"Come on Mi'Lady! We can do this!" Chat Noir pumped his fist in the air, with his belt still wound around his eyes. "Chat Noir and Ladybug; we're an unstoppable team!"
"Just one problem there..." Marinette sighed. "If Tikki won't let me near enough, I won't be able to summon my transformation. I can't be Ladybug without her."
"With or without your powers you're still Ladybug to me!" Chat Noir declared passionately.
"That is nice of you, but I'm not going to be able to be much help to you, plus you can't be blindfolded the whole time if you're going to intervene and stop Tikki," Marinette reasoned.
"...And if I can't wear the blindfold I'd see your secret identity," Chat Noir paused. "I can try to do this on my own, but if Tikki won't listen to you, I don't know if a cataclysm is going to stop her."
"Maybe you don't have to do this alone," Marinette tapped her index finger thoughtfully on her bottom lip. "You go and track down Tikki, and I will rush back home to get some of the miraculous' and recruit some backup for you. If you can all pin her down for me to get near, I can summon her again."
"But then won't her enhanced cravings become yours again? What if it takes you over?" Chat Noir asked in concern.
"I only have to connect with her long enough to remove my earrings and renounce her," Marinette said decidedly.
"Renounce Tikki! Reject her?!" Chat Noir screeched. "You won't be Ladybug any more! But you can't! You're Ladybug! You'll always be Ladybug!"
"Don't worry Kitty!" Marinette patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Only temporarily. For a normal human it might take hours for caffeine to work its way through a person's system. At Tikki's accelerated metabolism of a kwami, it is probably faster than that! Once Tikki is back, I'll be able to reason with her, and set things right."
"It sounds like that could work, but it is just that I have a bad feeling about this. Are you sure that is the only way?" Chat Noir bit his lip.
"I know it is risky, but I will do anything to save Tikki...even from herself. She is more than my kwami, she is my friend!" Marinette said quietly.
"I won't let you down!" Chat Noir bowed to her. Then he walked off a few paces, and removed his belt, returning to it's spot around his waist. "Good luck Mi'Lady!" Chat Noir said to her, without looking back. "I hope to see you soon!" Then he took his baton, and vaulted over the lawn of the park, and the buildings ahead.
Marinette watched him only for a moment as he flew over the skyline, following the trail of exploding mounds of coffee springing up from each coffee shop left in Tikki's wake. She shook herself, and took off sprinting. It was going to take a lot longer to get across the Seine without a magical yoyo! Panting, and sweating profusely she hailed a cab at street near the edge of the park. Quickly reciting the address to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, Marinette gripped the seat impatiently, urging the cabbie to get there as quick as possible.
Meanwhile, Chat Noir was in hot pursuit of the ladybug kwami. He nearly caught up to her a few times, but a kwami is faster than a weilder, and can phase through solid objects effortlessly. The number of civilian's Chat Noir was waylaid by along the way, pulling them out of mountains of chocolate covered espresso beans, or tackling them out of a sudden burst of scorching coffee geysers did not make it any easier!
Marinette was sprinting out of her home, as soon as she had snatched up the necessary miraculous'. She just hoped that everyone who had been working on a special project in the art room back at school was still there! She ducked around the corner quickly, opening up the mouse miraculous. Draping the mouse miraculous over her neck, Mullo swiftly appeared looking concerned.
"I need your help with Tikki!" Marinette said, "Ivan and Mulan are away at a rally today, so I guess Multimouse will have to make another appearance afterall!"
"It is my honor Guardian!" Mullo bowed. "I just hope that I give you enough strength in numbers against Tikki."
"I have a few others in mind, who might help too!" Marinette winked, and called on her transformation. Her soft grey costume, highlighted in pale pink
"Taking the stairs two at a time, she bounded forward and skidded through room 33's doorway.
Nathaniel and Marc were leaning over the comic they had been working on all week, and they glanced up at her. Nino and Rose in the opposite corner, took a moment longer to notice her since they both had their headphones on, listening to a recording of a mash-up they were sampling for Kitty Section's next gig.
"Uh...Hey Mouse-girl?!" Nathaniel got to his feet, looking at her with concern. "Are you okay?"
