The Cliffhanger

Dorje and Pema became petrified because they got stung by the small wasps as they spread the thin scarves they carried as part of their robes on the narrow entrance to the cave and prevented bees from entering the cave.

"We have to fight them." Chat noir repeated to Ladybug as she almost crumbled to the sight of what happened to the two monks. She knew they had to fight them. She just had a bad feeling about this whole situation even before they left the temple. Hawk Moth and Mayura challenged them and they went after them. Everything was telling her that they were going into a trap.

"If we go after them, we will fall into their trap." Ladybug muttered, it was a fact, it was nothing new, but somehow, she felt different about this time. This time, there was this nagging feeling in the back of her mind telling her there was something different, there was something not accounted for, but this was not the first time she went into a fight that she was not ready for.

"But they created akumas and sentimonsters all the time and we go after them." Chat Noir smirked. The truth was they followed the same strategy all this time. Hawk Moth and Mayura were creating monsters, Marinette and Adrien would transform into Ladybug and Chat Noir, go after the monster of the day and fight them. There was nothing particularly different this time.

"Yes, I guess we do." Ladybug agreed and squared her shoulders. This was no time for pity, sadness or regret. At that moment they had but one choice. They were going to fight. Or give up, but that was never an option.

"How do we defend ourselves from the wasps?" Chat Noir asked. They always escaped under water. But there was no Seine. And there was no Dragon miraculous.

"We can take their scarves and wrap our heads. The suits should take care of the rest." Ladybug replied. There was not much choice on what to use anyway and the solution was obvious.

They crawled out between the legs of the petrified monks, yanked the scarves that were stuck in the hands and wrapped themselves in a hurry.

The scarves were sufficiently transparent that they could cover their eyes. Chat Noir did not need to claw small holes for them to peek through the cloth and Ladybug decided that it was safer for them to continue that way.

Ladybug fixed the scarves on both of them so they would hold and they ran over the rocks to find the villains and whatever monster(s) they created this time.

"I bet it is the Queen Wasp again." Chat Noir smirked under his cloth.

"Yeah, I agree." Ladybug replied. It was not difficult to guess now when they were already attacked by a swarm of tiny wasps.

They jumped the rocks and sneaked around a corner and then they saw them.

There, on a top of a rock sticking out vertically from the steep cliff face were Scarlet Peacock and Hawk Moth joined by not one, but two Queen Wasps.

"There are two of them." Chat Noir whispered.

"And she is Scarlet Peacock again. I wander where the akuma is this time." Ladybug studied the scarlet villain carefully. "There is nothing new on her."

"Should we visit the container again, my Lady?" Chat wiggled his clawed fingers on his right hand.

"No, I am sure they have learned their lesson." Ladybug did not want to waste time and another cataclysm, she was sure Hawk Moth was not stupid.

Another swarm of wasps flew in their direction and they covered their faces with their hands instinctively. They jumped away from the swarm careful not to be spotted by the two villains.

They both got slightly closer to the villains and observed them carefully. They were so focused on Hawk Moth and Scarlet Peacock that they missed one Wasp sentimonster who was hiding in a small opening between two rocks on the cliff face.

"They have arrived." Hawk Moth turned his back to the cliff and announced the fact to his fellow in crime.

Scarlet Peacock returned her wide smile. "Your plan is working sir." she spoke quietly with her head faced away from the cliff too.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were watching the two supervillains carefully as they tried to determine if there was any object that they could identify as infected by an akuma.

"They noticed us." Chat Noir whispered as he pulled Ladybug down to hide behind a rock. "I heard them talking." he added once they were hidden.

"She has nothing visible on her, so it must be either her miraculous or her brooch." Ladybug whispered.

"And we need this for both." Chat Noir wiggled his clawed fingers again.

"It is easier to go for a fan, you can cataclysm it and if it does not hold an akuma then we go for her miraculous." Ladybug continued as she went up to peek over the rock again.

"If I am going for her miraculous I am taking it off, not just to cataclysm it." Chat Noir whispered with a touch of anger.

"Of course." Ladybug smiled.

Chat Noir was already on his feet and ready to jump when Ladybug pulled him back by his tail.

"Wait." she whispered. She had a serious, puzzled and worried look on her face. She needed to do this, she needed help.

Chat looked at her surprised. Why did she pull him back?

