MIRACULOUS

CHAPTER 43

SUPERHEROES PART 3

Ladybug and Cat Noir leaped up from the big hole on the ground where the rigged old boiler orbiting over Paris had burst out from. Ryuko, Viperion, Pegasus, Rocket, Blue Jay, Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Present and older Queen Bees soon followed.

They all looked up the object for a moment before realizing more undead former heroes were approaching.

"AAAAH!" Rocket screeched, catching the others' attention. Majestia and Uncanny Valley emerged once again, ambushing them from each side.

"SHELL-TER!" Carapace raised his shield and summoned his barrier. "We gotta think of a plan and fast!"

"Not much to talk about actually," Rocket stepped in. "Ladybug and Cat Noir, you guys focus on dismantling this antique while the rest of us draw them zombie supers as we buy you some time."

Everyone looked around at each other and no one else had any objections.

"I believe it is the preferable course of action at this moment," Ryuko agreed.

"Then let's get it on!" Elder Queen Bee prompted. Everyone stared at her and her younger self facepalmed. "Look it's been too long, okay?"

"Ready?" Ladybug said.

"BREAK!" Cat Noir Clapped. Carapace's barrier faded and everyone spread while Ladybug and Cat noir jumped up towards the boiler while everyone else scattered.

Ladybug and Cat Noir landed on top of the rooftops as they let everyone else take care of Lux's undead army.

"Work your magic, My Lady!" Cat Noir prompted.

"Come on Ladyvision, don't fail me now…"

"Is that what it's called?"

"Nah, just came up with it now," Ladybug confirmed. "Joking aside, we need to dismantle this thing."

"What's the hypothesis?"

"I think what's causing it to float is what's rigging it to explode, it's more of a time. The natural gas within it is already full so some kind of lighter or spark with what will set off the blast!"

"So we just need to find it before it's too late!"

Ladybug pulled herself in with her yoyo while Cat noir jumped up at it by propelling himself with his staff. The two latched onto the boiler and climbed their way higher until they were able to wall run.

"Try to open the holes with the nuts and bolt, it'll buy us some time!"

"Of course, but still I can't find the source anywhere!"

"Leave that to me!" Cat Noir went out to scout around. When Ladybug began to loosen up the nuts and bolts, the boiler began to lose altitude.

"Whoa…" Ladybug wavered a bit. "Cat Noir, Any luck?"

"Hang on…" He could feel something keeping the boiler active. "My Lady, could you dismantle and make a hole?"

"Um, Kitty…" Ladybug cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh, right, CATACLYSM!" He paved an opening on the boiler and through the hole, he quickly saw what was prepping it to explode. It was Mercury, with his hands he was using his hyperspeed to heat up from the inside with a small ancient artifact, which is set to light up a match when the timer finishes. "BINGO!"

"Oh, now you're talking like them?"

"Hey, their antics are catchy!"

They both dived in and confronted Mercury. Before they could get near him, a wave of burning gas emitted from the trapped undead Mercury.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" they both screamed when the wave burned their skin. They both struggled to get back up…

"AAH, My Lady!"

"I'm ok!" Ladybug reassured rather wearingly. "I'm ok…"

Cat cocked an eyebrow but chose not to press the issue and got up as he braced himself for the heat.

"It's too hot! We can't get any closer!" Cat said.

"Then, there's only one other way out of this mess!"

"Talk him out of it?"

"Worth a try!" Ladybug soldiered on as they slowly approached where Mercury was.

"This is how far we go, My Lady!" Cat said. "Now or never!"

"Stop, you don't have to do this!" Ladybug shouted.

"All that is left for us is to follow Lady Lux for eternity," Mercury said in an eerily deadpan voice.

"No, you don't, we can free you!" Cat Noir said.

"Please, stop this thing and give us a chance!"

"We can stop this and you will be free, it doesn't have to end like this!" Cat added.

"Free?" mercury repeated. "I cannot even imagine what free is…This is all I know…"

"Even the idea of freedom scares him," Ladybug concluded. "So conniving…"

"My, Lady," Cat called. "Throw me!"

"WHAT!"

"If I can get to him and hit him with my 'feeling' power…"

"That's crazy!"

"We got nothing else… Incoming!"

Ladybug quickly spun her yoyo with Cat behind her to receive the next heatwave. They both held each other tight as they soldiered on the heat as much as they could. While her yoyo helped to block off the heat, they still got a dose of burning vaporware on their skins. They both screamed in painful burning agony.

"Do it, now!" Cat called.

