Greetings everyone. I wanted to let you know something. Last week, I was writing the chapter I wanted to post this week. I accidentally switched the chapters, but it seems to be flowing better than I anticipated so that's a relief.
Someone pointed out to me that Marinette's purse opens with a clasp, not a zipper. In my stories I had Marinette alter her purse after Tikki was spotted too many times sticking her head out when the purse was opened. I should have mentioned that sooner. I'm sorry I forgot.
The episode in this chapter will be Kwami Bustier. Someone else will be getting the Rat Miraculous. Their outfit will be the same as MultiMouse with a few small changes and a new name. Enjoy.
Gabriel was up in his lair, along with Nathalie and the Kwamiis. The butterfly kwami normal timid nature had been replaced with palpable rage. As for Duusu, she was very displeased by what had recently transpired.
It had been two days since Gabriel forced Nooroo to partially akumatized Peace Keeper and he hadn't spoken to his master since. Not even when Gabriel demanded him to speak. It appeared to be that Nooroo's rage was stronger than following orders his wielder gave him.
"Enough of this pity party Nooroo. I have indulged you long enough. Stop this childish behavior at once!"
Nooroo spun around in the air and glared at the man replicating Gabriel's own personal scowl. He was not going to budge.
"This is ridiculous Nooroo. I demand that you talk to me now!" The tiny butterfly instead flew up to the top of the lair and perched on a beam repudiating to come down.
Nathalie turned to her kwami and demanded that Duusu forcefully drag Nooroo down here and get him to stop his sulking.
Duusu's tail feathers rose up and down before she responded, "No."
"Are you disobeying me? I command you to do what I want right now!" Nathalie yelled as poked the kwami hard. Duusu snapped her jaws nipping Nathalie.
"If you want my cooperation then I suggest you ask nicely." She could tell the two humans were baffled about why their Kwamiis were acting so out of character and disobeying orders. If they wanted to learn the reason why then they would have to be nice about it.
Nathalie counted to ten and then asked in a kind voice, "Duusu, will you please ask Nooroo if he would come down and speak with Gabriel?"
Duusu smiled and flew to the top of the ceiling and came to perch next to her "brother". "I know you're upset. You have every right to be after what your wielder put you through," she whispered to him.
"He's never going to change is he?" Nooroo replied softly.
"I don't know Nooroo. He's holding so strongly on his grief it is blinding him to both the present and reality. I've encountered many humans over the millennium who require emotional healing. A lot of times people who run from it are convinced if they never let go then what they lost is never truly gone."
Nooroo huffed. "He was getting better. He withdrew an akuma to save a life. He worked together with others while they were being hunted. He listened to me when I told him I wouldn't make guns even deadlier."
Duusu admitted that Gabriel/Hawkmoth had slowly been changing and there had been a tiny chance he would stop. It seemed Startrain had been a wakeup call, but it had gone straight out the window when the man got a chance to akumatized the person who held half of Nooroo's power inside herself.
She leaned in closer and whispered to him, "If we give up now, we'll never get back to our "siblings" and "cousins" my "brother". We can win this if you keep up what you're doing. I'm going to work harder with Nathalie I promise."
Nooroo gave her a small smile and took his "sister's" paw/hand and they levitated down until they were hovering in front of their wielders. Gabriel was about to start scolding them loudly only for Nathalie to give him a slight shake of her head, cautioning him to keep his temper under control.
"Nooroo has something he would like to say. As his wielder, I would pay close attention to what he says." Duusu gestured for the butterfly being to start talking.
With as much rage as he could put in his voice, he told his wielder why he was so angry. "I'm angry that you would go through akumatizing the one other person who shares my powers without considering how that would affect me or my powers.
I was being torn in two because you tried to akumatized her and she was using my powers of inspiration to protect herself. I almost lost the ability to be seen and personally interact with humans because of you.
What do you think happens when I can't be seen anymore? My Miraculous is pretty much useless until I'm corporeal again. Since no one in this time has ever made a Miraculous there would be almost no chance to make me corporal again.
