Hello everyone!! I apologize for a long upload. Here is a second chapter of Shadow rising.
"Bourgeois??" Arthur said loudly shocked to which the akuma chuckled.
"Wrong you peasant. I'm Queen Greatest!" she replied with venom.
Queen Greatest had a regal style royal red dress with a golden hemline reaching to the ground. The dress itself had a golden butterfly wings design sewn in. She wore golden pointed tip heels, which made her a bit higher than Arthur. On top she wore a white tiara with a weird long glass visor attached to the headpiece.
"You will pay for your defiance to me!" she exclaimed to Arthur who was slowly stepping back. The akuma put her finger to her lip and smirked evilly. "Or maybe... I would put you in your place as my stepping stool" Queen Greatest ended and fired a blue laser beam out of her visor.
Arthur quickly backed away and fell on his butt barely dodging the shot. After a brief second of relief he quickly got up and started running from few more blasts. The beams started bouncing around and hit some civilians who then stood perfectly still like statues.
'Crap.. I really pissed her off...' While he was running he saw four teenagers coming closer to the mayhem. 'Even better... More civilians...' He cursed his own luck.
"Chloé? What on Earth are you doing?" one of the teenagers asked to which the Akuma stopped the assault.
"Adrikins! I am Queen Greatest. This ridiculous peasant have disgraced me so now I will turn him and all of the Paris into obedient subordinates. And while you are here I will make you my king!" The Akuma fired another ray at the group.
"Look out!" Marinette exclaimed and out of instinct threw herself and Adrien out of fire, but Nino and Alya were too late as the blast hit them freezing them in place.
"Glory to our Queen..." They both muttered silently. Their eyes dull of any colour.
Marinette opened her eyes to see that she was on top of Adrien. As the blond opened his own eyes she quickly got up beat red backed up bumping into Alya. Turning to her the ravenette's eyes opened in shock to the state of her best friend.
"See Dupain-Cheng? Your bigmouth of a friend and her boyfriend are now a loyal subjects of mine" Queen Greatest smirked and then snapped her fingers.
Alya and Nino then came to life and started walking to The Queen. Other civilians affected by the Akuma nearly behind the hypnotised pair. Then all began to group up into a small army. Two of the biggest people hoisted the akuma onto their shoulders. The Akuma started laughing.
"OHOHOHOHO!... Now Paris will obey my word. Be a good girl Dupain-Cheng and become a obedient little puppet." she said and fired another hypno-shot.
Marinette quickly regained from the shock, dodged the laser and quickly ran to Arthur dragging him and Adrien away from the Akuma.
Ending her laugh Queen Greatest saw the quick escape attempt by the baker girl. Scoffing at the pitiful display snapped her fingers and 4 of her controlled minions ran after the trio.
Marinette and the two boys ran into a deep alleyway far away from the Akuma. All of them hoped that they wouldn't be found quickly.
Marinette looked at the white haired boy with a frown. "Do you know why Chloé was akumatized?" she asked as Adrien looked at both of them.
Arthur adjusted his jacket and hid his hands in the pocket. The pocket with his gift left slightly heavier. Finally turning to the girl looking her straight in the eye. "It probably was my fault, but it was because I stood up to her. She threatened me to be kick out of Paris, but she didn't even had power to do that." He said crossing his arms.
"Now she has..." Marinette said grimly putting her hand on her chin.
"We have to inform Ladybug, but how?" Adrien asked, but almost immediately the hypnotised civilians popped out of the corner and started running to them.
"Damn..." Arthur muttered and started running the opposite way, the two teenagers behind him. They ran as fast as they could, getting out of the alley and running through the open streets.
"First day here and now I'm running away from civilians affected by an Akumatized Mayor's daughter... Just my luck" he said while cutting the corner jumping over the small fence.
"Welcome to Paris!" Marinette and Adrien quickly answered at the same time. They didn't had any time to register that cause they were going through another corner.
They were dashing making many sharp turns and throwing obstacles to lose their pursuers.
Fortunately the hypnotised civilians slowed down. The trio used their chance to speed up and hide inside one of the buildings.
As the doors closed the teens collapsed onto the ground out of exhaustion with how long they had to run. If they didn't thought better they would think that they were out of Paris.
Marinette and Adrien looked at their unknown escape company. 'With him and Adrien/Marinette I have nowhere to go transform' they thought at the same time.
After 10 minutes they calmed their breath and got up. Quick peek outside showed that the chasers were still looking for them.
"Great. We are stuck here..." said Arthur annoyed. He sighed and crossed his arms. "We have to wait till the heroes will take care of them." This made Marinette and Adrien worry.
"I don't think any of them knows. There wasn't any Akuma alert as we ran. They have no idea that Akuma attacked" Adrien said worriedly.