"But…"

"We may not survive the next one!"

"All right!" she shouted. Without thinking too much, she threw her yoyo at his hand in which Cat grabbed onto. With all her strength, she swung around and threw Cat at Mercury like a sling.

"CATACLYSM!" he disintegrated Mercury into mush. As a result, the boiler began to shut down and it was now starting to fall from orbit.

Meanwhile… down the streets of Paris…

"Here comes to so Rocket and his five finger death…" Before Rocket could deliver his blow to a group of undead heroes he was fighting, they all faded into white glowing vapor. "Awww…"

"Is it over?" Rena asked.

"I do not believe so," Pegasus replied, pushing his glasses in and pointed. "Look."

Everyone looked where Pegasus pointed and saw that the boiler was now pitch black and losing altitude.

"Uh, guys…" Blue Jay began then their communicators rang.

"Everyone listen up we have to combine our efforts to stop this thing!" Ladybug said.

"I've already used up my cataclysm too much, I'm running out of uses!"

"Superheroes" by Daft Punk plays.

Everyone looked up at the boiler no longer rigged to explode, it was still a threat.

"Pegasus, go around as much as you can and evacuate as many people as you can!" Cat noir commanded.

"I'm on it!"

"Queen Bees, you two split and go through different portals and heal any injured people you can find!" Ladybug ordered.

"You got it!" they said together. They briefly paused to stare at each other but shook their heads and split.

"Carapace, get as many people as you can, out of harm!" Cat commanded.

"Way ahead of ya, dude!" he jumped off.

"Rena, got any clones left?" Ladybug asked.

"A few!" she then nodded. Rena nodded back and she was off.

"Ryuko and Viperion, you come with us!"

"Ryuko listen, lift me up with your wind!"

"What is your plan?"

"I have to destroy that boiler while it's still high enough so it won't hurt the people, meanwhile Viperion plays his harp to power Ladybug up. Once the ash is falling, I need you to clear it up with your miraculous ladybug, got it?"

Ladybug simply stared at him, impressed.

"Hey, I had to pick up the slack while you were gone!" he said, shrugging.

"We'll talk later, let's bug it!" she said.

Cat cocked an eyebrow at her with a grin. Ladybug rolled her eyes.

"Knock it off…" she said softly.

"Never…"

The four heroes landed on the rooftop and saw that the boiler was getting closer to the taller buildings.

"NOW!"

"WIND DRAGON!" Ryuko shouted and vanished into the wind and lifted Cat Noir up in the air.

Viperion whipped out his harp and began to strum a few notes. Ladybug kneeled on one leg with a fist on the ground as she glowed in a shiny red aura.

The tornado Ryuko created lifted Cat up as he angled his body leaping off the top of the tornado.

"CATACLYSM!"

Cat tore the big ball upside from the bottom, tearing it in half. The two halves blackened into black mush, as expected.

"Ryuko, take cover!"

They both jumped down to the other side of the nearest building and embraced for impact. The two pieces of bulk burst in the sky, emitting a barrage of black mush, threatening Paris.

"Ladybug!" Viperion shouted.

"MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!" she threw the wrench up in the air and burst into a million small bugs, wiping the black mush out of existence before it could hit the city. As usual, all aspects of damage or any sign of what had transpired was gone and Paris was back to its mundane life as it was before the day went south. That sensation that was missing for so long had returned. While Mister Bug had used the cure before, they had always come bittersweet.

Song ends.

Rocket and Blue Jay had come out from separate buildings, escorting their share of civilians. They both looked at the sky where the sun shined once again and saw that the boiler that once threatened to plague Paris with its deadly white mist was no more.

"Well, what do you know…"

All the heroes got together once they finished rounding up the civilians to safety.

"Has anyone seen where Lux have gone?" Cat Noir asked. None of them had a positive answer. Some simply shook their heads.

"That was our last shot, wasn't it?" Ladybug asked. Cat scoffed and turned away and made an angry fist but made sure no one else noticed.

"Great," Rocket said. "So, what? We just wait until she unleashes the army of undead superheroes… AAAAAAH!" he was cut off when Blue Jay punched him on the shoulder.

Cat Noir stepped in and made a rather pointless yet desperate attempt to locate her by looking over the Paris skyline. Ladybug placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know how you feel Cat," she said. "You're angry at what she's doing to her victims with the white plague and what she has done in Paris and what she planning to do… We should've stopped her but what would we become if we let these people to their fate?"

That wasn't half the story. Cat desperately wanted to share how he truly felt with her but once again put all his restrain and calmed down.

