Bloom winces as she reads Marinette's text, she's grounded. Her parents aren't particularly happy with her constant disappearances and flaking on things - she can see both sides of the issue…and there's no real right and wrong party.
Hawk Moth doesn't exactly wait around for it to be convenient for them when he sends out his Akumas, after all. She quickly types out 'tough luck, Mari. I'll tell Adrien you say hello.' She can practically hear Marinette squealing across the city about half a second later, and a flood of emojis quickly comes over her phone.
The Gorilla, Adrien's bodyguard, glances at her thanks to all the buzzing, but she just shows him Marinette's endless stream of emojis and he nods his head - the guy looks and acts all tough, but if you know what to do he's a big softie. A big softie who's one mission in life is to protect Adrien, who he sees as something like a son. Bloom nudges Adrien - who's gone on 'sister-watch' ever since the Mime incident a week ago, refusing to let her out of his sight now that he has as much of her story as he does - and quietly says "Your Lady says hello." That promptly sends Adrien on Cloud nine, much to Plagg's annoyed glare at the unrepentant red-head.
The tiny black cat Kwami hisses "You do realize just how mushy, sweet-talk-ey, and unbelievably gross he gets at the mere mention of her, right?!" You'd think he'd be used to it by now, given the hundreds of Holders he and Tikki have had by now...but he's pretty sure his current Kitten is the worst. He and Tikki need to be active at the same time, to keep from unintentionally creating a kind of vacuum or overflow depending on the Miraculous, and as such their Holders have always been pairs that ended up together. There's usually some level of pining from the pair, but...not to this level. It certainly doesn't help, though, that Adrien is usually locked up in his room and has plenty of free time to daydream about his Lady. That does not stop Plagg from practically losing his mind, though.
Bloom smirks, and makes a small fire in the shielded palm of her hand that writes out 'they'll get together if it takes my last breath, Plagg. Besides, they're soulmates, remember? Of course they're exactly like one another.' Marinette is no better, honestly, the way she adores Adrien is two steps away from obsession and Bloom's the one that dragged her back from it. At least Marinette's actively making an effort to not be a rabid fangirl, actually get to know Adrien
And then she and Plagg are broken from their secret communication by Alec's declaration of "VICTORY! Challenge conquered by Nino! You moved your head to the beat, Mayor Bourgeois, that counts as dancing."
The older man looks scandalized from the screen, and asks "What?! That's not true! My neck was…itching, that's all!" Bloom barely manages laugh at that, she's gotten very good at spotting cover-ups like that ever since Longg came into her life and that was a terrible cover-up.
Alec grins, and says "Relieving an itch to the beat counts as dancing to! Nino, congratulations. Return in one week for your next challenge!"
The next contestant, skilled hypnotist Simon Grimault, walks up on stage, and his challenge…is to get Gabriel Agreste to come to the show. Adrien groans from the audience, and mutters "This is going to be a disaster..." His father, participating in a gameshow? The world must be ending, Adrien decides.
Gabriel's face appears on-screen, and Bloom raises an eyebrow at the man. She really can't see the resemblance to Adrien. "What is this show? I was told this was an interview."
Nino grins, quietly saying "Dude, your dad!"
Alec says "Do your thing, Simon, and bring Mr. Agreste here with your hypnotic persuasion!"
Simon goes a few shades paler, and says "I told you, I don't make people do things…"
Alec grins even harder, and says "A shy hypnotist, how funny is that, Gabriel?"
Gabriel deadpans "Hilarious. Your show is pathetic, as is your contestant. Control me? Never." And then he's gone, having ended the call and ended Simon's challenge.
Adrien sighs, and says "That's my dad alright." And, look at that, the world is right again.
Bloom squeezes his shoulder at that, long-past starting to seriously dislike Gabriel Agreste despite never having met the guy in person - she's heard how lonely her brother is at 'home' and how he's usually left alone when he's not at endless photoshoots or lessons, even moreso now that Nathalie's told her everything when all she really wanted was the details of when she last saw him before calling her that night.
How his father barely has a meal with him once a month, how their actual face-to-face time is maybe ten minutes in the past week. How Adrien never seems to be anything but a disappointment to his father, since he only ever acknowledges Adrien when something's gone wrong.
Bloom gets the feeling she and Gabriel Agreste are going to have a long conversation, whether the fashion king wants it or not, if they ever meet face-to-face and there's no life-or-death situation going on. Either as Bloom Peters or as Dragon Fyre.
And then Simon comes back, now Akumatized as Simon Says, and uses one of his cards to make Alec act like a duck. Adrien and Bloom get split up by the Gorilla, much to Adrien's horror, as he pushes Adrien to a side door and Bloom and Nino get huddled behind a trunk. Bloom waves towards Adrien for him to go, and he nods before motioning for her to stay down and runs out the door.
With Adrien out of immediate danger, the Gorilla charges Simon and tries to take him down. Simon smirks, and says "Simon says stop!" He then throws that card at the Gorilla, making him freeze mid-step.
