Crouching behind a half wall in a school full of potential hostiles, Cat Noir waited for Mr. Haprèle to pace back away from the broom closet he'd seen Marinette sneak into. He knew she would be a dangerous one to try to save. He knew he stood a much better chance of just rescuing Chloe, whom he'd shoved into a locker. He knew it, but justified it to himself again anyway.
Chloe would be okay as along as she could stay quiet. Sitting here, trying to figure out how to rescue Marinette, gave him a chance to count hostiles by making notes on the way certain people ignored each other. Mr. Haprèle, for instance, had walked past Mr. Damocles and Kim with no trouble. The same could not be said for Ms. Mendeleiev who'd escaped out a side door with Max in pursuit, or Nathaniel and Master D'Argencourt who'd run to the library together.
He'd thought D'Argencourt had been chasing Nathaniel, but before he could do anything about it, he'd had to duck into an empty classroom to transform. Then Kim had come around a corner and forced him to hide. In all that time, neither Nath, nor Master D'Argencourt had reemerged from the library. Now he figured they were hiding up there together.
That he was blocking at least one of the paths to them was another good excuse not to move.
"Cat Noir." No one spoke particularly loudly, but having his name said by multiple voices simultaneously gave it an echo effect. Mr. Haprèle turned to look directly at his hiding spot, and he heard footsteps accompany the voice behind him.
He jerked away from the half wall, turning so he could see both Mr. Haprèle and the new speaker. It was Alix. She stood above him near the library doors. From his new position, he could see that even Mr. Damocles, whom he'd left patrolling the opposite catwalk for 'Adrien', had stopped to look at him.
Alix put her hands on her hips in that sassy, knuckles-first way of hers. The gesture was right for her but looked odd on the two adult men who mimicked it. She sounded like herself when she said, "The Liaison wants your Miraculous, Cat Noir."
"The Liaison isn't getting it." He replied, backing away.
"Okay, if that's how you feel right now, Cat Noir, that's fine." Mr. Haprèle agreed reasonably. When he relaxed into his easy demeanor, the other two followed suit, "But let's talk. We don't really want to fight, we just want to let you understand us. Then we can work together."
Looking down at him, Cat Noir noticed Ladybug creep out of the room Marinette had hidden in. He kept his gaze strictly on Mr. Haprèle, so he wouldn't betray her presence, but he did allow himself a smile. If Ladybug had seen Marinette, then she was already rescued.
In his head, he could see Ladybug gently pull Marinette from her hiding place and assure her that Adrien would be okay. Ladybug even commended her loyalty and bravery, before helping Marinette esca-
"How?" He murmured to himself. He knew there was no other way into that room, because he'd been looking for a way to get Marinette out himself.
A door opened behind him. Before he could react to it, a hand settled on his shoulder. He winced, remembering he hadn't seen Kim since he'd ducked the athlete just after transforming. Kim's grip tightened slightly, "Ladybug?"
As one, Alix, Mr. Haprèle, and Mr. Damocles turned to look at Ladybug, their postures' straightening, their chests puffing out. She backed away, eyeing each of them.
With all the focus on her, it was his moment. Cat Noir grabbed Kim's wrist and yanked him crossways over his shoulder. Then he jumped the stairs to land in front of the locker room where he'd left Chloe, calling to his partner, "Ladybug, I think they only have one mind. So, if one of them sees you, they all do."
"I figured that out, thanks," She shouted back. Using her yo-yo, she leapt to the roof.
Cat Noir kicked Mr. Haprèle way from the locker room door, and then slammed some of the lockers down in front of it once he was inside. He knew that wouldn't stop anyone truly desperate for long, even Sabrina could move these lockers, but he was only in here to get Chloe out. He wrenched open the locker he'd hidden her in.
"Cat Noir!" She screeched, launching herself into his arms. "What kept you!"
"Uh." He had no excuses prepared. He hadn't even known she'd expect one.
He was relived to discover she actually didn't. "You have to get me out of here! And you have to save Adrien! He's around here somewhere."
