At first the journey was thrilling. Their adventurous spirit heightened by their experience encountering unique fish and creatures. They made a game of it racing each other, or doing under water acrobatics.
That was when they descended bellow the twighlight zone. The pitch black was pierced by the dim light of the shells the whale had provided them. The crushing pressure of the water so deep was held at bay by their miraculous aqua suits.
But they weren't the only ones in the depths. A bulb in the distance bobbed up and down. It was a hypnotic and the cheerful tiny light that seemed to draw them closer.
Then they heard a cheerful little song coming from the little bouncing light. The happy lighthearted voice hummed, "Sweet little fish. Do not fear. Follow the light. Can you hear? What is your hurry? What is your rush? Linger near to gain all you've ever wished." They listened to the silly song, and found after the third time they were surprisingly closer to the light than they started.
The song suddenly came to an uprupt stop, and a soft voice called out to them, "What strange creatures you are! You certainly have wandered far from shore!"
"You speak?!" Ladybug said in surprise. "Are you a wild kwami?"
"I was called that once, but I chose a new name for myself. You can call me Angler."
"You must know about the miraculous' if you were once with the kwami," Chat Noir assumed.
"Ahh...the miraculous'...those silly little trinkets! I remember now. My that was so many cycles ago...then that must make you Tiki and Plagg's new pets!" the creature shadowed in the darkness hummed.
"We work with Tiki and Plagg," Ladybug corrected. "We were sent to explore the depths by the Blue Whale kwami."
"Mmm...I will have to thank her for sending you across my path," the creature moved closer. "I thought she had forgotten me!"
Then "Angler," started singing his song again, and the light bobbed side to side. Ladybug's eyes started to droop, and her mind started to cloud. Chat Noir's shoulders felt heavy, and he felt himself slowly sink further down.
"We should really get going," Ladybug murmured sleepily. "We've got to get back home..."
"Home?" but you are home sweet little fish!"Angler cooed.
"No...back to the surface...back to the light..." Ladybug struggled to put her words together.
"You are in my light. It is the only light that ever was. Come closer and see..." Angler soothed.
"No...not your light...the light in the sky...the sun...we've got to get back to the surface soon!" Chat Noir fought through the building fog that was clouding is mind.
"The sun? What is sun?" Is it something you've dreamed about?" Angler asked innocently.
"No no...not a dream...it is a ball of fire that hangs in the sky," insisted Ladybug, giving herself a shake.
"Fancy that! What an imagination you have! And you say it just dangles out above you like my light? This little light...look how pretty it is...you must have been thinking of my light."
"Yes.."Ladybug sighed..."I guess that must have been it...but I'm not a fish...I'm Ladybug..." she squinted at her spotted arms that were becoming blurry.
"A ladybug! You must be mistaken little fish!" Angled laughed merrily. "What is a Ladybug?"
"Well technically a ladybug is a red beetle with black spots...but I..." she tried to explain.
"A beetle...a tiny little beetle!" well now you're just being silly. Come now, enough with the games little fish. Why don't you come along with me."
"But she IS Ladybug!" Chat Noir insisted. "And I'm Chat Noir!"
"And Chat Noir means?" the Angler's tone turning critical.
"Uhh..black cat," Chat Noir gulped...now somehow having second doubts about his claim himself.
"A bit of fantasy is fine for some, but you're old enough not to be fooled by such illusions. There is only darkness...just you and me in the darkness. Stay close to me so I can light your way...you are all alone little fish!" Angler moved closer so he dangled the light right in front of Ladybug's face.
"Not alone..." Chat Noir mumbled weakly. I've got Marinette."
Hearing her name Ladybugs eyes popped open and she looked up.
"Enough!" Angler snapped, and then sank back into his coaxing tone. "There is no Marinette."
"There is!" said Ladybug with red flags going off in her head, feeling the urgency to swim upward.
"There is not!" Angler argued.
"I would rather go on believing that there is a Marinette in the world, than accept a meaningless world where there is not!" Chat Noir shook his head, as if trying to claw Angler's voice from his head.
Somehow what Ladybug heard triggered a warm feeling buried deep in her memory, and she reached out in the darkness and clasped her companion's hand. As soon as they touched their memories surged back like waves crashing against the shore, and they kicked their feet darting away from the deceptive light.
