To Anon: That's one possibility…
Hearing the explosion, feeling the temple tremble, Chloe jumped to her feet and sprinted out of the conference room, grabbing her Sent-Bee jacket, helmet, and belt off the table as she went. Pulling the jacket on and slamming the helmet over the head, she followed Ladybug and Cat Noir down the hallway toward the temple's entrance, Carapace and Rena Rouge flanking her on either side, fumbling to clasp her belt with shaking hands midstride. A couple of Guardians and Initiates stuck their heads out of side rooms, staring in confusion as the five heroes raced past. Sent-Bee began to fall behind Ladybug and Cat Noir's full sprint; Carapace and Rena Rouge each grabbed one of her arms, practically dragging her down the final hallway.
"Dammit, I'm not helpless!" Sent-Bee growled, glaring at Carapace, who shrugged but didn't let her go.
As the doors burst open, Sent-Bee drew back slightly on the threshold, and Carapace and Rena Rouge hurled her up into the air in a high arc that carried her out, away from the temple to soar above the winding switchback trail that led from the temple's main entrance down to the valley floor below. Sent-Bee's stomach jumped into her throat as she felt temporary weightlessness, moments before gravity began to take over. Squeezing one fist, she activated her jetpack and rocketed up into the air to hover above the other four, who had almost reached the valley. Scanning everything below her, Sent-Bee instantly caught sight of Rugindo Leoa diving away from someone dressed all in black. She did a double-take, staring in confusion: Rugindo Leoa stood next to where the medical tent had been, but now there was nothing there. In fact, most of the refugee camp had been cleared away and left deserted, with hardly any people or tents visible for a wide swath of area around Rugindo Leoa. The person in black cocked her head and turned her gaze on Sent-Bee before shooting a blast of black energy at her. Sent-Bee lazily drifted to one side to avoid it before putting on a burst of speed and shooting straight toward the villain in a parabolic arc. Below her, Ladybug, Cat Noir, Carapace, and Rena Rouge sprinted in that direction.
"What the actual hell is going on around here?" demanded Rena Rouge, ducking behind a tent to avoid another energy beam.
"I have no idea," Ladybug retorted tersely. She spun her yo-yo in a tight shield in front of herself and Cat Noir, blocking energy beams in all directions without breaking her stride. "I don't remember Rugindo Leoa saying anything about any villains like this running around…"
"Uh–there wasn't anything like this around," interjected Rugindo Leoa, visible ahead of them flipping through the air to avoid a blast of black energy that struck a tree on top of the cliff, which vanished into thin air. "This is a new one for me!"
"Um… is anyone else getting some bad vibes here?" asked Carapace.
Cat Noir hummed darkly. "You mean like–?"
"Let's not go down that path," Sent-Bee interrupted, grimacing. "Let's just stop it."
"Keep it distracted!" ordered Ladybug, launching her yo-yo at the villain. "I'll get close to it. Maybe it has something giving it its power! Like an Ak–"
Sent-Bee rolled to her right to avoid a beam of black. "There is no way in hell that it's an–"
"Wait!" shouted Rugindo Leoa, waving her arm at Sent-Bee and pointing toward the ridge around the camp. An energy blast shot just over her shoulder, and she flinched. "Sent-Bee! Go help Cadaabta Ey!"
Sent-Bee started, nearly getting hit with the black energy. Drifting toward one of the rock columns for cover, she turned in the indicated direction and almost immediately dropped ten meters to avoid an erratic volley of bullets. "What the hell!?" Accelerating rapidly, Sent-Bee spun into a corkscrew, rocketed higher into the air in a wide arc, and veered toward the sound of gunfire. Looking closer, she could see a handful of people in the dress of Guardian Initiates standing around Delwer and Cadaabta Ey. Cadaabta Ey stood rigidly still in an awkward pose; Delwer sat behind a low earthen wall, grabbing at something around her ankles. A number of Dark Acolytes surrounded them, while muzzle flashes along the edge of the scrub forest showed the sources of the intermittent gunfire.
"Carapace, go with Sent-Bee!" Ladybug called. "We'll take care of the Aku–"
"We still don't actually know that's what it is," Sent-Bee muttered, cutting off Ladybug as she drew one of her squirt guns and aimed it down at the group of Dark Acolytes.
Carapace sprinted just behind and below her. "Hey, Chlo, mind giving me a lift?" he called.
With a sigh, Sent-Bee drew her one surviving yo-yo with her free hand and flung it down to him. "Why don't you get a jetpack of your own?" she asked, smirking. "You can be a flying turtle!"