"Ladybug sent me to get your help!" Multimouse breathed heavily and then spun around on her heel and ran off where she had come from. All four of the friends looked at each other awkwardly. They dropped everything and ran to the door to look after her. "Multitude," Multimouse whispered, and scampered off in four different directions. Nino, Marc, Nate, and Rose all ran after a different Multimouse, believing that they were the one Ladybug would be summoning. Multimouse let each teen to a different end of the school, and finally turned to hand each of them their miraculous privately.
ooooooooooooooooo
"Are Ladybug and Chat Noir okay? Usually Ladybug is the one to contact weilders when they need help," Nathaniel said in concern.
"Ladybug can't transform right now, and so she sent me instead. I know this isn't ideal, but we need to act fast! If Ladybug doesn't bring her kwami to reason, Hawkmoth will take advantage of the situation, and finally get the upper hand," Multimouse told him, passing the miraculous of the ram into his hands.
"I'm ready to do whatever it takes!" Nathanial pledged passionately, opening up the box.
ooooooooooooooooooooo
"So what is Ladybug's plan?" Nino asked high-fiving Wazz with his index finder.
"Usually you're needed to protect Ladybug from outside forces...this time you'll need to protect the world from the Ladybug's power," Multi-mouse said solemnly.
ooooooooooooooooo
"You look sooo cute! How can I help?" Rose asked the next Multi-mouse.
"Tikki, the Ladybug kwami has lost sight of what she truly cares about...the hope is that you will be able to remind her," the Multi-mouse put her hand on Rose's shoulder, handing her the pig miraculous.
ooooooooooooooooo
"Are you sure you want me, and not one of the others?" Marc crossed his arms self-consciously over his chest. "I haven't been helping Ladybug very long...I haven't see you either. Are you new too?" he asked.
"You are exactly who Ladybug and Chat Noir need right now!" Multimouse smiled encouragingly at Marc. "You know at first I wasn't sure if I would be the right person for this job either...It's not like I've been a hero all that long, and I feel like I keep learning something new every day...I guess I finally realized, with some help from a cool cat, that being a hero starts with believing in yourself!"
"If Ladybug is depending on me, I can't let her down!" Marc rallied, and grasped the miracle box she held out to him with both hands.
ooooooooooooooo
The five of the weilders raced along the Parisian skyline, occasionally dodging boiling spurts of coffee fountains, or avalanches of chocolate covered expresso beans. The closer they got, the clearer they could see Chat Noir trying to stay one step ahead of the tiny kami of creation, that was zig-zagging her way around the city.
Out of the corner of his eye, Chat Noir noticed the cavalry arriving, and fell back, to coordinate a plan with the team. He glanced around seeing who Ladybug had picked to help. He smiled a greeting at the new arrivals, but then he froze when he saw Multimouse standing off to one side. He hadn't seen her for so long, not since she had mistakenly revealed herself to be Marinette Dupain-Cheng on her very first mission from Ladybug. A mistake that had unfortunately prevented her from receiving a miraculous from Ladybug since.
Chat Noir gulped, with a dopy stare at the way the soft grey suit clung to the curves of his 'very good friend." His cheeks burst into a blush remembering how he had seriously thought that Marinette was in fact Ladybug...maybe it had been wishful thinking...but he couldn't dwell on the fact that the little hair knots at the top of her head looked downright adorable, or that he had a cat-like urge to bat at the teasing swing of her jump-rope tail. No...he had to stay focused! Ladybug was probably nearby...or would be soon...now that she had assembled a team to help him contain Tikki. This had to work so that Ladybug could be back at his side.
"Ladybug is counting on us to save her kwami," Chat Noir rallied the troops. "She picked each one of you for a reason, and together we can do this!"
Multimouse swelled with pride as her Kitty took the lead so effortlessly, following through with their plan. Why hadn't she trusted him more to coordinate and inspire the other weilders? He had always been the one to motivate her, and give her strength! It was impressive to see how instilled that same kind of confidence in the others.
"It's good to see you again Multimouse," Chat Noir stepped closer to her, breaking her out of her own thoughts.
"Oh...uh...yeah...yes...It is good to see you. I actually didn't expect to see you like this again...I mean...in this mouse outfit...with the miraculous," Multimouse squeaked in surprise, and tried unsuccessfully to compose herself.
"I'm glad Ladybug gave you another chance," Chat Noir continued to smile at her. "I always thought you'd make a great super hero!"
"Oh, well, uh...thanks," Multi-Mouse played with her skipping rope in her hands. "I wasn't sure if you'd remember me all that much. My debut as Multimouse didn't last long."
"Are you kidding me! I thought you were amazing! The way you flew in with the kwamis in the nick of time!" Chat Noir said enthusiastically.
