Chapter Three: Atomizer

"Chat Noir is right, Marinette," Tikki said as they watched him leave. "If you can't find a way to get out of it, you'll do amazing in the play. You are Ladybug after all." The kwami flew next to Marinette, who climbed back down to her room.

"But what if I can't get out of it? Even if I do manage to act with Adrien, I can't act too well. If I'm too good they'll find out that I'm actually Ladybug, and if they find out that I'm Ladybug, then everything I've gone through to keep my secret is out the window!" Marinette sat in her desk chair, spinning a few times before coming to a stop to stare at the script again.

Since the time she'd gotten home after school, she had spent a lot of time looking through it. For two people who had never written a play before, it was surprisingly good. They'd even written in several jokes for Chat Noir, though they lacked the frequency of the real Chat. Even for Marinette, who couldn't help but feel odd reading about herself, the story was incredibly compelling. The akumatized person they fought was very realistic, and the last act even had them facing Hawk Moth himself. Marinette could only hope that when they did face him it went so well.

"You'll just have to be careful onstage. I still don't think the play is a great idea, but I don't think Alya is going to give you much of a choice," Tikki said.

Marinette sighed, pushing the play out of the way and grabbing her tablet from her bag. "I'd better get started on my other assignments. I can always figure out a game plan tomorrow, right?" Tikki nodded in agreement, and she set to work.

After half an hour of sitting there, working on her homework, Marinette couldn't take it anymore. She tossed down the pen and flung herself onto her bed, staring at the ceiling.

"What's wrong, Marinette?" Tikki asked, following her master to the bed.

Another large sigh escaped the girl. "How am I ever going to watch how I act around Adrien? What if I slip right into being Ladybug so I can get two words out?"

Tikki floated down and gently tapped Marinette's shoulder. "You'll do great. If you can fight akumas every week, you can act in a play."

Marinette turned her head, looking at the corkboard covered with pictures of her friends. And Adrien. Lots of pictures of Adrien. Mostly pictures of Adrien. She reached her hand up and touched one that she had cut out from a fashion magazine his father owned. His green eyes shone so brightly, looking just to the side of the camera. The happiness there was so genuine, she often found herself wondering what he had been looking at at the time.

"Maybe," she said, her hand dropping down to the bed. She turned and looked at her kwami, a faint smile gracing her lips. "I don't know how you're always so optimistic, Tikki."

Tikki laughed. "Thousands of years can do that."

With what remained of the day, Marinette worked on her homework and stared at the play. Her mother brought her up some food when she explained how much work she had to do. She picked at her meal idly while she worked. At eleven she finally finished and returned to her bed. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

She dreamt of her racing through Paris as Ladybug, Chat Noir next to her. The wind through her hair as she swung from building to building was a feeling that she couldn't believe she had ever lived without. Her yo-yo wrapped around chimneys and spires, doing exactly what she wanted without much of a thought.

They stopped at the Eiffel Tower, sitting down and looking out. Ladybug glanced to the side and looked at Chat Noir. He looked back, a grin spread over his face. She frowned, noticing that the usually joyful look didn't quite reach his eyes. Instead, he looked sad.

"I've loved this time with you, Bugaboo," he said, his voice forlorn.

"Are you okay, Chat?" she asked, the view leaving her mind upon seeing her friend so sad.

Chat shrugged, looking away from her. For the longest time, he didn't say anything but remained quiet. When Ladybug couldn't take it anymore, she spoke.

"You can tell me. Let me help," she said desperately.

He opened his mouth to say something when Marinette was awoken by her alarm.

She sat up quickly, her eyes wide. What was that? she thought. In a sort of trance, she grabbed her phone and turned off the alarm. Tikki woke up next to her, rubbing her eyes with her hands.

"Are you okay, Marinette?" the red kwami asked, echoing Marinette's own words from her dream.

Marinette nodded. "Y-yeah. I'm fine. Just a weird dream, is all." She shook herself out of her stupor, making herself get ready for the day. When she went downstairs for breakfast the dream was pushed from her mind. She had light conversation with her mother while her father worked the bakery.

"Love you, honey!" her mother called as she left for school. Marinette waved to her parents and started the walk to her school building.

Alya was waiting for her on the steps, a few feet from where Nino was greeting Adrien. Marinette frowned slightly at the look Adrien had when he glanced at the silver car pulling away. He looked almost… sorrowful.

"What'd you think of the script?" Alya asked her excitedly.

"I-I loved it!" Marinette said, drawing her eyes away from Adrien. "It's all so well-written and planned, how long did you and Nino take to write this?"

"Oh, we've been working on this for a while. It was just fun at first, but then we realized we could use it to help you out." Alya turned and walked with Marinette into the school. "I'm glad you got the chance to read through it. We're doing tryouts for casting today, and we were thinking that you and Adrien could practice reading lines."