"I already got him out." He lied, then to smooth it out he added. "In fact, he was the one who told me where to find you."
Something hit the door hard enough to jangle the lockers. Cat Noir yanked Chloe to an open window and wrapped an arm around her slender waist. He used his staff to get them first to the sill, then to the ground outside.
"Ms. Bourgeois!" It was Ms. Mendeleiev. Why she'd thought it safe to return was beyond him. "Do you realize what you've done?"
"Excuse me!?" Chloe demanded. She released him, her hands flying to her hips.
"Cat Noir, would you speak with me for a moment, please? I would like you to understand the gravity of our situation."
It almost worked. Cat Noir almost let go of Chloe and went to her. After all, if she had any extra information, they needed it.
Above him, Ladybug cried, "No Cat Noir! It's a trick!"
Without question, without even pausing to think, he turned on his heel, hoisted Chloe onto his shoulder and then pole-vaulted to a roof opposite of the school. He turned back to look. Sure enough, Max hurried to Ms. Mendeleiev's side, watching them escape.
"Ladybug! Cat Noir! Help!" Nathaniel leaned backwards out of a window on the third floor. He seemed to be trying to fend someone off, but his angle wasn't a good one. Unless his core muscles were stronger than Cat Noir suspected, or someone helped him soon, he was going to fall.
Cat Noir tensed, all his instincts telling him to leave Chloe long enough to save the artist. That was his job after all. Ladybug saved the day, he saved her and a fair share of the civilians. He took two long strides to the edge of the roof, but she was already in route.
His lady turned to him only long enough to call, "Stay away from anyone trying to understand you!"
"What!?" Chloe demanded. "That doesn't even make sense."
"No, but it's given me a dollar." He teased absently. He was pretty sure he understood Ladybug's meaning. Everyone who'd tried to approach him had used some variation of the word understand. They had all wanted him to understand. He turned back to Chloe and offered her a hand, "Let's get you off this roof."
Chloe returned to him, lightly wrapping her arms around his neck. He didn't really want to encourage the stranglehold he regularly surrendered to as Adrien, but he didn't think she'd be able to hold on as he moved rooftop to rooftop with such a loose grip. "Please Ms. Bourgeios, hold on tight, I don't want to risk you falling."
Chloe rolled her eyes, but her grip tightened. The minute they were off, Cat Noir no longer worried for her safety, but he did worry about his own eardrums. Chloe was strangling him and shirking in his ear. When they'd gone several rooftops, he landed and released her, shaking his head. The gesture offered no relief to his still ringing ears.
She took advantage of the opportunity to screech at him. "Who taught you how to do that!? It was bumpy the whole ride and I kept thinking you were going drop me! And you wrinkled my jacket! Ladybug is so much better at this! How are you so bad at it!?"
"Cat Noir!" Someone on ground called, saving him from replying. He trotted to the edge of the roof, and Nino flagged him down again. "Cat Noir, I need your help!"
"Stay here for a moment." He told Chloe quietly.
"Where would I even go!?" She retorted as he leapt down to Nino.
"Hey Nino. Are you alright?"
"No. Alya is around here somewhere, and I can't find her." Nino walked calmly toward him, but his voice was short and clipped from what Cat Noir assumed was nerves. "When Ivan ran out of the school earlier, he caused a panic. He was shouting about Max, and Kim, and Mr. Damocles. Alya, my uh, girlfriend, actually threw Rose to him and ran away. But that's only because she doesn't un, get it. Will you help me find her? I think we could explain it to her together."
Cat Noir started to shake his head, then thought about it. It was true he needed to get back to Ladybug, but Alya was smart and very brave. If she had run, it was because she had seen something. She could easily have useful information. He looked up and down the alley. Surely it wouldn't take long to find her.
Nino grabbed his hand. Cat Noir started to look at him, then something slammed into him. He rolled across the ground, clinging to the person who'd bowled him over. Alya, he realized when he came to a stop above her.
"Get us out of here!" She demanded, pushing him up. "He's one of them."
