The portal opened onto the night sky of the densely populated skyline of Rio, Brazil. The sprawling city swept up from the long beach of star-bathed water, up to the green hills.
There wasn't time to take in the sights though. Screams pricked their ears, and red hot flames ignighted along the buildings overlooking the ocean. Crashes and crunches followed as a huge ship "sailed" overhead, and flattened a corrugated metal building behind them.
"Whatever it is, it is powerful!" Ladybug observed, breaking into a sprint toward the source of all the commotion.
"If this villain keeps tossing ships, it is going to be 'cruising' for a bruising," Chat Noir joked, keeping pace with her. "Soon he is going to be all washed up!"
Just then, another ship, coated in rigid barnacles was thrust right toward them, And they ducked just in time.
"That yacht just spoiled all my puns! What a keel-joy!" Chat Noir winked at Ladybug, and she just rolled her eyes.
Although the puns drove her nuts sometimes, there really nothing like a good superhero battle and some corny jokes to get her Kitty in a better mood. Dispute her obligatory reproachful stare, she couldn't help smile a bit. "Common' she urged, picking up the pace."
Then they saw it…or rather Her!
She was certainly not what they were expecting.
A beautiful woman with pale skin, icy blue eyes, and long blonde hair flying out behind her. She rose above the water, and eight liquid tentacles stretched out from her, tossing aside everything in her path.
"It can't be her!" Ember practically shrieked.
"You know this akuma victom?!" Chat Noir asked in surprise.
"That is no mere akuma! That is a miraculous being weilded…and I don't know the host…but I certainly tried to forget the kwami, whose power is raging through her!" Ember physically quivered.
"A miraculous did that!" Ladybug's eyes widened, taking another glance at the source of all the destruction.
"Remember the octopus kwami from Fiji I told you about? You know, the one that regretted fusing herself to her miraculous...the one who fell to chaos' power? Well, I guess someone just raised that crazy crackon from the depths!" Ember bristled.
"She does seem a little pissed off doesn't she!" Chat Noir gestured to the woman, who just let out a blood curdling scream that made all of their blood run cold.
"You need to stop her quickly!" Ember looked their in the eyes seriously. "The longer she is out there, the more power she will build from the power of the water."
"Right! So, quick battle! Let's wrap this up Mi'Lady, and I might even have time to take you dancing in Rio tonight!" Chat Noir twirled one of Ladybug's ponytails, and winked at her.
"Easier said than done!" Ladybug sighed loudly. "If she is wearing a miraculous she is more powerful that an ordinary civilian. The only way to defeat her is by removing or destroying the miraculous. That requires you getting pretty close to that sea witch, and don't cats hate water?
"So…I need to get the miraculous off her or destroy it," Chat Noir repeated looking out at the cause of the surrounding disaster framed by churning water. He wasn't sure how they would get close to the waves of her power without getting swepped away.
"Look at her…" Ladybug nodded toward her, "she looks pretty young doesn't she?! Probably about our age?"
"Heh heh," Chat Noir laughed nervously, "I wasn't looking…"
Ladybug glared at her cheeky boyfriend, and continued"…What I mean is that if she hasn't got a matured miraculous, once we force her to use her power, she is going to time out and lose her transformation. We just have to force her hand and wait!"
Chat Noir nodded. It was risky, but he always trusted Ladybug's plans.
"You're going to have to hold her back so I can get close to her," Ladybug instructed analyzing the situation. "Do you think a aqua cataclysm might be able to do that?"
"As long as I don't cause more damage than she has, it might work," Chat Noir replied bracing his feet under him at the edge of the shore.
Chat Noir handed Ladybug his baton, and she nodded back at him; catapulting herself toward the crazed weilder didn't seem wise, but it would be the only way to make it out the her quickly.
"Hey Calmari!" Chat Noir called out waving his arms toward the octopus woman. "You look well-armed, but You're no match for this cat!"
"I am Calypso, and your doom is sealed!" she shouted on a voice that was like a raging squall. Then she swept all eight arms forward releasing a surge of water, rolling into a towering wave.
"Chat!" Ladybug called out in alarm. "Look at her face!"
Chat Noir saw…a purple butterfly briefly illuminated the determined gaze of Calipso. Falfalla had akumatized the weilder after all.
