Ladybug smiled blissfully as she leaped around the rooftops. It was rare to feel so relaxed in her superheroine persona.

Heh, persona. If Chat were one of the Phantom Thieves, he might have found that funny.

The thought of Chat Noir made her frown slightly in guilt. She felt bad for keeping him out of the loop with the Phantom Thieves alongside the Miraculouses, but without the knowledge of his identity, it pained her to admit that she wasn't sure if she could trust him with it, and that he wouldn't try anything reckless.

Make no mistake, she trusted him with her life, but she refused to take the risk if she could avoid it. It seemed even as a hero that her feline partner had a fairly black and white view of the world. It reminded her of Adrien a little bit. If she told him about the Phantom Thieves, would he try to go to the police? The Phantom Thieves were good people doing good things! Plus, the Metaverse could be the key to figuring out Hawkmoth, as it was clear their old strategy of dealing with akumas wasn't working. They couldn't go the rest of their lives only reacting to every attack that came their way - that would only spell burnout and thus failure.

"M'lady!" Chat Noir exclaimed, jumping onto the rooftop next to her.

"Hey, kitty!" she greeted pleasantly. "How are you doing?"

"Good," Chat responded, "and your appearance just makes it better!"

"What happened to your girlfriend?" Ladybug teased.

"Shut it, you," Chat scowled good-naturedly. "I actually did have something I need to talk to you about."

Ladybug frowned in concern. "What's wrong?"

"At this point I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts," Chat began. Ladybug mentally gulped.

"Yeah, I have. What about them?" she said carefully.

"I came across a woman who had received a calling card and did a bit of spying on her. Do you remember Zombizou? Caline Bustier?"

"You spied on her?" Ladybug asked, eyes wide. "Why?"

"The Phantom Thieves are criminals, aren't they?" Chat answered simply. "I was hoping I'd see someone suspicious enter her apartment if I staked the place out. No luck there, but I heard her crying, so I assume the change of heart happened."

Ladybug's eyes widened. Mme. Bustier had been missing from school due to the calling card, but she hadn't heard about this!

"Really?! Why didn't you tell me?" she gasped.

"I tried to!" Chat exclaimed, sounding a little frustrated. "I tried to call you and the other heroes, like, fifty times!"

"Sorry, chaton," Ladybug apologized. "I might have come with you if I weren't busy at the time… and if I'd already learned about Bustier receiving a calling card. This was my first time hearing about it…"

Chat scowled, but it didn't last before he just seemed to wilt. "I guess that's true. Unlike with Lila's case, the police have been trying really hard to keep this under wraps to avoid people panicking."

"I don't fault them," Ladybug admitted. "The last thing we want is a third mass akumatization."

"You don't think she'll be akumatized, will she?" Chat wondered.

"Probably," Ladybug sighed, "and I bet she'll be a tough one."

Scratching the back of her head, she laughed awkwardly. "Good thing I brought in the new heroes, huh?"

"Yeah…" Chat agreed, voice somewhat quiet. "We really should see if we can catch those guys, don't you think?"

"What?" Ladybug uttered. He wasn't serious!

"Well, shouldn't we?" Chat asked, not noticing the shock in her voice. "I mean, how do we know what they're doing is actually good? People do bad things in the name of the greater good and stuff, you know!"

"They're exposing criminals and bad people to the public," Ladybug defended, feeling a sense of deja vu over this situation. "How does that make them bad people? Batman does it in comic books, and he's undoubtedly a good guy!"

"I guess…" Chat said, "but what I guess I'm really worried about is what happens if they go bad. Plus, they keep causing akumas…"

"One," Ladybug began, holding up a finger, "If they go bad, we'll talk about it then. They haven't done anything wrong now, so there isn't the need to worry now."

"Two," she continued, holding up an adjacent finger, "Akumas aren't the Phantom Thieves' fault - they're Hawkmoth's! Lila is - er, was - a bad person, but she wasn't entirely responsible for any akumas but the ones she willingly agreed to."

"Well, even if that's true, aren't they indirectly helping him?" Chat pointed out, "I mean, if people keep panicking when they show up-"

"Akumas are going to come from somewhere," Ladybug shot back, "If Hawkmoth doesn't find them through the work of the Phantom Thieves, he'll find someone else!"

"But wouldn't it be ideal to-"

"It would be ideal if nobody got akumatized," Ladybug admitted, "you're not wrong there. But whether we like it or not, that's not what will actually happen as long as Hawkmoth and Mayura have their Miraculouses."

"There is a balance that needs to be found between idealism and realism, isn't there?" Ladybug pointed out. "I get that you have good intentions, but… what's the phrase…"

Just as Ladybug remembered, a loud sound caught both heroes' attention. It wasn't an explosion, thankfully, but rather some sort of… drilling sound?

Ladybug looked at Chat, both of their eyes wide. "You don't think…?" Ladybug asked.

Steeling himself and pulling his baton from his side, Chat simply answered, "Only one way to find out, M'lady."