"Really? Why it doesn't work?" the white-haired boy asked and immediately brought his phone to check. "Maintenance?... At the time like this?" he groaned and facepalmed.
"So the only way to inform them is to find them." Marinette concluded with a frown.
"But we won't manage to even exit this place with Queen's "subjects" at our tail!" Adrien added "Unless we could turn invisible there is no way we could go out unnoticed and not chased around."
Arthur hummed and started thinking on some sort of idea. The pocket felt heavy again and also it began to Produce some sort of... warmth. He put his hand inside his pocket, but then he felt like the box was pulsing, just like a heart. 'Why does it do that? I can't think of anything cause it distracts me!' he thought angrily... Distracted... Distraction!... That's it!
The White haired boy snapped his fingers and smirked. "How about a distraction? One of us can get them away so that the rest can go alert heroes." He explained to them both.
Both looked sceptical about the boy's idea. What if someone gets hurt by these civilians. Sure the miraculous cure would help, but what it wouldn't? They didn't have any other ideas to change it.
"It's very risky for the bait person, but this plan could work." Adrien concluded aloud to which Marinette nodded.
"It's the best we have, then I'll..." Marinette wanted to say, but Arthur interrupted her when he stepped forward.
"Alright then. You will go find them and I'll drag these bozos away." Arthur answered to the slight shock of the others. Arthur looked at them with raised eyebrow. "What? It's best that it would be me because you know where the heroes are and I don't. Besides I can quickly outmove them if they get too close. You both saw I can be agile." He concluded slightly calming down the two.
Marinette really wanted to argue, because why some unknown boy want to nearly sacrifice himself so that she and Adrien could escape? She stopped when she found nothing and only nodded her head.
"Alright... But when you lose them hide and don't go out until it's over." She demanded of Arthur. It would be bad enough if another civilian fell to the Akuma's clutches.
Arthur rolled his eyes and went to the door. "Alright Mom." was the only reply which left Adrien with his mouth open while Marinette's eyebrow twitched. 'This guy will get himself killed...' thought ravenette.
The boy ignored the reaction and exited the building. The hypnotised civilians were still searching around, but at that moment all four had the backs turned to the place he went.
Using the moment he ran to the center, where he would be perfectly seen. He raised his eyebrows seeing he wasn't yet spotted by the "subjects".
"Hey you four! Your queen wanted me? Then come and get me idiots!" he shouted waving his arm high in the air. For their reaction he didn't had to wait, because they started running to him in a matter of second. Arthur chuckled as he bolted out of that place leading all chasers away from there.
After 2 minutes Marinette and Adrien slowly got out, looked around and already knew what to do. Marinette went to the alleyway a few block next to where they were hiding while Adrien ran to opposite direction, turning a few corners, to a conveniently open manhole which he jumped into.
Marinette quickly pressed herself against the wall as a small red creature in big black dots popped out of her bag and floated near the girl's head.
"Marinette I'm concerned of that kid you talked to. I sensed some kind of weird energy from him." the sreature spoked worriedly. Marinette grabbed it from the air into the palm of her hand.
"There was something strange about him, but that has to wait Tikki. We have akuma to defeat." The girl said as she took a straight stance. Tikki nodded to the girl and floated near her head.
"Tikki, spots on!" she shouted as the pink light shined through the alleway. When it died down Marinette have transformed into the protector of Paris, Ladybug.
Ladybug threw her yoyo up in the air and swung out of the alley searching for the kid chased by the Queen's mob.
Adrien dropped down to the Paris sewer system. Just to be safe he quickly hid into the side line of the sewer network.
When he stopped and pulled on his jacked a black cat-like Kwami popped out. It held a piece of camembert in it's paws.
"I liked that guy even though he smelled funny." The black creature said before stuffing his mouth with the cheese. Adrien only shook his head at the Kwami's antics.
"Why? He was a bit rude to Mari. And now he is in trouble." said the blond. He crossed his arms while the black Kwami floated on his back.
"Oh come on kid. That guy was funny!" Plagg said with his mouth full. Adrien crossed his arms at the Kwami.
"Plagg, claws out!" called Adrien sucking the black creature inside his ring to his screeching and screaming how "He didn't had time to savour his treat!". In a flash of dark green the boy transformed into charming Paris hero, Chat Noir.
Chat used his staff to open another manhole and jumped out onto the street. Then he vault-jumped onto Paris rooftops to meet with his Lady and save some poor kid.
Arthur jumped over another parked car, still with four "Queen's subjects" on his back. He was slowly out-running all of them. 'Heh... This reminds me of one time the police...'
But before he could finish that thought he ran into closed off alleyway. He went to a screeching halt nearly bumping onto brick wall. Looking around he didn't saw any other way than back, only a couple of big garbage cans.
