Chapter 41

Marinette had asked Luka Couffaine to pass by her house near the evening and sat with him on the chaise lounge watching him take down notes onto his smartphone.

"Exactly, so far I have said you everything that you needed to know. Onyx just needs to know about the current translations I've got from the grimoire, because of the power-ups," Marinette noticed. "Before or after the meeting I will show him,"

"That's good," Luka commented looking at Marinette closing the miraculous box, then she stored it back under the chair and leaned herself with her back on Luka's arm with a relieved sigh. "Feeling relieved?"

"I'm still scared of what might come in the future to us," Marinette mentioned. "What if we fail? What if we do worse than we did before and we lose to Hawk Moth for good?"

"This won't happen Marinette. We're all in this together, " Luka informed leaning his chin over her head, then Marinette leaned closer onto the boy. "We've passed through his akumas more than a thousand times. We have always had the lead through all this and we will until the end. We just need to hold on longer and not give up on this. Maybe you all don't know it or we just don't appreciate it as much as we should, but you are Paris's most important part. If it wasn't for you, our former teammates and our current teammates Paris wouldn't be the same it is now. Paris has never been as vivid as it is now,"

"Thanks…..I haven't quite been paying attention to anyone from the city. I know they're thankful for our job. You have seen the wax figures and the statue of me and Cat Noir, which were made in dedication to everything we have done,"

"You deserve much more than that, Marinette. You and the others are risking your private life for all these people around the metropolis. This isn't even binding for you,"

„The last few months have been hard for me. I've done things I shouldn't have done at all, which led to new chaos, which could have been avoided,"

„Many people have done it without even meaning it. As long as we avoid doing it again, it's greater than nothing," Juleka's brother explained making Marinette nod.

„Yes…..I have already told you I took Nathaniel's miraculous home for a while until he's able to fight again, right?"

„Uh not yet," Luka responded. „Oh and I don't know if you heard it, but Nathaniel lied unconscious in a restroom and they found hints of hand sanitizer around his mouth. Someone tried to poison him, but failed,"

„What? Where did you know that?" Marinette questioned shocked. „He was fine this morning as I visited him,"

„Rose and Juleka went together to visit him, but his mother was there and told that," Luka stated. „Now there are police agents interrogating the staff of that level, including Nathaniel later on,"

„Oh no, I could have stayed back with him. That must have been a scheme from Hawk Moth!"

„I really won't exclude him out of this possibility, but how is he aware, that Nathaniel is the snake miraculous holder?" Luka questioned. "Did he somehow discover it through me or Aspik?"

"It's a possibility," Guessed Marinette, then her smartphone received a message and she looked at it to see Hydra had sent the group a message.

"I arrived,"

"Hydra is already here," Marinette mentioned, then she glanced through the glass of the window to see Yi walking towards the entrance of the school.

"Will you leave now?" Questioned Luka earning a nod from the blue-haired girl, then both went downstairs to the living room of the Dupain-Cheng's where they saw the adults watching the news.

"Mom, Dad, I'm going to visit Nathaniel along with Luka. Nathaniel just had some back luck in the hospital and we want to be there for him and his mom, if you're okay with it,"

"Okay, are we counting on you for dinner?" Questioned Sabine. "We didn't plan to make anything for tonight,"

"We get something on our way back home or pass by my mom eventually," Luka responded. "Don't worry, I make sure Marinette comes home in one piece,"

"That's good to hear, boy," Tom said with a chuckle making Marinette chuckle a little embarrassed. "If you need someone to bring you home, call me,"

Yes dad," Marinette answered opening the door. "See you later,"

"By Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng," Luka said closing the door behind them and went stairs down, then before leaving Marinette transformed into Marinette and walked out along with Luka and looked at the top of the school building to see Onyx appear from above their house to land on the school roof.

"Are you going to school?" Ladybug questioned making Luka shrug his shoulders.

"Is something specific going on?" Questioned Luka making Ladybug shrug.

"I know some after school activities or fencing," Ladybug answered, then Luka nodded and ran across the street and Ladybug used her yo-yo to get up on the top of the schoolhouse to catch the two childhood friends chatting. "Hey, anything special going on?" Questioned Ladybug watching Hydra and Onyx turn their heads to the red-dressed superheroine.

"Hydra told me about trying to get into fencing lessons to practice her skills," Onyx mentioned.

"The fencing class is fencing right now and gave me the idea," Added Hydra watching Ladybug look down along with Onyx to see the fencing students fight.