My powers are already half of what they use to be. Your stunt nearly drained me of all my magic. It's going to take days for me to gather enough energy to power a transformation let alone give you the ability to create akumas without a healing potion.
Whenever Peace Keeper cashes in on her favor you better do what she asks or I will purposely drop the transformation so she can beat you within an inch of death!"
The fashion designer actually flinched at how forceful his kwami was being towards him. It had been a long time since anyone challenged him and it was shocking to him it was a four-inch little being.
Duusu cleared her throat and added something. "My Miraculous is already broken and I wasn't properly given up so if you try stretching my powers too far, I don't know what will happen to my previous wielder."
Her words sent shivers down both humans' spines. Hopefully, this would get through to them that they couldn't keep abusing the Kwamiis without consequences.
It between classes Marinette was switching out her books for her afternoon class periods. Today she was carrying an extra kwami in her purse. Zippy was trying to contain his excitement at being out in the modern world.
"The modern world is amazing and hopeful! I haven't felt this much hope in one place in a long time," he buzzed inside the purse.
Tikki giggled before reminding him that they needed to be quieter. "We can't let other humans know we're here. I've been spotted a few times and I don't think my impression of a cat goes over well with humans."
"I can't imagine anyone believing you were a cat. It sounds like you need to stop popping out so much to lecture your wielder."
Tikki huffed and stated she didn't lecture her wielder. Her "cousin" rolled his eyes and replied, yes she did lecture her wielder. Ever since all the Kwamiis had been retrieved and returned to the Great Guardian, there had been a running bet on how long Tikki could go without lecturing someone.
Sadly, Tikki couldn't even make it three hours without lecturing someone on how they should behave or talking about the bigger picture. Even telling people to take on more than they could handle because a good Ladybug was always involved in something.
Tikki's face started to turn black in rage when Marinette let out a shriek. Concerned, both Kwamiis peered out the tiny unzipped area of the purse. Footsteps could be heard coming toward the bluenette so the two tiny beings quickly dropped to the bottom of the purse.
Alya and Mylene reached Marinette first. "Girl, what's going on? Why did you scream?"
Mylene gasped and pointed at Marinette's locker. Inside the locker, there was a picture of Marinette covered in blood with a note propped up next to it. The note read, "You spilled my blood and now I'm going to make you bleed for it."
All three girl's paled at the note. The other girls had finally come over and seen the note. Astonished by the threat. Alix yelled she was going to get the principal and Ms. Bustier right away.
Alya couldn't believe someone would do this to her best friend. She held her shaking best friend and tried to calm her down. "It's okay girl. I'm sure that the faculty will find the person who did this."
Marinette was crying. "How can they help me,sob, when the police ,sob, couldn't even figure out ,sob, who sent me the first threat?"
Alya and the girls' eyes widened. She had been threatened before?
"Last week, someone dropped off a package at the bakery for me. It didn't have a sender's address. I opened it up and it was filled with animal dung and a crude picture of me sitting on a pile of dung saying, "I'm so sweet on the outside, but on the inside, I'm a dung filled animal in need of slaugthtering."
"Who would be so cruel to do that to you?" Rose asked anxiously. Even Chloe and Sabrina looked weirded out by the news.
Marinette didn't know and started counting towards zero backward from ten. It was a way for her to calm down and not let her anxiety take over. By the time she was finished Alix had returned with Mr. Damocles and Ms. Bustier. Both were shocked to see Alix's claims were real.
"I want the CCTV footage reviewed immediately! Ms. Raincomprix, contact your father and have him talk with any patrol officers who passed by the school today and see if they saw something suspicious.
Ms. Bustier, please inform the other teachers what happened and see if they notice any student acting chary today. Ms. Dupain-Cheng, you will come to my office and wait for your parents to arrive so we can discuss what has happened and how we're going to handle this situation."
Ms. Bustier told her students to go back to the classroom and tell the other students there would be a twenty-minute delay before they started class. She also asked them not to discuss what they saw for now.
