By the time Nathaniel made it onto the street, he could tell that Hoverer had done some damage. He just managed to see the man swoop down behind a woman in her mid forties and put both hands on either of her shoulders, she shook for a moment and glowed blue and green, before her color scheme shifted to match that of Hoverer's, and she, too, was able to fly due to a similar platform under her feet. It was like Reflekta all over again, Nathaniel realized. It was this style of attack that always made him the most anxious, because as much as Chat Noir and Ladybug could fight, and fight well, he knew there was strength in numbers. Due to his comics he had spent probably much longer than he should have watching the Lady Blog and scrounging up news footage of fights so that he could see exactly how the superheros moved and strategized for the sake of keeping his and Marc's comic authentic, and these attacks were tricky. Not only did they have to be concerned about themselves, but the mass amount of civilians, too. These civilians merely had spinning, extremely sharp weapons attached to their feet. Nathaniel imagined getting too close to those helicopter blades could spell disaster, and so he ducked into a narrow alley between two buildings and continued. Every step sent shock waves through his feet and he was sure he was about to have a heart attack with how much it was pounding in his chest, but he had to get to Marc's apartment.

As if on cue, his phone buzzed, and Nathaniel skidded to a stop to read the message and rapidly reply.

To: Nathaniel

From: Marc

Sent: 14:48

It went poorly? Nath I am sorry. Can I do anything to help?

To: Marc

From: Nathaniel

Sent: 14:49

Get out of your house and hide my dad's been akumatized and I think he's going after you

To: Nathaniel

From: Marc

Sent: 14:49

What? You can't be serious

To: Nathaniel

From: Marc

Sent: 14:50

Nathaniel please tell me this is some bad joke

Despite his wish to call Marc and explain in finite detail what had transpired, Nathaniel did not have the time to say any more before he took off running again, inwardly sighing as his phone buzzed once more, and hoping that the other boy merely took his warning seriously. After all, this was seldom something he, or most of the people in Paris, even, joked about. So, he kept running. He knew Marc's place was about a mile away from his, but was not about to risk taking the subway where he could so easily run into Hoverer and become trapped. As soon as he reached the mouth of the alley he already saw at least ten transformed helicopter parents flying about, trying to grab onto others and transform them, too. It seemed, however, that anyone who was not a parents or at least did not look old enough to be one, was not affected, and with that in mind Nathaniel threw some more of his caution to the wind as he took off at a faster pace.

He reached Marc's place in under ten minutes, inwardly cursing his hatred of anything athletic as he fought to catch his breath from running, The building was familiar, as Marc's apartment was rather small and nestled above a record store and café. On a few occasions Marc had apologized for it not being as nice as Nathaniel's, but Nathaniel had been quick to brush these concerns off. It hardly mattered, and the coffee downstairs was amazing. But now something stood out in stark contrast to the ecru toned structure which towered four stories high. A window on the second story was smashed, and Nathaniel's breath hitched in concern. Before his mind could get ahead of himself, however, another movement out of the corner of his eye snatched his attention and he turned. He spotted a flash of a rainbow shirt clambering down the fire escape. Marc landed roughly on the ground after hoping down, wincing, before getting to his feet and nearly sprinting the opposite direction until Nathaniel latched onto his arm and pushed him behind the dumpster.

Marc, however, screamed and pulled away, before Nathaniel could hush him, guilt flooding his mind until Marc stilled. "It's me!" Nathaniel hissed, lowering himself into a kneeling position which Marc quickly copied. "I'm sorry."

It took Marc many moments to evidently be able to form words, but his mossy eyes remained wide and he worried his lip as he spoke. "It's—it's—oh. Nath, you scared me. It's—my mom's been turned into one of Hoverer's helicopter parents. Hoverer crashed into our living room and tried to grab me but I got out. I don't know where he is now."

