Who's Got The Akuma
Chapter 12: "Ladybug Doesn't Save The Day"
A Miraculous Ladybug fanfic
by Bill K.
"Not to worry," Cat Noir smirked confidently. He held up his baton and flipped a cover on the side of the metal rod with his thumb. A green screen was revealed, with a light green dot flashing on a dark green background.
"You put a tracker on her?" Alya gasped with delight.
On the roof above them, Marinette peered over the side of the building and listened surreptitiously to what the two were saying. The girl nodded with satisfaction. Tikki sat in her hand, munching on a gummy bear.
"While I was, um, wrestling with her," he winked. "I wasn't totally preoccupied with how good it felt."
Alya looked at him disapprovingly. So did Marinette from above.
"You, uh, don't have to mention that in your blog," Cat Noir grimaced. "Certain people might take that the wrong way."
"OK," Alya replied skeptically. "But only because I wouldn't want there to be any friction between you and 'certain people'."
On the roof, Marinette burned with jealousy for a moment. Then she expelled a breath and flushed the emotion away.
"Fine," the girl muttered. "If he thinks Volpina is more attractive than me, he can have her! It's not like I care." Tikki gave her a sideways glance.
"Actually, I wouldn't mind a little friction between . . ." Cat Noir mumbled, a look of pleasant fantasy on his face.
"Get on out of here and track down Volpina!" Alya barked, shoving the hero.
Shaken out of his reverie, he threw her a playful salute and then headed off in search of his quarry. Alya watched him with a mixture of disdain and humor. Then suddenly she remembered that more video of Cat Noir fighting Volpina would be great for the blog.
As Alya scurried off, Marinette made her way down from the roof. Once she was on solid ground, she began chasing after Alya.
"Honestly I wish Cat Noir would think about what's important at the right time. He's such an," and she shook her head, "alley cat sometimes!" As she ran, she opened her palm and glanced down at Tikki. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," Tikki responded, unable to lie and reluctant to disappoint.
"But not there yet, huh?" Marinette added. "It's OK," and she eased the Kwami into her purse. "Take as long as you need. Finish the whole packet if you have to."
"But what if Cat Noir runs into trouble and needs Ladybug?" Tikki asked from the purse.
"We'll," Marinette continued on, heedless of the danger, "have to hope that he doesn't."
Barely keeping Alya in sight, Marinette continued to run down the streets of Paris. As she pursued her friend, she began to notice that the area they were running to looked very familiar. It helped her ignore the burning in her thighs and the needles in her lungs.
"Boy," Marinette gasped to herself, "I sure do miss Ladybug's stamina right about now."
Then she staggered to a stop. It wasn't because of fatigue; she found herself in the front courtyard of College Francois Dupont, her high school. Befuddled, Marinette just stared. Had she lost the trail? Then she spotted Alya ascending the steps.
"What's Volpina doing here?" Marinette wondered.
Not wishing to lose Alya, Marinette mounted the steps and eased inside the school. She took a few steps forward, cautiously looking around, until she spotted Alya at the entrance to the gym. She eased up next to her friend and touched her shoulder. Alya gave a start and whirled on her, then smiled when recognition set in.
"Girl, you missed it," Alya whispered. "Cat Noir was fighting Volpina, and she was pretending to be Ladybug. But she didn't fool him. He could tell the difference."
"He could?" Marinette whispered. A tiny smile blossomed on her mouth. "Where is she now?"
"Took off running out the back," Alya responded. "She didn't want to face The Puppeteer." A chill of remembrance went down Alya's spine. "Frankly I don't blame her."
"Manon is here?" Marinette gasped and pushed in, looking over Alya's shoulder. There sat little Manon in her Puppeteer costume, facing off against Cat Noir. In her hands were dolls of Cat Noir and Ladybug.
"Uh oh, that doesn't look good for Cat Noir," Alya whispered as she recorded. Then she felt Marinette push past her. "Marinette!"
"Manon, don't!" Marinette exclaimed, coming into the gym out in the open. Both Cat Noir and Puppeteer turned to her with surprise.
"Marinette?" The Puppeteer murmured anxiously.
"Get out of here! It's dangerous!" Cat Noir commanded her. Marinette ignored him. She began to approach the young villain.
"Oh, Manon, I'm so glad we found you! We've all been so worried!" Marinette told her.
"You didn't have to worry," Puppeteer responded. "I'm powerful now. I can beat anybody!" She darkened. "Except Ladybug. But she doesn't play fair. I'll beat her yet! You'll see, Marinette!"
"Can't you just come home?" Marinette asked, easing toward her cautiously. "I've missed you so much. And so has Alya. And so has your mom. We've all been so worried."
