Miraculous: Tales of Blaze and Artemis
MDM: HOLY GUACAMOLE! What has it been, almost six months?! Geez! Sorry for the long wait, everyone. But I've been working at a Wendy's for the past several months, and unfortunately, I don't have time to write anything during the work day. And when I get home, I'm exhausted. But, now that I'm taking a break from work and back in school, I'll finally have more time to write. Again, sorry about the long wait. But life doesn't always cooperate with what we want.
PokemonFreak90: (Gives MDM a skeptical look) More time to write while in school, huh? Gee, where have I heard you say that before?
BTW, can any of you readers guess the reason behind this chapter's title?
MDM: Hey! It's somewhat true! Plus, my schedule's pretty light this semester, and I have a Creative Writing class. I'm pretty sure I can write some more now. But if it comes back to bite me, then you can say "I told you so".
Anyway, enough talk. Let's get on with Chapter 15! Roll it!
Chapter 15
Master of Puppets
It was nearing sunset as Bianca finished writing something on a piece of paper, her guitar in her lap. Claaw was on her keyboard, playing a little tune while she wrote, this time using the keys, since it was turned on.
Just then, her phone on the side of the keyboard started ringing. She put down her pencil and paper before answering it. "Hey, Hoops!" She greeted her best friend cheerfully.
"Hey, Bea!" Allen returned the greeting. "Listen, I was wondering... If you finished your homework already, maybe you would like to come with me and Alya to the movies?"
Bianca raised a curious brow. "Not that I don't mind the invitation, but I thought that it was just going to be a date night for you and Alya."
"It was," Allen admitted, "But just because Alya and I are dating now doesn't mean that I would leave you out of everything. So we both thought that we could make this a group hangout instead. Plus, you can use this to try and get out of your shell more. At least it's just going to be our friends there instead of classmates that you're still not comfortable around, or total strangers."
Bianca lightly smiled at her best friend's thoughtfulness. Also, he had a point. If it was just them, she could try to open up a little more, and it would be easier to do so. But it might still be a little bit awkward, since she was technically a third wheel for Allen and Alya. Hopefully Marinette might be free to tag along so that it wouldn't be so awkward.
"That sounds nice." She answered. "Maybe I'll call Marinette and see if she wants to come along as well, if Alya didn't invite her already."
"Nice idea." Allen agreed. "So we'll see you later?"
"Yeah. I'll meet you at the subway station. See you soon."
After Allen hung up, Bianca immediately called Marinette. After a few rings, Marinette answered. "Hey, Bianca!" Marinette greeted her cheerfully.
"Hey, Marinette!" Bianca returned the greeting. "I was wondering if you wanted to join me, Allen, and Alya to the movies?"
"That sounds really nice, Bianca," Marinette began, "But-"
"Marinette!" A little girl's voice suddenly loudly chirped out on the other end of the line. Then there was a loud clatter.
"Manon!" Marinette shouted. "Please be careful, or no more dolls!" Then she turned her attention back over to Bianca. "Sorry, but I'm currently watching Manon. Her mom is busy right now."
"Okay." Bianca said. "And what was that about dolls?"
"I made some dolls of the heroes and past Akumas." Marinette explained. "So far, I have Ladybug, Cat Noir, Lady Wifi, Rogercop, and Evillustrator."
"Sounds cute." Bianca replied. "But does that mean that you can't make it?"
"No, sorry." Marinette answered apologetically. "I don't remember when Manon's mom will be back, but I think she'll come get her when it's late."
"That's okay." Bianca said. "Just send me pictures of those dolls later. See you, Marinette."
"Talk to you later, Bianca." Marinette replied cheerfully before hanging up on her end.
Bianca put her phone away in her purse and told her Kwami, "Come on, Claaw." The little wolf zipped over and flew into his holder's purse.
Minutes later, Bianca met up with Allen at the subway station. They shared a high-five before entering the station. After they got their tickets and went to wait for the train, they soon saw that Alya had arrived with Marinette.
"Hey, babe." Allen greeted his girlfriend before planting a little peck on her cheek.
"Oh come on, Allen." Alya teased him. "You can give me a better kiss than that. I know you can!" Allen just smirked mischievously before putting his hands on her cheeks and chastely kissing her lips. "Now that's more like it!" Alya exclaimed when they broke away.
