Chat Noir

The bedside alarm was chirping, although for the life of him, Adrian couldn't remember having used a tone quite so similar to the warning his Miraculous gave when Chat Noir's transformation was about to run out. Lethargically, he felt himself groping for his phone in a futile attempt to turn the thing off. Oddly, the sound moved as his hand did – the doppler effect was pretty impressive. Painfully he cracked open an eye to assist in the search and realized his night vision – Chat Noir's night vision, actually – was fully operational and there would be no alarm clock to silence.

He sat up and immediately smashed his head on the ceiling. Heart racing with panic, he found himself in an unfamiliar bedroom – although the scent of its owner was definitely in his feline database.

Holy – I'm still at Marinette's. In her bed…!

He raised his gloved hand and sure enough his Miraculous was down to the two-minute warning.

How is that even possible? I never called up my Cataclysm!

His heart skipped a beat.

Did it happen while I was out? OhMyGodOhMyGod...!

Frantically he searched the space but nothing appeared to have been disintegrated (that was positive), but Marinette also seemed to have vanished (that might be problematic). He should find out if she was safe, but the rush of blood was loud in his ears, and his need to get away from her before he transformed was nearly primal – not to mention finding Adrien in her bed would be the ultimate disaster.

I did pass out, didn't I? Did I say anything? Can I call Cataclysm unconsciously? Maybe that's why the ring is going nuts.

A gloved hand instinctively went to the side of his neck and felt the welt of damage where something had nicked him. Memory flooded back; he'd been turning to talk to Marinette and had heard the missile a fraction of a second before it hit him. That in itself was unusual, given his enhanced feline reflexes.

He couldn't have been out that long, but clearly, he'd been moved; hadn't he been on the roof? He slid forward, each movement a searing pain that brought waves of stars and a bit of darkness to the edge of his vision. Chat felt as though the entire panoply of villains they had fought over the past year had somehow pummeled him while he'd been out.

The ring chirped again – he had less than a minute now, the decision made for him. Chat pressed open the skylight and pulled himself through it, an agonizing experience that left him panting on the cool roof tiles. He found himself on his back, staring at the stars and desperately wanting the pain to go away. Laboriously, he got to his knees and used the wrought iron railing to help stand up. The world swam in his vision for a moment, and he took a deep breath to try and steady himself. Reaching for his baton, he triggered travel mode and started to vault up and over the railing.

In the next instant, he was instead tumbling over and down, his left foot uncharacteristically catching the top of the railing; he flung his arms out in an attempt to counter the tumble, losing the baton in the process. He watched helplessly as it sailed away from him while he simultaneously dove toward the sidewalk himself. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion, giving him enough time to realize he'd probably should have found a closet or something instead of becoming a cat pancake.

Talk about a cat-tastrophe.

Well, at least he'd never have to face Ladybug again. That was something.

The ground rose up to meet him and he closed his eyes one final time.

Marinette

"Tikki, what do we do?"

The kwami fluttered next to Marinette, eyes full of concern. "Chat Noir may not have intentionally used his super power, but whatever he has been exposed to has drained him as if he had." She twittered nervously. "I don't have enough knowledge myself, but Master Fu will know what to do."

Marinette looked horrified. "But I can't leave Chat alone here!"

"Nor should you," Tikki said. "Yet you absolutely can't find out his secret identity." She motioned to the closet door in the corner. "Duck into your closet and let him transform-" Tikki never finished the sentence.

Chat's Miraculous chirped another warning – two minutes left, if she was correct, and she watched as he bolted upright in her bed, nailing his head on the ceiling in the process. She started forward to say something, anticipating that he was realizing that he was about to transform and frantically looking for a way out. Faster than she thought possible, there was a flutter of activity from her bed, followed by the grating sound of the skylight opening. To her horror she watched the tail of Chat Noir disappear to her roof, followed by a discomforting thud that would wake the dead.

"He's trying to leave before he transforms!" she whispered to Tikki. "We've got to stop him! Tikki – spots on!"

Enveloped in a red flash, Marinette transformed into Ladybug and then quickly made her way to the skylight herself, fully aware that it would be difficult to explain Ladybug's sudden appearance. Leaping onto the roof she expected to find Chat laid out on the tile; instead, she gaped open-mouthed as his baton went one way, he the other, but both downward and out of control.

Instinctively she launched herself out over the street, narrowly capturing the insensate form of Chat Noir as she looped her yo-yo over the chimney of the building directly across the street from the bakery. The yo-yo retracted and pulled her to the rooftop, where she landed none-to-steadily with her baggage. She gently dropped the black-cladded hero to the tile and knelt just to his side. He was still breathing but was clearly out again.

You foolish, foolish kitty! She cried to herself, hugging him to her body. "Don't ever do that to me again," she said aloud. Then, more to herself as a revelation: "I can't lose you."

Chat's ring chirped a final warning and his body began to take on the transformation glow. Shocked, she pressed her eyes firmly shut and turned away from the blinding flash.