Chapter 7: The Doll Maker

Over a week had passed since Paonne introduced herself to Paris and things so far had been quiet, Hawkmoth hadn't send out an Akuma since Athletica. Though Paonne was still talked about, the amount of talk had died down and most had accepted her as a hero, and the duo of Paris were now referred to as the trio of Paris.

Nathanael was still worried about showing up as a hero as well, Paris was still getting used to another hero and there was still the sigma from Volpina, he had lost count of how many times he heard people referring to Paonne as 'another Volpina' when questioning whether she was good or not. From what he had seen, Lila didn't like this talk but had ignored it for the most part, often leaving the room to avoid it. Nathanael had decided that his best option was to join during an Akuma attack like Paonne had, the actual Akuma hopefully convincing the heroes that he was a good guy.

But Nathanael wouldn't much use as a hero if he couldn't use his illusions properly outside of copying himself and a bit of misdirection, so he had convinced his parents to get him flute lessons so he could create more illusions as Renard. Nathanael had soon learned that each tune he learned would be able to create a different illusion, and the more complicated and long the tune he learned the more complex and bigger an illusion he would be able to make. Since he'd just started learning he had only learned simple tunes so far, and thus was only able to create small and simple illusions, but having the Fox Miraculous seemed to improve his ability to memories music since he was told by his tutor that he was learning at an impressive pace and was a natural at the flute.

Currently, Nathanael was in the music room at the college, practicing the simple piece his tutor had given him. It was rather annoying having to play the same boring piece over and over again, but he had to do it if he wanted to learn.

"No, Nathanael, you have to tongue it. Ta, ta, ta." Vixx said in a rather annoying voice.

Vixx was imitating Nathanael's tutor, who'd told Nathanael that he had 'tongue' the beginning of notes to make them stand out. Nathanael kept forgetting to do this since it felt a silly and needless thing to do, but it was apparently important.

"Shut up." Nathanael said as he lowered the flute the college had lent him for the lessons.

Nathanael looked at the music sheet again and groaned. "This is so tedious." He said.

"Yep." Vixx said with a shrug. "But you're learning quickly so you'll be onto the more interesting and complicated music soon. Before you know it you'll be able to make your own tunes on the spot, that's where you'll be able to craft the illusions to your exact specifications."

"I can hardly wait." Nathanael said with a sigh.

He then raised his flute to his lips and began to play again.


To Adrien, becoming Chat Noir as probably the best thing that ever happened to him, when he was dressed in his black cat suit he felt like the weight of his real life didn't exist and he was free to be himself. Being Chat Noir helped him escape the loneliness of his real life.

Ever since his mother's mysterious disappearance his father had become overly protective of him while at the same time becoming emotionally distant. Adrien hadn't been able to go to school until this year which led him to only having Chloe as a friend for the longest time, his father filled up his schedule with modelling jobs, and Adrien could go weeks without seeing his father in the flesh.

Then his father had allowed Adrien to go to college, which allowed him to make friends other than Chloe. Adrien's first friend at the college was Nino, who extended a hand of friendship to Adrien after learning Chloe was his only friend. There was also Alya, the girl who ran the Ladyblog, though he didn't hang out with her that often they were still on good terms. The person Adrien was unsure whether he was friends with or not was Marinette, they had gotten off to a rough start with Marinette believing that he's put gum on her seat when really it had been Chloe, but that had been resolved and the two had shared a nice moment, but after that Marinette seemed nervous around him for reasons he didn't understand, constantly stuttering or hiding behind Alya when he talked to her, but she was still nice to him.

When Marinette started work experience with his father Adrien was happy for her, he'd seen her designs and knew she deserved it. But Adrien couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of her, she got to spend more time with his father than he did. But Adrien tried his best to squash that feeling down and be happy for his, sort of, friend.

After the Jackady Akuma it seemed that Adrien's father was finally showing him the affection that he needed, showing rare emotion and hugging him after finding Adrien safe. For the first few weeks afterwards he did seem to show more affection towards Adrien, but at the same time he also looked troubled. Then Adrien's father seemed to revert back to previous behaviour, disappearing almost every day and not having any time for Adrien, leaving Adrien slightly depressed. Then, just over a week ago, his father stopped disappearing as much and started showing more attention to him again, saying that he was taking care of something as an excuse, leaving Adrien not knowing how to feel.


(A week later)

Chat Noir raced across the rooftops towards Notre Dame, a common meeting place for him and Ladybug. Chat spotted Ladybug already there waiting for him.