Bianca bristled a little at the loving scene, but immediately pushed away the little sting of jealousy. She shouldn't even be jealous! Allen was her very best friend and he finally got together with the girl of his dreams. She was supposed to be happy for him! She knew that she had to let him go to live his own life, but now, she was starting to realize that maybe it was going to be a lot harder than she had originally thought!
She quickly distracted herself by noticing that Marinette had arrived with Alya. "Hey, Mari." She greeted her. "I thought you said that you weren't coming."
"I thought so, too." Marinette began to explain. "But Manon's mom picked her up early." Then she turned to Alya. "The movie starts in thirty minutes, right?"
"Right." But then she gasped. "Marinette, nine o'clock!" She exclaimed quietly.
"No, there's no nine o'clock showing." Marinette said, not catching on the excitement in her best friend's hushed voice.
"Not THAT nine o'clock! THIS nine o'clock!" Alya explained excitedly, lifting Marinette's face from her phone and showing her and the other two what was on their left.
There, they saw Adrien waiting for the same train as them, not noticing that his friends were watching him. When the train arrived and the doors opened, he went inside.
Marinette's eyes widened in surprise and a pretty pink blush appeared on her face, along with a lovestruck smile. "Adrien!" She whispered excitedly.
Allen and Bianca rolled their eyes with a fond smile, thinking, "There she goes again!"
"Come on!" Alya exclaimed, dragging Marinette into the next train car, with Allen and Bianca following them, almost bumping into other passengers. After a while of riding the subway, Marinette was watching Adrien from the window, peering into the next car.
"I wonder what he's doing here." Bianca wondered.
"He must have finally given his bodyguard the slip." Allen teased, but feeling proud of their friend for showing a little teenage rebellion.
"I wonder what station he's getting off at." Marinette wondered aloud, not hearing their conversation before she delved into another one of her lovestruck fantasies, which are cute, but a little over-the-top. "Oh! Maybe he's going to the same movie! Oh! How cool would that be?! But wait! He might think we're following him! Like stalkers! What? Me, a stalker? HAH! Although, I would follow him. You know, of course I wouldn't really stalk him! Oh... who am I kidding?!"
Alya just laughed with amusement, very much used to her best friend's crazy daydreams that often ended in disaster because of her many fears and insecurities, especially around the handsome blonde model.
"Who are you talking to?" Alya teased. Marinette just blushed and went back to watching Adrien.
Allen shook his head with a smile. "Well, she can be a little stalker-ish." He whispered to Bianca when Adrien noticed Marinette looking at him. She instantly froze, ducked, and then hid behind Alya, who waved to their blonde model friend.
"Maybe just a touch." Bianca whispered back teasingly as Alya dragged Marinette out from behind her and got her to wave back at a confused-but-still-smiling Adrien. Then, they also waved at their friend.
Suddenly, a bright blue light started to crawl up Alya's body, changing her everyday clothes into a familiar black and purple bodysuit with white boots. "What? What's going on?!" She shouted in fright.
"Alya!" Marinette and Allen exclaimed at the same time while Bianca and Adrien only watched in horror as their friend (or girlfriend, in Allen's case) was transformed back into her Akuma alter ego: Lady Wifi.
"Marinette!" She called out to the blunette, turning to face her. "Give me those Ladybug and Cat Noir dolls!"
"Lady Wifi?" Marinette asked.
"No! I'm Puppeteer!" The villain answered, shocking everyone with the new name. "And I... want... those... dolls... NOW!" Lady Wifi had never acted like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum before, so this was clearly the work of someone else.
"Puppeteer?" Marinette asked, confused. "The dolls? I don't-I don't have them. They're at home! Why…Why do you want them, Puppeteer?"
"Because you said that I could have them! Then Mommy said 'no!'" Puppeteer replied in a bratty voice. "So give 'em to me now! Or you'll be super duper sorry!"
Suddenly, Marinette gasped in realization and horror. "Manon?!" She whispered.
Bianca's eyes also widened in fright. Allen noticed that. "You know her?" He whispered.
"She's a little girl that Marinette babysits from time to time." Bianca quietly explained. "She's Nadja Chamack's daughter, the news lady. She was babysitting her earlier before her mom picked her up early."
Allen lowly growled under his breath. "Akumatizing a little kid? Does Hawk Moth have no heart?" He quietly asked aloud. "Oh, wait a minute. Of course he doesn't. He's a super villain."
