A/N - Hey guys, welcome back to the story! Thanks for sticking around for chapter two! I really hope you enjoy it!
"Lights out in five!" Miss Bustier called out as Chloe and Nino peered around the corner. "Everyone back to their dorms, now!" Chloe breathed a sigh of relief as Miss Bustier began walking in the opposite direction.
"We shouldn't be doing this." Nino whispered nervously from behind her. Chloe rolled her eyes.
"Come on, you heard Miss Bustier's comments earlier. As much as I despise you idiots sometimes, she's right; we do need to bond as a team." She told him. "So we're going to grab Alya, hit the town, loosen up, maybe meet some cute boys-"
"Don't you mean girls, for me?" He interrupted her.
"I don't make assumptions, darling."
The lights went out, and Nino gulped.
"Okay, I'm… I'm just gonna say this here, right now, for the record: this is a bad idea." He said quietly as they began moving through the halls.
"You know, for someone in a space exploration program, you don't have much of a sense of adventure." She scoffed, flipping her blond ponytail over her shoulder. "I doubt Alya would be very impressed with that attitude."
She smiled as Nino stiffened. She didn't know why, but that always hit a nerve with him.
"Fine," he muttered, angry that Chloe knew exactly how to play him. "Let's keep going."
They ducked around a corner as a teacher strolled past.
"L-5 North all clear." The teacher said into his walkie-talkie.
They were about to continue on when a door opened. Chloe grabbed Nino and yanked him back into their hiding spot.
Peeking around the corner, her eyes widened when she realized it was Alya. She glanced at Nino, who looked equally shocked. They watched as Alya took off down the hall.
"Now just where do you suppose she is going?" Chloe mused.
Alya sat outside on the roof, trying to ignore the cold chill creeping up her spine as she carefully watched her equipment. Suddenly, she felt her headphones being lifted.
"You come up here to rock out?" Came an amused voice come from behind her.
She inhaled sharply and spun around to find Chloe and Nino gazing down at her.
"Oh! Chloe, Nino, uh… no. I'm just… looking at, you know, stars." She cast her eyes towards the ground. She could feel the weight Chloe's disbelieving stare.
"Uh huh, sure. Then what's all this equipment, hmm? It doesn't look like Garrison tech." Chloe asked skeptically.
"I built it." Alya replied proudly, momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to be distracting them from her equipment.
"You built this?" Nino asked, surprised. He reached for her computer and she slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch that! And yes. With this thing, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system." Chloe raised an eyebrow.
"Is that right? All the way to Kerberos, perhaps?" She watched as Alya's shoulders slumped. "Come on, you go absolutely ballistic every time the instructors mention it. So, what's your deal?"
It was true. Every time their teachers mentioned the failed Kerberos mission, Alya would have an angry outburst, leaving Nino and Chloe frightened and confused.
Alya glared at Nino as he began to fiddle with her miniature satellite.
"Nino, this your second warning. Knock it off." Nino backed off sheepishly.
"Look, nerd, if we're going to bond as a team, we can't have any secrets, got it?" Chloe demanded. Alya sighed, before relenting.
"Okay, fine. The world as you know it is about to change. The Kerberos mission wasn't lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake… Nino, I swear - " Alya started angrily, but Chloe interrupted her.
"Alya, focus. Nino, stop touching the girl's equipment." She ordered, snapping her fingers in front of the girl's face. Nino scowled at her. "Now please, continue."
"So, I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter." Nino gasped and Chloe's eyes widened with surprise.
"Whoa. What? Aliens? Dude, are you serious?" He asked, startled.
"Okay, so you're insane. That explains a lot." Chloe said with a laugh. Alya frowned.
"I'm serious," She insisted. "They keep repeating one word, "Miraculous." And tonight, it's going crazier than ever." Chloe snorted.
"Oh yeah? How crazy?"
Before Alya could answer, alarms began to blare all around them, and the loudspeaker crackled to life.
"Attention students," Came a voice. "This is not a drill. We are on lockdown. Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice."
Nino's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"What's going…" He trailed off as his eyes were drawn to an object in the sky. "Is that a meteor? A very, very big meteor?" Alya's head snapped up, and she gasped as she saw where he was pointing.
Hurtling towards the Earth from above was a large object, encased in flames. Alya snatched up her binoculars and immediately focused on the object. She inhaled sharply as her suspicions were confirmed .
"It's a ship." Chloe yanked the binoculars away from Alya, determined to get a look at it too. Her eyes widened.
"Sweet holy manicures!" She exclaimed, and Alya shot her a judgemental look. "I can't believe what I'm seeing! That's… that's not one of our ships!"
"No," Alya replied quietly. "It's one of theirs."
"So wait," Nino finally said, still struggling to process what was happening. "There really are aliens out there?"
Alya and Chloe didn't bother to respond. They looked on silently as the ship crashed into the ground. Alya was the first to snap out of the trance.
