Chapter 5: A World of Secrets
3 Days ago:
It was try outs for the Spring Talent Show. People were in line to earn a spot on the show, doing all kinds of acts be it Singing, Dancing, re-enacting a scene from a movie, or simply juggling. Unfortunately not everybody gets a spot and that makes the perfect hunting grounds for an Akuma.
"Hmm So many options." Hawkmoth said to himself as his Akuma flew around the students.
"I know." Hawkmoth said as he stopped on a young boy with nobody to cry on.
His name was Chanson Delice. He had just tried out for a musical number but sadly did not get the part. He wanted to sing something from his childhood, something his mother would sing to him. But he choked out of fear and left the stage. That's when the Akuma took it' prey.
"Music Myster I grant you the power to project your voice without fear, and those you sing to will listen. I only ask that you bring me the two Miraculous that belong to Ladybug and Chat Noir. What do you say?" Hawkmoth offered.
"I accept." He said.
"Good, but before we begin you will need to lay low until I take care of something else, understand?" Hawkmoth asked.
"I will wait till the time is right Lord Hawkmoth." Music Myster stated before walking into the dark.
Today:
It had been a peaceful morning. The sun slowly rising, the birds chirping, and the smell of freshly baked bread in the air. Marinette smiled as she slowly rose from her bed to stretch and yawn. Just the smell of bread alone told her today was going to be a good day. Tikki hovered her way on to Her shoulder as Marinette opened the window to let in the fresh morning air.
"So what's the plan for today Marinette?" Tikki asked as Marinette handed her a cookie.
"To be honest Tikki, I think today is a day we can all relax." Marinette said as she pulled up her Phone.
She actually had quite a few messages, most from Alya, maybe a few from Nino, a couple from Anton, and one from someone named Claire. Confused she opened the message and read "OMW".
"What' mean?" Tikki asked as a smile grew ten times on Marinette's face.
"MOM DAD CLAIRE'S COMING TO VISIT!" Marinette yelled as she quickly ran down the stairs.
"That's great honey, who know maybe she'll bring that boyfriend of her's what was his name again?" Sabine asked as she batted the dough on the counter.
"I think it was Jim sweety, Though I have to say I'm surprised her parents are even letting her leave the house on this spring break." Tom added as he pulled bread in and out from the ovens.
"What do you mean?" Marinette asked as she rested her arms on the counter before helping her mother.
"Well recently she had been getting into trouble, be it detention, skipping school, missing assignments, come to think of it she reminds me of a certan cousin she has." Tom suggested as he looked at Marinette with a smile.
"Hey I've been getting better at that!" Marinette retorted as her parents shared a laugh.
The day may have been young but for Anton it felt like days since he'd been up working. He didn't get much sleep last night due to working on his suit and checking on Lilith. His worry began to dwell on him as he slowly worked on the suit. He was so lost in thought he hardly noticed Max and Kim enter the warehouse.
"You okay down there?" Max asked.
"GAH!" Anton yelled as he hit his head on his hanging suit.
"Geez man, are always that easy to scare?" Kim asked as he crossed his arms.
"How long have you been standing there?" Anton asked as he slowly stood up.
"Long enough to watch you recalibrate the entire suit." Max stated as he helped Anton up.
"What time is it?" Anton asked as he rubbed his forehead.
"It's half past ten in the morning, we've been standing here for at least two hours." Kim answered as they moved to the bar.
"What day is it?" Anton asked as he reached into his fridge and pulled out three drinks.
"It's Saturday, man how late were you up last night?" Max asked as Anton opened and passed around the drinks.
"Umm I don't know." Anton said just before his head started to spin.
It wasn't a normal Headache, if it was normal his golden eyes wouldn't have been glowing. Max and Kim began to freak out as Anton hit the floor screaming in pain. Not knowing what to do they just carried him up to his room where they found Lilith on his bed so they set him down on his desk chair where he pointed to a small container on the corner of his desk. Max quickly grabbed it and opened it to a bunch of white pills. He looked at Anton who held up two fingers shaking in pain. Anton turned to Kim and motioned his hand as if he were drinking something as best as he could. Kim quickly ran down the stairs and came back with his brown bottle. Anton took both the pill and plopped them in his mouth before taking the bottle and chugging all the liquid in one go. Thankfully it didn't take long for the effects of the pills to take place and soon enough he was calm and breathing and the glow in his eyes died down.
"What was that?" Max asked.
"And who is she?" Kim asked as he pointed to Lilith.