They walked into the classroom, where a very blonde, very angry girl stopped them from moving more than a few feet.

"She," Chloe jabbed a finger towards Marinette, "will not be reading lines with Adrien. I will be the one that will be acting with him in your weird little play."

Alya folded her arms and returned Chloe's glare. "Nino and I are the directors, Chloe. We're the ones that make casting decisions, not you!" She pushed past her, dragging Marinette to their seats in the second row.

Chloe's face scrunched up in further anger, and she stalked over to stand in front of their desk. She whipped out her phone and showed the contact for her father - the mayor of Paris. "You are going to cast me as Ladybug or my father will make sure that this play never makes it beyond its grubby little pages."

"Seriously, Chloe?" Marinette said. "You always have to ruin a good thing, don't you? You can always have some other part in the play. There are several."

"Are those other parts Ladybug? I won't stand to be anything less than the best," Chloe retorted. Her finger hovered over the call button threateningly. "Daddy is a busy man, and he won't take kindly if you take time out of his busy schedule."

"Why are you calling your father, Chloe?" Adrien asked. Chloe whirled around, giving Marinette a view of the young model who had just walked into the room. His face looked so innocent, not realizing what the girl was doing. Nino and several other classmates had entered behind him, all of them already glaring at her.

"Adrikins!" Chloe hurried down to where he stood, her arms wrapping around his neck as she hugged him. She purposefully had the hug last just longer than would have been appropriate for friends before she pulled away. "Don't you agree that I should be Ladybug in this play thingy? Marinette will just ruin it for everybody if she goes onto that stage."

Adrien looked down at Chloe, then looked at Marinette. "You'd be fine as Ladybug, too, but I think that Marinette can live up to the role."

Marinette felt blood rush to her cheeks at the compliment. Chloe, on the other hand, was shocked. For just a moment, all the girl could do was stare.

"Her?" she demanded. "You think that klutz could do Ladybug justice? If she can even remember her lines, she's bound to fall off the stage in the first scene! Wouldn't you prefer to be on stage with me?"

He shrugged. "You're always in the spotlight, why not give Marinette a chance? There are plenty of other characters that you can be, why not try out for one of those? Or do costume and makeup. You like clothes, don't you?"

The shock remained on her face for a brief moment before she composed herself. "Of course I like clothes! But costume and makeup is the work of servants! Daddy wouldn't want me to have anything less than Ladybug!"

"Chill out, Chloe," Nino said. "Alya and I are in charge of casting, and we've decided that Marinette is Ladybug."

If Marinette had been drinking water, she would have choked. She knew the words 'Marinette is Ladybug' had nothing to do with her actual secret, but nonetheless she felt her heart begin to race. All of the worries she'd had the night before returned to her in full. What if they DO find out? What will I do?

Chloe huffed, returning to her seat next to Sabrina in the front row. Nino smiled at Alya, and Adrien smiled at Marinette. It lasted only a second before he returned to his seat, but the look stunned the girl for more than one reason. Reason number one - the reason Marinette knew Alya would assume - was that Adrien Agreste had just smiled at her. Reason two was the look in his eyes. She saw an awful lot of anxiety and worry in his gaze, enough to reflect what she felt. Was it possible that the famous model was also worried about this play?

Alya elbowed her, bringing Marinette back down to Earth and out of those stunning, mint-green eyes. "Roll call," Alya whispered to her.

School that day could only be described as dull. Chloe kept shooting Marinette and Alya dirty looks, but the pair knew that she wouldn't do anything. Not when Adrien had essentially endorsed Marinette as the part of Ladybug instead of her. The primadonna was many things, but she did do her best to keep one of her only friends liking her. Even if that meant sometimes she had to keep her massive, beyond-inflated ego in check.

The bell rang for the last class of the day, and Alya and Nino stood up quickly to organize people for casting. It seemed like everybody would be staying to audition or be assigned their backstage roles.

"I can do all technical work for the play," Max said immediately. He had approached the two directors as soon as he could get through the crowd.

"We figured you'd want to," Nino said. "Do you want anyone to help you? It might be a lot of work."

Max shook his head, pushing his glasses up on his face. "I can easily handle the load. I glanced through the script last night, so I should get a full workup of what we need by tomorrow morning."

"That's awesome! You're the best, Max!" Alya said. Max smiled and returned to his seat, where he seemed to be meticulously going over the script.

Marinette reached for her backpack and pulled out her own script. Alya and Nino started explaining how auditions were going to work, but Marinette didn't pay attention. Printed on the cover was the title:

The Tale of Ladybug and Chat Noir

"Great title, don't you think?"