With a frustrated snarl the face of Angler shot out at them, trying to prevent their retreat. When she came into the dim glow of her own lantern they paddled back further. She stared at them with dim bulbous eyes which were cloudy and pale. Her protruding needle-like teeth opened into a permanent frown, which she snapped at them.
"Weilders!" she snarled angrily. "Leeches! How dare you control kwami power! Haven't humans exerted their control enough on their own! They don't need any more help in finding ways to tear a part all of existence."
"So you do recognize us," Chat Noir accused, keeping a firm grip on Ladybug's hand, and putting more space between Angler. Chat Noir finally recognized what kind of creature Angler's wild kwami form was. He had seen pictures in his marine biology textbook; they had nearly been deceived by a devilfish.
"Of course I recognize you!" Angler spat, "you're all the same!"
"There is hope," Ladybug said firmly. "We will not let the miraculous' be used for evil. We make every effort to bring people together for what is right. They will see..."
"How can they see? The world is void. The world is only darkness," the angry devilfish sneered.
"I'm sorry your dispair has cut you off from hope...but you will not drag us down with you," Chat Noir said determinedly, and kicked his feet quickly, pulling Ladybug up with him
"Swim away while you can!" the devilfish screeched after them! Soon there will be no where that you can hide! You may flee to the ends of the earth but the mistress of the purple buttery has risen to give the power back to the wild kwamis! You 'heroes' will be mowed down in her path! It is coming! Coming soon!"
"What do you know about the butterfly weilder?" Ladybug pulled back.
"Oh She's no weilder! To weild is to put a leash on power...she is going to unleash akumas in the wild kwami that have been waiting," Angler grinned evilly, with a flicker of purple crossing her face.
"How do you know all this?!" Ladybug demanded, resisting Chat Noir's urgent tugs on her hand.
Angler grinned wider, her spiked teeth overlapping The pout of her swollen lips. "You'll see!" she said as a purple butterfly suddenly flew out of her mouth.
"Ladybug! Watch out! An akuma!" Chat Noir dove in front of her, and Ladybug readied her yoyo to purify it...but the butterfly turned white on its own.
"You were akumatized! But you're a kwami! That's...that's..." Ladybug sputtered.
"Impossible!" Angler sneered with uncharged malice. "You haven't seen anything yet! Finally we have a champion of our own. Why don't you come back down little fish and I'll tell you more!" Her hateful beacon glowed invitingly. "Aren't you curious?!" she eyed Chat Noir.
"Curiosity is not gonna kill this cat! I think we've stayed quite long enough!" Chat Noir declared decidedly, and swam upward with Ladybug in tow.
"But shouldn't we try to help her?! ...try to find out more? Explain that we're the good guys and how dangerous loose akumatizations could be..." Ladybug asked as they rose into the twighlight zone.
"Some have been hurt so many times, they are blind to the truth right in front of them," Chat Noir said, not slowing his pace. "It takes a lot of courage to still believe there's hope...and I don't think that fish, akumatized or not, was planning on giving us a shred of truth...even without a akuma...she had it out for us before we even met!"
"Do you think the part about the new Hawkmoth could be true though? And how did a kwami get possessed by an akuma!" And how did this new Hawkmoth track us out here anyway?!"
Chat Noir gripped her hand tighter, and looked down at her with wide eyes. There were no answers, just more terrifying question.
"We can't think about all that right now Bugaboo!Chat Noir shook his head. "First we have to make it to the surface. Let's worry about that when we're back in solid ground."
Ladybug and Chat Noir kicked hard, propelling themselves forward. Again they started to notice more aquatic life moving around them. The higher they rose the clearer their heads felt and the lighter their limbs moved easier.
Ladybug was the first to burst up through the surface of the water. She tilted her head back, letting her wet hair drape back in the waves. She breathed in the precious oxygen that filled her burning chest. Chat Noir popped up in front of her with a gasp, and shook his head back and forth more like a wet dog than a cat super hero.
"Kitty!" Ladybug laughed in protest as the water he shook off sprayed back at her. She rubbed her hand across her face, rolling her eyes as Chat Noir proceeded to happily paddle around the surface. Then eyeing her deviously, he poked only his ears and eye out of the water and swam slowly toward Ladybug.
"Don't you...don't you dare!" Ladybug scolded, but he grabbed her at the waist and pulled her back in.
They resurfaced together, Chat Noir with his arms wrapped closely around her.
