To Butterfly: I thought about adding another villain or two to the "team meeting," but I decided it would be a little overwhelming. And Lynchpin still has at least one miraculous to give out (the Bear)…
To MiraculousReader: Not the Lion Miraculous! The Lion Miraculous holder actually appeared in the last chapter of the "Egypt Arc" (Mihaela, a.k.a. Rugindo Leoa) – it's one of the two primary miraculous in the African Set. This story had 30 chapters, but I added another chapter last week, bringing it up to 31. There's another one-shot chapter that fits into the story's denouement which I'm planning to publish in "Life and Times" when we get there, though I may change my mind and put it in here after all.
Cerna shifted her battleaxe from one hand to the other, testing the weight and balance. Before arriving in Paris, she hadn't really considered the weapon, or even dreamed of actually using it in anger. The miraculous had simply been a tool that fell into her lap, not something to use as a weapon. And for her purposes, a battleaxe hadn't been overly useful anyways.
"I wish you wouldn't do that," her companion interrupted, fixing her with a look of mild disgust. "You'll put a hole in the side of the ship. Or smash one of these crates."
Cerna laughed. "I may not be a fancy 'Dark Acolyte,' but I can at least twirl an axe without sinking a boat!" Nevertheless she let the axe head fall to the floor and leaned it against one of the crates. "So why do you hate miraculous users so much?" she asked, looking the other in the eye in mild curiosity.
"Really? You think I hate you?" the Deaconess asked, eyes widening in surprise.
"I've noticed the way you look at us," replied Cerna, resting her elbows on her knees. "You hardly want to be in the same room as me or Killer Bee. And your Prior… I pay enough attention to what he says to know he and Night Bat dislike each other."
The Deaconess sighed heavily. "I don't hate you," she finally replied, "any of you. If anything, I'm concerned for you. Have you ever considered what these miraculous are? What they represent?"
"Not really." Cerna shrugged. "I've considered what it lets me do, and it's pretty amazing. And according to Night Bat, I've only scratched the surface of the Reindeer Miraculous' powers!"
The Deaconess scoffed. "A miraculous is not a toy," she retorted. "It is a weapon, one which will rip apart the fabric of reality, imbalance the universe and plunge it into utter chaos. The Kwamis who inhabit them are an aberration and will rip the universe apart if left unchecked!"
"'Aberration'?" Cerna snorted. "Hernn is just an adorable berry-vacuum! He really wouldn't hurt a fly. I should introduce you some time."
"I don't need to meet one of those monsters!"
"So who told you Kwamis are monsters?" asked Cerna. She hadn't known anything about miraculous before finding hers; as it was, she hardly knew anything now, even after five years.
"My parents were killed in a car accident when I was two," explained the Deaconess. "Or at least that's what they told me when I was older. I barely remember anything from before then. The Dark Acolytes claimed me as an orphan and brought me back to the Temple. That's been my home ever since. The Dark Acolytes raised me, they taught me, they trained me… they made me who I am today. I have been told all my life that miraculous are an abomination, that I serve the balance and miraculous are inherently imbalance."
"You're an orphan?" Cerna looked more closely at her. "I am, too. Only my parents were killed while I was in Ungdomsskole. I didn't have any other family, so I found myself living on the streets. I had to look out for myself, and the only way I could survive was by taking what I needed. One night I found myself outside a huge mansion. It was freezing out, so I snuck inside. Just inside the door I saw this fancy necklace on a statue. I figured, maybe it would be worth something, so I took it." She chuckled and caressed her torc. "The moment I touched it, Hernn burst out of it and introduced himself. I haven't been alone since, and this thing has kept me alive."
"I am sorry for your losses and for your troubles, truly," replied the Deaconess sympathetically. "But have you considered that you might have been better off had you never found this miraculous?"
Cerna shook her head. "I don't see how – I might not be alive now without it! I'm not alone and starving on the streets. Whenever I was hungry, I could just ask a couple animals to sneak me some food from the grocer's or from the bakery. When I needed clothing, a housecat would steal his owner's jewelry for me to sell or drag a coat outside if I was cold. And now I am here and Night Bat promises to teach me to use my miraculous even better!"
