Chapter 30: Party Crasher

(Basically, this episode/chapter is the same as canon, just with more characters. Is that too lame? Or a needed breather? I do feel this episode/chapter is pretty critical for both Wayhem and Kim.)

It's a day without school. Marinette is at home in the morning, pondering the email address/discord server/whatever that Froppy had had her memorize. Does she log in with a fake account to take to the B Team? It made so much sense as Ladybug, but as Marinette she's having second thoughts—especially about her own ability to protect her identity. If she logs in, even with a fake account, can a hacker figure out who she is? Tikki asks her about the hesitation. Marinette explains her wariness about opening communication with the B Team. Is it secure? And what does she even say? She and Cat Noir and Master Fu had agreed it's best not to have extra miraculous running around. However, now it's clear the B Team won't give theirs up. So what does she do now? It's nice to have the back-up sometime, but the danger Hawk Moth possesses can't be underestimated. However, Ladybug just can't steal their miraculous. Tikki tells her to take a breath and calm down. Maybe the answer will reveal itself—but for now, Marinette is late meeting with her friends. Marinette freaks out and runs out the door.

At the Agreste manor, Adrien is looking forward to a day of freedom. He's practicing his piano, but the moment Nathalie leaves, he stops. She is chauffeuring his father to the airport; he'll be gone the entire weekend. However, it's revealed the Gabriel in the car is a fake, and the real Gabriel Agreste is tending to his butterflies in his lair and looking after his comatose wife.

Marinette Dupin-Cheng meets up with the girls of Classes A, B and C. They're working on a volunteer "Go Green" style project: cleaning up litter, planting trees, weeding gardens, that kind of thing. Marinette is surprised to see not a single guy has shown up. Alya Cesaire is a bit pissed as it's obvious they're being blown off.

This is a chance for all the female characters Marinette's age to hang out. Chloe Bourgeois isn't there, surprise surprise. Lila Rossi also blows it off, claiming she's volunteering at an animal shelter instead (lies). Giselle Winters-Blanchet is being overly helpful; Meera Pugliese is just staring into space. Nicolette Lacroix isn't much help because she's afraid she get callouses. Alix Kubdel and Stella Tenebrae have started a joint project with Rachel Beauchene and Meg Delphinus. Marie Chauvaeu and Suzette Rault work for about five minutes before going across the street to the café. Tsuyu Asui is also being very helpful around the fountain they're cleaning. Aurore Beaureal and Mireille Caquet couldn't make it due to their work obligations. Yvonne Garnier is taking pictures for the school newspaper since Etienne Fontaine bailed. (Images of the whole cast can be found at (( photos . app . goo . gl / cgLSrNi71rxfep9e8 ))(remove the spaces).)

Adrien is actually preparing to head to the volunteer site himself when the doorbell rings; it's Nino Lahiffe. Adrien's bodyguard isn't letting him in, but Adrien hurries downstairs and says it's okay. He opens the door to let Nino in and suggest they head to the park together. However, when he opens the door, it's the entire male population of their grade. There's a big "Surprise!", and Adrien comments that it's not even his birthday. Nino says they're throwing a huge party because his dad is away and there's the huge, empty house to celebrate in. Adrien asks about the volunteer work, but Nino says the girls can handle it.

The gorilla bodyguard tries to stop them, but they bribe him with action figures. Then the whole group parades in and sets up a killer party with dance music, decorations, food, games, and just having fun with all the stuff in the manor.

