The purple eyes of Marinette's partner bored into her own, horrible to look at. Horrible to imagine that Chat Noir was now under Hawkmoth's control. Marinette's blood felt icy and her fists clenched. Akumas were dangerous, especially when said akuma was actually a superhero when he wasn't being possessed by some crazy supervillain. And especially when that akuma knew your secret identity….
Marinette let out a sharp cry. Her identity! Chat knew about it, and Hawkmoth could read minds, and oh no. The bluenette began to back away as Chat Noir continued to stare at her with his terrible eyes, unblinking and unmoving. Marinette turned to run away but remembered something. She had fought Copycat, an akumatised victim who looked exactly like Chat Noir- right down to the ring. How could Marinette be sure that the creature behind her was not just a random civilian, who had taken on the appearance of her partner? There was no way to tell unless she actually had a conversation with the akuma.
Drawing in a lungful of air, Marinette slowly turned towards the akuma, making sure she was a few paces away, just in case he akuma decided to strike. Maybe it would be impossible to run in these heels, but Marinette would prefer to be out of range. "Excuse me?" Her voice was shaky, barely audible over the bubble of noise from the courtyard.
Slowly, the akuma turned its head towards her, without even twitching its eyelids. Marinette wanted to cry. This was something straight out of a horror movie, and it was real. Despite the mass of fear inside her, she tried again. "Are you Chat Noir?"
For a second, the akuma was motionless. Then it opened its mouth in a grin, revealing pearly white teeth, just like Chat's. However, the grin wasn't the same as the superhero's. It was somehow twisted, more evil, the look of a madman.
"Chat Noir is my name," it said, voice deep and rich. "And you are Marinette Dupain-Cheng." The awful grin grew wider. "Or should I say...Ladybug?"
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Well, at least Marinette knew why Adrien had been away today. She supposed being akumatized by Hawkmoth himself was a pretty good excuse for begging off school.
The girl backed away, almost tripped on her dress. Chat Noir simply watched her, smiling. Marinette turned and stumbled away, cursing her heels, her luck, her stupidity, anything that she could think of, really. She reached the school steps and cast a panicked look over her shoulder. Chat Noir was nowhere in sight. Rather than feeling relieved, Marinette's fear intensified. Now, he had the element of surprise. She was a sitting duck.
Unless she could make it back into the courtyard, and raise the alarm. Then she could slip out quietly and transform. Fighting her partner would be a lot easier once she'd gotten rid of her dress and shoes. It would also be a lot easier once she worked out exactly where the akuma was and what Chat's newfound powers were.
Marinette slowed down and glanced back, trying out possibilities in her mind. Invisibility? Superhuman speed? None of them were pleasant, but she needed to find the akuma's weakness, and fast. The young designer kept moving, her legs pushing through the heavy material of her skirt, clinging to her and generally being a nuisance.
Marinette had her palm on the cool wood of the door and was just relishing the feel of success when a blur of black leather dropped on top of her. Marinette screamed once as she fell, before a leather-clad hand clapped over her mouth, smearing her lipstick. Marinette hoped it would stain. Her back was pressed against hard cement as Chat Noir gripped her shoulder with his free hand and rolled, absorbing the impact of his jump. By the time they'd stopped, Chat Noir's face was inches from hers. It was a position they'd been in many times, usually after they'd knocked each other out of the path of a missile. Except that this time, Chat Noir was not blushing and smirking at her. He was staring intently at her, the hunger in his purple eyes disturbing.
Marinette struggled under his weight, trying to free her arms, which were trapped beneath her body. "Get- off- me!" she panted, as her attempts failed. She kicked her legs, trying to get him off, but he wasn't going anywhere. Desperate, Marinette opened her mouth to scream. Chat quickly smothered her cry before it left her mouth, smirking. Terror began to rise up in a wave inside Marinette, but she couldn't let the akuma sense her fear. Marinette tried to put on a brave face, her breath rattling in her chest. "What do you want?" she yelled up at her akumatized partner. However, he was still covering her mouth with his clawed hand, so it sounded slightly odd. Undeterred, the young girl glared up at her attacker, then opened her mouth once more and tried to bite him. Maybe it wouldn't be very effective, but she was grasping at straws here. Chat somehow anticipated her attempt and cupped his previously flat palm, so her teeth snapped over the air. Marinette winced and tried not to groan in pain as Chat shifted his weight. He was no longer kneeling over her, but completely sitting on the girl, his entire weight pressed onto her midriff. As much as it was bothering Marinette, her main concern was for Tikki. She hoped the little kwami hadn't been hurt by the fall or by Chat Noir.
Marinette tried to think. Chat Noir seemed perfectly content to stay exactly where he was, which wasn't doing her any favours. He was definitely akumatized, so that meant he had both powers and some kind of motivation. Mariette wasn't confident that she'd be able to talk him out of it, and besides, she couldn't exactly form intelligible words or not ones that anyone could hear. That left her with a handful of options. She could either lay there, getting crushed and waiting for help, or she could outsmart Chat Noir, or she could fight her way out. None of her chances seemed particularly good, but Marinette was going to have to take what she was given and try to work with it.
