MIRACULOUS

Chapter 20

Red Tape Part 2

8 years earlier… South Park, Colorado…

"Heh, Hanukkah sucks," Cartman scoffed when his classmate Kyle was sharing his Jewish culture by playing the dreidel while singing its song.

"Don't start with your crap, you fat ass master," Kyle retorted.

"Don't call me fat, you egg sucker!" Cartman called back.

"Then don't oppress my people, you fat frickin lard!"

Years later…

"Token, I swear to God. If you call me fat ass one more time I will hit you square with this rock!" Cartman threatened as he indeed picked up a rock.

"Fat ass!' He heard a voice and Cartman threw the rock square at the Token's head.

Only one year earlier…

"Huh?" Cartman spouted as he dropped his new belt buckle as a ball of light floated. When the light died out, there was a small creature that had basic features of a raccoon, floating where the light once shone. "Ehhh…"

"Hello!" the floating creature said in a bubbly voice. "I'm Tanuki, and I'm a kwami!" he greeted.

"Youse a jigga what?"Cartman asked, tilting his head, and raised an eyebrow.

Then the kwami proceeded to explain everything he knew about the kwamis and the miraculous as Cartman paced around, listening.

"So let me get this straight, you have powers to trick people and they're more like you with different powers and can be superheroes?"

"Pretty much, we have been doing this for millennia and we have aided humanity against anyone who has attempted to disrupt the balance that humanity is needed," Tanuki continued. Cartman, however, waved his hand and turned away.

"Uh-huh," Cartman muttered. "How about you can actually make yourself useful and cause some change?"

"Huh?" Tanuki was caught by surprise.

"Just as you said, people have always done douchy things to people, always looking for an excuse, always finding ways to justify the crap they keep doing," Cartman went about.

"What are you proposing?" Tanuki asked, not liking where this is going.

"I say what if there's a miraculous to manipulate people's thoughts and if I could use other miraculous at the same time, I could multiply that power tenfold! With that, there would be no more ill will or intent!"

"But Eric, that would mean robbing the people out of their free will! It's too big of a price!" Tanuki shouted in a panic.

"So what? Do you expect humans to stay stuck in this cycle of evil, piece, rinse, and repeat?"

"But as long as there are people, there will always be conflict," Tauki tried to reason.

"Exactly, so if we have a mean to put a lid on in for good…" Cartman pondered as he rubbed his chin.

"Eric… Please don't…" Tanuki pleaded as he leaned in.

"Tell me about all the other miraculous you know," he prompted. "Don't you see? We can save this world, with the right mind and the right plan we could take this world by storm and make it ours!" he said as he punched the sky and opened his palm. He spread his fingers as if the sunlight went through his fingers.

Three months later…

A hooded figure pinned down The Coon with his foot on his throat. He gasped as he tried to get his adversary's foot out of his neck.

"That's enough Cartman, do you realize what you're doing?" the hooded figure asked.

"Yes! I'm making the world a better place!"

"No Cartman, you're making the world how YOU think it's better and it doesn't make it so!" the hooded figure shouted.

"Screw you, Mysterion!" Coon shouted trying to fight him off. He swiped his way out of Mysterion's grip and ran off. He ran and jumped from rooftop to rooftop in Denver, Colorado. There were people fighting each other and police sirens blaring everywhere.

"Cartman! Don't you get it?" Mysterion shouted but it all fell on deaf ears…

Present-day… In Paris…

Emilie was surfing in her gallery with Gabriel and Adrien on her phone. There were pictures of Gabriel, Adrien, and herself as a seemingly one happy family while the last picture of her gallery was an ultrasound of her pregnancy which showcased two fetuses, twins. That image always caused her to break into tears.

"Emma… Adrien… Why couldn't you wait a little longer… Why did you leave me too…" She looked up at the night sky. "Please, take care of your sister, you will both be home soon.

Nathalie saw Emilie's soliloquy from afar with an uncertain look on her face and turned around with her eyes tight shut. She let out a gasp when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Emilie holding the Peacock miraculous for her taking.

