Chapter 2

Chemist

"From fighting supervillains to fighting my way through a chemistry quiz," Were the dejected thoughts of Maria Reyes. with Bee Rayne gone all three of the heroes who had defeated her went back to their civilian forms to keep up appearances, "I bet dad never had this problem when he was on the job, being a public hero must be cool," she thought as she finished going through the questions about the periodic table.

Sitting next to her was her friend Dale Lupin, the light-haired boy had this almost goofy smile on his face as he went through his work, the infectious positivity of the boy was well... infectious, Maria could never figure out how he managed to stay so happy even in classes ran by the ever strict Miss Mendeleiev, alas it was a question for another time. the rest of their classmates quietly went through their quizzes with the teacher doing something on her desk, probably marking something else from another class.

Finishing up just as the bell rang Maria and Dale both walked up to the front of the class and handed in their assignments as did their classmates, a few would note how disenchanted miss Mendeleiev appeared as they passed but no one thought it was worth a note. The teacher found herself very unsure and scared as it had come to her attention that school funding was going to be cut and the chemistry lab was going to take a hit to supplies. to say she was concerned was an understatement.

"This is ridiculous," Miss Mendeleiev said going over her lesson plans with worry as she realized that she might not have enough supplies for all the labs she had planned due to this.

Meanwhile, as the students lingered around the main atrium of the school lunchtime having started several groups of students had pulled out their lunches and talked jovially with each other, it was as if the city hadn't been attacked just 2 hours ago.

Maria sat in a corner on her own looking at her phone and eating a salad she had made that morning. having moved only a few weeks prior she was still the new person at the school and far from a social butterfly she hadn't quite made friends yet. Not that she minded it gave her time to go over combat tactics with Athena.

"Hey, you're Maria right?" came a cheerful female voice., Maria looked up to see a dark skinned girl she recognized from her class, Alya

"Oh yeah, Maria," She said holding out her hand.

"Alya, and this is Marinette." Alya said gesturing to her friend, "We just thought you seemed awfully lonely eating on your own and decided to come over."

"Oh, well thank you," Maria said putting a smile on her face as she put her phone away and made a welcoming gesture to the two girls.

The two girls sat down with Maria who smiled though didn't say anything. "Yeah I've got so much to say...heck," she thought slightly dejected while glancing at the other two unsure of where to go from here.

"So check it out," Alya pulled out her phone. "There's a new hero who helped Ladybug and Chat Noir this morning, I think I managed to get the only pictures," she said excitedly sharing with both Marinette and Maria pictures, sure enough, it was a decent picture of Chat and Ladybug talking to a masked figure inside a car.

For a picture taken from a phone, it was one heck of a picture, none of them would know it since the helmet lacked any defining features but it wasn't blurry. Something the superheroine in question took note of very impressed.

"She used guns though... not sure how heroic that will look in the public eye," Marinette commented sounding unsure whilst looking at Alya's picture of Night Raven

"Depends on if they have other powers," Maria commented, "I mean they're driving a car instead of parkouring like Chat Noir or Ladybug maybe they don't have superpowers." She said.

"Not a bad theory actually, I'll have to add that to the next blog post," Alya said smiling.

While the three girls talked a little purple butterfly flew into the school, headed straight towards miss Mendeleiev. The purple haired teacher looking at Chemistry gear having put her hand on a gas mask just as the Akuma touched it.

"Chemist, I am Hawk Moth, people around you don't understand the value of chemistry so I'm giving you the power to showcase the power of change, all I ask for in return is for you to bring me the Ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous'" were the words telepathically sent to the mind of the teacher.

"It's all just chemistry," Miss Mendeleiev said grinning before she was engulfed in purple energy and transformed.

In the atrium of the school, Maria was still talking with Marinette and Alya when suddenly all three of them heard a loud booming sound as a door flew off its hinges and fell into the middle of the room.

"Knock knock." Was the shrill voice of the Chemist, with a gas mask on her face and wearing some kind of yellow latex bodysuit. The villain also sported a belt with several vials and pouches on it.

"Hawk Moth is working overtime today," Maria thought grimly as she ran into the crowd of students who were rushing out of the school, as she ran, however, she pressed a button on her watch alerting Athena to send the car.

Back inside the school, Marinette found her way to the girl's locker room when her Kwami Tikki flew out of her bag, "that has to be miss Mendeleiev," Tikki said, "What could cause her to be akumatized!?"