Ten minutes later in the office, Marinette was fiddling with her hands waiting for her parents to arrive. She was very startled by what had happened. What was going on at school these days?
There had been those "pranks" which had just been someone being cruel for the fun of it. Then someone tried to make it look like she was distributing indecent photos. Friendships had nearly come undone and a lot of people now had self-esteem issues.
No wonder the school board had cracked down on retraining teachers to recognize and deal with bullying appropriately, while how to manage their class, without using toxic methods
The door opened revealing Marinette's parents and Mr. Damocles. Her parents went over to her asking if she was okay and demanding to know who would do such a cruel thing to her.
"Please everyone take a seat. I would like to discuss what happened here today. Mr. and Ms. Dupain-Cheng, a short time ago your daughter was in the locker room and discovered someone placed a photo of your daughter with what appears to be blood all over it."
"WHAT?" Tom bellowed as Sabine went pale trying to make sense of this. Both parents got even more upset when they were shown a picture of the note that had been with the photo.
"My daughter is not violent! She has never hurt someone especially not in the way this person is implying," Tom steely stated.
"Where is the original note and photo right now?" Sabine asked. She took a peek at her daughter. Marinette was counting backward over and over, trying to regain a sense of control.
"They were given to the police for testing. We have photocopies that the staff will compare to their students to see if they can match the handwriting."
He looked over to Marinette and told her he was going to find out who did this. "I do not like anyone in my school being threatened. I did review the CCTV footage and what I saw was unsettling.
Someone had messed with the cameras outside and inside the locker room so they would all be out of focus. We tried looking through footage from other cameras. It turns out most of these cameras were tampered with so they would not look in the right direction."
The family couldn't believe this. How could this be happening? Ever since the school board had given the school faculty the ultimatum to step up or get fired things like students being threatened weren't supposed to happen.
The fact that someone went as far as tampering with the cameras to hide their identity while leaving a threatening photo was very telling. "Whoever left the threat appears to be willing to carry out their threats. Should I just stay home until this person is caught?" Marinette asked.
"That does seem to be the safest course of action," Sabine pointed out.
"I would like to hold off taking such measures at the moment. I don't want to interrupt Marinette's education experience. To ensure her safety she will be watched by the teachers and escorted by a trusted classmate wherever she goes.
Hopefully, the culprit will be caught quickly. If anything else happens, we will make arrangements for Marinette to take classes via teleconferencing. Is that acceptable to everyone?"
The family talked with each other for a few minutes before agreeing to the precautions. With the promise, they would be updated as soon as they got more information from the police, the entire Dupain-Cheng family, including Marinette who was told to take the rest of the school day off, to the bakery.
As the crossed the street, Tikki shared a look with Zippy. They would be on the lookout for trouble. No one was going to threaten Ladybug and get away with it.
The next day, Alya escorted Marinette to school and the two girls settled into their seats. Ms. Bustier smiled at her class. "Today, we are going to enjoy a special treat. Ms. Mendeleiev is appearing on the show, Alternative Truth today, sharing a scientific discovery she made right here at school.
So we will be watching the show in the library along with her class to show our appreciation of one of the school's best teachers. Now we have a lot to do before we go to the library so let's get started."
In Adrien's bag, Plagg was panicking slightly with Flapper looking at her "cousin" in confusion. "What is going on with you Plagg? I thought you enjoyed any chance you got to be lazy."
"Not when I know sugar cube is going to wring my neck! Oh, why can't I resist my love of cheese?" he bemoaned quietly. "You have to do something Flapper. Can't you make my love of cheese weaker?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Why do you want me to do that? What did you do Plagg?"
Plagg chuckled nervously. "I may have or not been, sneaking into the science lab below to eat the science teacher's cheese from her lunch every day since my wielder started school here?"
Flapper stopped breathing and only started to breathe again when the cat kwami mentioned that Ms. Mendeleiev tried to catch him last time he was there and might have had a hidden camera he didn't see at the time.