"We've got to see that ship!" She declared, sprinting away, Chloe close on her heels.
"Come on, loser!" Chloe called to Nino, who just sighed and reluctantly began to follow.
Worst team-building exercise ever, he thought.
Chloe crouched on the edge of a cliff, peering through Alya's binoculars at the scene before her. The Garrison had gotten to the ship first, and had already set up a quarantine zone, with a large dome concealing the crash site from view.
"Ugh," Chloe groaned in frustration. "Now just what the heck is that thing?" Her eyes drifted to a rather attractive young soldier emerging from the dome. "And who the heck is he?"
"Chloe!" Alya exclaimed, slapping her teammate's arm. That snapped her out of her trance.
"Right, alien ship." She muttered. "But how on Earth are we supposed to get past all of those guards? I can't possibly flirt with all of them at once! We'll never get a look at that ship!"
"Aw, man," Nino sighed, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Well, I guess there's nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right?"
"Wait!" Alya called out, furiously typing on her computer. "They installed a video camera in the dome, if I can just… there! I grabbed its feed. Let's take a look!"
Marinette struggled to open her eyes. She felt dizzy and nauseous.
Where was she?
When her vision cleared, she found two people in white hazmat suits peering down at her. When she tried to move, she realized she was strapped to a table.
Marinette began to panic as they moved closer. But wait a minute… these were humans. Did that mean she made it back to Earth? All of a sudden, bits and pieces of memories came rushing back.
"Hey," She called out, voice cracking. "What are you doing?"
"Calm down, Marinette," Said the person on her right. It sounded like… Miss Bustier? "We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests." Marinette's eyes widened.
"You have to listen to me!" She cried, struggling against her restraints. "They destroy worlds! Aliens are coming!"
Chloe gasped.
"That's… that's Marinette! The pilot of the Kerberos mission!" Her eyes narrowed. "Oh, that girl was my worst enemy when we were in school together. But still, it was terrible when she disappeared. I had no one to exchange insults with!"
"I guess she's not dead in space after all." Nino remarked. Neither noticed Alya, who looked on with an awestruck expression.
"Marinette…" She whispered to herself. Could it really be that her best friend was back from the dead. "But where's the rest of the crew?"
"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Miss Bustier asked her calmly. Marinette groaned in frustration.
"I don't know. Months? Years? Look, there's no time! Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They're probably on their way right now. They'll destroy us! We have to find the Miraculous!" She yelled. Why wouldn't they listen to her? The world was at stake, and they had strapped her to a table. She knew how it sounded, but shouldn't they at least give her a chance to explain?
"Marinette, you're delirious." Miss Bustier told her in a soothing voice. "I'm afraid we're going to have to put you under until we figure out what has happened."
"No!" Marinette cried out. She began thrashing in her restraints. "No no no! You can't put me under! There's no time! Let me go! Let me-" She felt a needle sink into her arm, and suddenly it was a struggle to keep her eyes open. Before she knew what was happening, she was drifting off to sleep.
"They didn't even ask about the rest of the crew!" Alya muttered, her eyes locked on the screen.
"What do they think they're doing?" Chloe demanded. "I may not be fond of her, but that girl is a legend! They're not even going to listen to her?"
"We have to get her out." Alya declared. Nino had been focused on the scene before him, but now his attention snapped back to his clearly insane teammates.
"Uh, I hate to be the voice of reason, always, but weren't we watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?" He pointed out.
"Darling, that was before we were properly motivated." Chloe explained. "We just have to think. And I know that's a challenge for you two, but do at least give it a shot. Could we tunnel in?"
"Maybe we could get some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs." Alya suggested. Nino stared at them in disbelief. They were really thinking about doing this?
"Or we could dress up as cooks, head back to the dorms, and sneak into the kitchen for a late night snack," He told them. Chloe just glared at him.
"...No. What we need is a distraction."
Boom.
They all jumped as they heard the sound of explosions. Looking beyond the dome, they noticed the fiery remnants of the bombs. Immediately, a swarm of guards rushed to their vehicles and headed towards the site of the explosion.
"Is… is that the aliens?" Nino stammered, heart racing. "Are they here? They got here so quick!"
"No, those explosions were a distraction… for him." Alya said, pointing at the dome. They watched as a small aircraft drifted in for a landing and a figure hopped out. Chloe zoomed in with the binoculars and her eyes widened.
"No way!" She sqeauled. "Oh, we have to get down there, now!" She took off down the hill and towards the dome.
"Who is it?" Nino called after her.
"It's Adrien!"
A/N - Hey, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry to leave it on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I really want to keep these chapters from getting too long. If every episode had its own chapter, it could be the length of an entire book! So I apologize if the spacing is weird, but that's the way I've decided to do it.
Anyway, please leave a review with your thoughts and suggestions, and thanks again for reading!
~ Elizabeth (FanOfDeliciousFlavor)