"I would not trust that man," the Deaconess warned with a nervous look.
"You're working with him."
The Deaconess folded her arms and leaned back against one of the crates. A shadow passed by the porthole next to Cerna's head, and she looked out to see three police boats circling them. One was of the larger variety and loaded down with officers, while the other two she saw were no more than pontoon boats.
"Looks like we won't get a break this time," Cerna grumbled, twirling her battleaxe and stowing it on her back. "It's show time."
"Do you see any of the miraculous heroes?" asked the Deaconess, pulling her hair back into a ponytail and picking up her quarterstaff.
"Just looks like the cops for now."
"That doesn't mean anything; Rena Rouge pulled that trick on us last week." The Deaconess raised an eyebrow at her and gestured toward the hatch. "But either way, we mustn't keep them waiting!"
Cerna led the way up the ladder and threw the hatch open just as the first police boat pulled alongside their boat and three officers climbed over the railing onboard. She moved to one side as the Deaconess joined her on deck and moved to the other side of the boat, where Cerna saw another police boat approaching. She drew her battleaxe and shouted, "Call of the Hunt!" Concentrating on her surroundings she could hear the birds in the skies above their heads: pigeons and thrushes and blackbirds. She let out a piercing shriek and lifted her arms. She had a moment to take in the look of utter shock on the faces of the police officers before the sky blackened and birds began diving and swarming around her. She pointed her axe at the first officer, and the flock peeled away, pelting at his face with their talons extended. The officer behind him, a heavyset man with orange hair, pulled the first officer to the ground and aimed his pistol at her. He fired a beam of energy, and Cerna casually deflected it with the flat of her battleaxe head, redirecting it into the deck of the largest police boat. Smoke appeared from the spot it had hit.
On the opposite side of the ship, the Deaconess and a small group of their guards battled against police officers on another large boat as well as two pontoon boats, trying to keep them at bay. Two officers had made it onboard and were fighting the Deaconess. She ducked a wild punch from one, swept the other's legs out from under him with her staff, and kicked both officers off the boat and into the river.
Cerna let out a low bellowing growl, which was answered from the water. Two alligator snapping turtles that had been swimming past turned at her summons and, with another growl, she set them against the police pontoon boats. One bit clean through a pontoon, causing that boat to begin sinking. One of the officers on the other boat, seeing the plight of their comrade, used the butt of his rifle to hold the other snapping turtle off from attacking their boat as well.
On the ship, Cerna and her swarm of birds faced a growing number of police officers as the Deaconess and the remaining guards concentrated on the threats on the opposite side of the boat. Cerna raised her battleaxe in both hands, shrieked, and slashed the axe downward. As one, all the birds screamed past her, diving pell-mell at the officers, who dropped to the deck and covered their heads with their hands to shield their faces from the scratching, clawing nightmare surrounding them. One of the officers raised his rifle, and Cerna hacked the barrel off with her axe before kicking the officer himself over the side of the boat and into the water. The officer next to him, the one with the orange hair who seemed to be in charge, pushed himself up into a crouch, batted away a couple pigeons, and dove headlong into Cerna's chest. She fell to the deck on her back, held him off of her with her battleaxe, drew her legs up to her chest, and kicked him into the air. With a cry of terror, he launched five meters above the deck, flailing his arms.
At that moment, a portal opened beside the deck. A lavender butterfly flew through the portal and melted into the officer's pistol. His face looked momentarily confused as he was covered in purple smoke. A moment later a navy-blue grappling hook shot out of the smoke cloud and embedded itself in the deck, pulling after it a metal-coated body with a full face-shield. He dropped to a knee as he hit the deck and pushed himself to his feet. "I am Rogercop," he declared, aiming one arm at her. "You are under arrest! Now come quietly, or there will be trouble."
"Oh, there's already trouble here, buddy," Cerna retorted, swinging her axe at his head. Rogercop ducked under the swing and punched her in the face. Cerna barely managed to avoid the punch and kicked him backwards. He stumbled over the boat's railing with a yell. Cerna spun around just as the portal closed.
