDR machine, Alix defending her title as the so-called ‘Dance Queen’ which nobody called her. 

After a few hours, Marc headed home. Kagami left a little while later, saying she had somewhere to be. Alix left soon after Kagami, apparently also remembering somewhere she was supposed to be. Max and Kim invited Nathaniel to the sleepover and video game party, which he declined. He had spent most of the day around people and his social battery was running a little low. Also, Kim was just a lot to be around sometimes.

As he began to walk home, he noticed the sun getting lower. Since it was Heroes Day, and a Friday night, he knew that the city would hardly be quieting down after sunset. The people celebrating the holiday would keep celebrating until the morning. It was just that kind of night.

Suddenly his phone buzzed with a text. Checking it, he found it to be from Marc. 

WordSmith

meet me here

*location.lcn*

Well that was ominous. 

Checking the location, Nathaniel found it to be a small park a few blocks away from Marc’s house. Honestly it was a little closer to Nathaniel’s house than Marc’s. It wasn’t too far out of his way home. 

The message was strangely short. Normally Marc’s messages weren’t as succinct, and tended to include more emojis. The simplicity of the message made him a little anxious. The thought crossed his mind it was some prank. Somebody had taken Marc’s phone to lure him to the park. They would rip up his artwork, beat him up, maybe even steal his binder. Yelling all kinds of awful things at him as they did so.

Or maybe it was Hawkmoth, who somehow found out he was Caprikid. The supervillain had kidnapped Marc to lure him in. Force Nathaniel to tell secrets he didn’t even know.  Or maybe the villain would just kill him. Caprikid had kicked Hawkmoth in the balls earlier, and the head, and the ribs. Nathaniel had hit him a lot, surely the man who terrorized the city wouldn’t think twice about killing him.

Nathaniel just about psyched himself out. He was close to simply running home and locking his door. However, he managed to calm down. The people that used to do that to him were gone. They had each been expelled and their families moved out of Paris one by one. Alix had used an enormous amount of the blackmail and favors she had on Chloe to make that happen. And Hawkmoth couldn’t possibly know his secret identity. As Caprikid he consistently detransformed in the safe location Nike Rouge told him to whenever he had to return his miraculous, ensuring nobody followed him.

Nathaniel made his way to the park Marc had told him to meet him at. He surveyed the area. Marc was sitting alone on a bench surrounded by a few trees. There wasn't really anybody else around, There was another couple on a bench on the opposite side of the park from where Marc was and that one pigeon guy who was always getting akumatized sat near the center of the park, feeding some birds. Other than that, the park was empty.

Nathaniel made his way over to Marc. As Marc noticed him approaching, he waved at Nathaniel before grabbing both sides of his jacket and pulling the jacket a little tighter around himself. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Nathaniel asked him. 

“Uh, hey. I, um-” Marc stammered, “I just- wanted to talk. Do you want to-” Marc made a small gesture to the empty section of the bench next to him. 

“Oh alright.” Nathaniel sat down on the bench, a little worried about whatever Marc wanted to talk about. He seemed nervous about whatever it was. Nathaniel’s brain told him it was something bad. Like he didn’t want to make the comic book anymore, or maybe he had been uncomfortable with how Nathaniel had offered to hold his hand earlier when trying to teach him how to skate and he wanted to set boundaries. Maybe he was so uncomfortable with Andre thinking they were a couple that he didn’t want to hang out anymore. “About what, specifically?” Nathaniel managed to ask.

“Well, earlier I was talking to Kagami about… uh-” Marc paused, glancing at Nathaniel for a moment, “Well, uhm, she gave me some advice and I- I thought I should follow it. But now I’m-” Marc pulled his jacket a little tighter around himself, “I’m not so sure anymore.”

Nathaniel thought back to his own conversation with Kagami. She had recommended he talk with Marc about his feelings. Nathaniel hadn’t really listened to her. He was too scared to lose his friendship with Marc to even consider the possibility of things going right. But if Kagami had also talked to Marc, did that mean Marc had similar feelings? And if so that mean Marc had called him out here to talk about-

“Uh, Kagami, did she give you advice about… us?” Nathaniel asked, still a little hesitant.

Marc’s gaze moved up from the grass in front of them and looked at Nathaniel. He blushed red and looked back at the ground before nodding his head.

“Yeah, she… talked to me too.” Nathaniel admitted. He felt his hand pull down his jacket sleeve and begin fidgeting with the bracelet underneath. The bracelet was bronze with hearts going all the way around, a small piece of chain between each of the 6 hearts. It was the first present Mom had ever given him. He tended to fiddle with it whenever he felt particularly anxious or nervous, it helped keep him thinking rationally. 

At his comment, Marc looked up, eyes wide and face still red, “Uh, really?”

Nathaniel nodded, he could feel his face turning red as well, “She told me I should talk to you about… our feelings. But-” Nathaniel paused, talking in a breath and letting out a bit of a shaky one, “I was scared it would ruin our friendship.” He got out.

Both of them were silent for a few moments before Marc snapped his gaze back to the ground and spoke again. “So, maybe, if one of us had feelings that may be more than friendship. Uhm, would that be a problem? With you that is?” 

Nathaniel’s body tensed up. He knew what Marc was really asking. He was asking if it would ruin their friendship if he confessed to Nathaniel. A question Nathaniel had also been wanting to ask Marc. 

Was this really happening?

“I- uh, well- No.” Nathaniel stammered out. He really wanted to say more but he couldn’t manage to. Nathaniel would love it if Marc felt the same way. It would be the only crush Nathaniel ever had that was mutual. He would be ecstatic. 

“Nathaniel, I-” Marc suddenly turned to him, his hands flying away from his jacket, one going to the bench in between them and one being clenched at his side, “I really like you, as more than a friend!”

Nathaniel felt his face burn like it never had before. It was happening! “Like, romantically?” He asked, feeling stupid as it left his mouth. 

“Yes!” Marc exclaimed in response, “I have a big gay crush on you Nathaniel! And I want to be more than friends!”

Nathaniel took a breath and swallowed a mass of nothing in his throat. This was really happening!! “Marc I would love to be,” Nathaniel moved his hand and set it on top of the hand Marc had placed on the bench, “your boyfriend.” 

Marc’s eyes went wide and his face turned the deepest red Nathaniel had ever seen it be. A massive grin appeared on his face and he grabbed his face with his hand that Nathaniel wasn’t touching and leaned back against the bench, “Oh my- shit.” Nathaniel heard Marc mutter. 

Nathaniel also felt himself grinning. He followed Marc’s lead and leaned back against the bench. He felt exhausted and invigorated at the same time. He felt like he could run to Japan but also like he would fall if he stood from the bench.

Nathaniel’s brain struggled to process what had happened. It hadn’t been 5 minutes since he arrived here but Marc had confessed to him and Nathaniel had said he would be his boyfriend and… They were dating now right? That’s what had happened? Nathaniel had a boyfriend now?

Well shit.

“So, what now?” Marc asked, his hand away from his face now. Nathaniel didn’t really have an answer. If they were dating, should they kiss now? Nathaniel’s brain felt like it was melting as the thought of kissing Marc entered his mind. He definitely wasn’t ready for that.

“I don’t know.” Nathaniel admitted. Marc was the first boyfriend Nathaniel had ever had, the first person he had ever dated. He didn’t know how this shit worked.

“Do we tell everyone?” Marc asked.

“I-” Nathaniel began and then paused. He didn’t really know. He loved his friends, but they could be a little intense when it came to romance, himself included. When Marinette and Adrien started dating it was basically all they talked about. Their group chat was filled with pictures of the two of them doing the most mundane shit together. Everyone wanted to know about every tiny step the two took together. The same thing had happened when Kim began dating Ondine. The gang could be a little crazy about romance. 

“Our friends can be a little intense.” Nathaniel said, “Maybe we should keep quiet for a little bit.” 

“Oh, yeah. That sounds smart.” Marc agreed.

“Oh by the way.” Nathaniel began, figuring he should tell Marc since they were dating now, “I’m trans. I was born a girl, but I’m a boy.”

“Oh, yeah. I get it.” Marc responded. No judgment, no asking why, Just acceptance. He was amazing.

The two were silent for a moment, watching as the sun began to set, dyeing the sky above them with beautiful hues of orange and pink. Nathaniel watched it set, enjoying the warmth of his boyfriend’s hand under his own.

“I don’t always feel like a boy.” Marc said, breaking the silence, “Maybe non-binary, but not quite. I’ve been looking into this demiboy thing. It’s kind of like between male and non-binary, or like both at once. I don’t fully get it but it feels closest to what I feel like.” 

“Whatever you decide, I’ll be here for you.” Nathaniel said, slightly rubbing his thumb on the back of Marc’s hand. He hoped that was comforting. Again, Nathaniel had no idea what he was doing.

They stayed there for a little while longer, in comfortable silence as they watched the sun set, enjoying each other’s company in the new context of dating. It felt good. Before there was always this feeling when he was with Marc, some tension or secret between them that they didn’t talk about, and that was gone now. 

Everything just felt right.

— — — — — — — — — — 

Alix swung through the streets of Paris as Nike Rouge, heading towards the Eiffel Tower where she promised to meet up with Kishi. It was around 8:30 and the sun had just finished setting over Paris. Kishi had texted to meet her at the Eiffel Tower, at the spot they usually met up at.

She found Kishi there already waiting for her.

“Hey partner.” Nike said as she landed beside Kishi, “How was your Heroes’ Day?”

Kishi looked over at her with a smile, “It was wonderful.”

Nike gave her a smile back, “Well awesome!” Nike sat down next to her partner, “So what mischief did you want to make with me tonight?”

Kishi raised an eyebrow at her, "Let's leave the mischief to Hawkmoth."

“Oh contare, mischief is fully within my duties. What Hawkmoth does is way past mischief, it’s terrorism.” Nike defended.

“Fair enough. Unfortunately, I don’t have any mischief planned tonight, or anything else.” Kishi explained, “I just thought we could wander around and find something to do together.”

“Sounds great! We should find somewhere to eat first, I’m starving.” Nike suggested. She had skipped lunch to finish the skates with Nathaniel and her dinner had been whatever junk food they had at the arcade.

“That is a good idea.” Kishi replied, “Many restaurants are offering special meals for Heroes Day, we should find one of those.”

“Oh, really? Let’s do that then!” Nike agreed. It sounded fun to order something based on herself.

Kishi nodded, stood up, and leapt off the tower. Nike followed close behind her.

Alix spent the rest of the night enjoying the festivities with her partner, and causing a little mischief along the way.

— — — — — — — — — — 

The next day, Kagami realized her flaw. What she had gotten wrong when giving advice to Nathaniel the previous day.

After getting out all the manga she had with the plot point of ‘afraid to confess out of fear of ruining their friendship’ and flipping through them, Kagami realized the error within her knowledge. 

All of the manga she had read had protagonists of opposite genders. 

Marc and Nathaniel were both boys.

Kagami quickly got onto her computer and began ordering BL manga so she could better give advice to her friends.

Chapter Text

Fei Wu exited the Charles de Gaulle Airport, finally. It had taken her almost an hour to find the exit to the massive structure. She didn’t know what to do from there. She had spent all her savings on a ticket to Paris and she didn’t have a phone so she couldn’t get even access GPS for help. Cash had loaned her a phone while she had worked for him, but she had returned it before she left so she would not be indebted to him. Or, rather, she had returned it to one of his goons. The con man himself had been nowhere to be found. 

Looking around, Fei saw taxis and buses lined up around an area designed to pick up tourists. She saw an area labeled pickups where people were placing their luggage and getting into cars that had apparently been waiting to pick them up. None of that Fei could use. All she had was a few hundred yuan in her pocket, the clothes in her backpack, and the bracelet that she had found inside the Sacred Cave. A bracelet that had previously been stolen from her. 

She had also picked up a paper map of Paris while inside of the airport, and that's all she had for directions in this massive city. She didn’t even have any transportation other than her own feet. 

“Hurry Fei, onto the metal carriages! We must save the Renlings from the villain who has taken them!” A deep voice yelled from where her companion, Mei Shi, hid under her arm splint. Mei Shi was a small blue lion-like creature who had appeared when she had put on the bracelet which had been left in the wall of the sacred cave. He claimed to be the protector of the Prodigious, the apparent name of the treasure her family had guarded for generations. 

The treasure that had been stolen by the man known as Hawkmoth.

“I can’t, Mei Shi, I have no money.” Fei explained.

“You humans and all your currency.” Mei Shi said with a sigh, “Explain your quest to them and they are sure to assist you.”

“No, people nowadays are lacking in compassion.” Fei argued, “They do not care about your troubles unless you pay them too.”

“Fei, there is always someone out there waiting to help, you simply have to find them.” Mei Shi advised.

Fei hoped Mei Shi was right. The man she was chasing was as elusive as they came. From what she had gathered, he had only been seen in person once or twice despite being able to hold an entire city captive with his presence. It would not be easy to take back her family’s treasure alone. Fei knew the city had heroes who she hoped to convince to help her, if she could find them. 

However, her current predicament was solvable. She had two good feet that could take her further into Paris, even if it would take her a while. She would simply walk alongside the roads the cars took. The roads and the map she picked up would guide her where she needed to go just fine.

Fei turned away from the line of vehicles and began to walk. The journey would be long, so she had better start sooner rather than later.

As she passed by the pickups area, she noticed an expensive looking black car with a tall, serious looking woman with a red streak of hair waiting by it. She definitely looked like she had money, Fei could-

Fei shook her head and turned her attention away. She had become far too used to stealing for Cash. That was not her life anymore. She knew the name of the man who had brought ruin to her family, Cash had no power over her now, wherever he was.

As Fei walked past the woman, she felt a force suddenly collide with her. It did not knock Fei over, but the person who had run into her fell to the ground.

Fei turned to see a cute girl roughly her age now on the ground next to her, her dark blue hair in pigtails. She wore a white shirt with a pink flower pattern with a dark gray blazer and pink pants. Her pink suitcase was also knocked over next to her.

“Oh, oww.” The girl said as she rubbed her backside, the girl looked up at Fei with an apologetic smile, “Sorry about that, I’m a total clutz. Are you alright?”

“I was not harmed, do not worry.” Fei responded, extending her available hand to help the girl up, which she accepted. As Fei pulled the girl up, she noticed the girl’s blue eyes drift to her arm splint, made up of a sturdy piece of wood and a ripped up old t-shirt. It wasn’t pretty but it was functional, Fei had noticed many people glancing at it along her journey. 

“Sorry for running into you, the name’s Marinette!” The girl introduced herself, shaking Fei’s hand instead of letting go. 

“Well met Marinette.” Fei responded before pulling her hand away from the girl’s grasp. She turned from Marinette after the exchange to continue on her way, barely giving the mundane interaction a second thought.

“Hold on!” The girl called after her. A second later the dark haired girl was standing in front of Fei again, “You didn’t tell me your name, so we haven’t really met.”

“That is not necessary. Goodbye Marinette.” Fei did not make a habit of giving out her name to anyone, a habit left over from her time working for Cash.

“Oh, alright then. Stay safe then!” Marinette said as Fei stepped around the girl and continued on her way.

A few paces later, Mei Shi popped his head out of his hiding spot, “Fei, I believe this Marinette girl was put in your path for a reason. Perhaps she is the one waiting to help you.”

Fei raised an eyebrow at her companion “She does not seem particularly reliable.” The girl seemed a bit airheaded and she herself had said she was a clutz, "Also, I'm not going to beg a random teenager to help with my problems."

“Her aura bears a familiar scent, a fateful scent. I believe she could be of great help towards your goal.” 

Fei frowned down at the small lion-like creature that haunted her arm splint. It was not that she did not trust Mei Shi's judgement, but that she didn't want to involve strangers in her business. She was simply used to taking care of things by herself and hated the feeling of being indebted to others.

"It's not necessary, Mei Shi. Walking will solve the issue just fine." Fei argued. 

"You plan to walk all the way to the downtown area from here?" Mei Shi asked, sounding almost aghast at the idea. "Every minute you would waste walking is a minute that the prodigious is left in the hands of that unworthy man."

"I don't have another option, I have no money and I'm not asking a stranger for a ride."

"She's no stranger, her scent is fate-filled, and she introduced herself."

"I don't know her, this is the first time we're meeting. She's a stranger, Mei Shi."

Fei held the lion creature's gaze, his swirled eyebrows angled together as the stare kept on and Fei still refused to go beg help from some random girl she just met for a ride into the city.

"Fine," Mei Shi said, floating out from his hiding spot within her splint, "I'll just go ask her myself."

"What? No!" Fei exclaimed, snatching Mei Shi out of the air with her good arm, dropping the map and letting it fall to the ground. "Weren't you the one who said I had to keep you hidden?"

"That's true but her scent-" Mei Shi began.

"Is fate-filled, I heard you Mei Shi." Fei took a deep breath, and relented, "Very well, I will go ask her for help .” Fei stuffed her companion back under her split wrappings and turned around to go back to speak with Marinette again. 

The girl was currently talking to the tall serious looking woman Fei had noticed earlier. She was now accompanied by a handsome blond boy. An extremely large man was putting her pink suitcase into the back of the expensive looking black car, along with a black suitcase with green accents. As Fei walked back to the girl, Marinette noticed her approach and turned away from the woman she was speaking to. However, before she could get close, the large man stepped in front of her, a glare on his face.

“Hold on!” Marinette exclaimed, stepping in front of the large man, causing him to step back a few steps, “Is something wrong? Did something break when I ran into you?”

“No, I just-,” Fei replied, she felt a little awkward. "I want to apologize. I was slightly rude earlier, I am named Fei. I am sorry for stepping in your path earlier, I was absorbed in my thoughts." Fei wasn’t used to asking for favors, the words weren't really coming to her naturally, “I need to get to the city, but I don’t have a ride, or any money. I was thinking that maybe fate had-”

“This is not a taxi service, young lady.” The tall woman said coldly, cutting Fei off and walking up to stand just behind Marinette, “Please move along.”

Fei cast her eyes down, she knew this wouldn’t work. She moved to turn away when the handsome blond boy spoke up, “Wait a second. Nathalie, we can’t just leave her here alone.”

“Adrien, your father is waiting for you two. You know he does not like to be kept waiting.” The woman, Nathalie apparently, told the blond boy, apparently named Adrien, “We do not have time to drive a random girl around, I’m sure she will be fine.”

“I do not need to be taken anywhere specific,” Fei jumped in, “Just being taken closer to the city center would be incredibly helpful.” In all honestly, now that the idea of a car ride was in her head, Fei was reluctant to go back to her plan of walking into the city. 

“Nathalie, it’s just a car ride. It’s not like she’s asking you to take her into the mansion. Please, let us help her.” Marinette pleaded with the strict woman.

The woman took a second to answer, looking between the three of them, before sighing, “Very well. We can let her out a few blocks before we arrive. Get in.”

“Thank you Nathalie!” Both Adrien and Marinette exclaimed, Adrien moving in to give the woman a hug, which made a smile crack through her hard demeanor.

“Thank you very much.” Fei said respectfully as the large man opened the car door.

Fei climbed in the car and moved to the opposite seat, Marinette climbed in next and then Adrien. Nathalie climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine of the car as the large man got into the passenger’s side. Soon they were pulling away from the airport.

“I am Fei Wu, daughter of Wu Shifu. A pleasure to meet you.” Fei introduced herself once again, using her father’s name for the first time since she began working for Cash. The act itself put a small smile on her face. 

“I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Marinette re-introduced herself.

“And I’m Adrien Agreste.” Adrien did the same before continuing, “If you don’t mind me asking, where are you from?” 

“I am from Shanghai. My father used to run a martial arts school there.”

“Used to?” Marinette asked, prompting a slightly pained expression from Adrien, who apparently already understood. 

“My father is not with us anymore, and his school was burnt to the ground.” Fei elaborated for Marinette’s benefit, “I have come to Paris to repair his legacy.” 

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Marinette apologized.

“You’re alright Marinette, you didn't know..” Fei assured her.

“Are you going to open a new school here in Paris?” Adrien asked her, “You seem a bit young.”

Fei laughed a little at that, “No, not quite. When the time comes I will rebuild my father’s school on the same ground where it once stood. For now, I have business in Paris.”

“What kind of business?” Marinette asked her.

Fei decided it best to not get these strangers involved in her business with Hawkmoth. It was not their fight. “It’s not important. Anyway, what about you two? Why have you come to Paris?”

“Oh, well, we’re both from Paris, you could say we’re on our way home.” Adrien answered, a slight humor in his voice.

“I see, so where are you returning from?” 

“New York, but we’re not returning so much as visiting,” Marinette answered, “My dad’s birthday is this week and we have the week off school, so we decided to visit while we had the time. We’re heading back to New York at the end of the week.”

“I see, how wonderful.”

