Paris' beloved superhero duo was fraying at the edges. To the average onlooker they might just look at bit tired and worse for wear. But for Alya Césaire, occasional superhero and full-time ladyblogger, they were practically falling apart. And who could blame them.
For some reason, the frequency of Akuma attacks had tripled in the last few weeks. No one knew why. The Akuma were not getting stronger, quite the contrary, some of them were laughable. It was just a matter of quantity over quality.
One after another they came, all with the same ridiculous 'Give me your Miraculous' spiel with their specific personalized demands thrown in as an afterthought. 'Give me your Miraculous or I will fail all of you!', 'Give me your Miraculous or I will eat all the cheese in France!', 'Give me your Miraculous or I will pet this dog!'. It was getting kind of old.
But as tired as she was from attack after attack, she knew that didn't even begin to compare to the bone weariness she could see in every movement coming from Chat Noir and Ladybug. The normally lively duo was muted, their movement stiff, eyes squinted from lack of sleep, limbs shaking and sore from over exertion. It seemed Hawkmoth's plan was simply to win by overworking them so much they would drop dead and at that point he would, presumably, waltz out of whatever basement he was holed up in to collect his prize.
What a lowlife.
It didn't help matters that the Akuma they were currently fighting wasn't even that creative. She couldn't even remember what his shtick was. Too preoccupied watching Ladybug and Chat Noir stumble over themselves and each other.
It took seeing Ladybug's hands tremble slightly while she tried to pull back her yoyo after a very wide shot at the Akuma for Alya to snap. Journalistic objectivity be damned.
She thrust her phone at her side, certain that Nino would catch it and possibly keep filming in her stead. She didn't care about such trivialities at the moment thought. Powered up or not, she was gonna help out in any way she could.
With fire in her eyes she marched over to the heart of the battle, laser focused on the Akuma jeering and taunting her heroes.
"NO!" rang out in the battle zone before a disbelieving silence settled over everyone. The Akuma's weapon laying on the ground after a very pissed off Alya had all but slapped it out of his hands.
Gathering all of her righteous fury Alya pointed a finger straight at the Akumatized person and went off "Listen here, pal! My friends are tired and you are not helping matters. They deserve a break, do you know how hard it is to be sixteen? How many things we already have to worry about without having to deal with half-assed super villains every 15 minutes?!"
The Akuma is frozen in place, he opens his mouth to say something only to be interrupted again.
"No, you don't! All you care about is yourself and whatever half baked plan you have." Alya strikes a pose "Oooh Chat Noir and Ladybug gimme your miraculous. Ooohh I like picking on teenagers and taking advantage of children and emotionally compromised people." She goes back to pointing straight at the Akuma. "Yes I'm talking to you Hawkmoth, what kind of name even is that, come and fight me! Or better yet, get a hobby!"
The purple outline of a mask starts glowing in front of the Akumatized person, no doubt Hawkmoth ready to answer the taunt.
"Save it!" Alya interrupts again, "We're tired of you and we're tired of your shit, you're on time out!" She takes a second to scan the Akuma, spotting a very out of place pin in his garish attire. Without a thought she snags the akumatized item while muttering "I'm taking this"
With the same fearless determination she smashes the pin into the ground and steps on it, quickly snapping her arm to catch the butterfly in her hand to the chorus of gasps from the people around her.
Not missing a beat, Alya turns around to look at Chat Noir and Ladybug with the Akumatized person returning to normal behind her.
Chat's immediate reaction is to hide behind his partner while Ladybug herself hold up her arms in a surrendering pose, too fearful to suddenly be the center of attention to the whirlwind that is Alya on a mission.
"You two!" She starts, Chat Noir squeaks and Ladybug straightens up, "You're gonna go somewhere safe, take a nap, eat a good hearty meal and I don't wanna see you back here until you've got some color back in your cheeks and those bags under your eyes have reduced by about half, alright?"
Chat's answer is a scared "Yes ma'am, right away ma'am!" as he takes Ladybug's hand to try and pull her away from Alya in an attempt to avoid her fury.
To which Ladybug says "Wait!", torn between facing Alya head on and doing what's right. "We have to purify the Akuma, we can't just leave you with it, it's dangerous"
Alya holds the fist with the angrily fluttering butterfly away from them "Oh, no, you don't. If you purify it now Hawkass is just gonna make another one and we're gonna be right back where we started."
"I'll be fine," she continues "I've been hit before, I won't fall for his tricks again, I'll just toss this in a jar or something. You can come find me later, MUCH later, and then I'll give it to you, until then, scram!"
Alya's tone leaves no room for argument, Ladybug is frozen but Chat Noir does not need to be told twice. Sure that Alya can take care of it, he scoops down to grab Ladybug in his arms and gives their friend a teary "Thank you" before leaping away, Ladybug halfheartedly protesting in his arms.
Alya doesn't remember getting home, still riding her wave of righteous fury. She doesn't remember locating a clear jar and tossing the akuma in, doesn't remember sitting down in front of her computer to keep an eye on the news and on the butterfly.
What she does remember thought is the little intricate red box she found hours later sitting innocently at her bed.