It's not until Noelle—Echidna, roared past that I was able to pull my attention from the portal. There was a niggling feeling in my mind that I should make it bigger, go home, but—

Gatekeeper—Skitter, what in God's name is that!

Hawkmoth sounds horrified, and not just about the situation. Something else happened. I can feel an odd chiming in my mind, something pulling the power and influence of the Akuma.

"It's Noelle—she's in a rage state and if she grabs you she can spit evil clones out." I said this through my bugs, the rumbling sound filling the room. None of the miraculous holders had armbands after all. "Stay at a distan—FUCK!" Something hit the ground by me.

Eidolon. Only…

No, it wasn't. He was flickering, almost like a Grey Boy effect and was wearing a different—Before I had completed the thought I was diving back, my bugs descending like a torrent upon him.

Didn't anyone keep him away from Noelle? How badly had the fight gone? Suddenly there was a hurricane of wind, ripping my bugs away and throwing rocks and fragments at me, forcing me back—And I was out of the building, a portal collapsing in front of me.

I could open portals. Not just big ones, but small ones. I could feel destinations where I could and suddenly realized that they were wherever bugs were in my range.

I can work with this—Then there were more capes coming out of the building, heroes and villains alike. Hawkmoth was being pulled out, half supported by a Ladybug who was saying something to Chat Noir.

I listened through my bugs.

"Chat, we can find this out later, but right now—this is no Akuma, I don't know if my cure will fix things and its…"

"I—Understand," I saw the blond wipe his eyes with an angry gesture. "I'll—"

"Look out!" someone shouted, and suddenly, Chat, Ladybug and Hawkmoth were thrown apart as something hit the ground in front of them—A figure wearing a white bodysuit with a tumbled ruin of a tower on it. I sent a horde of bugs down, obscuring her vision, but then the Eidolon clone emerged from the top of the burning building and sent another fucking wave of wind. Then she was moving for Chat and oh, fuck he was preparing to try to stand against a clone of Alexandria, and then—

I don't know how it happened, but somehow Hawkmoth got in front of Chat Noir, and blocked the clone with his cane.

And he didn't go splat. I'd known that they were tough but… But that moment didn't last, and the clone smashed him to his knees, then spun around and kicked Ladybug into Chat Noir before she accelerated towards the wall to punch through it and pulverize Hawkmoth.

But before that happened, I called another portal that she went through, then another one. She threw Hawkmoth at the ground, and I had to let her go while I used portal after portal to bleed his speed, before I dropped him onto the ground.

"Chat!" I buzzed. "Don't use your cataclysm on the clones. We have to focus on Noelle."

"That's—that's an Akuma?" He asked.

"Close enough, but it'll wreck most of Paris."

"The people—Skitter, the rule for an Akuma is shelter in place—" He broke off as Noelle roared through a housing block, screams echoing from it. I saw heroes diving for it, along with Ryuko, but we were disorganized. Nobody was getting out of that wreck.

My fault. I opened the gate.

"All participants," I said via bugs and armband. "This is an alternate earth. Be advised that there are only six, repeat, six parahumans active here."

"Mayor Bourgeois, evacuate everyone in the 6th and 7th arrondissements and prepare for further evacuations. I—" Ladybug broke off as we saw a streak as the Alexandria clone hit a series of apartment buildings a few miles away, shattering them with such force that we felt it here. Moments later, she was being driven away by bolts of energy—lasers.

Legend.

At least we weren't facing them all.

"Who is in charge here," Chevalier asked. Next to him, I saw Tattletale, looking like she was nursing a major headache. Behind them, more capes were pouring out, but there was no defense line, nobody knew where we were, and Echidna was punching through whatever we were throwing at her.

"I am."

"You—" He frowned. "You look—"

Fuck. The one thing the glamour doesn't do is disguise your general age, and Chevalier wasn't seeing Ladybug, he was seeing someone who would be a ward back home. I opened my mouth—

"I'm the person who has been defending this city for the last two years," she snarled, and I've never heard her sound this angry. "I'm the person who is watching my people get killed, and I am the person who you are going to tell how we are going to stop this monster!"

Rena and Carapace landed in front of a mob of terrified kids and teachers from one of the primary schools. They normally remained where they were (most Akuma focusing on their own desires), but someone had glanced out the window in time to get them moving before the pile of rotting teeth and tentacles with a screaming teenager on top had demolished the building. Rena prayed everyone had gotten out. But now the monster was following them and they weren't… She put her flute to her lips and called upon her power. Moments later, dozens of superheroes, everyone she could remember from the comics and cartoons she'd read and seen, were dancing around the monster. It shrieked in fury, spinning around, trying to capture them, only for every one it touched to vanish.