"Who's the one in red? The captain?" Onyx questioned making Ladybug shake her head.

"No, that's Kagami," Ladybug corrected. "That girl that used to have a crush on….you know who,"

"Okay, but why is she wearing red?"

"I think it's because the suit belongs to her family," Ladybug mentioned. "Oh and I just found this out recently, Super Snake's alter ego got attempted to get poisoned at the hospital. I believe Hawk Moth could have his hand in the game here,"

"Crap, Hawk Moth is really getting closer to us. I don't even know how this is possible, did he just luckily guess Super's identity or has he been spying on us?"

"I'm afraid so, but what's more frustrating is, that the most superheroes I had in my team are from the same class and I believe Hawk Moth got into the attempt to search for there for potential superheroes and he seemed to have got it right with Nathaniel if this was the plan," Ladybug mentioned. "We're just lucky for now on as we're all from different ages,"

"I don't know what you have planned, but wouldn't it be a good point for us to arrange a new superhero or two? At least until Super Snake is back in the game?"

"Yes, that's what I have been thinking about. The thing is it's hard to find out members for our team mostly ones I don't know well,"

"I and Hydra could try on our own to find someone," Onyx suggested. "Or only me, if you want to,"

"Yes, I know,"

"What about that guy that helped us in the hospital?" Suggested Hydra.

"It's impossible as he's going back to London soon, this won't be possible," Ladybug mentioned walking past the two superheroes, then looked up at the Eiffel tower and looked back at Onyx. "Wait a second, you actually gave me an idea,"

"Cool, what is the idea?" Questioned Hydra.

"I'm thinking about going to meet him and ask him for assistance," Ladybug mentioned earning a nod from Onyx. "Does this sound good?"

"Okay," Onyx responded, then Ladybug continued explaining her idea to him and Hydra, therefore Onyx moved his head aside hearing someone calling Ladybug's name, then Onyx moved to the edge of the roof to see Luka Couffaine under on the ground looking up at the building. Onyx jumped down at the ground to encounter the tall boy landing on his four like a cat and got up on his legs.

"Is someone in danger?" Questioned Onyx making Luka nod.

"I need to talk to Ladybug, Nino is in danger," Luka warned earning a nod from Onyx, which packed Luka by his back and jumped up at the roof with the staff to land behind the two superheroines.

"Luka?" Ladybug asked surprised, then Luka showed Ladybug his smartphone with an interrupted reportage of the French news channel, where Nadja Charmack sat along with Clara Contard looking behind themselves at a screen with Nino Lahiffe attached on a pole.

"Nino!" Ladybug cried as she saw her friend tied up.

"Don't get here Ladybug, this is a trap," Nino shouted, then someone covered his mouth with his hands and the camera got switched to the other direction to show Hawk Moth's facade making Ladybug and Onyx angry.

"Hawk Moth…." Ladybug spoke.

"Hello Ladybug remember me? I've got one of your friends here with me," Told the supervillain while Nino cried behind the man, which showed how Mayura was covering Nino's mouth with a towel. "You probably didn't expect it that I would make it to get here, hein?"

Ladybug growled angrily at the villain having managed to catch Nino, while Onyx was shocked he didn't witness anything happen to the friend and looked at Hydra, which was just as surprised as him about the kidnapping.

"We've been doing the same charade for almost over a year. Why don't you bring me your miraculous? In exchange, I leave you friend to life and I spare anyone else's life from your beloved city,"

"He's bluffing, I can feel in my tail," Onyx warned Ladybug, then Luka stepped aside from Onyx to apologize.

"Sorry I was standing on your tail," Luka commented making Onyx furrow his eyebrow.

"He's a real supervillain, not a movie villain. He doesn't tick like the ones we know, nor like the akuma ones," Ladybug warned earning a nod from Onyx.

"You have the last word, LB," The black-dressed superhero added looking at the smartphone to listen to the supervillain.

"You have two choices, you either save the life of your only friend here and for that, everyone else is doomed or two you give me your miraculous and you won't see me ever again. I hope you're able to make a quick choice or else in the next 24 hours your friend here will be sleeping with the fishes," Hawk Moth finished with a malicious grin before turning the video call off, which didn't disappear, but he switched it to mute. Hawk Moth frowned as he pressed the wrong button afterward he clicked on the smartphone managing to finish the call leaving the women in the studio to exchange looks with the others.