Ladybug nearly thought she had been taken into the ending scene of The Incredibles when she and Chat arrived at the scene. What looked like a giant, mobile drilling machine with a face was tearing apart the street; naturally, people were running away, screaming in fear. The face of the drilling machine was merely two eyes and pearly-white, razor-sharp teeth.

"Wow, what a buzz-drill," Chat Noir quipped.

"Not to undermine your pun, but we have work to do," Ladybug quipped back.

"Ladybug! Chat Noir!" the villain shouted from on top of the drill monster, "Hand your Miraculous over or else the only place you'll find this city will be twenty feet under!"

"And here I expected a line about being six feet under…" Ladybug sighed. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"Looks like a Drill Sergeant to me," Yanbian laughed, leaping down from the roof. Shadow Barb was close behind.

"Not bad, I'll grant you that," the akuma snarled. "I'm Doctor Drill - it'll be a pleasure to beat you!"

"Somehow, that's worse than Yanbian's idea," Kobra snarked, Bunnix and Dragonica standing at his side.

"I'll show you bad ideas!" Doctor Drill roared. "You can't beat us!"

"Us?" Dragonica tilted her head to the side.

"Yes," Doctor Drill sneered, "did you not see my giant machine?"

A few awkward seconds passed before Shadow Barb realized what he meant. "Oh, shit, it's a sentimonster!"

The villain cackled maniacally as the sentimonster smashed against a building where two kids were hiding. They screamed in fear before stopping in shock as they found themselves up on the rooftop.

"Jerk!" Yanbian yelled as he gently put them down in the arms of two women he really hoped were their parents before going somewhere else to recharge.

Ladybug grit her teeth. She hated akumas like this, who didn't even realize or care about the people that got caught and hurt in the crossfire. They were the ones who proved how much of a heartless monster their master was!

No matter, Ladybug thought to herself, we can make it right.

"Where do you think the akuma and amok are?" Bunnix asked as she dodged a drill from the sentimonster.

"Maybe it's those metal gloves of his?" Chat Noir suggested. "I'd try using my power and clashing with him, but I'm worried it would catch on and destroy him too…"

"There are two gloves, though," Dragonica pointed out, "which one has the akuma?"

"That's it!" Kobra called out, pounding his fist into his palm, "What if the akuma's in one of those gloves and the amok's in the other?"

"That makes sense!" Dragonica gasped, flipping backwards and evading another piercing strike of a drill. "Now we need to figure out how we'll get to them!"

"With that sentimonster and its drill hands, we can't get anywhere close!" Shadow Barb exclaimed.

Ladybug grit her teeth once more before throwing her yo-yo in the air, calling on her Lucky Charm for a possible clue.

A sock fell into her hands.

Chat opened his mouth, only for Kobra to say, "Don't make a pun about socking him with the Lucky Charm." The Black Cat wielder grumbled but ultimately shut up.

Looking around, Ladybug's eyes flashed from the sock to the debris littering the streets to Shadow Barb. Everything clicked into place for her.

"Got a plan?" Bunnix asked.

"Yeah! Shadow Barb, stick with me, and have your Voyage ready to go! Everyone else, distract the sentimonster and keep its drills spread out!"

"Can do, Bug!" Shadow Barb nodded, running along with Ladybug as everyone else scattered around the mechanical sentimonster.

"Hey, you old bucket of bolts! Eat my dust!" a returned Yanbian taunted, sprinting and literally running circles around the enemy.

Meanwhile, Ladybug and Shadow Barb rushed over to the debris the sentimonster had left scattered about. Ladybug started putting any piece of building and street that could fit in the sock inside.

"You're not seriously thinking of hitting him in the face with that, are you?" Shadow Barb choked on a laugh, incredulous.

"Oh, yes," she answered, grinning deviously.

"Vicious…" Shadow Barb shuddered, but he had a grin of his own on. "Let's do it!"

After the sock was near bulging with rocky materials, Ladybug tied up the open end and gave it a practice spin, nearly resembling her yo-yo with the spins.

"Oh boy, I bet this is going to hurt," Shadow Barb couldn't help but cringe a little; his smile remained regardless. "Voyage!"


Doctor Drill continued to laugh as he jerked the sentimonster's controls wildly. These heroes were nothing but insects meant to be squashed underneath or be ripped to ribbons.

He felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, dude," a younger male voice said.

Spinning around, the last thing Doctor Drill would see before blacking out was the smiling visage of the Horse hero waving at him before a hard red- and black-spotted something hit him square in the face.

Bunnix and the others had been pinned by a few of the drills before they suddenly shut down, dropping to the ground of the roofs and sliding away to lamely land on the streets.


"What?!" Hawkmoth gasped at the brutality Ladybug had just displayed. He'd already been thrown off his guard with the past few akumas with the repeated returns of not only Shadow Barb, Bunnix, and Dragonica, but Yanbian as well?! He'd only appeared once or twice before!

"Curses, curses, curses!" he raged. "Where is she finding all of those damned heroes?"

