The red and black-spotted figure landed in the back courtyard of a massage parlor. She peeked in the door and hiss-whispered out, "Master!"
"Enter," the stooped and old man called out.
She walked into the room in a brisk manner. Her transformation dropped in a shower of red-white particles. "I- I think that I'm supposed to get allies to deal with this latest Akuma."
"Allies? Plural? Hmm. Very well. Pick the Miraculouses for your allies." He walked over to the antique phonograph to open a secret panel and touch buttons in a coded order. The lid opened to reveal the Miraculous Box. He lifted it out and opened the top to reveal the place for the two and five miraculouses.
Marinette immediately picked the Fox and Bee. Then her hand wandered, as if in indecision. She looked around the box as her eyes were drawn to the bracelet. "Is that Wayzz's miraculous?"
"All three of the last top tier miraculous?"
"Oh no, that leaves you with no way to defend yourself. I'm sorry, master."
Fu smiled at her. He then reached over to the box and touched another hidden button. Four drawers opened on the middle level while another four drawers opened from the alternating sides of the octagon box on the lowest and final level.
"I still have options," he said with a laugh.
"Oh, wow. You haven't told me much yet, have you?" She blinked and then started to panic. "I need to get back as Cat Noir is fighting all alone!"
Master Fu handed her a small pouch to hold the three miraculous boxes. "Good luck, Guardian Trainee." The moment she disappeared after transforming, he frowned a bit. "Odd. Perhaps I have really chosen her to replace myself."
Ladybug swung up to the top of The Grand Paris and onto the elevator. Her eyes widened in horror at seeing Alya, Nino and Chloe trip up over the bound form of Cat Noir and all of them end up in the pool before the pirate themed akuma and his ghostly crew. The akuma laughed like a maniacal old man as he waved his saber and pistol around wildly.
"Oh no!" she shouted as she leaped to land on the edge of the pool to interpose herself between them and the akuma with a deft twist of her foot. And failed to see her partner's staff. Her feet went out from below as she fell towards her face, only to be whacked into the pool herself by the flat of the pirate's cutlass.
"You stupid cat, this is all your fault!" the blonde girl named Chloe shouted in Cat Noir's ear. "You had to go and get captured-"
"Chloe!" Alya shouted back. "How about we deal with this first."
Ladybug's head popped out of the water. "Owie."
"Dude!" Nino finally managed to untie Cat Noir even as they all struggled to stay afloat.
"This is all your fault!" the Ladyblogger said to Chloe.
"Why is it my fault that some old codger got upset when I just told him he stank like he'd fallen into something horrible!? It was even the truth!" Chloe shot right back.
"Rude! Impertinent! Captain Hurricane is not to be insulted so by a brat!" the akumatized victim ranted as he pointed his rusty cutlass at all of them. His crew waved their ghostly sabers into the air.
Far away in his hidden lair, Hawkmoth cheered. "Yes! Yes! Defeat them and take their miraculouses!"
"You stupid smelly sea dog!" Chloe shouted as she waved a fist at him. "Ladybug is really going to defeat you now!"
The glowing sigil of Hawkmoth disappeared as he suddenly realized he had an idea. "Ye dare? Fine! Be banished to the Bermuda Triangle!" He slashed his cutlass with a flash of blue magic at the rooftop pool which started to swirl like a drain.
Ladybug grabbed her yo-yo and threw back her arm to toss it at something to pull them free. The sudden grip from Chloe throwing her arms around her limb threw her off just one critical second.
"I'm scared!" the girl wailed.
Cat Noir looked around frantically for his staff only to see it get sucked into the center of the whirlpool. "There goes that idea-!" he shouted as he, Alya and Nino followed it a moment later.
One more revolution of the whirlpool and the last pair followed them through.
"Serves her right!" Captain Hurricane shouted.
"Now retrieve their miraculous!" ordered through his glowing sigil.
The pirate akuma blinked at that. "Are you daft? No one escapes from the Bermuda Triangle!" Oops.
"Bring them back or I'll remove my akuma," Hawkmoth warned.
"That won't change anything! I didn't create the Triangle! That's beyond the power you gave me!"
Hawkmoth roared in anger. "You fool!"
Ladybug and Chloe shot out of the whirlpool into the middle of a storm at night.
"LB! Overy here," Cat Noir shouted as he struggled to keep his friends afloat.
She started to swim as fast as she could with the other girl in arm. "This isn't working." Lightning flashed and revealed a rough stone formation sticking out of the sea a hundred feet away. "Can you make it to a ledge or anything?" she shouted as she pointed towards the rocky spar.
"We'll crash-" Alya tried to shout only for a wave to pull them under.
The desperate hero grabbed her yo-yo from her off hand and flung it at the misshapen pillar. Once it caught on something, she heaved herself and her burden about halfway up to a narrow ledge. She started to look down into the crashing waves for Cat Noir, Alya and Nino.
