Ladybug landed on the now abandoned stage mere seconds before Chat Noir arrived on the scene.
"Why hello there, My Lady. Lovely afternoon for an Akuma fight, isn't it?" He did a little bow to her.
"No. I'd rather be spending my spring afternoon relaxing with some friends in this park, maybe enjoying a cookie or two." Ladybug retorted.
"I hear you. So where did our last Akuma head to?" Chat Noir made a show of looking around, surveying the ongoing chaos in the park, his hands shading his eyes.
A pollen explosion occurred from somewhere far behind him.
"I'd say she headed over there..." Ladybug gestured to the rapidly rising pollen cloud.
"Let's get going then!" Chat Noir ran off and Ladybug was close behind.
"Get back here!" Épine roared as she continued to chase Chloé furiously, still using her vine hair as legs.
"Get away from me, you freak!" Chloé screamed.
"I don't think so!"
With a few quick strides, Épine stepped over Chloé and landed gracefully on her feet in front of the terrified mean girl, retracting her vine hair to shoulder length.
Chloé backed away, but before she could get too far, the ground beneath her shook throwing her off her feet, although Épine remained steady on hers.
The plant themed villainess raised her hand and two trees behind Chloé suddenly uprooted themselves, yellow eyes veined with red formed near where the branches started to sprout from the tree, a jagged mouth formed a few inches below the eyes and tree branch arms sprouted from the sides of the trees, with hands sprouting from those arms.
The pair of trees reached for a screaming Chloé, hoisting her up roughly and standing next to one another, they used their hands to form a spherical sort of cage around her and hoisted it up far above the ground.
"You're not going anywhere unless I want you to!" Épine snarled. "Maybe I should shatter you into pieces like you did to my precious flower!"
She demonstrated her point by the trees shaking their branch cage arms violently, leaving Chloé in a daze.
Épine smirked.
"Growing a bit too big for your flowerpot there, aren't you?"
Épine whipped around to see Ladybug and Chat Noir standing there, the former being the one who had spoken.
"Time to do some weeding. And guess what?" Chat Noir extended his staff. "You're the weed!"
"I am not a weed!" Épine screeched. "My name is Épine!"
Her vine hair lashed out at the two Miraculous holders, narrowly missing them as they back flipped out of the way.
"Any ideas on how to get rid of her?!" Ladybug called out as she did several twists and turns to avoid the lashing, thorny vines.
"Find the Akuma object, smash it and then you purify it?" Chat Noir suggested unhelpfully.
"That doesn't exactly help us out here right now, Chat!" Ladybug twirled her yoyo in front of her, deflecting several vines that lunged for her at once.
"Sorry I can't be a bit more help right now! These plants are being a bit unruly over here!" Chat Noir called out as he deflected several vines that were attacking him.
Épine felt euphoric on the inside.
These powers were truly amazing! Connecting with the plants she loved and cared for so much, the adrenaline rush they gave her...
All that she had to do now was get Ladybug and Chat Noir out of the way, finally get around to punishing Chloé...
She retracted her vine hair and did a back flip to avoid Ladybug's yoyo, landing in the lower branches of a tree- that she hadn't animated.
The purple butterfly outline appeared around her face as Hawkmoth communicated with her once again.
"Épine, remember your task for me! Bring me Ladybug's and Chat Noir's Miraculous! Her earrings! His ring!" Hawkmoth snapped.
"I've not forgotten you, Hawkmoth. I'm on it. A watched seed never grows, after all..." Épine declared as the purple butterfly outline disappeared.
She leaped out of the tree and landed perfectly on her feet, dodging a blow from Chat Noir's staff simply by stepping slightly to her left.
"I have been using the little seedlings for long enough, Ladybug and Chat Noir!" she declared. "It's time to bring out the real, full grown flora!"
She cackled as she raised her hands in the air and her thorn hair grew longer and whipped around behind her, though it didn't grow long enough to hoist her into the air.
"What in the world is she doing...?" Chat Noir held his extended baton out.
"I don't know, but I'm not planning on waiting around to find out!" Ladybug moved to attack with her yo-yo, but the ground suddenly shook, making her and Chat Noir unsteady on their feet.
Their eyes widened when all of the nearby trees animated, much in the manner that the ones imprisoning Chloé had, looming over them, arms outstretched threateningly.