"Wait! Cat Noir! The Liaison doesn't want this to be an us vs. you. We just want everyone to understand each other." Nino called.
Alya frowned at her beau, but it was all Cat Noir needed. He scooped her up and returned to the roof with Chloe. When set Alya down, she took two steps away from him looking pensive. "Did you hear that?"
"Well obviously." Chloe's eye roll was so loud that it almost made an audible sound. "Half of Paris could hear it."
Before Cat Noir could call her on her attitude, Alya walked back to him, "I think I just figured out who the Liaison is. Can we talk to Ladybug?"
"Alright." He looked around, "But with Nino down there, we'll have to move first. I don't want him bringing others while were distracted."
"You can move me over there." Chloe pointed. "That's my daddy's hotel. I have something I need to do there anyway."
Alya was already nodding. "Take her. I can hide until you get back. Then you and I can find Ladybug together."
He made the trip across the three rooftops to Le Grand Paris in record time. Chloe didn't bother berating him again but fled inside the moment he released her.
His staff chirped. He answered it quickly, "I'm sorry, Bugaboo, I don't have much time. Alya is waiting on me, and she says she might have information."
"Okay. I'm at the Jardins du Trocadéro with a few other students. I think I've figured some of this out too, so hurry!" She hung up.
He grinned but got back to work. He loved that girl. She had a ferocity, and strong sense of obligation that didn't prevent her sweeter side from occasionally surfacing. Sure, she occasionally screwed up, and she had her flaws, but everyone human did. What was important was that tenacity, and her honest heart.
He was still smiling when he landed on the building where he'd left Alya. That faded when Nino fell out of a nearby door onto the roof. "Dude, please. We're like, friends. Remember when you and Ladybug danced for me on 'The Challenge'? Just hear me out."
"At least you sound like Nino now."
"'Cause I am Nino!" Nino took another step forward, and Cat Noir stepped back, his heels at the edge of the roof. "I'm just more now. The Liasion did it, and it feels great, dude. I understand everyone that's here with me. I can appreciate who they are, 'cause now the Liasion has like, combined us together. But that doesn't make me not me anymore. We're still us!"
"Nino." Alya crept from her hiding place.
Nino looked from her to Cat Noir, indecision written all over his face. Then his posture straightened, and he turned his back on her to face Cat Noir. It wasn't Kim this time. This was the posture of someone who wasn't just self-assured, but haughty. Mr. Damocles, if he had to guess. When Nino spoke again, it was in his vocal range, but his cadence was completely wrong. "Now see here, Cat Noir, you're being ridiculous. You too, young lady."
"Right." Cat Noir rolled his shoulders, and then sprinted directly at Nino. The current personality reacted with surprise, drawing back. Cat Noir vaulted over him at last second, continued forward, and caught Alya around the middle. She hugged him tightly as he leapt from the roof. "Ladybug says she's at the Jardins du Trocadéro with a few other students. We'll head that way now."
"Good. I think the akuma victim might be my language teacher." Alya replied. She shifted positions on the next rooftop, clinging to him piggyback style so his arms and hands would be free.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, Ms. Bustier was pretty upset yesterday. I think she thinks her new project caused the Mother Midas attack, and I guess in way it kinda did, but the rest of us still appreciate it."
"If she was upset yesterday though, why would she only become the Liaison today?"
"I don't know." He felt Alya shake her head, "Maybe she's catching heat from Mayor Bourgeois and Mr. Damocles, or maybe it's that we managed to distract her yesterday. Regardless, I'm almost sure it's her. The entire project was supposed to help us understand our classmates, so it makes sense that she's trying to force people to understand each other now."
He nodded. He doubted he would have connected the pieces like that, but it was a reasonable suggestion, and he and Ladybug had gone off of less before.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Alya asked a moment later. "It won't be too personal, but there's something I have to know."
"As the ever-intrepid reporter, I'm sure there's lots you have to know." He teased.
"I'm taking that as yes." She told him. "So, do you have a wife or children?"
"Oh man, your boyfriend gets inducted into one little hive mind, and you're already making a bee line for a new one?"