Le Chien Kim makes himself at home in the enormous bathtub, practicing swimming. Cameran Tyler ropes some of the guys into shooting hoops. Nathaniel Kurtzberg and Marc Anciel play foosball; Ivan Bruel sets up the food table and takes care of the pizza they have delivered. Etienne Fontaine finds the surround-mirrors and parks himself in front of them. Fumikage Tokoyami and Viktor Vasiliev wind up being a bit like wallflowers until Gilles Chastain pulls them into playing the game Max Kante created and brought with him. Jean Duparc entertains a bunch of them with his magic tricks, and Adrien is pretty impressed because Jean really is talented. Jakeel Aristide pulls some honestly good natured pranks. As they all goof off, the party gets bigger as word around Paris is that this is the place to be for the Guys' Night Out. Roger Raincomprix drops by with some police officers; Mireille's dad Hugo and the firefighters come by. As do Mayor Bourgeois and Butler Jean. Mr Haprele, Jalil Kubdel (Alix's older brother), Luka Couffaine, Mathieu Anciel, Principal Damocles, Alec, Theo all show up. (See here for all of the male classmates (( photos . app . goo . gl / cgLSrNi71rxfep9e8 ))(remove the spaces).)

Max Kante has Markov rewire the sound system, cranking out music to every room in the house. Some rooms even have disco-like lighting effects.

The problem with this is that it diverts power from other parts of the house. Including Hawk Moth's lair. Including Emilie Agreste's life support. Gabriel sees the lights shutting down around him and freaks out. He hops in the elevator, only to have it stall halfway down to his wife. This forces him to transform into Hawk Moth just to escape. Realizing Emilie's life is in danger and that he's trapped in his lair, he begins to look for someone to akumatize just to restore power to his home…

Alya calls Nino, impatient, and wondering what kind of trick all the boys are pulling. Nino denies it all, "just by an amazing coincidence, we all must have had other plans, you know?" Alya isn't buying it, but Nino says he has to go before she can find out where he is. Marinette, however, happens to overhear something in the background that cues her in to Nino being at Adrien's. Alya tells the other girls that they're on their own; the boys flaked out.

Marinette also makes a rather flat excuse and runs off, wanting to know what's going on with Adrien.

She arrives at the Agreste manor to find the party in full swing. She dresses as a guy and sneaks inside. (Rather similar to the canon espiode.)

Hawk Moth is fuming in his lair. All he can detect is happiness. Since when has his home been happy—how can his home be happy without Emile?! And without someone with negative emotions, he can't akumatize them, which means he can't restore power. He could lose her forever! (Which leads one to wonder how the butterfly miraculous would work in the hands of a good user. Would a good user use it to turn negative emotions into positive ones to make heroes, the same as the previous user in this fic who made the miraculous without kwamis? Or does the butterfly user have to pick a "path" and if the user him or her self decides to be evil, they can only make villains—but if they decide to be heroic with the butterfly miraculous, they can only empower people with positive emotions?)

Marinette is surprised to see Master Fu at the party. He says he's allowed to have fun too. He also mentions to her that he brought the miraculous box, just in case. He's also the only one to see through her disguise.

They all have fun partying, dancing, playing games, and eating snacks. Adrien admits this is the most fun he's had in a very long time. At some point, Master Fu almost falls over the railing. However, Kim proves to have excellent reflexes and catches him, which leaves an impression on the guardian of the miraculous.

Outside the gate, Wayhem rings the bell. However, no one can hear the doorbell any more, and the bodyguard is too busy with his action figures. Wayhem thinks his idol, Adrien Agreste, threw a party and then excluded him to spite him as a prank. He waits, but no one notices he's there. And that hurts.

Hawk Moth finally senses someone with despair and sends his akuma, turning Wayhem into Party Crasher with the power to foresee where people will move based on patterns as well as the ability to imprison them inside a disco ball on contact. Hawk Moth tells Party Crasher is primary objective is to restore power to this manor, not to get the miraculous, for once.

Party Crasher crashes the party and begins to imprison everyone he comes across. Principal Damocles, Etienne Fontaine, Pierre Lefevre, Jakeel Aristide, and others are captured fairly quickly. He then finds Markov at the computer controls and imprisons him. Hawk Moth breathes a sigh of relief as his wife's life support turns back on.

It's chaotic as everyone evacuates, some of the guys sending out akuma alerts. Marinette and Adrien find places to transform. The only one who has no idea what's going on is Kim, who is still in the bathtub swimming.