"You're going to be lucky if all Tikki does is throttle your neck. Heck, you'll be lucky if the Great Guardian doesn't punish you by forcing you to take a bath every night for a week."
In Marinette's purse, Tikki felt the sudden urge to throttle Plagg's neck while Zippy told her that wasn't a nice thing to hope for.
An hour later both classes were sitting in the library as the Headmaster turned on the TV. The substitute teacher for Ms. Mendeleiev's class kept her students a row apart from Ms. Bustier's class.
"Remember, each of you is to take notes on the show and the guests for a paper describing the validity of each guest's discovery and why it's important to have the scientific community review discovery and not ordinary citizens," the substitute reminded Ms. Mendeleiev's students.
"I'm glad that Ms. Bustier isn't making us write a paper," Alya whispered to Marinette.
"I can't believe we have to watch this. My brother Jalil is appearing on the show today. It's going to be highly embarrassing to me," Alix hissed. She loved her brother, but at times he couldn't separate reality and fantasy.
The show started and Alix buried her head in her arms too embarrassed to even watch and did her best to ignore Kim's shouts of supports for her brother. Jalil was talking nonsense. How could pyramids be space ships if they didn't even have engines?
"Someone, kill me now," she whispered. She wished she had her Miraculous so she could go back in time and lock her brother into his room so he couldn't appear on this stupid show.
The next guest, was Jagged Stone's super stalker Vincent Aza, went on about some nonsense about snow and giant boogers. It was so ridiculous considering everyone knew about the water cycle.
Finally, it was time for their science teacher to lay out her case. "Ever since the appearance of superheroes in Paris, I have been conducting scientific research into understanding how their powers work to prove magic is just science unexplained."
On the viewing screen, she showed a video of her running around the classroom chasing something. "Starting around the start of school this year I witnessed something stealing my cheese slices from my lunch bag. I started investigating trying to find out more about the creature.
Yesterday, I baited the creature by leaving a slice of cheese out on my desk. As you can see I tried to capture it. When I reviewed the footage the creature didn't show up on film, but if you take a closer look you'll notice something interesting."
The video zoomed in on the desk where the cheese was being devoured bit by bit. "I was unable to capture the creature. I got a good look at it and this is what the thing looked like."
She held up a picture that looked like it had been drawn by a five-year-old. It sort of resembled a black cat with green eyes. Adrien and Marinette flinched. They recognized Plagg. A quick sweep over their class assured them their temporary allies hadn't made the connection.
Marinette made an excuse that she needed to use the bathroom and Adrien would escort her since he had to use the bathroom as well. They both headed to the bathroom to talk with their Kwamiis.
As soon as they were safely in the only unisex bathroom stall, (French schools usually have one for transgender students according to my friend who was a French teacher for over thirty years), the Kwamiis emerged.
"Plagg, what were you thinking? Stealing cheese from a science teacher? You had to know she would have investigated it," Adrien sternly told him.
"I can't help it! I love cheese so much. It practically calls out to be eaten by me," the cat kwami cried out. Tikki wasn't falling for it and started yelling curses at him in the kwami language.
Zippy and Flapper watched fascinated by how many curses Tikki knew. The super happy-always has to be right- the epitome of good behavior was finally getting in touch with her dark side.
"Everyone chill! We can't change the past so we need to focus on the present. I do not doubt with Alec running the show Ms. Mendeleiev will be akumatized due to his lack of sensitivity. We need to get to the TV studio to prevent that from happening."
"Too late. Look." Adrien held up his phone. On the phone, a new Akuma had appeared, calling herself Kwamibuster and her look was reminiscent of an outfit worn by the cast in "Ghostbusters."
Her purple hair was now pink and her skin was dead gray. She wore green goggles over her eyes. Her suit was gray with neon green lines going down her chest and legs. She wore a steel belt with a glowing gold buckle.