"Emilie…" Nathalie breathed. "Please… I don't think I can…"

"What was that?" Emilie cut her off. Nathalie stiffed.

"I don't want to do this any…"

"What was that?" Emilie cut her off more abruptly this time. Nathalie bit her lip.

"Nothing," she sighed in defeat as she lowered her head.

"Good," Emilie seethed as she put the miraculous on her hand again and closed her palm.

Meanwhile…

Cat Noir gasped as he was once again surrounded by his team, as they were when they were planning on how to extract the snake miraculous. They were all looking at him weird and then he realized that he was panting as he looked back and forth. Queen Bee raised an eyebrow.

"Ehhh… Cat Noir?" she inquired.

"Dude, you okay?"

"Something's way off here…" Cat muttered. Then a sudden pain in his head flashed him and saw a lot of vague images of him and the team getting tangled up with the Coon and finally grabbing the Coon by the wrist almost over the Coon's other hand which was already on the bracelet while he himself was trying to pull it off. The pain quickly subsided and with a gasp, he realized what was happening. "Everyone, get off this roof…"

He was abruptly cut off when the roof once again collapsed beneath them and "Red Tape" was blaring from the speakers. Cat rolled his eyes at the already familiar tune. He whipped out his staff and began spinning it towards where the Coon was supposed to pop up and sure enough, he did just that and managed to deflect the Coon's attack.

"What the…? Impossible," the Coon muttered as he jumped off Cat's staff.

"Alright, hand over the snake bracelet or else," Cat demanded.

"So, you figured it out…"

"Seriously, how many times did you went back?" Cat asked, which the Coon scoffed.

"Heh, does it matter?" he asked. "I can do this as many times as I want!" he concluded showing off his bracelet. Everyone was shocked upon realization.

"Seriously, just how many times did we went through this?" Pegasus wondered.

"Wait, I'm lost here…" Queen Bee stepped in.

"The Coon has been using the snake miraculous to reverse time, so every time he's on a pickle we go back to where we started! Who knows how long we've been stuck in this time loop!" Cat Pointed out.

"Time loop?" Pegasus asked, intrigued.

"The bracelet? Then the one hanging in the angel statue is…" Rena Rouge began.

"A Fake!" Carapace concluded.

"God knows how many times we had been looped!" Cat said.

"Whatever," Coon rolled his eyes as he was about to grab his bracelet once again, only for a shield to knock his right handoff.

"Not this time, bro!" Carapace shouted.

"Everyone, go for the brave…"

"SECOND CHANCE!"

"…we've been stuck in a time loop!" Cat pointed out.

"AAARGH GODDAMN IT!" the Coon screamed, as he slammed his fist on the bracelet.

"He did it again!" Cat and Ryuko shouted in unison then they both charged at him from different directions.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Coon screamed as he narrowly avoided both of their attacks and tried to make a break for it.

"After him!" Cat shouted.

"Not getting away this time!" Rena Rouge assured herself.

"Screw you!" the Coon began knocking down crates from the warehouse in an attempt for them to land on top of them.

"Shell-ter!" Carapace shouted, with the shield summoning its usual barrier, shielding him and Rena from the barrage of crates, plummeting on them.

"Wind Dragon!" Ryuko went after him as she turned into wind in an attempt to surround them. The Coon jumped and slashed out one of the emergency showers, causing it to break. The showering drops were strong enough to cause a mist rather quickly. A portal opened below him which he fell in before he could react. He fell on a set of crates, breaking them. He looked up and saw Pegasus looking down from above and then looked up.

"He's all yours!" he prompted and saw Queen Bee getting the drop on him.

"VENOM!" she shouted, pointing her top as she fell towards him. With precise timing, he grabbed her wrists with both his arms, stopping it from reaching his chest. Queen Bee couldn't stop as she now used both her palms to push her top on him.

"Come…on…" Queen bee muttered. "Just give up, will ya!" she raised her voice.

"Hey, I won't be bested by the snobby Chloe Bourgeois!" the Coon threatened and kicked her back knocking her off him.

