Fifty-Eight: Strange Coincidences

Author's Note: As the afternoon drags on, one question remains: can the team defeat the akuma before Adrien is needed back on the set?


Ladybug trained the nozzle toward the building and pulled the activation trigger on the device. A plume of clear liquid shot out and hit the side of the building, just above the chicken legs; nearly instantly, the animated façade we'd been looking at started to melt into rivers of paint that dripped down in colorful splotches to the street below. Almost as if it were alive, the building recoiled and turned away from the onslaught, but Ladybug anticipated the move, redirecting to a different spot that was exposed by the shift.

"I'm going to clear the door I saw earlier," Ladybug said as she turned up the volume of the spray. "Find the akuma!"

"Got it," I said, my feline eyes already tracking the doorway and calculating the best angle to get there.

I paused for a moment longer and then leapt upward, baton at the ready. Ladybug twisted her spray away from the door she'd revealed just as I crashed through it, feet first; I slid a few meters down a corridor before my rubbery soles stopped me. To my surprise, a fraction of a moment later, Spider-Man slid to a stop next to me.

"Crashing the party?" I asked as I flipped into a pounce-crouch. The corridor looked surprisingly normal, though it was shrouded in darkness.

"Why should cats have all the fun?" he rejoindered. "Besides, Mister Fury was adamant about chaperoning you."

I blinked. "I'm not sure you were supposed to tell me that," I said softly as the two of us crept down the corridor side-by-side.

"I wasn't," Spidey chuckled. "Consider it proof that we've moved to the next level of our relationship."

"You are welcome to visit us in Paris any time, Spidey," I replied impulsively.

"I'd like that," he said. "I doubt it'll happen, though," he said sadly.

"Never say never."

We rounded a corner and came to a wide area that appeared to be an open floorplan office. I knew that animators routinely worked on computers now, but it was still sad at how corporate looking it felt. Somehow, I'd expected to see old-fashioned light tables. The space was devoid of people, and the floor shifted every so often as the building attempted to avoid Ladybug's ministrations.

"If I were an akuma…" I said out loud. "Corner office?" I asked, nodding a feline ear to a large glass space in the corner. Telltale flickers of colorful light were escaping the frosted windows.

"If it means anything, my spider sense is going nuts. So yes."

"I could use that ability," I said under my breath as we approached and paused a few meters away.

"It does come in handy."

"LB, I think I might be in position."

"Good, because I'm running low on thinner."

"Then I'll hurry," I said as I snapped my baton apart again. In a quick move, I hurled the two parts at the glass and then dove; the panel shattered into thousands of pieces, exposing the office beyond. As I captured the returning baton pieces, I watched as Spidey wrapped what could only be considered a caricature of every producer everywhere in a solid layer of webbing.

"Gift wrapped," Spider-Man said proudly as we carefully entered the space.

The akuma – and I could tell for sure now it was just that – was babbling incoherently, so I tuned him out while I scanned the space. "We've got the akuma, sort of," I said over the earwig as my eyes fell on a complicated set of levers that had clearly sprouted out of a massive executive style oak desk. A small monitor was also there, showing an exterior view of the building. "And this building is defelinely some version of a sentimonster, controlled from this spot. What do you suppose I'm looking for?"

Rena piped in again. "Look for some sort of legal paperwork," she offered. "If the lawsuit was the tipping point, stands to reason it would be close at hand and likely the object in question."

I looked at the desk again and my smile appeared. "Maybe not paperwork," I said softly as my eyes caught on a pen that had been angrily rammed into the solid oak of the desk. "Ladybug, could the amok and akuma be in the same object?"

"No," she replied. "But they would be close together."

"Good," I said, "because that's the only way my Cataclysm is going to work. Ready?"

"Are you sure you've found it?" Ladybug asked.

"Yes," I said as I raised my hand – but not before looking over my shoulder at Spidey. "Uh, stand back a bit…?"

"Oh! Sorry."

"Cataclysm!" I cried.

I heard Spider-Man actually gasp as he watched the power of destruction flow into my hand; I wasted no time in bringing it down on the pen and desk in one swift motion. I gambled – correctly, it seemed – that since they were fused together, my superpower would work as if they were one object.

The desk and pen both dissolved in a puff of ash; as the feather of the amok and the akuma butterfly appeared, we felt the building start to shake and then drop to the street as it was released from the magic. Ladybug's yo-yo smashed the window of the office, cleanly snatching first the feather and then the butterfly in rapid succession.

"How did she do that?" Spider-Man asked with awe. "And what was that you just did?"