She wore black armor over her shoulders and the top of her chest that had blinking purple lights on it. Her gloves were black as well as the leggings. Her boots were gray and neon with armor-like appearance. Attach to her back was a canister and she was holding what appeared to be a futuristic vacuum cleaner in her hands.
"I am Kwamibuster and I will prove to the world my discovery is a fact!" She fired her vacuum cleaner and bolt of yellow energy took out the camera. A few seconds later Mr. Damocles could be heard over the PA system.
"Attention students. The newest Akuma is one of our teachers. Considering this, we urge students to evacuate the premises until the Akuma is defeated. Please remember to sign out with your teacher to ensure that no one is left behind."
Marinette started issuing orders. "Zippy, Flapper, you two need to get back to the Great Guardian and warn him about this Akuma and that we might need help. Adrien, go sign us out. I'm calling my mom to let her know I'm with you and your bodyguard staying in a safe spot until the attack is over. Let's go save our science teacher."
On the roof of the TV studio, Kwamibuster laughed as she prepared to push a heavy safe with Alec inside it off the roof. "Let me out of here! You can't attack the host of a show for losing!"
Kwamibuster laughed and banged her vacuum gun against the door making the whole safe vibrate. The Akuma enjoyed the screams from inside. "True or false? Will anyone care that you die falling off the roof in a safe? Time to find out!"
She kicked the safe and it fell off the roof rushing to towards the ground. Inside, Alec was screaming like a baby and promising to stop being a rude host if he didn't die."
The safe was about five feet from the ground when it was lassoed by a yo-yo string and was safely lowered to the ground. A baton was pressed against the door and used leverage to let out Alec.
The man kissed the ground thanking the universe for saving him. He even hugged the heroes tightly before scampering off as Kwamibuster attacked from above.
"You two are so predictable. Every time some lousy person gets in trouble you come running!" she shouted at the duo. She fired again and the heroes jumped up and start climbing the glass to the top of the building.
"You're just making it easier for me to capture your Kwamiis and show the world my scientific discovery." She fired again and the beam bounced off the windows and sent through a sign across the street.
Thanks to the distraction, the two heroes managed to get to the rooftop without being hit. "Careful with your equipment Kwamibuster. After all, you don't want to break your discovery of the vacuum cleaner!"
"You won't be laughing once I have your Kwamiis. The world will know my name as the woman who made the biggest breakthrough in modern history."
"Chat Noir move!" Ladybug barked as Kwamibuster started to a wide sweep across the rooftop. She jumped back towards the roof entrance intending to hide behind it when the yellow beam caught her.
Ladybug felt as if her earrings were being ripped off as she felt the magic pulling on Tikki. The kwami was fighting her hardest to stay inside her Miraculous, but she couldn't any longer and was swallowed up into the vacuum cleaner.
Luckily, Marinette had been pushed behind the entrance so, for now, she was safe. Chat Noir went after Kwamibuster hoping it would give a chance for Marinette to getaway.
Chat Noir ducked and weaved between the blasts. He raised his baton high so he could slam it down on the canister when the vacuum beam caught him. He screamed as he felt that his finger was going to come off along with Plagg.
In his lair, Hawkmoth was grinning in anticipation. Finally, he would know the identities of the heroes. He would be able to steal their Miraculouses without any trouble.
Too bad his hopes were dashed as several smoke bombs went off covering the entire roof in a thick black cloud. Another set of smoke bombs went off and soon the entire TV studio building was engulfed in a giant black cloud.
"Where are you?! Don't think a little smoke ,cough awk, is going to stop me from getting your, cough awk, Miraculouses, cough." Kwamibuster sank to her knees coughing badly as she tried to clear the smoke from her lungs.
No one saw a young woman repelling down the building with two teenagers. Nor did they see the adult quickly pull on some normal clothing and hurried the two teenagers across the street to catch a cab.
Five blocks south from Master Fu's place, Iria Santos told the cab driver they wanted to be let out here. She paid the man and she had the two teenagers walk a few blocks over before going directly to the Great Guardian's place.
