Chapter 3: Shell Game

Chat Noir hugged the Ladybug statue, blinking back tears.

What could he do for her? There was only one way to fix magical damage like this: the "Miraculous Ladybug" cure. That required her Miraculous earrings, to wish for a Lucky Charm object to throw into the air.

If everything on her had been converted to solid plastic then there was no hope. If it was a coating... that would be a different story. Even if Ladybug had suffocated inside, she could be brought back to life as long as the earrings could be broken out.

Chat Noir brought his baton down hard on the whip handle held between Ladybug's hands. The baton bounced off. Berserk with grief and rage, he smashed it again and again. Finally there was a tiny crack in the coating and a bit of the blue and white spiral pattern of the handle was visible.

"Yes! It's not all solid plastic!" said Chat Noir aloud. "Cataclysm!"

He touched Ladybug's arm, willing the destruction to remove the hard shell from around her body. The plastic crumbled away at once.

"Chat! What..." said Ladybug. That was good enough to pass the rhyming test, but in recovering her balance she took a tiny step. A shiny pink shell instantly covered her again.

Chat Noir felt a burst of hope. Ladybug was alive! He would have to be more careful next time, and be ready to dance with her the moment she was free. But first he had to detransform and feed Plagg.

Nathalie hurried out of the building holding the tablet with the live feed of Gabriel. She ran to Chat Noir with the tablet.

"Son, let me help you," said Gabriel from the screen. "We can take your partner back to the mansion. It would be easier to work on curing her there. Hawk Moth might try to collect her to get her Miraculous if you stay out in the open."

"All right, Father," said Chat Noir. "I'm going to detransform in a minute and I'll need Camembert to fuel up again. I still don't have my regular clothes, just the costume I put on for the video. Could you have someone bring my clothes, and Marinette's? I don't want to leave her here unguarded."

Gabriel called Gustav, the driver, to get the clothes and pick them up: Adrien, Nathalie, and the petrified Ladybug.

"We should get Marinette's parents, too," said Gabriel. "They need to know what has happened to their daughter."

"Marinette didn't want her parents at the mansion," said Adrien,

"That was before she was transformed – this is a different situation," said Gabriel. "Family should be together in a time of crisis."

Adrien had to agree that it made sense. There was a trickle of uneasiness in the back of his mind about putting everything Hawk Moth wanted in one place, but he pushed it aside. The Agreste Mansion security systems would keep the villains out for a while, at least.

They set up in the foyer of the Agreste Mansion. This was the black-and-white marble entry room with the stairs leading to the second floor. Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain watched anxiously from the side of the room. Gabriel Agreste was standing close to them, with Nathalie by his side.

"Please help Marinette," said Sabine. Tom nodded in agreement.

"I'll seal off the doors and windows with our security panels to make sure we are not disturbed," said Gabriel.

Adrien was ready. He had changed back to his normal clothes, fed Plagg, and transformed again.

"This time, when I break the shell around Ladybug, I'll dance with her," said Chat Noir. "We'll break the akumatized object. That will stop Frightningale, wherever she's run off to. Then we'll do a Lucky Charm and toss the object into the air for the cure. That will fix everyone, including Ladybug. Last step will be to purify the akuma so it doesn't reproduce."

"Cataclysm!" said Chat, touching Ladybug. The plastic shell was gone again. Chat caught her in his arms and began to dance a waltz. The akumatized microphone whip slipped to the floor.

Frightningale leaped over the railing on the upper floor where Hawk Moth had hidden her. She landed behind Ladybug and snatched off her earrings. Then she gave a pirouette kick at Ladybug, who was knocked to the ground and froze again just as she detransformed. By the time Chat Noir recovered from his surprise and shock, Frightningale had her weapon back in hand.

Frightningale said,
"Sorry, Kitty, you've been had.
You're in a trap set by your dad!
He's a villain of great fame.
Hawk Moth is his secret name!"

