Chapter 21 - Three Down
Adrien was bouncing his leg up and down, nervous as to what was awaiting him when the next akuma attack came.
They had made a plan and decided to carry it out as soon as the next akuma struck. They would get transformed and go to the Agreste Mansion and look for Hawkmoth. Once they found where he was, they would confront him and ask him to get back his miraculous. If he doesn't do it willingly… well, Adrien didn't want to think about that. Not yet.
Marinette was sitting in her usual spot, listening to the teacher and taking notes. Every now and then she would glance at Adrien, sensing his stress even from a seat away.
The alarm went. Everything became dull for Adrien, the shouts and screams turning into an unfocused buzz as he mindlessly looked around at the panicked faces that surrounded him. Only when Marinette grabbed his hand did he shake his head and focus. Now was not the time to zone out.
He looked at Marinette and together they silently agreed to head to the nearest alley and transform.
The plan had started. The five heroes met up on a rooftop just next to the Agreste Mansion.
"Ok, I'm glad we're all here," Ladybug nodded in gratitude to the three in front of her. "Everyone ready?"
They all nodded though with slight reluctance. Ladybug grabbed Chat Noir's hand and squeezed it. He gently squeezed back but his face stayed in a frozen mixture of grief, anger and confusion, as if he wasn't sure why they were doing whatever they were going to do.
The heroes jumped over to the house and snuck in through Adrien's window, which was, as usual, open. They landed and gave a small nod to signal their split; Ladybug went with Rena Rouge and Carapace, while Chat Noir went with Queen Bee.
As they slipped around the house, unnoticed, they listened for any sounds of voices.
There was a gasp.
"Chat Noir, was that you?" Queen Bee looked around the corner to see the black clad hero frozen in his tracks. "Did you hear something?"
Chat quietly nodded, "Yes. He's this way." He turned around and led her to Gabriel Agreste's office. He headed towards where he heard the sound. It came from…. the painting of his mother?
Queen Bee entered closely followed by the other three heroes who she had obviously gone to get. They all quietly went to stand in front of the painting.
"Could it be behind the painting?" Ladybug, with her usual ideas, had started wondering aloud how the voices could be coming from the painting. "Maybe there's a hidden door…?" She trailed off as she walked closer to the painting and felt her hands over it to see if there was anything irregular about it.
"Oh!" Ladybug had felt something. The painting seemed to be going inwards in a few places. "Ok, I can feel something that might be buttons. I'm going to guess we need to press them all and then a secret door will open," She looked at Chat.
"Alright, let's get pressing then," Rena stepped forwards and together they pressed down all the buttons. When they did they felt the floor shift beneath them. Before they could make any sound Carapace held his finger to his mouth to quiet them. They nodded and he urged them to step onto the floor that was starting to move down. They shifted so they would all fit and no sooner where they in a different room, moving down in a sort of tube.
Ladybug could feel Chat tense beside her, from the close proximity that he was with the walls. He was, after all, claustrophobic.
When the floor beneath them shuddered to a stop they could step out on to a still catwalk that went two ways. To the right there was something like a small orchard at the end of the cat walk with a white tube in the middle. At the end of the left side the room grew into a much bigger space and you could see a large, stained glass window with a pattern almost like a butterfly.
The heroes were mesmerised by the sheer amount of space surrounding them. They could barely see either side of the room.
Ladybug carefully assessed the area, looking left and right. She gently nudged Chat Noir. He flinched but quickly looked at her questioningly.
"Can you still hear the voice?" She whispered.
Chat's ears perked up and after a while he nodded silently.
Rena Rouge, being the smart girl she is, quietly asked, "From where is it coming?"
After a little while Chat muttered, "From over there," He was pointing to his left, towards the window.
Silently, they agreed to quietly walk over there and to stay alert if they see anyone.
Soon enough they heard a voice muttering in front of them and they all quickly looked at each other and then kept going, standing closely so they could protect each other from all sides.
When they got to the end of the catwalk they could see the large stained glass window and a dark figure in front of it. The figure was cast into shadow by the rest of the room and stood out like a silhouette towards the contrast of the light coming in from the window. They could see it was a man, tall and foreboding.