“So Fei, do you have family here in Paris?” Adrien asked. 

Fei shook her head in response, a little confused by the question, “Why do you ask?”

“Uh, well. I figured you were here because you had someone here to take care of you.” Adrien explained, “Is that not the case?”

Fei shook her head once more. “As a baby, I was left on the steps of my father’s school and he took me in. Neither of us have any other family.”

“Then, why are you in Paris?” Marinette asked, her tone giving away her confusion.

“Something was stolen from my family, something precious. I am here to find it and take it back.” Fei told them, being vague as to not worry them with the fact that she was after the city’s supervillain.

“Something precious?” Marinette asked, her head tilted slightly. 

Fei nodded, “Extremely, a treasure my family guarded for generations.”

“Holy crap, I think we picked up the main character.” Adrien suddenly said. Fei raised an eyebrow at the statement. After all, her life was not some fantasy story or movie.

“So, do you have anywhere to stay in Paris?” Marinette asked, sounding concerned.

“No, but do not worry yourself, I am used to sleeping outside.” Fei tried to assure them, though it seemed to backfire as both of them looked at her with shocked faces.

“So you’re- homeless?” Adrien asked, eyes wide.

“Well no, I-” Fei began. She had always had a roof over her head, even if that roof had been half burnt and falling apart for the last year.

“So you plan to sleep outside?” Marinette asked her, sounding horrified.

“I don’t really have another choice.” Fei answered.

“No No NO!” Marinette exclaimed, “I won’t let you!”

Fei’s eyes widened at the girl’s outburst, ‘I appreciate that but-”

“Do you have a phone, or some paper?” Marinette continued.

“Oh uhm,” Fei reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the paper map she had picked up in the airport, “Here.” 

“Oh, even better.” Marinette commented as she unfolded the map. Fei watched as she marked a spot on the map and then wrote something on the side. “This is my parent’s bakery, and our apartment is above. You can stay with me while you’re in Paris.” Marinette folded up the map and held it back out to her.

Fei accepted it with a smile, “Thank you Marinette, I appreciate it a lot.”

“Nathalie, do you think we can take her straight to my place?” Marinette asked the driver.

“It’s too far out of the way.” Nathalie responded simply, her face emotionless.

“Thank you Marinette. Your kindness is so much more than I deserve.” Fei told her. She had been stealing from people for the past year. If Fei had met Marinette a few days prior, she would have robbed the girl. 

“Everybody deserves kindness.” Marinette told her with a smile, “And I can’t just leave a cute girl like you in Paris all alone, can I?”

Fei felt her cheeks blush, “Oh, thank you.”

“Oh and you can have this.” Adrien reached into his pocket and pulled out a black wallet with a green paw print on it. Reaching into it, he pulled out a small stack of bills. He leaned over and placed the money into Fei’s hand. Fei blinked at the stack of money in her hand.. “I think that's like 400 euros and like 80 American dollars. I don’t remember the exact amount.”

“Adrien…” Nathalie said, sounding exasperated. 

“Why do you have that much cash on you?” Marinette asked him, also sounding slightly exasperated.

“Okay listen. Whenever I’m at the store I always accidentally end up hitting yes when the machine asks if I want cash back. So I end up just having all these bills on me that I don’t know what to do with them!” Adrien responded. Fei just blinked at him for a moment before remembering her manners. 

“Thank you Adrien, this is extremely kind of you.” Fei told him, Adrien responded with a grin. 

After that, Fei intentionally changed the topic away from herself, she wouldn’t be able to handle much more kindness. She ended up getting Marinette and Adrien talking about themselves. How they had fell in love, moved to New York together, and what they planned next for their lives

In all honesty, it felt very good having somebody talk to her like this. For the past year most of her conversations had been arguments with Cash about the items she brought him, or exchanging messages in code with his gang members. It was very refreshing having someone talk like this, about their joys, their life, their goals, and their love. Marinette and Adrien spoke so joyfully that it reminded Fei of what her father taught her. To think of people as people, think of them as stories: their smallest pleasures, their greatest joys, their disappointments, their successes. It was a line of thinking Fei had pushed aside working for Cash.

Seeing people as nothing more than targets was draining. Engaging with people just because they seemed like a good mark always left Fei profoundly exhausted, more so than even the most intense day of training she ever had with her father. It was a form of fatigue that even the most comfortable sleep or delicious food couldn’t combat. An exhaustion that could only be cured by mixing good deeds in with her crimes. For every purse she pilfered she helped dry a crying child’s eyes. For every piece of jewelry she swiped she would save an unaware person from walking into a busy street. It kept her heart in balance. 

But now, Fei was fully able to embrace her Father’s way of life. She was able to hear people’s stories without thinking about how she could use them for profit. She was able to talk about joy with others without thinking of how to twist it into payment. People could describe their successes without Fei wondering how much of it she could take for herself. Her heart was free to care for those other than herself.

However, too soon, the ride was over. Nathalie pulled over to the side of the road and the large man stepped outside to open the door to let her out. Fei wished to say her goodbyes first. 

“Adrien, Marinette. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have helped me more than any strangers ever have before, and I will be forever grateful. ” Fei told them, truly speaking her heart. “ I hope see you two again soon.”

While Adrien looked like he was about to tear up, Marinette looked at her for a moment. The compassion Fei saw in her eyes was astounding. It reminded her of her father, just a little.

Marinette grabbed Fei’s hand, “Make sure to come to my place, my parents will love you!” 

Fei smiled as Marinette let her go, “Thank you, I will.”

Fei stepped out of the car and waved goodbye to the two of them as the large man got back into the car. Due to the tinted windows, she couldn’t see if they waved back before the car pulled away. Fei felt her cheeks cool down as the car turned out of sight. 

Fei realized that she had been blushing, which she found odd. It wasn’t something she was prone to doing. 

Looking around, Fei realized that she had been dropped off in front of a building labeled ‘POOL’ with the outside decorated in aqua themes with pink plants. She wasn’t sure why exactly she had been dropped off there specifically, but she figured it was better than walking along a highway for hours. 

Fei also didn’t really know where she was. She checked her map to try and find the streets around her but she couldn’t find them due to a combination of the large map and the streets around her not being very touristy . The map she had was definitely designed for tourists, marking famous landmarks, good places to eat, and things like that. She seemed like an area only citizens of the city would be at. Or maybe she was just bad at reading maps. She had never left Shanghai before, she knew the city top to bottom so she never needed to read a map. However, here in Paris, she was lost.

Just as Fei made up her mind to ask a passerby for directions, the doors to the pool building next to her swung open and two people came running out, one of them running backward.

"Come on Kim, we're going to be late if you- AAH!!" One of them began, before their back slammed into Fei. It was the second time that day someone had run into her. This time, unfortunately, Fei failed to keep her balance. This person had a significantly larger build than Marinette was a good 20 centimeters taller. The force of the impact knocked Fei off balance and she began to fall towards the concrete below. Worse, the direction she was falling would land her on the shoulder of her broken arm.

OK, this would be fine. Her father had taught Fei how to fall, after all. It would be painful regardless but if she turned her shoulder to roll off of it as she hit the ground she could transfer the force away from her arm and-

Fei felt a muscular arm wrap around her, preventing her from falling and injuring herself further. Looking up, Fei found herself face to face with a cute girl with short red hair and deep turquoise eyes.

"Oh my god, are you okay!" The girl exclaimed. She smelled slightly of chlorine, but mostly of cherries. It looked like her hair was slightly damp and freckles covered her face. Her oversized t-shirt left her collarbone and part of her shoulders exposed, as well as the straps of her sports bra. The freckles continued down her collarbone and to her shoulders as well. "Oh! Your arm is- I'm so sorry!" 

For some reason, it took Fei a few extra moments to compose herself after seeing the girl. "Oh, no, I’m alright, don’t worry.” Fei assured the girl as she got her feet back under her. The girl removed her arm from around Fei's shoulders. Fei stepped back to allow a little more room between them.

The girl's oversized t-shirt was tied up at the bottom, allowing a tad bit of skin to peak through. She wore a pair of short jean shorts and sneakers. Fei also noticed that the freckles continued down the girl's arms and legs. Fei also noticed a boy standing behind her. Taller than the girl and a bit larger of a frame. He wore a red hoodie with some kind of white pentagonal logo on it as well as blue sweatpants. His hair was black but died blond at the ends and pulled into this rhino horn-like look above his forehead.

“Oh, good.” The girl breathed a sigh of relief, “I’m so sorry about that, I should have been watching where I was going.”

The boy behind the red haired girl leaned around her to take a look at Fei. As he looked at her, his eyes narrowed slightly and he tilted his head, “Is that a map?” He asked, looking at the paper map in her hand. 

“Oh, um, yes it is.” Fei answered the strange question with a bit of an awkward answer.

“Why do you have a map? Just get out your phone.” The boy said, placing his head onto the red haired girl’s shoulder for some reason. 

“Kim, she might not have one.” The girl told him, allowing Fei to not have to answer the question herself.

The boy tilted his head, making his cheek rest on the girl’s shoulder instead of his chin, “What, a phone? Why not?” 

The freckled girl shook her head with a sigh before pushing the boy’s head off her shoulder with two of her fingers. She turned her attention back to Fei, “Sorry about him.” The girl gave Fei a small wave before turning away from her. “Come on Kim. We promised to get there early to help set things up!”

“I still think we could have fit in a few extra laps.” The boy responded as the two began to walk away.

“Hold on a moment please!” Fei called out to them, causing them to turn back towards her, “I’m a bit lost at the moment. Do you think you might be able to help me?” The two of them seemed to live in Paris, Fei hoped they could point her to where she needed to go. Or at least tell her where she was.

“Oh yeah sure.” The red haired girl turned back and made her way to Fei’s side, leaning over to look at the map, “Right now we’re about, uhm. Oh geez.” The girl hovered her finger over the map for a moment but dropped it away a moment later. “This map is just pointing out all the tourist traps. Oh, here! We’re around here.” The girl pointed to a cluster of unmarked streets on the map with no ‘notable locations’, as the map put it, near them. However, they were only a few blocks away from the location Marinette had marked. “Now, where are you trying to go?” The girl asked.

“Oh uhm.” That was a good question. Fei knew Hawkmoth was in Paris, but she didn’t know where in the city he was. The supervillain didn’t exactly show his face that often, from what Fei could tell. She figured that she could try to get help from the heroes of the city, but Fei didn’t know where to find them either. “I’m trying to find the heroes, so maybe somewhere they frequent?” Fei answered. Finding her potential allies seemed like a good start.

“You’re trying to find the heroes?” The girl repeated back to Fei, a cute laugh escaping her mouth after she said it, “You’re really lost then! You won’t see those two over here unless there’s a villain! Your best bet is to head further downtown, towards the Eiffel Tower is a good bet. That’s always a hotspot of super activity.” 

Fei did see the Eiffel Tower on the map, the famous landmark had a special marker on the map. It was a bit of a distance away, on the other side of the map from the location Marinette had marked. “Thank you, I appreciate your help.” Fei thanked the girl.

“No problem! Stay safe!” The girl walked off with a wave, the boy she had called Kim followed close behind her. As Fei watched them turn the corner, she realized that she never got the red haired girl’s name. A sense of disappointment weighed Fei’s mouth into a small frown, it really was a shame. Fei hoped they met again. 

Turning her attention back to the map, Fei wondered where she should go next. She finally had a potential lead on somebody who may be able to help her, but no guarantee she would find them. She was also quite hungry. The last thing she had eaten was the small meal provided to her on the 15 hour flight to the city, nearly 7 hours ago now. Marinette had offered her food and a place to stay at her parent’s home, which wasn’t terribly far from where she was now. Adrien had also given her money she could use to buy food. 

Fei made a decision after weighing her options. She would make her way to the Eiffel Tower in hopes of meeting the superheroes and buy something to eat along the way. Later in the day, she would go to Marinette’s home and take up her offer of a place to stay. It seemed like a good plan. 

Fei made her way to a street that was marked on the map and began making her way towards her destination, following the map as she went. The streets of Paris were just as crowded as those in ShangHai, if not more so. Fei was familiar with busy streets and crowds of people, it reminded her of home. It was almost comforting navigating all the crowds as she made her way to her destination, even if she didn’t recognise any of the buildings around her.

As Fei made her way through the town, she found a street that was lined with restaurants, chairs and tables with umbrellas in front of many of them, some with lines going out the door. People milled about, Fei heard all kinds of languages being spoken around her and every table around was occupied. Some groups ate standing up. Fei chose a store without a line going out the door, a store advertising authentic Spanish cuisine. Walking inside, Fei found herself at the end of a line just about to exit the door. The store seemed simple, some cheap barrier ropes zigzagged the line around the small floor space and the two people running the registers were sending orders back to a kitchen behind them. The menu was displayed on 2 large TVs mounted on the wall above the registers. Fei watched as someone came out from the kitchen and handed someone waiting just past the registers 3 paper bags of food. It seemed like a good enough place to eat. 

Fei planned her order as she waited in line. She needed something that wouldn’t be difficult to eat while walking. She would order a couple bottles of water while she was here, they looked overpriced but she needed something to drink while walking. Fei noticed a couple dishes on the menu with shrimp, she would have to avoid those. She was allergic to- 

Suddenly, the menu vanished, the TVs on the wall suddenly displaying a futuristic looking woman with dark red hair and blue skin and a vizor that made her face look pixelated. Her outfit was shining blue and metallic. 

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news." The woman on the TV said, "I'm Prime Queen, interrupting your miserable lives to bring you a report from your favorite supervillain! You know him! You despise him! It's Hawkmoth!" This 'Prime Queen' announced before turning her camera away from her and to a man in a purple suit and a gray mask covering his entire head other than his mouth. A purple brooch with white wings sat on the center of his chest.

It was Hawkmoth.

Fei clenched her fist at the man on the TV. He was the one who had orchestrated her father’s death, stolen the jade bracelet, and ruined her life. He had stolen the treasure her family guarded for centuries. He had broken her arm as she tried to stop him from leaving, throwing her across the spiral stairs inside the cave and shutting the door as he left, sealing her inside. If she hadn’t found Mei Shi’s bracelet, she would have died in the cave.

Fei would take the treasure back, and repay Hawkmoth’s deeds ten-fold. 

"Nike Rouge, Kishi Noir, did you miss me?" The man asked, his tone mocking, "Well, I'm back, with a new tool to destroy you with!" His gloved hand moved up to show the camera a red and gold disk with 8 black circles on it, one large circle in the middle and 7 smaller ones surrounding it. A blue pearl was attached to the top of the disk, with a string attached to the pearl.

"Fei!" Mei Shi shouted, poking out from behind her arm sling, "That is the Prodigious, the object he stole from the sacred cave!"

Fei's eyes widened as she looked at the screen, at the red, black, and gold necklace in the supervillain's hand. That was it, the treasure her father had spent his life guarding. The treasure she had failed to guard. The Prodigious.

She had to get it back.

"Something older and more powerful than the miraculous, something with power you two could ever hope to combat, no matter how many other brats you drag into battle with you." Fei's hands balled into fists as the man spoke, his tone arrogant and taunting. "However, should you want to try, I will be here," The scene on the TVs changed  to a shot of the Eiffel Tower with Hawkmoth standing on one of the layers of the metal structure, “waiting for you to surrender your miraculous to me.” The camera cut back the direct shot of the supervillain, “I’ll be waiting for you, little heroes.” Hawkmoth gave a mocking wave to the camera just before the TVs switched back to showing the restaurant’s menu, just as suddenly as they had changed before.

As the customers in the store broke into whispers amongst themselves, Fei turned around and ran through the door. Any thoughts of food left her mind as she began running full speed towards the Eiffel Tower. She knew exactly where her enemy was and she intended to find him. 

— — — — — — — — — — 

Alix’s plans for the day were beyond awesome.

One week ago, the day after Heroes Day, Marinette and Adrien told everyone that they were coming back to Paris during the week school was off in order to celebrate Marinette’s dad’s birthday. Since they were in the city for only a week, everyone decided to make up for lost time by hanging out during every conceivable moment they could. The gang had spent the week planning the entire week out, with Marinette and Adrien on call of course. Marinette planned to sleep over at a different friend’s house 5 out of the 7 days she was in Paris, and Adrien planned to go for all 7! It was going to be an exciting week!

Today, however, they were just planning to have a small party at Marinette's place to catch up with them. They would just sit around and talk about what's been going on since Marinette and Adrien left. Marinette's parents had promised to provide as many snacks as necessary.

They all agreed it was a good idea to have time to just hang out and catch up before they get swept up in the fun of the week ahead. Although it might be a little chaotic since 16 people, according to Alya's last count, would be crammed inside Marinette's place. It would be a little cramped.

Alix was on her way there, she began skating there after Alya had let everyone know that Marinette's parents were ready for them. Marinette had sent a text about 30 minutes ago that her plane had landed in Paris. Just a few minutes ago she had sent another text saying they were at the Agreste Mansion. Adrien’s dad apparently wanted to talk to them or something. 

In other news, Hawkmoth hadn't sent out any akumas since Heroes day. It had been a full week without him, which was nice. Alix had almost forgotten what it was like to go through a day without getting interrupted by one of Hawkmoth's victims. There was even talk from some people that Hawkmoth might have given up after getting his ass beat on Heroes Day. Alix figured he was just licking his wounds, assuming her miraculous cure didn't heal him after the fight. She really hoped it didn't, the fucker deserved a concussive head injury.

Suddenly, a TV billboard across the street from Alix changed from an advertisement to show the digital looking face of Prime Queen.

"You're fucking joking!" Alix cursed as she skidded to a stop on her skates. Of course Hawkmoth had to come back today, of all days. And of fucking course he would reakumatize the most noticeable and viral fucking villain he could.

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news!" Prime Queen said through the TV, the audio coming out of the phones of Alix and everyone around her on the street, "I'm Prime Queen, interrupting your miserable lives to bring you a report from your favorite supervillain! You know him! You despise him! It's Hawkmoth!" The villain announced, turning the camera to reveal Hawkmoth standing next to her, in his usual purple suit and condom mask. 

"Seriously?" Alix muttered. She couldn't believe he was showing up again. Heroes day had been the first time he had ever appeared in person, and he had an army with him then. What did he have now? Why was he so confident?

"Nike Rouge, Kishi Noir, did you miss me?" The villain taunted. He sure was arrogant for someone who got his ass beat just last week, "Well, I'm back, with a new tool to destroy you with!" His gloved hand moved up to show the camera a red and gold disk with 8 black circles on it, one large circle in the middle and 7 smaller ones surrounding it. A blue pearl was attached to the top of the disk, with a string attached to the pearl. "Something older and more powerful than the miraculous, something with power you two could ever hope to combat, no matter how many other brats you drag into battle with you." Hawkmoth seemed confident in whatever this thing was, he was goading her to gather her team together. "However, should you want to try, I will be here," The scene on the TVs changed  to a shot of the Eiffel Tower, Hawkmoth standing in the same place where Nike had beaten his ass last week, “waiting for you to surrender your miraculous to me.” The camera cut back the direct shot of the supervillain, “I’ll be waiting for you, little heroes.” Hawkmoth waved at the camera, a cocky grin on his face, before the stream cut off and the TV billboard returned back to its normal advertisements.

Alix felt Tikki pull on her hair from under her hat. Alix quickly moved into a nearby alley as the people around her all began muttering to each other and pulling out their phones. Alix took off her hat and Tikki floated off her head, moving to float in front of Alix.

"Alix, Hawkmoth has the Prodigious! This is horrible news!" Tikki exclaimed.

"The pro- what now? You mean that disk thing he had?" Alix asked.

Tikki nodded, "That's the Prodigious, the magical predecessor to the miraculous! It is extremely powerful, to the point that the order of the guardians sealed it away millennia ago. I don't know how Hawkmoth found it, but this is very bad news." She explained.

"How powerful we talking here?" Alix asked, getting a little worried Hawkmoth wasn't just being cocky.

"Proficient users in the past have fought armies alone and leveled cities with its power," The kwami explained, "The right holder could control the weather itself, it's an incredibly powerful object.

The fact that Hawkmoth now had something that powerful was worrying, but something else caught Alix's attention there: the part about the 'right holder'. 

"Do you think Hawkmoth could use the full power of this thing?" Alix asked. Fu had told her that different people could gain more power from a miraculous if they were compatible with its concept; Alix assumed the Prodigious worked the same way.

Tikki shook her head, "The power of the Prodigious comes from the strength of the user's values, someone like Hawkmoth could never use its full potential, but it is still dangerous regardless."

"Alright then," Alix cracked her knuckles, "Let's go kick his ass!"

"And get the Prodigious back!" Tikki added, "We cannot let Hawkmoth keep it!"

"And I'll take his miraculous too! Tikki, spots on!" Alix called out, transforming into Nike Rouge in a flash of red light. 