"I don't know Tikki we'll have to figure that out later, for now, we gotta transform," Marinette said, "Tikki Spots on," She yelled, the red bug-like creature entered one of her earrings and an energy engulfed her body surrounding her in a red bodysuit and mask. Running back out she ran back out to find that her partner Chat Noir was already fighting the Chemist.

"Excellent timing bugaboo," Chat Noir said landing beside her.

"Not now Kitty," Ladybug said spinning her Yoyo readying herself to strike.

"You children don't know what you're dealing with, so right now your best course would be to tread lightly," The Chemist said menacingly drawing what appeared to look like some kind of tiny white crystal.

"No can do," Chat said, sharing a nod with Ladybug the two of them ran forward weapons spinning. Their target, however, had a different attack plan. just a second before they reached her she threw the crystal onto the ground creating a large explosion on the ground between all of them. the two superheroes were sent back and disoriented.

The two heroes disoriented and inahling what was no doubt not something they should have.

"Just a trick of chemistry!" Chemist said pulling forth more of her explosive crystaline objects into her hand.

"Trick of chemistry huh," Came an electronic voice from the second story of the school building, "Well here's a trick of lead moving at mach 1." Night Raven continued pointing her pistol and pulling the trigger. The bullets zipped through the air and hit the masked villian on her legs.

The bullets were intentionally aimed at the legs so as to wound without doing lethal damage, however, it turns out that didn't matter. The villains' rubber suit stopped the bullets and left them doing nothing more then staggering the villian.

That didn't stop Chemist from throwing more of her explosive crystals at the heroine who ducked just in time to avoid the worst of the blast.

"This is going to be harder then this morning." Night Raven commented dryly getting back up only to see that the Chemist had retreated.

Running down towards her fellow heroes Night Raven found Chat Noir and Ladybug both gasping for air filling up their lungs with oxygen after the toxic smoke hit them.

"You two alright?" Night Raven asked.

"I'm feeling a bit smoked out." Chat said smiling.

"He's fine," Night Raven and Ladybug said in unison

All three heroes drew their weapons and began scanning around looking for the villian

"Alright now we really need to be careful with this one guys," Night Raven said. "She was talking about tricks of chemistry, I'll bet my left arm she's got many more tricks then just a bag full explosive crystals."

"Agreed," Ladybug said nodding with Chat Noir following suit. "So where would she have gone?"

It was at this point that the voice of Athena spoke inside Night Raven's helmet. "It appears that the school budget for the Chemistry lab is going to be cut soon, perhaps the one responsible for this choice is the target of the Akuma's ire."

"Mr. Damocles, he's at a conference. That must be where this Akuma is headed." Night Raven said out loud the moment her A.I finished relaying her the information.

"What makes you say that?" Chat asked.

"Chemistry budget was cut," Night Raven responded, "Given the Akuma victim has a passion for that science and she's obviously someone from the school Its fair to assume that's what caused this."

"Then let's go," Ladybug said. with a nod of understanding, all three heroes ran out of the building and with their mobility of choice propelled themselves into the air and began parkouring along the rooftops.

Unbeknownst to them they passed a dark haired girl walking up to the school. Skyler had been ready for her first day of school but watching the heroes run off she realised that school was out at least for now.

"Aren't we going to go help them?" Came a quiet voice from inside the girls purse.

"I'd love to Essen but I can't. A hero showing up the same day my flight landed, it's too much of a coincidence to laugh away." Skyler responded to her Kwami, "I'm sure they can handle it, the Black Cat and the Ladybug are two of the strongest Miraculous, right next to you and Pena."

The Blue Kwami looked down at the last words his wielder said a look of sadness even as the human stepped away looking for where the students would have taken shelter.

Meanwhile about 10 blocks away the three heroes currently working to stop the Chemist landed on the roof adjacent the School district building.

"How about hitting us with that Deus Ex Machina, eh Ladybug?" Night Raven asked smiling under her helmet. Ladybug nodded with a smile

"Lucky Charm!" she yelled throwing her Yoyo into the air. Red energy swirled above them for a brief second revealing a large piece of cloth

Looking around quickly ignoring the quips from the darker clad heroes Ladybug saw the plan laid out in front of her, a knife in Night Raven's boot, a water fountain and then hers and Chats bodies.

"Night Raven your knife," Ladybug said. Without a word of protest, the dark clad heroine pulled out her blade and did as she was directed to. And quickly sliced the cloth in half. Putting both of these fabrics under the the water and then handed one to Chat Noir. "Wrap it around your face." She said simply.

"The water soaked material would act as an improvied gas mask providing at least some protection against gaseous attacks." Night Raven explained nodding in admiration, an ingenious little bit of improvisation even if she herself didn't need to be included given her mask already had a filter on it.