The heroes kept moving forward, however more carefully than before. They went closer and closer but the man didn't seem to hear them or maybe he was ignoring them. Chat's breathing was quicker than before, Ladybug could feel it on her back; quick breaths getting quicker the closer they came.
The man turned quickly and Rena Rouge gasped. It was him. Hawkmoth. His face masked with silver. His purple coat, lined with silver on the sides and his staff. Chat Noir's eyes grew to about twice the size they would usually be when he was transformed. Ladybug remembered that face. The face that the akumas had made the first day she had used her miraculous and the face she had seen when she lost Master Fu. She was angry and she wanted to run over there and grab the butterfly pin off his chest but she knew it wouldn't work. She hasn't forgotten how strong he had been the last time they had fought him two on one. Ladybug was glad he didn't have any akumas that could help him this time.
Hawkmoth looked mildly startled at finding 5 of the heroes of Paris standing behind him in his layer. He soon hid is surprise and smiled at them.
"Ah. How did you find out?" He asked this as casually as asking what the weather was. He gave them a fake smile.
"Hawkmoth."
The growl came from right behind Ladybug and she reached behind her to grab Chat Noir's hand. She squeezed it but when she glanced at him she could see the look of utter anger on his face. Out of the corner of her eye she could also see the disgust in Rena Rouge and Queen Bee's face. Carapace looked almost as furious as Chat Noir.
"We got tipped off," Ladybug answered Hawkmoth's question, trying to ignore the restlessness coming off from the other heroes.
Hawkmoth nodded as if he should have known this.
Ladybug was also starting to become inpatient. "Ok, let's get this over with. Give us the miraculous and we won't fight you. We could solve this peacefully."
Hawkmoth laughed, "You believe that five kids, who think they're strong because they have a miraculous, scare me?"
Ladybug frowned, "You know that we're strong. We've fought against you before." She looked at him expectantly, "Give us your miraculous and we can sort this out without a fight."
"No, I don't think I will," Hawkmoth took a step forward his cane outwards and almost touching Ladybug's yoyo which was spinning. Chat Noir took a step forward his staff ready to attack. Hawkmoth smirked and took the last step forward aiming a hit at Ladybug. She was ready for it, jumped up and out of the way, her yoyo ready to parry any hits. Queen Bee advanced forwards and started aiming hits at Hawkmoth. He deflected them with his cane, trying to take hits back but not succeeding since there was five of them and one of him.
Ladybug saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She looked over and saw Mayura aiming a hit at her. Ladybug dodged and was able to warn the others.
"Guys, Mayura's here too," She muttered towards them and they huddled closer together in a circle form so they would be able to protect each other and see everything that was coming their way.
Ladybug and Chat Noir were fighting Hawkmoth now, parrying his hits and trying to get in some of their own. Chat Noir was aiming hits at Hawkmoth's legs, trying to get him to fall over so it would be easier to grab the butterfly miraculous of his chest. Meanwhile Ladybug was parrying most of Hawkmoth's hits, also protecting Chat while he was busy attacking Hawkmoth.
Queen Bee was aiming the most hits at Mayura with her spinning top. Carapace and Rena Rouge were flanking her, trying to find a way to get her miraculous.
They fought like this for a while but they were all equally matched.
Rena quickly thought of a plan. She grabbed her flute from where it was on her back, and blew the little tune to create a mirage. She hit the flute to the ground and several Queen Bee's, Carapace's and Rena Rouge's appeared. Mayura, taken aback by the sudden multiplication of her enemies, took a few steps back from the closest doppelgängers. She tried using her fan to make the nearest mirages disappear. This only worked for a while since there were so many. In a last effort to dispel the heroes she took a feather from her fan and created a sentimonster. It was a gigantic butterfly similar to the one she had summoned when they were fighting Scarlet Moth.
The creature stayed in front of Mayura, preventing any of the heroes or mirages of them, from attempting another attack towards Mayura. It started flapping its wings, blowing away the closest mirages.