Master Fu was sitting on the floor with a forbidding expression on his face. Hovering above him were Wayzz, Honorra, and the EMC who had fretful expressions on their faces.
He sagged a little as he noticed Plagg and Tikki's absences. "Plagg and Tikki have both been captured then?"
Marinette nodded her head. "Kwamibuster has them. Thanks to Hawkmoth she can keep the Kwamiis from absconding her canister. We have to stop her before she hands both of them over to Hawkmoth."
"How do you recommend we do that? Even if we choose different Miraculouses the Kwamiis would be sucked right out of them. The same goes for temporary heroes."
Indeed that silenced the small group for a good ten minutes. Ning returned to the room in her fully assembled outfit and playing with her charm necklace. "I can go up against her. After all, the Kwami Charms contain a tiny amount of a kwami's power and not an actual kwami."
Master Fu acknowledge that she was right about the Kwami Charms, but she couldn't fully defeat the Akuma unless she had Ladybug and Chat Noir by her side.
"You will need backup. Someone who is quick on their feet and can see and enact new plans should things start to go wrong. Innovation is key to this mission."
Peace Keeper tapped her chin a few times, then squatted next to Marinette and started whispering to her. The bluenette quickly whispered back. At one point Adrien commented before all three of them nodded.
"We have a plan, but we need the Rat Miraculous to pull this off. I also need to use my magic staff and I need your help to cast a big spell."
Kwamibuster was marching down the halls of the TV studio kicking in doors and exploring each room one by one "Those heroes have to be hiding somewhere. When I find them, they'll lead me to even more Kwamiis to show the world!"
Back in Hawkmoth lair, the man was ecstatic. "The more Kwamiis Kwamibuster finds the more Miraculouses she can give me. Enough to create an army."
Kwamibuster kicked up a new door, this one leading to a dressing room. She only got a glimpse of a person before a bright flash went off. The Akuma let out a shriek as her googles barely protected her eyes.
"You're going to pay for hurting me, heroes! Your Miraculouses are mine!"
"Then it's a good thing I don't have one," a multi accented voice said. Kwamibuster blinked her eyes several times before she could see Peace Keeper standing before her.
"Who the heck are you?" Kwamibuster demanded. Hawkmoth mask appeared over her eyes.
"Kwamibuster, this woman is the apprentice to the one who protects the Miraculouses. Her necklace can help you find all the Kwamiis you desire," he informed her. "Take it from her."
"With pleasure! Give me those charms!" the Akuma shouted as she fired her vacuum cleaner at the young woman.
Peace Keeper dropped into a squat avoiding the beam before tackling Kwamibuster against the wall. She tried to reach the canister, only for the Akuma to roll around so that she couldn't reach it.
Before she could use her vacuum cleaner again Peace Keeper shoved the thing away so it fired into the ceiling. She jumped off the Akuma and started heading to the roof. "I really hope the others are up there waiting for me."
Getting up to the roof she saw two people standing near the billboards. With a twist of her head, she spotted a third person on top of the door entrance. She gave her a thumbs up and then took her position.
The door burst open and Kwamibuster stood there. "You think you can beat a well-trained scientist? Give me those charms now! The world needs to know the truth about these Kwamiis."
"There are somethings in the world that should remain unknown." She grabbed her rope dart and held it in her hands. "Magic is one of them. Release the Kwamiis right now or suffer a humiliating defeat."
Kwamibuster laughed and then fired her vacuum cleaner at her. Peace Keeper stood her ground and didn't move in the slightest.
From behind her two weapons passed over her shoulders coming straight at Kwamibuster. The Akuma stopped firing and quickly covered up her face with the weapon.
She heard two weapons collide with the vacuum and the pulled back. Lowering her weapon she was surprised by the sight that awaited her. Standing next to Peace Keeper were two new heroes, but was shocked her the most, one of them was dressed in red with black spots!
On Peace Keeper's right side was Peridot Turtle and on her left was Ladybeetle! Kwamibuster was gobsmacked by what she was looking at. Even Hawkmoth's mind was short-circuiting as what he was seeing through his victim's mind.
