Chloe's life looked almost perfect recently. Relations with her mother warmed up. They went to boutiques together, teader designers down together, relaxed in spas and beauty salons together.
Chloe was already used to new company of friends. Slowly she started to communicate with everyone, not only with Adrien. With Alya she was happy to discuss Scarlet Lady, with Nino - music. Even Marinette no longer annoyed Chloe so much after she had gotten closer to her mother. Admittedly it was nice to chat with her about fashion. Chloe had a taste for it now and generously gave Marinette advices whether she asked or not.
Even akumatized ones have not attacked for a whole week. What a life, just a fairy tale!
However good things cannot last forever.
A new monster has appeared at school.
Most of the classes had already finished their lessons, and children fell out into the galleries in a noisy crowd. Bright umbrellas and raincoats flashed, and some, like Kim, for example, rushed into yard right under the rain that had been charging since the morning. Laughing joyfully, he jumped through puddles... and he was first to encounter an akumanized one.
Because of the shroud of rain no one immediately saw the dark silhouette, so it seemed as if Kim himself flew into the air and hit the wall.
The next moment a lithe figure jumped onto fence of one of the galleries. Compared to other akumanized ones a new one didn't look ridiculous or creepy. Just a tall thin man in a black hoodie hanging like a sackб and a black mask hiding his entire head, so you couldn't even figure out where his eyes and mouth are.
But a monster is still a monster: with amazing ease akumanized tore off part of fence and threw it towards a group of students.
They scattered and dangerous projectile did not hit anyone.
Screaming started. Students fled, and akuma kept destroying: with a blow of his fist he left a hole in the concrete wall of one of classrooms, broke glass in another.
"I'm a Warper!" he roared. "Tell the heroes that I will be happy to take their miraculous at the Eiffel Tower!"
Mingling with crowd, these heroes fled, looking for a place to transform. Adrien and Marinette hid in toilets, taking advantage of the fact that Alya was too busy reporting and Nino was trying to drag her out of a dangerous place.
Chloe took refuge in a closet that turned up along the way and complained:
"Why couldn't the Hawk Moth wait until the sun came out?"
"Perhaps he intentionally chose a rainy day for his attack," Tikki said judiciously. "Be careful."
"I am caution itself" Chloe remarked without usual anger but with a bit of sarcasm.
Now she tried to remember what Tikki had said before. These tips often helped both in battles and in communicating with people.
After transformation Lady jumped out of the closet and managed to notice Warper jumping on the roof. A moment later he was gone.
Lady ran in that direction and was about to climb onto the roof but then remembered her heroic duties. Leaning over the railing, she shouted to Kim:
"Do you need help?!"
He had already jumped up. No wonder; idiots are immortal.
"Everything is fine! I have an iron body!" Kim punched himself in the chest. "Kick that monster's ass!"
"As if I wouldn't figure out without your reminders" Lady thought, rolling her eyes.
She jumped onto the roof and ran into her partners there.
"Hello, my faithful minions!" Now phrase about minions has become a sort of duty joke.
"Your Higness is on a roll as always" Chat joked back.
"Be careful." Bee remained serious. "I feel something is wrong with new akuma. Why does he use only physical force while destroying thins, and not some kind of magic that Hawk Moth gave him?"
"Let's catch him up and find out!" Throwing yo-yo on the roof of the nearest building, Lady pushed off and flew across the street.
Companions followed her: it was difficult to distinguish Warper behind the veil of rain but it was still possible - they couldn't let him escape!
Heroes raced across the roofs, stepping into puddles every now and raising water sprays. Rain did not even think to calm down, just poured harder. Wind threw cold drops into their faces.
Warper loomed ahead all the time. It seemed that the heroes were about to overtake him but they couldn't get close to him: like in a dream, when you see a mountain on the horizon, you walk, you walk... and you can't reach it.
Lady kept throwing a yo-yo, and once the rope almost touched the Warper's legs yet he jumped back at the last second.