"There!" Chloe shouted as she pointed opposite the direction of Ladybug's gaze.
Ladybug threw out her yo-yo and looped it around Cat Noir's chest over his shoulder and under the other arm.
"Hold on," Cat Noir warned as he knew of his partner's tendency to throw him around at times.
"What do you meeeean-!?" Nino started to shout only to scream in panic as they were flung through the air.
The hero's feet almost slipped out from under her even as Chloe grabbed her around the torso.
"I can help!" the girl said between her gritted teeth and pulled with all her might.
"Thank you," Ladybug said in sincerity over her shoulder.
Cat Noir twisted in the so his back slammed into the rock wall instead of the normal teens. "Ow!"
"Careful! Don't' fall back into the storm," Ladybug called out as she steadied Alya.
Alya coughed out the water she swallowed. "Where are we?"
"Didn't the akuma shout about sending us to the Bermuda Triangle?" Chloe answered with a question. "But I'm sure Ladybug's lucky charm will fix everything!"
"Dude, Chloe had a helpful idea!" Nino managed to get out between coughs.
"Milady?" her partner asked.
"I don't have a better idea, but first let's get to the top of this pile of rocks so we don't fall back into the water." Ladybug scooped up Chloe again and quickly scaled up another fifty feet to the thirty foot wide top of the sea stack. "Here you go." She went back to the edge and quickly zipped up Alya with her yo-yo.
"I don't think we can stay here," Cat Noir said.
"No kidding, dude! Way to state the obvious," Nino said with a half smile.
"Duh," Alya and Chloe said in synch, then stared at each other in consternation.
Ladybug shook her head in amusement. "Lucky Charm!" she shouted as she threw her yo-yo into the air. An old style compass like Juleka's family had on their riverboat landed in her hand. Its arrow pointed to behind her. Her brow twisted to show her confusion. "The portal was in the direction, right?" She pointed away from the arrow.
All of them nodded. Cat Noir looked around with his night vision. "Yeah, roughly in between those three, uh, rock pillars?"
Alya looked worried. "Do we trust the compass?"
"Your luck has never led us astray, milady," Cat Noir said in an unusual and somber tone.
Ladybug looked around, but it was just the five of them. The beep of her miraculous losing a dot jolted her to make a quick, decisive action. She untied the pouch from her waist. "I thought that I needed more allies to stop this akuma, but it must have planned for this moment. To survive here, you three must use the miraculous I am giving you, but promise to return it to me afterwards."
Chloe and Nino's mouth dropped open in abject shock as they ignored the rain pounding down on them. Alya smiled in eagerness.
"You aren't the regular wielders, so don't get attached," she lied as she handed Alya her fox miraculous and gave her a quick wink. She then passed Nino and Chloe their own boxes.
"This is so amaz-" Chloe started to say, only to interrupt herself with opening the small lacquered box.
Three flashes of light heralded the appearance of three kwami.
Wayzz looked around as he felt a strange aura. "Where are we?" it asked in a worried tone.
"What are they?" Chloe asked in wonder.
"We're kwami, my queen. I'm Pollen," the bee kwami explained.
"Dude?" Nino asked the turtle kwami in front of them.
Alya gulped as she looked over at the green kwami. "The akuma sent us to the Bermuda Triangle."
"Oh, dear. This could be terrible!" it bemoaned.
"This is Wayzz and this is Trixx. Put on the miraculous, you three. Chloe; say 'Pollen, Buzz on!', Nino; say 'Wayzz, Shell on!' and Alya; say 'Trixx, Let's Pounce', okay?" Ladybug instructed as she handed the compass over to her partner. "Stay here while I feed my kwami, okay?" At Cat Noir's nod, she leaped back down to the narrow ledge.
Three transformation lit up the top of the sea stack, while a detransformation flared on the side.
"So, um? What are my powers?" Nino asked Cat Noir in a direct, but still friendly way.
"I, uh, don't know?" He gave them a helpless shrug.
Out of sight, Marinette fed Tikki a cookie and shivered. "I think we might be in big trouble, Tikki."
Tikki stopped munching on the macaron for a moment. "I'm sure you can handle it! Keep positive, Marinette." She went back to eating the cookie. "I'm ready!"
"Tikki, Spots On!" A moment after her transformation, she leapt to the top of the sea stack. She held out her hand to take her Lucky Charm compass back. "We'll have to swim and stay together."
"Hmm. Maybe I should keep a hold of it as I can see in the dark," Cat Noir noted aloud.
"He's got a point. I can barely see anything," Alya said to them.
"I hope I can swim okay."
Ladybug gave them all a big smile. "We'll be fine. You all have super powers and abilities." She handed the compass to her regular partner and then leaped into the sea.
With improved cheer, everyone followed her into the dark and stormy night.