"Wait?! She's been the mouse weilder before?!" asked Carapace in surprise.
"Oh yeah! You should've been there man! She took out Kwami-buster after Ladybug and I were compromised single handedly."
"Duuude! Sweet!" Carapace nodded in admiration.
"Not exactly single handedly," Multimouse muttered with raising her shoulders, and blushing at Chat Noir's praise.
"What I can't understand is what happened to Ladybug's kwami!" Pigella wrung her gloved hands together taking in the coffee-themed destruction around them. 'The kwamis usually seem so friendly and cute!"
"I guess even kwamis can have bad days,"Caprikid commented.
"Whatever set her off, we better intervene quickly. If Ladybug can't transform, that also means she can't fix all of this with a lucky charm!" Caraoace pointed out.
"Caprikid, I'm going to need you to make me a massive chocolate latte," Chat Noir jumped pointed at the goat weilder.
"Ah...shouldn't you wait till later for a coffee break?" Caprikid raised an eyebrow at the cat weilder.
"Not for me!" Chat Noir waved his paws in the air, and pointed at red flashes in the distance by the stadium from Tikki's latest release of her power. "You've got to make something that will draw Tikki to us!"
"Right!" Caprikid nodded quickly.
"And Multimouse, I need you to surround her, and try to distract her while the rest of us move in," Chat Noir looked over at Multimouse, who silently nodded in agreement. "Carapace you've got to put a shield over top of her so that she can't get by us. Pigella that is when you need to use your power to help her see her purpose with Ladybug again. That is when Rooster Bold, you need to give yourself the power to capture kwamis. As soon as you've caught her, I'll contact Ladybug, and she can summon Tikki. Ladybug will temporarily renounce her making her go dormant, and then we'll give her time to simmer down!"
"Ha! Simmer! Like boiling coffee right?!" Carapace elbowed Chat Noir with a smile.
"Actually I don't think you're supposed to boil coffee," Caprikid commented under his breath.
"I think it sounds like a great plan Chat Noir!" Multi-mouse interjected. "I'm sure Ladybug will be so thankful that you all put everything on the line to help!"
Chat Noir smiled warmly at Multimouse, and a warm thrill radiated through him at Multimouse's praise.
As another explosion of coffee rained down on screaming citizens, diving for cover, the team dove into action. They followed the plan precisely, and cornered Tikki at the stadium, baiting her with the prize that Caprikid had created. They moved in quickly on the little goddess of creation. Carapace had already called out "Shelter!" and trapped them all in the green protective dome with Tikki.
It was only when Tikki looked around and saw that she was surrounded by Multimouse(s) that she started to glow a bright red. "You're still trying to control me! Why can't you just let me be happy!" Tikki yelled at one of the Multimouse forms closing in.
"It will all be alright Tikki!" one of the Multi-Mouse forms cooed softly, walking steadily closer. "We're here to help you!"
Rooster Bold summoned his power, and chose the power to capture kwamis, and Multimouse couldn't help but have flashbacks to what had happened when they had fought Kwami-Buster the last time she had weilded the mouse miraculous.
"You still have no clue how powerful I am. You think this game is going to work on me?! I choose to yield or not," Tikki said in a low voice, that seemed entirely different from anything Marinette had ever heard from her before. It was then that the red light around Tikki expanded, and started glowing so brightly that all the other weilder's had to step back and sheild their eyes. "I AM THE KWAMI OF CREATION!" Tikki boomed.
Chat Noir's eyes widened as he saw the expanding power of Tikki start to fill the shield of Carapace, and the pressure from her intense power strained the shelter's construction so much, that it started to actually lift right off the ground. "Rooster Bold now!" Chat Noir called out, but the overwhelming power of creation was so overwhelming that they couldn't move. What was even more alarming was that each of the other weilder's miraculous' started to each blink in warning, signaling that they only had a few more moments before they would transform back! Forcing her wasn't going to work! Their plan was going to fail at the cost of all of them, and their identifies out in the open.
"I love you!" Multimouse's voice called out to Tikki. "You're my friend, and I won't give up on you!"
Tikki's form enthroned in light stopped.
"I don't want to impose my will on you...but as a friend I won't sit by and do nothing when you need me to be there for you the most!" Multimouse was able to move struggle forward towards Tikki.