"He's luring us into a trap!" Bee shouted, trying to cover the roar of drops on the roof tiles.
However so far Warper just ran, as if he was going to drive the heroes to death.
Stepping into another puddle, Chat shuddered from icy goosebumps that ran down his leg and wondered if suit would protect him from a cold that could easily be caught in such weather. He did not notice how the puddle turned black: he had other things to pay attention too, and it was dark around.
After a while Bee touched the same puddle, not noticing how excited the chased one got.
But Warper felt everything and realized that his task was completed. Hawk Moth in his head gave the last order.
It came as a complete surprise to the heroes when Coruapter, who had been running at the same pace with them all this time, suddenlt sped up.
A moment ago heroes saw him, and now there is only a muddy wall of rain in front of them.
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Stopping at the place where Warper supposedly disappeared, everyone looked around but noticed only rain and a cloudy light in the alley below.
"I'm sure he jumped off" said Chat quickly. "Bee and I will check on the roofs, and you go down, Your Highness."
Lady wrinkled her nose: alley smelled of cigarettes and musty dampness.
"Let me go over the roofs" she suggested casually.
"Ah, how dare I disobey you, Queen" Chat said venomously.
"While we're arguing here, Warper will leave" Bee said with displeasure and jumped to the next roof. "Go right, Lady."
"Meet me here in half an hour!" with these words Chat jumped into the alley.
Lady stood for a minute, unsettled by harshness of her partners, and muttered a couple of acid comments addressed them under her breath. Then she moved swiftly along the roof, hoping that she would be able to find Warper without any problems. Lady did not look forward at all to rushing around the city in the rain, and instead of looking around carefully she dreamed of hot cocoa and wrapping herself in a blanket.
Heroes searched the neighborhood, checked all the hidden places, but Warper seemed to have evaporated.
Having gathered at the agreed place, they first hid under the canopy of the entrance of the house and then discussed results of their search. But each of the three had nothing to brag about.
"It's strange" Bee said thoughtfully. "Warper didn't even try to take away our miraculouses, he just ran away. Hawk Moth has some kind of plan…"
"I wouldn't be surprised if his whole cunning plan is for us to come down with pneumonia" Lady grumbled, hugging herself by the shoulders.
Although it was almost not cold in the suit, it could not protect her from the rain completely: wet hair stuck to her head and neck which terribly annoyed Lady.
"Oh, yes, a really deep thought" Chat snapped. He was soaked, too, and therefore not in the best mood.
Lady swallowed a sharp retort that was about to burst from her lips. After all, she decided that she would not be rude anymore, and once she made a decision, she will stick to it.
"But akumas didn't run away from us before" Lady said slowly.
"Trusting your memory of past battles is not worth it because you almost never participated in them" Chat sneered.
"It makese sense to stop searching" Bee intervened. "Since there is a danger of catching a cold, it is better not to risk, and we are unlikely to find a Warper in such darkness."
Lady agreed with relief and hurried to the imaginary soft blanket. After seeing her off Cрat and Bee thought - synchronically although they did not know it - "I am so sick of her."
"Shee's not even trying" Bee couldn't resist commenting.
"If she hadn't cleaned the akuma, Lady would have zero use" Chat echoed and exclaimed in anguish. "How tired I am of her!"
Bee put her hand on his shoulder.
"I understand but you have to be patient."
Chat covered her palm with his own.
"I wish I could take miraculous from Lady. Ah, sweet dreams..."
However in his thoughts for the first time Chat looked at the idea of going against will of Master Fu as not a terrible offense, but something akin to a heroic deed.
Bee said goodbye to Chat and after returning home immediately climbed into a hot bath full of white foam.
Having refused opportunity to swim, Pollen simply sat down on the side in the company of cookies.
"Power of the miraculous, of course, will protect against colds" - she said, answering Marinette's question. "But it's better to drink tea with honey just in case."
