Beowulf opened his eyes to see Pangolin about to bring his foot down and end his life, Pangolin brought his foot down expecting to hear a satisfying crunch sound, Pangolin looked down to see his foot had stopped halfway and Beowulf's hand had stopped it "what the-" Pangolin uttered before Beowulf began pushing against him slowly lifting him. Pangolin tried to push against him but he wasn't gaining any ground, suddenly Kong and Arachna lept onto Pangolin and began pulling him off of Beowulf, Beowulf got to his feet and looked Pangolin in the eye "Wolfsbane" Beowulf said in a deadpan inflection, the wolf appeared on his arm and he reeled back his fist and punched Pangolin in the stomach.
Beowulf began pulling as did Kong and Arachna, Beowulf put his hand on Pangolin's chin and pulled the wolf head out along with a small orange orb. Pangolin broke free of their grip and grabbed the two, Pangolin slammed Kong into the ground and held Arachna at arms length. Kong roared and punched Pangolin in the face, Arachna took advantage of Pangolin's head placement and kicked him in the jaw, Kong broke free and tackled Pangolin back into Tremaine Tower. Pangolin increased his weight with the crystals and stopped Kong in his tracks only to take an uppercut from Kong, Kong punched Pangolin in the midsection then hit him with a left cross across the cheek, Kong threw another punch but Pangolin caught it and struck Kong on the head with his elbow causing the young hero to stumble. Pangolin grabbed Kong by the shoulders and threw him through the ceiling, Arachna springed off her spider legs and put both her feet into Pangolin's stomach. Beowulf looked at the orb "this is it" he whispered "Devour the Power!" Beowulf shouted before absorbing Pangolin's powers, his costume became orange and white and orange crystals portruded out of his back and on his shoulders and arms.
Pangolin threw Arachna aside and was suddenly hit by a shoulder check from Beowulf that sent him sprawling, Beowulf stood there, reinvigorated and ready for another round, Pangolin stumbled to his feet while Beowulf twirled his flail "I just had an idea that is either gonna be genius...or backfire horribly" Pangolin breathed on heavily while Beowulf grabbed the flail's handle with the wolf hand and encased the flail in crystals, Beowulf lifted the large crystalized weapon and slammed it on yhe ground causing it to break, revealing Beowulf's flail to now be a giant mace made out of crystal. Beowulf put the large weapon on his shoulder and put his hand forward and flexed his fingers back taunting Pangolin, Pangolin fell for the taunt and charged with a fist infused with energy, Beowulf quickly moves the mace and blocked the attack sapping the energy from Pangolin's fist, Beowulf reeled the weapon back slightly and struck Pangolin with it discharging the stored up energy and sending Pangolin flying into the elevator crushing it. Pangolin bursted out of wreckage fuming with anger, Pangolin got on all fours and began charging, Pangolin fired the laser, Beowulf was ready however and put the mace forward sucking up all the energy. Pangolin stopped and was stunned by this development, he began to back away but reassured himself "I'm not gonna lose, not now, I've come too far!" Pangolin curled up and began revving, Pangolin blasted ripping the ground apart as he barreled toward Beowulf. Beowulf reeled his mace back and swung upward with all his might matching Pangolin's power, Pangolin's momentum began to waver as Beowulf pushed against him slowly gaining ground. Beowulf made one final push and caught Pangolin from underneath and with one big swing he discharged the energy and launched Pangolin straight up through the building.
Beowulf jumped onto the mace and discharged energy rocketing him up through the same hole Pangolin made, Beowulf quickly caught up with Pangolin who had gotten through the roof of the tower, Beowulf raised the mace up and roared "RHAAAAGH!" And slammed the weapon down onto Pangolin sending him straight down through the tower. Beowulf's mace dissipated and reformed back into the mace, Beowulf dove into the hole "c'mon, just have to do one more and then we can rest" Beowulf put both of his fists forward "Wolfsbane!" his Miraculous began to glow and his body was becoming enveloped in blue aura, suddenly Beowulf was encased in a Giant Wolf Head. Pangolin lied in a crater staring at the giant wolf that was coming for him, he raised his arm but couldn't do anything as his impending defeat lay before him. Beowulf's focus was right on Pangolin, it all ends here, when Beowulf made his impact he couldn't even hear it, but everyone else could. Aracha and Kong retreated before the impact and managed ti get civilians out of the way, the sheer force of it blew out the windows of the entire Tower and the surrounding buildings, people got to cover and the cars near the building tipped over and flipped.