Tikki's fierce intensity of power faded, and she was once more in her small ladybug kwami form. She looked at Multimouse's pendant around her neck, and looked into Multimouse's eyes. "You're going to loose your transformation!" Tikki pointed to the insistently blinking miraculous.
"What you need isn't Multimouse, or the rest of us either...you know what the right thing to do is," Multimouse said softly, walking closer to her, while the other heroes watched in awe as if they were frozen. "Tikki, what do you need to do?"
With that final question Multimouse's power was extinguished, and all but Chat Noir gasped at the realization that their classmate Marinette stood in front of them. Tikki looked into Marinette's eyes, her own getting glassy.
"It is just so hard," Tikki said barely above a whisper.
"You can do it! I know you can!" Marinette cheered her on.
Pigella shook herself from the shock of seeing her friend Marinette reveals, and took this opportunity to use her power to reveal to Tikki all those special moments she had shared with Marinette from the beginning and the trust that had been built between them.
Tikki let out a heavy breath, and flew to Marinette. "Mullo has a very convincing weilder," Tikki said loud enough for the onlooking weilders. In my obsession I've been selfish and made a mess of things, I'm truly sorry. I should get back to Ladybug," Tikki continued, looking off toward the rest of the city, rather than at Marinette. I just hope that she can forgive me, and trust me again!"
"I know she will," Marrinette replied to Tikki.
Just then, all of them heard a series of crashes and bangs from the direction of the street outside the stadium. Like a moth to the flame Tikki's outburst had drawn Hawkmoth's attention! Just over the rim of the stadium the team of weilders caught sight of a huge version of what looked like a gold-tinted and diamond studded version of ChloƩ Bourgeois...only of course it wasn't her, but her sister Zoe, once more taken by Hawkmoth and akumatized as Sole Crusher.
"I still don't fully have control!" Tikki said in a panic.
"They need you!" Marinette said in a passionate voice. "I need you!"
"If Tikki's not ready, and joins with Ladybug like this she could end up impacting Ladybug herself! Ladybug still hasn't had time to repair all the damage Tikki did to Paris, and if Ladybug is not herself, she could make a mistake that could put her in danger. It is too much of a risk!" Chat Noir jumped in. "Tikki needs to get back to Ladybug, and lay low first. We'll hold Sole Crusher off as long as we can."
Tikki dropped her head ashamed.
"You lost control, but I know that once you are ready you can help us again. Just don't rush it before you're ready," Chat Noir came up supportively, with a softer tone.
There was more screams, and screeches of car tires from the direction of Sole Crusher's path.
"Tikki quick!" Marinette called out over the destruction Sole Crusher was already inflicting on the city. "You need to get back to Ladybug!" Tikki glanced worriedly at Marinette, whose eyes darted to the exit. Tikki gave a slight nod of acknowledgment, and then darted off in that direction.
"The rest of you!" Chat Noir called out, "Go charge up your Kwami's and meet back here ready to fight! Without Ladybug we will need each one of you at full strength!"
"Great Job calming down Ladybug's kwami Mari...er...I mean random citizen...Good to have you on the team Dudette!" Carapace gave Marinette a friendly punch on her shoulder, before trotting off to recharge.
The others waved, and ran for cover before their final warnings ended. Chat Noir hung back, and approached Marinette. "Carapace is right, you really did come through for us more than I expected back there. Somehow you connected with Ladybug's kwami. How was that even possible?"
Marinette bit her lip, "I...I guess I got lucky."
"That wasn't just luck," Chat Noir stared at the incredible young women before him as if he was trying to figure out a puzzle, but the key pieces were missing. "Marinette, I..." Chat Noir tried to say, but the stadium shook, and a chunk of the upper bleachers was torn off by the hand of Sole Crusher who had tracked them down. Debris fell down to the turf around them, and Chat Noir jumped in front of Marinette spinning his baton, to protect her from the rock and rubble that rained down.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Oh Wow! The ending of season 4 was so epic! It just gave me one more reason to appreciate all the work that goes into creating Miraculous episodes and how much I love these characters! I'm so excited for season 5...so will wait in anticipation by writing some more...
I hope you are enjoying my story! If there are things about it you like please let me know by leaving encouraging reviews. These really mean a lot and give me fuel and inspiration for future chapters.
Hint for future chapters: Zoe's unreciprocated love within her family is going to come into play for next chapter, and Marinette is going to have to go to extremes to save Chat Noir this time. Don't forget to like or follow so you don't miss out on what is to come!
