Author's Notes: Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is an ongoing series by creator Thomas Astruc and produced by Zagtoon, Method Animation, Toei Animation, and more. Please support the official properties.

"You can't justify murder by masking it with a cause!"

-Steve Rogers, Captain America

Public Enemy

Chapter 8: Is Fallen

Marinette reached the warehouse district just ahead of Chat. She was surprised that he followed her after she snapped at him. She didn't deserve him as a partner or as a friend. She promised herself quietly that she'd apologize once they were done here. She scanned the surroundings for anything amiss but could only see people working to load trucks and transfer cargo around.

Chat stopped beside her, "Ladybug, what are we looking for exactly?"

"Something…anything," she answered, continuing to scan the many cargo holds and warehouses for something amiss. It was getting dark out now, and a few times they had to move to a better vantage with more light. It was made harder by the fact that it was getting darker with every second - until even street lights were coming on. Chat followed her quietly, still humoring her search and keeping his jokes to a minimum. She wasn't sure whether it was avoid drawing her ire or to help her feel better. The fact that he was helping her at all meant so much. He really was a good friend.

So far, nothing really was amiss. Maybe she was wasting her time coming here? Or maybe Master Fu was right - she was indulging in vengeance. No, she wasn't going to do that. She was going to find the people who killed her mother, capture them, and bring them to the police. That wasn't vengeance. That was justice. Between her and Chat Noir, what could go wrong?

KLANG!

"Watch it! We're lucky none of them blew up!"

She and Chat Noir turned their attention towards a group of men busy unloading a cargo hold and transferring its contents onto a truck. One of the crates was on the ground, its lid broken open to reveal a pack of grenades and what looked like bricks of clay. One of the men hurriedly tried to gather the spilled contents and return them into the crate while the other continued yelling, "THIS IS WHY THE BAKERY JOB WENT BAD! IF YOU'D QUIT DROPPING THINGS-"

"Keep it down!" a third man shouted, smacking the shouting man over the back of the head. That sealed it for Marinette, and she felt a twinge of anger. They were talking about their robber of the bakery like it was nothing. She took a moment to cool herself down before commenting, "That's a lot of explosives they've got there."

"Looks like we found our mystery trouble makers," Chat Noir nodded in agreement, "Normally, people use explosives for fireworks at celebrations or light shows."

"I don't think that's what these guys have in mind," Marinette answered, trying to calm her growing anger.

"Okay, let's take them down," Chat said, his staff extending outward as the two of them leapt off the roof towards the group of men. They took a vantage point atop a nearby stack of freight and surveyed the situation more carefully. There were at least seven of them: one in the driver's seat of the truck, another in the driver's seat of a car, two busy unloading the freight, another checking off a check list and the last two were keeping watch to make sure no one came looking.

Chat whispered, "How do you want to do this m'lady?"

She tried to think of this analytically but that was proving almost impossible for her. As she gazed down upon these men, memories of her mother came flooding back into her mind. She tried not to think about it. These men needed to be brought to justice. Capture these men so they could handed over the police. Justice would make things fair. They killed her mom. The only fair judgment was death.

No!

There would be no killing. That wasn't her. That wasn't who she was. She wasn't going to be that person. No matter how appealing it was and no matter how badly she wanted them to suffer. She took a moment to calm herself with a deep breath before reexamining them. It was hard to tell if they were armed, but they were hiding it well if they were. She stated, "Quietly. We stop the drivers first so they can't get away. I'll go for the truck, you take out the car."

He sighed, "That's a relief. I honestly thought you were going to say we kill them. I'm glad that's not the plan. So let's do this!"

He leapt out on to the street below, leaving her there stunned. Is that what he thought she was going to do? She'd only dropped a man off a roof! Sure she'd been upset about it at the time, but she was a long way from killing people. Even if the thought had crossed her mind a few times. Now wasn't the time to get distracted. She had to focus.

She took a few steps back and took a leap down to land on the truck. Both her and Chat Noir's entrance took the men off guard, "What the hell?"

While she landed next to the truck to get a hold of the driver, Chat decided to land on top of the car with his staff dug into the ground. If the car tried to get away, it'd have to back out of the way of the staff first. One of the men pointed out, "It's Ladybug and Chat Noir!"

"Good evening gentlemen! Mind if we paw-ruse your cargo? Just curious about what's inside," Chat Noir opened with, waiting a moment before adding, "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

"Not now, Chat!" Marinette grumbled, using her yo-yo to smash through the window of the truck and pull the driver out. The man screamed as he was pulled through, cut on the shards of broken glass along the window. She hadn't intended to do that, only pull him out of the driver seat before he could try to drive away. And now he was on the ground screaming with shards of broken glass all over him.

She looked up at Chat Noir staring at her with his mouth wide open. He was so surprised, he didn't even notice one of the men running at him with a crowbar, "Well, they say curiosity killed the cat!"

She reacted purely on instinct, pulling on her yo-yo still wrapped around the man in glass and throwing him straight at the new attacker. The two men flew onto another crate, breaking it open to reveal more explosives. Chat Noir's snapped out of his stupor, "More grenades? What are you guys doing with all this? Are you planning on having a blast?"