When the train finally coasted to a stop at the next station, the controlled Lady Wifi narrowed her eyes fiercely at her babysitter. "I want Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses to win! Forever and EVER!" She screamed at her before she got out her phone. She swiped across the screen and made a fast forward sign appear on the ground before leaping onto it like a hoverboard and leaving the subway station.
"I don't remember Lady Wifi having that power." Bianca muttered.
Marinette briefly ran after the villain. "Manon! This isn't a game!" She called out to her, but to no avail.
As much as Allen and Bianca wanted to ask Marinette for more information about the akumatized villain, they knew that they had to sneak away and find a place to transform first, since Marinette might get a little suspicious of their curiosity if they ask in their civilian identities. They quietly moved away from her and headed over towards the far side of the subway station, opposite of where Lady Wifi flew out of. Maybe it would be better if they asked her as their alter egos.
Right as they were about to transform and talk to her, Cat Noir suddenly made his appearance from behind the subway train and came up to Marinette from behind, placing his hand on her shoulder, startling the girl as she jumped and then whirled around to face him. "Hey, that was Lady Wifi." He said. "Did that villain say anything to you?"
"Uh, I'm not sure," Marinette began to explain to the black cat superhero, "But her voice belonged to a little girl that I babysit. It's as if she was controlling my friend, Alya—I mean Lady Wifi—from a distance. This is so weird."
All of her wild little hand gestures made Cat Noir smile, amused at her for a second, making both Allen and Bianca raise a brow in confusion. But he managed to keep a straight, analyzing face. "And what was this talk about dolls?" He asked her.
"I've got some dolls at home that she likes to play with." Marinette answered.
"Your dolls?" Cat Noir questioned her again, sounding impressed as his cat eyes blinked, catching Marinette off-guard of just how green his eyes really were, especially in the cold artificial light of the subway station. "Okay, where do you live?"
It took Marinette all of three seconds to register his question in her brain and her blue eyes went wide with a slight pink blush on her face. "Uh, 12 Rue Gotlib." She answered, hoping that Cat Noir didn't notice anything off about her.
Cat Noir just nodded at her. "I'll take care of it!" He said to her before running out of the station, following Lady Wifi's trail.
Once he left, Allen and Bianca quickly ran up the opposite stairs of the station before they were spotted by Marinette and found a nearby alley. "Was I seeing things, or was Marinette actually getting a little flustered by Cat Noir?" Allen asked.
"Well, at least she was still talking to him normally and not stuttering nonsense like when she tries to talk to Adrien." Bianca said. "But I guess she might want to start lowering her expectations. First a supermodel, and now a superhero?"
"Maybe she just has a thing for blonde guys with green eyes and a great personality to boot." Allen pondered.
Bianca shook her head. "Anyway, we're getting off-track." She said, opening her purse and letting Claaw out. "We have to get to where Puppeteer is going to be toying around."
Allen nodded as he let Fenixx out of his fanny pack. "You're right." He said.
"Let's see who's really playing around this time." Fenixx added, making Claaw smirk at his best friend.
"Fenixx, Flames Up!"
"Claaw, Let's Prowl!"
In flashes of gold fire and silvery ice, Allen and Bianca were replaced with the supers: Blaze and Artemis. They leaped out of the alley and began running towards Marinette's house. Hopefully, they could get there before Puppeteer got all of the dolls she wanted.
When they finally got to the bakery, they saw that Cat Noir had arrived at the same time as them, and that Ladybug was already there, waiting on the balcony near the window. "Hey guys, up here!" Yelled Ladybug.
They joined her up there before jumping through the window one by one, where they saw Puppeteer as Lady Wifi grabbing the dolls and stuffing them into a bag. "Puppeteer! Such a shame. It's really not nice to steal from your babysitter." She called out to her.
"Breaking and entering are grounds for a serious time-out." Cat Noir added.
"Soon I'll get your Miraculouses, you goody two-shoeses!" Puppeteer shouted at them.
"That's not a real word." Blaze muttered.
"Well, there's only one good two-shoes around here and I'm not her!" Cat Noir teased, looking over at an annoyed Ladybug.
"Don't sell yourself short, tiger." Artemis teased the black cat. "You're pretty good yourself."