"Ha, ha," he retorted, taking the yo-yo and sprinting straight at the cliff face. "You know turtles and flying don't exactly mix, right?"
"And yet you want my help." Sent-Bee hit the control to retract the yo-yo, turning to fly straight up as Carapace ran up the side of the cliff. When he was almost to the top, Sent-Bee pointed with her squirt gun. Carapace pulled his shield off his back and hurled it away from the cliff at an angle. Reaching the apex of the throw, the shield flew back toward Carapace, caught a slight breeze, and flew over the cliff edge a little more than a meter above the ground. The shield drove straight into a Dark Acolyte who was fighting an Initiate right next to Cadaabta Ey and bounced back toward the cliff edge. The Dark Acolyte fell backward, hit the ground, and rolled backward to his feet, turning his head in all directions and searching for his attacker. Sent-Bee shot a spray of synth-Venom at the Dark Acolyte, who narrowly avoided it, only to take a blow to the head from the Initiate's quarterstaff. Cresting the cliff, Carapace snagged his shield off the ground and held it up, deflecting a barrage of bullets from the tree line with a wide sweep.
Sent-Bee landed next to Delwer, who had lost her trowel and was favoring her left wrist, tugging at something on her ankles. Her fingertips smoked as Sent-Bee batted her hand away and untangled the bolas cord. The Initiate pulled a piece of chi-putty off of Cadaabta Ey's shoulder, and Sent-Bee finally recognized Aisha. The Dark Acolyte she had been fighting sprang to his feet, and Sent-Bee squirted him in the face with her synth-Venom.
Cadaabta Ey's entire body sagged in relief, and he sighed. "Thank you."
"You came just in time!" Aisha called to Sent-Bee, raising her staff and barely managing to parry a blow from another Dark Acolyte.
"Sorry we weren't here sooner." Sent-Bee nodded curtly, scanning the scene around them. Carapace held his shield in front of the other Initiate, blocking a barrage of fire. Her eyes widened as another Dark Acolyte lobbed a bolas at Carapace. "Jump!"
Too late Carapace jumped out of the way, allowing the bolas to wrap around one of his ankles. As it pulled tight, he winced, almost losing his balance when the balls clacked together with a pop, sending a puff of smoke up into the air around him. Throwing himself forward, he dropped to one knee, shielding himself and the Initiate. Bullets ricocheted off his shield in all directions. The gunfire traced across the clearing toward Sent-Bee as the gunmen shifted their aim. "Shell-ter!" shouted Carapace, and a translucent green force field appeared in a straight line, bisecting the clearing and separating the gunmen from the Dark Acolytes.
Aisha let out a breath and gritted her teeth as a trio more Dark Acolytes appeared from the tree line. Looking across at the other Initiate, she nodded and hurled something at the ground. With a puff, she, Sent-Bee, Cadaabta Ey, and Delwer were obscured by smoke. She looked up at Sent-Bee, her eyes wide in concern. "So do we stay or do we escape?"
Sent-Bee's mouth set in a thin line. "If we let them stay up here, they'll just keep taking potshots at us," she pointed out. "So we stay." Pointing at Cadaabta Ey, she ordered him, "Scare them away."
Cadaabta Ey nodded firmly. "Fear-y!" he shouted, cracking his whip above the cloud and dissipating some of the smoke around them. The gunfire petered out; in the ensuing quiet Sent-Bee could almost hear gasps and whimpers.
Sent-Bee turned to Aisha. "Right, we need to get rid of the–" She froze, her eyes wide, as a sudden, overwhelming sensation of terror overwhelmed her. Her breathing hitched. She couldn't move, she couldn't think – all she wanted to do was to run away in fear!
Cadaabta Ey's jaw dropped, his eyes wide and pupils dilated. "That–that's–" He couldn't finish the sentence as the smoke cleared and Sent-Bee looked out to see a Shadow, just on the edge of the forest, pointing a wispy tendril in their direction.
Sent-Bee clenched and unclenched her fists, forcing herself to breathe slowly and deeply as the fear continued to wash over her. It would be so easy to give in, to run away. She had a jetpack; she could escape far away from here in a matter of moments. Why did she need to stay in the face of all this? She didn't have a miraculous! But looking at Aisha and Cadaabta Ey, she knew that she couldn't do that to them. She couldn't flee and leave them here to face this alone. They needed her. She had helped rescue them once, and damn, it, she would do it again! Letting out a breath, Sent-Bee clenched her stomach and growled, glaring at the Shadow. Pointing at Delwer, she told her, "See what you can do about those guys with the guns – capture one if you can. Aisha, Dark Acolytes. Cadaabta Ey? You're with me."
