Chapter 1 - Eclipser (from Chat Noir's POV)

It had been a rough battle so far tonight. Ladybug and I crouched down behind the chimney on the roof of the Ministère des Affaires Étrangères et Européennes, while Hawk Moth's latest akumatized villain, named Eclipser, was approaching us. Eclipser had been given the frightening ability to send out bolts of energy that would paralyze anyone from the neck down. Dozens of men, women and children had already fallen victim to him, and now he was closing in on us. Just avoiding his attacks had been tricky so far.

All we knew so far was that his name was Bryson Alnitak, a professor of astronomy at Sorbonne University who had recently been disgraced and humiliated by four of his colleagues because of a paper he had recently published. They pointed out obvious errors in his theories, and basically turned him into a laughingstock within the field. That humiliation led to anger and akumatization. He paralyzed two of the other professors before going on his rampage.

I turned to Ladybug. "Where do you think the akuma is, milady?"

"I don't know, but I'm hoping this will help...Lucky Charm!" She tossed her yo-yo in the air, and a belt fell into her hands. "Okay, that seems easy enough… it must be in his belt buckle! It's the only prominent thing on him anyway."

Then I coyly said, "Let's immobilize this NUMB-skull, milady!" I guess she didn't appreciate my attempt at humor, because she rolled her eyes and started twirling her yo-yo. "Enough with the bad puns, Kitty. Let's do this!"

I found a small piece of loose brick next to the chimney. "I'll make a distraction," I told her. I flung it over the top of the chimney, trying to make it land behind Eclipser and hoping it was small enough that he wouldn't notice it flying over his head. We could hear him coming closer. As soon as we heard the piece of brick hit the roof, we both jumped out to confront the villain.

The sound of it did cause Eclipser to look behind him for a second, giving me time to swing my staff and knock him over with a swift hit to the legs. Ladybug flung her yo-yo toward him, scoring a direct hit on the belt buckle.

To our surprise, nothing happened. There was only a clang as the yo-yo bounced off of him. But we were so sure that's where it was! The lucky charm has never failed her, and it seemed so obvious. Where else could it be?

I guess that her miscalculation threw off her balance. As she started to pull the yo-yo back, Eclipser managed to grab the string and jerk her toward him. I watched in horror as he pointed the palm of his hand at her, and a bolt of light flew out from it and struck her. Her body froze, she fell forward, and rolled toward the edge of the roof.

"Ladybug!" I cried out, and chased after her. Before he had a chance to do anything else, I extended my staff quickly at Eclipser. It struck him in the chest, and pushed him swiftly off the roof in the opposite direction. I ran toward her as fast I could, but I wasn't able to reach her in time to stop her from falling, so I watched helplessly as she disappeared from view. I frantically jumped off the roof, using the staff to help me land safely.

To my relief, Ladybug had fallen into some thick bushes instead of hitting the ground. I lifted her out and held her. She was definitely still paralyzed, but didn't seem to have any broken bones, and only had scratches on her face. She was still conscious and able to breath normally. I really need to get her to a hospital, but there was no way to do that without finding out her true identity. Then she looked up at me.

"Chat…" she stammered, "You have to get me… to Master Fu."

I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I should have been able to protect her. Now she was yet another of Eclipser's many victims.

"Keep it together kitty…" she said weakly. "He's in... an apartment on... the other side of the Seine. He can… take care... of me. I'll… help... guide you. Just make sure… Eclipser doesn't follow us… Hawk Moth cannot find out… where he lives."

"On it, my love." Moving quickly, I undid my own tail/belt and extended it with the belt she had received from the Lucky Charm. Holding her limp body up against me, I wrapped the belts tightly around both of our waists and fastened them . "I've got you," I assured her. I held onto her tightly, and could see that the spots on her earrings were starting to deactivate.

I had driven Eclipser back at least a hundred meters on the other side of the building, and most likely he had been knocked unconscious from the blow. I checked around with my night vision to make sure no one else was nearby, then dug my staff into the ground behind us and extended it to propel us forward. When I got to the river bank, I extended it fully to send us across the Seine and onto the opposite bank.

Ladybug slowly tilted her head away from me. "It's… about half a kilometer… that way. Hurry…"

She gave me the address of Master Fu's apartment building, and said it was on the top floor. I kept us moving as fast as I could while holding onto her, and managed to make it to the building in record time. I undid the belt from our waists, picked her up in my arms and ran up the stairs.

"We made it, Ladybug." No response. I looked down and saw that she had fallen unconscious, although she was still breathing. Please be ok my love, I thought as I kissed her on the forehead. I felt myself tearing up again as I slammed my foot against the door in frustration and called out Master Fu's name.