Blaze then briefly saw Ladybug's face slightly change, the corner of her mouth hidden behind her teeth, like she was trying to hide a frown. She was still annoyed, but there seemed to be something else there. Was she actually…?
"Freeze!" Puppeteer shouted, snapping everyone back to attention and swiping along her phone with a pause signal. Blaze blocked it with his sword, and it bounced off and hit one of Marinette's posters of Adrien.
Call Artemis crazy, but she thought that she heard Ladybug quietly squeak with embarrassment. She snuck a quick glance at her, and saw that there was a pink blush on her cheeks under her mask. But she quickly dispelled it and began blocking the pause signals with her yo-yo before any of them could ask her about her reaction.
"Remember how we defeated Lady Wifi the first time?" She immediately asked Cat Noir, to which he just smirked.
"Take out the Wi-Fi signal!" He exclaimed, heading back over to the window. "Gotcha!"
The other three heroes began blocking pause signals before Ladybug swung her yo-yo and grabbed the doll of herself. But right as she brought it back to her, Puppeteer hit her with a pause signal. "Ladybug!" Artemis and Blaze yelled.
They were about to get to Puppeteer, but then she quickly used her phone to fire some lock signals at them. They were both hit and either their hands or their bodies were locked against the wall, and they began struggling fiercely to break free.
Smirking evilly, the super villain went over to the paused Ladybug and then slowly reached out to grab her earrings. But then suddenly, there was a familiar cry coming from above them: "Cataclysm!"
There was then the sound of something loudly rusting and then breaking apart. The pause and lock buttons disappeared as the Wi-Fi signal was disrupted. Ladybug then snatched away the phone.
"Looks like you've just lost your signal, Wifi!" She shouted, throwing it over to Blaze. Catching on, he drew his sword and stabbed right through the phone. However, the destroyed phone yielded no Akuma.
"Where's the Akuma?" Artemis asked, wondering how that was possible.
However, the three of them had to put it aside for the time being when Lady Wifi threw a couch at them, buying her enough time to escape with the dolls. After they freed themselves, they headed back outside, where they met up with Cat Noir again.
"Did you capture her Akuma?" He asked Ladybug.
"She didn't have one." Ladybug replied, shocking her partner.
"How's that possible?!" He exclaimed.
"Wait a minute. She's controlled by Puppeteer!" Artemis realized.
When the others heard her, Blaze then made a conclusion. "So if Puppeteer is the one controlling her, then she must be the one who has the Akuma!"
"Yeah!" Cat Noir agreed. "Lady Wifi's nothing but a puppet!" Suddenly, he gasped in fright and turned back over to Ladybug. "Please tell me you got the Cat Noir doll!" He pleaded to her.
Ladybug looked apologetic as she grabbed the one doll she'd managed to save: her own. "Sorry, only this one."
"Did you see any dolls that are like us?" Blaze asked with worry, gesturing between both him and Artemis.
"No, I didn't." Ladybug replied, and fear briefly flashed between the two Canadian superheroes. "But I also didn't see any Blaze or Artemis dolls in her bag, either." She quickly assured them. "My guess is that you guys don't have dolls, so you're both safe from falling under her control." They immediately breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Well, we'd better find her fast before she takes control of the other dolls! And me!" Cat Noir exclaimed, reminding the others of the potential danger of him being controlled, right as his ring started to beep out his first warning.
"Cat Noir! You're about to transform back!" Ladybug exclaimed fearfully.
"Don't let her make me a puppet." Cat Noir teased her, holding his arms up as if he was pretending to be a string puppet. "You know I like to be in command." He added, lowering his arms and giving Ladybug kitty eyes. To be honest, it was actually kind of cute as Artemis giggled in amusement while the other two superheroes just smiled and rolled their eyes.
"You mean second-in-command." Ladybug kindly corrected him with a playful smile before reaching for her yo-yo, turning it into a phone. "Call me when you're back in business."
Cat Noir just gave her a smirk and a bow before leaping away. Blaze and Artemis then looked over at Ladybug. "Who are you calling?" Blaze asked.
"Nadja Chamack." Ladybug answered. "She's Manon's - the Puppeteer's - mother." Even though the two of them already knew who Manon was, they had to pretend that they didn't.
After the first couple of rings, the woman answered. "Yes? What? Ladybug?!" She exclaimed, sounding both confused and frantic.
"Where are you?" Ladybug asked her.