"I … Something is coming, something dark, it's dormant but … we have to be careful until it either wakes up here or it leaves us in peace." Anton warned.
Little did he know it was already almost here. Far off there is a train on its way to Paris with at least sixteen cars of cargo and three cars of passengers. On the back passenger car in the fifth row on the left side there were three teenagers and one of those teenagers was Claire. She sat back with a portfolio in her hands. Her dark hair had a blue streak going down above her face as the rest of it was held together by pins in a sort of 90s style. She wore a dark blue jacket over a pink shirt with a skull. On the other side of the table sat two other teenagers, both boys. The one on her left was tall and skinny with dark hair and blue eyes and wore a blue jacket, his name was Jim. The one on her right was short and round with brown hair nicely brushed and wore a red sleeveless sweater over a yellow stripped shirt, his name was Toby.
"Claire are you sure this is a good idea, I mean your parents won't exactly be happy with us just leaving like that." Jim stated.
"Oh come on man, live a little we're going to PARIS!" Toby exclaimed as he threw his arms in the air like he just didn't care.
"Don't worry Jim, besides we needed this break, Everyone back in Arcadia will be fine without us for a week and didn't Steve and Eli say they had things covered while we were gone?" Claire asked before setting the portfolio down.
"I guess you're right, I just … I don't know." Jim stated before he turned to the window.
"Jim, I know you're worried about your mother, I'm sure Mr. Strickler watching over her isn't helping at all either, but we'll be back in time for her birthday I promise." Claire said as she placed her hand on his.
He turned to her and looked her deep into her dark brown eyes. It was clear they were both worried about something, but they just smiled at each other as the sun rose in front of them. Toby smiled as he didn't waste this chance and took a picture without them noticing until the flash went off.
"TOBY!" They both yelled before laughing together with Toby.
"Sorry guys couldn't resist." Toby admitted.
It was now twelve, noon, when Anton made his way to the Dupen-Chang's Bakery to start his day off. Worry was all over his face and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't hide it. He just hoped something would happen as soon as he opened the door to put a smile on his face. Little did he know his prayer would be answered. When he opened the door Marinette jumped on him and held him in a tight embrace screaming something about her Cousin or something coming over.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa slow down there what's going on?" Anton asked in confusion.
"My Cousin Claire is coming over from America she's going to be here all Spring Break!" Marinette shouted in glee as she let go of him.
"Really wow, what Part of America I might know it?" Anton jokingly asked before Marinette playfully punched his arm.
"She's from Arcadia, a town in northern California." Marinette mentioned.
"MARINETTE!" they heard someone yell.
"Oh She's here!" Marinette said as she turned and ran towards the yelling.
"CLAIRE!" Marinette yelled as she jumped and tackled Claire to the ground.
Anton turned to get a good look at who this Claire was, but something was off, something was wrong. When he looked at Claire they was nothing but darkness, a pure black void and it scared him. But just as he was about to pull his blade on her he saw something else, light, pure untainted light coming off of Jim who was behind her. He closed his eyes and sighed in relief as he put down his blade. He slowly walked up to them but felt strange as he got closer, it was the same feeling he had gotten earlier when he sensed something was coming. Which scared him even more as he caught up to the group.
"Oh my gosh, Claire I have so much to tell you, a lot has happened since your last visit I mean I could practically write a book about it." Marinette went on as the two got off the ground.
"Me too Marinette, but unfortunately we only have a week here , but I promise to tell you all I can, so whose you're friend here?" Claire asked as she looked at Anton.
"Oh he's … complicated." Anton just rolled his eyes as he held out his hand to shake hers.
"Oooh is he your boyfriend?" Claire asked devilishly as she shook hands with Anton.
"Claire, not in a million years." Marinette stated sternly.
"My name is Arthrin, Arthrin Davis, Marinette's janitor for the bakery." Anton said. Marinette looked at him in worry at the use of his fake name, but Anton gave her no reassurance.
"My name is Claire, Claire Nunez nice to meet you." Claire said as they let go and turned to Jim and Toby.
"And who are these people?" Anton asked pointing at the boys.
"Oh the tall one is my Boyfriend Jim Lake Jr. and the short one is our friend Toby Domsalzki." Claire explained.
"A pleasure to meet you." Anton said as he reached out his hand to shake theirs.
As they entered the Bakery, Adrien watched from above with Plagg at his side.
"I don't know why he called us to be look outs, it's just her cousin and friends visiting from America." Plagg stated as he nonmed on a wheel of Camembert .