The other male members of the B Team scramble to find their supports. Nathaniel Kurtzberg, fortunately, has his best friend right on hand. Nathaniel and Marc duck into one of the spare rooms where Nathaniel transforms into Firefly. He tells Marc to find somewhere to hide. Fumikage Tokoyami is frantically trying to ring up Tsuyu on his cell phone, but she's not sure if she should answer. She's still mad at him for standing them up on volunteer day. Luka tries to call Juleka, however, the fight spills in front of him. He just ducks behind a car and watches, trying again and again to call his sister.

The confrontation between Ladybug and Cat Noir against Party Crasher happens right outside the Agreste gates. With their excellent team work, they begin to corner Party Crasher…only for him to reveal his near foresight-like abilities. He imprisons Ladybug. Cat Noir just about charges in blindly; however, Master Fu cautions him not to be reckless. Cat Noir takes a deep breath, but it's clear he still isn't thinking at 100%. It doesn't help that at that moment, Firefly lands, having seen that Cat Noir didn't protect Ladybug. Firefly grills him over this as he's equally upset by Ladybug being imprisoned. Cat Noir doesn't take kindly to the remarks, and the two spark a rivalry.

Master Fu looks around, trying to figure out how he can help. What he notices is that several people haven't run away; they're watching the fight. Among them are Luka, Max, and Nino. It can be assumed Ladybug and Cat Noir informed him of the people they picked to be their allies, as Master Fu realizes these three are Viperion, Pegasus, and Carapace.

Master Fu watches Firefly and Cat Noir struggle. Then he makes up his mind. While everyone is focused on the fight, he slips the miraculous to Luka and Max and Nino; they don't see him. Luka is especially surprised and stops trying to call Juleka. He knows he's more experienced with the wolf quasi-miraculous, but he promised his "pack" that he would only use it with a spotter. Luka made no such promise with the snake.

Luka opens the box, and Sass appears again. They talk briefly while Luka equips the bracelet. This leads to Sass realizing Luka is wearing a wolf earcuff—an earcuff he can sense power from. Sass asks about it. Luka confirms he's Alpha, which Sass pretty much deduced. Sass tells Luka that his secret is safe; kwamis cannot realize their masters' identities or the identities of other wielders. Luka transforms.

The Akuma Alert goes live, and the girls receive the notice on their cell phones. Tsuyu Asui internally curses herself for not answering for Fumikage and races off to the Agreste manor (she was a bit bitter about the guys ghosting them all). Alya and the others are also worried about what could be going on. Is Adrien okay? (They don't yet know all the guys were there partying.) Mylene Haprele suggests that they run over to see if Adrien is okay, but Alix Kubdel points out that that's not wise. They'd just get in Ladybug and Cat Noir's way and make it so they have to be protected. (It would be different if Alix knew her brother was there.) The girls sadly agree. Alix is internally wondering if this is the day she gets her miraculous. She still has no pocket watch, and she worries that her dad will ask about it. However, her adult self told her she would get it soon.

Party Crasher is really making Firefly and Cat Noir work hard. He proves to have long range attacks; a laser beam that can also trap people. That's when Carapace, Pegasus, and Viperion enter the scene. Firefly asks "friends of yours?" To which Cat Noir confirms they are. Firefly wonders where his friends are—this definitely counts as an emergency. All five begin to confront Party Crasher, who is skilled enough to keep them all at bay.

Tsuyu is running as fast as she can. She dials on her phone, and Fumikage answers. She tells him to transform and apologies for not answering; she'll be right there. He agrees and does so, telling her not to be seen as this opponent has close and long attacks.

It seems as if the tides will turn; a minute later Tsukuyomi swoops down on the scene. Firefly is glad to see him, but they do keep their distance from each other because of their elemental disadvantages. Tsukuyomi asks where Alpha and Dauphin are, but Firefly doesn't know. Viperion sorta averts his eyes. Pegasus greets "Crow-man" and says he appreciates the extra help. Tsukuyomi insists that's not his name, to which Carapace replies "Whatever, Crow-man, dude."