"At the TV station."
"Is your daughter with you?"
"Yes! She's playing downstairs! Why? Is everything okay, Ladybug?"
"Yes! Just don't move. We'll be right there!" After that reassurance, Ladybug hung up and took to the rooftops, followed by Blaze and Artemis.
In a matter of minutes, they had reached the TV station, where people were beginning to evacuate. But Nadja was standing inside, looking around for Manon. The heroes burst inside and Ladybug went over to the woman while Blaze and Artemis helped more people get out.
"She's still here in the building!" The red-and-black-spotted heroine said to the news reporter. "We need you all outside!"
"No! I want to find my daughter!" Nadja exclaimed, looking around frantically for Manon.
Ladybug placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I'll bring your daughter back, Mrs. Chamack." She assured her. "It'll help me more to know you're safe."
Reluctantly, Nadja complied and then left the studio with Blaze escorting her out. When she was outside, he rejoined Ladybug and Artemis in heading towards the studio.
Just then, her yo-yo started to ring and she answered it. It was Cat Noir. "Have you guys located her?" He asked her on the other end of the line.
"Inside the KIDZ+ TV building!" Ladybug explained.
"Got it!" Cat Noir answered before hanging up.
Finally, Ladybug, Blaze, and Artemis arrived at the TV studio that Nadja usually used, which was the most likely place where Puppeteer would be. They were trying to listen in from behind the door to see if they were right.
Suddenly, Ladybug felt someone grab her shoulder. Immediately, she whirled around and wrenched the perpetrator's arm behind him. Blaze and Artemis were about to grab their weapons when they all saw that it was just Cat Noir who had unintentionally snuck up behind them.
"I'm okay! Not a puppet yet!" The black cat superhero quickly assured them, and Ladybug quickly let him go. "But I'd love to find the Akuma before that changes." He added while rubbing his sore arm.
Ladybug giggled nervously while rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry!" She apologized.
Then all four superheroes got ready to break down the door, using the element of surprise. "On three." Ladybug gave out the order. "One... two... three!"
They kicked down the doors, just in time to see Puppeteer, along with Lady Wifi, Rogercop, and the Evillustrator. The main villain looked a lot like a fairy princess, except with much darker colors like teal and black on her dress, along with the same colors in her hair and on her wand. Her skin also took on a pale lavender tone.
"Cat Noir!" She exclaimed, magically lifting up the Cat Noir doll into the air. "Come to life!"
"No!" The aforementioned hero screamed before racing up to grab the doll.
"Cat Noir! No!" Ladybug shouted, knowing that by the time he got close to it, it would have already gotten hit by Puppeteer's power, putting her partner under her control.
Thinking quickly, Artemis got an ice arrow and shot it at the Cat Noir doll. The little plushie turned into a likeness of itself encased in ice crystals, right before Puppeteer fired her wand's power at it. Cat Noir quickly ducked to dodge it, just in case she could still take control of him by hitting him with her power.
The magic hit the crystallized doll, but the magic bounced off of it and then hit the ceiling, not taking control of it or the black cat hero. Suddenly, the frozen doll fell to the floor and shattered into a million pieces of ice.
For a moment, there was silence, no one speaking a word, one party filled with immense relief and slight panic, while the other was utterly horrified and outraged. Finally, Puppeteer started screaming at the top of her lungs.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Her shrill scream pierced the air, making both the superheroes and the controlled villains briefly cover their ears. "I wanted that doll!"
Cat Noir turned over to Artemis, sighing with utter relief. "Thanks, Artemis." He said.
"Uh, I just hope that the girl who made those dolls will forgive me for freezing one of them." Artemis added, not sharing the fact that she personally knew Marinette. "But I had to do something to prevent you from being turned into a puppet."
"I'm sure Marinette will understand." Cat Noir assured her, not noticing that Ladybug was oddly paying a little too much attention to the conversation. "She's pretty cool like that. She's really sweet, too." No one noticed, except for Blaze, that Ladybug's face strangely flushed pink under her mask at her partner's flattering compliment of Marinette.
Puppeteer finally managed to finish throwing her temper tantrum before focusing on the doll tied on Ladybug's hip. "Gimme that Ladybug doll!" She shouted to the controlled villains. "I'm gonna get your Miraculous!"
"Not so fast, rugrat!" Ladybug shouted as she and her teammates got into a battle stance, their weapons ready.