"Well Anton sent out a distress code 34, and we were lucky enough to be in the area when we got it." Adrien said as Plagg floated over to him.
"Oh come on a recon mission is hardly worth a few …" Plagg stopped himself when he looked down at the group and saw what Anton saw.
"Plagg what is it?" Adrien asked.
"Kid we may have a problem, the girl is giving off waves of negative energy." Plagg mentioned.
"What do you mean?" Adrien asked.
"She's practically swimming in it, Hawkmoth will definitely see this but if it gets any higher." Plagg mentioned as he turned to Adrien.
"Then another portal will open into Anton's world." Adrien pieced together.
"Assuming a few small ones haven't already opened, Hawkmoth is bad enough, if anymore portals open then it's doom for us all." Plagg explained.
"We gotta get down there and help." Adrien stated as he ran for the stairs.
"Kid Code 34 clearly states Recon only until given either Code 33 or 35." Plagg stated as he floated to stop Adrien.
"But Code 36 allows us to break 34 if there's immediate danger." Adrien countered.
Plagg wanted to counter back but sadly was not finding any middle ground so he just crossed his arms in disappointment.
"So Arthrin, huh, um what do you do here?" Toby asked as they all sat around the dinner table.
"I wash and clean and maintain the Bakery when Marinette's parents cannot." Anton explained before taking a sip from his tea.
Just as Jim was about to ask a question he heard whispering coming from his back pocket. He looked down to find his amulet glowing and the whispers getting louder.
"Is that you're Ringtone?" Anton asked as he looked at Jim.
"Oh um yeah it's Probably my mom, I should take this." Jim said before running off.
"I'll make sure he doesn't get lost." Anton said before walking after him.
Jim made sure to find a secluded alley not too far away before pulling out his Amulet and listened closer to the whispers.
"Doesn't belong."
"From far, far away."
"Not Human."
"BEHIND YOU!"
Jim quickly turned around to see a green coated man behind him. His face was hidden by the green hood over his head and what little face he could see was covered in a metal mask with red glowing eyes.
"For the Glory of Merlin, Daylight is Mine to Command!" Jim shouted before he was engulfed in a blue light and came out with a suit of shiny plate armor with a sword that looked too big for him.
"Impressive." Anton's robotic voice said to him before slowly revealing a shiny rod with a green tip in his right hand.
"Let's see what you've got." Anton stated as he clicked a button and a green beam of light came out of the rod.
"Is that a Lightsaber?" Jim asked before Anton took the first strike aiming for his head.
Jim quickly blocked the attacked faster than Anton had anticipated. Clearly the boy's reflexes were constantly worked on otherwise the block would've been slower. Not wasting a second chance Anton quickly flipped over Jim and swung for his legs only to be countered when Jim swung his sword down then went in for an uppercut. It was in this moment Anton decided to really test the boy as his eyes began to glow from under his mask. Time for him began to slow and he quickly moved around Jim and began to attack from all sides. To Jim he was moving way to fast but still he tried to block as many blows as he could. Then, on instinct, Jim swung his sword low behind him and tripped Anton into the garbage.
"Who are you, what do you want?" Jim demanded as he pointed his sword to Anton.
"Very impressive, whatever you are, you are certainly powerful, normally my Phaseblade melts every kind of metal." Anton said as he stood up and removed his mask and hood.
"Arhtrin, what are you-"
"Let me stop you right there, first off my real name is Anton Sonreef, second as your amulet told you I'm not from this world and nor am I human, third and final I was just testing you, I saw your light and I wanted to see what it was made of. Any Questions?" Anton asked as he put away his Phaseblade.
"Umm, not yet?" Jim wearily stated as his armor came off in a flash of light.
"Good cause I have questions for you, do you realize what you brought here in Paris, someone with that much negativity stored away is not only the perfect Target for Hawkmoth, but is also the perfect Vessel for one of the Nega-Portals!" Anton stated all at once. Jim looked at Anton confused.
"Okay now I have questions, what are you talking about?" Jim asked before Chat Noir landed between the two.
"Yo Anton this guy giving you trouble?" Chat asked.
"No, we were just talking." Anton said.
"Good cause we have both a Portal sighting and Akuma sighting in the same area." Chat mentioned.
"Wait who is he?" Jim asked.
"Is it the Bakery?" Anton asked in concern, ignoring Jim.
"Surprisingly not, they're at the Museum." Chat stated.
"Ah Damnit, Go to the museum and call Ladybug, I'll meet you there." Anton said before turning back to Jim.