"You're Hawk Moth! You monster!" said Chat Noir.

He had to dodge Frightningale's whip attacks. Restrictions on cursing him seemed to have been lifted.

"I have a good reason," said Gabriel. "To save your mother."

"What do you want with us?" demanded Tom. "Why bring us here?"

"I need to transfer a curse from Emilie onto Marinette, and it will be a lot easier if I make her whole family disappear," said Gabriel. "Dark wings... ooof!"

Sabine darted in front of Gabriel and felled him with a martial arts kick to the stomach that knocked the wind out of him.

Frightningale tossed the earrings and said:
"Here, Nathalie!
These rings are free!"

Nathalie put on the earrings and said, "Spots on!"

Nothing happened, because she didn't invoke the kwami Tikki by name. (A familiar holder can omit the name sometimes, but not someone claiming the Miraculous as a new holder.)

Chat by now had been struck with the whip and had a pink aura. He started dancing in place.

Chat accused Nathalie:
"You work for Hawk Moth: you're a spy,
And your kindness was a lie!"

"I've been working for him for months, covering for him," said Nathalie. "Being a partner in crime pays better than being an assistant."

Annoyed by hearing prose, Frightningale struck Nathalie with the whip and gave her a pink aura, forcing her to dance in place. She also whipped Sabine, Tom, and even Gabriel while she was at it (his prose answer had broken her loyalty).

Gabriel tried to get to his feet. He failed to make it like a dance, and he froze.

Frightningale said:
"Sing, dance or rhyme,
Or you'll be frozen in no time!"

Chat Noir said:
"You will see I'm in my grooves
When I show you my fighting dance moves!"

Adrien had some training in capoeira, the Brazilian dancing martial arts style. He flipped gracefully from his hands to his feet, driving into Frightningale and making her draw back. She came close enough to Tom for the big man to grab her in a bear hug from behind. He froze, but she was pinned in his unbreakable grip.

Chat smashed the microphone Frightningale held with a graceful dancing kick. The purple akuma butterfly fluttered out. Purification could be left for later. It wouldn't escape easily with the doors and windows sealed. A purple cloud of magic enveloped Frightningale, and she became Clara Nightingale, still caught in Tom's grip.

It was a little difficult to do everything with rhymes and dance, but they managed to get the earrings back from Nathalie, for Sabine to put them on, for her to use an incantation told her by Chat Noir ("Normal form be gone / Tikki, spots on!"), and another ("Fight the harm / Lucky Charm!"), and to throw the resulting polka-dotted rubber ball into the air ("We'll end with a hug / Miraculous Ladybug!").

Everyone was free. Gabriel was swiftly overpowered and his Miraculous taken away. Marinette reclaimed the earrings and purified the akuma. They called the police to arrest Gabriel and Nathalie. (Gustav, it seemed, had been kept in the dark about the criminal doings of his boss).

"That was awful," said Marinette. "It seemed I was paralyzed for hours, and I would get free for an instant only to get stuck again."

"Still want to give up being Ladybug?" asked Adrien.

"With the master villain gone it might not be so bad," said Marinette. "What do you think?"

"I'd like to stay Chat Noir," said Adrien.

"Clara, it looks like we can do that video for you after all," Marinette said. "Right, Adrien?"

"Yes, M'Lady... Princess."

Clara said:
"Thank you, thank you, heroic pair,
I'm glad that you have shown you care."

(In gratitude to Ladybug and Chat Noir for saving his daughter, the Mayor dropped all the legalities and let the video proceed. Clara added some lines to the beginning of the song: "In the daytime, I'm Marinette..." – and Marinette didn't mind because her identity was public now and it might bring her good publicity.)

"Adrien, you don't have a home now, with your father and his assistant gone to jail," said Sabine. "Why don't you stay with us?"

"You can give us tips on how to deal with the press," said Tom.

"I'd love to," said Adrien.

"I'd love for you to," said Marinette, blushing.

The End