"What's the matter? You don't think Paris would ever be without a Ladybeetle?" the spotted one challenged Kwamibuster. She twirled the yo-yo above her head daring the Akuma to attack.
"Did you not suspect that there are backups for all wielders whether they are full time or temporary? Either way, you're not winning." Peridot Turtle snapped out her meteor hammer the weighted end coming towards the Akuma's right shoulder.
Peace Keeper aimed and flung her rope dart out towards Kwamibuster's legs. Kwamibuster was able to figure out where the dart was coming from despite the flag that hid it and rolled to her left once more aiming for Peace Keeper's necklace.
Hawkmoth's mask flashed over her face and the woman laughed hard. "This new version of Ladybug, no sorry, I mean Ladybeetle is nothing but an illusion. I have nothing to fear from it." She fired her weapon at the agent.
Peace Keeper dodged and twisted out of the way keeping the Akuma focused on her. She pulled back her weapon and started performing a complex figure eight with the weapon always moving. The beam couldn't get a solid lock on her body so Kwamibuster couldn't try to suck the power from the Kwami Charms.
Meanwhile, Ladybeetle made her move alongside Peridot Turtle. The meteor hammer struck Kwamibuster on the right side of the chest knocking the wind out of her.
At the same, the yo-yo- latched onto the small warning light above the entrance. A third person slid down the line and jumped off kicking the canister hoping to break it.
Kwamibuster managed to keep the canister from sustaining the full impact of the kick. She wobbled on her feet for a full minute before seeing the newest temporary wielder.
The wielder was a teenage girl wearing a gray and black suit with magenta sections. While the neck of the collar was black the base was magenta. Where the long black gloves met with the bodysuit was a thick stripe of magenta. There was even a small streak of magenta mimicking the underside of a rate's belly.
Another thick stripe of magenta separated the black boots from the bodysuit. Down the side of the boots were thin strips of magenta color. Around the heroine's was a pink jump rope. A gray pendant hung from around her neck.
Her mask was gray on top and had magenta swirls on it. The black hair had been twisted up ondongo style reminiscent of Mini Moon's, imitating a rat's long ears perfectly. "Call me Street-Rat!" the young lady announced in a quiet, but strong voice.
"You'll be a lab rat when I'm done with you!" She fired several beams at each heroine. Peace Keeper dove behind a crane while Ladybeetle and Peridot Turtle found cover behind the ventilation.
Street-Rat didn't bother to dodge, she just started skipping rope. Each skip sent her bouncing higher and higher, out of the range of the beam. On another high jump, she came down hard and skipped over the Akuma's head.
Before Kwamibuster could react, the jump rope was around the canister on her back and pulling it tight. "Improvise!" The jump rope glowed bright pink and transformed into a hacksaw. With a few quick slices, a thin crack appeared on the canister freeing the Kwamiis. Tikki and Plagg flew towards their wielders in delight.
Ladybeetle lifted her hand which had the Black Cat Miraculous. The instant Plagg was in the ring a blue wheel appeared underneath the girl's feet. There was the sound of whooshing wind and Cat Noir took Ladybeetle's place.
The same thing occurred to Peridot Turtle who was replaced by Ladybug. She grinned and called out to Street-Rat. "Get her canister off her now!"
Street-Rat shoved the Akuma down and with her enhanced abilities, she pulled the canister off the Akuma's back and tossed in the air.
Peace Keeper's rope dart pieced the canister as she pulled it towards Chat Noir. He quickly used his Cataclysm releasing the akuma. Ladybug wasted no time catching it, purifying the butterfly, and restoring the city to normal.
Peace Keeper stayed hidden as the heroes talked with Ms. Mendeleiev about why Kwamiis had to stay a secret. Whatever she said seemed to satisfy the woman. Chat Noir took the teacher back to the school while Ladybug and Street-Rat headed towards a safe place to detransform.