"You wanted to meet, Little Lady?" Chat asked as he landed near her.

Ladybug rolled her eyes at the affectionate nickname. Ladybug knew from comparing their ages that she was actually older than Chat, and she was only shorter than Chat by a couple of centimetres, but Chat insisted on calling her 'Little Lady'. At first she had found the nickname annoying but over the months it had become endearing.

"We need to wait for Paonne." She told Chat.

Chat nodded in understanding and sat down to wait for Paris' newest hero.

Chat spent a lot of time online especially the Ladyblog, reading up about himself and Ladybug, reading what others thought of them. One of the common things Chat had read what his and Ladybugs relationship was with each other, many people liked to say that their relationship was romantic because of how Chat always did his best to protect Ladybug and was always affectionate to her, Chat liked to laugh at these people because he knew it not to be true. Chat protected her because he cared about her and it was his role to protect her and he was affectionate because that's just how he was. He called her 'Little Lady' but he viewed her as a big sister and always listened to her, she was always there to dish out knowledge and wisdom to him.

Chat Noir and Ladybug were each other's rocks when they're internal storms got too bad. When Ladybug felt the pressure of being a hero and uncomfortable in her suit, Chat was always there to cheer her up with his cheesy jokes and challenge her to a race across Paris. When Chat struggled with the problems of his real life or needed someone to see him for who he really was, Ladybug was there to listen and offer advice.

"Sorry I'm late." Paonne called as she glided in on her wings.

"It's okay." Ladybug said.

"So, why'd you call us?" Chat asked.

"It's been two weeks and there hasn't been any sign of an Akuma." Ladybug stated.

"You think Hawkmoth is planning something?" Paonne asked.

"Most likely."

"Maybe he just went on holiday." Chat suggested.

Ladybug regarded Chat for a moment before shaking her head. "Either way, we need to be on our guard for if he tries something." She said.

Chat and Paonne nodded in agreement.

Paonne then got a thoughtful look. "If he is planning something, do you think it's because I showed up?" She asked.

"Maybe." Ladybug said. "With all three of us we're having a better time dealing with Akumas, so he might be taking time to factor you into the equation."

"Great." Paonne said unhappily.

"Anyway, just be ready."

"Will do." Chat said.

"I will." Agreed Paonne.

The three heroes then left Notre Dame and returned home.


In his lair, Hawkmoth was indeed planning something big. The appearance of Paonne had shocked him, and by the way she fought he knew she had been trained by her predecessor, which wasn't good for him. Seeing the Peacock Miraculous again, even on a different person, brought up unwanted memories that he forced himself to ignore, if he thought about them they'd make him question what he was doing. So he had spent the last two weeks building up his power for a strong Akuma. But the question was, who to use it on?

"I need to be careful with who I chose." Hawkmoth said to himself. "I have been going about this all wrong, sending Akumas to those with fleeting negative emotions that I just prolong does not give me good villains. I need those who hold onto their pain and anger, whose fury will make them powerful, but I also need them to listen to me and focus on getting the Miraculous."

Hawkmoth allowed the negative feelings of Paris to flow over him, instead of going for the ones that stood out the most like he usually did he continued to look, the ones that stood out were usually the ones with fleeting emotions that would soon die down, he needed to look for the negative emotions that had been brewing for a long time and all that would be needed was a little push to give Hawkmoth what he needed. One by one, Hawkmoth found and picked out the people with the brewing emotions, he didn't know who they were, he could only feel the emotions and the reason for them, as they were now he wouldn't be able to use them for Akumas but now he had found them he only needed to wait for one of them to go over the edge.


His name was Damien, but most people knew him as 'that creepy doll kid', or 'that disabled kid with no friend', or a mixture of the two. The reason he was called these things was because he was never able to make friends growing up because he didn't act like other children, so he learned how to create dolls to be his friends instead, which people found creepy, and had also gotten into an accident when he was younger causing him to lose the lower half of his left leg. For the most part people just stayed away, but others decided that they needed to drill home the point that he was a creepy kid with no friends, these people made him sad and angry but he did his best to ignore them.

Today, Damien sat in the park, watching the other people play and looking for who to base his next doll off of. He liked to base his doll off of real people he saw because it gave his dolls a sense of realness, he would find a person, chose what sort of doll they would look best as, then sketch out the design to create in the doll workshop he had at home.