"Aqua-cataclysm!" Chat Noir yelled, and out from the shore a competing wave flung itself against the first, towering at the edge of the city. Like a frozen tsunami Chat Noir's wave built against Calypso's; The liquid tower eclipsing the sun.
"What magic is this?! Water is my domain!" the siren screeched.
She flung her limbs forward pushing the wave higher against Chat Noir's formidable barrier. But the 8 iredesent beads on her bracelet started blinking. Sure enough this novice weilder would soon loose the power of her miraculous!
"Looks like the tides have turned!" Chat Noir taunted over the roar of the water.
"Not before I crush you under it!" Calypso threatened, straining to over power him.
"Lucky charm!" Ladybug called out, and in a swirl of ladybugs a fly swatter dropped into her hands.
"Umm…" Ladybug puzzled staring down at the flimsy red plastic at the end of the swatter. She glanced around the beach and the raging wave. "I'm not really sure how this…" she bit her lip. Not wanting to miss their opening once the octopus miraculous timed out, she decided to just wait one more minute before launching herself towards their opponent. This way she could try to intercept the dangerous miraculous once it's weilder transformed…but Chat Noir glanced back and spotted a huge mosquito hovering around the back of his Lady's neck. The sight of it gave him a sense of dread that this was no ordinary pest.
"Ladybug!" he called over to her.
But she couldn't hear him. The rushing water was like a thunderous fountain.
The mosquito landed on her neck.
Chat Noir lunged to swot it away from her, but in doing so the octopus weilder gained the upper hand, and her wave surged over the crest of chat Noir's pounchig down upon them.
Chat Noir grabbed the fly swatter and swiped the mosquito off her shoulder. The mosquito quickly flitted off as the water poured down at them, and Ladybug almost thought she heard something that sounded like high picked snickering.
"Miraculous time!" Ladybug called out, and the wave froze like a bubble over them.
"Enough! Cataclysm!" Chat Noir's shouted out and flung his arms out in frustration, but then the most bizarre thing happened. Chat Noir's cataclysm actually burst the bonds within the water and vaporized the wave in a single blow. Their trials had seriously strengthened his power to length he never thought possible!
Stunned, Chat Noir and Ladybug just stood blinking out to sea, with mist falling down gently on their hair. The wave was gone, but so was their unknown new adversary, Calipso. The horizon stretched on uninterrupted. The octopus weilder had simply vanished!
"I don't think I…I don't think the catacl..could have…" Chat Noir was struck with the guilt of having possibly vaporized the young weilder along with the wave…but Ladybug was quick to reassure him.
"Her miraculous was timing out. I think she must have swam off in the confusion."
"….And she clearly wasn't working alone," Chat Noir's brow creased. "What if she was just the distraction."
"That would explain my lucky charm," she said looking down at the fly swatter. "I have a sinking feeling that mosquito buzzing around was the real threat."
Chat Noir's worried face instantly transferred to a mischievous smirk, and he covered his mouth with his paw to stifle a laugh.
"What?!" Ladybug asked.
"You said 'sinking feeling!" Chat Noir practically burst in glee.
"Ooh, you and your cheesy puns!" Ladybug pouted, throwing up her arms. "Miraculous Ladybug," she called.
"That reminds me…" Chat Noir winked at her. "Claws out!"
Plagg emerged wringing out wet whiskers, demanding unspeakable amounts of Chamenbet for his "ordeal."
"Spots off!" Ladybug said, releasing Tikki too, and instantly presenting her with a cookie from her purse.
"So while we wait to discover exactly what the mosquito kwami, Falfalla, and this new Calipso character have in common we will have to find out what they were trying to do here," Ladybug said undeterred.
"So I guess we have time to go dancing tonight after all," Adrien extended a hand out to Marinette.
Suddenly Marinette's mouth gaped open, and she pointed in alarm.
Both kwami's ducked under cover into their wielder's jacket pockets.
Adrien followed her gaze, and then started to break into a run back toward the water.
There was Komar, the model boyfriend of Chloe's, striding swiftly onto the land, through the surf with a drenched Chloe in his arms. Her head was limp, hanging back over his arm, and she slumped against his muscular chest lifelessly.
Marinette and Adrien ran up to them, just as Komar lowered her onto the sand, and quickly started to give her cpr. Adrien quickly dialed emergency on his phone, but with the panicked population still reeling from the recent "flash flood," all the lines were busy!