They again close in on Party Crasher, working on a plan that uses their strengths to counter his. And it seems to be working until Party Crasher imprisons Carapace. Viperion unwinds time by five minutes. However, that only winds up getting himself captured.

The canon episode blew by this sequence, so the fic chapter can focus on it more. One by one, Party Crasher picks off the heroes. Master Fu watches from where he hides, alarm increasing. Marc watches when Firefly is captured, frustrated by how helpless he feels and by the fact he has no powers. Tsuyu arrives just in time to see Tsukuyomi imprisoned. If they are to be shipped, this would be the moment she feels it in her heart. In fact, it disrupts her so much, she has a hard time transforming herself since the miraculous without kwamis are tied to their wielders' emotions.

Master Fu makes up his mind. He runs inside and finds Le Chien Kim, still in the bathtub. He drops the monkey miraculous in front of Kim, who opens it with surprise as Xuppu appears. Kim calls Xuppu a "flying monkey plushie;" Xuppu responds by calling Kim a "nitwit." Their introduction dissolves into insults, and Master Fu begins to have second thoughts. (Kim still hasn't seen him either.)

However, that changes when Xuppu introduces himself as a kwami and the headband as the monkey miraculous. "Woah, cool! You're a kwami?!" Kim exclaims. Master Fu overhears and wonders how Kim even knows what a kwami is. Xuppu and Kim talk a bit. It's inconclusive, but it leads Master Fu to suspecting Kim of being either Alpha, Firefly, Tsukuyomi or Dauphin…and since Firefly and Tsukuyomi are counted for outside, that leaves Alpha or Dauphin.

Xuppu convinces Kim to accept the headband and transform.

Outside, Cat Noir has been reduced to himself. All of his allies have been captured. Tsuyu is nearby, trying to calm herself enough to transform, but it isn't working—not even the meditation techniques she practiced so much. Party Crasher turns the tables, corners Cat Noir, and imprisons him. He's just about to send the whole lot of them to Hawk Moth…

When King Monkey enters the scene and throws a rubber banana at Party Crasher. Party Crasher is pretty much "wth." Then his powers go haywire. King Monkey explains his ability is Uproar, which disrupts others' powers. This gives King Monkey a moment to break Party Crasher's disco ball with his staff and free everyone. The heroes stand together while the civilians find cover. Tsuyu is so relieved she feels tears on her cheeks. She can feel now she'd be able to transform, but she decides to hang back in order to keep her promise and be Tsukuyomi's spotter.

Ladybug says she has an idea. She combines everyone's powers along with some very outdated and poorly done dance moves. This turns the entire situation into a bad dance party. An unpredictable dance party. It throws off Party Crasher's abilities.

This allows his akumatized item to be destroyed, the akuma to be purified, and the world-healing wave to kick off.

For "Pound It," all of the main heroes put their fists in (Ladybug, Cat Noir, Viperion, King Monkey, Pegasus, and Carapace). However, they then invite those present in the B Team (Firefly and Tsukuyomi) to join them, making this the largest Pound It to date.

Ladybug and Cat Noir collect the miraculous and return them to Master Fu while Hawk Moth is just relieved his wife is safe.

With the party pretty much being over, the remaining guys clean up so Gabriel Agreste doesn't know what they did. Wayhem gets invited to help and to share the leftover pizza. He's pretty happy with this solution. Adrien also apologizes to Marinette for flaking out on volunteer day. Nino suggests they go volunteer after cleaning. Marinette says this is a good idea since Alya and the others are pretty upset with them. Tsuyu, being on hand, also winds up helping.

To be continued in Chapter 31: Surrealist…

A note from the author: I'm sorry about being a few days late from my usual Friday update. I've been busy. But please, if I forget, feel free to send a small note to remind me!