He felt her snort. "Not quite."
"No." He shook his head. "I'm completely single."
"And Ladybug?"
He thought about his confession, and her admittance that she loved someone in her civilian life. It wasn't his secret to tell. Not that it mattered, his feet hit the ground and he let Alya down off his back. "We're here."
Ladybug stood guard over several of his classmates. He was disappointed to see that Marinette wasn't among them, but he had no way of asking what had happened to her. Thankfully, Alya had no such reservations. "Where's Marinette?"
"Didn't she follow you?" Sabrina asked, anxiety giving her an accusatory tone, "She's your best friend."
"No. I didn't see where she went."
"Nino and Juleka said something about Adrien, maybe-" Mylene started.
"I'm sorry, but we don't have time to worry about your friend right now." Ladybug cut in, "Alya, Cat Noir said you might know something."
"Yeah," Alya launched into a summary of what she'd told Cat Noir.
Ladybug nodded. "That makes sense, and there's something else, Cat Noir."
He looked at her, and she pointed to Nathaniel, "In the Library, he was holding off the physical education teacher with a drawing."
"What drawing?"
Nathaniel unhappily presented him with a sketch of Ladybug. It was a close up of her face. "It's for comic I'm working on. I realize now it's not perfect, but-"
"But it distracted Mr. D'Argencourt." Ladybug finished. She hesitated, "There was another boy."
Ivan nodded. "Our bandmate, Luka, tried to help Juleka. She got him. We all saw the flash when she looked into his eyes."
"He fought it off though!" Rose chirped. "He didn't chase us. He stopped and walked away. Juleka too!"
"They got distracted by a poster of Jagged Stone." Ladybug shook her head. "They stopped to look at his face. It makes me think that they have to look at someone to bring them into the mind, and maybe they can't look away when they see the face."
"It's not the face, Ladybug," Alya broke in, "Nino looked at Cat Noir, and still looked back at me again without taking him."
"Their eyes." Nathaniel said quietly.
"What?" Both heroes turned to him. He held out his sketch as he'd done in the library. Ladybug's eyes were definitely the focal point. Cat Noir looked at the real Ladybug. She nodded, "Thanks Nathaniel. You too, Alya. All of you stay here and hide if you see anyone you recognize. Kitty?"
"Back to the school, Mi'lady?"
"Let's go." And she was off.
Their return didn't take long. Ladybug paused at only one point in their trip. She pointed out the poster where Luka and Juleka had been sidetracked. Someone had sloshed paint on it, covering the eyes as well as most of the rest of the face.
Landing quietly on the roof, they spied on the people still in the building. Ms. Mendeleiev was missing, but Nino had returned, and Master D'Argencourt was now patrolling near the main doors.
Cat Noir's eyes strayed to the closet that might still house Marinette. Ladybug touched his shoulder. He looked at her.
"Did you hear me?" She whispered.
"No. Sorry. I was distracted."
"I said, I think we need to draw them out of the building. I don't think the Liaison will come out of hiding until we do."
"Okay. Do you want me to lead them off?"
She shook her head. "I'm worried that not everyone will follow you. I'm going to try my Lucky Charm over there, in front of the school, and see what I get. With the doors closed, I should have a chance to figure out what to do next before they spot me, but keep an eye out anyone coming, okay?"
"Right." He followed her to the edge of the roof and watched as she leapt lightly down to the side walk below.
He didn't hear her Lucky Charm warcry, but something was summoned. He blinked at it hard, trying to make sense of it. It looked like a life-size statue of a red, brachiosaurus with black oval spots. No, it was a life-size statue of a brachiosaurus covered in ladybug spots.
"I really hope that's something helpful, and not a commentary of our fate." He muttered.
Ladybug was already in motion. She'd grabbed a pink backpack from the ground that Cat Noir thought might belong to Rose and removed something from it. Then she began to work her way around the statue, pausing before it, moving, then pausing again.
"Ladybug!" Luka had come around a corner.
Everyone inside the courtyard looked at the main doors.