"Water Dragon!" Ryuko shouted the Coon felt the wetness beneath him as the water she transformed into. He quickly got up and jumped off the water before the waves engulfed him. The waves began to lift up and charged towards him like a spear.

"Ah HA!" he exclaimed when he stuck his claw into the water spear. Ryuko abruptly regained her human form while the Coon grabbed her by the neck.
"I GOTCHA!" he seethed.

She struggled to break free from his grip. The Coon wasted no time and pulled Ryuko's pendant off her neck, revealing Kagami Tsurugi, and with a kicked, he knocked her to a tower of crates.

"Tsurugi!? You gotta be kidding me!" Queen Bee exclaimed.

"YOINK!" the Coon said as he snatched her bee hairpin out of her hair, transforming her back to Chloe.

"NO!" she shouted as her hands touched her hair where the pin was. He grabbed her by the hair and swung her, tossing her to where Kagami laid.

"Damn it!" Cat slammed his fist on the ground. "Some leader I turned out to be…" he growled.

"Cat Noir, I believe we can turn the tide by…" he was cut off by Carapace being thrown on him. The Coon shadows then started to gang up on the remaining heroes.

"Hey!" Cat spouted before his face was stepped on by one of the Coon's shadow.

"Grrr…" Rena Rouge growled as she fought back the shadows. "I totally forgot he could do that!"

"Can you fight them back with your clones?" Cat asked as he fought back.

"I already did," Rena replied discouraged. She was then headbutted by the real Coon and grabbed her necklace, causing it to snap from her neck and transform back to Alya.

"Alya!" Carapace panicked as he caught her in his arms. "Alya… Carapace began as the final warning alarm in his bracelet emitted, causing him to lose his transformation as well.

"Grr… Pegasus!" Cat called out.

"Looking for this?" the Coon asked as he held the horse glasses with his left hand, fiddling with them. "I don't wanna wait, for our lives to be over…" he sung quietly, then he suddenly teleported in front of Nino and knocked him out with an uppercut. Cat barely even blinked. He sunk to his knees as he helplessly witnessed the Coon removing the turtle bracelet.

"How could I let this happen?" Cat thought to himself on a trance. "I… I failed…"

"Hey!" Cartman blurted out, snapping his fingers on his face. "Still in there? Hello!" he mocked at the defeated and entranced.

Meanwhile, a weakened Kagami crawled her way out of the broken crates. Her eyes widened in shock when she witnessed the scene before her. The Coon was about to try to take off his black cat ring.

"No…"

"So if you kindly hand your ring over hyah," he said as he grabbed Cat's hand.

"Cat Noir!" Kagami shouted, causing Cat to snap and head butt the Coon on the chin then he tackled him, causing the two to roll uncontrollably. Coon threw a punch at Cat's cheek and then Cat responded in kind. Blow after blow after blow, they gave each other a punch in the face, one after the other. The Coon finally tackled Cat into an all-out brawl. Both of them struggle to grab the miraculous and finally getting the upper hand, both of them struggling with their focus on Cat's hand, where the ring is.

"Gimme the ring!" the Coon yelled. He threw a punch but was blocked by Cat.

"You give me the miraculous!" Cat shouted back as he struggled out of his grip.

"Or what? You're scared that your Ladybug will see you as the jobber you are?" the Coon taunted.

And that did it… He felt his anger rising as he felt this elevating sensation in his chest. He slowly made a fist and gritted his teeth beneath his lips, hoping the Coon wouldn't notice.

"CATACLYSM!" he slashed the Coon in the face, causing him to stagger.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!" the Coon screamed while holding his cheek as he stumbled out of Cat, freeing him from his grip.

Cat then tackled him and bashed him with a barrage of punches at him. The Coon then showed an incredible amount of physical strength and barraged at Cat back with his own fist.

"How do you like them apples!?" the Coon mocked as he grabbed Cat by the collar and bashed his face in with his fist. Again and again and again, and again…

"I can't give up… OOOF!" he was cut off by a knee in the stomach.

The Coon grabbed Cat's arm and forced the ring out of Cat's finger. All the weakened kids witnessed with shock and horror as they witnessed that the boy they thought to be dead was the feline hero guiding them in their vicious fight which had shackled them in this cycle.