Nike pulled out her yoyo and threw it upwards, catching it on a pipe above her and pulling her out of the top of the alley. She saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance and began running towards it across the rooftops. As she ran she opened the phone function on her yoyo and called her partner.

"Kishi Noir, hero of Paris." Her partner answered after only a moment.

"Hey Kishi, did your kwami fill you in on Hawkmoth's new toy?"

"No, he did not." Kishi answered, sounding slightly annoyed, "He instead just began laughing and told me to go kick Hawkmoth's ass."

Alix let out a small burst of laughter at that before beginning to explain, "Well, it's called the Prodigious, and it can be extremely powerful in the right hands."

"And in Hawkmoth's hands?" 

"We shouldn't have too much trouble." Nike answered, oversimplifying slightly. 

"Good, meet you there." Kishi said before hanging up. Alix got the feeling that she was in a hurry. Hawkmoth's sudden appearance must have interrupted something she was doing.

Nike closed the phone function and threw the yoyo out to catch on a pole some distance away, swinging was faster than running. A bit of a distance away, Nike saw her partner's black form also making her way across the rooftops of the city, vaulting over the city with her staff. Alix increased her speed, her competitive nature pushing her to want to race her partner to the tower.

Nike made it to the tower just a few seconds before Kishi did, landing several meters in front of Hawkmoth and Prime Queen.

"Seriously man, did you not learn from last time?" Nike said as Kishi landed next to her, “You had an army last time, and we kicked your ass. You’re not going to win just because you have this Prodigious thing now.” Hawkmoth’s eyes widened slightly as she named his new toy, but his gaze quickly turned back into a glare. Alix stuck her yoyo into her pocket and took a fighting stance. 

Kishi readied her staff in a fighting stance, “Let’s make this quick, I have plans today.”

“You may have ganged up on me last time, but today is different.” Hawkmoth responded, “I have an object more powerful than any miraculous, and I will use that power to finally take your miraculous.” Hawkmoth held the Prodigious by the string and began moving to place it around his neck, only for Prime Queen to grab his arm.

“Our deal, Hawkmoth.” The villain said to him.

Alix watched Hawkmoth lower the Prodigious with a slight sign, “Of course, Prime Queen.” The supervillain removed the cane from his back and flicked open the purple sphere at the top of it. With the cane open, a stream of bubbles began to flow out of it, gathering in a cloud above the cane. Once the flow of bubbles from the cane ended, the cloud of bubbles came together to form a large bubble head. A single large bubble formed a spherical head and smaller bubbles formed the features of the face; the eyes, mouth, ears, and a round nose. It all came together to form a large translucent bubble head. 

“Sentimonster.” Kishi concluded, Nike agreed with a nod.

“Release the girl.” Hawkmoth commanded. The heroines watched as the bubble creature opened its bubble lips wide. Another bubble came out of the creature’s mouth, squeezing past its lips to escape. The bubble wasn’t empty, inside Nike recognised the form of Manon, the girl Marinette babysat sometimes. It looked like she was asleep. The bubble floated over to Prime Queen before popping, dropping the young girl into the villain’s arms.

“You piece of shit.” Nike muttered through clenched teeth as Hawkmoth snapped his fingers, making the akumatization fall away from Prime Queen. The black butterfly emerged from Nadja Chamack’s necklace a moment later, purifying itself as it flew away. 

Alix’s hands clenched into tight fists, itching to punch the superasshole in front of her.

“Mommy?” Manon said groggily, waking up from whatever sleep the sentimonster had put her in. “Where are we?”

“Don’t worry about it, let’s go home sweetie.” Nadja said, running to the elevator with her daughter. 

“You-” Kishi muttered as the bubble monster broke into a cloud once more and flowed back into Hawkmoth’s cane. Nike looked over to see Kishi’s grip on her staff had tightened, her eyes sending a death glare at Hawk. Alix knew that she probably didn’t look any calmer than her partner did.

“Now, I will show you my new power.” Hawkmoth said as he raised the Prodigious above his head, slipping it onto his neck. As the red and gold disk hit his chest, the black circles began lighting up in different colors, the 7 smaller outer circles lighting up in a circle with the center larger circle lighting up last. The object began to shine a brilliant golden light. 

Hawkmoth brought his fist and his palm together, and he was covered in light for a brief moment before emerging with a new costume. His condom-head mask was replaced by a large red butterfly shaped mask, covering up a little past his hairline and the tips of it just touching his cheeks, the edges outlined with gold. His now visible hair was purple, straight back, and very long, going at least past his neck. He still wore a purple suit but now with black tiger-like stripes throughout and gold accents, his butterfly shaped lapel and his gloves were also gold. Under the purple suit was some kind of red dress shirt, the butterfly miraculous still pinned to it, with the neck of the shirt hiding the string of the Prodigious, the disk hanging just below his miraculous. His dress pants were purple but the tiger-like stripes changed to red below his waist. His shoes were gold with purple soles. 

It was pretty hard to look at. This guy had a horrible fashion sense. 

Alix also noticed that there hadn’t been a kwami, or transformation words. Tikki had said it was a predecessor to the miraculous, but it seemed odd. Where did the power of the Prodigious come from, if not from a kwami?

“Ren-what? Stop speaking nonsense and tell me how to use your powers!” Hawkmoth exclaimed despite nobody talking, and nobody being there other than them. Either this loser was losing his mind, or whatever creature inhabited the Prodigious was invisible to everyone but the holder. Alix decided to assume the former, because that was more fun.

Nike made her move, running towards the supervillain before he could figure out how to use this thing. It also helped that he seemed distracted, his eyes darting around the air in front of him. Once close enough, she jumped up and socked Hawkmoth in the jaw.

His jaw face felt harder than it had been last week, likely due to the extra physical enhancement he got from this Prodigious thing. Hawkmoth's head snapped back with her impact and his foot moved back slightly to steady himself, but other than that her hit didn’t seem to have much effect. 

Hawkmoth’s hand shot out and grabbed Nike by the jacket before she could react or even fall back to the ground. Hawkmoth then raised his other hand up, raising up his cane to prepare to hit her with it.

“Foolish hero, did you think you could-” His head suddenly snapped to the side and his arm lowered, his intent to attack momentarily forgotten, “Nooroo? What are you-!!”

Kishi hit the supervillain’s wrist with her staff, causing him to let go of Alix. She dropped to the floor as Kishi stabbed her staff into Hawkmoth’s stomach. The supervillain doubled over at this, but grabbed Kishi’s staff as he did. He then lifted the staff up, and Kishi along with it, swinging it and her over his head before letting go, sending Kishi flying.

Alix didn’t process where Kishi landed before going in for another attack, this time kicking at his shin. However, Hawkmoth hopped over her attack. As he landed, he grabbed her hair, lifting her off the ground and tossing her in the same direction he had thrown Kishi. 

Nike slammed into her partner, sending them both to the ground. 

“Ow, asshole.” Alix cursed as she stood back up, she also helped Kishi up. She hadn’t expected the terrorist to fight fair, but lifting her off the ground by her hair was a major dick move. She rubbed her scalp slightly to check for damage, but she wasn’t too worried since she was pretty sure the magical defense the miraculous gave her extended to her hair. It had still hurt though.

“Justice? Compassion? Patience? This is ridiculous! Just give me your power!” Hawkmoth shouted at whatever he was seeing, “And tell me why Nooroo is here!” Hawkmoth pointed at an empty spot in the air as he said this. Alix didn’t know exactly what was going on but it looked ridiculous, the man was screaming at the air. 

Kishi began running towards the supervillain a moment before Nike did. Alix pulled her yoyo out of her pocket, hooking it on her finger and pulling out about half a meter of string. As Kishi swung at Hawkmoth, having her strike blocked by his cane, Nike circled behind him.

Kishi went for another blow as Nike jumped onto the supervillain’s back. She squatted on his shoulders and wrapped her yoyo string around his neck, pulling it tight to cut off his air. 

“KWE-” Hawkmoth let out before a wheeze escaped his mouth as he tried to breathe. Kishi swung again, her strike hitting the supervillain’s face as he turned his cane around to stab at Nike on his shoulders. 

Alix dropped off of Hawkmoth’s shoulders, but kept her yoyo around his neck. She wrapped her legs around his torso to stay on his back. The cane just missed her head as she dropped. In response, she turned her head and grabbed the cane with her teeth. She tried to yank the cane out of Hawkmoth’s grasp with her mouth, but he kept hold of the weapon. She felt the supervillain’s jerk and stumble backwards as Kishi landed another blow to his face.

With a violent tug, Hawkmoth ripped the cane out from between Alix’s teeth, swinging it at Kishi. Kishi blocked his attack before ducking down to sweep the terrorist’s legs out from under him using her staff.

Hawkmoth fell to the floor, landing on his chest with Nike still on his back, choking him with her yoyo. She heard his cane clatter on the ground as it fell and rolled away from the battle. Hawkmoth rolled over, pressing Nike between the cold steel of the Eiffel Tower and his back, just as Kishi stabbed down at him with her staff. Hawkmoth caught the staff with one hand, stopping the attack just before it hit his chest. With his other hand, he tried to pull the yoyo string off his neck. Alix felt him get a finger under the string just as Kishi snapped her staff in two and slammed the second staff down onto Hawkmoth’s chest as both his hands were distracted, causing a heavy wheeze to escape his mouth.

Hawkmoth pulled up on the string, loosening it and unfortunately allowing air to enter his lungs. 

“She!” Hawkmoth breathed out just as he began to breathe in. Suddenly, the man vanished in a puff of yellow smoke. Nike felt something long and fleshy sliver over her body and wrap around her neck. As the smoke cleared, she saw a purple snake with black patterning and a gold belly wrap around her neck. Was this the power of the Prodigious?

The snake around her neck constricted, tightening her neck and cutting off her airflow. Kishi grabbed Snakemoth, or whatever, by the tail and pulled him off of Nike’s neck before she began suffocating. She lifted him up and slammed him down on the floor before letting the snake go.

Kishi put the two halves of her staff together as Nike got off the floor, retracting her yoyo as she did so. 

“Ren.” The snake said and, with a puff of yellow smoke, Hawkmoth reappeared in his human form, on his hands and knees, taking deep breaths in. 

Not wanting to give Hawkmoth even a moment to recover, Nike threw her yoyo at his arms, wrapping the yoyo string around them and pulling it tight. Hands now tied together, Hawkmoth fell onto his chest, causing another wheeze to escape his lungs as his chest slammed into the floor. Alix pulled the supervillain towards her, sliding him across the ground. She let him slide past him and then pulled him into the air, swinging him over her head. 

“Ying!” Hawkmoth called out just before he slammed into the ground. In a flash of yellow smoke, Hawkmoth vanished and a purple bird flew upward from the smoke. It seemed to be an eagle with golden tail feathers, a tuft of golden hair on its head, and black feathers on its wings. Eaglemoth glared at them as he flapped his wings above them, Nike glared right on back. She noticed the butterfly miraculous still on his chest, even as a bird, but the Prodigious was nowhere to be seen. She would have to take it from him when he was human then.

Hawkmoth broke their little staring contest as he flew upwards to land on one of the tower’s metal trusses, presumably to catch his breath after Alix had choked him with her yoyo string.

“Hey Mothy, what happened to the whole ‘more powerful than the miraculous’ thing.” Nike yelled up at him, taunting him a little, “You turning into a couple animals doesn’t exactly compare to one of my girl’s cataclysms.” Nike gestured to Kishi as she taunted him, “When are you gonna show us this power man?”

“I think he lacks the ability to show us.” Kishi added, “How disappointing.” Alix silently laughed a little as her partner taunted the supervillain.

“You brats haven’t seen anything yet!” Eaglemoth shouted down at them, the anger in his voice audible, “I will show you just how far my abilities go!” With that, the purple eagle supervillain began flapping his wings at them. It didn’t seem like he was trying to take flight, he was just flapping his wings.

Nike felt a breeze flow through the tower as she watched Eaglemoth flap, ruffling her hair slightly. She raised an eyebrow at the purple bird, what exactly was he trying to do?

The wind pressed the front of her polka-dot t-shirt against her chest, the sides of her shirt slightly flapping in the breeze as she watched the supervillain in front of her do seemingly nothing. The front of her hoodie-vest flipped over across her arm in the wind and she flattened it back against her torso. The wind was picking up, at least it would keep her cool during the fight.

Oh, the wind… Alix realized as Eaglemoth began flapping his wings faster. As her enemy continued to flap his wings, the wind around them got faster and faster. A gust of wind hit Nike, so strong that she almost lost her balance. Alix felt her clothing rippling against her body and her hair being blown back by the wind. She had to anchor herself to something before she got blown away. 

Nike threw her yoyo forward, aiming to wrap it around a beam just under where the supervillain had perched himself. However, with another flap of his wings, Eaglemoth’s wind became too strong and Nike’s yoyo came flying back towards her, hitting her on the forehead and causing her to lose her balance. 

The wind picked Nike off her feet as she fell, lifting her from the ground and flipping her around, up and down, left and right, until she didn’t know which way was up. At least she didn’t until she slammed into the side of the tower, upside down. The wind was, ironically, knocked out of her, her lungs emptying themselves from the impact. Just as soon as the wind left her, it poured back into her lungs. It flowed into her open mouth, drying out every drop of moisture as she breathed in the rushing air. Alix had to take a few moments to regain her breath before she could focus on anything else, every breath she took felt like a battle as the wind blew down her throat. She turned her head to the side to escape the wind blowing against her face and immediately it felt easier to breathe with the wind rushing past her head instead of into it. Nike took a few deep breaths before she began looking around for her partner. 

Looking back down to the floor, or up really since she was upside down against this wall, Alix saw Kishi still on the ground. Her partner had extended her staff so that one end gripped the floor beneath her while the other gripped one of the metal trusses of the tower far above them. As Nike watched, Kishi’s feet were picked off the ground, but her hands stayed holding onto her rod even as her body and hair flapped around in the wind. 

Alix could also see the wind, that's how strong it had become. She could see it circling around the inside of the tower, beginning to form a miniature tornado within the Eiffel Tower. She felt her body being slowly pulled sideways towards the edge of the beam she was pressed against. If the wind took her again, she would be caught in this with no way out.

Nike threw her yoyo sideways, willing it to wrap around the beam she was pressed against. The yoyo obeyed and Alix caught the yoyo as it came around the other side. Using the yoyo to prevent herself from being swept away by the wind, Nike got to her feet and jumped. The wind tried to pull her back in, but the yoyo kept her safe, instead pulling her to the opposite side of the beam. 

The wind was weaker on the other side of the beam, as the metal behind her acted as a shield. She could still feel it, but she could move without risking being swept away. Nike climbed across a few more beams until she was on the outside of the tower. She turned upward and threw her yoyo at the top of the tower, wrapping it around the metal structure just below the mass of antennas at the top. With her yoyo to keep her from falling, Alix ran around the outside of the tower. She could see her partner continuing to struggle against the wind inside so Alix ran with all the speed she had. She ran in the same direction as the wind so she could more easily jump from one leg of the tower to the other as she made her way around. The wind Eaglemoth was using as a weapon against them pushed her jumps farther so she landed them without issue. After leaping across 3 of the legs, Nike made it onto the leg that held the beam Eaglemoth was perched on.

She retracted her yoyo and entered the tower once more, hopping across the metal beams towards the metal eagle. She was behind him now, and he continued to flap his wings, he didn’t seem to notice her, 

Nike grabbed the purple eagle’s head and slammed it against the side of the truss they were standing on. Eaglemoth barely had time to react as she pulled him back and slammed him into the beam again, leaving a birdhead shaped dent in the metal. The wind began to die down as she slammed him into the metal a third time. Kishi landed back on the ground and retracted her staff. Nike gave her partner a second to catch her breath by slamming Eaglemoth’s head into the beam a fourth time.

“Kishi!” Nike shouted before pulling her arm back and throwing the purple bird at her partner. 

Kishi nodded and pulled her rod up like a bat, ready to hit the supervillain like the oversized baseball he was always designed to be. 

“Hu!” Eaglemoth called out as he flew towards Kishi. In a puff of yellow smoke, the purple eagle disappeared and what was flying towards Kishi changed to a tiger with purple fur and black stripes, a line of long golden hair going just down its neck. It had its fangs and claws out, ready to land on Kishi and maul her. 

Unfortunately for Tigermoth, Kishi was a certified badass. She dodged the claws of the tiger and moved herself under the purple beast. She jabbed her staff into its chest and extended her rod. Before Tigermoth even landed on the ground, Kishi's staff sent him flying back up and away from her. Nike watched as the supervillain tiger slammed into the ground, bouncing once and rolling a few times before coming to a stop.

Tigermoth pulled himself to his feet, "Ren." He called out, turning back to his human form in a puff of yellow smoke. He took a few audible deep breaths in, one hand holding the side of his head that Alix had just smashed into a wall and the other rubbing the area of his chest that Kishi had stabbed her staff into. Nike jumped down from the truss and landed next to her partner. Alix took a few deep breaths through her nose, out of breath after the whole running around the tower thing she had just done. Her mouth was still dry from the wind, she kept it closed so her mouth could create more saliva. 

“Now that you have tasted the power of the Prodigious,” Hawkmoth began, a misplaced confidence in his voice, “do you still believe my abilities are lacking?”

“Yes.” Kishi responded. Nike couldn’t agree more.

“Rude little brat, I will show you just-” 

“Return the treasure you stole from my family, Hawkmoth!” A girl shouted, interrupting him as she leapt up in the air and kicked the man in the face. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to have much effect.

The girl looked to be about Alix’s age and a little taller than Kishi as she landed on the ground in front of Hawkmoth. She had black hair in a ponytail with a streak of reddish-pink color on the left side of her head. She wore a leather jacket, a simple black backpack on her back, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. 

Nike raised an eyebrow at the girl. What was she talking about? A treasure stolen from her family, was she talking about the Prodigious? 

“You again?” Hawkmoth reacted upon seeing the girl. He recognised her? The supervillain’s face held a cross look as he glared at the girl. He raised his hand in the air, preparing to attack her. “Xiong.” He called out.

In a puff of smoke, the supervillain changed to the form of a large purple bear, the front of it golden with a line of golden hair in the middle of its chest. Bearmoth’s paw was raised in the air for a moment before he brought it down towards the girl.

— — — — — — — — — — 

Fei stopped, completely out of breath, the Eiffel Tower towering above her. She had sprinted all the way here, only stopping occasionally to check her map to make sure she was going the right way. In front of her was a police blockade surrounding the entire structure. A line of police cars circled the tower, officers stood in front of and between every car in the line.

Surrounding those police was a crowd of people that Fei had already pushed through. Reporters, tourists, and other random people who wanted to see the action surrounded the tower, phones and cameras pointed up at the supervillain. Above them, several drones and a couple news helicopters flew around the tower, no doubt filming Hawkmoth on the tower. 

“Over there!” 

“There they are!”

“The superheroes!”

The entire crowd, including Fei, turned to see two figures sailing through the air. A red, pink, and black figure swung through the air with some kind of string and a figure in only black vaulted through the air by extending a pole beneath them. The two figures soared over the crowd on the ground and landed on the tower of the same layer Hawkmoth had shown himself to be on. The fight was about to go down. 

Fei had to get up there. 

“Come on Mr. Raincomprix! Let me through! I need to film this!” A girl with reddish-brown hair and an orange plaid shirt pleaded with a large, orange haired, officer. Fei had ended up right next to the two of them after she had pushed through the crowd.

“I cannot do that Alya, not only would it go against orders from the chief but your mother gave me extra orders not to let you into any more dangerous areas.” The officer replied, “And I really don’t want to anger your mother.”

“Come on! Hawkmoth himself is up there! I need to get this! You can’t be that scared of my mom!” The girl tried.

“That’s a big reason to not let you through, young lady. It’s extremely dangerous. Your mother would have my hide if I let you pass.” The officer refused her. 

“AAARG! Come on!” The girl exclaimed, stomping her foot in frustration.

“Mei Shi,” Fei called out to her companion, “I need your help.”

Mei Shi poked his head out from behind her arm wrappings, “There’s not a lot I can do in this form, Fei. It’s very limiting.”

Fei gave him a small smirk, “What about being a distraction?” She offered. 

The small lion creature grinned back at her, “That, I can do.”

Mei Shi flew out of his hiding place and up to the face of the red haired officer blocking Fei’s path. “Hello sir, I apologize for this.” Fei heard Mei Shi say before he opened his mouth wide and bit down on the officer’s nose.

“AAH! OW! What the blazes!” The officer screamed as Mei Shi bit him. The man stumbled backwards a few steps before falling over, leaving a gap in the police blockade. 

“A kwami?!” The girl who had been arguing with the officer reacted, but Fei paid her no mind. 