Beowulf stood above Pangolin, they had broken through the floor and into the maintenence tunnels below the building, Pangolin was groaning in pain and was barely concious, Beowulf walked over to his hand and lifted it prying open the plates to reveal the Miracuolous. Beowulf grabbed onto the Miraculous "you don't deserve this, you never deserved this" Beowulf began to pulland it slowly came off causing Pangolin to revert back to Tremaine, Beowulf stood above Tremaine "it's over, I beat you" Tremaine spat out some blood and struggled to speak "congrats kid...you win" Beowulf and Tremaine suddenly heard footsteps and the sound of slow clapping hands, Beowulf and Tremaine looked in the direction of the noise and from the darkness energed Timothy.
Tremaine smirked "Timothy, you got here just in time" Timothy fixed his hair "looks like I got here a bit late actually" Tremaine strained himself to move "no time for that, use your Miraculous and help me" Timothy put his hand on his chin "that's a good idea actually, I think I will use my Miraculous...but first I have an announcement" Timothy snapped his fingers and Skiz, Johnny, Marty and Cobalt all revealed themselves and surrounded the two adversaries "I'd like you to get reacquainted with my crew" Tremaine spat out more blood "what is this Timothy? And how'd these guys get out?" Timothy responded "I broke them out, because I see value in them, and due to my kindness I've won their loyalty, which brings me to my announcement, I hereby take control of all Tremaine business activities and declare myself CEO". Tremaine tried to get up but he was too weak "Timothy...what are you doing?" Tremaine asked with Beowulf chipping in "look...Timothy was it? You don't have to-" Timothy cut Beowulf off "Don't call me Timothy! It's Grayson!" Grayson composed himself "as you can see I've procured my employee's former powers" Beowulf looked at all of them to see that they were all wearing Pseudos, the Pseudos he took from them.
Beowulf looked at Grayson "where did you get those?" Timothy shrugged "shook down a couple jewelry stores, turns out they'll rat eachother out if you shake em hard enough, they told me who had them" the blood in Beowulf's body felt as if it had dropped "we didn't kill the guy, he said Beowulf sold him the Miraculous, we did hurt him though" Beowulf clenched his fist but didn't do anything, he was outgunned and much to weakened to fight all of them. Grayson's crew suddenly transformed with a couple of them beginning to snicker, Grayson walked forward and reached into his pocket "time to establish my takeover" Grayson pulled out a silver ring from his pocket. Grayson slid the ring onto his right ring finger and a Kwami popped out, it was black and cat-like with green eyes "Grayson! Please don't do this!" Grayson barked back at the Kwami "shut it Plagg! Now do as I say!" Plagg lowered his ears and nodded "Plagg, Claws Out!" Plagg was sucked into the Miraculous
Grayson's costume was completely black except his eyes which were now green, his costume was made out of leather much like Kong's, he had an armored chest and clawed gauntlets, he had shin guards and boots and his head was covered by a tattered hood and cape making a fairly worn cowl. "call me Cat Noir in this form, as my first act as CEO I think I'd like to do some remodeling, Beowulf come with me please, men, watch my father for me" Cat Noir jumped out of the hole followed by Beowulf. Cat Noir walked around the destroyed lobby "you guys really did a number on this place" Beowulf wasted no time "what's your angle here Cat?" Cat Noir looked at Beowulf "straight to the point, well I plan on taking back control of my life, not let my father decide what I wanna do with my life, I'm gonna take his business to places he had no idea about and I'd like your help, join my crew" Beowulf responded "no, you don't wanna follow in your father's footsteps" Cat Noir snapped at Beowulf "I'm nothing like mt father! I'm gonna be better, I'll take over this city in a quarter of the time it took my dad!" Beowulf clenched his fist "I can't let you do that" Cat Noir looked straight into Beowulf's eyes "don't try to stop me" Cat Noir lifted his right hand "Cataclysm!" black energy formed on Cat Noir's hand "I think I'll start by downsizing this particular building, there's no need for it anymore" Cat Noir then touched a pillar and the entire building quickly began to crumble and come undone. Cat Noir jumped down the hole "sayonara Beowulf, I'll see you again" Beowulf quickly ran out of the building, the police managed to get the civilians back, Beowulf looked back at the crumbling building being joined by Kong and Arachna.
Beowulf turned to the two "okay, both of you go home, I'll come by and get your Miraculous from you later tonight" Arachna responded "I don't have time for that, I need to get somewhere fast" Kong nodded in agreement, Beowulf sighed "fine, go into those alleys and I'll get them from you". The two heroes did so, Beowulf went to Kong first, Kong took off his Torc and gave it to Beowulf "it was an honor to do this for you Beowulf" Beowulf took the Miraculous and nodded "you did great today, I'm proud of you" Mason's face lit up "thank you so much for this...I'm not gonna lie to you, I was really scared fighting that guy, he was just so strong" Beowulf put his hand on his shoulder "it's fine to be scared, I'm scared everytime I fight a baddie" Mason looked up at Beowulf "but you act so...natural" Beowulf responded "that's how I deal with the fear, if you allow your enemies to see your fear, you've already lost" Mason nodded and ran off to where he needed to be.
