Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Tangled Or MLB. Those belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 7
Adrien and Ladybug walked down the tunnel, with Plagg sitting on Adrien's shoulder and Ladybug lighting their way with her magical yo-yo. Adrien still finds it surreal how he's on his way to go see the floating lights, and with a girl with magical powers no less.
"I have to hand it to you, Adrien. I had no idea you had that in you," Ladybug complimented. "It's rather impressive."
"I know!" The blonde boy replied excitedly, then quickly cleared his throat. "I mean, yeah, that was pretty cool."
The ladybug-themed female couldn't help but smile. There was something contagious about Adrien's bubbly personality. He really lights up a room with his presence.
"So, Ladybug," Adrien started. "Where are you from?"
"Woah, slow down there, Blondie. I don't do backstories." Ladybug interjected. "However, I am curious about yours. I know I shouldn't ask about the hair-"
"Right." Adrien confirmed,
"Or your mother-"
"Right again." Adrien nodded.
"And I'm afraid to ask about your cat-"
"Plagg." Adrien corrected, reminding her that the feline had a name.
Plagg meowed, glaring at Ladybug.
"I knew that." Ladybug replied with a sly smile. "So, I'll settle with this question: If you want to go see the lanterns so badly, how come you didn't go before?"
"Uh..well..." Adrien bit his lip. How was he supposed to explain that Mother Natalie scared him into believing that the world was a cruel, dangerous place filled with terrible people who would want to hurt him? But before Adrien could reply, a rock from the ceiling fell down and the tunnel began to shake. Loud footsteps can be heard coming towards them from the other end of the tunnel.
"Ladybug?" The blonde boy turned to her with an alarmed look as the guards came into view.
"Ladybug!" Captain Luka shouted, charging towards the duo, the other guards following right behind him.
"Run!" Ladybug shouted, starting to sprint.
Adrien picked up a handful of his hair and started to run as well.
The two ran down the tunnel until they came to the opening of a run-down coal mine, stopping in their tracks as they reached the edge of a cliff. Looking down, they spotted Rena Rouge and Queen Bee waiting at the bottom with their weapons held ready, glaring up at Ladybug.
"Who are they?" Adrien asked.
"They don't like me." Ladybug replied, not wanting to get into details about them being her partners in crime.
"And what about them?" Adrien turned around to see Captain Luka and the guards now surrounding them, their silver armor shining in the afternoon sun, each holding out their sword in anticipation of a fight.
"Also don't like me." She added, gesturing to Luka. "Especially him."
Then Lila the horse appeared, glaring daggers at the red and black female.
"Let me guess, the horse doesn't like you either?" Adrien assumed.
"Let's just say I'm on everyone's bad side." Ladybug answered with a sigh.
"Give it up!" Captain Luka shouted. "We have you cornered!"
Adrien pulled out his sword to get ready to defend himself, when he noticed a sturdy beam at the top of the coal mine. Thinking fast, he lassoed a clump of his hair and looped around the beam, giving it a tug to make sure it was tight.
"Hold this!" Adrien handed his sword and Plagg to Ladybug and swung away to the other side before Ladybug could reply.
"Oh, I waited a long time for this." Captain Luka said with a smile as he charged at Ladybug, sword held ready. Plagg hissed and pounced at his face, scratching and biting in a flurry of claws and fangs. Luka yelped and dropped his sword as he tried to pry the black cat off his face.
All the while, Ladybug used Adrien's sword to fight the other guards, disarming them one by one and using her yoyo to tie them all up.
"Wow, who knew this weapon was so useful." She smiled at the sword. "I should get myself one of these." She ducked as the horse suddenly swiped at her with one of the guards' swords, glaring and snorting at the thief she'd been trying to catch. The two entered into a combat routine, the horse swinging the sword back and forth, while Ladybug dodged and deflected the attacks with the sword. "This has got to be one of the weirdest things I've ever done!" Ladybug said to no one in particular.
Plagg, having taken care of captain Luka, now pounced at the horse and clawed at its face.
In that distracted moment, the ladybug-themed girl unwraps her yo-yo around the guards, wraps it around the same beam and starts swinging towards the other side.
Unfortunately, the yo-yo string was too low and Ladybug found herself heading straight for Rena Rouge and Queen Bee. Said bee-themed girl pulled out her venom stinger and jumped at Ladybug, but she managed to curve the right, barely missing the venom strike and swinging past them.
"Ha! So long, Chloe." She taunted, landing on a cart at the top of the coal mine.
"It's Queen Bee!" She shouted pointlessly back.
Adrien chuckled to himself at that interaction, but stopped when he saw the horse kick down a pillar to cross over to his side. Plagg ran forward and pounced back on the blonde boy's shoulder.
"Ladybug!" Adrien called out to her, grabbing her attention and tossing one end of his hair to her.
She got the ends of his hair and gave a thumbs up. "Jump!"
Without needing to be told twice, Adrien held onto his end of hair and jumped, just in time before the horse could snatch his hair in its teeth.
The blonde boy swung across in a similar fashion, smiling at the rush of the moment. He managed to land just under the ramp of the coal mine, giving Plagg a pet on the head before starting to run again as he caught Rena Rouge and Queen Bee making their way towards him.