Okay. She could do this. Marinette inhaled deeply, then exhaled, remembering a self-defense class she'd taken years ago. The girl let herself go limp and stopped trying to fight Chat Noir. Then she waited, unmoving and silent. It took a few moments, but just as she'd expected, Chat loosened his hold on her, obviously assuming that she had given up. Marinette counted to five, then began to thrash and claw in an explosion by moving, taking Chat by surprise. He yelped, then tried to fight back, but Marinette was too quick. She managed to roll out from underneath him, groaning and rubbing her stomach, then lunging unsteadily to her feet. After a few shaky steps, Marinette kicked off her heels and ran barefoot, ignoring the harshness of the cement beneath her delicate skin. Three seconds into making her escape, Marinette realized that she was going the wrong way, and spun around to go back into the courtyard.
Chat Noir stood in front of the door, arms crossed and eyes gleaming with quiet satisfaction. She was trapped, and he knew it. There was no way she'd be able to fight him off a second time, not in this get-up. Marinette was already weak and sore. The superheroine bit her lip. She needed to make sure that Tikki was okay, then transform. She'd work out a proper plan later. For now, baby steps.
Marinette turned on her heel and fled, hoping with all her heart that her partner would not give chase. Thankfully, she didn't hear the thud of footsteps or the clash of his staff. She ducked into a side street, heart pounding, desperately gasping for air. Still out of breath, the bluenette reached into her purse and pulled Tikki out, checking her all over. Fortunately, the little kwami was okay, if slightly bruised. Tikki assured Marinette that she would be fine, and gave Marinette the all-clear to transform.
As a rosy glow swirled around the girl, illuminating the dark street, Marinette hoped Chat Noir wouldn't see the light. She needed to know where he was, but he didn't need to know where she was. Although, the akuma could be halfway across the city by now. As much as Marinette adored living in Paris, the sheer size of it could make her job as Ladybug quite difficult.
Her polka-dotted yo-yo materialized from thin air, and Ladybug felt its weight around her hips, its familiarity comforting. The superheroine pulled it from around her waist and spun it around, thinking. Chat could be still at the school- maybe. It was pretty unlikely, but Ladybug was willing to give it a shot. Fighting this akuma would be almost impossible unless she knew what its motivation was. Not to mention the fact that she would be fighting this villain on her own, with no trusty partner to speak of. A lump formed in Ladybug's throat. Sure, she'd fought on her own before, when Chat had been late or was controlled by the akuma. But even then she'd had a sense of security, knowing that eventually, Chat would rejoin her. They'd never failed to defeat an akuma yet.
So why was this one different? Ladybug knew that the reason for her discomfort was probably due to the identity of this akuma. Fighting her partner was never a good experience, and now that Hawkmoth had access to everything, including her and Chat's true identities….well, it didn't exactly level the playing field. Ladybug pushed her shoulders back and tried to arrange her expression into one of bravery. It was just one little akuma. Nothing she hadn't done before. Everything would be fine.
As the red-suited hero swung off towards the school, she wondered if she could somehow force herself to believe that little lie.
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Gabriel Agreste had been Hawkmoth for quite a while now. He'd also akumatized many innocent civilians and generally made things difficult for Ladybug and Chat Noir. After he'd first sent out that akuma, he had realized that he had just infiltrated the mind of one of Paris' beloved superheroes, the famous Chat Noir. Hawkmoth had rubbed his gloved fingers together in glee, sure that he was about to gain access to some very juicy information, and once more make life difficult for poor Ladybug and Chat Noir.
How very wrong he was.
Contrary to what he had originally thought, Ladybug and Chat Noir were actually making life difficult for him. Chat Noir's mind, which was chock-full of excellent information, wasn't wielding any secrets. Zilch. Nada. Absolutely nothing. It was like a wall had been put up in the boy's brain, guarding any bit of information that Hawkmoth wanted to know. Instead, he was stuck with the useless bits of memory, like the exact price of the boy's most recent order of camembert. Honestly, who cared? And to make things even more difficult, he couldn't always tell what the boy was saying. Usually, he could hear what his victims said, like talking on a phone. But with this akuma, the connection kept dropping out.
However, the wall was a brittle one. With careful precision, Hawkmoth could break through. He supposed the thing blocking him was some sort of defense put up by Chat Noir's miraculous - impossible for a normal civilian to get through, but entirely manageable for a fellow miraculous holder. Then, Hawkmoth could access all the information he could possibly want.
But for now, he'd set his victim on Ladybug. Just for fun, Hawkmoth had decided to leave everything as it was when it came to the boy's abilities. Akumas often struggled to come to terms with their new powers and stuffed up in a spectacular fashion. But Chat Noir had months, if not years of experience with his powers. And his motivation was quite simple. The poor boy just wanted his partner to love him and stay with him. Coaxing him into relinquishing his powers had been relatively easy. All Hawkmoth had to do was assure him that if he got Ladybug's miraculous, she would love him forever and always. Honeyed words poured into the ears of a boy who desperately needed to hear them. Simple, yet effective.
He had always been rather good at persuading people.
Back again with another chapter. Hope you enjoy it! I'll be more active as school holidays are coming up. See you next time.