"Alright then ladies, let's get down there," Chat said. With a nod from the girls all three of them propelled their way down and into the building. Running inside Ladybug was about to call for the room full of teachers to leave but before she could so much as get a word out before the room was filled with smoke.

"Get down!" Ladybug yelled at the assembled teachers while the three heroes turned to the doorway to see the Chemist walking casually in

"Raven, 80% of Akuma victims have an akumatized object that is directly tied to their power, I predict a 97.5 percent likliehood the object is this woman's gas mask based on the..." Were the mechanical words of Athena inside Raven's helmet.

"Got it." Night Raven cut her off. "Chat Noir the mask." She yells pulling out her knfe and gun in a combat stance.

"Uh okay." He responds uncertainly for a second but in no position to challenge the assertion. The two dark clad heroes take the left and right while Ladybug strives to the middle, the water covered fabric providing at least decent protection from the smoke while their masks protected their eyes.

Chemist attempted to once more pull out one of her explosive crystals but this time Raven shot at the villians arm staggering her and forcing her to lose grip on the crystal. without being thrown there wasn't enough force to cause detonation so it landed harmlessly at her feet.

"Cataclysm." Chat yelled his hand becoming engulfed in the black energy that was the power of Destruction.

It was a fast paced 10 seconds involving Ladybug and Night Raven doing their part to restrain the villian while Chat came up and planted his pam on her gas mask. The object turned black and then fell apart with the purple butterfly that was the Akuma flying away.

With the Akuma attempting to fly away Ladybug pulled forth her Yoyo and caught the evil creature, cleansing it and setting the now pure white butterfly free. She and Chat then threw the cloth into the air and unleashed the Miraculous Ladybug cleanse fixxing the damage caused by Chemist.

Miss Mendeleiev returned to normal looking around confused while the three heroes shared a three way fist bump.

"You two best get out of here I can handle this." Night Raven said sending both of them a short hand salute.

Chat Noir and Ladybug nodded and both ran off to de-transform without anyone seeing them while the non magical hero knelt down and helped the chemistry teacher to her feet. "You were akumatized." She explained, "But you're fine now."

"I... oh goodness what a catastrophe." Miss Mendeleiev said, "I caused so much havoc didn't I?"

"Hey, considering you got Akumatized because you were scared of not being able to teach as well I'd say that's something to be proud of." Night Raven said. "Make your case again, a lot more students then people realise love chemistry after all." She said before walking away. "Oh and by the way." Night raven said turning back to the board members and other people in the room, "Something tells me the students will be very interested in Chemistry once they realise everything this villian did was almost no magic but all Chemistry." She said almost casually as she left.

The Stunned looks on all the faces in the room were so precious that Miss Mendeleiev couldn't help but smile, maybe the budget could be saved after all.

Back at School Chat Noir retrasnformed into Adrien Agreste. His Kwami Plagg retreated into his jacket while he went to find his friends.

"Hey, Nino." He called out as he walked in.

"Oh Hey, Adrien." Nino said smiling, "Oh by the way there's someone you should meet." He said gesturing to someone he and Alya had been talking to.

The dark haired girl walked up to Adrien and held out a hand "Skyler Fedin." She said smiling "I was supposed to start school today but then that Akuma appeared." She said

"So she found where we and the rest of the students had taken shelter and well here we are." Nino concluded

"Well pleasure to meet you, Skyler." Adrien said "Adrien..." He began

"Agreste," Skyler finishes, "Sorry but you've got one of those memorable faces." She said simply.

"So I've been told," Adrien said with a smile.

While Adrien and his friends talked with the new girl Maria got back into school and back into the crowd with no one noticing her absence thankfully.

"Just as we planned for." She thought to herself walking around the school looking for where she was supposed to be for class.

"Hey, Dale." She called out seeing her friend leaning against the railing on the second story of the building. She didn't know what had gotten into him but his usual smile had vanished instantly as he stared down into the mass of students below.

"Dale?" Maria asked putting an arm on his shoulder unsure.

"Oh hey Maria," Dale said turning aroudn calmly his smile returning. "They sent out a message that 4th period is cancelled but we still have to be there for fifth."

"Got it," Maria said smiling and running off towards her locker to go grab her school supplies, completely oblivious to the fact that Dale's face had returned to a frown as he turned back looking at the new student mingling among his classmate.

A/N - well that took longer then it had any right to but here we are

So not much to say except the promise that the wait time will be shorter for the net one and the next one should be loads of fun.

Nothing Else to say so I'll close here

Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out