Ladybug rode the cart down the ramp, catching up to Adrien and Plagg, the two now running towards a cave in the distance.
Little did they know, the pillar the horse took out to cross was keeping water from breaking out of a dam. Now the water seeped through the wooden barrier, and with a final push, the dam broke and the water started pouring out to the ground below, taking the ramp, the horse, the guards, Rena Rouge and Queen Bee, and everything else with it.
Ladybug and Adrien managed to make it into the cave before the flood rushed in, blocking the entrance, the light from outside, and any way of escape.
The two climbed into a high rock to avoid the tides, but water was rising up fast. Plagg hissed and climbed on Adrien's head, getting away from the water as much as possible. Ladybug dived in, trying to see where to go, but the water was murky and dark. She came back to the surface with a gasp and tried climbing up on the wet cave rocks, cutting her hand in the process. with a groan, she settled with sitting on the rock next to Adrien, trying to think of a way out of this situation.
"What do we do now?" Adrien's eyes were now filled with dread. "We're trapped."
"Now is the right time to use this." Ladybug used her other hand to hold her yo-yo up in the little air that was left. "Lucky charm!" Bright red and pink sparkles surrounded them, then evaporated, revealing - a hairbrush?
"Seriously? How is this supposed to help us?" Ladybug mumbled.
"Well, my mother always brushed my hair when I sang for my hair to glow." Adrien mentioned. His eyes lit up in realization. "That's it!"
With that, he quickly began to sing as the water rose to their necks.
"Feather gleam and glow, let your power fly…"
They took a deep breath before the water completely immersed them. Everything was pitch black for a minute…then Adrien's hair glowed, lighting up the water so that the three of them could see.
Ladybug's eyes widened in surprise, putting a hand over her mouth to keep herself from gasping and letting water in.
With this light, they noticed a cluster of rocks where water was seeping through the gaps. The two swam towards it and pulled away the rocks, eventually making the gap big enough for water to pour out and slide through into a river on the other side. They found a bank and pulled themselves out of the water, breathing heavily.
"We did it." Ladybug exclaimed between breaths, followed by a beeping of her earrings.
"Yeah, we're alive." Adrien replied, putting a hand to his chest. That was the most exhilarating thing he's ever done, but he decided against telling Ladybug that, since he gathered she'd probably had a lot more exciting adventures than this.
Plagg shook the water out of his fur, meowing in annoyance at the fact that he nearly drowned.
"Sorry, Plagg," Adrien said sheepishly. "I know how much you hate water."
"The cat hates water?" Ladybug said mockingly. "I would have never guessed."
Adrien laughed at her attempt at humor.
The earrings beeped louder, then once again, Ladybug's suit and mask disappeared, and Ticki reappeared in Marinette's hands.
"I'm..exhausted." Ticki managed between breaths.
"Me too, Ticki." Marinette replied with a smile. "Me too."
Adrien just stared incredulously at them, having not gotten used to the fact that the girl had two identities.
"Woah." was all he could say.
Marinette looked over to the blonde boy. "Not used to it?" She reached up and touched her earrings. "Not that I expect you to. You're not supposed to know about me and Ladybug in the first place."
"What do you mean?" Adrien raised an eyebrow.
Marinette looked up at the sky. It was getting dark. She got up to her feet.
"Let's set up a fire." she said. "Then I'll tell you."
Adrien shrugged and got up to his feet. "Okay." he picked up Plagg and the two started walking in the direction of the woods to find an appropriate place to camp.
(On the other side of the woods)
Mother Natalie hid behind a rock, her dagger raised as she waited by a tree with a large sewage drain within it - the place where the tunnel leads to.
A minute later, the drain is thrown open, and Rena Rouge and Queen Bee, now in normal human form, come out, drenched and breathing heavily.
"I'm gonna kill Ladybug!" Chloe shouted angrily, punching a fist to her palm.
"I thought you adored Ladybug." Rena Rouge, now Alya, pointed out.
"That was before she left us for that blonde boy, taking the crown with her!" Chloe replied. "Actually, I need to kill him first, and then Ladybug!"
"You will do no such thing."
The girls turned around to see Mother Natalie standing a few feet away, holding the satchel out in one hand.
"Is this what you two are looking for?" Mother Natalie tossed the satchel to them.
After shoving each other for dominance over it, Chloe pulled out the crown, gazing greedily at it, before turning to the woman. "How did you know?"
"This "Ladybug" you mentioned has kidnapped my son." Mother Natalie explained. "If you help me find them and get my son back, you can get revenge on your fellow traitor." She pulled out the wanted poster of Ladybug and smiled. "And you'll receive a reward worth a thousand crowns."
Chloe and Alya looked at each other, this offer sounding too good to pass up. They turned to Mother Natalie with a nod.
"We're in."
Author's Note: Merry Christmas, beautiful readers. Now that I'm on break, I finally have the time to update this story. It took me longer than I expected to get this chapter in, having forgotten some parts of the plot in the process lol. Hope you enjoyed this Christmas gift. Until next time, leave reviews, live your dreams, and have a great holiday.