Fei immediately took advantage, stepping over the officer and running between the two cars the officer was previously standing between. She immediately made a dash towards the closest leg of the tower. She heard shouts behind her as she began climbing the steps, going up two at a time. 

“Hold on! Wait up!” The girl who had been arguing with the police officer called after her, apparently having followed her. Fei ignored her. Her target was above her. Hawkmoth had the Prodigious and planned to use it for evil, She could not allow that. 

Fei continued climbing, as fast as she could, and the girl continued to follow her.

“Who are you? Do you have a miraculous?” The girl shouted as she followed Fei. She didn’t get an answer as Fei continued climbing. After running up a few flights of the steps, Mei Shi flew up to her and went back to hiding behind her arm wraps.

“Hold up! I can’t climb that fast!” The girl shouted, falling behind as Fei continued to bound up the stairs two at a time.

Eventually, after many flights of stairs, Fei saw the battle. Climbing the final step, she watched as a purple tiger emerged from a small cloud of yellow smoke, falling downward towards a dark haired girl wearing cat ears, a black mask around their eyes, a leather jacket, and baggy pants. As Fei watched, the girl maneuvered around the tiger's claws that were flying towards her and stabbed a silver staff into the beast's chest. The staff grew in length after it struck the tiger, sending it higher into the air and away from the cat-like superhero.

The tiger landed on the ground a little ways away, bouncing once and rolling a couple times before stopping. “Ren.” The purple beast called out as it pulled itself to its feet. In a puff of yellow smoke, the tiger disappeared and a man appeared in its place. A man wearing a purple suit with gold accents and a red undershirt. He wore a red mask over the top half of his face and his long hair was a slightly lighter purple color than his suit. 

It was Hawkmoth. His suit might be different colors now, and his bald-cap mask may have been gone, but she recognised him. Even if she hadn’t, the Prodigious he wore around his neck was a dead give away to his identity. 

Another figure jumped down from some spot higher up the tower, landing next to the leather jacket wearing hero. This heroine had pink hair and a red and black costume. She wore a sleeveless shirt, leggings, and shoes all red with black spots, a hooded vest that was black with red spots, and shorts that were black with vertical red lines on them. Her mask was half red and half black, splitting at the nose. The second superhero in this city. 

The trio stood still for a second, it seemed all of them were taking a second to catch their breath, but the two heroines kept their gazes locked on Hawkmoth, Fei didn’t think they even noticed her. Hawkmoth didn’t seem to notice her either as he began speaking, his tone cocky.  “Now that you have tasted the power of the Prodigious, do you still believe my abilities are lacking?” 

Even though she was still out of breath from climbing the stairs of the tower, Fei rushed in. Hawkmoth had not noticed her, this was her opportunity.

“Yes.” The cat heroine said as Fei charged in, causing a look of rage to cover the enemy’s face. 

“Rude little brat, I’ll show you just-”

Fei leapt into the air at Hawkmoth, “Return the treasure you stole from my family, Hawkmoth!” Fei shouted as her shoe made contact with his cheekbones. His face turned with her attack, she didn’t feel like her attack did much to him, despite her putting her full power into it. Fei kicked off of the villain’s face and landed on the ground in front of him. He turned to face her, looking more annoyed than anything at first before his face changed, his eyes widening slightly before one eyebrow raised and a sneer appeared on his lips. “You again?” Hawkmoth exclaimed, his annoyance apparent. His eyebrows turned downward and his lips closed. Fei heard a deep breath enter and exit his nose before he spoke again. “Xiong.” He called out. 

A cloud of smoke appeared in front of Fei, surrounding her enemy. As the smoke dissipated, Fei found herself staring up at a massive purple bear with golden fur on its chest. The beast stood on its hind legs and raised one of its paws into the air above her, its massive razor sharp claws ready to tear through her. Fei moved to a fighting stance, even if he had never prepared her to fight a bear, she believed in her father’s martial arts. 

As the villain brought down his bear claw towards Fei, she felt a string wrap around her torso a few times. A second later she was pulled backwards and away from the purple bear. An arm wrapped around her back and brought her to a stop, the string dropping from her waist.

“Leave this to us, you’ll-” The red and black hero began before noticing her arm in the sling, her expression changing, “Is your arm broken? Why are you trying to fight him? Are you fucking suicidal?” She exclaimed right into Fei’s ear. 

“Stay back.” The hero in the leather jacket told her before running at the Hawkmoth-Bear, splitting her staff in two as she ran and holding half in each hand as two weapons.

“Seriously, you’ll get yourself killed.” The pink haired hero told her before running back into battle herself. Fei watched as the purple bear swung his paw at the cat hero, only for the spotted hero to wrap her string around the bear’s paw and pull it back before it hit her partner. The red hero used the string around the villain’s arm to jump up and swing around to kick Bear-Hawkmoth in the back of the head. 

Fei refused to just give up. Her father had entrusted her to guard the treasure of the sacred cave and she had failed, allowing an evil man to get his hands on it. She had to get it back and restore her family's sacred duty.

Fei ran towards the fight as the hero in black blocked a paw swipe from the purple bear with one of her rods, stabbing the other into the beast’s jaw. The pink haired hero wrapped her string, which looked to be from a yo-yo, around the bear’s other paw and then pulled it tight, forcing Bear-Hawkmoth’s paws to slam together.  Fei took the opportunity to attack the animal, raising her leg and kicking the beast straight in the gut. 

It felt like kicking a wall, a furry wall. Her enemy barely reacted to her attack, just turning its eyes down slightly to look at her. 

"What are you doing?" The ladybug hero yelled at her.

Before Fei could respond, she was pulled backwards by the cat hero, away from her enemy. The pink haired hero grabbed one of the purple bear's back legs, yanking on it and causing the villain to lose his balance and begin to fall forward.

"Ying!" The man called out as he began to fall. In a puff of yellow smoke the purple bear vanished and a purple eagle shot upwards a second later. The cat hero jumped forward from where she was standing next to Fei, slamming the two halves of her staff back together before striking the staff against the floor beneath her. The staff extended, carrying the cat hero into the air after the eagle. Once close enough, the heroine grabbed the leg of the bird as it tried to fly upward, pulling it out of the air. The staff shortened and the heroine and eagle-villain began falling back downward. As they fell, the hero in black swung the bird downward, letting go so it slammed into the floor as she landed back on the ground herself. The pink-haired hero made a grab for something sitting on Eagle-Hawkmoth’s chest, but was blocked by one of the villain’s wings. 

“She!” The eagle called out and, with a burst of yellow smoke, transformed into a purple and black snake. 

Fei rushed forward as Snake-Hawkmoth bared its fangs at the polka dotted hero. The reptilian villain tightened its body back to launch itself at the heroine. Before he could do so, Fei hooked one of her legs under the snake’s body and kicked it upwards, sending the snake flying into the air. Fei swung her leg around herself with a spin to build momentum before striking the villain midair with a kick. The purple snake was sent flying backwards by her attack, his long body bouncing off the ground a few meters away before coming to a stop.

Fei felt a hand grab her shirt a second later and she was yanked downward, leaning forward so she was face to face with the pink haired hero. “Fucking stop!” The heroine half-screamed into Fei’s face, a definite anger in her tone, “This is not a game. You’re going to get killed. Leave.” 

“I refuse.” Fei responded, locking her gaze with the heroine’s blue eyes, “Hawkmoth stole the Prodigious from me and I intend to get it back, no matter the cost.”

The heroine’s eyes widened slightly before her gaze hardened again, “Well, unless you have something else that can give you superpowers, you need to leave this to us.” She let go of Fei’s shirt with a slight shove, knocking off Fei’s balance and causing her to fall onto her butt. The pink-haired hero turned away from her and back to the battle, where Hawkmoth had turned back into himself and was in combat with the cat hero. 

Fei watched as the villain held his hand out and a purple cane that Fei hadn’t noticed previously lifted off the ground and flew into his hand. He used it to block a strike from the heroine’s silver rod. As their weapons clashed the villain raised his leg and sent a kick into the heroine’s stomach, sending her flying backwards and down onto her back. Hawkmoth swung down at the prone hero, but had his attack knocked off course by the polka-dotted hero grabbing his wrist and pulling it sideways, the cane slamming into the floor just next to the cat hero. 

Fei got off the ground, eyes locked onto the Prodigious around Hawkmoth’s neck. It was right there, she couldn’t give up now. 

“Fei, stop.” Mei Shi said, emerging from behind her arm splint. Fei paused, looking towards her companion. 

“What is it, Mei Shi?” She asked. 

“This ladybug user is correct, this fight is not safe for you to be in as you are.” He told her. 

Fei’s eyes widened at this, “But we have to get it back Mei Shi! That’s why we came to this city!” 

“And it will be for nothing if you get yourself killed!” He retorted, “Who will protect the Prodigious if you die? Who will carry on your father’s legacy?”

“I-” Fei hesitated as she watched Hawkmoth once again activate the power of the Prodigious, turning into a tiger and pouncing onto the cat hero, who blocked the purple tiger by jamming her staff into the beast’s jaws. It only held for a second before the rod snapped in half, but the cat hero was saved by her partner slamming into Tiger-Hawkmoth’s side, knocking him over. "Then what do I do?"

"I may have a way to give you the power you need.” Mei Shi told her.

Fei’s eyes widened. He could give her superpowers, he hadn’t mentioned this before. “How?” She asked.

“Fei, I need you to say; Mei Shi, rev-” 

“I knew it! That is a kwami!” A voice suddenly yelled out, cutting off Mei Shi. Fei’s head snapped to the source of the voice, it was the girl who had been arguing with the police officer before, the one who had followed her up the tower. She held a cell phone in her hand, pointing the camera at her and Mei Shi, “So you have a miraculous right? Is it that bracelet? What can you do? What’s your name?” The girl excitedly asked her rapid fire questions before Fei could get a single word out.

“I-uh. What?” Fei didn’t know what the girl was talking about. She didn’t know what the word ‘kwami’ meant and she was using the word ‘miraculous’ like it was an object. She could only really answer one of the girl’s questions, but she didn’t know who this girl was so she wouldn’t. “Who are you?”

The girl held out her hand, “Alya Césaire, reporter extraordinaire and creator of the world famous Ladyblog.” The girl introduced herself. Fei wasn’t sure what the Ladyblog is but she knew what a reporter was and she wasn’t too sure she wanted everyone to know her business.

“Alright, Alya,” Fei responded as she reached over and covered the girl’s phone camera with her hand, “don’t record me.”

Alya let out a laugh as Fei said that before responding  “Well, if you don’t want to be recorded, you shouldn’t have come up here. There’s like 4 news helicopters circling the tower right now. We’re probably on live TV right now!” Fei looked up. Indeed 4 helicopters were hovering around the tower, large cameras inside pointed at the fight between Hawkmoth and the two heroines.

“Oh, right.” Fei had forgotten about those. 

“So, are you a superhero too? Why did you come up here detransformed?” Alya continued asking questions.

“What? Why would I be a superhero?.” Fei responded. Why had this girl asked that? Fei wasn’t exactly dressed like the two girls fighting Hawkmoth. 

“Well, you have a kwami, and therefore a miraculous. Right?” Alya said, gesturing to Mei Shi for some reason.

“Kwami? No, this is Mei Shi.” Fei said, gesturing to her companion.

“Fei, technically, I am a kwami.” Mei Shi spoke up.

“What?” Fei responded. She now had no idea what either of them were talking about.

“I knew it!” Alya exclaimed, “So you do have a miraculous!”

“I don’t even know what that is!" Fei exclaimed in response.

Alya blinked at her a couple times, seemingly in disbelief, "You… don't know what a miraculous is?"

"No, I don't." Fei told her, hoping it would end her questions.

"That's- How-? What-?" The reporter girl seemed to be at a loss for words for a few moments, "Why are you here then?"

"I need to take back something Hawkmoth stole from me, a treasure my family had guarded for centuries!" Fei exclaimed, frustrated with the girl's questions, "I don't care about your miracle-whatevers, just the Prodigious!"

"Woah, okay girl, sorry I was just curious." The girl said, holding up her hands defensively, before immediately snapping her head sideways to look at the battle still going on between Hakwmoth and the two heroines. "Oh my god! Hawkmoth has new powers! I have to get footage of this!” With that, Alya turned and began running towards the battle, where Hawkmoth had once more turned into a large purple bear to combat the duo of heroines.

As the girl once again ran off, Fei looked back to Mei Shi, “Kwami?” She asked.

“Creatures of great power embodying concepts of the universe, it’s not too important at the moment.” Mei Shi said quickly, “Do you want power to take back the Prodigious, Fei?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed. 

“Then repeat after me; Mei Shi, reveal yourself!”

Fei nodded to her companion, “Mei Shi, reveal yourself!” She repeated. 

After Fei said the words, Mei Shi gave Fei a slight bow before dissolving into a mass of dark blue light. The mass of light began to grow, growing brighter and larger until the mass was almost three times Fei’s height. The light- no- energy began to swirl around, forming a humanoid shape. The energy stopped shining and took visible form. As the light completely vanished, Fei saw a figure before her, towering over her. 

The figure wore dark blue armor with windlike designs and gold accents throughout. Under the armor was a coat of curly blue fur, which Fei could only really see under its arms and between its waist and knees as the rest of its body was covered by the armor. Its hands were human-like but Fei noticed paw-like structures on its paws, one of his hands held a golden orb the size of Fei’s head, also with wind-like symbols on it. Its blue head was structured like that of a guardian lion, like one might see outside of a temple, and almost looked metallic. It’s mane wrapped around his head, the hairs curling in a way that almost resembled flames or wind. It had large orange eyebrows above a pair of striking red eyes, eyes Fei recognised as Mei Shi’s.

“Mei Shi?” Fei reacted, a little put off by her companion’s sudden change in size. The armored lion nodded at her before turning away. The armored lion’s feet touched the ground, his armored feet caused a large BANG to reverberate around the metal tower around them. 

The battle had stopped, all three participants looking up at Mei Shi’s form, as well as the reporter girl. “I am Mei Shi, Kwami of Adoption!” He called out, his voice much deeper than before and carrying a pressure to it now, “I am Protector of the Prodigious and first kwami bound to the miraculous! Human, you have stolen the Prodigious from my care and now use it for evil purposes! Return it to me or face my wrath!”

“Hell yeah! It’s on our side!” The pink haired hero exclaimed, punching her fist in the air above her, causing an amused look to cross the cat hero’s face for a moment.

“No! The Prodigious is mine, and so is its power!” Hawkmoth yelled in response, “If you really cared that much, you would have stopped me in the cave, you so called protector!”

“Very well human, face my wrath!” Mei Shi called out, taking the golden ball in its hand and moving it so he was holding it in both. He then removed both his hands, letting the golden ball continue to float between his paws. He pulled one arm back, the ball following that hand while Mei Shi pointed his other palm at Hawkmoth. With one swift arm thrust, Mei Shi sent the golden ball flying towards the villain. Hawkmoth attempted to dodge out of the way, but the ball followed him. Fei noticed that Mei Shi kept his one palm pointed at Hawkmoth, likely why the ball followed his movement.

“Foster!" Mei Shi called out as the ball stuck Hakwmoth in the gut. The villain was sent flying back, slamming into one of the metal pillars of the tower. Fei noticed the golden ball pulling some kind of purple energy out of the man before it pulled away from him, floating back to Mei Shi's palm as Hawkmoth fell to the ground. One of the wind-like symbols on the orb was a purple color instead of gold now.

Hawkmoth pulled himself off the floor, holding his stomach as he did so. Fei watched as he examined himself, checking his body over and touching the purple brooch on his chest, as if making sure it was there. "You, what did you do to me?" He shouted, pointing at Mei Shi.

Mei Shi moved the golden ball in his hands, adjusting it so it sat with his palms holding the top and bottom of the orb. “I have adopted the butterfly’s power of transmission, and I will use it to fulfill my mission as Protector of the Prodigious.” Mei Shi stated, talking very deliberately for some reason. Fei watched as Mei Shi twisted the orb between his palms, causing a split to appear down the middle of the golden orb. As Fei’s companion moved his palms apart, the orb split in two, opening to reveal the orb was hollow, holding some kind of animal inside. 

As the orb opened fully, a small blue and black lion jumped out and onto the ground in front of Mei Shi, it was no bigger than Fei’s fist. It looked like a mini guardian lion, with the unique style of mane and fur glowing blue in contrast to the black on the rest of the creature. 

Fei watched the small lion run around Mei Shi once, looking up at him as he moved the two halves of the orb back together. The two heroines also watched the small lion, the cat hero looked slightly concerned by its presence while the spotted hero had a look of mild excitement on her face. Hawkmoth simply glared at it. 

As the golden orb came back together, Mei Shi held it in one hand and pointed to Fei with his other. At his command the small blue lion began running towards Fei. Once close enough, the small lion lept upwards towards Fei's head, she took a half step backwards on instinct as the creature landed vaguely on her head. 

Except, she didn’t feel it land on her head. Instead, Fei felt a presence enter her mind, emanating from the sunglasses she kept on her head. “Fei, I am Mei Shi, ” Fei heard Mei Shi speaking both through her ears and directly into her mind, causing a slight echo to accompany his deep voice, “ Using the power I adopted from Hawkmoth, I am enhancing your body to superhuman levels so you may properly fight to reclaim the Prodigious. I am also giving you the power to truly dance in the sky. Do you accept this power?”

Fei didn’t fully understand what was going on, but she did understand that if she accepted she could fight. She could fight to take back the treasure that her father dedicated his life to guard. The treasure Fei had failed to guard. She would gain the power to right her mistakes. “Absolutely, Mei Shi.” Fei said, allowing a dark blue mass of energy to spread over her body. 

Chapter Text

Kagami was extremely unhappy that Hawkmoth had shown up today of all days.

She had been looking forward to today ever since she heard Mainette and Adrien were coming back. She had worked extremely hard for the past 5 days to get ahead of her tutors' schedules so that she could get today off. Whenever her nose wasn't deep in her books, she had been swinging either a bokken or a shinai, trying her best to show Mother an increase in her skills.

In the end, Kagami's hard work had paid off. Mother had cleared her schedule for the day and allowed her to spend the day with her friends. It had also helped that there hadn't been any akumatized villains since Heroes Day, so Kagami hadn't had to sneak off at random times to save Paris as Kishi Noir.

Still, she had found time to be Kishi Noir, even if it cut into her sleep a couple times. Being able to go wherever she wanted, leaping across Paris in whatever direction her mood that day favored. Being able to hang out with her partner, Nike, without having to ask for permission. The lighthearted sparring matches they had sometimes, not to improve their skills, but just doing it to have fun.

All that was simply too enjoyable for Kagami to give up, even for just a week. 

Kagami had just pulled up to the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie when Prime Queen took over Tatsu's screen at the front of the car, as well as the phone in her pocket. The smile that had been on her face since she had woken up died as the villain showed her face. Her mood was soured all the more when Hawkmoth himself had shown up on the screen, flaunting the new magical jewel he had gotten his hands on. 

Plagg hadn't exactly been helpful regarding the power of this mysterious new jewel. He had simply begun laughing uncontrollably the moment Hawkmoth showed the disk-like item. His laugher hadn't stopped even when Kagami exited the car and moved to a nearby alleyway. The kwami had also been quite unhelpful in helping her know what Hawkmoth's new magic jewel did, just exclaiming to 'Go beat that loser's ass' between bursts of laughter. 

Nike had relayed the information she had gotten from her kwami, which still hadn't been much. Going into the fight with just the name of the jewel, the Prodigious, and the assurance that Hawkmoth wouldn't be able to use its full power wasn't much better than going in with just Plagg's laughter, but it was something at least. 

Her annoyance had turned to boiling anger as she learned the truth about the akumatized victim who had called them here, Hawkmoth’s bubble sentimonster releasing the woman’s kidnapped daughter. He had kidnapped a little girl just to announce his presence, something that could have been achieved just by simply standing and waiting for news teams to descend on him. It showed his impatience, it showed his arrogance, and it showed his blatant disregard for his fellow man. Kagami silently vowed to beat some sense into the supervillain, and expose the face behind his villainous mask.

The power of this ‘Prodigious’ had been a little underwhelming, given how confident Hawkmoth had been about it. The animal forms he took and the wind he had summoned with one of them gave her an inkling about the true power of the jewel, but Nike had been right. Hawkmoth couldn’t access its full power. He was struggling, even as the two heroes had to deal with a civilian trying to enter the fight, he couldn’t gain the upper hand. 

Of course, none of them expected the giant armored blue lion, it had appeared in a swirling mass of energy, floating off the ground for a few moments before landing on the tower, the sound of his landing echoing slightly off the metal around them. 

Hawkmoth who had been bearing down on them in the form of a bear, suddenly transformed back to his human form in a puff of smoke, with no audible command given, staring up at the large form before them, the confusion evident on his face. It didn’t seem like the lion was one of his tricks. 

