Almost out for Christmas and New Years Break. Two more days.
Ladybug stood above the courtyard on the roof of the Miraculous Base. She leaned over the bricked wall and watched as the guards trained below.
The Miraculous Base was once a middle school. It was abandoned a few years ago before Master Fu saw potential in the decomposed building and bought the land for it under a false alias during the time when the first three Miraculous holders joined together.
To make more money for weapons and training gear and to pay for the land bill, the Miraculous Holders would take jobs and quest from the locals. They would vary from delivering goods and messages to slaying akumas and beasts the villagers would find on their travels.
They soon made a name for themselves in Paris and eventually around Europe. Many people would travel to their base and watch to watch them train, become a recruit in the guards or gawk over the different heroes. But all that tourist attention soon attracted Hawkmoth.
The base was attacked often by akumas, but they always fought them off, until came the Big Blow.
After the Big Blow, Master Fu decided that it was time to go into hiding.
So mini bases were built across Europe with three Miraculous Holders and an army of trained soldiers in each and the main Miraculous Base disappeared off the face of the earth to everyone outside of all the Miraculous Holders and the elite guard. It's still a kept secret to this day.
Downstairs in the training grounds(the old auditorium), the instructor had pulled one of the soldiers out of the group to make an example. The rest of the soldiers were kneeled in a straight line as they watched on.
The soldier that was pulled aside was a new recruit from a village far east, joined after Hawkmoth declared war on them and ravaged it. He's only been a member of the Miraculous Army for three months. For some reason, the trainer has been targeting him for a while now.
"In position!" The soldier slowly got in position, his sword held outward in front of him and his feet spread. The instructor charged.
Their swords clashed against each other. Once. Twice. A third time. Every clash of the two swords' metal would admit sparks. The new recruit lasted 3 minutes of sparring before he seemed to drift off. The instructor took the opportunity to knock the training sword out of his hands and knock him off his feet. The instructor pointed his swords towards his chest.
"You're dead! Lousy form! Unsteady balance! Why did Master Fu even recruit you? You're practically worthless!"
"Instructor Louis! That is enough!" Ladybug jumped over the railing on the roof and landed perfectly on her feet. She marched over to the two and batted the instructor's sword away before offering the recruit a hand. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, ma'am." He grabbed her hand and let her help pull him up. Instructor Louis stormed off grumbling under his breath as the boy dusted his pants off.
"What is your name?" Ladybug asked.
"Arnou Belmont. Thank you again, milady." He bowed then walked off towards the barracks. The other soldiers followed behind him.
"So I guess there's a new trainer position open." Rena walked up behind her with two granola bars from the kitchen's vending machine in each hand, holding out one for her.
"Did he quit?" She accepted the granola bar and peeled off the wrapper before taking a bite.
"I'm not entirely sure. I was just coming from the dungeon when he stormed past muttering about 'work ethics'"
"How is he by the way?" Ladybug took another bite of her granola bar then started walking towards the building for guard duty. Rena followed.
Soldiers and nurses were pushing trays waved at them from the north and south hall as they started walking up the stairs in between the two halls.
"We do have other prisoners beside him, you know. He isn't the only mouth down there that we have to feed."
"Sorry. I'm just worried. He could try to break out."
"The prison is impenetrable. There's no way he's getting out." Once they were on the second floor they took a left and walked all the way down the hall. Rena placed her hand on the bricked concrete. A green laser scanned her hand and the wall opened up leading to a dark room. "Carapace is down there with him now. He can handle himself."
"It's not him I'm scared of."
"Why are you so scared of the Black Plague?" Rena turned towards her with her hand on her hip and her eyebrows furrowed: her detective stance. "I get that he works for Hawkmoth and has a kill count that goes through the roof but this seems like it goes deeper."
"It's… complicated." Before Rena could inquire any further, Ladybug walked into the dark room and Rena followed her. The wall slid back behind them as if it was never disturbed.
"Did they capture him?" Hawkmoth stood with his hands behind his back in front of a window. The window shined the only light in the room.
"Yes sir. They found yesterday morning. It's all going according to your plan."
"Good. Good. Now I have one more job for you, Lila. I need for you to deliver a message."