"So um… we did good, right?" Carapace was unsure what to say.

"What kind of question is that?" Rena asked. "Of course we did! We stopped what could've been another white plague!""

"Yet, we may have paved the path for something worse," Ryuko countered.

"You don't know that!" Viperion stepped in!"

"All right, enough you two!" Both Queen Bees shouted in unison, each pushing one of them away from the other. Everyone paused and stared at them, and the two Queen Bees pointed at each other. "STOP THAT!"

"Chloe is the peacemaker, now?" Rena asked.

"I am just as surprised as you are," Pegasus pushed his glasses.

"All right, time out," Blue Jay stepped in and pointed. "Look."

They all turned to where Blue Jay pointed and saw the people applauding. Kids and teenagers were recording with their cell phones, and then it hit them… This was their first fully successful gig in a long time.

"Is that really Ladybug?"

"She was gone for so long…"

"Why now?"

"Who cares? Ladybug is back!"

The heroes took a moment before present Queen Bee whipped her hair.

"I don't know about you but I'm about to savor this moment!"

TVi

This is Nadja Chamack and Ladybug's shortcomings were made clear before her mysterious disappearance. Cat Noir had to endure the brief backlash he and Ladybug received on their own and we can't fault them for these confusing times… If only I have known that sooner…

But now Paris has realized that through it all and pulled through for us once again. After her mysterious hiatus, it is clear that our beloved Ladybug has returned.

Later…

When the heroes parted ways, Ladybug and Cat Noir were seemingly on their own. They both stood on the rooftops, neither of them flinching. They both had avoided each other since Plagg spilled the beans. Tikki still had mixed feelings about what she heard and how he kept that from them all these years. It was clear things between them had not been the same since that night when they fought against Volpina which was now dubbed as 'The Battle of Paris.'

It's not that they don't want to be friends anymore but actually the opposite, they've been avoiding each other because of what it would do to their friendship if they spoke. Ladybug couldn't hold this off any longer.

"Say Cat," Ladybug said. "We need to talk," she talked as delicately as she could.

"I know," Cat affirmed. "I've been waiting for this actually."

"Okay, meet me at my window tonight?"

"I'll be there…" And with that, he was off.

Once she found herself a good hiding spot she detransformed and Tikki landed on her hands and sighed with relief.

"Someday, huh?" Marinette asked.

"Most certainly one to take a toll, I can tell you that much," Tikki said, accepting Marinette's cookie.

"Hey, um, are you ready to face Plagg?" Marinette asked. Tikki stopped eating. "I know it was sudden but, I need to know."

"I… I actually don't know," Tikki admitted.

"Tikki…"

"After Plagg came clean, I just… I just couldn't see him the same way anymore…"

They both stood silent for a moment and Marinette quickly spoke up.

"Tikki, do kwami fall in love?"

"HUH!?" Tikki was caught off guard.

"Think about it, you guys get tired, get sick, you get happy, sad, angry, scared, why would that be out of the question?"

"Because we're supposed to be the providers of the wielder's power," Tikki tried to be stern. "We can't afford to pursue our own selfish desires like that."

"But if you have been around for so long, selfish desires are bound to happen!"

Then with that, they were both silent again…

Meanwhile…

Cat inclined on the edge of the building as at this point there was not much to do but wait till dark to meet up with Marinette. There were times where he just sat and looked at the people, watching this world pass him by. For these past several months since Adrien Agreste was snuffed from existence, he was so focused on the moment he hasn't thought about what to do in his future. His feelings for Marinette remain strong but with everything that has happened, he's unsure how she sees him now.

"Deep in your thoughts, I see," Ryuko's voice could be heard from behind him.

Cat turned and gave her a gentle look as she approached him. Cat had wanted to talk to her as well as she had previously shown that she knew who he was. She came to his side and leaned near the edge of the rooftop with him.

"Hey Kagami," he greeted gently. She responded with a bittersweet smile.

"You are meeting up with her, are you not?"

"I am," he admitted. Ryuko kept quiet as she took a deep breath and mustered the courage to continue the conversation.

"She's the one who you had eyes on all this time, did you not?" she asked. "Adrien?"

"How did you know, anyway?"

"I have a keen eye for how you looked at Ladybug as well as how Cat Noir looked at Ladybug. I have now seen that look, now that you know who she is, it was quite clear."

Cat looked at her with amazement. However, Ryuko smiled and shook her head.

"Was it?"