"Adrien…" A weakened Kagami muttered as she raised her hand out to them before he was thrown in with the rest of them.

"Adrien…?" Alya began.

"Bro…"

"Hahahahahaha, I got all your miraculous, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah," he mocked in a singsong voice. He began his little victory dance but out of the blue, he was suddenly tackled from behind once he turned.

"NEVER!" he growled as the two wrestled with each other once again. Mere seconds after he was so battered he was back with a sudden new wave of energy. The Coon, of course, had the upper hand due to his miraculous powers as well as Adrien's battered and bruised condition.

"Hey, what gives!?" Coon struggled more than he thought as Adrien persisted in the struggle. Knocking him out of his high ground with a thud, Adrien gave his share of punches on the face. But of course, the Coon's superior strength decided the brawl and kicked Adrien off and slammed him towards the others yet again. "OK, that does it!" he stated, getting up. "Screw you guys, Imma going home!"

He checked in the stolen miraculous that he had gathered. The cat ring, check. The Fox pendant, check. The dragon pendant, check. The turtle bracelet, check. The horse glasses, check. The bee hairpin, check. But as he was about to leave but then he stopped dead in his tracks and began to scramble around the miraculous he has gathered. As seconds passed, he appeared more and more frantic as he looked around the miraculous than the floor.

He finally checked where he left his weakened opponents and saw a green light radiating from Adrien as he got back to his feet as his friends stared at him with amazement. The light faded and saw his previously fallen opponent and had a green suit with snake scale features and grinned at him as he showed the snake bracelet.

The Coon's expression went from triumphant to shocked and slowly became more and more dismayed…

"Oh… Weak…" the Coon muttered. Barely a whisper. Adrien in his snaked persona did not lose his grin.

"You said it!" he said. His right hand went to his left wrist and activate. "SECOND CHANCE!"

Cat opened his eyes and nearly tripped on his feet when he realized he was jumping on the rooftops. He checked his wrist and realized that he didn't have the bracelet. So I only have one shot at this…

"Whoa…WHOA!" Cat uttered as she regained his footing. Queen Bee, who was right behind him, looking at him raising an eyebrow.

"Are you ok?" she asked. Cat then took a detour.

"This way Queen Bee, change of plans, we're not meeting with the others," Cat said as he took another direction.

"Huh?" Queen Bee was confused at first but she then grinned. "Oh, so you know that I'm better than them and we'll take on the bad guy on our own?" she asked. Cat rolled his eyes.

"Something like that," he answered, stroking her ego a bit. "Come on," he commanded as she led her to the bottom of a warehouse storage building.

Meanwhile, back up the rooftop where the others are waiting. Rena was pacing around while the other waited in their own way. Ryuko sat cross-legged with her eyes closed while Pegasus observed her stroking his chin. Carapace then broke the silence.

"You know, he's unusually late now," he said. Rena Rouge rolled her eyes.

"He said he was going to get Queen Bee. She's probably giving him a hard time. I'd ditch her and come alone if I were him," she replied. Ryuko opened her eyes.

"Do you hear it?" she asked the others.

"Hear what?" Carapace asked as he suddenly hears a clunking commotion.

"It appears to be from downstairs," Pegasus suggested. Grunting can be heard as they appear to be fighting.

"You don't think…" Rena Rouge began but was cut off by something, or rather someone, being shot out the air conditioning duct. They saw the Coon fly over them and then hit his back hard on a car below.

"Wow…" Rena muttered.

"What just happened?" Carapace asked as Cat and Queen Bee jumped up from the same air duct.

"Looks like the hunter became the hunted," Cat boasted. He and Queen Bee joined the others as they witness their downed opponent getting up from the car he had just crushed. "Guys, the bracelet, go for his bracelet!" he instructed as he charged down towards the Coon while Queen Bee and the others followed.

The Coon quickly got off the car and threw it up ant them with ease. As they fell in, Carapace took point and activated his shield.

"SHELL-TER" he shouted, as his barrier shielded them from the already half-destroyed car.