Just then, Blaze noticed the star wand in Puppeteer's hand. "Ladybug!" He shouted over to her. "The Akuma must be in her wand!"
"Nice!" Ladybug said, and then swung her yo-yo to try and grab it. But Puppeteer blocked her attempt with Rogercop.
"Stop them!" She shouted. The villains began to surround them.
"Five against four?" Cat Noir asked with a smirk. "I think these odds are against us."
"Let's see if we can turn them in our favor." Artemis said.
Puppeteer pointed to the little doll in Ladybug's hold with her wand. "The Ladybug doll! Get it!" She yelled.
Evillustrator began drawing something on his tablet and then a new phone appeared for Lady Wifi. "Thanks, Evillustrator!" She said, grabbing the phone. "Now for the doll!"
Cat Noir smirked at Ladybug and she knew exactly what he had in mind. She handed him the doll and he jumped up high near the ceiling.
"Is this what you want?" He asked Puppeteer, waving the doll. "Say pretty please!" He then did a flip and landed on the ground before bolting out of the door. The other three heroes waved playfully at the villains before following him.
"The doll! Get them!" Puppeteer screamed. The controlled villains followed her order and went after the four Heroes of Paris. They all followed them all the way up to the roof of the TV station. But there was no sign of them.
"Where'd they go?!" Lady Wifi in Puppeteer's voice demanded, looking around with the controlled villains searching as well.
Luckily for the heroes, they weren't spotted from their hiding spot behind the billboard. In Ladybug's hands was a tape dispenser that she'd managed to swipe. "First we've gotta get rid of them, then Puppeteer!" She said to her teammates.
"I'll take care of Evillustrator." Artemis volunteered. "He's the wild card of the bunch and I didn't get a crack at him last time, since I was starting to go feral."
"I'll take Lady Wifi." Blaze said, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "I think I can sweep her off her feet again."
"Keep telling yourself that, Fireball." Artemis teased him, a little knowing glint in her wolf eyes. "I've heard that she has a boyfriend."
The phoenix-themed superhero just smirked back at her in retaliation. "What the guy doesn't know won't hurt him." He answered.
"Don't get any ideas." Ladybug said, sounding oddly stern.
"I guess that leaves me with Rogercop." Cat Noir said. "But how exactly can we immobilize them?"
"I can't exactly freeze their dolls like I did before." Artemis said. "They might remain still, but she could easily use the real thing to block them, so I won't be able to get a clear shot."
"Maybe this can actually be of use." Ladybug suggested, holding up the tape dispenser. "Just distract them long enough and I'll get them tied up."
The other three superheroes nodded and then got out their private communicator earpieces from their weapons. They placed them in their ears, then Cat Noir jumped over to a nearby spotlight. He shone the light on the villains, and Ladybug, Blaze, and Artemis made their move.
Ladybug soon had wrapped Rogercop up in tape, Artemis had tied up Evillustrator with her ribbon wand, and Blaze quickly restrained Lady Wifi. Ladybug then held up the doll she had that Cat Noir had thrown back to her. "If you want this doll so badly, come and get it!" She shouted, throwing it as far as she could.
Lady Wifi growled at her. "I'm faster than you! You're gonna lose, Ladybug!" She exclaimed, elbowing Blaze, making him release her. She then quickly made a fast forward platform appear and flew in the direction of where the doll was thrown.
"That won't be a whole lot of time!" Blaze said, slightly rubbing his sore stomach.
"Then let's get cracking!" Artemis replied, making Evillustrator spin around with her ribbon wands. Ladybug nodded and let her teammates deal with the controlled villains and headed back inside the TV studio.
The good luck superheroine burst inside the studio, ready to confront Puppeteer herself. "Now that you're alone, I'm gonna... Huh?!" Ladybug exclaimed with surprise when she saw the empty studio. "Where is she?"
"You mean she's not there anymore?" Cat Noir asked her via communicator earpiece.
"Where could she have gone?" Blaze questioned.
With the other three heroes on the roof, the villains managed to disorient them long enough to escape. "I think I have an idea." Artemis said. "Let's get down to the lobby!"
The heroes hurried down to the first floor and saw that Lady Wifi had the Ladybug doll in her hands and was about to give it to Puppeteer, who laughed evilly. "Now I'm the winner!" She exclaimed, about to take it.