“Holy shit, this is crazy!” A voice exclaimed, Kishi turned to see Marinette’s friend, the Ladyblogger Alya, looking up at Mei Shi. She had her phone pointed at the kwami. Her expression quickly changed to shock as she glanced at the phone, “What? Where is it?” Kishi hadn’t noticed the girl's arrival but really hoped she would stay out of the way, she and Nike could only deal with so many things.
Kishi’s attention snapped back to the lion as it began to speak. “I am Mei Shi, Kwami of Adoption!” Kishi’s eyes widened as the deep voice bore down on them, the pressure of the air around them had increased. A Kwami? This giant thing? “I am Protector of the Prodigious and first kwami bound to the miraculous! Human, you have stolen the Prodigious from my care and now use it for evil purposes! Return it to me or face my wrath!”

“Hell yeah! It’s on our side!” Nike exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air with excitement. Kishi let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. This ‘Mei Shi’ had called itself a kwami, but it was very different from the kwami she knew. The small cat that haunted Kagami’s cabinets and filled her room with cheese stench didn’t carry this pressure with him. 

Kishi knew that Plagg, despite his demeanor, had the power to destroy the world within him, as did she when she transformed into Kishi Noir. But that power was almost hidden, contained in the small form that allowed him to hide within her jacket or dive into a bowl of camembert. This Mei Shi carried what power it had openly, on display for everyone to see and feel as its form towered over them and its words shook the ground beneath them.

“No! The Prodigious is mine, and so is its power!” Hawkmoth yelled back indignantly at the armored lion.

Kagami’s eyes widened at the supervillain. Could he not feel this pressure in the air? Was he blind to the power of the being that stood in front of them?

Or was he simply a fool?

“Very well human, face my wrath!” Mei Shi responded, its metallic looking eyebrows turning downward. The being moved the golden ball in his palm so it was held with both its hands, before pulling his hands back, leaving the ball floating between his palms. 

Kishi grabbed Nike’s arm and moved away from Hawkmoth, who stood glaring at the lion kwami. Nike looked at her with a slightly confused expression as she was pulled away, but her eyes quickly widened as she saw whatever face Kishi was making. It seemed that Nike couldn’t feel the power of this thing either, but allowed Kishi to pull her away from the person the being was about to release its wrath upon, 

The duo moved a good distance away from their enemy as Mei Shi held one of his palms pointed at the supervillain, pulling his other palm back along with the golden ball floating a small distance from the lion’s paw. Mei Shi thrusted his arm towards Hawkmoth, sending the golden ball flying towards him. Hawkmoth tried to dodge the attack, jumping to the left of the ball’s path, but it was futile. The orb curved in midair, as if magnetized to him, and slammed into his gut, sending him flying backwards. 

“Foster!” The kwami called out as the golden orb struck Hawkmoth.. All at once, something in the energy around them changed. Some force emanated from the golden ball, pulling something within Kishi towards it. The energy inside of her began moving, a tingling feeling appeared in her fingertips and nose as the energy in her body rushed forward. The invisible force pulled lightly on Kishi, not enough to move her, but her clothing began to move towards it slightly. The front of her jacket raising off her torso and her baggy pants flattening against the back of her legs as they were pulled towards Mei Shi’s power. The silver rod in her hand vibrated slightly, also being slightly pulled towards the orb. 

“What the hell?” Nike muttered, clenching her hand in and out of a fist. Kishi figured she was feeling the same things she was. Was the ball pulling in magic?

Looking over at the ball, Kishi noticed it absorbing some kind of purple energy from Hawkmoth, his suit rippling slightly inwards to where the ball had collided against his chest as he slammed into a metal pillar. 

As the supervillain slammed into the wall, the golden orb pulled away from him and all at once its pull stopped. The magic in Kishi’s body and clothing settled down, moving back to its familiar flow, the tingling feeling gone now. One of the symbols on the ball was now a purple color, likely due to whatever power it had absorbed from Hawkmoth. 

The supervillain fell onto his knees, holding his stomach. He began to check himself over for a moment, examining his stomach and limbs, touching the miraculous on his chest as if assuring himself it was still there. “You, what did you do to me?” Hawkmoth shouted, pointing at the lion kwami as it caught the golden ball as it floated back, holding it in both palms. 

The being adjusted the orb in his hands, holding it so it's palms held opposite vertical sides of the sphere, “I have adopted the butterfly’s power of transmission, and I will use it to fulfill my mission as Protector of the Prodigious.” Mei Shi announced, its words increasing the pressure in the air. The armored lion twisted the golden orb in his hands in opposite directions, causing a break to appear in it, splitting the ball in half. It pulled the two halves of the ball apart, revealing something to be inside the hollow sphere. 

A small black and blue mini-lion leapt out of the orb, landing on the ground in front of Mei Shi. It resembled a Chinese guardian lion, the stone statues sometimes found outside of their temples. The way the back and blue energy slightly moved within the creature reminded Kishi of one of Hawkmoth’s dark akumas. Mei Shi had said they had copied the butterfly’s power of transmission, was this akuma-lion the result of its power?

Kishi watched the small lion carefully. If it was an akuma, it would mean that it would be used to empower someone to fight Hawkmoth, since he was the enemy of Mei Shi. Since she and Nike were also enemies of Hawkmoth, would it come to them?

The thought of being akumatized with the black cat miraculous, even by a being who seemed to be allied with her, scared Kishi. Would she be under Mei Shi’s control? Would she be able to resist if it asked her to accept its power? Would she still be herself if she did? 

“Alright peeps, so this giant blue lion guy just hit Hawkmoth with a golden ball, which was also invisible!” Kishi heard Alya give a play by play of what Mei Shi was doing, assumedly because the being didn’t show up on camera,

 “And he said he copied Hawkmoth’s power and he opened the ball and this thing came out.” She pointed the camera at the lion-akuma. 

Kishi watched Mei Shi cautiously as it closed the golden orb, setting its two halves back together before moving to hold it with just one hand. Looking at the lion-akuma, the armored lion pointed almost in the direct opposite direction of where Kishi and Nike stood,, his finger pointing towards the civilian girl who had tried to join the battle previously, the one she and Nike kept having to pull away from the fight. 

At that moment Kishi realized that she might have been the one that summoned Mei Shi. She had mentioned Hawkmoth stole a treasure from her family, assumedly the Prodigious. Kishi had assumed she was just a foolish girl, trying to fight Hawkmoth with no powers like she had, but now she realized she had brought more to the fight. She had brought a kwami. 

But a kwami meant a miraculous, right? Then why hadn’t she transformed?

The lion-akuma ran towards the girl, leaping upwards as it closed in on her. The akuma landed on and fused with the sunglasses on the girl’s head as it landed on them and a dark blue outline resembling a lion’s mane appeared around her face. 

“Fei, I am Mei Shi.” The armored lion called out, the girl’s eyes widened and her mouth fell slightly agape, “Using the power I adopted from Hawkmoth, I am enhancing your body to superhuman levels so you may properly fight to reclaim the Prodigious. I am also giving you the power to truly dance in the sky. Do you accept this power?” The words mimicked the words Kagami herself remembered Hawkmoth speaking into her own mind, before she had received her miraculous, as he was akumatizing her into Riposte. Although, it lacked the added clause of the ladybug and black cat miraculous, which was definitely reassuring. 

“Absolutely, Mei Shi!” The girl exclaimed. With that, a dark blue energy began to spread across her body from the sunglasses the lion-akuma had entered, the color different from the usual dark purple energy of a usual akumatization. Once the energy spread all the way down to her feet, it solidified, turning the girl into an akumatized hero, a first for the city of Paris. 

The girl’s outfit was sky blue and was a simple bodysuit. The image of a pink dragon wrapped around her body, looping around her right leg, around her torso, and up to and wrapping around her left arm which was previously in a splint. The suit turned white just past her elbows and below the knee on her left leg, resembling long gloves and a boot on one foot, the soles of the suit’s shoes turning back to light blue. The sunglasses containing the lion-akuma had turned into aviator’s goggles with dark lenses, the body of the goggles being light blue with white outlines. Her tied back hair was mostly the same, though it seemed longer now and seemed to float and flutter in a wind that wasn’t really there.

The girl looked herself over for a moment, seeming a little confused, which was definitely unusual for an akumatized person. Akumatized villains usually got right into their villainy without much notice of their outfits. The girl’s slight confusion led Kishi to believe that she was still herself despite being akumatized. 

“You think you can use my own powers against me?” Hawkmoth exclaimed, “Don’t be so naive!” The supervillain raised his hand towards Fei, as Mei Shi had named her, his middle finger and thumb together. With a snap of his fingers…

Nothing happened. 

“What?!” Hawkmoth yelled out, snapping continuously at her. Fei didn’t pay this action any mind as she clenched and unclenched the fist on her previously tied up and splinted arm. She reached over with her other hand and squeezed her forearm, a smile appearing on her face as she did.

“You have no power over my champion, human!” Mei Shi called out, the pressure in the air once again increasing as they spoke, “I did not use the energy of the butterfly, but merely copied its patterns. You cannot use the magic of the butterfly to remove her power. Now return the Prodigious to me, you are unworthy!”

“And your miraculous too, while we’re at it!” Nike exclaimed, cracking her knuckles and taking a few steps forward. 

Mei Shi looked towards her for a moment, one of its eyebrows slightly raising, “I am unconcerned with the miraculous of the butterfly, my concern is the Prodigious. Do as you must, young holders, but ensure you do not hinder my goal.” The voice being directed towards Kishi held a heavier weight than before. Kagami felt her heart rate increase as he spoke to them. 

“Don’t worry big guy, we’re on the same side! We don’t want him having either of them.” Nike told him, far too casual for Kishi’s liking but Mei Shi responded with a nod and turned his gaze back to Hawkmoth. 

The akumatized girl focused her gaze on Hawkmoth and took a fighting stance, “I am Fei Wu, daughter of the honorable Wu Shifu, who’s life was ended by your schemes, Hawkmoth!” Fei exclaimed, “You burnt down my family’s school, stole the key to the sacred cave, broke inside, and stole the Prodigious sealed within! You will return the Prodigious to its protector and face punishment for your actions!”

A deep scowl appeared on Hawkmoth’s face, “You accuse me of all that? Where’s your proof, little girl?”

“The proof lies around your neck!” The girl leapt upwards, and then, with the air itself swirling around her foot, she jumped again in midair. 

“Let’s kick his ass!” Nike yelled out, running past Mei Shi and towards Hawkmoth. Kishi also began moving forward as Mei Shi folded their legs under themselves, now sitting on the floor with the golden ball between both hands. It seemed like the kwami didn't plan on participating in the fight. 

Once Nike was close enough, Hawkmoth swung at her with his cane. Dodging under it, Nike slid forwards on her knees for a moment before shooting upwards, her fist colliding with Hawkmoth’s jaw, s ending his head flying backwards. A moment later, Fei came shooting downwards, having flipped herself upside-down midair and launching herself downwards by kicking off the air. She flipped again as she came downwards and her foot slammed into Hawkmoth’s face as his head was thrown back from Nike’s attack. 

Hawkmoth stumbled backwards slightly before Fei’s heel came down onto his face, hitting him in the forehead. The force of the impact forced the supervillain onto one knee, but his arm shot up as he fell to grab Fei by the ankle. He yanked her sideways and swung her downwards as Kishi swung at Hawkmoth with her silver staff. Her attack was blocked by his cane as the akumatized girl slammed into the ground, Hawkmoth releasing his grip on her ankle a moment later. 

Before Hawkmoth could pull his cane back, Kishi grabbed hold of his cane with her other hand. Nike quickly ducked under the cane and made a grab for the butterfly miraculous sitting on his chest. Hawkmoth made a momentary effort to pull the cane out of Kishi’s hand before simply letting it go and slamming his elbow down on Nike’s arm before she could get the miraculous. 

Fei jumped off the floor as Hawkmoth’s hands shot forwards to grab at Nike’s earrings. Kishi reacted by stabbing at the man’s arms with both of the weapons she held. As Kishi’s attacks landed, Fei sent her foot into Hawkmoth’s stomach, causing him to lean over slightly and Nike took that moment to send her fist into the supervillain’s jaw once again. 

Kishi noticed a grin appear on her partner’s face as a loud crack from Hawkmoth’s jaw accompanied her strike. 

Hawkmoth grabbed his jaw for a moment, a pained look on his face. A bit of blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth but the supervillain quickly wiped it away with his tongue, a slight look of disgust on his face as he did so. Nike also grimaced at the action.

“She!” He called out, transforming into a snake with a puff of yellow smoke. Fei’s foot slammed downward at the purple and black patterned snake almost immediately, but he slithered out of the way. The snake lunged forward, dodging an attempt at a grab from Nike and lunging at Kishi. She noticed he was specifically lunging at her right hand, which bore her miraculous. 

Kishi swung at him with his own cane. The attack seemed to land, but instead of being hit Hawksnake simply wrapped himself around the cane. He began to slither up the cane towards her hand. She quickly flipped the cane upside down in her hand and held it completely vertical for a moment before letting go and kicking it straight upwards. 

Hawksnake jumped off the cane as it sailed upwards, jumping down at them. Kishi readied her staff for an attack. 

“Xiong!” He called out, the purple snake stretching out as it fell towards them, expecting to turn into a bear. But nothing happened, no cloud of yellow smoke and no transformation. 

Kishi didn’t know what had gone wrong, but she took advantage of it. She stabbed her staff towards Hawkmoth’s snake form, extending it as she stabbed so the staff slammed into its head. He was sent flying backwards in the air, the snake’s long body rolling into a spiral as it flew backwards. A moment later he hit the ground some distance away, his long form unrolling and hitting the ground with a long SCHLAPP sound. 

A moment later the cane hit the ground directly in front of the heroes. It clattered around for a few moments before Nike picked it up. She swung it in the air a few times before the grin on her face became accompanied by a mischievous look in her eye. 

“Yup, I’m beating this asshole up with his own weapon,” Nike said before turning to Kishi, “It just feels like the right thing to do.”

Kishi nodded in agreement. That did feel like the right thing to do.

“Ren.” Hawksnake called out, turning back into himself with a burst of yellow smoke, kneeling on the ground and holding his head. Nike began charging in a moment later and Kishi wasn’t far behind. Fei leapt into the air once again, running through the air above the heroes towards Hawkmoth.

Nike held the cane near the bottom and swung at Hawkmoth, hitting the side of his head with  the round top of the cane. His head flew sideways from the impact and he braced a hand against the floor to keep from completely falling over.

Nike pulled the cane back and swung again at the other side of Hawkmoth's face, but it unfortunately didn't connect this time. The supervillain reached up and caught the rounded top of the cane with the hand not bracing the ground. Kishi pulled her staff back in preparation to also hit the terrorist in the head as he opened the top of the cane with his thumb.

Kishi momentarily paused her attack as a stream of bubbles began to flow out of the cane. In the next moment Fei came down from above them, her leg cutting though the stream of bubbles and her foot slamming into Hawkmoth's head. The arm he had braced against the floor slipped out from under him and sent his head down to smash into the floor. Nike yanked the cane out of Hawkmoth's grasp once he hit the floor. 

The bubble sentimonster finished reforming above Hawkmoth, its round and transparent shape unmoving as it hadn’t been given orders. Although, its eyes, or at least Kishi guessed the two bubbles with a smaller bubble inside each were it’s eyes, flicked between the heroes and Hawkmoth. 

The supervillain pushed himself off the ground with his hands to look up at them. Kishi noticed that his eyes were strangely dilated and his gaze was not exactly on them, a little out of focus, for a moment before his eyes regained their usual rage and false confidence, a glare directed at Nike. He lifted one arm up and pointed at her, “Devour her, Bubbleman.”

The sentimonster reacted instantly, parting its bubble lips and opening its mouth wide, the inside of its mouth looking like a dense, infinite cloud of bubbles, contrasting its fully transparent body. It looked like a portal to another dimension, which it probably was. A small pocket one at least. Bubbleman surged forward towards Nike, attempting to trap her inside itself. Nike dodged backwards to avoid the sentimonster. 

Hawkmoth jumped up from the ground and lunged at Fei, slamming his arm into her side before she could react. “Stop using my POWERS!” Hawkmoth said as he grabbed the girl’s ponytail, screaming the last word as he lifted her off the ground, swinging her around before throwing her away. Hawkmoth turned towards Kishi as the girl sailed away from them, not noticing the wind collecting behind the girl’s feet as she flew. “And you,” Hawkmoth said as he balled his fist and pulled his arm back, “Need to give me your miraculous!” He threw a punch at her, which Kishi blocked with her staff as Fei kicked off the air and began leaping her way back towards Hawkmoth. 

Kishi blocked another punch from Hawkmoth as Fei got close enough, spinning around in the air and sending a kick towards the terrorist’s head. The kick landed, sending his head sideways once again. Hawkmoth’s face contorted in rage as Fei kicked off the air behind him, flipping over him and landing in front of him. His face began to shake slightly and he began to grind his teeth together. 

“They’re my po-UAH!” Fei began but was interrupted as Hawkmoth grabbed her by the mouth, his fingers sinking into her cheeks and around her chin. 

“Enough!” He shouted as he lifted the girl off the ground for a moment before slamming her back down, dropping to one knee so he could slam the back of the girl’s neck and head into the floor, causing her to scream out in pain. Hawkmoth got back to his feet, lifting her up once again before swinging her around and throwing her away once again. This time Fei fell to the ground, tumbling a few times before coming to a stop.

Kishi couldn’t focus on the girl for long as Hawkmoth quickly turned his focus to her, making a grab for her right hand and the miraculous she wore there. Kishi quickly pulled her arm back to avoid him but Hawkmoth moved forward to attempt to grab her hand again. Behind her back, she moved her staff to her left hand and swung her arm around to press the rod against the supervillain’s neck as he leaned forward again. She extended the staff upwards. It stayed pressed against the skin of his neck for a moment and lifted Hawkmoth a little ways off the ground before it slipped past his neck, hitting his chin and then going past his head. As he began to fall, Kishi pushed her arm forward to slam her elbow into his chest, causing him to fall backwards and land on his back. Kishi rushed forward as he landed, dropping down onto him and digging one knee into his stomach. 

Kishi locked her gaze on the butterfly miraculous on the supervillain’s chest and went for it, shooting her right hand forward to grab the brooch. Hawkmoth’s eyes widened as Kishi’s hand shot forward, his own hand moving to stop her. 

Her fingers wrapped around the brooch just as Hawkmoth wrapped his hand around her forearm, holding her tight. Kishi pulled the brooch off his chest, pulling it into her hand and wrapping her fingers around it. 

“NO!” The supervillain shouted as the miraculous' transformation fell away from him in a flash of purple, losing the ‘moth’ part of his name as Nooroo shot out of the miraculous. His grip tightened around her forearm, becoming painfully tight. 

“Uhh? WOAH!” Kishi heard Nike exclaim, presumably because the cane she had been using as a weapon vanished, “Kishi, you got it! Ni- oh shit!”

The purple had fallen away from his costume now that the Prodigious was the only jewel powering him. The butterfly shaped mask on his face had become a regular shaped mask, red outlined with gold and black. His costume no longer resembled a modern dress suit, now just a regular bodysuit. His hair, previously purple and long, had turned golden blond and was now short and slicked back to a point. The bodysuit was red with gold sections under his arms and down his sides, black stripes arcing off the golden sections. The string of the Prodigious still hid under the neck of the outfit. Something clattered to the floor next to them, a quick glance revealed it to be a white pen.

Stange, it must have fallen out of a pocket the supervillain no longer had as just ‘Hawk’.

“Let go,” Kishi Noir warned him along with an icy glare, “Or I’ll destroy it.” She had grabbed it with the hand that also bore her own miraculous. She could easily call her cataclysm and destroy the miraculous.

“Give it back!” He shouted, apparently dismissing her threat as he moved to grab for her hand with his other hand. Luckily, Kishi also had another hand. She knocked his hand away before he could grab her hand that held both their miraculous and pressed her staff into his wrist, extending it so his arm was pressed against the floor. 

“Let go.” Kishi once again warned. Nike could always bring the miraculous back after Kishi had castacysmed it, so Kagami wasn’t exactly sure why she was hesitating to call her power. 

“Never! The butterfly miraculous is mine!” Hawk shouted back at her. 

“Not anymore.” Kishi responded, pushing her staff into his wrist harder. 

“Oh my god! Is that Hawkmoth’s kwami?” Alya yelled out, Kishi turned for a moment to see her still here with her camera pointed at the stalemate between her and Hawk. She noticed Hawkmoth also turn his head to look at Alya, a slightly puzzled expression on his face. In that moment Kishi felt his grip of her wrist loosen ever so lightly so she instantly tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, but he immediately turned his focus back to her and tightened his grip once again. 