"Mommy doesn't care about me," Puppeteer frowned. "Mommy is afraid of me. And she won't let me play with dolls anymore."
"She's not scared of you, Manon," Marinette assured her. "She loves you. It's The Puppeteer she's afraid of. Because The Puppeteer does bad things, and she doesn't want her beautiful little girl doing bad things."
"I just want to beat Ladybug!" The Puppeteer exclaimed. "Why is that bad?"
"It's not," Marinette said. "It's how you do it. You hurt people. You make them do things that they don't want to do. And you don't care about their feelings. And that's not nice, Manon."
Tears began to stream down the little girl's mask.
"I didn't want to hurt anybody," The Puppeteer whimpered. "I just wanted to win. To be as good as Ladybug."
Marinette knelt down at the girl's feet. "I understand. We all want to be the best we can be. But Manon, you don't have to be as good as Ladybug for people to love you. You just have to be Manon. That's who we want." Marinette tilted her head. "Come back to us, Manon. We really miss you."
Marinette spread her arms and after a tense moment the child dived into them, grasping Marinette around the neck as hard as she could. The teen folded her arms around the little girl as her Puppeteer costume faded into mist, the mist coalescing into a black butterfly. As the two held each other, Cat Noir came over and snatched the butterfly out of the air. They glanced at him.
"Since Ladybug isn't here to purify this little guy," Cat Noir said. "Cataclysm!"
Dark energy enveloped his hand and the butterfly inside. The butterfly disintegrated into atoms.
"Maybe The Puppeteer is gone for good now," Cat Noir posed.
"I think she's gone for good regardless," Marinette told him, then looked down to Manon. The child nodded vigorously while her face remained pressed against Marinette's shoulder.
While Cat Noir eased out of the room, Alya came over and knelt down next to her friends. Manon reached out with one hand to her.
"Glad to have you back, Small Britches," Alya smiled, high-fiving the child. She got a toothy grin in response. "And oh, did I get some video for my blog!"
"You weren't recording, were you?" Marinette gasped in horror.
"Every minute of it," Alya said proudly. "I even got your good side."
"I didn't know I had one," Marinette moaned.
The skylight window in a remote loft irised closed. A man in a silver cowl ground his teeth in anger.
"Well, at least I learned two things from this little escapade. Never work with children," Hawk Moth fumed, "and never trust a fox."
Marinette entered the bakery going over in her mind what she would say to her parents to explain her tardiness. She had several contingency excuses lined up, each one depending upon how much they revealed in advance that they knew.
"Welcome home," Sabine said neutrally. "You're just in time for dinner." Marinette smiled, waiting for some cue from her mother. "You certainly took a long time getting Alya home safely."
"Yeah, well, you see. . ." Marinette began.
Sabine gestured calmly for quiet. Then she pointed to the television in the other room. Tom was watching one of the local newscasts.
". . .exciting amateur video of one of the akuma monsters being defeated by Cat Noir and a local girl . . ." the news reader proclaimed.
"Yeah," Marinette groaned, seeing her life flash before her eyes. "About that . . ."
"Plagg," Adrien said absently as he sat at his desk in his room, "did you notice something?"
"Yes," huffed the Kwami. "You neglected to replenish the cheese tin."
"You should be the fattest Kwami in the universe," Adrien muttered. "No, today when Marinette talked little Manon down from being The Puppeteer. That took a lot of heart - - and a lot of guts. And then there was that other time when she tried to talk down Simon Says and Volpina. She's a lot more courageous than I figured." He thought for a moment. "Almost as courageous as Ladybug."
"Maybe she is Ladybug," snickered Plagg.
"Wouldn't that be nice," Adrien sighed. "But I couldn't get that lucky. Still," and he thought for a moment, "maybe I need to pay a little more attention to her. Even if she's not Ladybug, she seems like a girl that it would be worth knowing. And if she is . . ."
"It would mean you've got it made," Plagg said as he ran his finger around the bottom seam of the cheese tin searching for any last remnant of cheese. "This Marinette girl is crushing on you bad already."
"What do you know about girl's crushing?" Adrien scoffed.
"I've been around more humans than just you, my boy," Plagg told him. "I know when a female is interested - - obviously better than you do."
"Marinette?" Adrien wondered aloud. "Is that why she's always so tense and awkward around me? I thought she was just intimidated by my fame and reputation."
"Oh, youth is wasted on the young," Plagg sighed. "Now how about filling this cheese tin before I waste away to nothing?"
Absently Adrien got up and scooped up the tin. As he headed for the kitchen, he became lost in thought wondering about the suddenly mysterious Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
Alya turned at a familiar morning sound. She had been entering the vast courtyard for the school when Marinette ran up, huffing and puffing and hopelessly late. The pair passed Lila at the entrance. The girl was trying her best not to be noticed by anyone.