"I've had enough of a swim for today, thanks," Ladybug rolled her eyes at him again, "what kind of cat are you anyway?"
"You tell me!" Chat Noir grinned, "I'm all yours!"
It was hard to pretend to be annoyed with her goofy kitty, especially when his chest was pressed up against her, and his blonde hair stuck out in such a cute way...especially when he was saying absolutely endearing things like that!
"What am I going to do with you?!" She raised an eyebrow at him.
"I might have a few suggestions!" Chat Noir leaned in even closer with a cheeky smirk.
At which point Ladybug dunked him under, and he came back up sputtering. "Hey!" he laughed, "that's not what I had in mind!"
Ladybug paddled over to him and kissed him softly, letting her tongue flick teasingly against his lips. "More like that?" she coyly sang, diving down again.
"Yeah!" Chat Noir sighed savouring a moment in his dreamy state before following her.
A loud call and bubbling water breaking away from the surface a announces the arrival of the blue whale. Releasing air from her blow hole, she settled on the crest of the waves like a aircraft carrier.
"You've resurfaced at last!" she commented. "It takes a lot to explore the unknown, but even more to defend what you value. It is an impressing feat be one of the few mortals to have beheld what lies beneath."
"You know about Angler?!" Chat Noir asked surprised.
"I didn't anticipate her intercepting you, but there is little that transpires in my ocean that I'm unaware of. Sonar is merely one of my gifts.
"Is there anything we could do to change her mind about us, and about weilders, people, and the world in general?" Ladybug asked.
"She is not the only one who has given way to fear and dispair. But having weilders like you out there, who demonstrate all the good that is possible...maybe one day some of the wild kwami will come back to the light. The massive blue whale was thoughtful, then smiled proudly at Ladybug and Chat Noir. "I for one see the future a little brighter. Maybe you two will be the miracle we've been waiting for!"
"But what about the "she" that has come into possession of the butterfly miraculous?" Chat Noir asked. "What has she got to do with wild kwami?"
"Yes...very unsettling indeed. There are rumours that for the last week or so the new controller of the butterfly has been seeking out the wild kwami and monsters of this world and stoking the resentment and hate within them."
"What?!" gasped Ladybug , "the butterfly weilder is controlling them! I didn't know that was possible!"
"No not controlling them! Inhibiting them with the power of Nooroo and setting them loose on the world."
"To what purpose? " Asked Chat Noir gravely.
"Purpose?!" The blue whale laughed bitterly, "there is no purpose no direction in these poor creatures. They exhaust out of the range of the one who released them. They are in chaos."
"Why would someone do that?!" Ladybug asked in horror.
"Reason does not seem to factor into it," the blue whale replied. "The one who has apparently claimed the power of the butterfly is seeking out sources of ancient power around the world haphazardly and without discipline or focus. It could be a jouvinile, inexperienced weilderacting outside the guidance of the masters. Without extreme willpower, control, and training the butterfly miraculous can be overwhelming for a human weilder. Without being able to zeroin on one single emotion, they are inflicted by all emotions. It would not be the first time it drove a rouge weilder mad."
"How do we stop them?" Chat Noir asked seriously.
"Make it through your own training and find the one who is holding Nooroo. If this person has already infiltrated the guards of wild kwami emotions, their power is steadily growing. Still directionless, but with continued access to certain kwami...if set loose...it could have disastrous results, that even you may be unable to prevent," the whale warned. "Right now they can only connect to one at a time, and even then these wild kwami are breaking loose from their influence. This is no weilder...it is a wayward human playing with powers they do not comprehend."
"But kwami aren't supposed to be susceptible to akumas right?!" Ladybug asked.
"This human adversary is reckless and untrained, but no question, absolutely cunning. To even break thru the defenses of wild kwami emotions a inexperienced human would somehow have knowledge of wild kwami...very few of the temple masters even know of our existence...it's almost as if...no...but it couldn't. There is no way Horus and Lady Justice would let him go unchecked again... " the blue whale said to herself.
"He who?! What?!" Ladybug questioned.
"Chaos and deception. You've met him before back in Egypt. It may be that he has finally found a avenue to pursue your miraculous' after all."
ooo
Thank you readers for the encouragement! A special thanks to "guest reader," Koalawho, and others for your reviews!
South Africa is a pivital destination for Ladybug and Chat Noir...more adventures in this dynamic country to come. Dont forget to follow, favorite and review!