"She must have made them permanent holders, Gabriel," Mayura reasoned next to him, though she looked frustrated too, "It's the only explanation. We also didn't see her leave the scene at any time to hand the Miraculous to them."

"And yet we haven't seen the Fox, Turtle, Bee, Monkey, Tiger, and Rooster heroes for a while… why only pick these ones to be permanent?" he wondered.

"That I don't know, sir… perhaps it is an attempt to throw us off?" Mayura threw out.

Hawkmoth frowned. He was puzzled as to why she chose these heroes to be permanent. The encounter he had with the new Fox hero still lingered in the back of his mind. That boy somehow couldn't be akumatized; he would have been the first he made permanent if he was in Ladybug's shoes. So why hadn't she? They hadn't seen Kijutsu-shi for well over a month.

Many possibilities came to mind. It could be that they lived further away, or even outside of Paris. It could also be that she was trying to use Miraculouses he and Mayura didn't have experience combating.

"We will have to see, won't we?" he growled as the window closed in front of them.


"Now that's the power of destruction!" Chat Noir exclaimed as Ladybug and Shadow Barb hopped out of the cockpit with the Doctor's metal gloves.

"All yours, Chat Noir!" Ladybug shouted, tossing them towards him.

"Cataclysm!" he shouted, destroying one and grabbing the other to claw it up, releasing both the amok and akuma.

Expertly catching both the moth and feather, Ladybug threw the now empty sock into the air and exclaimed, "MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!"

After setting the city to rights, Ladybug, Chat and the other heroes shared a seven-way fist-bump.

As civilians came out of their hiding spots, cheering for the heroes, Chat whispered to Ladybug, "M'lady, can we talk about the Phantom Thieves thing later? I should be going now, but…"

"We'll see, chaton," Ladybug said semi-distractedly as she leaped away to go wherever she needed to be.

He didn't notice the other heroes looking at him suspiciously as they leaped away too, leaving him to comfort the formerly-akumatized dentist.

As Ladybug and the permanent heroes reconvened in Marinette's room, they met up with Nathaniel. They'd been planning to do a Mementos trip, but it had been called off in begrudging favor of Doctor Drill.

"How did it go?" the redhead greeted, looking up from his sketchbook.

"Been a while since we've all been fighting together," Alix smiled, "Gotta say - it felt good."

Nathaniel nodded. "Not to sound demanding or anything of the sort," he prefaced hesitantly, before asking, "but Marinette, do you intend to give me a Miraculous at some point or another?"

"At some point, perhaps," Marinette shrugged, "as long as I can still trust you by the time you're needed."

"Of course, Mari," Nathaniel nodded approvingly, "and if you need to switch me out or something, do what you must."

"In fact…" Marinette grinned slightly, "I have a feeling you'll be needed soon."

"Huh?" Nathaniel uttered, confused.

"Mme. Bustier will most likely be akumatized at some point around her confession," Kagami explained, "I'd wager you'd receive a Miraculous around then… provided you keep up the good behavior."

"I doubt it will be another mass attempt, though," Kim pointed out, "Hawkmoth usually has to prepare for those, but something tells me she's going to be a pretty strong one regardless."

"So not Zombizou?" Nino wondered. "That form was terrifying enough!"

"It's possible, but I doubt it," Luka said. "From what I've picked up, akumas are based on the source of the emotions. Kim became Dark Cupid because of his heartbreak over Chloe rejecting him, for example."

"When did you hear about that?" Kim asked.

"Juleka told me…" Luka cringed slightly. "She had been comforting Max - it was before you two got together, after all - and she thought he'd be the akuma on that Valentine's Day."

"Oh…" Kim said, cheeks a little red.

Marinette bit her lip. She would have to find footage of Madarame's confession or ask the Tokies what Kamoshida was like when he confessed so she could at least try and gauge how strong the akuma would be, not to mention the amok that would probably accompany it.

As if sensing her worry, Luka placed a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be alright, M."

"Thanks, Lu," she said, squeezing the hand.

"Well, we can't do much until she actually confesses," Alix pointed out. "When do you think she'll do it? She doesn't exactly have a flair for the dramatics."

"An apathetic person like her would probably procrastinate it off until the last minute," Kagami theorized. "Do you think she'd do it during the results of the election?"

"That would be a problem," Nino gulped.

"Well, tomorrow is the day where the results are posted," Marinette pointed out. "We'll have to be ready for just about anything."

"Should any of the Tokies be on standby for Miraculous?" Nathaniel asked.

"They may as well be," Kagami sighed, "Even if we know someone will get akumatized, we don't know the form they'll take or how strong they'll be until it happens."

"I'll let Futaba know-"

A ping from all their phones interrupted Marinette.

Oracle: Way ahead of you, Mari!

"Okay, I'll admit - that still freaks me out!" Kim admitted.

Oracle: BTW, awesome akuma fight today! You guys did great!

Marinette nodded, a smile overtaking her face.

"Alright, I think that about settles it," she said, "Now… we just have to wait."

Despite the preparations, there was still the strong sense of foreboding that none of them could shake. Even so… they couldn't help but feel confident that things would be all right.