As soon as he said that, another guy charged at him with a knife out. Just as he got close enough to try and stab him, Chat leapt over him and kicked him straight into the car. The man banged his head against the door, falling unconscious. That was three down with four more to go. And one was trying to get out of the car but couldn't get the unconscious man off the driver's side door. The three remaining men dropped the remaining crates and picked up whatever they had lying around to attack.

That was all the invitation she needed and she leapt into action, using her yoyo to wrap one of the attackers and pull him towards her. All it took was one punch across the jaw and he flew back into another crate. Chat grappled with the other two, throwing one aside and trading blows with the other. In the middle of all that, the driver trapped in the car managed to push the unconscious man off the door and get out. Marinette watched him reach into his coat and retrieve a gun, aiming it at the oblivious Chat.

"No," she gasped.

Her heart raced, pounding so hard that she could hear her heart beat in her ears. Any restraint and self-control she had flew out the window as she flung her yoyo around his hand, pulling it so hard that she heard a definite crack. The gun flew out of his hand as he was pulled her way. She wound up another punch and struck him straight into the ground. She pulled her yoyo free, his hand falling limp and at an angle no hand would have normally. She didn't care for that though. All she cared about was that this man had tried to pull a gun on her friend and partner. And that she wouldn't forgive. Never again.

Never.

Again.

She got down on her knees so that she was straddling the man and punched his stupid, disgusting, worthless, horrible face.

Then again.

And again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

AGAIN!

She hit him so many times and so hard that her knuckles started to hurt. How dare he try to take Chat from her. How dare he think to rob her of someone so important again. Not this time. Not on her watch. She wouldn't let it happen again. She would kill him before she let anyone else die. She would make him know. Make them know. Do not hurt the people she cared about.

"LADYBUG!"

She stopped when Chat grabbed her fist before she could punch him again, snapping her out of her rage. She looked down at the man on the ground - his face so beaten in and swollen that he was unrecognizable. If it wasn't for the steady rise and fall of his chest, she would've assumed he was dead. It was a good thing he wasn't. And it was good that Chat was there to stop her before she did kill him.

She stood up, taking a moment to collect herself and take in her surroundings. Most of the men were on the ground unconscious, two of them were awake and groaning in pain. And Chat. He was just staring at her in wide eyed horror, "Ladybug, what's gotten in to you? Are you crazy!? It's like you were trying to kill that guy!"

She was. And she almost did if Chat hadn't pulled her off. And she was still angry. Angry enough to ignore Chat's horrified expression, and make her way to the first conscious man she could find. She dragged him over to the nearest wall and slammed him against it - throwing him against it so hard that it left an impression on the wall, "Why were you bringing explosives into Paris?"

The man was too busy yelping in pain to answer her. She punched the wall next to him, her fist going straight through the brick, "I'm not asking again!"

The man answered between pained and panicked breaths, "Some guy…he contacts us…paid us to move the shipment in…I don't know why…Said it was for the job…we don't even know…what the job is…none of us do!"

"WHO!?"

"I don't know."

"NAME! HE'S GOT TO HAVE A NAME!"

"I swear! I don't know!"

"Ladybug!" Chat pushed her back. Her grip slipped and the man slid down to the ground, "That's enough! I thought we were just going to catch them for the police!"

"They brought explosives into Paris, Chat!" Marinette scolded, turning back to the man on the ground. His eyes were wide with terror as she dragged him back up onto his feet and pinned him to the ground, "The explosives! Where were they going?"

"Drop off," the man managed, "Other side of the city."

"WHERE!?"

"Stadium!" the man gasped out, "Supposed to take…to stadium. Football stadium! I swear! That's all I know!"

At least she knew where to go next. Maybe someone there would know. But there was one more thing on her mind. There was no way there were this many people in her family's bakery that night, "How many of you are there?"

"I don't know."

She was getting really sick of hearing did he know? Well, maybe there was one thing he would know, "A while ago…there was a bakery…it was robbed. One of the owners was killed. Were you there?"

"What?"

She slammed him against the wall, "Were you there!?"

"Yes! Yes I was there!" the man shouted. He was there. He watched as her mother was killed. She knew he wasn't the one who pulled the trigger. But that didn't make her any less angry. It pissed her off more. She raised her fist, "I'm leaving you for the police. They'll take you in. And you better hope they lock you up forever. Because if I find out you aren't, then you will wish you were locked up forever! Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be watching you!"

He looked at her, wincing in pain as he struggled to breathe. Then he smiled at her. Mockingly. He laughed, "You don't scare me."

All she could was red. Red from anger. She didn't even know she'd punched his face until he was on the ground, screaming in pain as he held his nose. It gushed with blood, dripping down onto the ground as he backed away. Chat Noir dragged her back, "That's enough. We're calling the police as soon as we leave - assuming they're not already on their way. They'll pick you up. Ladybug, we need to talk."

He tried pulling her away but she resisted - preferring to walk without the attempt to hold her hand. This wasn't the time for that. All she could think about now was the stadium.