"Hey look, it's the freak!" Damien heard.

He recognised the voice as Terry, the guy who liked to pick on him the most.

Damien tried to ignore them and continue drawing.

"I'm talking to you, retard." Terry said.

Damien clutched his pencil in a hard grip, he absolutely hated being called that, he had been called that name all throughout his life just because he thought and acted differently to how other people excepted him to.

Damien looked up at Terry and his friends, fury clear on his face.

Damien had always been told by his parents and teachers alike to just ignore the bullies and they'd go away, but that wasn't true of Terry and his friends, and it was very hard for Damien to ignore them.

"Oh no!" Terry said in mock fear. "Creepy kid is angry with me. I wonder what he'll do."

Terry and his friends laughed.

No one but his parents and the teachers called him by his real name anymore, it was always some form of insulting name instead, even from those who didn't bother him called him 'Creepy kid' or some other name because that's what he was known as.

Before Damien could stop him, one of Terry's friends had snatched up his sketch book and was roughly leafing through it.

"What a creeper." The boy said, handing the book to Terry. "He's been drawing people as dolls."

Damien tried to take his book back but he couldn't do much with his prosthetic slowing him down.

"You really do have a sad little life." Terry mocked, turning to the page he had been drawing on, he recognised the person on the page as someone standing not far away. "I wonder if that girl would like to see your drawing of her."

"No!" Damien cried.

"She'd probably call you a stalker and call the police. But don't worry, I'm not going to share this with anyone. In fact, I'll do you a favour." Terry said with a mean grin.

"What?" Damien asked cautiously.

"Yeah, I'll make sure no one can see your creepy little drawings. Tear it up."

Terry tossed the book to his friends and they proceeded to rip the pages out and tear the pages up.

"No! Stop!" Damien cried out at his work being destroyed.

He tried to grab his book but was pushed down to the ground.

"Stay where you belong, freak." One of Terry's friends said.

Soon, all of the pages lay in torn pieces on the ground, Terry and his gang laughing as they walked off.

"We've done you a favour." Terry laughed as he walked away. "Maybe if you dropped your creepy hobby you could get some real friends. Though I doubt it."

Damien sobbed at seeing his work destroyed, all of the designs he had yet to make, gone. He got up and hobbled back home, in his room he cried harder at the unfairness of the world.

He looked at the dolls he had made, each one made to be his friend in place of those who shunned him.

"Friend? Who needs friends when I have all of you?" Damien said to his dolls. "You don't hurt me. You don't call me names." He then frowned. "But you aren't there to comfort me either, you just sit there with the smiles I gave you. You're all useless, just like me." He started crying.

In his lair Hawkmoth smiled as he felt one of the people he'd been keeping an eye on suddenly spike in negative emotion. This was what he had been waiting for. He held out a hand and a butterfly landed on it, he put his over hand over it and poured in the energy he had been gathering over the last two weeks into it, turning it into an Akuma.

"Fly my little Akuma, and darken his soul." Hawkmoth said as the Akuma flew out the window.

As Damien cried he didn't even notice the Akuma fly into his room until it landed on his shoulder bag and was absorbed into it.

"Doll Maker." Hawkmoth spoke to Damien as a glowing mask appeared in front of his face. "I am Hawkmoth, your friend, and I will give you the power to create all the friends you could possibly want. All I need in return is the Miraculouses." Hawkmoth sent an image of Ladybug, Chat Noir and Paonne's Miraculouses to Damien. "Ladybug and Chat Noir's are the most important."

"Anything for a friend." Damien said as a black, bubbling mass overtook him.


It was the screams of terror outside of her window that alerted Marinette to something being wrong, she looked outside to see people running away from an army of life-sized dolls of different types, there were porcelain dolls, rags dolls, wooden dolls and even plastic dolls. The one thing they all had in common was button eyes. At the forefront on the doll army was someone who stood out, obviously being an Akuma.

The Akuma was dressed in an old fashioned fancy way with a shirt, waist coat and trousers, but his clothes looked like they had been torn apart and sewn back together with multiple lines of stitching covering them, and the lower half of his left leg was made of metal. His left hand was also metal, being oversized with long metal fingers with strings coming from each finger. His skin was ashen white and his grey hair was a ragged mess that went to his shoulders and went over his face, leaving only his sewn mouth visible, behind his hair two yellow lights shone through where his eyes would be.