"And with mint" Marinette added, plunging into the water with her head. When she surfaced, she noted:
"I'm not in the mood, I need to calm down somehow."
"It's all because of the rain" Pollen buzzed affectionately.
Marinette also explained to herself a dull rage at Lady by the influence of the depressive weather.
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The next day sun shone brightly, sending sparkling highlights through the puddles. Perfect weather for hunting a Warper who seemed to be hiding. In the morning news there were only praises to the heroes who defeated the villain who attacked the long-suffering college "Francois Dupont". And nothing about new attacks.
This calm gave heroes an opportunity to do their own business in the morning. But after school they met near the place where they started search yesterday. Chat who could see better in the dark than the others noticed a club sign in the alley which became a landmark.
Chloe started talking to her mother on the phone and was only two or three minutes late for the meeting but her partners perceived it as a terrible offense.
"Your father is in no hurry." Chat crossed his arms over his chest and gave Lady a dismissive look.
He has been restless since yesterday: Chat was nervous because of missed Warper and sometimes was willing to blame Lady for everything. After all, if she hadn't been moody but had immediately jumped into the alley, heroes wouldn't have lost precious time. Now if the Warper does not reveal himself, they would have to turn the whole Paris upside down.
"I'm almost not late!" Lady was indignant. "Just a minute…"
"Yesterday a minute of delay cost us a missing Warper" Chat growled low.
Lady was about to respond with an angry rebuff but then Bee intervened, saying dryly:
"Let's split up and continue search."
Switching her spinning top to transmitter mode, she showed her partners a map of the city with marked sectors. Bee distributed the search locations and heroes dispersed.
Until the evening they wandered the streets, pausing only to recharge their kwamis, but Warper had apparently sunk into the earth.
"Maybe he is hiding in the house of Hawk Moth?" Lady suggested, since it seemed a sound idea to her.
Bee and Chat were greatly irritated by the very sound of her voice but they tried to restrain themselves. After all, they had dealt with Lady's behavior before!
"I don't think Hawk Moth would take such a risk," Bee objected. "An akumanized person in his house is a danger of giving himself away."
"Well, then the Hawk Moth recalled the butterfly from Warper." Lady was tired of stupid searches.
"Brilliant." Chat laughed unpleasantly. "He akumanized a person so that we could run after him, and then let him go."
"We can't calm down believing that Hawk Moth suddenly recalled butterfly" Bee spoke in a mentoring tone. "His plan could be that we would think so, relax... and then Warper would strike. We need to continue the search."
Chat agreed with her, and shut up Lady who opened her mouth for objections with another insulting mockery.
Then heroes went home.
To continue the search the next day.
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Lady was beginning to get angry: one thing is a rapid battle, another is climbing through stinking doorways. This search depressed her. During a methodical survey of the streets there was nothing to occupy her head besides obsessive thoughts about seemingly changed behavior of her partners.
"You all are just tired" Tikki soothed, believing that sharpness of Lady's partners was understandable. "Once you find Warper, everything will be fine again."
"I'm sick of it" Chloe grumbled.
However she was not the only one who felt the growing rage. It was increasingly unbearable for Chat and Bee to see Lady, talk to her, and even think about her. They remembered nasty things she had done before especially clearly, and blamed her misdeed for current situation. Pollen and Plagg blamed everything on uncertainty because of Warper, not realizing that accumulating tension would lead to disaster soon .
On the fourth day of searches Bee and Chat, having searched their plots, came to the agreed meeting place before Lady, feeling relieved by her absence.
What have you found?" asked Chat already knowing what answer would be.
Bee just shook her head and said with displeasure:
"It's all because of Lady."
"Exactly," Chat supported her. "It was necessary to act quickly, yet she was whinning again…"
He squeaked, believing he was imitating Lady's voice well:
"I don't want to go to the alley, it's dark and scary there!"
Bee could not suppress her laughter. She bent down to Chat's ear and whispered confidentially:
"You know, I think she is not changing at all. She only pretends but actually she is as quarrelsome and arrogant as before."