Épine stood amongst them all, smirking at the two Miraculous holders.
"Get them."
A smirk graced Épine's features as she issued the command and she allowed another tree to carry her, seated in its branches.
"Well, now we know what she was up to..." Chat Noir blinked, stunned.
The trees lunged for them and they dodged them, narrowly missing the pair, their wooden hands scraping along the ground instead, as if they were raking them.
Meanwhile, Chloé, who had recovered from her dazed state, was watching the battle from within her tree cage.
"Hurry up and beat her so I can get out of here, Ladybug and Chat Noir!" she called out. "It's really uncomfortable up here and my hair is a mess!"
Ladybug and Chat Noir ignored her in favour of not being impaled by the rather terrifying tree branch hands.
They ended up being chased out of the park where a few terrified festival goers still were.
Upon seeing the terrifying trees, they panicked and were terrified even more than before the trees put in an appearance.
The fight spilled out onto the streets of Paris.
The people outside the park started running away from the scene, abandoning all their vehicles, parents/babysitters picking up their children and running off with them and a few dog walkers doing the same for their pets, even if the dogs were particularly large.
"We need to end this before someone gets hurt!" Ladybug exclaimed.
"There's no need to tell me that twice, My Lady." Chat Noir nodded. "We need to get rid of these overgrown weeds before someone gets purr-uned!"
Ladybug let out an exasperated sigh and face-palmed.
"She sent her leafy minions out here to do her bidding, but we have to draw her out. Make her fight us without them!" Chat Noir exclaimed.
"You're right." Ladybug nodded.
"Also, I was passing by the Collège Françoise Dupont's's display in the park when I saw Chloé break this girl's flower. Apparently, it was really rare." Chat Noir shrugged, then batted away a tree limb with his baton, doing a back flip and batting one away that threatened Ladybug from behind. "Chloé didn't care at all. I think she even did it on purpose. Anyway, the girl's name was Rose. It's likely her under all that green."
"Oh yeah! I saw that!" Ladybug mused. "Don't get any ideas, Chat!" she exclaimed hastily after seeing the pensive look on her partner's face. "I was just passing through too! I saw her run off with a shovel in her hand. That's probably where the Akuma is! In the shovel tied to her waist!"
Ladybug let out a startled scream as she was batted into a parked car by one of the monster trees, setting off its alarms.
"Ladybug!" Chat Noir exclaimed in alarm, running over to her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, petit minou." Ladybug groaned, rubbing the back of her head as she took Chat Noir's offered hand to help her get to her feet.
Then she noticed that she and Chat Noir were cornered by a cluster... forest of the monster trees.
"Why don't you two just give up now before I have to turn you into plant food for my lovelies?" Épine came onto the scene, still seated in the tree from earlier.
She jumped out of the tree, but before her feet could even touch the ground, her thorn vine hair extended itself, propping her up above the trees.
"If you just hand over your Miraculous, we can make this less painful for you." Épine smirked. "You don't have to feel the wrath of my thorns, my exploding pollen or my leafy friends!"
Ladybug and Chat Noir looked at one another, then at the trees.
"Any ideas Chat?" Ladybug asked him.
Chat Noir nodded. "I'm always full of purrfect ideas, my lady. How about I take care of the giant, walking weeds and you move in on the Queen Weed for a little trim?"
"You'll be fine doing that on your own, chaton?" Ladybug looked concerned.
"I'm always fine, my lady." Chat Noir waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "In more ways than one..." he waggled ears as well.
Ladybug looked as if she would have liked nothing more than to slap him in that moment, as judged by the way she twitched and her hands fidgeted.
"Hey! Evil trees! I bet you can't catch this devilishly handsome kitty cat over here!" Chat flexed his baton and used it as a pole vault over the top of the trees, that promptly started chasing him.
Ladybug and Épine circled one another, the tension in the air palpable.
The latter had lowered herself to the ground and her footsteps made nary a sound as she stared down the spotted heroine as they circled.
"Ready to give up your Miraculous yet, Ladybug?" she spat the super heroine's name with as much venom as she could muster.
Ladybug twirled her yo-yo behind her.
"You wish, Épine..."
And with that, the one-on-one fight between heroine and villainess began.