Komar barely registered the two standing over him, looking frantically at Chloe. He just kept trying to rid Chloe's lungs of the water that was suffocating her.
Her black and yellow striped bikini hung onto her, and her typically styled ponytail was pasted to her shoulder, with stray seaweed caught up in her golden strands. Finally, her chest heaved, and she sprung to life again coughing up bitter mouthfuls of seawater.
She blinked confused, and caught a glance of Komar kneeling over her, and put her arms around him, buried in his amber shoulder. She sobbed, asking over and over, "what happened?! All of a sudden I was surrounded by water and didn't know where I was! It was so powerful and that wave just came out of no where and hit me!"
"You we're out there when the wave came?" Adrien asked horrified. "What are you even doing in Brazil?!"
Adrikins?! Wha…! What are you even doing in Brazil?!" Chloe looked up in surprise, giving Adrien an enthusiastic hug around the neck. "Oh and Dupain too! What a small world!"
"Yeah, real small," Komar mused, eyeing Adrien suspiciously.
"Komar was so sweet, and surprised me with tickets to celebrate my graduation this week," Chloe looked adoringly at Komar. "He has been to Brazil lots before, but he knew I really wanted to go. We were having a perfectly wonderful weekend, and we had thought it would be romantic to take a evening stroll along the beach, when all of a sudden…" Then Chloe paused, "wait…why are you two here?"
"Oh uh…" Adrien fumbled. "Well, Marinette and I, I mean we thought, I wanted to…"
"Jagged Stone is preforming here tomorrow," Marrinette jumped in. "We won tickets to his international concert series," she lied.
"Well, that sounds interesting," Komar commented, letting his eyes rest on Marinette's for a moment, before turning his attention back to fawning over Chloe, who had already moved back into telling her dramatic rendition of her ordeal.
"…I black out and that rouge wave just hits me out of no where!" At this point Chloe's voice changed to her classic Chloe indignation…"How utterly ridiculous! As soon as I get home, I'm going to demand that Daddy move all of his ocean-front hotels back off the beach!"
"Don't worry Honey-Bee! I've got you! Next time we will be ready," Komar soothed, kissing her on the neck.
Chloe giggled a bit, and pressed her hand against his chest. "Oh you are my hero! And I know heroes! Aren't I lucky to have such a heroic boyfriend!" Chloe gushed, looking over at Marinette and Adrien.
"It was really lucky that he got to you in time! You could have been really hurt Chloe!" Adrien said kneeling down next to her. "Promise me you'll be more careful, especially with akumas and that new Butterfly weilder running loose!"
"Akumas?!" Chloe asked shocked. "But I thought it was just a random wave! You mean an Akuma was here, and I didn't even get to fight it with Ladybug!" Now Chloe had transitioned from disappointed to pure fury. "What's the point in being a super heroine if you get knocked out before the fight has even begun. Ladybug and Chat Noir needed me, and were probably trying to call me and I was just out of commission!"
She frustratedly brushed her fingers through her tangled hair, and her eyes welled up, "and look at my hair! How am I supposed to fight evil when the stupid water did this to my perfect hair! Komar just look at my hair! No! Don't look at my hair! How can your hair be so absolutely perfect, and mine is a complete mess!" She shielded her head dramatically.
"Nothing a little time at the spa can't fix," Komar lifted her to her feet. "Your mom would want you to put her credit card to good use. Nothing more important than keeping up appearances!" Komar smiled with gleaming white teeth at her, taking her by the hand that jingled with pearl bracelet wound around her wrist.
"Oh that is true Komar dear," Chloe sauntered along beside him. "I simply must have someone work their magic…if only I had brought Jean Marc…or John Pierre…or whatever his name was along. He would have been so useful."
"Did you two already check-in somewhere? We are staying at the best hotel in the city!" Komar looked over his shoulder at the two of them. "Maybe we could all bunk up together!" He shot Marinette a indiscreet wink, and laughed out loud when she responded with a look of disgust.
"We've got plans of our own," Adrien put a arm around Marinette, and glared at Komar.
"Suit yourself," Komar shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to enjoy our ocean view penthouse suite all on our own," he tickled Chloe making her giggle and swot at him playfully.