Kishi’s eyes looked over at Nooroo, floating a small distance away from them, having exited the supervillain when his miraculous was removed. The small purple kwami fidgeted with his hands as his eyes looked around wildly, looking more than a little confused. 

“Nooroo, what is Hawkmoth’s identity?” Kishi yelled out to the kwami, causing his focus to snap to her, his eyes wide. 

“His name is- BLHEH.” A stream of bubbles fell out of the butterfly kwami’s mouth. Kishi remembered Master Fu mention that kwamis could not reveal their holders names. It was a good rule but Kishi was definitely frustrated about it at that moment. 

“Give us any details about him. His family, where he lives, anything!” Alya called out to the kwami. 

“Oh, he’s-” Nooroo began. 

“Silence!” Hawk called out, a hint of panic in his eyes, and the kwami shut his mouth.

“Nooroo, speak!” Kishi commanded, being the one actually holding the miraculous, her words held the authority. 

“Tell us everything, little guy!” Nike shouted out from somewhere behind Kishi.

“Nooroo, be silent!” The supervillain shouted once again. 

“And I’ll be taking this.” Fei said, grabbing the Prodigious and pulling the string out from behind the collar of Hawk’s suit. 

“NO!” He shouted. With a desperate burst of strength, Hawk lifted his arm off the ground where Kishi had it pinned, throwing the staff off his wrist, and shot his hand up to grab the string of the Prodigious before it could be pulled over his head. “The Prodigious is MINE!”

“I don’t know what to do!” Nooroo shouted, curling into himself, “Please free me!”

Kishi dropped her rod and grabbed onto Hawk’s thumb with her other hand, attempting to pull his grip away and free her hand holding the miraculous. “I will.” Kishi told the kwami as Hawk tightened his grip on her forearm. The skin on her hand was turning purple, her blood circulation was being cut off by his grip. “I promise I will free you, Nooroo.”

“You will not! Nooroo is my slave!” He shouted in reply, “And so are these Renlings! You will free none of them!”

“Kwami’s are not slaves!” Nooroo screamed, tears forming in the kwami’s purple eyes, “We aren’t here to be slaves, we’re here to live! We’re here to experience all the things we couldn’t as our cosmic selves!”

His grip on her arm was too strong, Kishi couldn't even budge his fingers. She would have to force him to let go in some other way. 

“We’re here to experience joy, eat good food, make friends, see the beauty of the world in a way we could never experience before! That's why we kwamis let ourselves be bound to the miraculous, why we let the first mage bind our power to these jewels, to the humans!”

Fei pulled on the Prodigious as hard as she could, holding the main disk of the jewel with both hands. She had one knee on the ground next to the supervillain’s head and as she pulled she put her other foot on his neck, the shoes of her magical akuma costume digging into his neck as she continued to try and take the Prodigious from him. 

Kishi desperately hoped for her success. If Fei could take the Prodigious from him, there would be nothing left protecting his secret identity. 

“It was so we could live with humans without them being afraid, so they wouldn’t see us as monsters or gods to worship! So we could be friends with humans without being a danger to them, so we could experience life with them, experience their joy and sorrows with them!” 

Kishi picked her staff once again and pressed it into the supervillain’s chest, pushing the button to extend it downwards. If she could crush this bastard’s lungs he would let go, Nooroo and all of Paris would be free. It wasn’t very heroic but it was the best she had at that moment. 

“It was not so greedy, power hungry, delusional men like you could abuse our powers for your own gain! You can never win because fate will not let you! Fate demands that the miraculous should be used for the greater good, and the more you deny that, the more fate works against you!”

Hawk’s teeth grinded against each other, Kishi could hear it with her enhanced hearing. His eyes moved around wildly, looking for any escape, but there was none. Kishi had his miraculous, Fei had hold of the Prodigious. If he transformed into an animal to escape or fight back he would lose his hands and Kishi would run off with the butterfly miraculous, Nooroo would be free to lead them to his real identity. If he let go of the Prodigious to get his miraculous back, he would lose his secret identity. His sentimoster was after Nike and giving it new orders would free Nike to assist her.  

He had no escape, but neither did she. 

“I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! You’re a stupid dumb jerk who lives in a delusional past! You’re a terrible husband and an even worse father! You’re the worst! I hope you lose! I hope you die! I want to be free! I want to eat gooey cheese with Plagg and Mullo! I want to listen to Longg’s nonsense for hours! I want to laugh with Trixx and make art with Ziggy!” Tears poured down Nooroo’s face as he screamed with all the volume in their small body.. 

Kishi’s eyes landed on the pen that had fallen on the ground at Hawk’s side. It was a simple white pen with a simple white pen cap. It was an odd item for the supervillain to have in his pocket, especially going into a battle. 

“Leave me alone you stupid bubble!” Nike shouted out as she contested with the Bubbleman. 

“Nike, the pen!” Kishi shouted, realizing why it had been in his pocket. It held the amok. 

“Pen?” Nike echoed, confused. Kishi had likely been the only one to notice it.

“Sentimonster!” She shouted back, too busy focusing on trying to break the supervillan’s chest and keep her hand clenched as feeling was cut off along with her circulation to formulate a proper sentence. She was desperate for any advantage to gain the upper hand, Kishi wanted the supervillain gone. She wanted to free Nooroo, and then Duusu, and then any kwami being oppressed. If Nike could get the item holding the amok, she could then free herself to break the stalemate Kishi and Fei found themselves in.

“Oh!” Nike exclaimed, Kishi heard her partner run towards her and in the next moment her partner’s hand wrapped around the pen.

“Ren-Hu!” The supervillain shouted, activating the Prodigious’ power in a blast of yellow smoke.

“YES!!” Kishi celebrated as she yanked her hand back. None of his other forms had hands, he had given up on-

Kishi still felt a grasp on her arm, preventing her from pulling her hand away and getting away with the butterfly miraculous, tighter and bigger than before with strange squishy parts on the palms and fingers of the hand that held fast to her forearm. She looked down at her enemy, her teeth clenching together in rage and frustration. 

He was larger now, his width of his frame having nearly doubled and grown fur, The fur was golden on the bottom half of his face and down the front of his body, but red with black stripes on his arms and head. Despite being in a tiger form, his collarbone was still straight like a human’s and his hands still had their fingers and thumbs, but now covered in red fur with paw pads on his palms. He had gained a huge amount of muscle, the thick muscles of a tiger had replaced the slightly skinny form he previously had. His face was a combination of a tiger’s and his own, fur covered his head but his eyes remained human. A tiger’s nose came slightly forward along with his mouth to create a small snout, but not as defined as his full tiger form had. Below his waist had no fur, just the same red and gold bodysuit as before, though his legs were larger as well. 

And the Prodigious was gone, merged with his transformation into this man-tiger.

“NO!” Kishi shouted, pushing her staff into his chest harder, as hard as she possibly could. She had to kill him! She had to free Nooroo! 

“YES!” the man tiger shouted, yanking her arm sideways and throwing her off him, still keeping his grip tight. Kishi slammed into the ground next to the supervillain, it took all her focus to keep her hand clenched around the miraculous. She felt her rod fall out of her hands and roll away.

HawkTiger leapt forward, his free clawed paw-hand shot forward, wrapping around the back of Nike Rouge’s neck from where she half layed on the floor after diving for the pen. Both heroines were lifted off the ground, Nike by the back of her neck and Kishi by her arm that was frighteningly purple at this point, she couldn’t even feel the miraculous in her hand anymore. 

It was her fault, Nike had only been close enough because Kishi had told her to go for the pen. Now here they were, both of them being held up by their enemy, the supervillain’s fingers wrapped around her partner’s neck so his claws dug into her throat,  the butterfly miraculous held in KIshi’s hand but her arm gripped by her enemy’s powerful grasp. 

“Stop!” Nike exclaimed as she was held up by her enemy.

“You think begging will help you now, brat?” Hawktiger responded, assuming Nike was talking to him, seemingly not noticing the bubble sentimonster stopping in its tracks a little ways away from them. 

“Kishi, use your power, destroy it!” Nike shouted, her hands pulling at the claws around her neck, her legs trying to kick backwards to hit him, but too short to reach.

“Do it and I’ll rip her throat out!” Hawktiger barked back, Kishi could hear it in his voice that he wasn’t bluffing.

“Let go of them!” Fei shouted, sending a kick to the back of supervillain’s leg, making him fall on one knee, Kishi felt her feet barely touch the ground as she was lowered slightly, but only for a moment.

HawkTiger swung Kishi around, using her as his weapon and slamming her into Fei. Kishi felt the back of her legs impact the girl’s arms and side, sending her flying backwards, slamming into a metal pillar some distance away.

“I’ll be fine, cataclysm it!” Nike shouted. Looking over, Kishi saw blood trickling out from where the supervillain’s claws dug into her partner’s neck, blood slowly dripping down her neck and onto the man-tiger’s claws. 

Nike wouldn’t be fine. He would kill her. Could the miraculous ladybugs fix that? Would Kishi even be able to get the ladybug earrings before Hawktiger could? She- 

Kishi couldn’t let her partner die. 

She looked over at Nooroo, tears still streaming down his face. He looked scared, so scared. Kishi wanted to save him but-

“I’m sorry.” Kishi told the kwami as she opened her hand, letting the butterfly miraculous fall from her grip.

“No! NOOOO!!!” Nooroo screamed as he watched her hand open. Kishi watched him as the supervillain let go of both heroines to dive for the miraculous.

The kwami’s wings grew, they grew and glowed with power, his small butterfly wings grew to dwarf his body and pulsed with the same energy that the akumas did. 

“I’m not a slave!” The kwami yelled, desperation breaking its voice as it shot through the air. He flew so fast he was just a blur of purple as he flew forwards, flying towards the golden orb Mei Shi held between his hands. “I WON’T BE-”

“Nooroo, stop.” Kagami heard as she hit the ground, Nike hitting the ground next to her. In front of her the supervillain had the brooch in his paws. He once again had power over Nooroo.

The kwami stopped just short of the golden ball, freezing in the air just mere millimeters away from fusing with it, just short of akumatizing Mei Shi with his own body. Less than a moment away from a kwami akumatizing another kwami, an unmitigated disaster would have spilled forth. Mei Shi’s eyes were wide, their mouth hanging open as they looked at Nooroo in front of them. The armored lion dropped the golden ball into his lap, his arms moving behind his back to brace him against the floor as he leaned away from Nooroo.

“Drop your power and get over here.” Hawktiger ordered as he placed the brooch back on his chest, pushing away the golden hair there in order to attach it to his chest once again.

Kishi watched Nooroo’s wings shrink back to their former size as he floated back towards the bastard who held his miraculous. Kishi’s hands balled into fists as Nooroo, tears still flowing down his purple cheeks, bowed his head at the supervillain. “Please, just let me go.” He begged. Kishi held her hand out, willing her silver staff to return to her.

“Never, you are my slave. Nooroo, dark wings rise!” Nooroo was sucked back into the brooch and Hawkmoth returned, the man-tiger’s red fur turning purple, the stripes turning red. The cane reappeared on his back. The moment Kishi felt her staff enter her hand she leapt up from the ground, extending and swinging her rod at the bastard’s head, striking across the side of his snout.

“I will free Nooroo!” Kishi shouted, pulling her weapon back and swinging again at the opposite side of the man-beast’s face, “He is not your slave!”

Tigermoth caught her staff, he looked down at her, a sneer appearing on his furry face. “ All kwamis are slaves, slaves to anyone who wields them. Here to experience joy? To make friends? All lies. They are slaves who grant powers so men like me may thrive and fulfill their every desire. And if they refuse to fulfill that purpose, you must force them!” Kishi simply glared at him, what-

“What delusional bullshit.” Nike spat back as she picked herself off the floor, speaking the same thoughts Kishi had, “Men like you? Men who hide behind butterflies? Who manipulate and take advantage of the emotions of innocent people for your own desires?”

“Men like me, who know how to use power properly!” Hawkmoth answered with a sneer in his voice. 

Nike shook her head, “I don’t know why the miraculous exist, or anything about fate.” Her partner continued glaring at the supervillain, “But I know that you’re the last person who deserves them.”

The man-tiger scowled at her for a moment before a white foot collided with his face, Fei landing a kick directly to his snout, causing him to stumble backwards and let go of Kishi’s staff. “Return the Prodigious at once!” She shouted as she landed on the ground in front of Kishi and Nike.

“So persistent.” He muttered back. Kishi noticed Hawktiger’s feline eyes flick between the three of them before looking past them, his expression turning annoyed, “Bubbleman, what are you waiting for, devour these brats!”

The sentimonester’s transparent eyes flicked to Hawkmoth for a moment before turning its gaze away from him, ignoring the supervillain. Kagami was pretty sure the sentimonster, for whatever reason, was watching the news helicopters as they flew around the tower. 

“Obey me you insolent creature, I hold your-” He reached into the pocket of his purple dress pants as he yelled, but cut himself off when he found the pocket empty, “What? Where-”

“Looking for this?” Nike called out, holding up the pen with a cocky grin on her face. 

“Cocky brat. Do you think destroying my sentimonster will save you?” He responded, “I will still defeat you and take your miraculous! Ying!” Hawkmoth called out, changing into an eagle in a burst of yellow smoke. Hawkeagle shot forward, flying towards Nike. Kishi instinctively stepped in front of her partner, swinging her staff at the purple feathered eagle as he got close. With a flap of his wings, he backed up just out of the range of her attack, but also right into Fei’s grasp. 

The akumatized girl grabbed onto Hawkeagle’s wing and yanked it sideways so he faced her and then striking the bird’s chest with her palm, a vortex of wind gathering behind her elbow to enhance the strike. Fei released his wing as her palm strike landed and Hawkeagle was sent flying backwards, slamming into the ground some distance away. 

Nike stepped out from behind Kishi, “Who said anything about destroying it?” Nike yelled out to the terrorist, who’s bird form was still laying on the ground, “Bubbleman, devour Hawkmoth!” Nike shouted, pointing the pen towards the supervillain. The sentimonster turned to them, reacting to the order and locking its 2 bubble eyes onto Hawkmoth and beginning to move towards him as Nike stuck the pen into the inside pocket of her vest.

Hawkeagle leapt off the ground as the 3 heroines and the sentimonster began to move towards him, his talons clattering on the ground. “Ying-Ren!” He called out, a blast of yellow smoke surrounding him as he transformed into a man-eagle hybrid. His form was once again humanoid, his torso and arms were his own but his legs were still talons, albeit now scaled up to human size. He had an incredibly large pair of wings sprouting from his back, their wingspan almost taller than he was and covered with the same purple feathers with black ends his full eagle form had. He had a yellow beak instead of lips and his head was topped with purple feathers instead of hair.

He began flapping his wings behind him, flapping towards them instead of towards the ground, and the wind picked up around them, pushing them away from him. Fortunately, the wind was much weaker than it had been the first time. It definitely slowed the three heroines down but it was something they could manage and push through. 

The same could not be said for Bubbleman, however. For the floating bubble creature this mildly strong wind was like facing a hurricane, blowing the sentimonster in the opposite direction from the target he had been given. 

Kishi didn’t focus on Bubbleman’s plight for more than a moment, it wasn’t as if the three of them were desperate for the sentimonster’s assistance, the three of them were more than a match for the supervillain. 

Fei got to Hawkeagle-man first, having jumped slightly in the air and then kicked off the air behind her for a burst of speed. The supervillain swung at her head as she got close, but the girl caught his wrist with one hand and redirected the attack to go past her head before sending the fist of her other hand into his gut. One of his legs moved backwards to keep from falling over and Kishi noticed the eagle-man’s other hand move to make a grab for the girl’s goggles and stabbed her staff towards him. The staff extended and caught his hand just before he grabbed the goggles, pinning the hand into the supervillain’s chest. 

As soon as Nike was close enough she jumped up and sent her fist into the man’s jaw again. Kishi retracted her staff as Fei pulled her fist away from Hawkeagle-man’s stomach and immediately sent her other fist into his stomach, causing his body to lean over slightly from the attack. The supervillain’s arm shot forward and grabbed Nike by the collar of her jacket and lifted her off the ground. 

Fei once again pulled her fist back and prepared to strike again but the eagle-man lifted one of his talons up and struck her in the side, sending her stumbling sideways. Kishi moved forward and swung at the supervillain’s second talon before he could put the first back down. However, instead of falling, he began to rise in the air, his wings turning upwards to flap towards the ground now and lift him into the air. In a matter of seconds he was multiple meters off the ground. 

“Quick picking me up, asshole!” NIke shouted, lifting up her leg and kicking the villain in the mouth, which only seemed to anger him. 

Fei began leaping upwards towards the flying villain. Kishi held her staff vertical and extended it so it carried her into the air towards the eagle-man who held her partner. 

“Cataclysm!” Kishi called out as she approached the supervillain above her. She had failed to take the butterfly miraculous and free Nooroo before, but she still had a way to get it back. With one touch she could get back the butterfly miraculous, the Prodigious, and remove the threat of Hawkmoth forever.

The supervillain’s eyes went wide as Kishi called her power. He began to move higher faster to avoid her. He also began to move slightly sideways, which was annoying because Kishi had limited horizontal movement when balanced on her rod like this. Regardless, she pressed on the extension button a little harder so the rod would bring her higher faster. 

Hawkeagle-man began to reach into the inside pocket of Nike’s vest, obviously looking for the pen so he could control the sentimonster again. Nike bombarded the man’s arm with strikes as he reached for the pen, slamming her fists and forearms into his wrist and forearm. And, if Kishi knew anything about her partner, these weren’t weak strikes, Nike was trying to break his arm.

“How about I do this then!” Nike yelled, swinging both her legs forwards and placing the soles of her shoes on either side of the butterfly miraculous on the man’s chest, trying to take the miraculous with her feet. However, the rounded shape of the miraculous prevented her from pulling it off his chest. “Fuck!” She yelled out.

In that moment, Kishi was high enough, but not close enough. She swung herself around on the rod, breaking the balance required to keep the rod straight upwards so it began falling towards the supervillain. After a moment, Kishi leapt off of the staff, ditching it and leaping towards where her enemy held her partner, reaching out with her hand that bubbled with destructive energy.

Kishi Noir was going to kill this bastard.

His eyes widened as he realized what she was doing. He let go of Nike’s jacket, having stolen the pen back from her. He flapped his wings faster, taking him higher than Kishi could reach. 

Kishi clenched her teeth as she hit the height of her jump and began to fall. She had to get him now, today, end Hawkmoth once and for all. If she didn’t do it now he would run away and give the Prodigious to some akumatized villain, he would go back to hiding behind his butterflies because he knew he couldn’t win a fight himself. 

He was about to escape. He had gotten his sentimonster back and was about to use it as a distraction and escape, that was the type of person he was. Kishi knew what kind of man he was, one who ran away and hid when things didn’t go his way. A coward and a fool. 

Nike’s yoyo shot out and wrapped around the supervillain, wrapping around his torso, arms, and wings and causing hope to swell in Kagami’s chest. Hope that she would be able to get him after all. 

With his wings tied up, the supervillain began to fall as well, falling faster than Kishi was as Nike pulled downward on the yoyo string. Kishi reached up for him, knowing that with just a touch he would crumble to dust.

“Ying-She!” The supervillain called out just before Kishi’s hand could make contact with his talon, transforming into a strange new form in a cloud of yellow smoke. The new form ong and thin like his snake form but covered with purple and black feathers with small wings sprouting out of its back. Instead of a tail, the end of its feathery body turned into an eagle’s talon, which was still gripping the pen.

The feathered serpent slipped between the yoyo string and flew upwards once again with the pen grasped in its tail-talon, it’s wings not flapping as it flew. 

Kishi fell farther and farther away from the villain, her cataclysm still bubbling in her hand. She glared at Hawk-whatever as he looked down at them. 

“Bubbleman devou-” The bastard began but was interrupted as Fei landed a kick to his head.

He was sent flying, his long feathered body sailed downwards, much faster than the speed Kishi and Nike were falling at. He shot past then and went directly towards the transparent sentimonster.. Kishi watched as the Bubble monster parted its bubble lips and opened its mouth wide as the supervillain sailed through the air towards it,

“Noor-” Hawkmoth called out before vanishing past the sentimonster’s lips, a puff of dark purple smoke appearing just before he sank into the mass of bubbles inside the creature. Bubbleman shut its mouth, its lips fusing back into one long bubble, sealing Hawkmoth inside its body. 

Kishi felt Nike’s arm wrap around her waist, ending both of their freefalls a moment later as she wrapped her yoyo around a metal beam above them and swung them safely to the ground. Fei landed next to them a moment later as Kishi picked her staff up from the ground, shortening it and placing it onto her back. Fei looked at the two of them, “So, what now?” She asked. 