"I heard a rumor about you," Alya smiled coyly.
"O-oh?" Marinette asked, wondering how she was going to explain her dual identity to Alya, who obviously must have caught her transforming with that ever-present camera phone of hers.
"Yesterday, when you were 'hiding' from Animan," Alya asked pointedly, her reporter's gaze boring holes in her friend. "Were you alone?"
"What?" gasped Marinette, thrown completely off guard. "Of course I was!"
"No one was with you?" Alya pressed on. "Not, say, a certain gorgeous blond model with the initials A.A.?"
"A.A.?" Marinette pondered. "Adrien? I wish! I wouldn't have come out! Who told you I was with Adrien?"
"Nino," Alya sighed. "Don't worry, Marinette. Sometimes the boy adds two and two and gets nacho. But I had to ask, just in case."
"Me and Adrien - - hiding together," Marinette mumbled and got a faraway look. Her friend grinned.
"So am I going to have to rename my blog 'The Marinette Report'?" Alya asked.
"What are you talking about? No one wants to read about me!" Marinette gasped.
"That's for sure," Chloe tossed imperiously at them as she and Sabrina passed them. Sabrina giggled.
"Tell that to my readers," Alya replied. "I posted your little act of heroism and it got a huge response. And several lewd posts from guys, too." Marinette blushed on cue. "Plus one of the local TV stations uploaded it, too. You're famous, girl."
"I know," Marinette sighed.
"Oh, did your parents see it? I totally didn't think of that!" Alya exclaimed. "What did they say?"
A small smile curled around Marinette's mouth. "They - - were proud of me. Dad nearly had a stroke because I risked myself, but they were really proud of what I did. Especially Mom." She glanced at Alya. "From the way they sounded, the move to China sounds like it's off."
"Good thing. I don't know what I'd do without you," Alya said sincerely. Then she grew a devilish smile. "And all of those guys watching my blog would REALLY be disappointed."
"Stop it," fussed Marinette. "So how far are you on your project?"
"Getting there," Alya shrugged. "Haven't had a lot of time to work on it because Ladybug has been so active."
"I know. Me too," Marinette sighed. Then her eyes grew wide.
"What did that . . ." Alya began to ask. Then she noticed Adrien was there. "Hi, Adrien. What's up?"
"Huh . . ." Marinette gurgled upon seeing him. "H-Hi."
"Alya," he nodded pleasantly. "Marinette," and to Alya his smile seemed just a little warmer.
"You look like you want to ask something," Alya probed gently.
"Well," Adrien began. "Sorry for overhearing this. I wasn't listening in or anything. But I heard you talking about the project that's due."
"Yep," Alya responded ruefully. "How far along are you?"
"I'm finished," Adrien told them. Then he took a moment to summon his courage. "But I heard Marinette wasn't. So I thought, well, maybe she'd like me to help her. Since I'm free." He smiled self-consciously. "And I do have access to some of the best study materials in the world. Advantage of being rich." He looked right at Marinette, who seemed about two seconds away from crumbling into tiny pieces. "I'm sure you don't need my help with the thinking part. But maybe you'd like to borrow my vast network of educational resources - - and have some company?"
"I-I-I-I," Marinette could only reply. Adrien at once appeared confused.
"Fortunately for you, I speak 'Marinette'," grinned Alya, leaning in and bracing her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "Four 'I's' means 'yes'."
"Ummm," Marinette gurgled.
"So what does four 'I's' and an 'ummm' mean?" Adrien smirked.
"Hell yes," chuckled Alya.
"Great!" Adrien exclaimed. "Is tonight OK?" Marinette nodded mechanically. "I'll send The Gorilla around with the limo. Maybe we'll get lucky and Dad will still be out of town. See you tonight." Suddenly something occurred to the boy. "Um, I'm not interfering with any plans you two have, am I?"
"Not at all," smiled Alya. "I'm guessing that Nino isn't finished with his project, either."
"Try barely started," smirked Adrien.
"Had a feeling. So he'll need my help more than Marinette will." Alya tossed a happy glance at her friend. "She's all yours."
As Adrien walked off, the bell rang. Alya prodded Marinette forward. The girl walked like she was in a trance.
"W-What just happened?" Marinette asked.
"You have a study date with Adrien, you lucky girl," Alya told her.
"I do?"
"I think he saw you on TV," Alya added. "And I think you impressed him again."
"I did?"
"This is it, girl," Alya whispered encouragingly. "The first step to those three kids and a dog."
The squeal of delight reverberated through the venerated halls of College Francois Dupont.
Conclusion