"Seriously Adrien, I can get you both your own room," Chloe waved her hand grandly. "The owner is an old friend of Daddy's. In-room massages, a rainfall shower, a furnished balcony, and around the clock room service…you absolutely won't find anything better.
"Thanks Chlo, but we really did have other plans. Maybe we will see you around before we head home tomorrow though," Adrien replied politely.
"Fine, fine," Chloe nodded, moving on. "We'll meet up with you at that Jagged Stone concert tomorrow anyway."
"The…the Jagged Stone concert?" Marinette asked.
"Yeah, that one you said you won tickets for or whatever. Komar already got us tickets too. He insisted, and since Daddy has used Jagged for so many promotions, it was pretty easy to pull some strings. Front row, centre of course! Where are you sitting?" Chloe looked down her nose at Marinette, and Marrinette was very tempted to make a pointed comment about the state of Chloe's hair.
"Not front row centre, that's for sure!" Adrien pasted on a smile, and linked arms with Marrinette making a hasty escape. "Glad you're okay Chloe! Make sure you take it easy and feel better okay! We'll see you soon then! Okay bye!"
"We'll keep an eye out for you," Komar called after them.
Adrien pulled Marrinette into a trot, to round the street corner, and out of sight.
"Can you believe her!" Marinette fumed. "After everything we've been through together! Just when I thought being Queen Bee was really helping her grow, she just has the nerve to talk down to me like that!"
"Chloe is putting on an act, just like she used to do when we were kids to try to impress her mom," Adrien shook his head. "Plus, she did nearly drown. I guess Komar really did safe her...I don't know what I would have done if Chloe hadn't been okay." Adrien bit his lip. "It scared me to think that it might have been my wave that hit her...what if I had..." Adrien faltered.
"It all turned out okay, and you did everything you needed to so that all the people of Rio were safe. I know that Chloe and I have never been close, but I really am glad she is okay," Marrinette replied supportively.
They were quiet on the shore letting the pacified waves lap at their toes.
"I was so worried about seeing Chloe in trouble I guess I didn't really think how it would look that you and I were suddenly in Rio," Adrien said in a strained voice. " it is just that...well...It is that Komar...He didn't seem to buy our story about winning tickets to the concert. How is it going to look when we don't show?!"
"There will probably be thousands of people there! As if we'd stick out anyway…" Marinette tried to brush aside the concerned feelings in her gut to the side. Then she paused, she couldn't get the suspicious glance from Komar out of her mind. "…or maybe just to be safe, we'll just find a way to get in. Make sure Chloe and Komar see us, and then avoid them like the Plauge," Marinette concluded.
"Sounds good Mi'Lady!" Adrien kissed her cheek, "let's avoid the two of them as long as possible…at least until tomorrow. I think it is about time I took you out dancing!"
"Hmm…a date with Adrien Agreste on the streets of Rio," Marinette hummed happily to herself. "How could I resist!"
"You really won't be able to resist me when you see my Samba moves," Adrien weaved around her breaking out a very exaggerated dance moves, that just made her burst out laughing. "What?! You're not impressed?" he tipped his head to one side with a good natured smile.
"On the contrary Agreste," she straightened her face, and tugged coyly on one of his belt loops. "You always impress!"
Adrien blushed, and looked up at her looking like he was about to internally-combust. "You're teasing me, like Ladybug," Adrien finally got out.
"I didn't think it would shock you that some of my Ladybug traits show up in Marinette," Marinette bit her lip.
"No, no…it's just that seeing all the pieces come together now…well…you have no idea how much I've fallen in love with you all over again!" Adrien ducked his head, and glanced up at her through his blonde hair. The joking had left his eyes, and he looked at her with complete sincerity.
Marinette didn't hesitate, she crashed her lips against his, and nearly knocked him over.
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Things have been challenging in RL, but I'm so glad to be back writing this story to share with you all! I couldn't wait to share this next chapter...lucky number 113!
Things are heating up, and I'm sure it is becoming more clear to you all who might be behind the 'chaos!!'
Thanks to KoalaWho and Sapyrrha, and the other followers who have been so patient to wait for these chapters! Thank you for continuing to follow, and leaving me encouraging reviews! Thank you to other guest too for sharing ideas and parts that you have been enjoying so far! You guys are the best! Off to write some more...