Cat Noir jumped. "Cataclysm!"
He dragged his hand down the massive school doors. They rotted and fell together as broken timber, creating an obstacle course for anyone inside planning to use that route.
He turned to address Luka, but found him, his sister, and Ms. Mendeleiev staring at the statue. Ladybug threw Cat Noir a marker that hit him square in the chest. "Help me finish!"
That's when he realized that she'd used the spots on the dinosaur to make eyes at different heights. The statue's curves and grooves made it hard not to catch at least one pair of them as long as he faced it. He went to work, "Sure thing, Bugaboo. But you know, my eyes are only for you."
They finished up to the sound of several people running toward them. Ladybug nodded to him, and then she yo-yoed up to the roof. He followed.
Nino, Max, and Master D'Argencourt came around a corner, and the moment their gaze landed on the statue, they slowed and walked toward it, staring at the crudely drawn eyes. Cat Noir watched as Alix, Mr. Damocles, and Kim left together. They too became transfixed when they saw the dinosaur, each one approaching a different set of eyes.
The door to Mr. Damocles office opened, and someone stepped out. They were flamboyantly dressed in a mix of styles, and bright colors. It took Cat Noir a moment to see that it was Ms. Bustier. Her skin had become paper white, and her hair, hidden beneath a cap that was strikingly similar to Nino's, was ink black. Her outfit was an amalgamation of the styles worn by her victims; Juleka's gloves, Max's bowtie, and Mr. Damocles suit jacket. He was pleased to see that she had nothing he immediately recognized as Marinette's.
The Liaison moved cautiously, summoning Mr. Haprèle to her side. She clutched a pad of paper tightly to her chest. Mr. Haprèle walked protectively behind her.
Ladybug, crouched beside him, whispered, "I don't think she has any other powers, that's why she's being so cautious."
She waited until the Liaison crossed close to the basketball goals, then threw her yo-yo. Cat Noir, without being told, recognized what he was supposed to do. He leapt down toward his teacher as she went skyward, hoisted by Ladybug's yo-yo. He grabbed the pad as it fell from her hands and ripped it in half.
Then he caught Ms. Bustier as Ladybug released her.
"No more evildoing for you little akuma!" Came the shout.
He turned to Mr. Haprèle, content to keep him at bay until Ladybug finished her work. When Ladybug's healing wave knocked over his adversary, Cat Noir caught him and lowered him to his knees. "Cat Noir? Caline? What happened?"
"An akuma attack, sir. Nothing to worry about. You're safe now." Cat Noir moved to check on Ms. Bustier. "Are you alright, ma'am?"
"Yes, but my students. Do you know where they are?" She looked up at him with clear blue eyes. "I've only been trying to help them."
"They know that." He squatted down to meet her gaze. "You should tell Mr. Damocles to ask the students how they feel about your project. They're going to be the ones most affected by it after all."
She nodded. "I will. Thank you, Cat Noir."
He sparred one last look at the closet. He didn't have time now, and anyway, the danger was past. He raced upstairs to one of the empty classrooms and shed his disguise. When he emerged, he saw Marinette helping Ms. Bustier to her feet. He exhaled in relief.
It was only then that he realized, he hadn't said goodbye to Ladybug.
So, a couple of quick points. Apparently, the last chapter caused quite a bit of confusion, and I want to apologize for that. I hoping it's just because I failed with making a recognizable hive mind effect, and not something else. (Although realistically, I was pretty busy that week with "Tempests and Slaughter" and the new Miraculous episode, so it might have been just been weak writing.)
Second, a quick shout out. Before I started this chapter, I was already planning for a hive mind with Ms. Bustier, and was talking to my brother and sister-in-law about what I could use to stop it. My nephew answered first while the adults were still thinking, and he was very insistent that the answer was a brachiosaurus. And well, when a four year old tells you to use a dinosaur, you use a dinosaur. I think it worked well, and could not be prouder of him.
Finally, I'd like to say thank you again for the continued support. Your comments and criticisms fuel me.
-SG