"Drop that doll, Manon!" Ladybug ordered as she and the others jumped inside.
"I'm not Manon! I'm Puppeteer!" Puppeteer screamed at her.
Lady Wifi gave her the doll and began attacking them with pause symbols. Luckily for them, they managed to dodge them and hide behind the pony wall. "Anyone else have any more bright ideas?!" Blaze asked. "I'm open to all suggestions!"
"We still have our wild card." Ladybug said before summoning her own power. "Lucky Charm!" With a flash of red and pink ladybugs, a power strip with her red-and-black-spotted pattern appeared in her hands.
"That actually looks pretty scary for kids." Bianca said, almost shivering at the sight of the long cord. Brief flashes of someone holding something similar, like a belt in their hands, appeared in her mind, approaching her, but she quickly shoved them away. This was not the time to be having flashbacks.
But when she looked over at Cat Noir, she wasn't sure if it was just the lighting, but he also seemed to have turned a little pale as he stared at the power strip. However, neither Blaze or Ladybug had noticed their teammate's frazzled states.
The former was waiting for the latter's next commands as she scanned their surroundings, ignoring Puppeteer's taunts. "You've lost, Ladybug!" Puppeteer shouted gleefully at her.
The red-and-black-spotted superheroine quickly looked around for an idea and saw each of her teammates briefly light up in red and black spots, then Lady Wifi's phone, and then the arms of both the Evillustrator and Rogercop. She then smirked as she got an idea. But then she noticed that Artemis was slightly shaking Cat Noir out of his dazed state that she'd just now noticed.
"Cat, are you okay?" She asked him in a whisper, letting go of the power strip and placing a hand on his slightly trembling shoulder.
The black cat hero shook himself out of his trance and just nodded, immediately flashing her a megawatt smile. However, Ladybug could sense that that smile was fake. She could tell a fake smile from a mile away. After all, she'd seen enough of Adrien's modeling photos, and being around the real him at school, so she could tell if a person was fake smiling or not.
Blaze shot a brief worried glance over at Artemis, seeing that his partner was looking a little shaken up as well. But she just shook her head, silently saying that she'll talk about it later. Right now, they had an Akuma to defeat.
Quickly, the superheroes got into position as Evillustrator began erasing the wall that they were hiding behind. The villains then saw that Ladybug was using the power strip like a second weapon, twirling it around as if it were another yo-yo.
"We may be equal in numbers, but the odds seem to be in our favor!" She said with a confident smirk.
The superheroes all charged at their intended targets, dodging lasers and pause symbols before reaching them. Artemis fought closely with Evillustrator and managed to knock the pencil out of his hand with one of her daggers without hurting him. She quickly grabbed it before snapping it in half, rendering the controlled villain powerless.
Cat Noir was looking for an opening to get Rogercop immobilized, but there wasn't a whole lot that his staff could do. Just then, he heard Artemis whistle sharply at him. She had tied up Evillustrator with one of her ribbons wands, and then tossed him the other one. He smirked knowingly and continued fighting his way to get close to Rogercop, deflecting lasers. Once he got close enough, he twirled the ribbon around and tied them around his laser gauntlets on his wrists, tugged them close, and then pulled it downward, basically getting the controlled robotic villain to flip over, his wrists aimed up high with no one to shoot at.
Blaze was fighting hand-to-hand with Lady Wifi once he got close to her. Sometimes she would fire pause symbols from her phone at him, but he easily dodged them all. Right when he was close enough, he swept her legs from under her and grabbed her, pulling her arms behind her back. He wrestled the phone away from her and threw it over to Ladybug. And just in time as well. Right as she caught it, Puppeteer had the Ladybug doll up in the air.
"Ladybug, come to lif-"
But right before she could use her wand to fire magic at the doll, Ladybug fired a pause symbol at her with Lady Wifi's phone, stopping her mid-word. When she got paused, all of the other controlled villains also were paused mid-action. Carefully, the other heroes removed themselves and their weapons away from them.
"All yours, My Lady." Cat Noir said to Ladybug, tossing the ribbon wand he'd borrowed from Artemis back over to the wolf superhero right after she released the motionless Evillustrator from her other ribbon wand.