After waiting two minutes she followed the girls. She found them and climbed partway down the side of the building using her suit's multiple grips to hold her in place.
Street-Rat said the words to return to normal revealing her to be Mireille Coquette. "Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I wouldn't have believed in myself if I hadn't met another version of me," she whispered.
She patted Mullo on the head and gave back the pendant. After the kwami disappeared, Ladybug whispered to her about the training sessions and that she would collect her in the future.
Nodding, Mireille hurried off before she saw who Ladybug was. As soon as she was gone, Peace Keeper dropped to the ground just as the transformation dropped on Marinette.
The bluenette smiled as she handed over the small box with the Rat Miraculous inside. "You were right. Channeling Peridot Turtle and Ladybeetle went a long way in convincing Mireille she was worthy of a Miraculous."
Peace Keeper grinned a little. "I thought it would. Sometimes the shy ones need a confidence boost to help them realize they can do something. Without Master Fu's help, I wouldn't have been able to pull off that spell let alone been able to fight.
Go back to school. I'll make sure Mullo gets home safe and sound. I'll see you soon."
Because of how feeble she felt, Peace Keeper once again put on her Iria Santos disguise and took the bus back towards the shop. She got off two stops early and power walked the rest of the way.
She stumbled into the residence and collapsed. Fu caught her and lowered her to the ground. The exhaustion of today's events hit her like a ton of bricks. She barely registered the Kwamiis going into the kitchen and coming back with energy drinks.
Holding his daughter at an angle, Fu tipped the contents of the first drink down. He did the same with the second drink. By the time the third one came up she could sit partway up.
Taking the bottle in her hand she sipped the drink. "How was Hawkmoth able to akumatized anyone? You said with what happened when I was akumatized Nooroo would be weak for several days if not two weeks without a potion to boost his strength."
"I do not know. Perhaps Duusu was ordered to heal him? I don't know if that's possible or not. The important thing to do right now is helping you regain your strength. We'll worry about Hawkmoth another day."
After dinner, Zippy flew off in search of today's Akuma victim. He felt that Ms. Mendeleiev needed some help with staying hopeful after being unnecessarily heckled on TV.
He was not keen to meet her face to face but figured it couldn't do any harm if he just made her feel a bit more hopeful from her bedroom window.
He landed on her windowsill and peered in through the gap in the curtains. Ms. Mendeleiev was sitting in her bed grading papers. Every so often she would grumble and viciously write the grade on the paper, especially if it was a bad grade.
"My "cousins" in the AMC would love this woman." Pressing his hand/paw against the window he buzzed his wings and whispered, "Wish."
Wish was his active power. When used, it gave the person targeted the ability to hope again in reaching their dreams. Peeking through the window, he saw the science teacher pick-up the camcorder and trace it.
"Maybe I can't share my discovery of Kwamiis with the world, but I know I will find another important discovery one day!"
Zippy smiled and then zipped back home to the Great Guardian. It was time for all the Kwamiis to have a discussion in their world about what was going on.
Later that night, the EMC went to the Kwami world with Honorra and Wayzz. The non-active UMC and the CZMC were waiting for them. Sass greeted them. "I welcome you all back home. What is the urgent matter that you needed to discuss with us?"
Wayzz explained their concern. "Hawkmoth and Mayura are growing in power. As of late, it is concerning how often we have to call on most of you now. Everyone in my circle has a wielder and now half of the CZMC have temporary wielders."
"The more Miraculouses out there, the bigger the chance Hawkmoth will get his hands on one. He and Mayura are already holding Nooroo and Duusu hostage, we can't let anyone else be caught," Honorra added.
Everyone murmured in agreement. Today had been one of the scariest days for the Kwamiis. Two of their own had been captured and they hadn't been able to escape on their own.
They needed to start figuring out other ways to escape or avoid detection should another Akuma come directly for them. They would also need to try to learn better control over their powers should they get separated from their wielders or the Great Guardian.
Everyone one of them wondered what would happen next in this battle of heroes vs. villains.