AN: Oh, wow! I am so excited to bring Chapter 2 of Cataclysm! I had a blast writing this story and the best part is that the full story is already written so I can bring it to you all with very little wait time!

Chapter 2: Disappearances

Marinette was uneasy, for a couple of reasons. First, it was quiet, way too quiet. Usually Hawk Moth sent out an akuma every day or, at least, every other day. There hadn't been another akuma since the day when Ladybug had, again, rejected Cat Noir that last time. In fact, Marinette hadn't even seen Cat Noir since that day.

With the lull in akumas, Marinette had taken to sneaking out as Ladybug under the cover of darkness to search around Paris. There had to be some reason why Hawk Moth had stopped akumatizing people. He would not have just given up. His desperation to get his hands on the two most powerful Miraculous was too great. Yet, Ladybug never found any clues. She also hadn't seen her superhero partner out during those times either. That was definitely strange. Marinette knew how much Cat Noir loved being a superhero. He'd told Ladybug before about how his favorite moments were when he was Cat Noir and could spend time with her. Not only that, but he did not hesitate to tease Ladybug if she was late to or missed attending their patrols together. However, now he was the one not showing up to patrol. What was going on with him?

Cat Noir's disappearance was just one thing that was bothering Marinette right now. As it turned out, another absent boy also had Marinette feeling uneasy lately. Adrien Agreste, the absolutely perfect boy that sat directly in front of her in class, hadn't been present in school for a couple days now. In fact, as strange as it was, Adrien's prolonged absence began the day after the last akuma battle. That akuma battle had taken place in the late afternoon and school, thankfully, had already ended for the day. The next day, and for all those that followed up to this point, Adrien's spot had sat vacant, waiting for the boy to show up, but he never did.

At first, Marinette hadn't thought much of it. Adrien's father kept the poor boy busy with photoshoots, some that were even scheduled during school hours. With each passing day, though, Marinette's worry grew. It wasn't like Adrien to miss school. He loved attended school and had fought hard to convince his father to allow him to come. Marinette had then worried that Adrien might've gotten sick, which would explain his multiday absence, even though Adrien never seemed to have much of a problem with that; he had an excellent immune system. If that was the case, though, then Adrien must have been very sick. Marinette's video calls to Adrien had all gone unanswered. Even in those rare times when Adrien was out sick, he normally would make an effort to at least acknowledge his friends. Sometimes that acknowledgement came in the form of a short "Thanks for thinking of me, but I don't feel up to video chatting right now" text message. This time, though, Marinette had not even gotten that response from Adrien.

Discreetly, Marinette pulled her phone out of her bag and looked at it under her desk, hoping that Ms. Bustier wouldn't catch her doing this. Marinette scrolled through her history of unanswered video calls to Adrien. How were there so many? She couldn't even count how many were in the list. No, Marinette was not that obsessed with Adrien! There was a perfectly good reason why Marinette kept trying to reach Adrien. For the length of his absence, Marinette had been entrusted to be the one to gather the work that Adrien was missing and make sure that he received it somehow. That had been Alya's clever (but sneaky, that sly fox!) idea. Marinette's best friend, knowing the massive crush that she had on Adrien, had managed to convince Ms. Bustier that Marinette, Miss Class President herself, was the best person to help out Adrien in his time of need. Honestly, Marinette didn't find it to be too difficult. All she had to do was keep track of the classwork and homework. In fact, the only hard part, so far, had been trying to reach Adrien, but Marinette was doing the best that she possibly could to connect with him.

"Marinette?"

Oh great, it seemed that Ms. Bustier had caught her! Stuffing her phone into her bag and trying to hide how stiff and rigid her back had gotten all of a sudden, Marinette looked up to face the benevolent wrath of her favorite teacher. "Yes, Ms. Bustier?" she asked in a soft voice.

Ms. Bustier just smiled, but Marinette could see the questions in her gaze. "I know you have a lot to think about right now, Marinette, with making sure that Adrien gets the work that he's missing, but you need to pay attention in class to be able to do that."

