Chapter 4
Back in Black
The noise was the sound of a slug transforming close by, but it wasn't the transformation of a slug… it was the transformation of a GHOUL!
The window was blown apart, throwing Marinette to the floor, and standing in the hole, was a 10-centimetre-tall Hop-Jack, the Ghouled version of the Hop-Rock slug. Its fangs were sticking out, and its eyes were blood red, it roared, a fierce roar, and jumped out of the hole in the wall. Marinette's parents ran into the room at that moment, they saw Burpy who was pulling Marinette out of the rubble, and rushed over,
"don't worry," Burpy said to the despairing parents, "she is only unconscious, but you should get her out of here, this place is no longer safe!" the mother looked surprised at what he just said,
"as long as Ladybug and Cat Noir are here, things will be ok." Ladybug and Cat Noir, they must be those weirdly dressed people with the magical powers that he had seen, but whoever they are, they are no match for Ghouls. Burpy ran out of the front door of the house, followed by Marinette's parents, he then saw who had blasted the wall, who had caused Marinette to be unconscious, and who Burpy hated more than any poison, it was a man with white skin, he was as big as a cave troll, he had huge arms with black spikes sticking out of them, he was holding in his right arm a huge red and silver weapon, his left hand was shaped like a claw, and his eyes were a deep red, he was Dr. Thaddius Black, Burpy's worst nightmare! Black was aiming his weapon at them, it was called a Gattler and was the ultimate weapon in the whole of Slugterra, able to fire slugs, or in this case, Ghouls with rapid reload ability. Burpy instinctively stood between Marinettes family and Black, Black spoke in a cruel voice that would give anyone nightmares, "do you think that you can protect them from me!" he laughed, and squeezed the trigger on the Gattler, shooting multiple Frostfang Ghouls at him! Burpy decided to try his slug powers and threw both is hands onto the ground in front of him, and a huge wall of fire erupted from the pavement and the Frostfangs that went through it instantly de-transformed into small, one eyed, navy blue Ghouls, Black was dumbfounded,
"how did you do that!" he yelled, as Burpy stepped through the fire and said in a stern voice,
"just as the vortex changed you, Black, it changed me too!" Burpy focused all his anger into his hand which instantly erupted with flame, "do you recognise me?". Black was speechless he took a step back and said,
"you're not the Shane, are you?" Burpy took a deep breath and said, "no, it's me, Burpy, Eli's best slug!" and with that, Burpy threw the fire in his hand like a bowler throwing a ball, and the resulting fireball was so strong that it threw Black backwards. "RUN!" Burpy shouted and Marinette's parents understood and ran, holding the unconscious Marinette in their arms. Black may have been down, but he was not out, he staggered to his feet and aimed the Gattler at Burpy, but before he fired, someone shouted,
"CATACLYSM!" and a black gloved hand slammed onto the Gattler. The Gattler turned rust-black, and crumbled into dust, freeing all the Ghouls inside it who began following their master, who at that very moment was running away, Black turned a corner, and was gone.
A few minutes earlier, Adrien Agreste was having a chat with his Kwami, Plagg. Adrien is the son of designer Gabriel Agreste, Adrien wears a white button-down shirt with an upturned collar and sleeves rolled up above his elbow, which he keeps unbuttoned. Underneath, he wears a black shirt with five horizontal stripes around the chest. He wears blue jeans and orange sneakers with white laces and a logo of a black butterfly in a circle on the sides, and on the ring finger of his right hand, he wears his Miraculous. Adrien had been talking about the same thing for almost 5 minutes,
"So, was he a miraculous holder?" Adrien asked. The black cat Kwami was halfway through eating a pice of smelly cheese called Camembert, and responded "if you are still talking about that boy, then no, he cannot be a miraculous holder, didn't you notice that he didn't have a mask?" Meanwhile, the radio was going through some breaking news, the newsreader said
"and now, a new villain has emerged from Paris and is attacking the famous Dupain-Cheng bakery, this villain has already blown a hole in the wall and caused a casualty, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is being taken to the hospital whist a young boy keeps the villain at bay, Ladybug and Cat Noir are yet to make an appearance."
"OH NO!" Shouted Adrien, fear rushing through him for Marinette is a good friend of his, "Plagg, Claws out!" Adrien punched his fist forward and Plagg got sucked into the ring on Adrien's finger, turning it black, and in a few sparks of yellow electricity, a black cat suit formed over his clothes and a black mask appeared on his face, he was now the witty Cat Noir. He jumped out of the window and hurried to the bakery.
When Cat Noir arrived at the bakery, the boy from earlier had already got the villain down, but he was definitely far from unconscious, he was aiming a gun at the boy's back! Cat Noir ran forward and shouted a single word at the top of his voice "CATACLYSM!". His ring glowed as it filled up with destructive energy and then channelled that energy into an orb in Cat Noirs palm, he crushed the orb with his fist and gained the ultimate power of destruction in his hand. Cat Noir jumped out from behind the villain and slammed his hand onto the weapon, the weapon then disintegrated into a pile of dust and a lot of weird, Kwami like creatures fell out and started hopping away, only then did he realise that the villain had escaped!
The boy walked up to Cat Noir and said,
"Thank you, I keep forgetting that he always gets back up, are you Cat Noir?" Cat Noir was shocked that someone didn't know who he was, but he stayed calm and simply replied with,
"Yes, I am Cat Noir, and you are …"
"Burpy" said the boy, "nice to properly meet you" he held out his hand to Cat Noir, Cat Noir grasped the hand and they shook hands. Then they heard a beeping noise, it was coming from Cat Noirs ring, "why is that beeping?" asked Burpy, looking a bit confused.
"oh, that means that I have 5 minutes to get out of here before I change back into my secret identity," he then pulled out his staff and extended its height, "see ya!" he called before using his staff to jump over the buildings and out of sight.
Burpy looked on, still a bit confused, and then sighed,
"being stuck here would be fine, if Black wasn't here as well." He then turned and started walking, "I hope Joules is ok" he said to himself as he walked away from the bakery, and then a voice called out to him,
"what happened?!" asked Tikki