"Do you work alone?" He asked.
"No I work with my friends." Jim said sternly.
"Good, go gather them, we'll need all the help we can get." Anton stated before putting his mask and hood on and ran after Chat Noir.
Surprisingly Chat Noir wasn't wrong. There was a dapper boy in a purple suit and top hat with a purple butterfly mask standing in front of a very large Portal. People everywhere were evacuating and screaming as Grimm spewed from the portal. Anton ran next to Chat Noir and watched as the Grimm began line up behind the Dapper Boy.
"Ah Anton Sonreef, just the man I was looking for, Hawkmoth has requested a parley." He said as he twirled his cane and walked up to the two.
"Yeah right when has Hawkmoth ever just wanted to talk?" Chat Noir commented as he stretched his arms behind his head.
"I will listen to what he has to say, but only if he promises to let me close this portal when we're done here." Anton offered.
The boy stopped for a second to let Hawkmoth speak. When he was done the boy walked forward and stopped in front of them.
"He agrees to your terms." He said before resting on his cane.
"I can hear him so don't bother being a transmitter … what do we call you Dapper Boy?" Anton asked, slowly reaching for his phaseblade under his coat.
"You may call him Music Myster, you're new nemisis, since you did away with TNT so easily." Hawkmoth said.
"Music Myster, so what you sing and everyone falls under your command, yeah we dealt with that last week do we really need to do this again?" Anton questioned as Music Myster just laughed. Chat just looked at them confused.
"He is that and so much more, a demonstration will be shown later but for now we have a pressing matter at hand." Hawkmoth stated.
"I can see that, you're using The Grimm from my world to build an army, which is easy enough so long as you feed them the negativity they need, but you haven't used them yet so either you don't have enough negativity to feed all of them, or you want to avoid a war. My guess is War." Anton explained.
"Correct, thanks to that walk down your memory lane I now have the knowledge I need about your world and more, we do not need to fight Anton, join me and I can free your friend, my war is with Ladybug and Chat Noir, not you." Hawkmoth offered.
"What's he saying?" Chat intervened.
"Don't intervene Cat!" Music Myster demanded pointing his cane at him.
"Chat stand down, Hawkmoth you want a war between them that's fine, but your mistake was bringing Lilith into the mix, so no I will not join you and if you really paid attention when going through my mind you should know that it's a very small world when I'm angry with you, NOW!" Anton called out before ducking as Ladybug's Yo-Yo came flying in, knocking Music Myster in the head.
"Strike Team 2, keep the Grimm from escaping the area, if they're not near when the Portal closes they'll be stuck here reeking havoc in the city." Anton stated over the comms.
"Who's Strike Team 2?" Ladybug asked as she kicked a Badoon away.
"For the glory of Merlin Daylight is mine to Command!" Jim yelled as his armor and sword appeared.
"Coming Through!" Toby yelled as he pulled out a flaming Warhammer from his backpack.
"Everyone get to Safety!" Claire yelled as she opened a portal of her own using a dark crystal staff evacuating all the remaining citizens.
"CLAIRE!" Ladybug exclaimed, not believing what she was seeing.
Neither could Anton when he looked at her staff. It was pure dark energy, he had only seen something like this once before and it scared him to death … literally. He wanted to stop her, to keep her from descending into darkness, but when he looked at her soul it was sad to see she had already dropped to darkness. He was refocused into the current situation when Chat Noir swatted away a Beo Wolf right in front of him.
"Anton Focus!" Chat stated before jumping away to fight other Grimm.
Quickly he turned around to the portal, it was bigger than most of the ones he's seen already. He thought this would be easy but when he pulled out his phaseblade to reverse the polarity something went wrong. No matter what frequency he tried it just would close. Every attempt had the same result. ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! It was like something else was blocking the connection or interrupting his resonance. Then it dawned on him, why this portal was so big and unable to be closed. The Negative Energy coming off of Claire was empowering the portal and feeding The Grimm.
He knew he had no choice, and both Jim and Chat could see the conflict in him as they fought off as many Grimm as they could. Anton turned to Claire hesitantly as if he was about to do something he was going to regret. Jim watched as Anton ran towards Claire when the last of the Citizens were evacuated. Confused he ran after him slicing at every Grimm crossing his path. But before either of them could reach her Music Myster intervened.
"Ah, ah, ah You haven't even seen the big finale yet." Music Myster stated as he clashed his cane against Anton's Phaseblade.