"Well, this was a….I really don't know what to say about this Clara," Najda said earning a nod from the brunette woman.

"Okay I know believe every one of you here is wondering, what will happen the next 24 hours, what can we do the next hours. We will switch to commercial and come back later. Please make sure to have TV or a radio channel on for further information,"

"We gotta do something," Luka warned the superheroes watching Ladybug look at the cathedral of Notre dame, then Onyx approached the heroine and looked at her.

"I know this is now shocking, but we're a team. We can do it together," Onyx cheered the heroine up, then Luka stood on the other side placing his arm on Ladybug's shoulder.

"We've got 24 hours in front of us, we have enough time to find a solution for this," Luka assured. "We can recruit more superheroes, ask Max to track down Hawk Moth somehow, or make up a diversion to lure Hawk Moth into a trap,"

"I know…..I need to think about it,"

"Has anyone an idea about what we should do about the citizens now knowing about this scene with Hawk Moth?" Questioned Hydra making Onyx shrug his shoulders.

"I think asking the police or Mayor Bourgeois to comfort the citizens would be a big help or the citizens may get negative emotions and we're screwed or worse. He uses multiple akumas on us," Hydra explained earning a nod from Ladybug.

"Go meet Mayor Bourgeois as soon as possible and speak to the citizens, ask everyone to remain calm, cause Hawk Moth just wants to make people feel down to akumatize them,"

"I'm not sure if that will work out,"

"You just have to make the people know they're safe. You don't have to make a whole speech about it," Onyx explained placing his arms on Hydra's shoulders. "Just a few comforting sentences will be enough,"

"Alright, I'll do it," Hydra said placing her hand on Onyx's cheek to give him a kiss on his cheek, then ran on the roof and jumped against the power line activating her lighting power to disappear into the cable to travel quickly across the city.

"Hey I could call Alya and she later on Nino's parents to mention them, we're aware of Nino's kidnapping," Luka advised searching for the girl's phone number, then set it on as a video call.

"Thanks Luka," Ladybug answered, then Onyx grabbed Ladybug on her arm to get her attention.

"Don't you want to take a break and eat something?" Onyx offered the superheroine, which shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe I should do it," Ladybug responded. "I haven't eaten a thing today,"

"Woah you should really see, that you eat something or you'll lose your energy,"

"Yeah I know, I didn't have the chance today due to the number of issues of today," Ladybug mentioned.

"Don't worry, I'll get us all something to eat," The raven-haired superhero promised, then jumped over the bakery disappearing behind it leaving Ladybug back with Luka, which waited for Alya Césaire to attend the phone call.


Adrien sat in front of his computer watching the video where his best friend was tied up on a pole. Adrien repeated the whole video again to listen to Hawk Moth's threat towards Ladybug's team.
„You have two choices, you either save the life of your only friend here and for that, everyone else is doomed or two you give me your miraculous and you won't see me ever again. I hope you're able to make a quick choice or else in the next 24 hours your friend here will be sleeping with the fishes,"

"I've heard this voice somewhere, but where?" Adrien asked himself, then heard his computer receive a message, then Adrien opened the message to see it was from his former classmate Max Kanté.

"Hey, Adrien how are you? Is it possible for you to send me Nino's number? I know how to locate him,"

Adrien grabbed his smartphone, then looked up for Nino's number and opened it to type down the number to the friend. After Adrien sent Max the phone number Adrien had an idea and opened the Facestargram app to look for Nino's account.

"Hey I can track Nino on Facestargram too," Adrien spoke, then opened his icon and pressed on the sixth option which showed the word maps and his smartphone displayed on the screen of the smartphone a map of Paris and Nino's icon was displayed a few millimeters beside Adrien's icon making him raise his eyebrows surprised. Adrien actualized the card, which after it loaded again showed him the same picture. Adrien dropped his mouth and pulled the video on his computer back to have Hawk Moth's part get played.

"See me ever again. I hope you're able to make a quick choice or else in the next 24 hours your friend here will be sleeping with the fishes,"

"AhhhhrgHhè" Adrien enraged shot pushing his chair away from him, which rolled into the middle of his bedroom, then Adrien took his smartphone and ran out of his bedroom going across the corridor. At the stairs he encounters his bodyguard walking stairs up, then Adrien jumped onto the man, causing him to fall down and he packed the man on the jacket.

"Where's my father?!" Adrien asked loud. "He's hiding Nino somewhere in the house"

"Huh?" The bodyguard asked, then Adrien showed the man his smartphone so he could take a look at it.