"Oh come on..." he murmured annoyed and turned around, just to be cornered by the hypnotized "subjects".
"Great..." he said angrily. He clenched his hands into fists and prepared to defend himself.
The first male one ran up to him with their hands outstretched while the rest blocked the way out. Arthur simply stepped to the side and tripped him into the garbage can. "One down.."
The second female subject was way faster and came close to the boy. She lunged at the boy trying to grab him, but he quickly stepped back. After another try by the woman Arthur grabbed her arm and threw her over the shoulder to the same garbage can. The lid loudly closing shut. "Two down.."
But before he could turn around he was grabbed and restrained by the last two people. He couldn't move his arms and two arms were at his neck.
"Out with the hands." He said slowly dragging the to to a wall. He jumped and kicked off of it slipping off of their restrains.
Just after he landed one of the subjects was wrapped up in string while something black jumped onto the other one.
In a second another garbage can was shut off and some brick covered both of them. Turning around the boy saw Ladybug and Chat Noir giving themselves high five.
"Good that you showed up, but I was handling it fine." Arthur crossed his arms and looked at the two heroes.
Ladybug looked at the boy with a 'Sure you were...' look, while Chat patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, but now you need to hide. We don't want you as the Queen's guard, or footstep..."
"I get it. I'm going. Good luck out there." He said when the heroes left to chase the Akuma. Arthur felt like he saw them somewhere. It was like he knew who they were, but at the same time he had no idea who they would be. His head started to hurt while he thought about it.
Dropping the subject he left the alleyway and went back to his previous hiding spot.
As he went out he put his hands inside the pocket and nearly winced pulling the hand out of it. The box he had was extremely hot to the touch and the heart beat was easier to felt.
"What the?..." he said he quickly went inside the empty building and carefully pulled out the box.
"Alright. What is going on with this thing?..." he said putting the box in front of him on the ground. He slowly opened the lid showing him a necklace.
Confused Arthur picked the necklace up and examined it. It was a simple silver thin chain necklace with a pendant that for him resembled a sleeping bat.
Just then a dark shine emanated from the jewelery piece and a black orb flown out of it. Arthur backed away from it, but the orb went closer to him and popped, a small creature emerging from it.
The creature was black and small, like a size of a hand small. It had a big head on which were bat like ears. The eyes were a deep red color with black sclera and from it's mouth two fangs stood out. Black and grey bat wings were attached to it's arms (or stubs..) and body.
"Greetings young one. I am Eecho, the Kwami of the Miraculous of Shadows." Said the creature. Eecho flew around Arthur and examined the boy to his confusion.
"Hold up. Miraculous? Like the ones Ladybug and Chat Noir have?" he asked through his shock. "I thought it is just a necklace I inherited from my dad..."
"Ahh... but this miraculous is an heritage of Nightgale legacy." The Kwami explained "Every one of your family member have used the miraculous at least one time to be the great bat hunter."
"Great bat hunter? You mean that my family tradition was to use this miraculous?" asked the boy slightly intrigued.
The Kwami nodded her head. "Correct. And now it is your time. Put on the necklace and let our hunt begin." Eecho said to which the boy did as it was told.
When he put on the necklace it gave a black glow and returned to normal state. Eecho smiled and nodded again.
"I will explain you how to transform and use your power. To transform you have to say "Eecho, cast my shadow" and to turn back "Eecho, disperse my shadow". Your power is called "Shadow dance" and it allows the user to transform into a living shadow. In that form you can move on walls, hide in other shadows and pop back into normal human form, but the power has a risk. In the shadow form you can't breathe so you have to be careful to not suffocate yourself. After 5 minutes you will be transformed back forcefully so you should be out of the shadow by the end of the time." Eecho said to the great interest of Arthur.
"Did anyone...well...got stuck in between?" the Kwami answered with grim frown answering the boy's question. Arthur gulped and grabbed his neck nervously.
"There is more to this miraculous, but for now this knowledge should suffice. As this is the first time I suggest keeping our presence secret. Now let us go." said the bat Kwami.
Arthur took a deep and thought a bit about this. This power is quite dangerous and he might die from using it, but it may be a good help for the heroes.
Once he decided his choice Arthur shot a determined look. "Alright. Eecho, cast my shadow!"
Meanwhile inside a massage parlor Master Fu broke out of his meditation. His Kwami comrade and friend Wayzz quickly flew to his master.
"I see you sensed it too. The disturbance in the balance. It means one of the forbidden miraculous has been activated." Fu stroked his beard in concern.
"We need to inform Ladybug. If Hawkmoth get his hand on even one of these Miraculous then he would most certainly win!" said the panicked Wayzz.
"We can only hope that it will be in capable hands..." finished the old man looking through the window of the building. If the miraculous were definitely activated then Paris future may not look bright.