Beowulf ran over to the other alley where Arachna gave him her Miraculous "it never gets easier, does it?" Beowulf shook his head "that's why we need to keep fighting, to stay better than the bad guys" Sophia nodded "I-I'm sorry for hesitating on paralyzing Pangolin" Beowulf responded "It's hard to stop hesitation, but you CAN do it" Sophia sighed "yeah, no more hesitation" Sophia walked off and Beowulf looked back at the crumbling building, it was finally coming down, the fight was far from over. Beowulf walked into a nearby building "Arnold?" Beowulf called out with Arnold popping out "I am here" Beowulf walked over to him "good job live streaming the security cam footage of the building, now everyone knows Tremaine's secret" Arnold nodded "indeed, I am needed elsewhere" Beowulf nodded "Beowulf...do you ever feel like you do not belong?: Beowulf looked at Arnold "yeah...when I came here I didn't fit in anywhere, but I found people who weren't like me, but liked me anyway, so I feel like I don't need to belong, I just need the people who care". Arnold nodded and folded his laptop and ran out of the building.
Ben ran to an antique store "Donovan?" Ben called out with Donovan emerging from a doorway with a slight limp "I'm here and I'm fine, don't worry" Ben ran over to him and helped him into a chair "looks like Timothy decided to take matters into his own hands" Ben nodded and sat down "he had a real Miraculous" Donovan looked at him "which one was it?" Ben looked at him "The Black Cat Miraculous" Donovan nearly fell out of his chair "no...that can't be" Donovan whispered with Ben looking at him confused "how did Tremaine get his hands on it?" Donovan limped over to a box set on the counter and opened it "I haven't been entirely truthful to you Ben, even I have secrets" Donovan took out a photo "I don't know why I hid this from you, looks like my own childish perception of secrecy is still there...I used to be Cat Noir" Ben felt as if his world was turned upside down "wait...I thought Cat Noir died" Donovan responded "he did, but not in the way you think, the truth is, the original Steer was the one who died in that explosion, I rushed in and got him killed, after that I threw my ring into a canal hoping to never see it again, looks like karma really does get you in th end" Ben got up "so you've been living the life of another person? Is Donovan even your real name?" Donovan shook his head "no, actually, it's Adrien" Ben looked at him "the model who..
went missing shortly after Cat Noir died, it all makes sense now". Adrien nodded his head as the two stood there in silence "so what happens now?" Ben asked with Adrien answering "the fight pushes on so we have to endure".
Ben walked home with his head spinning in circles, today had thrown him for a loop, but he was glad to be home. Ben opened the door only to be blindsided by confetti and balloons, Ben batted at the debris and was disoriented by his friends and family yelling "SURPRISE!" As he walked through the door "wha-wha-wha" Ben uttered as he looked at the streamers and the balloon sign that read "happy birthday" Ben breathed heavily as Mason laughed "we got you good didn't we?" Ben responded "the hell is going on?" His mother answered "don't you know? It's your birthday!" Ben scratched his head "I totally forgot it was my birthday, guess I've been busy all day" Arnold walked over and gave Ben a party hat "I believe it is custom to wear this" Ben put it on and his dad announced "now let's cut that cake!"
Ben sat by the window looking out at the cloudy sky, he then stared at the half eaten piece of cake infront of him and sighed "why the long face?" Ben looked up to see Sophia "oh...i-it's nothing" Sophia sat beside him "c'mon, you can tell me" Ben sighed "have you ever felt like...the whole world is resting on your shoulders and if you stop supporting it the world as we know it will crumble?" Sophia thought about it "well I am the captain of the volleyball team so yeah, atleast kinda, as the ace the team kinda revolves around me so if I'm not on my game then my whole team suffers" Ben looked her right in the eyes "what happens when the weight is too much?" Sophia answered "then you get stronger by lifting it, doing the right thing isn't something you hesitate on, someone taught me a very similar lesson" Ben then asked "about hesitation?" Sophia nodded "I'm taking what they said to heart, which is why in my eyes, this is the right thing to do" she leaned forward and kissed Ben much to his surprise, Ben slowly closed his eyes as the first snowflakes descended from the sky and onto the window, Winter has begun.
Phew! And so ends Tales of the Mraculous Part. 1, don't worry I'll get right to work on the next part of Ben's journey, the next part will have a slight tone shift, I want to explore darker themes in the future and I think now is the time for it, so stay tuned for the next part of Beowulf's struggle to keep New York safe!