Her eyes still wide with fear and panic, Aisha sprinted at the Dark Acolytes, swinging her quarterstaff wildly at the closest one. Delwer's shoulders slumped, but she followed Aisha, running past the Dark Acolytes and toward the sporadic gunfire emerging from the forest. Carapace slumped against his Shell-ter, the other Initiate fumbling with the bolas around his ankle.
Cadaabta Ey gave Sent-Bee a look. "What are we supposed to do here?" he demanded, nodding to the Shadow.
She gave a feral grin, gritting her teeth against the fear still threatening to cripple her. "We're going to fight fear with fear!" With that, she ran toward the Shadow, shooting streams of synth-Venom at it, all of which passed right through. A Dark Acolyte fell to the ground in her path, and she hit her in the face with synth-Venom without taking her eyes off of the Shadow. The Shadow lashed out with a tendril of smoke, and Sent-Bee tried to avoid it, swinging her yo-yo through its incorporeal form. The tendril deformed and reformed around the yo-yo and lashed Sent-Bee, passing right through her suit and brushing her skin. Goosebumps rose on her arm, and she shivered, feeling the fear course through her veins. She clutched her arm where the tendril had touched, dropping her yo-yo. The fear, which had been lurking on the edge of her consciousness, sprang to the surface. She couldn't think! She couldn't move! She had to get away from this creature! She had to–
Crack!
A whip cracked through the Shadow, and suddenly the tendril faded away and Sent-Bee collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. The Shadow let out a whooshing sound as it drifted along the ground, reforming between Sent-Bee and Cadaabta Ey. Cadaabta Ey let out a guttural yell, his eyes wild with mingled anger and panic, and whipped the Shadow again and again. Each time it reformed, but each time it was slower, until finally its incorporeal form faded away into mist. Sent-Bee tensed, and Cadaabta Ey grabbed her hand to help her up. She scanned the clearing around them, but the Shadow was nowhere to be seen.
Closer to them, Aisha and the other Initiate stood back to back, three Dark Acolytes arrayed around them. The other Initiate planted his staff and spun, kicking a Dark Acolyte in the head. The Acolyte ducked and lashed out with his own staff, missing the Initiate but taking Aisha by surprise, smacking her in the back of the head. Aisha cried out in pain, and Cadaabta Ey shouted, sprinting to his sister's side while lashing the Dark Acolytes with his whip. With a groan, Sent-Bee followed. Still a few paces away, she threw her yo-yo and looped it around a Dark Acolyte's leg, dragging him to the ground, where Aisha kicked him hard in the side of the head.
Slowly the gunfire on the far side of the clearing stopped. The Shell-ter dropped, and Delwer and Carapace stepped out of the forest, pushing a man in front of them.
Sent-Bee walked over to Aisha, who was sitting up on the ground, rubbing the back of her head. Sent-Bee knelt in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Aisha held up a thumb, but her hand fell limply back to the ground. "Just great," she groaned, blinking owlishly and rolling her neck. With a pained his, she leaned into Sent-Bee's shoulder, closing her eyes and sniffling.
Sent-Bee patted Aisha's shoulder a couple times before taking her hand to help her up. As they stood, a wave of red magic washed over everything. Aisha jumped, rolled her shoulders, and grinned. Sent-Bee sighed, her head lolling back in relief. "Doesn't matter how many times I feel it, Miraculous Ladybug never gets old!"
Aisha giggled, but her expression turned serious. "So what happened?"
Sent-Bee shrugged as the group made their way down the path into the valley, driving their captured Dark Acolytes and the disarmed gunman in front of them. "I was going to ask you the same thing," she replied.
As they reached the center of the camp to find everything and everyone returned, Ladybug walked over to them, her arms folded. "It was an Akuma," she informed them, her mouth set in a thin line. "It targeted Mme Raincomprix. She doesn't remember anything, but I think we can guess."
"Either Sabrina lost her miraculous, or she is using it against us," Cat Noir added, frowning.
"We can't assume that," objected Sent-Bee, frowning beneath her helmet.
Rena Rouge raised an eyebrow. "Do you have another option?"
"Well… no…"
"Does it have to be Sabrina, though?" Carapace wondered, his brows furrowed.
"I can't believe it would be her!" Aisha announced, folding her arms. "She wouldn't hurt anyone."
Rugindo Leoa frowned. "Whoever it is, they can't be allowed to continue. A lot of people could have been hurt."
Ladybug's eyes narrowed. "I can't believe I'm saying this again, but we have another rogue Butterfly on the loose to stop. Either Sabrina needs help, or she's gonna need help."
Sent-Bee rubbed the forehead of her helmet. Shit.