"And stupid" muttered Chat. "There are fewer brain cells in her head than in my bell."
They had to interrupt their conversation because Lady appeared and demanded:
"So have you found him?"
"What's with that commanding tone? We are not your servants, no matter what you would like to imagine."
"Well, I'm sorry. I'm just angry because we still haven't found Warper" Lady said, displeased that she had to apologize for some trifle.
"Hah, so she says "sorry"!" Bee remarked. "You didn't even really try to find him. You don't care that akumanized person wanders around the city and attacks civilians."
"I do care," Lady muttered, not understanding why her partners were suddenly so mad at her: she's been very nice to them in the last few weeks! "I'm a heroine and I have to protect people of Paris!"
"What kind of heroine are you?!" Bee exclaimed accusingly. "Chat has been doing all the work for you for so long, and now you just want to grease up to us!"
"We'll protect Paris without you," Chat hissed.
At the same time he and Bee felt a desire to take away the miraculous from Lady. It's about time!
"You know what? Give us your earrings. You are not worthy of being called a heroine!" said Chat.
He and Bee were flooded with a wave of hatred. They instantly remembered everything for which they would like to give Lady a scolding. To their minds, clouded by a crimson veil of rage, it seemed that taking away miraculous was the best way out.
Her partners were advancing, and Lady backed away. Thoughts in her head were racing like a flock of frightened birds: what happened? Why are her friends angry?
Bee and Chat rushed at Lady at the same time, and she, spurred on by fear, quickly ran away. She was fast as quickly as she could, so fast that her side was stining, but Lady did not stop until she ran into a wall at the end of the alley where she jumped from the roof.
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There were no sounds of pursuit, and Lady sank to the ground. She had no strength left. She huddled into a ball and hid her face in her lap.
Her head was spinning, and heart was thumping in chest like a blacksmith's hammer. Lady tried to figure out what had happened. But instead of sound reasoning only one thought stuck in her brain: her partners betrayed me. They just pretended to be friends. Lady had no idea that she was so attached to Bee and Chat. Now the realization that they had never considered her a friend struck a dull ache in her soul.
Why should she suffer?! Why? Why?
Suddenly Lady felt a movement nearby, raised her head and saw a dark purple butterfly. As if today misfortunes were not enough!
"Go away, bug! Sh-shoo!" Lady waved her hands at the butterfly and tried to evoke pleasant memories.
But as luck would have it, the recent words of the partners did not get out of her head. And when Lady tried to think about new handbag that her mother had given her, it only got worse. Memory helpfully threw up all the disparaging statements that Audrey had said about her daughter before. Maybe Mom was just pretending to love her?
Instead of calming down Lady only fell deeper into despair.
Why should she suffer? Did she do something wrong? On the contrary, she tried to become better. And here's the reward. Hah, this is all bullshit. If you are good, then everyone will use you!
Her body was seized with cold.
"Glad to finally meet you face to face, Scarlet Lady." The voice sounded as if Hawk Moth was standing right here, nearby, which made it scary.
"Get off, you nasty villain bastard!" Lady shouted, covering her ears with her hands.
But the voice didn't stop, it only got louder.
"Villain? Me? But I didn't call you a worthless fool. I didn't try to take away your miraculous."
"That's exactly what you were trying to do!"
"Oh, I'm going just to use it a bit, and then I'll give it back. But your so-called friends will take earrings forever." A soft voice sounded like the sound of cat paws in which sharp claws are hidden.
"You will be able to teach them a lesson. Show them what happens to insolent people who do not respect the main hero of Paris."
He tempted, beckoned, showed either a humbly apologetic Bee, or Chat who assures that Lady is his best partner.
"A great retribution and such an insignicant payment: just give away for a short period the your earrings and Chat's ring. Is not it worth it?"
"It is worth it."
Scarlet Lady stopped resisting, and darkness swallowed her.