Bloom groans, she hates the Akumas that can control others. She always manages to get their attention, somehow or other, and ends up with a splitting migraine because they tend to hit her about ten times with their powers trying to force their will over her. If she were on her own, she'd sneak away under a mirage and transform - as it is, she's got Nino to worry about. She can't just leave him, what if something happens to him because of that? And she can't exactly ask him to be a distraction, he won't last a minute! She can't even use her magic in any way that'll make a big enough distraction, it'll out her for sure. Ergo…her brother's going to kill her for this. That, or drag her with next time, potentially putting himself in more danger.
Even still, she doesn't have much choice.
Mentally apologizing to her brother, Bloom quickly hisses to Nino "Stay down until there's an opening, then get out of here while you can."
Nino asks "What are you thinking? Please tell me this isn't another Pharaoh thing…" That was crazy, and he couldn't imagine what it must've been like.
"I'm not seeing any way to sneak out of here undetected, Nino! I'll make a distraction, you make a run for it!" Before he can object, Bloom stands up and says "Simon, you seriously think it's gonna count if you bring him here via Akuma powers? Hate to say it, but that's cheating!"
Simon scowls at her, and says "Simon Says be quiet!"
He hits her with the card, only to freeze when Bloom says "Screw that. I'm too stubborn to do as I'm told." She dodges more cards, seeing Nino run out the door, and internally sighs in relief. Maybe if I get him to use up all his cards…
Ten cards later as she's waiting for her brother to appear, she scraps that particular idea and decides she just needs to get them away from him altogether - it looks like he's got a never-ending supply of cards.
And then Cat Noir jumps on top of Simon Says, knocking him down and snarling "Cat Noir says shut up and give me those cards!" He tells his sister to stay down, he finds her annoying the crap out of Simon Says. He's going to have a long talk with her about the definition of 'stay down' after this is over. Along with an acceptable definition of 'safe.'
Simon scatters most of his cards even as the door slams open, and Cat Noir leaps over to gather them up...only to hear his bodyguard get ordered to knock him out. He's just been slammed into the wall, feeling very much like his ribs are going to give way under the pressure, when a familiar orange glow starts up in his peripheral vision. And then a familiar rope appears, the flames wrapping around the hypnotized man's wrists and rips them off Cat Noir with ease.
And then Dragon Fyre shocks even Cat Noir speechless when she says "Oh, screw it. Time to see if this will work or not. Snap out of it, wake up!" Her eyes glow orange, and Cat Noir swears his bodyguard's eyes do as well. And then he puts one hand to his head, shaking it like he's trying to clear a fog from it. Dragon Fyre tilts her head, a smirk slowly coming to her face as she says "Well, that's good to know. Seems that's good for more than just getting into places I shouldn't be and protecting my own mind."
Cat Noir frowns at his sister, but she says "Go back to the Agreste Mansion, Adrien's already on his way there." The Gorilla nods, then runs out the door.
Cat Noir conversationally asks "Care to explain that last comment?" He'd really like to know what that means, actually. And if it means she thinks it's perfectly alright to deliberately annoy mind-controlling Akumas like that without so much as a second's hesitation or any attempts to go transform - there's damage control, and then there's that. Chances are, she did it to let Nino get away...Kwamis, sis!
Dragon Fyre glances away, then almost guiltily says "A few years ago, I discovered I could make people do what I wanted if I focused hard enough on them agreeing to do as much. It…it's how I got into school without too many questions from Principle Damocles. I don't do it much…mostly just to protect my own mind from being controlled by Akumas. But…I didn't see much choice. I didn't want to hurt him, but I didn't want him to hurt you…"
Cat Noir pulls her into a hug, and says "At least we know you can free people from an Akuma's control with it."
Dragon Fyre nods, and says "Yeah. That doesn't mean I like controlling a person's actions like that."
"Speaking of a person's actions…"
Dragon Fyre stiffens and groans inwardly, and says "Someone had to distract him long enough for Nino to get out. C'mon, let's go find-"
"There you two are!" They look and see Ladybug and Nino running up, and Ladybug asks "What happened?" Cat Noir's looking a familiar combination of exasperated and worried, which always means Dragon Fyre was running interference. Ladybug just sighs, and says "We've got a missing civilian, one Adrien Agreste, somewhere in the building. And Bloom Peters is in the thick of things again, using her miraculous stubbornness to distract Simon Says long enough for Nino here to escape. Anything else?"
Dragon Fyre says "Simon Says was going on about getting Gabriel Agreste here in twenty-four hours tops."
Nino says "That just means we gotta find my bro, Adrien! What if Simon Says uses him to get to his daddy-o? Do you think Bloom's alright? I know she's tough as nails, ever since the Pharaoh incident, but that was hardcore!"
Dragon Fyre immediately says "Alright, we'll split up. Simon Says went to go get an army, so he's not in the building. Cat Noir and I will go this way, you two go that way. If you two find Adrien, take him back to the mansion. If we find him, we'll get him to you two and go to hold off the army. And if anyone finds Bloom, tell her we've got things now and to go hide." Ladybug nods, and they take off.