She jumped, spinning around to face the person that had approached her, barely staying in her seat. Adrien put his hand up, evidently shocked that she reacted so violently.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said lightly. He sat down in Alya's empty seat, his own script in his hand. "Do you mind if I sit here since we're the only ones that are memorizing lines?"

Marinette nodded hurriedly. "O-of course!"

They sat there for several minutes, both looking down at the script. The idea of what she was having to do kept Marinette from sneaking glances at Adrien like she normally might. In fact, if either of them had been less distracted, they would have noticed that after ten minutes they were both still staring at the top of the first page.

"Th-thanks. About earlier," Marinette was the one to finally break their silence. "Without you, Chloe would've had the play shut down for sure."

Adrien looked up, clearly having just been deep in thought. "Oh, right. Yeah, no problem. Chloe can be a little overbearing sometimes, and Nino and Alya have worked really hard to write this. Nino said that they've been writing it for a long time."

"Y-yeah. Alya the same thing said. Alya said the same thing." A deep blush spread over her cheeks, and she looked away from his curious eyes.

As if he could tell some of what she was thinking, Adrien said, "You don't have to be nervous. I go in front of a camera all the time, performing really isn't as bad as people make it seem. You just need to ignore the audience."

Marinette turned towards his kind expression, about to speak when something crashed through the window. A man landed on a desktop, his face cruel as he looked around the room. He wore a white lab coat over a black, full-body leotard. His skin was an ashen grey, his hair was a lighter grey that stood out in random places, and his mask was black like his suit. On his chest was a red symbol of what looked like a beaker one would use in chemistry. Slung over his shoulder was a deep red satchel.

He raised a hand, a red haze forming around it. Marinette watched in shock as he clenched his fists and all of the desks in the room vanished into puffs of smoke.

A hand grabbed her arm, and she turned to see Adrien pulling her towards the door amidst the smog. Fighting the urge to melt at his touch, Marinette followed him and they raced for the door. They paused only when they heard a yelp.

"Let me go!" Max yelled. The smoke was slowly vanishing, and they could see the akumatized victim in front of him. It appeared that Max was now tied in some form of strange rope.

"I will never obey you or your father ever again," said the akumatized person, his hand still surrounded in a red haze as some strange block forced Max to walk with him towards the window.

"Mr. Bouchard?" Max asked.

"Atomizer!" he corrected harshly. "You would do well not to get your facts wrong around me!"

Before Marinette could see more of what was happening, Adrien had pulled her through the door with the mass of students trying to escape. Then his hand was gone. Turning around, she saw him running off like most of their classmates.

Shaking out of her stupor, Marinette ran for an empty closet before Alya or anyone else could see she was there. Tikki flew from her jacket, Marinette's own look of urgency mirrored on her face.

"Tikki, spots on!"

After a burst of pink light, Ladybug peaked out of the door to see if there were any more students in the halls. Seeing them empty of fleeing people, she burst out and rushed back to the class. The smoke was completely gone, but so were Max and Atomizer.

She threw her yo-yo and left through the gaping hole in the window. She'd only landed on the next building when her trusty partner landed next to her.

"Good afternoon, Bugaboo," Chat Noir said, looking over and smiling at her.

"Not too good - Hawk Moth's latest victim has already kidnapped somebody," she responded, looking around until she spotted Atomizer. Max, it seemed, was floating next to him and being dragged by one hand.

Chat Noir looked where she was looking. "We'd better help before he does something we'll all regret."

The two of them jumped in time with each other, landing on the next roof and running along it until it ended. Ladybug swung her yo-yo and Chat extended his staff to move through Paris. It didn't take long for them to catch up with Atomizer and Max. As they approached, he turned to look at the two superheroes.

"Let Max go, Atomizer," Ladybug said, landing on the roof nimbly. Chat Noir landed a second later, his staff shrinking to its normal size.

"His father deserves to be punished. He will draw him to me," Atomizer said. A purple butterfly appeared in front of his face for a few seconds, then vanished. "But before I get my sweet revenge, I shall have your Miraculous!"

Ladybug and Chat jumped to the side as strange blocks formed in the air and dropped where they had just been standing. Before Atomizer could do more, they rushed forward. Ladybug swung her yo-yo to free Max. she broke his bonds and quickly swung him down to the streets below while Chat Noir distracted Atomizer.

"Thank you, Ladybug! I think that is my father's partner, Henry Bouchard. From my vantage, I saw something in his bag," Max said.

"That must be where the akuma is. Thank you, Max, and stay safe!" Ladybug returned to the rooftop, landing right after Chat Noir made a strangled scream.

He was dripping wet, and the same type of bonds that had held Max had his arms and legs tightly wrapped. Atomizer was reaching towards Chat's right hand, only inches from the black cat Miraculous.