Marinette watched in horror as the Akuma thrust his metal hand forward and the strings attached themselves to a person, the person then started to turn into a doll as they were dragged over to the Akuma, the person continued to struggle until the Akuma reached into the shoulder bag he wore and produced two buttons that he placed on their eyes, the person-turned-doll then fell into line with the others.

"Looks like Ladybug was right." Marinette said. "Pavo, Feathers Flared!"

Marinette transformed into Paonne and climbed through her sky light, she then carefully crept across her roof top to prevent the Akuma from spotting where she came from. Once she was satisfied she was far enough from the bakery she launched her attack.

The Akuma proved tricky as she had to dodge his doll minions and getting touched by the strings from his metal hand, and every time she cut his strings he just grew more, but she didn't fight along for long as Ladybug and Chat Noir soon arrived.

"Well, I've just found my nightmares for the next week." Chat said, looking at the Akuma and his doll army.

"Don't allow his strings to touch you or you'll turn into a doll." Paonne told the two heroes.

"Got it." Chat and Ladybug said as they moved in to attack.

"So, stitches, do we get a name?" Chat asked the Akuma as he fended off some of the dolls.

"I am Doll Maker, and you shall become my best friends, just hand over your Miraculouses." The Akuma said, sending out his strings.

The heroes dove out of the way to avoid them.

"I'll think we'll pass, if you don't mind." Chat joked.

Chat then yelped as he had to avoid a swing from one of the dolls.

The fight went on for a while, with the heroes having trouble fighting off the Akuma and his minions. It was pretty obvious to them that the Akuma is in the shoulder bag he produced his buttons from, but they couldn't get close to it without being attacked by life-sized dolls and the transforming strings.

Chat Noir tried to make a dive for the Akuma's bag but that only resulted in him getting hit by the Akuma's strings, he struggled as he started to transform into a doll but before Doll Maker could put buttons over his eye's one of Paonne's fans cut through the strings holding him and Ladybug's yoyo wrapped around him and yanked him to safety.

"Are you alright?" Ladybug asked her partner in concern.

"Yeah." Chat said, taking in his new doll joints. "It seems you don't get controlled unless he puts the buttons in your eyes.

"That's useful to know." Paonne said, she then looked at Chat in concern. "You'll need to be careful, I think you've become a porcelain doll. You could crack if hit."

Chat looked himself over and felt his face, he couldn't feel anything with his transformed fingers anymore but the small chinking noise they made told him his skin was now porcelain. His suit now seemed part of him as his doll joints were visible.

"This is so freaky." He said.

"Paonne's right, you should probably stay back." Ladybug said.

"What, worried I'm fragile. That I'll crack under pressure." Chat said.

Ladybug groaned, so began the puns.


Nathanael watched the Akuma attack over the news, biting his thumb in worry. Even with three heroes in their roster, the heroes of Paris were really struggling with the Akuma, especially after Chat Noir got turned into a doll, stopping him from fighting to the best of his ability lest he be cracked.

"They're really having trouble." Nathanael worried.

"So, go out there and help." Vixx told him.

"But, I'm not ready." Nathanael argued.

By the expression on Nathanael's face, Vixx could tell he was torn.

There was a sudden loud thump against the front door downstairs, and it came again, and again. Nathanael stuck his head out the window to see some of Doll Maker's minions attempting to knock down his front door, he could see them attempting this with other houses as well.

"Oh god, what am I going to do?" Nathanael said, freaking out.

"They're dolls. Do you really think they can break through the front door?" Vixx asked.

There was a loud cracking sound.

"Evidently they can." Vixx said.

Nathanael cried out with panic, realising what that sound was. With great effort he managed to move his bed over to his bedroom door and block it, he then piled multiple things on his bed.

"Considering they managed to break through your front door, I don't think they'll have much trouble with that." Vixx told him.

"Well, what would you suggest I do?" Nathanael asked, still panicked.

"There's only other way out of this room…" Vixx trailed off, looking at the window.

Nathanael took a deep breath as he attempted to calm himself down.

"Okay." He said to himself. "Okay, okay, okay, okay." He took another deep breath. "Vixx, Fangs Bared!"

Vixx laughed in triumph as she was sucked into Nathanael's Miraculous.

When the dolls eventually managed to break into Nathanael's room, he was nowhere to be found.


Author's note: For what Doll Maker looks like, there's a rough drawing on my DeviantART account, along with rough drawings of Paonne, Renard and the alternate Ladybug, it's DreamVixen2511.