"Ryuko, Rena!" Cat commanded. "Use your wind powers to blind him!"

"Gladly," Ryuko and Rena replied in unison as Rena whipped out her flute while Ryuko crossed her arm protectively as she spread when she shouted…

"WIND DRAGON!" she turned into the wind while carrying the dust summoned by Rena Rouge.

"ACK!" the Coon he covered his eyes as he backed away. Then he suddenly felt the ground disappear and then he noticed that Pegasus had summoned a portal below and above him, causing to keep falling in the endless loop. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHH" he bellowed.

"VENOM!" Queen Bee shouted, charging at the looping Coon.

"Wait, Bee! Not yet!" Cat shouted. But by pure bad timing, Coon managed to grab Bee by the arm and pull her under with him. That resulted in both of them to fall into the loop Pegasus created.

"Epic… Real epic, Chloe!" Carapace berated. Cat then facepalmed with a sigh.

"Pegasus?"

"Yes, sir," Pegasus affirmed with dismay as he closed both portals with both landing hard on the floor.

The Coon quickly regained his footing, and threw Queen Bee at them, stunning the heroes for a moment.

"Nice going, Bourgeois!" Rena seethed, gritting her teeth.

"Screw you!" Coon yelled as he reached his wrist yet again.

"Second chance!"

"NO!" Cat screamed tackling him… Nothing happened. Cat would've not reached him on time, yet there he is on top of his opponent, who already had his hand on his wrist… But no bracelet.

"Ehhhh…?"

"Looking for this?" Queen Bee asked from afar, who was holding the snake bracelet, hanging from her finger teasingly. The Coon angrily kicked Cat off him and charged at her.

"GIMME THAT BRACELE… AAAAAHHHHCK!" he was cut off by Carapace's flat shield hitting him square in the face, making an almost 'gong' sound effect on impact, stunning him.

"Now's our chance!" Cat shouted.

With a grin, Ryuko transformed into her water form around his legs and froze them in place, keeping him standing. Pegasus popped up and quickly gave him a barrage of punches square in the face. He quickly stepped aside, to make way for Rena to whipped him in the chin with her flute. Rena then stepped aside and came at him with full force with his staff, whacking him on top of his head. Ryuko had already deactivated her frozen water dragon, causing the Coon to kneel helplessly. Stunned and disoriented, the Coon couldn't defend himself anymore as he kneeled. Cat then held his staff down like a golf club.

"Fore!" Cat shouted as he swung his staff, hitting the Coon in the chin, sending him back flying to the warehouse, through a window. He observed the broken wind putting his head on his forehead as if covering from the sun. "*whistle* I'll never call golf a boring game again."

"AAAAAAAARGH!" the Coon grunted as he hit the railing pillars of the ceiling. He then fell on the top crate pillars as he fell uncontrollably, bouncing back and forth among the cargo until he finally fell and his back on top of a pinball machine. "AAAAAAAGH!"

He was soon greeted by Cat's team as the surrounded the pinball machine where he laid.

"Hey, you guys my back," the Coon said weakly. "No seriously you guys…" his vision was greeted by the heroes surrounding them, looking down at him.

"My how the tables have tabled," Carapace said. Pegasus adjusted his glasses.

"That's not how it goes," he pointed out.

"I know," Carapace replied, rolling his eyes. "It's just a matter of speech."

"So what do you think we do with him?" Queen Bee asked. Cat grinned.

"I have a few ideas of questioning, we got ways to get him to talk," he replied.

"Eeh… screw you guys…" the Coon said in his weakened state, as he succumbed to unconsciousness.

"Aaaaand he out," Rena said.

Author's note:

Whew! I wanted to end this with a sigh of relief.

Anyway, for you "South Park" fans out there may have noticed that I added some callbacks from the show. I also took some inspiration from the "Mysterion trilogy" from the show including Cartman's motives as well as some scenes. But the inspiration won't stop there so stay tuned…

I realize that the entire chapter is one big fight scene, so what I tried to do is telling the story as the fight went. I really need the comments to know if I succeeded or the story just came at a screeching halt, please let me know.

Constructive feedback is appreciated.