The windows were the best route of entry. Chat Noir used his claws to slice through the bottom and lift it up, allowing Ladybug inside. The security system had been turned off…almost as if someone planned for people to be walking around in the middle of the night.

They quickly slipped into the lobby and met the other two behind the spiralling staircase. Queen Bee took Chat by the hand as Vixen put her hand on Ladybug. "Guys," her voice was a whisper but her eyes spoke loud and clear, "I know who HawkMoth is."

Chat Noir gawked. "Whoa! This changes everything!"

Ladybug could see the worry in Queen Bee's eyes. She could feel the tension in Vixen's grip. Whatever they were about to tell them could change everything…and they had no time for last minute twists in the plan. "Save it for later." She gave Chat a comforting pat as his ears began to droop. "We can find out once HawkMoth is actually defeated."

Vixen and Queen Bee let out a sigh of relief, and the latter cracked her knuckles as quietly as possible. "Shall we dance with death?"

Chat gawked. "That is one of the darkest things you have ever said, Chloe."

She shrugged. "Dark museum, dark thoughts."

Ladybug pointed down the hallways. It was almost too silent for a closed museum. "Vixen and I will head to the Denon Wing-"

Queen Bee raised her hand. "Why are you going on a wing?"

Vixen smacked her forehead. "Where the Italian art is, Chloe…does the Mona Lisa ring any, any bells?"

Queen shut herself up with a grumble as Ladybug turned to Chat. "You take Queen and head to the Richelieu Wing. We meet in the Sully Wing and share our findings. Povas will join us as soon as he give him the go-to."

Chat saluted her and took off, Queen on his tail. Ladybug glanced at Vixen. "At least tell me this before we head off: is HawkMoth going to be…close to any of us?"

Vixen looked away before her eyes could say anything more. Ladybug gravely nodded and led them towards their wing. "We can leave it at that."

To avoid the cameras – the few that remained on – Chat and Queen Bee kept as high and as low as physically possible…for miraculous. They flew and slid their way between two statues of big animals with human heads. "Ew," Chloe shivered as she examined the male faces and long hair, "good thing we never face akumas as creepy as these."

Chat chuckled. He had been to the museum before with his mother and recalled what she had taught him. "Those are lamassu, Assyrian deities from Mesopotamia. Of course, you obviously knew all this beforehand."

Queen Bee gave him her best smirk, tongue stuck out. "I am the master of messy potato lamb sues."

"…I-"

"Not. One. Word."

He gave her a friendly shrug and followed as they passed the Hammurabi Code. However, as the duo kept forward, Queen heard something creaking behind them…something ancient...and large.

And inanimate.

"Lasso shoes!"

Chat sighed and turned to her. "We call them-?!" He gawked at what was coming towards them. "Lamassu!"

Every one of the statues was creeping off the walls and facing the duo. Their expressionless eyes threw Chat and Queen Bee back a step. "No way is this happening," she snapped, "since using an akuma on things not alive should be impossible!"

Her outburst did not deter the lamassu. Rather, they seemed spurned on by her voice, and began to charge at them. Chat Noir brought his baton out. "Hope M'lady and Vixen are having a better time across the building."

"Why do most of them have to be naked?!"

Vixen and Ladybug were back to back as dozens of Greek sculptures surrounded them. Though most had fewer than two arms and were scantily clad, the crowd was growing larger, and there were fewer chances of escape as they closed in. Ladybug whirled her yo-yo around. "How does HawkMoth even possess things that have never been alive?"

Vixen got her flute ready, though she had no idea what to create for an illusion. "How do I trick art?" She shoved them back with the end of the flute. "Breaking these during a fight would be a worse crime than breaking into the museum."

The storm shook the glass of the windows, casting flashes of lightning over the sculptures. Vixen counted at least twenty facing her, and nearly twice as many before Ladybug. "I need something to fight, Ladybug!"

My yo-yo can fix this, Ladybug reasoned as she swatted sculptures back, but taking out all of the figures will be hard without breaking them…unless, she glanced out at one of the windows, we have no other choice.

"Vixen, put us by the windows!"

For a moment she had no idea what Ladybug was asking…and then she heard it. Howling winds sure to knock even cars off their wheels. She was stunned at the bold plan. "You sure we can fix this afterwards?"

"Not entirely!"

"Better chances that we can ask for!" She brought the flute to her lips and began to play a sweet tune. Immediately a copy of her appeared before the left window, and a copy of Ladybug was in front of the right. The sculptures split between the two, leaving space around the original duo. Ladybug wrapped one end of her yo-yo around the light above.

"Hang on!"

Vixen linked arms with her just as the sculptures fell upon the illusions.

Good thing sculptures are dumb…er, rather, have no intelligence.

The illusions made realistic gasps.

SMASH!

The glass was unable to hold back the great weight of all the sculptures. The windows burst from the pressure and scattered glass shards everywhere. Powerful winds began to suck everything out of the hallway. The illusions dissipated. The sculptures flew outside. Thunder nearly deafened the girls as they hung tight onto the yo-yo wire.

"Don't let go," Ladybug yelled, "or we go flying!"

The art takes a terrible turn for the violent as our heroes race towards the Sully Wing! It was a lot of fun doing my research of the Louvre for this chapter, and I hope it shows. I never knew what a Lamassu was until a few days ago :D Now we can only hope that Ladybug and the others will be able to beat them back...without ruining anything over two thousand years old!

Until the next chapter!