"Hey, Atomizer! Over here!" The villain paused, looking over his shoulder. That gave Ladybug enough time to throw the yo-yo and break the ropes. Chat Noir jumped farther away, then ran to stand next to his partner.

"Thank you for the save, Milady," he said. They backed away as Atomizer turned to face them, clearly very angry.

"How did you get wet?" Ladybug asked.

Chat Noir scrunched his face in distaste, looking at the drops of water sliding down his suit. "He can change the state of matter objects are in. That's what he's been using as rope - it's really just air. He turned the air above me into water. You know a cat doesn't like to get wet."

They dodged, a stream of water forming above them. "I think it's time for a little luck," Ladybug said. "Lucky Charm!"

A red and black spotted bottle of cold medicine dropped from her yo-yo and into her hand. She couldn't hide the confusion on her face. These seem to be getting weirder, she thought.

"Feeling sick?" Chat Noir joked. He extended his staff, turning it over and over quickly in his hands to deflect the blocks Atomizer was throwing their way.

Ladybug looked around them, trying to figure out how a bottle of cold medicine could help them. Surprisingly, something did catch her attention. The forming of new blocks from the air, and the Atomizer's hand which was covered in a red haze.

"Got it!" Ladybug took a few steps forward and unstopped the bottle. She held the bottle tight in her hand but tossed the liquid inside it at Atomizer's face.

As she expected, he directed his hand at the liquid and it turned into a puff of smoke right in front of his face. Ladybug grinned as he took his next breath, inhaling the gas. Atomizer started coughing, taking in even more. After a moment he started swaying and fell to his knees, his eyes unfocused.

Ladybug ran forward and took off his satchel. She dug inside and pulled out a laptop. With a good amount of force, she slammed it down onto the rooftop where it shattered. A dark purple butterfly flew out of the remains.

Her finger traced a perfect line down the middle of her yo-yo, revealing a glowing white interior. "Time to de-evilize!" She threw the yo-yo and caught the butterfly inside.

"Bye-bye little butterfly," she said, tapping the yo-yo. A glowing white butterfly emerged. Ladybug tossed the empty bottle she held into the sky. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

A stream of red and black magic left, repairing the laptop, returning the strange blocks back into the air, and then going off to fix the school. A dark purple substance surrounded Atomizer, then melted away and returning him to Henry Bouchard.

Chat Noir stared at her in awe as she fixed the akuma. She is truly amazing. How does she do that? Then he walked over to her, both of their fists extending.

"Pound it!" they said in unison.

"Looks like you've returned to your normal state," Chat Noir said, looking down at the distraught scientist. From the corner of his enhanced eyesight, he saw Ladybug roll her eyes. That made him smile.

"I-I was akumatized, wasn't I?" Henry's voice shook as he looked up at the heroes.

Ladybug nodded, crouching beside him and resting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "What happened?"

He put a hand to his head, thinking. "My partner and I have been working for over a year on this theory regarding states of matter. He was in charge of getting it published, and somehow my name didn't end up on it with him. H-he apologized, but I just felt so angry about it…"

"I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose," Chat said. "Just talk to him, I'm sure you can fix it."

Ladybug's earrings beeped. It was the second to last spot. Her eyes widened. "Can you handle this, Chat?"

Chat Noir nodded, bowing dramatically. "I'll be seeing you, Milady."

She waved. "Bug out!" Then she was gone.

Chat helped Henry back to his science partner, where they made up easily. He gave a silly good-bye, then left himself. He'd have to figure out a good reason why he vanished from the school so long, assuming his friends were still there.

The entrance was empty, so he snuck inside and transformed back into Adrien without anybody seeing. Plagg left the ring, returning it to the silver color. He flew next to Adrien, looking tired.

"You brought camembert with you today, didn't you?" he said, half whining. "I'm exhausted."

Adrien rolled his eyes, his mind thinking back to Ladybug as he did. "I brought a wedge, but I have to get to my stuff. Just get in my jacket." He held it open and Plagg flew inside.

He walked to the classroom, walking in to see all of his classmates back inside. When he entered, Nino and Chloe ran up to him.

"Dude, where'd you go off to? None of us saw where you went and we've been worried!" his friend said.

Adrien held up a hand defensively. "I just, uh, got a bit scared. I found somewhere to hide until I knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir had fixed everything." This response seemed to comfort his friends.

He went over to his stuff - which was now in Alya's usual seat. Marinette looked relieved to see him safe. "Sorry, Marinette, but I'm not going to be able to read any lines today. With the attack, my bodyguard is going to be here to pick me up in a few minutes. I'll see you tomorrow." He slung the bag over his shoulder, covertly sneaking a piece of cheese from it into his jacket.

Marinette, along with half the class, waved to him as he left.