Kishi looked over at Nike, a similar question on her own mind, who responded with a shrug. “Well, the pen controls the bubble guy, but Hawkmoth had the pen as he got swallowed. So I don’t-” Nike suddenly stopped talking, eyes widening and looking past the two of them. 

Kishi turned to what Nike was looking at, and felt her eyes widen as well. Bubbling purple magic was covering the bubble sentimonster, surrounding and swallowing the creature in an akumatization. But this time, it was one of Hawkmoth’s own. 

“Is he fucking insane?” Nike yelled out, Kagami figured the answer to the question was a surefire yes. Hawkmoth had akumatized the sentimonster from within, likely placing the akuma within the pen.

The purple mass of magic solidified, revealing the akumatized sentimonster. The formerly featureless floating bubble head had now turned into a detailed bubble recreation of Hawkmoth’s own face, in his original form with the silver head covering. The bubbles making up its form had a slight purple color to them, though still transparent.

“Now this is an interesting power.” Hawkmoth’s voice came out of the akumatized sentimonster as it opened its mouth to talk, revealing that the dense cloud of bubbles that formerly made up the inside of the creature had been replaced with a mass of writhing dark purple energy. “And I was beginning to think the Prodigious had been a bad investment.”

Hawkmoth hadn’t simply akumatized the sentimonster, he had somehow become the sentimonster as he akumatized it. 

Kishi clenched her right hand into a fist, feeling the destructive energy bubble and writhe inside her hand. If Hawkmoth had fused with the sentimonster, assumedly using the power of the Prodigious in some way, that meant that Kishi might just be able to cataclysm him yet. 

“Lucky Charm.” Kishi heard her partner call out, turning to see a long and thin object fall into Nike’s hand. There were 2 handles along the length of the object and one end widened into a cone shape and had an opening in the center.. It seemed to be a blowdart gun.

Kishi left Nike to figure out what to do with her lucky charm and began to move towards Hawkmoth’s new bubble form. 

“Oh, do you still intend to fight me, Kishi Noir? Even in this new form of mine?” Hawkmoth asked her, his tone more pompous than ever. 

KIshi continued towards him, “No matter what form you take, we will always fight you. Until you are gone.”

“If you give me your miraculous, the fighting will end and Paris will never again see an akuma.” Hawkmoth offered. 

She didn’t dignify that with a response. Kagami has seen how this man treated Nooroo, she knew how he perceived the miraculous and the kwami, she knew what type of man he was. He would never be satisfied with the ladybug and black cat, he wouldn’t quit if he got what he wanted. He would continue until he had every miraculous in his greedy hands; until he had the monkey, the goat, the turtle, the dog, and all the other miraculous inside the box Master Fu guarded. 

Kishi leapt forward, her hand reaching out to cataclysm the giant bubble head of Hawkmoth. He began to open his mouth, obviously intending to swallow Kishi as she leapt towards him. In one swift movement Kishi grabbed her staff with her left hand and swung down on the bubble villain's top lip, slamming it down into his bottom lip and forcefully shutting his mouth.

THWUB

A loud noise sounded out from behind Kishi just before she landed her cataclysm on Hawkmoth's bubble body. A moment later a long red and black dart shot past Kishi and hit the bubble villain just above the lip, causing a loud POP to sound out across the tower as the bubble creature popped. 

The giant bubble visage of Hawkmoth's head exploded into thousands of bubble butterflies. The momentum from Kishi's lunge forward sent her tumbling into this cloud of bubbleflies. The swarm dispersed as she caught herself from falling, the bubblesflies fapping their bubble wings as they flew in every direction away from her. 

“Sorry to disappoint you, young heroes,” Hawkmoth’s voice sounded out from around them, echoing out of and off of every single bubble butterfly sounding her, painfully loud with Kishi’s enhanced hearing, “But our battle is over for now.”

"You're running away?" Kishi heard her partner yell out, "Fucking coward!"

"How dare you run!" Kishi called out, swung her staff out at the swarm of bubbleflies around her, popping a few of them, but mostly just

"Oh, but I'm no more running away than when you flee my akumas to get more of your friends." Hawkmoth claimed, his voice quieter in Kishi's ears now that many bubbleflies have dispersed around the area instead of being a swarm directly around her.

“That’s not the same thing at all!” Nike countered as the bubble butterflies kept on dispersing around them, fleeing from the Eiffel Tower in every direction, escaping into the city surrounding them. It was impossible to know where Hawkmoth actually was, or how this power truly worked. Was he just one of these bubbleflies, hiding within the swarm, or was he all of them? Did popping these things harm him or were the individual bubbles inconsequential? Kishi had barely had an idea of the sentimonster’s powers in the first place, let alone now that it was also akumatized. Hawkmoth also didn’t seem inclined to tell them, he was too busy running away. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll send out an akuma to play with you girls soon.” Hawkmoth told them, his mocking tone coming from the few bubbleflies that still floated around them. 

“Some of us have lives outside of the miraculous!” Nike yelled as the last of the bubble butterflies flew away. After a few moments without any response, Nike let out a sign, “He’s gone.” 

“NO!” Kishi yelled out, “You call us here and then run away! You’re a spineless coward, Hawkmoth!” She wasn’t even sure the man could hear her anymore. He had fled, running from a battle he had started because he was losing. It showed exactly the type of man Hawkmoth was.

“What? You’re just letting him get away?” Fei yelled out, “Let’s chase after him, he still has the Prodigious!”

Nike gestured widely to the city around them, “What do we chase?” Her partner was right. There was no trace of the super villain around them, the last bubbleflies had disappeared from sight. Even if some were still around, they had no way to know if whatever they chased would actually lead them to Hawkmoth. 

“So you’re just giving up?” Fei shouted at them, looking between Nike and Kishi. 

“He’ll return.” Kishi stated. Looking down at her hand still bubbling with destructive power. She had never gotten a chance to actually hit anything with her cataclysm. 

“And so will the Prodigious, unless he can figure out how to use its power at long range. Which seems impossible.” Nike stated before holding her lucky charm up and looking towards Kishi, “Hey is there anything that really needs to be fixed from the fight?”

Kishi raised an eyebrow at her partner, sensing a terrible idea was in her head, but thought about the question anyway. Other than a couple dents from where Hawkmoth had been slammed into walls, Kishi could only think of one thing. “Your neck.” 

“What? Oh yeah.” Nike’s hand reached up to touch her neck, causing the small amount of blood there to smear slightly. Her eyes widened slightly as she pulled her hand back and saw the blood, before shrugging, “Well, the wound already healed so, I think it’s fine. Here, catch.”

Nike threw the lucky charm towards Kishi, who instinctively caught it with her right hand. Her cataclysm turned the red polka dotted object a dusty brown before it crumbled into dust. 

Kagami thought not using the miraculous cure was a bad idea, but believed she knew why Nike had chosen not to cast it. The three of them had hurt Hawkmoth during their fight. Likely not in any major way but, with the amount of times his head was slammed into the ground or metal trusses of the tower, at least a concussion. Nike likely didn’t want the magical cure to heal that damage like it clearly had after their last fight. 

The sound of armor clattering together caught Kishi’s attention and she turned to see Mei Shi stand up. They stood, holding the golden ball with both hands. “As the battle has ended, I will now renounce the power of transmission I have fostered from the holder of the butterfly and return to my bound form.” The kwami announced suddenly. In the next moment the lion-akuma jumped out of Fei’s aviator goggles, causing her to be deakumatized in a wave of dark blue magic, the goggles turning back into sunglasses. The akuma-lion landed on the ground and ran back to Mei Shi, jumping up and landing on the golden ball. 

As soon as the mini-guardian lion landed on the orb, Mei Shi’s entire form, including the orb and lion-akuma, dissolved into a mass of energy. Kishi watched as the energy began to swirl around itself, the mass getting smaller and more condensed as it went. In a few moments the mass of energy was condensed to about 10 centimeters, where it then solidified into a kwami. 

“Holy wow.” Kishi heard Alya mutter, who still had her camera pointed at them. 

Kishi reached out and caught the kwami in her hands as they began to fall. Mei Shi’s form now looked much more like a regular kwami, large head and thin body. Although, Mei Shi’s body was shaped more like a cat’s than Plagg’s was. Mei Shi also had a light blue mane around his head and light blue eyebrows over their eyes.

Fei let out a gasp and ran over to take Mei Shi from Kishi’s hands. Her left arm was still wrapped in a splint, but Fei was moving it around without a hint of pain. Kishi guessed that Mei Shi’s akumatization had healed her. 

“Are you alright, Mei Shi?” Fei asked as she held the kwami. 

“I am fine Fei, just hungry.” Mei Shi responded. 

“Oh, I have a granola bar in my bag, hold on." Fei held Mei Shi with one hand and swung her bag around so she could dig through it with her other hand.

As Fei dug through her bag, Kishi's gaze moved over to Alya who, for whatever , was still recording them. The battle was clearly over and Hawkmoth had left, yet the Ladyblogger still had her phone camera pointed at them.

The fact that the girl had a camera pointed at them for most of the fight was a problem, specifically because of the kwamis. When Nooroo appeared both Kishi and Hawkmoth had talked to the kwami. After Hawkmoth transformed again, Kishi and Hawkmoth briefly argued about him saying kwamis were slaves. While kwamis themselves were imperceptible to technology, people talking about kwamis were very recordable. If Alya posted the raw footage of the fight, the fact that kwamis exist would be revealed to the public and it could put Kishi and Nike’s secret identities at risk.

Kishi walked over and put her hand over Alya’s camera and pushed it down, “We need to talk.”

“Uh, yeah, what’s up?” Alya responded, tapping her phone to finally end the recording and slipped her phone into her pocket.

“The things you recorded today could expose important secrets about the miraculous that would risk Nike and I’s identities.” Kishi told the girl frankly, “Do not post it.”

“Wait, what! No!” The girl reacted, “This is about the kwamis, right? I can totally edit the footage! The little guys don’t show up on camera and I can mute or cut around when you guys talk to or about them.” The girl grabbed Kishi’s shoulders and shook her, “This is footage of Hawkmoth himself! I have to post this!”

Kishi was about to snatch the girl’s phone and delete the footage herself when her miraculous beeped twice, indicating that she didn’t have much time left before she would detransform. She needed to come to an agreement with the Ladyblogger before she ended up posting miraculous secrets. 

Kagami made a quick decision, “Show the footage to your friend Marinette before you post it, and change anything she tells you to.” Ladybug would know what could reveal secrets and what wouldn’t.

Alya blinked at that for a moment, “Wait…  Marinette? Why?” She responded, clearly not knowing about her best friend’s former alter ego.

Kishi looked towards her partner, who was talking to Fei, “-he’s a fucked up guy, I agree. But we just don’t have any way to find him.” Nike was saying to her just before turning her eyes over to Kishi, “Wassup?”

Kishi held up her hand and pointed to her ring, a gesture she had used in the past.

Nike nodded in understanding, “Oh, yeah. Can you head to the old man’s place and see if he knows more about the Prodigious? I’ll try to get more out of Tikki.”

Kagami took a deep breath in through her nose and then released it slowly. Of course Hawkmoth had to return on the day she had been looking forward to all week. She hoped she would at least get a few hours with Marinette and Adrien, but at this rate even that seemed doubtful. 

“Sorry Partner, this doesn’t exactly fit into my plans today either.” Nike told her before turning back to Fei, “Now can I get your phone number so I can just call you later?”

Kishi ran away from her partner and the two other girls, hearing Fei say, “I don’t have a phone.” As she leapt off the edge. 

A second later she extended her staff beneath herself and began vaulting across the city, vaguely heading towards Master Fu’s home. Kishi kept an eye out for any of Hawkmoth’s bubbleflies as she vaulted over the city, just in case Hawkmoth hadn’t truly fled but was simply lying in wait to watch them detransform. Even with her enhanced vision, Kishi didn’t spot any of them. 

Kishi dropped into an alleyway a couple blocks away from Master Fu’s home and her transformation dropped. Plagg flew out of her ring and dropped into Kagami’s hands. She pulled a piece of camembert out of the tin in her jacket pocket and gave it to him. The black cat kwami began eating it in slow, small bites, his gaze locked onto the slice of cheese. 

Plagg was very close to Nooroo, and worried about his friend a lot. He and Nooroo apparently had a lot of holders like Hawkmoth in the past and Plagg obviously wanted to rescue the butterfly kwami. Kagami had been so close to doing that today, but had failed.

“I’m so sorry, Plagg.” Kagami apologized, “I should have-”

“Don’t do that.” Plagg cut her off, “Nike Rouge is your partner and she was in danger, and you saved her. You did great. I just-” he sighed into his cheese, “I’m just mad, and that’s not your fault.”

Kagami nodded at her kwami. Sometimes even one’s best can’t get them everything they want. The best outcome isn’t the one you want. Some things are just out of your control and you can’t do anything about it. It wasn’t a fun thing to come face to face with. 

“I promise you, Plagg, I’ll get Nooroo back. I’ll reunite you with your friend.” Kagami promised the kwami.

“I know you will Kagami, you’re an amazing holder. And so is Nike Rouge.” Plagg responded before eating the last half of the camembert with one large bite. 

Kagami nodded and Plagg flew into her jacket pocket. She left the alleyway and made her way towards Master Fu’s shop. She needed more information about the Prodigious, and what it was capable of. She hoped Master Fu had those answers.

— — — — — — — — — — 

“Alya, can you take this girl with you?” Nike Rouge suddenly asked her, snapping her mind back to the Eiffel Tower. She had been momentarily lost in thought, wondering why Kishi Noir had told her to have Marinette look over the footage before she posted it onto the Ladyblog.
Seriously, why Marinette?

“Sure, but why?” Alya asked, perhaps agreeing too fast. 

“I don’t need someone to take care of me.” Fei countered, clearly not happy with Nike Rouge’s idea. 

“I just need to be able to find you later so we can talk.” The super heroine told her, “And since you don’t have a phone, I need you with someone who does.” Nike Rouge’s earrings beeped 3 times rapidly. “Okay, I have to go. Fei, please stay with Alya. I’ll come find you later so we can talk. Nike out.” The ladybug hero then ran off the side of the tower and began swinging away from them into the city. 

“Hey, your name was Fei right? Looks like you’re stuck with me for now.” Alya said, extending her hand out to the girl. 

“Yes, I guess we are.” Fei swung her backpack back onto her back, the kwami in her hand now eating a chunk of granola bar. The girl put the rest of the bar into her jacket pocket, the wrapper of the bar in Chinese and not French, and shook Alya’s hand.“I am Fei Wu, daughter of Wu Shifu.” The girl introduced herself. It seemed like the girl was from outside of the city, even though her French was pretty good without a terribly noticeable accent. 

“Alya Césaire, reporter extraordinaire! It’s nice to meet you Fei, I hope you don’t mind sticking with me for a while.” She said with a grin. Alya had a lot of questions for this girl, namely about Mei Shi. How did she have a kwami but not know what a miraculous was? Did she have some different magical jewelry that let her summon kwamis instead of merging with them? Alya had way too many questions!

The girl’s face looked a little unsure for a moment before she responded, “If the superheroes trust you, I will too. Just please don’t put a camera in my face again.”

Damn . “Yeah, no problem, whatever secrets you have are safe with me!” Alya assured her. 

A skeptical look crossed Fei’s face. It wouldn’t be easy to get her to talk. 

“Well for now, let’s get out of here.” Alya changed the topic, “We’ll use the elevator, not the stairs this time.” Alya’s legs still hurt. 

“There’s an elevator? I wish I knew that before.” Fei said, prompting Alya to let out a small laugh. 

Technically, the elevators were shut off during akuma situations as the tower was evacuated and the elevator operators weren’t there to push the buttons to make the elevators move. However, the staff elevator in the south leg of the tower had a control panel inside, should you have the access key. 

Alya had that access key, a gift from one of the cooks of the Jules Verne restaurant within the tower who was a fan of the Ladyblog. It had allowed her to get great footage of many akumatized villains.

Fei followed Alya over to the elevator and the two of them got in and began to ride down the tower.

“So, you know the superheroes?” Fei asked her as they sat in the elevator. 

“Well, kind of. I’m one of the few people dumb enough to run into akuma fights in order to get footage for my blog. So they kind of know me because I get taken hostage quite a bit.” Alya explained. It wasn’t the whole truth, though it was true. Alya was also a superhero herself, sometimes. Well, Rena Rouge had only appeared once, but she was still part of the team. She had just missed her chance to show up on Heroes Day because she had gotten akumatized. “I’m also the only person who has ever gotten an interview with Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir, and the first person to get an interview with Ladybug!” She couldn’t help but brag a little.”

“Who’s Ladybug?” Fei asked, tilting her head slightly.

Right, Fei wasn’t from Paris. The miraculous heroes were the only real superheroes in France so they were big names here, but relatively unknown in other parts of the world since Hawkmoth was a Paris specific problem. Someone from, Alya assumed China given the granola wrapper, wouldn't know much about them. “Okay so, Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir are actually the second pair of heroes in Paris who use the ladybug and black cat miraculous. The first were called Ladybug and Chat Noir, but Hawkmoth found out their identities so the miraculous were given to new heroes, Nike Rouge and Kishi Noir!” Alya explained, skipping many, many details. 

“And what is a miraculous?” Fei asked her. 

Alya smiled slightly. A good reporter could even get answers when being asked questions. “Miraculous are magical jewelry that let users fuse with kwamis to gain superhuman powers. Nike Rouge uses the ladybug miraculous, Kishi Noir uses the black cat miraculous, and Hawkmoth uses the butterfly miraculous. Hawkmoth wants the ladybug and black cat, for whatever reason, and uses his miraculous to try and get them by creating supervillains under his control.” 

“Fuse with the kwamis?” Fei repeated, her gaze falling to Mei Shi in her hand. 

The lion kwami finished the granola bar and wiped the remaining crumbs off his mouth, “I, unfortunately, am not capable of that.” Mei Shi explained. Alya purposefully kept her face blank, as to not scare the kwami into being quiet and keeping his secrets. Internally, Alya was bouncing with excitement. “I was the first kwami sealed to a miraculous, and so my miraculous doesn’t have the same magic in it that all the others do. I am unable to fuse with my holders like other kwamis can and I do not have to follow every command my holder gives me.”

“So you’re miraculous was like, a prototype?” Alya asked him as casually as she could, even though she was barely containing her excitement. Was she about to learn how the miraculous were created? This was absolutely insane!

“In a way, yes.” He responded, “I willingly submitted myself to be bound in order to care for the Renlings within the Prodigious. And humans had yet to be instructed how to properly make use of a kwami’s power after binding one to a physical point, so I am unable to do what most other kwamis can.”

“Renlings? Hawkmoth mentioned those during the fight, when I tried to take the Prodigious from him. What are they?” Fei asked the kwami in her palm.

Much to Alya’s joy, the kwami continued explaining things, “The renlings are the spirits of human values, creatures invisible to all but the wielder of the Prodigious. Their existence spawned from humanity's first attempt to take control of the powers of the kwamis, but mostly failed.” 

“It did? It seemed to have quite a bit of power to me.” Alya pointed out. 

“Indeed it does, but that power is very different than the power of a miraculous. The renlings did not exist before the Prodigious, unlike the kwami. The power of a miraculous comes from the kwami, beings that existed long before the miraculous and provide near infinite energy to their user. The Renlings do not have this power at their hands, they instead act as conductors, turning the power of their weilder’s values into power for them to wield. In a similar way to how the butterfly’s power generates power from emotions.”

Alya’s eyes widened as Mei Shi explained. The kwamis existed before the miraculous? How? In what way? Mei Shi mentioned kwamis were ‘bound’ to miraculous, what did that mean?  How did they have infinite energy? What exactly were kwamis?

So many questions sat on Alya’s tongue, curiosity burned in her blood. She kept quiet though, she had to wait for the right time to ask these questions. 

“The humans who made the Prodigious were trying to seal 8 different kwamis into a single vessel.” Mei Shi continued, “However, there was not enough room inside the vessel for 8 kwamis, nor were the targeted kwamis willing to be bound. So, to placate the pull of human’s magic on their beings, those 8 kwamis filled the Prodigious with raw power, with no will alongside it. However, power without a will cannot exist, so wills were born from that raw power, and the Renlings came into being.”

Alya listened intently to the kwami talk, but barely understood what he meant. She barely knew what a kwami was and now she was being told about beings created from their power. The Prodigious and Renlings sounded fascinating for sure, but Alya felt like she had walked into a class halfway through. She was missing key information about kwamis and their power.

“Mei Shi, I don’t know what half of that means.” Fei told the kwami. 

“Oh, sorry about that, Fei. I got carried away with my explanation.” The kwami apologized, “Essentially, my miraculous and the Prodigious are both prototypes of the miraculous that those superheroes use. The Renlings were essentially newborns and I allowed myself to be bound to my miraculous in order to protect and guide them.”