"Why is Nino at the moment with Hawk Moth and per coincidence when I track him he's here under our house?" Asked the blonde watching the bodyguard shrug his shoulders, making Adrien take his hand off his bodyguard and sit down on the stair. "You don't know anything about this, right?" Adrien asked making the bodyguard shake his head. "Okay, we need to get help from the superheroes, but I don't know how to contact them," Explained the French boy then the bodyguard placed his arm behind Adrien's back to cheer him up. Adrien's smartphone rang, then he took it to see his girlfriend Aja was calling, then he attended it.

"Hey Aja, you're sort of calling at a good...bad moment,"

"Hey, I've heard from Felix, that your best friend got kidnapped and I called you in case you needed someone to talk about it,"

"That's really sweet from your Aja, but…...I'm…..there are many things going through my head right now. I have no idea what to say or how I should explain to you that,"

"Has it to do with your past superhero life?"

"A little…..I believe I may have found out who is behind all these akumatizations, but…..it's hard to believe it,"

"Is it someone you know?"

"Uh hum," Adrien answered rolling his eyes at the bodyguard, which caressed the boy on his back, then looked at the door and walked at the office of Gabriel Agreste to take a look into the office. "I believe it's my father and if I think about it, it all makes sense. He was never there for me since the day my mother disappeared. He barely lets me go out, threatened me and Ladybug on the day of my revelation also had the audacity to order her to give him our miraculouses back as if he was parents of both of us,"

"Oooo this sounds like a lot to take at once,"

"I need to find out how to contact the superheroes and ask for help. Otherwise in the next hours, my friend Nino will lose his life,"

"How did you under each other talk as there was an issue?"

"We only knew each other as superheroes and talked through our weapons with each other. We never had each other's phone numbers or anything,"

"Well, that's really hard. I have no idea, what I could tell you right now to help you,"

"It's fine Aja, at least I could be able to talk with someone," Adrien admitted watching his bodyguard open the door of the entrance to encounter the gray Sedan parked on the front of the stairs and the bodyguard walked downstairs. Adrien got up to follow the bodyguard, which took a look at the vehicle, then entered the car. "Hey is it okay if I call you later?"

"Sure, what are you going to do if I may ask?"

"Ask my bodyguard to look for help," Adrien said.

"Okay, please don't put yourself in danger,"

"No I just do it, when it's necessary," Adrien mentioned making Aja giggle.

"Please be careful," Aja asked making Adrien nod.

"I will be," Adrien answered. "Bye,"

Adrien went down to the vehicle to see the bodyguard open the glove compartment to see an envelope fall out, then Adrien took it out and sat inside the car to open the envelope and see a letter from a car rental service.

"This is from the train station," Adrien mentioned earning a nod from the bodyguard watching Adrien read the letter, then looked at his smartphone to see the date. "They rented another car for today, but why?" The blonde questioned the grey-haired man, which shrugged his shoulder. Adrien lied his head back on the seat, then looked at the adjusted side mirror the reflection of the superhero Onyx pass above making Adrien wide his eyes and he got out of the car to see him above the next building heading to the Notre dame.

"Onyx wait!" Adrien shouted aloud, but Onyx didn't seem to have heard Adrien, which frowned and ran back into the car closing the door. "Follow the superhero," The blonde ordered making the bodyguard nod, which turned on the engine and left the building to drive on the road, where they saw in the end Onyx jump at the cathedral, afterward he landed on top of the school making Adrien smirk and point at the school earning a nod from the man, which drove the blonde there.

Adrien opened the window to put his head out, thereafter through his hair a wind stream passed by blowing his streaks up making him smile pleased by the feeling and beside him, the bodyguard smiled noticing the blonde having a liking on it.

"We're there," Adrien announced getting out of the car running at the stairs, then looked up at the building to hear someone being thankful. "Onyx! Ladybug! I need your help!... Hey!" Adrien cried looking up waiting for an answer. "Ladybug! Onyx! It's Adrien!" Adrien shouted afterward the bodyguard honked a few times and at the edge of the roof Onyx appeared and jumped down landing on the wall.

"Hey, you're here to help?" Questioned Onyx making Adrien shrug his shoulders.

"Yes I really need to talk to you and Ladybug, it's because of Nino and Hawk Moth. I believe I have found out who is hidden behind his mask," Adrien stated making Onyx curious at the blonde's knowledge.