Before it closed, four other figures emerged; from Night Bat's information they were Hato Gozen, Lupa Gris, Ayilon, and–
"Heretic!" shouted the Deaconess, abandoning her position and turning on the fallen Dark Acolyte. She swung her staff wildly at the Heretic's head, a strike which he parried effortlessly before elbowing her in the gut.
"Wait!" Cerna shouted. "Remember the plan!"
The Deaconess groaned and jumped away from the Heretic, out of reach of his staff. She pulled bolas from hidden compartments in her sleeves and flung them at Ayilon and Hato Gozen. Both heroes dodged the flying bolas, but Ayilon landed just as the Deaconess flicked a piece of chi-putty at that spot. The chi-putty stuck to her chest, rendering her immobile.
Cerna, meanwhile, jumped in front of the Heretic and swung her battleaxe straight at his neck. He easily ducked beneath the attack and punched her in the gut. She tensed at the blow landed, ignored the strike, and counterattacked with a punch of her own, but he had already spun away. She pursued him, anticipating where he would be and aiming a kick in that spot, but he saw the kick coming and sidestepped around it, planting his quarterstaff on the deck for balance. Cerna summoned all the birds still in the area and sent them hurtling toward the Heretic, looping around him to beat Lupa Gris with their wings as they passed.
Across the deck, their remaining guards were in a furious battle with the police officers, while Cerna and the Deaconess focused on the newly-arrived heroes. But suddenly, two of their guards fell to the ground with their wrists handcuffed together. Rogercop had returned. He walked up the side of the boat, stepped over the railing and aimed his handcuff cannon at Cerna. "Alive or dead, you are coming with me!"
"I think you're taking this a little personally, buddy!" Cerna retorted. She ducked the Heretic's staff, sidestepped a kick from Lupa Gris, and swept the Heretic's legs out from under him. He fell to the deck and rolled to his feet between Cerna and Rogercop, just as Rogercop fired a pair of handcuffs at her. The handcuffs struck the Heretic instead, and fell off moments later. But in that brief stretch that he was vulnerable, Cerna grabbed him by the collar of his robes and threw him headfirst over the side of the boat.
Rogercop let out an audible groan but nodded. "Retreat!" he bellowed, dropping to one knee and firing a continuous stream of handcuffs at Cerna and the Deaconess. The Deaconess was in the middle of a heated duel against Hato Gozen, and Cerna jumped to interpose between her and Rogercop, spinning her battleaxe to shield both of them from the flying handcuffs. While Cerna and the Deaconess were pinned down, the remaining police officers climbed over the sides of the boat, with one stopping momentarily to remove the chi-putty from Ayilon, who took a position next to Rogercop to cover the officers' retreat.
By now the warehouse where the boat was supposed to be unloaded was in sight, with Mecha-Man standing on the dock in front of it. "Get rid of your loose ends and I'll give you some cover," he informed them over their communicators.
The beeping of her miraculous warned Cerna that her Call was about to run out, and she let out a final shriek, deluging the boat's deck with swarms of birds. With a glance over her shoulder at the Deaconess, Cerna watched her step backward, past Cerna, with Hato Gozen and Lupa Gris following. Timing her move just right, Cerna dropped to the deck at the same moment that the Deaconess dove to one side and threw her staff at Rogercop's feet. Both Hato Gozen and Lupa Gris were struck by handcuffs as Rogercop stumbled backward over the staff. Cerna jumped up and swung the flat of her battleaxe head at the two miraculous heroes, knocking them off the boat. Another bolas looped around Ayilon's ankles, and she tumbled backward over the railing.
The moment the Heroes and police were off the boat, Mecha-Man launched a half-dozen smoke bombs, covering the river with a thick screen of smoke.
As the boat docked beside a nondescript delivery truck, for the first time since first catching sight of the police boats, Cerna allowed herself to breathe normally.
AN: Ungdomsskole is the Norwegian equivalent of 8th-10th grades, and Cerna is Norwegian. They have the option to learn French in school at that age, so she does know French. Her name is a reference to Cernunnos, a Celtic god and confirmed previous miraculous holder.