"Lucky Charm!" she tossed her yoyo into the air.

"So soon my lady." Chat Noir raised his eyebrows.

"It helped before." she answered as she looked at the lucky charm she got. It was a charm bracelet made of identical red beads with black spots.

"That is a lucky charm, indeed." Chat Noir grinned.

"Is Tikki making fun of me?" Ladybug wandered. She looked around, but nothing revealed to her, she had no clues, she raised her eyes over the rock and looked at the villains and there were no clues.

"We are loosing your purr-ecious time My Lady." Chat Noir warned.

"I don't have a clue what to do with this." Ladybug waved the lucky charm in front of him.

"Well what do you usually do with charm bracelets?" Chat smirked.

"Right" Ladybug replied and tied it around Chat's arm.

Ladybug's earrings beeped their first warning.

They both jumped out and threw themselves into the battle. The tiny wasps swarm over them, they evaded them as they waved their hands frantically, and all that with them moving swiftly and the protection they used kept the tiny wasps from stinging them.

Ladybug threw her yoyo at Scarlet Peacock but it was deflected with her fan. Chat Noir jumped towards Hawk Moth with his staff extended from the cliff above them, but Hawk Moth hit back with his stick and Chat had to vault back up the cliff face.

Ladybug's earrings beeped again.

Both heroes were approaching closer from the opposite sides. It was hard to concentrate and fight while a swarm of tiny wasps followed each of them.

"Attack" Hawk Moth ordered to the Wasp sentimonsters.

"Look out." Chat shouted his warning towards Ladybug as he noticed the Wasp sentimonsters that crawled out from their hiding places all around her.

"Look out!" Ladybug screamed back as she noticed several sentimonster Wasps who threw themselves at Chat from the cliff with their stings in their hands.

"Venom" few of them shouted in unison.

Ladybug jumped as high as she could and threw her yoyo. She needed a leverage to jump away. So she threw her yoyo directly at the villains and the rock they stood on.

Chat Noir swept several sentimonster wasps that were falling onto him with one swift, strong and precise move of his baton. Then he turned around and jumped towards the two villains.

Mayura jumped away from the Ladybug's path and threw her fan at her. Ladybug evaded the fan, but when she was about to land on top of the rock, one Wasp shouted "venom" and pointed her sting towards her face. Ladybug evaded the sting, but she had to let herself fall down from the cliff. Her earrings beeped again while she was falling.

Hawk Moth deflected the baton and it hit the rock nearby shattering pieces of stone from it. Chat Noir landed on the top of that rock and retracted his baton to use it as a sword. They exchanged a few moves. But Chat had to evade a swirl of tiny wasps as well as another Wasp sentimonster and her sting so he was retreating. Hawk Moth jumped after him. Chat Noir reached out with his arm and tried to rip the pin off from Hawk Moth's chest. But a shout of "Venom" behind his back made him change his course. Hawk Moth hit him with his stick and Chat Noir flew into the face of the cliff. The Wasp sentimonster missed Hawk Moth with her sting only by a few centimetres, but it was a miss. Hawk Moth used all his willpower to control the Wasp and to move away in time.

At least that enabled Chat Noir to avoid more hits and get a safe landing as he turned in the air. He managed to turn and put his staff in between himself and the rock. The rock he hit detached from the face of the cliff and rolled down. But when he looked down, he froze.

"Ladybug, look out." he warned her because the huge rock was rolling in her direction. She jumped away and shouted.

"Chat, the fan." she shouted back a warning of her own.

"Cataclysm" he spoke before he raised his eyes and hand towards the impending object. He was waiting for that moment, he wanted that chance and there it was. He caught the fan in his hand that glowed with the dark energy. The fan disintegrated. But there was no butterfly.

Chat Noir groaned in frustration because he had to go away and detransform, feed Plagg, transform and get back to be able to deal with the next item on their list. And there was no other way because the next object on their 'possibly infected' list was the miraculous.

But Ladybug was on a timer as the next beep of her miraculous, that echoed along the slope of the cliff, reminded him. Therefore, he is going for the miraculous, but to rip it off.

He evaded the next attack from the Wasp sentimonsters. They were more and more agile as about five or six of them encircled Chat with their stings pointed in his direction. His miraculous beeped only to remind him of his position.