"I thought we had a deal?" Anton questioned as they began pushing against each other.
"Funny how deals work in war Anton, you should know this more than anyone. Hawkmoth's Army will soon be complete, you really think he can only control one of us at a time, he has agents everywhere waiting to strike." Music Myster said before Anton broke off the clash.
With every move Anton used Music Myster just blocked going on the defensive. A swing to the head, blocked, a swing to his legs, blocked, anywhere Anton swung it was blocked.
"How about a song to lift your spirits?" Music Myster asked as he blocked an attack to his side.
"What?" Anton asked before Music Myster backflipped away.
"When everything you know has come and gone, you're at you lowest I am rising Higher!"
As Music Myster sang the area around him began to feel lighter. At first they all thought nothing of it, but when they went to continue moving they saw just how lifting his song was. They were currently floating in air as if the gravity just vanished. Using this to his advantage Music Myster flew straight to Anton and pinned him to the ground.
"When there's no one left to carry on, This is an illusion open up your eyes and this pain persists I can't resist BUT THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES TO BE INFINITE!" Then Anton got an Idea as he kicked him off the ground and joined him in song.
"So look around you and tell me what you really see?" Then he jumped after him and pinned Music Myster against a wall to a nearby building.
"I never end and that's the difference in you and me, Cause when your time is up and everything is falling down." Music Myster sang before clashing weapons with him.
"It's only me and you, who is gonna save you now!?" They both finished as they ended right where they started.
"I'll admit, I didn't expect that to happen." Music Myster said before Hawkmoth's Mask appeared.
"You've played enough, retreat back to base it's here!" Hawkmoth stated.
"Right on my way, we'll have to finish our little duet later Anton, Ciao!" Music Myster stated before flying off.
Jim wanted to confront Anton after that experience but found himself to slow as Anton quickly ran towards Claire again.
"Anton, Jim explained everything on the way is everything okay?" Claire asked as the portal behind her closed.
"I'm sorry." Anton said coldly, confusing her.
"What do you-" He was quick to knock her out with the butt end of his phaseblade.
Without a moment's notice he quickly turned and tried every frequency all at once to close the other portal behind him. WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! Just as he was about to closed the portal a roar could be heard from deep inside the portal.
"What was that?" Toby asked after he splattered a spider Grimm.
"I don't know?" Ladybug admitted as the team began to line up.
"GET BACK!" Anton yelled as he maximized the resonance of his phaseblade.
The portal closed, but not until after what looked like a Dragon came flying straight out and up. It flew around for a bit before landing right in front of the group giving off a mighty roar.
"EVERYBODY RUN!" Anton yelled before picking up Claire bridal style and running off towards his warehouse.
"Yeah I'm with him!" Toby stated before running after them.
Everyone else joined in the run as The Dragon flew straight up into the air and gave chase. Anton quickly turned into an alley way with everyone behind him. It was a dead end, and everything seemed to be lost when the Dragon found its way into the alley with them.
"Oh no, what do we do?!" Toby freaked out.
"This, Chat, Jim!" Anton ordered as he handed Chat, Claire before stabbing his phaseblade into the ground.
"Got it!" Jim yelled as he stabbed his sword into the ground.
Both of them ran in a circle creating a hole in the ground around the team, allowing them to escape into the sewers and away from the Dragon as it attempted to snap at them.
"Alright, come on everyone my base isn't that far from here." Anton ordered as he began to lead the way.
"Wait hold up!" Ladybug ordered as she ran in front of him.
"This is not the time Lady-" Anton started to retort but was interrupted.
"You mister have a lot to answer for, for one you never mentioned anything about Dragons from your world and two." She stopped before punching him square in the face sending him into the water.
"That's for hitting our teammate." Ladybug stated as Anton came out of the water.
"I will answer your questions later right now we have to deal with the matter at hand, The Dragon." Anton said before traversing into the sewers.
"Hey wait, I want to know why you did it, why did you hit Claire?" Jim questioned before pointing his sword at him.
"Oh will you shut up and stop being so naïve, tell me has she been having nightmares lately, been acting a little weird, maybe pushing herself a little too hard?" Anton questioned as he turned to Jim.
"What … how did you know?" Jim asked.
"What's he talking about?" Chat Noir asked.
"Your friend here has been infected by Darkness, it's already in her Aura and if we don't get it out of her soon, that Dragon will come hunting for her and feed itself from her Darkness, making itself stronger, strong enough to make its own Grimm from its skin and destroy the world." Anton explained before turning away from the group and walking away.