I laughed. "You'd better hold on," I advised, for I could see through the smashed window Ladybug was winding up to call on her Miraculous Cure. "You've not seen anything yet."


A half hour and one set of recharged kwamis later, I met up with Spider-Man on the same rooftop across from the animation studio where the whole mess had started. LB and the rest of Team Miraculous had headed back to the beach house to assess whether we'd been missed at all, while I'd been delegated to wrap up our adventure with our new Avenger friend.

Spidey was leaning against the brick half-wall I landed upon. "Hey," he said cheerfully as I folded myself into a seated position. "I spoke with Directory Fury. He's a tad annoyed that I wasn't able to give him any insights into how your powers worked, or whether you are actually meta-humans in the first place."

My masked eyes widened. "Are you going to be in trouble?" I asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not," he laughed, the smile evident in his voice. "There are times when it's handy for me to play the 'inept teenager' card. This was one of them."

I smiled. "From what I've seen, you're anything but."

"Let's keep that between the two of us," he said. "You are also in luck – SHIELD was able to track down and eliminate any video recordings of the four of you here in Santa Monica. You know, security cameras and the like." He paused. "Tourists may have caught you, but Mister Fury thinks they'll assume you were street performers."

"Nice." I looked at him for a moment while I considered how to broach what Ladybug and I wanted to get across to our friend. "Look, LB and I are worried that this is some sort of expansion by Hawkmoth. Despite all of your SHIELD tech, this is some dangerous magic and I'm not sure you can handle it without our help. And…" I paused. "We're a little concerned about how you are able to track us. In and out of costume."

Spidey's mechanical eyes narrowed. "I imagine," he said after a moment. "Your secret identity is to protect those you love, just like mine."

"Exactly."

He tapped a finger against the brick. "Got you covered," he said softly. "I intern at Stark Industries, which just happens to have a connection to SHEILD. I fear the data they've collected on Team Miraculous is about to get corrupted."

I smiled wider. "You are defelinely going to need to visit us in Paris, my friend," I said as I held out a paw for a handshake.

"Not if you're going to use puns like that," he laughed as we shook.


Sneaking back into the beach house through the rooftop patio, I detransformed and hurried to the main floor. By my phone's clock, I was about an hour from being called to the set; the sun was still quite a bit above the horizon, and I smiled to think at how useful this particular photographer's penchant for light had been. It was nearly enough time for the four of us to play a round or two of Xbox and – if I could wheedle my bodyguard enough – maybe get some food, too.

Rounding the small landing of the staircase, I called out as I trotted down the final steps to the dining space. "Guys? Do you want to-"

I froze on the bottom step, my green eyes connecting with the steel grey of my father's. "Adrien," he said simply, hands clasped behind his back as always.

"Father," I said. "When did you get in?"

"I've been here for a few days," he said. "I can straight here from Asia so I could meet with the firms that will be producing advertisements for House of Gabriel this year. Didn't Nathalie tell you?"

"No," I replied, genuinely shocked. While it wasn't unusual for me to go days without seeing him at the mansion, I had just assumed he was home when Nathalie had recalled me from the Bakery. Then again, his travel schedule was generally not shared with me, either. "And when she didn't come with us—"

"She arrived this morning," he continued as if I hadn't been speaking. "I needed her help for some rather unexpected last-minute developments." He paused, looking at me with that cold expression I'd long gotten used to. "Shouldn't you be on the set?"

"I have some time," I said, leaning on some Chat belligerence.

"You should go," he said with an edge. "Before it appears as though you are somewhere you shouldn't be."

I blinked. Was that a warning? I thought. I think it was. But of what…? "Of course," I said. "Let me tell my friends—"

"They've already left," he said simply.

"Oh," I replied. "I'll see them at dinner, then."

"You misunderstand. I've sent them back to Paris. You don't need any further distractions while you complete this photoshoot."

I tried to keep the sudden bubbling of anger in check. "That wasn't necessary."

"I think it was," he smiled without a trace of warmth. "Your bodyguard will take you directly to the airport after you're finished tonight. You've got a two o'clock call tomorrow afternoon in Paris for a magazine spread that I need done before your schooling interferes with our schedule."

Ouch. A red-eye flight into a photo shoot? What did I do to deserve that? I wondered before realizing I might likely be paying the price for having the audacity to enjoy the trip to California.

"Father—"

"I'll see you back in Paris," he said simply before exiting the room.

I stared at the door he'd used for a full minute before saying, softly, "Yes, Father."