"Sorry," Marinette apologized, hanging her head. If only Ms. Bustier knew all the things that Marinette had to worry about right now, all the different thoughts in her head, but that would never happen. No one could ever know about Marinette's superhero alter ego and all the baggage that came with it. Ms. Bustier was right, though. Marinette did need to try harder to focus on school right now. It was going to be another long day of school.

Once school finished for the day, Marinette immediately pulled her phone out of her bag so she could try contacting Adrien yet again. This time, though, Marinette decided to just call Adrien. Looking through her list of contacts in her phone, Marinette found Adrien's picture and tapped it to start the call. She held her cell phone up to her ear and listened as the phone rang several times before finally being picked up by the voicemail.

"Hey, this is Adrien's voicemail. Leave a message."

For just a moment, Marinette was vaguely reminded of the very first time that she ever tried to call Adrien. The call had gone to voicemail then, too because Adrien had been in the middle of his fencing lesson that day. Yes, that was a day that Marinette would rather forget! On that day, Marinette had snuck back into the school in hopes of erasing the embarrassing message (that she had accidentally left on the voicemail) before Adrien could finish his fencing lesson and listen to what she had said. Of course, she had been unsuccessful and ended up swiping the phone to take home, so desperate she had been to delete that voicemail message! Then, of course, Ladybug and Cat Noir had that akuma fight against Copycat. What a day that had been and Marinette had felt so bad for Cat Noir (the real one), who had been accused of theft because his copycat had been jealous of him for some reason.

Then, Marinette remembered that she was supposed to be recording a voicemail for Adrien. How long had the voicemail been recording dead air? "Uh, hi, Adrien, it is Marinette, but I'm sure you already know that because you probably saw it on the Caller ID or something, right?" She giggled nervously, hoping that the recording didn't sound too ridiculously stupid. "Anyway, um, I've been trying to reach you. I have your work, you know, from school. Um, yeah, well, I hope you feel better soon, I guess. Bye." Pulling the phone from her ear, Marinette pressed the red button on the screen that ended the call before she could say anything else stupid or ruin another voicemail in typical Marinette-fashion.

Marinette was about to stick her phone back into her bag and begin to walk home, but something stopped her. There was a breaking news story. Well, that couldn't be good. Usually, breaking news stories were about newly-spotted akumas. For that reason, Marinette knew she needed to check the breaking news story before she could go home.

When Marinette tapped on the screen, Nadja Chamack appeared on the screen. Oh no, it most definitely must be about an akuma. News stories about newly-spotted akuma were usually covered by Nadja Chamack. "Don't be bemused, it's just the news. This is Nadja Chamack coming to you live with a breaking news story." A picture of Adrien Agreste flashed up on the screen and Marinette felt her heart drop. This was definitely not going to be good. "Famous model and teen idol Adrien Agreste has been reported missing," Nadja Chamack read the report. She continued reading the report, stating that it had been several days since Adrien was last seen and that anyone who had any information on the whereabouts of the boy should report it to authorities immediately."

Marinette raced around to the side of the school so that she could talk with Tikki about this latest news. She glanced quickly around to confirm that she was truly alone, before slipping open the clasp to allow Tikki to fly out of the purse. "Tikki, this is a disaster!"

"Now I guess we know why Adrien was not answering you," Tikki replied, sadly.

"Yeah," Marinette replied, just as sadly. "I wish I knew what happened, though. Could Adrien have been kidnapped?" She hated to think about poor sweet Adrien tied up somewhere in a dark room, being held for ransom by some evildoer! Then, another thought, just as unpleasant, crept into Marinette's mind. "Oh, no, what if Adrien ran away again?" Memories from a past Christmas stirred in Marinette's thoughts. It had been Adrien's first Christmas without his mother and he had not taken it well, leaving home which had created several misunderstandings and led to Ladybug and Cat Noir stepping in to deakumatize an old man posing as Santa Claus.

"It's hard to say what happened, Marinette," Tikki answered. "It's only Adrien that knows the full answer, but he has to be found first."

"It seems, then, that it's time for Ladybug to step in and do some searching!" Don't worry, Adrien! I'll do everything possible to figure this out and help to bring you back home safely!

Kind of a slow chapter…but it should start to pick up in the next one! You won't want to miss it! See you then!

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