"To me it was, but that is not all. It was you in that suit," Ryuko revealed. "I could tell that that was you, the real you."

"Kagami…"

"I may not have realized it immediately. However, it eventually became clear to me that the façade you put around us as well as your father was not you. You were polite, educated, gentle, behaved, the model boy meant to be representing what their families have to offer. But I have had the feeling within you behind that mask. Inside you maintained that educated rich boy image that everyone saw but deep inside you wanted to scream."

"You knew I didn't die?"

"No, your 'death' was indeed well masked. For the following days, I have indeed believed you had perished in that fire. I have actually visited your grave where I have met with Marinette before she departed for Tibet. It was only when you appeared to me to offer my miraculous when I realized what you have done and told myself I should have not been surprised."

"What do you mean?"

"As I stated before," Ryuko continued. "You wanted out of your cage, when I saw you I realized that I should have known that it was only a matter of time before you did something…drastic."

Cat took a moment to take in what Ryuko had told him and look onward towards the Parisian skyline. It was pinkish red sunset, with the sun reflecting the red skies creating a shiny set of afterglows.

"Kagami," he began. "Do you… still have an eye on me?" he asked. Ryuko hesitated and looked down. She was sad, he could tell.

"I did," she admitted. "But once I knew it was you, time went on and I realized that you are not the person I saw you as. I believe that goes for Marinette as well." She said. Cat scoffed.

"Yeah, she does, huh?"

"However, as for Marinette, I have known her as Ladybug, as well as herself. I have seen how she once looked at you and how she does so now. For I cannot look at you as I once did, I can tell that her world is given light when you are near her. I can see that she's given an ethereal feeling when you're near her, that feeling I have yet to sense in my lifetime. I envy her, I really do," she looked down.

"But she didn't want me…" Cat countered. "She wanted Adrien."

"No," Kagami said. "She wanted her idea of Adrien. The one that died on that fire. She's unbearably naïve but now it is your opportunity for her to see reality. She's now falling for the real you. It is only a matter of time."

"Kagami…" Cat began but was cut off by a hug.

"Adrien," she said. "Go to her…"

Cat stayed silent for a moment before returning the hug. Like Marinette, he too had turned a blind eye from her attraction to him. At that point he was so desperate to have normal friends, He just wasn't ready for that level of a relationship. Especially since he was trying to maintain a long-term friendship with Ladybug in the hopes of one day it would get to that, unaware who she was at that point.

"Kagami, are you going to be okay?" Cat asked, breaking the hug. Kagami stepped back.

"Do not worry about me," She said amidst her struggle to speak. "Focus on your own happiness."

Cat wanted to protest but knew her well enough not to discuss with her when she had already made up her mind. He reluctantly stepped back, he finally ran away and jumped off. Ryuko transformed back to Kagami.

"You are in pain, young Kagami," Longg said.

"It had to be done, Longg," Kagami said. "Like Marinette, I too chased a shadow of a boy that never was. Unlike her, I cannot see who he really is. He is not someone I am able to please…" her voice broke as tears finally fell. She squatted and hugged her knees as she wept with Longg trying what he could to comfort her.

Yokohama…

"Lost in the Rain" by Satoshi Okamura plays

A thin man in his early thirties walked down the street with his hands in his pockets. White sneakers, thin cut jeans and a black leather jacket, and a white shirt underneath. His hair was slightly long and messy as if he hasn't bathed. It was dark with slight rain. His cell rang.

"This is Yagami," he answered.

"Have you found her?" the woman on the other end asked.

"If the leads you gave me are to go on, I should be closing in on her," Yagami answered.

"Remember, keep your distance," the woman said. "If what Tenmioji said it's true, she has the ability to know you're tailing her."

"You know I have my ways, Saori-san," Yagami teased.

"Still," Saori insisted. "She's not to be underestimated. Hopefully, we can get some answers."

"I know what's at stake here," he said. "Anyway, Our target should be in position."

"All right, Akane Tenmioji should be within your reach, according to her ex-husband."

"Copy that."

Song ends.

Author's note:

Gonna stop there and this one took me a while mainly because out of all the chapters I've written so far, this is the one that went the most changes.

At first, I wanted to take some focus to the other heroes, rescuing the civilians but then I realized it would've slowed the story down. I may have more opportunities to focus more on them but only if they play a bigger part in what is going on.

There were many ways of how the boiler was orbiting over Paris and how the heroes would stop it. I have struggled to come up with creative ways to use Ladybug's lucky charm which is why it had been so rarely used in this story.

Not much more to say. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.