Ladybug just smiled and simply walked over to the paused Puppeteer, whistling a cheerful, familiar tune as she plucked the wand from the little girl's hand. "Gee, where have we heard that song before?" Blaze jokingly whispered to Artemis. She just rolled her eyes and placed a finger to her lips with a playful wink.
Ladybug then snapped the wand in half and threw the remains onto the floor, her and her teammates watching as the black and purple magic butterfly crawled out of the broken wand and began to fly away. "No more evildoing for you, little Akuma." She said as she got out her yo-yo and opened it to reveal the sparkly pink inside. She then swung it around and caught the dark butterfly before it escaped. When she opened it again, a pure white butterfly flew out and fluttered away.
"Bye bye, little butterfly." Ladybug said to the retreating little insect. Blaze handed her the power strip Lucky Charm and she threw it up into the air as it started to glow bright red and white. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
When the Lucky Charm reached its apex, it transformed into the usual swarms of magical ladybugs. They spread out throughout the city, repairing any damage caused by the Akuma and transporting those who were free from Puppeteer's control and no longer in their Akumatized forms, back to where they originally were. Finally, in a swarm of purple and black clouds, the now powerless Puppeteer was changed back into a confused Manon Chamack.
The four heroes then did their usual victory fist bump. "Pound it!" They exclaimed.
Then Cat Noir smiled flirtatiously at Ladybug. "Ladybug, FYI, you can pull my heartstrings any day!" He said to her with a playful little wink.
Ladybug just giggled. "I don't know which one of us here is the bigger kid: her or you." She glanced briefly over at Manon before looking back at her black kitty. Blaze and Artemis just laughed at the childish pout on Cat Noir when she said that.
Just then, Nadja Chamack burst into the lobby, overjoyed and relieved to see that her daughter was alright. "Manon!" She exclaimed, scooping the girl into her arms. "Thank you, Ladybug!" She said, looking at the leader of the team before looking at the entire team. "All of you."
The Heroes of Paris smiled kindly at the woman, right before Ladybug's earrings chirped out its second warning. They supposed that they didn't hear the first warning earlier.
"It's time that I bug out." Ladybug said before all four heroes left the studio and went their separate ways, Blaze and Artemis splitting up for a little bit before meeting back up.
After they detransformed in an alleyway that was near their street, Allen saw that Bianca was starting to shake again. "Hey, are you okay, Bea?" He asked her, holding her arms gently. He noticed that she had started to tremble earlier when she saw that Ladybug's Lucky Charm was a power cord strip.
Bianca began taking deep breaths to try and calm herself. "Yeah." She said after several long moments of deep, slow breathing. "It's just that… Ladybug's Lucky Charm almost caused another series of flashbacks."
"About that day?" Allen asked her carefully.
Bianca just nodded, swallowing audibly. "He had a belt, Allen." She whispered, almost sounding broken. "He was about to tie me up."
Allen held her close in a comforting hug. "It's okay. It's okay." He assured her. Fenixx and Claaw floated close to her and snuggled her neck to comfort her.
"It's in the past, and you didn't let that stop you from finishing the mission." Allen continued, getting his best friend to look up. "I'm proud of you for holding herself together like that."
Bianca just smiled before Allen reached for his phone. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"Well, I think we both know that the evening is a bust. I'm just letting Alya know what happened so that we can reschedule for next week. Plus, I think my best friend needs some junk food while watching some of her old favorite movies to cheer her up after her latest episode."
Bianca giggled as she hugged him. "Thanks, Allen." She said gratefully. "And you read my mind."
Allen just smirked at her playfully. "Hey, that's one superpower that I've always had, even before we became Blaze and Artemis."
His little joke made Bianca laugh, and they headed out of the alley, walking towards home and their Kwamis zipping back into their hiding places. Staying home and eating all the junk food they could while watching some movies from their childhood sounded really nice, actually.
PokemonFreak90: Another hint of Bianca's mysterious-but-painful past comes up. Do you think that we'll ever get the full story?
And despite being in love with Adrien, Marinette is actually starting to show some deeper feelings for Cat Noir, and vice versa! How much more complicated is this situation going to get?!
MDM: Well, if watching this show for almost five years has taught me anything, it's that they love to make things complicated. Watching it is rough, but writing it is actually kind of fun. Ironic, huh?
Well, I really hope that this chapter was worth the super long wait. Hope y'all enjoyed it! Please leave a review about what you think, and remember to stay healthy!
Got to fly! ;)