Ladybug and Nino don't find Adrien, but Dragon Fyre does, showing up with him in tow close to the exit. "You two take him back, I've got a deck of cards to get. We'll meet up at the Agreste Mansion."
They run out the door, and Dragon Fyre yells "Lightning Dragon!"
Cat Noir leaps through the open window of the ground floor, yelling "Close off all exits, they're coming from every direction! Do as I say, engage the defense system - we need total lockdown!"
Instead of actually listening for once - really, that's too much to expect of Gabriel Agreste - the stone-cold man asks "How do you know so much about the mansion's security system?"
Cat Noir deadpans "Your saying you don't have the best security system money can buy? Or didn't have it invented?" He's getting really sick and tired of the people close to him not listening - his sister, at least, usually has a reason. His father, though, is just being stubborn for the sake of his pride - does he ever think of anything else?! What if he weren't Cat Noir, and was forced to wait up in his room and hope nothing happened?
Before Gabriel can say or do anything, though, one of the windows blows open and Dragon Fyre reforms sitting on the ground…looking severely beat up, a triumphant if pained expression on her face. Turns out thirty people all at once with pitchforks and baseball bats can get through the suits when they really try and Simon Says uses one of his cards to make her suit 'useless' - who knew? Still, she got what she wanted from Simon Says and got out of there as he went into a tantrum about it.
"Sis!" Cat Noir leaps over, asking "What happened?"
Dragon Fyre coughs, then groans "Cracked rib…and leg. Worth it, though."
Gabriel says "Nobody tells me what to do, not even a superhero." Especially not under his own roof.
Cat Noir feels something just snap inside him, thanks to a combination of his sister being injured and his father being so ridiculously, utterly stubborn - his sister may be just as stubborn, but at least she has magic she knows how to use to take care of herself! - and yells "You're in danger, like everyone else. So stop pretending your above us all, and do what I tell you to!"
Both Gabriel and Cat Noir freeze at that, right up until Dragon Fyre chuckles and coughs. She wheezes out "Be glad that wasn't me yelling at you, Agreste. It'd be much worse." She'd be going off on him thoroughly about the way he treats his son if she were currently able to stand - as it is, it feels more like her leg is broken than cracked despite what she said so her partners wouldn't worry. Which puts a hold on her marching up to the cold man tearing him a new one about how he currently - supposedly - has his son just waiting up in his room as an Akuma is coming for the mansion to try and do who-knows-what to him or make him do Simon-knows-what under mind-control. "Thankfully, though…" She brings one hand up to the nearby table, scattering the cards over the table haphazardly.
Everyone stares in shock, and Gabriel asks "How did you manage to get those?" He'd thought those were infinite! How did she manage to get them all?!
Dragon Fyre shrugs, even as her brother helps her sit on the table, and says "You live on your own long enough, you learn to get what's really important. Like objects with an evil butterfly."
Cat Noir quickly gathers the cards up and Cataclysms them all, with Ladybug purifying the corrupted butterfly…and then everyone watches in a morbid fascination as Dragon Fyre heals herself, bruises on her face fading in under a minute and her breathing getting steadily deeper. And, yep, that leg was definitely broken and now cracked like she said.
After a minute, Cat Noir helps her to her feet saying "As far as things go…purr-ty anti-clawmatic. I'll take it in a heartbeat, though."
Dragon Fyre grins, hiding te way her leg is still sore and says "All's well that ends well, then. I've gotta get going, and you have somewhere to be, Brother." Namely, in his own room - she can't really imagine how he got away from Nino in his own room, while the place is on lockdown, but he managed it somehow. Now he's got to get back up there and undo it.
Cat Noir gives her a very unimpressed look, and says "Don't think we won't be talking, Sis." The next time he sees her, they're having a long talk - just because she can heal herself does not mean it makes it any easier to see her looking like that, and just because she's effectively immune to an Akuma's mind-control thanks to her magic does not mean it's alright for her to put herself in danger like that!
Gabriel stares at Dragon Fyre in undisguised shock, and finally asks "How did you do that? With the healing?" Instead of answering, Dragon Fyre uses her Water Dragon and turns into steam that disappears.
In lieu of her fiery partner, Ladybug says "Magic. Her own magic. Why?"
After a moment, one in which Gabriel's expression goes back to perfectly blank, he says "Curiosity."
Ladybug seriously doubts that, but her two partners are already gone so Dragon Fyre can't exactly call his likely bluff.
AN: Hey, everyone! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's hoping 2022 is better than this last year has been!
At any rate...honestly, I can't decide which part of the dynamic these three have going on would be the hardest - taking all the hits, being a human shield for your partner...or having to watch your partner do as much, watch them get hurt to the point of dying and hope your good enough to finish it up and bring them back. Either way...that's rough. Even moreso when you figure out who's behind it all - CN's gonna need some therapy after the big reveal of Hawk Moth's identity, I know I would.
Enjoy! More chapters coming soon!