“I see, and that’s why you are Guardian of the Prodigious.” Fei said in understanding.

“Indeed, and that is why I must retrieve the Prodigious from Hawkmoth, he is unworthy of its power.”

“So Hawkmoth stole the Prodigious from you?” Alya asked Fei. She had heard the girl yell about it while she was fighting Hawkmoth, but Alya wanted details.

“Yes. My family guarded the Prodigious for centuries, until Hawkmoth stole it. His schemes killed my father and burned down our home. I followed him from ShangHai to take back the Prodigious and make him pay for what he has done.” Fei explained while staring at her fist. 

Suddenly, the questions about the kwamis seemed secondary to this girl’s story. This was some main character shit, Alya had to hear all about this. “So, where are you staying then? Do you have family in the city?” 

Fei shook her head, “No, my father was the only family I had. As for where I’m staying, I’m not too sure yet.” Fei reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a paper map, “A nice girl named Marinette gave me a ride into the city from the airport and said I could stay at her place if I needed somewhere to stay.”

Alya’s eyes widened as she heard her bff’s name.  Looking at the map, Alya noticed a star drawn with a pen over Tom and Sabine’s bakery. On the side of the map was written ‘call if you need help!’ alongside Marinette’s phone number in her handwriting. 

“No way! You met Marinette!” Alya exclaimed. Shocked at the coincidence.

“You know her?” Fei asked. 

“Know her? I’m that girl’s one and only BFF!” Alya exclaimed, “I was about to go back to her place! This is perfect!”

The elevator came to a stop and the doors in front of them opened, revealing Officer Roger standing just beyond the safety railing, waiting for them. “As I thought. You two thought you could escape an officer of the law that easily? Think again! You two are coming with me.”

“Ah, shit.” Alya cursed.

Chapter Text

A single purple bubble butterfly fluttered through the center opening of the large window normally reserved for his dark akumas. The bubble butterfly came to a rest in the center of the room. 

Gabriel began to collect his consciousness, eliminating his connection to the thousands of the bubble butterflies now spread across Paris that covered his escape from the Eiffel Tower. He felt each butterfly pop and disappear as he cut the connections. Moments later, Gabriel’s mind was all in one place once again, no longer spread across random streets, alleyways, and rooftops across the city. He was now safe in the secret attic layer above his home. 

The lone purple bubble butterfly began to grow as Gabriel willed it to, expanding like a balloon and morphing into a new shape. A few moments later, his form was once again a bubble visage of Hawkmoth’s head. 

Gabriel searched around within himself, within the infinite bubble filled space inside of this form. He soon located what he was looking for, which had been quite easy as it was the only thing held within the magical space. What he had located was the pen holding the amok for the bubble sentimonter, once pure white but now a pitch black color due to the dark butterfly now within it. 

He brought the pen forward, towards the barrier between the magical bubble space and the real world. 

Once it was close enough to the barrier, Gabriel parted the lips of his bubble visage and spit the object out. The pen shot out of his mouth and clattered to the floor, the only sound in the silent room around him.

With the pen outside of the sentimonster’s body, Gabriel was free to return to his own form. He quickly pulled his mind away from the sentimonster’s body he was controlling and back towards his real form. 

Gabriel’s real body was within the pen, magically fused with its plastic shape by a combination of magic from the Prodigious and butterfly miraculous. He felt a string of power connecting the pen and the sentimoster’s body, which was sending Gabriel’s power and mind to the bubble creature. He quickly severed the connection using the power of his miraculous, breaking the akumatization. 

The magical transformation fell away from Bubbleman as Gabriel’s body was freed from the pen, his small butterfly form flew out of and away from the pen, fluttering into the air. He had become the akuma itself, akumatizing Bubbleman with his own body and taking over its new form and powers. Calling Nooroo’s powers though the Prodigious turned out to be very powerful, but Gabriel instantly realized how dangerous it could be. Gabriel didn’t know what would happen if someone were to break an object that he was inside of, or what would happen if he were caught and purified inside the ladybug’s yoyo. He didn’t even know if he could properly control the mind of a human akumatization, Bubbleman had no will or mind to fight back with but would the minds of his usual victims fight back against this mind control?

It was too dangerous, there were too many unknowns. He wouldn’t be trying it again.

“Ren.” He called out and, with a cloud of yellow smoke appearing around him, Gabriel returned to his human form. 

“You are a coward, Renren.” The snake Renling, She She, spoke, its voice scathing, “I cannot believe I allowed you to use my power.”

“And he lacks Honor,” The horse Renling, Ma Ma, added, its voice oddly deep and well spoken. Annoyingly it reminded Gabriel of his Father’s voice, “Though I could tell that from the start.”

“And yet he still believes himself better than his enemies,” the eagle Renling, Ying Ying, scoffed at him, “Nothing but baseless arrogance.”

The creatures prattled on in Gabriel’s ears as he picked up the pen and stuck it back into his pocket. He then grabbed his jaw and moved it slightly sideways, causing a sharp pain to shoot  through his body as he did. It wasn’t dislocated from what he could tell, but something in his jaw was definitely damaged. Nike Rouge’s attacks had really done a number on him, shocking given how small the heroine was. 

Good thing the foolish girl would soon heal the injuries she caused using her ladybug cure. All Gabriel had to do was wait. 

“Too impatient to bother learning our powers or names before ordering us around.” The mantis Renling, Tang Tang, berated him. 

“He called us slaves! What a jerk!” The monkey Renling, Hou Hou, added on.

“Quiet, all of you.” Gabriel told the creatures as they prattled on in his ears. As they spoke, his head began to ache. He was slightly lightheaded and each beat of his heart brought another slight pain to his head. 

It wasn’t particularly surprising that his head was injured, likely with a concussion. Those three brats had been aiming their attacks towards his head throughout the entire fight, quite obviously trying to knock him unconscious once again.

“Your actions are motivated by anger, grief, and other strong emotions.” The bear Renling, Xiong Xiong, spoke up next, the creature’s dopey tone making Gabriel instinctively ignore anything it said, “RenRen, I recommend you take up meditation. It will help you calm your mind and accept your past and present, letting you instead look towards the future.” 

“Xiong Xiong, there is no point trying to reason with this RenRen.” The dragon Renling, Long Long, spoke up, its tone scathing and dismissive, “He is the opposite to the values of the Prodigious. This Hawkmoth is a foolish and cowardly man, driven by anger and greed. He believes himself superior despite lacking any superior qualities or talent and is wholly unconcerned with upholding the greater good and instead focuses his power on selfish desires.”

“Silence, you annoying creatures!” Gabriel shouted a command at the Renlings. Their incessant noise was getting on his nerves and making his headache worse. At least one of them, Hu Hu the tiger Renling, was being quiet. That one was simply glaring at him with Nooroo cowering behind it, the Prodigious somehow bringing out the butterfly kwami's form despite him still powering Gabriel as Hawkmoth.

“Annoying? I happen to think I’m quite respectable.” Ma Ma retorted. 

“Yeah! We’re all pretty awesome, I’ll have you know!” Hou Hou annoyingly added on.

“I told you to be silent!” Gabriel shouted at the magical creatures once again, “That was an order!”

“Why should we listen to you?” Ying Ying spoke back despite his command, “You can’t even use our powers properly!”

“A coward like you does not deserve to be a RenRen.” She She also disobeyed. 

“How dare you! I hold your jewel, I am your master! You will obey me!" Gabriel shouted at the Renlings, his hand grabbing at the disc pendant hanging from his neck. To Gabriel's annoyance, not a single one of the creatures looked down and cowered as he was used to Nooroo doing at his commands. All 8 of the creatures continued to glare at him with indignant expressions. 

Hu Hu, the one who had actually been quiet up until now, spoke up, "The Prodigious does not work the same way as the miraculous, you cannot control us like you can Nooroo. The RenRen is not our master, but our equal. We work together with the RenRen to uphold human values and the greater good." The creature told him, "You have no power over us, butterfly holder."

Gabriel was about to react by simply shouting commands at the Renlings once again, but a sharp pain shot through him from his jaw as he opened his mouth, causing an even worse burst of pain to stab through his head. The pain momentarily cleared his rage at the creatures and allowed him to think with some logic. 

If these creatures did not listen to his commands, and their restrictions meant he could not properly use the powers of the Prodigious anyways, then what was the point of him holding onto it? He would simply be accosted by these creature’s noise and presence constantly with no benefit. He may as well give the jewel to some self-righteous akumatized villain, he would get more use out of it that way even if it was seized by those heroines afterwards. 

What concerned him more was whether or not these Renlings were bound by the same rule against revealing holders that the kwamis were bound to. If they weren’t, then he would have to hide his identity from these Renlings if he chose to continue making use of the jewel. If he detransformed in front of them and the jewel was taken by the heroes, they would reveal his identity. 

Before he could further consider the matter, another sharp pain pulsed through his head. It was getting harder to concentrate with these injuries. He would have to think more on this after Nike Rouge’s magic healed his wounds. For now, he would hide his identity from the Renlings, just in case. 

Gabriel pulled the Prodigious off his neck and over his head. As soon as he was no longer wearing the jewel, the 8 Renlings dissolved into masses of golden light and shot back into the round pendant, and Nooroo’s form turned into a mass of purple light and shot back into Gabriel’s miraculous. The magical transformation from the Prodigious faded and the 8 symbols on the pendant faded to black once again, Gabriel’s outfit turned back into his regular transformed outfit. He moved to a table on the side of the room, a table also holding a small box for the butterfly miraculous, and placed the Prodigious on it. He then moved to the circular elevator at the back of the room and stepped inside.

“Stay here.” Gabriel ordered the bubble sentimonster, who had begun moving to follow him down the elevator. He noticed the creature’s bubble lips turn downwards as he did and Gabriel, through his miraculous, felt faint negative emotions from the creature.

Strange, the sentimonster was meant to only be a puppet, incapable of emotion. Something had gone wrong. He would have Nathalie deal with it later.

“Dark wings fall.” Gabriel called out, dropping his transformation as Hawkmoth as soon as his head disappeared under the floor of his attic layer. Nooroo emerged from the magical brooch and immediately dove into Gabriel’s jacket. Gabriel would punish the kwami later for what he said and tried to do during the fight. 

Gabriel stood in silence as the long elevator ride took him down and around to his basement garden where his wife slept and up past that to his office on the first floor of his home. His pounding head made the ride feel much longer than usual, the slight force on his body exacerbating the pain in his jaw and head. As the elevator ride continued a pain behind his ears appeared and grew as time passed. Looking down at his hand, Gabriel found his vision blurry, the details of his hand fuzzy and the lines on his palm melting and merging together. He blinked deeply a few times and his vision refocused, but moments later it went blurry once again. 

Gabriel reached up to make sure he was still wearing his glasses. He was, in fact, wearing his glasses, which made the blurry vision concerning. It seemed his concussion was worse than he initially thought. Though Gabriel knew he still just had to wait for the magical ladybugs to come and heal him, he would be just fine.

The elevator came to a stop after raising Gabriel up through the floor of his office. He recoiled slightly at the bright sunlight coming from the open windows hitting his eyes, it seemed brighter than usual. It felt like the rays of light stabbed into his eyes and directly back into his concussed brain, increasing the pain there. 

“Welcome back sir.” Nathalie greeted him, sitting at what was technically his desk but had become essentially hers as he spent more and more time as Hawkmoth. “Adrien and his girlfriend have returned, would you like me to call them in?”

“Not quite yet, I need to wait for-” Gabriel began as he stepped forward from the elevator, as he did he felt his eyes close for a moment.

In the next moment, he was suddenly looking at the ceiling with Nathalie’s form taking up half his vision. Well, more than half of it as Gabriel’s eyes showed him double of his assistant, her two forms shifting and sliding past each other, merging into one again and splitting apart a moment later. 

“Gabriel! Gabriel!” Nathalie was saying, though her words sounded slightly muffled, like someone had pressed a pillow to Gabriel’s ears. He felt the woman’s hand on the back of his head and the other was lightly slapping his cheeks. He moved up one of his hands to push her hand away from his face. 

His head throbbed, each moment, each heartbeat, sending blasts of pain through his head, like somebody was repeatedly hitting him in the head with a sledgehammer. His ears were ringing and there was a new pain in his side, which was pressed against something cool and hard. 

It took Gabriel a few moments to realize that he was on the floor, which was why he was looking at the ceiling, why Nathalie was above him, and why his side now hurt. For some reason, he had fallen onto the floor of his office.

No wait, not for some reason, he knew the reason. He was hurt, he had a concussion. He got it from…

His head pounded as he tried to recall, each flash of pain cutting off every thought he tried to have. However, Gabriel forced himself to think, to remember. 

He had been fighting the heroes, as Hawkmoth. Ladybug and Cat N- no, wait, that wasn’t right, those two were gone. Well, not gone, just upstairs. He had been fighting the two girls, Nike Noir and- hold on, no. There had been 3 girls. 

3? No, that definitely wasn’t right. It was only the ladybug and the black cat, they were all he needed, but there had been a third. It had been a… lion maybe?

“Gabriel, what happened? Did the Prodigious do this?” Nathalie bombarded him with questions as he tried to regain his bearings, “Gabriel, please answer me!” Her voice was loud with concern, but to Gabriel it was mostly just loud, not exactly helping with the pain in his skull. 

Gabriel shifted his focus away from figuring out how exactly he had been injured, it wouldn’t help him now to remember all the specifics, nor would it ease Nathalie’s worries, which were also only causing him more pain as he felt those emotions through his miraculous. He had been hurt pretty badly fighting his superhero enemies, that was all that mattered. For now, he had to get off the floor, it was no place for a man of his standing. 

Gabriel braced a hand on the floor under him and pushed himself up so he was no longer on his back. The action sent a sharp spike of pain through his head, his vision swirled and tilted, a wave of nausea hit him and the awful taste of stomach acid briefly appeared in his mouth before he swallowed it back down. The sensation nearly caused his hand to slip from where it was holding him up, threatening to send him back to the ground, but he kept his hand firm and he stayed sitting upright for at least a moment more. 

“Gabriel, where is the Prodigious? What happened to you?” Nathalie continued. 

The Prodigious? Gabriel racked his brain for a moment before remembering what that was. The magical jewel from Shanghai, the one he had used to fight against the heroes today. Gabriel reached for his collar, where the magical disk would be hanging, but found nothing there but his clothes. Where had it gone? Had the heroes taken it from him?

No, they definitely hadn’t, he knew they hadn’t taken it. Gabriel had used its power to escape the fight. So where was it? 

He decided to set the matter aside for the moment, once again choosing to focus on the fact that he was still on the floor of his office. This concussion seemed to have impaired his ability to focus somewhat, and Gabriel knew that if he bounced his focus between every problem he was having he would be on this floor all day. He had to force himself to focus on one thing, getting off the floor. 

“Help me get to a chair.” Gabriel told his assistant. 

“Of course sir.” Nathalie replied. She moved her body under Gabriel’s shoulder and threw his arm over her shoulder, letting him lean on her as he stood up. Still, with Nathalie’s assistance, Gabriel damn near threw himself back to the floor as he tried to stand. Every centimeter higher from the ground he got, the world around him seemed to tilt and spin ever more violently, as if he was on a particularly violent and untested carnival ride. If he hadn’t been leaning on Nathalie, Gabriel would have toppled over before reaching his knees. Once Gabriel was on his feet one more, it took some time for his balance to return to him. He wasn’t exactly sure if it had taken only a few moments or multiple minutes as he was singularly focused on pushing back the resulting nausea so he didn’t regurgitate the nothing he had eaten for breakfast. 

Once his balance was somewhat regained, walking proved not so bad. Of course, the constant throbbing of pain in his skull made him want to sink to the floor the entire time, all things considered, standing up had been the worst part. 

Nathalie led him over and down the few steps to the padded benches in the floor of his office, the ones usually filled with his business partners and subordinates during those rare times when he needed to hold in-person meetings. They were lower than the floor of the room so he could use the center of his office like a faux runway to show off his designs with 3D projectors embedded in the ceiling of the room,  

Nathalie set him down on the seat and Gabriel let his weight sink into the padding of the bench. The back of the seat was low and only went about halfway up the height of his back so as Gabriel leaned his head back it came to rest on the edge of the tiled floor of his office. The benches in his office were, purposefully, uncomfortable, as Gabriel didn’t enjoy having visitors in his office, but they were more comfortable than lying on the floor at the very least. 

As his body didn’t have to support its own weight any longer, the dizziness and nausea he had been feeling slowly cleared away, though the throbbing pain in his skull and jaw remained. He also now noticed another pain in his chest, though it was comparatively mild. He also realized that the pain in his ears that he had felt during the elevator ride was likely damage to his vestibular system catching up with him as the magical effects of his miraculous transformation dropped away. 

“Are these side effects from the Prodigious sir? Was the jewel damaged?” Nathalie asked him. 

Now that Gabriel had regained his bearings, he was able to focus on and think about what Nathalie was asking. He had used the Prodigious to fight the superheroes today, a magical jewel older and supposedly more powerful than the miraculous. The entire thing had been a disappointment, the jewel had barely given Gabriel any power and he had almost lost his miraculous in trying to make use of it. Not only that, those Renlings inside the jewel didn’t listen to his orders, he could not trust them with any of his secrets for risk of them falling into other hands. It was a disaster of an investment.

“No, the Prodigious was disappointing, but not broken," Gabriel told her, making the worry partially drop from his longtime friend's face. "I simply took more damage in the fight than I first thought, but I'll be healed soon, don't worry yourself." As he finished speaking, he briefly wondered why it was taking Nike Rouge so long to cast the cure. The fight had ended roughly 5 minutes ago, and he was fairly sure young users couldn't stay transformed too long after using their power. The girl would have to cast her magic soon. 

An awful possibility crossed Gabriel's mind. A circumstance that would only happen if his enemies were reckless, ruthless, and irresponsible, which he believed the current ladybug and black cat users to be. Would Nike Rouge be foolish enough to neglect casting her miraculous cure just to spite him?

He looked up at Nathalie, who held a worried expression as she did something with her tablet, “Sir, about that…” There was a bit of hesitancy in her voice as she turned her tablet around, and that small worry Gabriel had all but solidified into an iron ball in his stomach.

Gabriel watched the video Nathalie had pulled up on her tablet, news footage from helicopter view of the battle, cutting in as the last of the swarm of bubble butterflies were evacuating the tower, the tail end of the fight. 

He watched the 2 superheroines, and the other girl, turn to each other after he fled, having some conversation that the news helicopter couldn't pick up. Nike Rouge looked down at the lucky charm in her hand, a blow-dart gun that she had used to pop him, allowing his escape and proving that fate was indeed on his side, despite what Nooroo had claimed. The ladybug heroine said something to Kishi Noir, who responded, prompting Nike Rouge to reach up and touch her neck. The heroine shrugged and tossed the polka dot blow dart gun over to her partner, who caught it. 

The lucky charm crumbled into black dust as the black cat heroine caught it with the hand that bubbled with destructive energy, and so did Gabriel’s assurance that his injuries would be healed. 

His head throbbed with pain as the realization came, and a stab of pain shot through his jaw as he instinctively clenched his teeth against the pain in his head. All at once the pain behind his ears returned and Gabriel’s sense of balance was once again tilting and swaying. He clasped his eyes shut in an attempt to prevent any nausea arising from his dizzy state. As his eyes closed, his brain focused his other senses. He heard his blood rushing past his ears and the beating of his heart that pushed it through his veins. He tasted the faintest bit of blood in his mouth, salty and metallic. The normally faint smell of Nathalie’s jasmine perfume overpowered his nostrils. These feelings that Gabriel normally ignored now pushed on his brain, causing the throbbing pain in his head to tighten.

Though, his senses were not the only feelings that pressed on his mind. The quiet murmur of emotions, produced by the lives and minds of the city, that were sent to his mind through his butterfly miraculous, made their way through into his injured brain. That normally soft background noise of the population’s thoughts and feelings suddenly seemed like a cacophony rampaging through his skull. The sounds of babies screaming for their mothers, loving couples arguing about mundane nonsense, whimpering of abandoned puppies in alleyways, and a million more emotions from the over 2 million residents of the city around him, all poured into his already addled brain.

It was too much to bear, too loud, too overwhelming for his concussed brain. Gabriel reached up and pulled the butterfly miraculous out from under his tie, off of his chest. He tossed the brooch onto the bench beside him and the connection to his mind cut off, the emotional cacophony stopping. His pain eased slightly. 

“Sir, what-” Nathalie reacted, immediately moving to pick up the miraculous. 

“Nathalie, please call for my doctor.” Gabriel said, his own voice sounded quiet and strained to his ears, “And make an excuse for why I am like this.”

Gabriel noticed his assistant slip the brooch into her jacket pocket, “Of course sir.”