Ladybug groaned having seen the amok fly into Hawkmoth's cane but wasn't able to catch it with her yoyo because she was busy countering one of Hawkmoth's attacks. She started making harder hits on Hawkmoth's cane to try break it. After a while of clinking and clanking Chat Noir hit the cane particularly hard, taking out all his anger and finally breaking it. Ladybug wasted no time swinging her yoyo and grabbing the amok and purifying it, letting out the now, pure white feather. The sentimonster disappeared letting Queen Bee rush forward with her spinning top.
When she called, "Venom!" it echoed all around the chamber, alerting the surrounding heroes and villains alike.
"NO!" Hawkmoth shouted out as he saw Queen Bee sink her throbbing spinning top into Mayura's arm. Mayura sat completely still as Queen Bee walked over and grabed the peacock pin off her chest. Mayura's transformation drops leaving startled Nathalie Sancoeur behind. She soon realised what was going on and jumped back, ready to protect herself in case Queen Bee would attack her. Queen Bee didn't make another move, just giving Nathalie a cold glare.
Chat Noir had taken a glance when Nathalie had appeared, and stumbled. Ladybug had seen and had made sure to direct Hawkmoth's attention completely to her, letting Chat have a moment to acknowledge what was happening. Ladybug spinned her yoyo and hit Hawkmoth in the stomach. He lurched forwards, bending over for a second then trying to compose himself by standing upright again. Ladybug aimed a kick towards his stomach again but before she even came close to hitting him Chat Noir had jumped in front of her and started fencing with him, Chat using his staff and Hawkmoth, having picked up his cracked cane and unsheathing the blade inside, this.
The fight was loud. The two weapons kept clashing with each other emitting noisy clanks of metal against metal. They kept attacking and parrying, Chat, so well trained because of his fencing and Hawkmoth because of his practice. There was fire in Chat's eyes, an anger that was so strong it was terrifying to watch. Ladybug was worried for Chat. Hawkmoth's blade was sharp, if it hit him it would leave a nasty cut.
The others didn't dare make a move, worried that if they slipped up the blade would cut someone. The fight became more intense the more they fought. They were all so caught up with it when Queen Bee felt it. Something was different. Nathalie was standing behind her, her hands in a ready position, ready to fight.
"You think I'm harmless now that I don't have my miraculous?" Nathalie was confronting three heroes now paying attention to her, "Think again!"
Nathalie ran towards Queen Bee, trying to grab the miraculous from the top of her head. Queen Bee fought back not using her spinning top but using hand to hand combat. However, Nathalie was fast and kicked Queen Bee in the stomach, making her cough. Distracted by the pain of the kick, Queen Bee didn't see Nathalie try to grab her miraculous. However, Carapace dis and shouted, "Shell-ter!"
The large shell-like barrier spread out, taking Queen Bee, Rena Rouge and Carapace inside it. Carapace thought this out well because as soon as the sphere stayed still, Rena Rouge detransformed. She had used her power for the mirages a while ago and the five minutes had obviously passed. For a second, Queen Bee stared at Alya incredulously then shook her head and winced at the still painful hit on her stomach.
"But we have to help them!" Alya was already arguing, unhappy that she couldn't get out of the magical force field.
"They'll manage," Carapace was trying to calm her down. "Plus, you wouldn't do much good detransformed."
Alya frowned, "I know but still…" She looked out to where Chat Noir was still fighting Hawkmoth and Ladybug had started fighting Mayura. She looked over to Queen Bee who was sitting down, hunched over, "Hey, you okay?"
Queen Bee looked up, "Yeah," She winced as she talked, "I guess I know who you are now."
Alya nodded, "Yeah. Well there wasn't much to lose considering everyone here except you knew who I was."
Queen Bee agreed then stopped, confused, "Wait, Carapace you knew?"
He just smiled.
"Oh," Queen Bee's face flashed with realisation, "You're Nino."
"Yup, it's me dudette," Carapace nodded.
"Do you think we'll find out who Ladybug and Chat Noir are?" Alya was looking at the other two in the safety shell.
"It's possible." Trixx had appeared from behind Alya, "Hi, I'm Trixx by the way."
Queen Bee and Carapace nodded in acknowledgement.
"Yes you just might." Pollen was floating next to the detransformed Chloé, curiously looking at the fight going on outside of their bubble.
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A/N: Three down... Let's see if our two heroes can do it by themselves.