Nathaniel muttered a curse, something he typically tried to refrain from, but the doubt of this being all his fault began to creep in. If he hadn't made his dad mad then all of this would not have happened. Nathaniel knew he had to come out at some point and was not about to hide who he was, but the worry still clawed at his mind. "We have to hide," he grabbed Marc by the wrist and kept his gaze downcast as he got up and began running away from Marc's apartment as another set of helicopter parents glided by on the street.

As soon as they reached the street, however, Nathaniel was tugging Marc every which was. Evidently, when Hoverer could not grab him, he merely resorted to turning every adult he could find into one of his followers, who seemed all too eager to swoop down over them, exclaiming that they needed to get home where it was safe and stay off the streets. One got a little too close for comfort, with the rotating blades nearing to the point that Nathaniel felt the air whip by him as he ducked, all but gluing himself to the concrete before springing to his feet.

"Come on, the park!" Marc yelled, hunching down as he ran as he was a good half a head taller than was Nathaniel was. For once it seemed his short stature would be an advantage. Nathaniel nodded.

But the faster he ran, the more he worried, and the tighter the knots in his stomach became. Had he picked a bad time to come out? But how was he supposed to know his dad got fired that day if he didn't tell him? Or would his dad have reacted the same way no matter what Nathaniel did? Was Marc the problem? Could this have been avoided? Worries plagued his mind faster than he could comprehend, and before he could even begin crafting a logical explanation for one concern, another one piled atop it, leaving Nathaniel with a thumping headache. Another helicopter parent swerved out in front of them and Nathaniel jumped in fear, but held his ground, despite every instinct which told him to turn around and flee. If this area was overrun, they needed to move onwards to reach a safe location while they waited for Ladybug and Char Noir to show up. Nathaniel took a deep breath in through his nose. Of course. Ladybug and Chat Noir would fix everything. They always did. Somehow this thought quelled Nathaniel's overactive mind for at least a few moments and he lunged forward again, hauling Marc alongside him.

Marc nearly tripped on this sudden movement, but Nathaniel kept moving, wanting to get himself, and more importantly Marc, out of this mess as soon as possible.

All Marinette wanted was the occasional weekend off. But if it was not being roped into helping with her parent's bakery, doing homework for school, assisting Alya with one project or another, it was saving all of Paris from a super villain courtesy of Hawk Moth. She grit her teeth at the very thought, having not hesitated to run up to her room and transform the moment she saw the first flying, unusually colored figure outside her window and the emergency news reports popping up. Her parents had ran into their bakery to lock up, only for Hoverer, as the villain had called himself, to come barging in and somehow transform her parents to look like all of the others. Every sudden noise caused her to glance sharply towards the source, as she half expected another giant butterfly to appear out of nowhere and blow her and Chat across the street. Since they discovered Hawk Moth was no longer working alone—or perhaps never had been to begin with, her nerves had nearly been getting the best of her.

But for the time being, they seemed safe from such a fate, and Ladybug would do what she did best, save Paris, no matter how much of her own life she would have to put on hold. "They've all been turned into an army of helicopter parents! This is the exact distraction Hawk Moth loves," Ladybug exclaimed, her back pressed against Chat Noir's as she twirled her yo-yo at her side, every so often throwing it towards one of the platforms. Apparently whenever those were broken the parents were returned to normal, provided they did not get too banged up on the short fall to the ground.

"Oh, no. I do not need more helicopter parenting in my life!" Chat Noir exclaimed, extending his staff to poke at someone who was flying towards him, and only barely managing to duck before their blades could make contact with his head.

Ladybug laughed as she spun out of the way of a figure advancing towards her, causing them to careen into the streetlight which was nearby. "Aw, is Kitty kept under lock and key?"

"You have no idea."

A/N: and that's chapter two! We're almost getting to the action. Please let me know what you think, if you think the characters are ic or not, plot suggestions if you have any, etc. It would be much appreciated since I've never written for Miraculous before. This story is obviously going to be primarily Nath/Marc centric, but there will certainly be a few Ladybug/Marinette/Chat Noir/Adrien bits thrown in too. Couldn't have Miraculous without them, after all. Thanks for reading!