Rena grinned—and then a wave of things charged her, rats merged together into a hideous conglomeration, led by a twisted… person with flaming fists. Rena gasped and dodged back, and then Carapace was in front of her, smashing the person in the face, before calling upon his power, the green shield sheltering them and the terrified children behind them.

The beast roared, Rena wanting to throw up at the stench, and brought its mass down on the shield, drooling mouths gnawing it.

Then, it screamed, as other people attacked it, bolts of energy, missiles, rockets. They didn't seem to hurt it, but it twisted away and chased them, roaring all the way.

"Quick—go!" Carapace told the teachers. "Find people with cars, don't do underground, this thing might collapse the tunnels!" Weeping in terror, the teachers nodded, leading their charges away to join the tide of panicked civilians.

This wasn't like any Akuma battle she'd ever been in.

"We've gotta recharge," Rena said.

"Yeah. I hope there's a city left when we come back."

"Echidna has a number of prisoners inside her body—that's where the clones are coming from." Chevalier seemed to have accepted her. Marinette looked over at the groups still moving.

"Is there a limit on how many she can create?" Marinette asked.

"No, but it seems that the faster they're created the weaker they are," Chevalier replied.

We need to fight, we need to fight now, Marinette wanted to gibber, but this wasn't a normal Akuma. It didn't have a nice weak spot and if she wasted her lucky charm, she couldn't call it again, not immediately. That had happened before.

"We need to keep pushing her, we—" Marinette broke off, listening. "The mayor says the evacuation orders have been given, but it will be some time before military units can get in here."

"Why aren't they here?"

"Many Akuma were powerful masters," Skitter broke in. "Keeping the military in Paris just added potential enemies."

"Skitter—"

"Shit, you're one of these…" The girl winced. "Akuma's. That's how you opened the portal."

"Didn't know about the time situation," Skitter said.

"Are you—"

"Enough!" Ladybug said. "Chevalier, do you have any parahumans who can, ah, move people?"

"A few. Teleporters."

"I need them to go to city hall. They'll have a map of hospitals and other areas with people who can't move on their own power. Get them as far away as possible."

For a moment, Marinette thought he was going to disagree, then he nodded. "We've been keeping them away from the fight anyway." Moments later, he was snapping orders. Above them, Legend continued to dog fight with the clone, while the Eidolon clone was nowhere to be seen. Marinette had a horrible image of him murdering his way through the homes and apartments.

"Skitter—"

"I'm working." Skitter was standing still.

"What—"

"Oh," the girl in the purple suit grinned. "You're going to love this. She has a range of four blocks for her bugs. Now she can make portals. Now she has a range of four blocks from every portal." Suddenly she gave Marinette a very vulpine smile. "Skitter's about to bring her friends. All of her friends."

I wasn't paying much attention to the two, as I was focusing on gathering my swarms. Even every insect in Paris could be defeated, especially by the Eidolon clone's aerokenesis. So I had to pick the right time, even as they were pouring through the portals in their endless legions.

I also had to keep track of the others. Ryuko and Queen Bee had joined with the Protectorate forces trying to slow Noelle. I don't think she really knew where she wanted to go, just that she was lashing out. Ladybug and Chat were talking urgently with Chevalier, about whether his cataclysm would be useful against Noelle or whether it would also kill the prisoners. My other portals showed me people fleeing, in some cases following the arrows I created with bugs.

But then I saw Hawkmoth staggering away from the ruins of the building. I created a clone. "You need medical attention."

"It would not be the first time my ribs have been broken, and I am not bleeding internally. I'd be far worse off if you hadn't stopped that lunatic." He paused, coughed, sat down. "Or maybe I'm a little worse off. Chat Noir said something."

"Yes. The patient. He believes she is her mother."

"I believe she is as well. And Emilie Agreste only had one child."

At any other time, I'd be shocked, right now I wished people would just stop adding problems when we already have a rampaging monster."

"I—"

"I am not capable of defending my son. Nor my wife. What is your name? There's a formality to this sort of thing." I started to ask what the hell he was talking about when he pulled the brooch off, and in a flash…

What the fuck. He really is Adrien's father.

He's lost. With that, he's lost. I can… okay.

"Taylor Hebert."

"Taylor Hebert. Here is the Butterfly Miraculous. Use it to protect my son. Please. Other than my wife, he is the only thing of value to me. If I don't…"

"No. That conversation you will have with him." I tell him, forming bug arrows to draw the attention of the fire fighters and police coming into the area as the battle moves away. They'll just think the rich Gabriel Agreste was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I open a portal, and my swarms, wasps and bees, latch on to the miraculous, and fly it through to me. I tuck it into my hair. There's no chance to learn how to use it now. So the first thing I need to do is take down Noelle.

And then I'll learn what this can do.