Chat extended his baton and vaulted away from the cliff. But then he was high up in the air with Wasp sentimonsters occupying any leverage he could find. He jumped up and swung his baton fiercely to clear the Wasps from his path. They evaded his blows as he hit solid rock and pieces of stone flew all around in all directions.

Ladybug focused on the two villains as she threw her yoyo in the air and flew directly towards them. If she snatched the brooch of Scarlet Peacock, they could run away and hide with the brooch, do all the transformations, cataclysm the brooch and clean the butterfly.

But Hawk Moth deterred her yoyo and it hit the rock, pieces of the rock were falling in her direction and she put her hands before her face, pushing the rocks away. The cloth over her eyes combined with a swirly of tiny wasps did blur her vision as she aimed her yoyo again, she did not see several wasps jump after her.

Ladybug pulled herself out at the last moment as two wasps managed to venom, sting and paralyse each other, but three more wasps followed Ladybug up the cliff face.

The heroine landed on the cliff next to Hawk Moth and Scarlet Peacock. Her hand almost brushed the chest of the akumatized villain while she was landing, but Scarlet Peacock quickly leaned back and evaded it by mere centimetres. Ladybug's feet barely touched the rock as she bounced off the surface and towards Scarlet Peacock.

Several Wasp sentimonsters wrapped the chords tied to their stings around Ladybug's body at the same time.

Her earrings started to beep frantically.

"No" Chat Noir screamed as he heard the beeps.

"Venom" one Wasp shouted, who still had her sting attached to her hand. She stung Ladybug in the shoulder while her earrings were still beeping.

"No" Chat screamed again while he directed his fall towards the rock where Ladybug was curled up, laid on her chest, face down, motionless.

Her transformation wore off revealing a person dressed in the red fleece from neck to toe and a scarf around her head.

"Finally" Hawk Moth snarled. He pushed past Scarlet Peacock and crouched over her body.

"No" Chat screamed as he was falling, he hit the Wasps, he hit the rocks that fallen off and rolled down the cliff face to hit more Wasps. But it was too late.

Hawk Moth ripped the scarf from Marinette's head and reached for her earrings.

Chat Noir landed on top of him and ripped him off. The two of them rolled away wrestling each other.

Scarlet Peacock threw herself on the motionless body of the girl who wielded the Ladybug miraculous. She quickly snatched the earrings off and put them away. But she never took the time to roll the body and see who it was.

Chat attacked with all his might and anger. Hawk Moth hit back with strength and precision. Chat Noir managed a few blows to Hawk Moth, but the villain did strike a few hits too. The hero noticed it was Scarlet Peacock who took the earrings and where she put them. He tried to jump away from Hawk Moth, tackle her and get the earrings back, but the villain prevented him. Chat Noir's ring beeped regularly as it issued its warnings, but Chat did not care. They also hit the face of the cliff breaking off one large rock after another and they rolled down the face of the cliff. Wasp sentimonsters climbed up the face of the cliff swiftly, but the large rolling stones slowed them down, few of them even took a blow and had to start climbing from the bottom of the cliff. But after a few minutes the wasps were close to Scarlet Peacock.

Chat Noir finally broke away from Hawk Moth, he broke his staff in two and threw it at the villain. Hawk Moth had to deflect them using his cane. Chat was falling straight onto Scarlet Peacock. Hawk Moth jumped after him.

Chat landed straight onto Scarlet peacock. She grabbed his right arm and went for his ring. But he went for the earrings stored in the pocked of her dress with his left hand. He managed to take them out and held them tightly while he formed a fist with his right hand and that prevented Scarlet Peacock from taking off his ring easily. He jumped away, ready to snatch Marinette and vault away.

But then one chord wrapped around his right arm. Another chord wrapped around his left arm. Two more chords wrapped around his legs and several were wrapped around his body. And then he felt even more chords wrap around his limbs.

Finally, Hawk Moth landed on his back and smashed the hero into the rock below. He was held like that, with his limbs outstretched by the chords held by more than ten Wasp sentimonsters.

His ring finished its frantic beep. Plagg could not hold it any longer. The green light of de-transformation washed over his body while Hawk Moth stood on on the boy's back back. The villain quickly knelt over his upper back. Scarlet Peacock was there and she pushed herself forward, her hands went after both miraculous . But Hawk Moth pushed himself forward, he snatched both miraculous earrings from Chat's hand while Scarlet Peacock took the ring.