Ben exited the Jewelry Shop where a woman had suddenly approached him "excuse me, who are you?" Ben responded "I'm...Ben Williams" the woman suddenly gave Ben a piece of paper "in the event of Donovan Muller's death the business is bequeathed to you, however since you're underaged, the bank will keep this place until you're of age". Ben looked at the piece of paper "keep that safe until you're 18" Ben put the piece of paper in his pocket and walked home. Ben opened the door to his apartment, it was devoid of his parents, they had gone to work and left breakfast out for him. Ben grabbed a plate of food and went to his room, he place the new Miraculous on the table "we've potentially got six Miraculous that could go into circulation" Prowwl said while hovering over the boxes, Ben corrected him "five, actually, I've been thinking" Ben grabbed the box that had the Spider Miraculous in it "it's about time I get reconcile some thing, Sturnn, Let's Hunt!" Ben transformed and snuck out of his house making his way to Sophia's apartment.
Beowulf stood on the fire escape and watched as Sophia stepped into her room and saw him, her face became stern and she approached the window, they stared at eachother for a solid minute before Sophia reached over and closed the blinds "hey! Look, I just wanna talk" Beowulf said with Sophia flinging the window open "what do you want?" Beowulf put the Miraculous box on the window sill "oh...so you just changed your mind suddenly?" Beowulf sighed "yes, I've realised I've been a hypocrite about this, I lose control sometimes aswell and I still get to keep my Miraculous, if you don't have it you can't practice control so you're back on as Arachna" Sophia took the Miraculous box "this would've been useful a couple days ago" she leaned her back against the window "my boyfriend got hurt at the Zoo by those villains, I had to be saved by my friends twice, I feel like I've plateaued y'know?" Beowulf looked down "yeah...I know that feeling" Sophia turned to meet Beowulf's gaze "can you give a Miraculous to Benjamin Williams?" Beowulf was shocjed by this request "he's...on a trial basis right now" Sophia sighed "okay, it was selfish of me to ask" Beowulf responded "not at all, you're trying to protect the ones closest to you and the Miraculous can grant that, but you have to know how to use it and Ben is not ready" Sophia nodded "thank you Beowulf, I appreciate this" Beowulf bowed his head slightly and disappeared from sight.
Beowulf returned to his apartment and snuck through the window of his room, he then de-transformed "whooo, like ripping off a band-aid" Ben sat at his desk and looked at the Miraculous boxes, he decided to open one, a glowing orb emerged from the opened box and out popped a Kwami, it was cyan colored and had a fin at the back of its head, it opened its eyes "oh, hello, my name is Slipp and I'm your Kwami!" Ben stopped the Kwami "gonna stop you right there, I just wanna know what your powers are" Slipp was confused but answered Ben "w-well, the powers I bestow upon the wearer are the powers of healing and connection, the wearer can heal any wound on themselves or others and can mentally link with others of their choice no matter the range so that those who are allies can come together without saying a word" Ben put his hand under his chin and thought "huh, those powers could be useful in the coming battles but who to give you to" Ben closed the Miraculous box and Slipp was sucked back inside. Ben picked up another box and was about to open the box when his phone began to ring in his pocket, the ring scared him and he bumped his knee into the desk "ow shit!" Ben picked up the phone, it was Mason "yo Ben! Heard you got out of the hospital, wanted to update you, Harvey is looking for you man, said he was gonna break you in half, I'll try to talk to him but Harvey is thick skulled, not much room for a complex brain there". Mason hung up and Ben sighed "great..." Ben was about to open that same box when he got a text, it was from Nadia.
Hey Ben, can we talk? I just...I need to talk to you, what I said at the hospital, I need to clear it up with you
Sure, let's meet up and we can talk it out
Okay please meet me at Ray's
Okay
Ben leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling "this is gonna end badly" Ben got up from his chair and walked out of his room to the empty kitchen, everything seemed oddly blue to his eyes. Ben felt his head, it was throbbing "dammit, what is it now?" Ben felt his Miraculous "I'll talk to you guys later to find out what's going on" Ben made his way to Ray's, looking down at the sidewalk his anxiety began to rise, his chest felt like there was too much air in it but he was out of breath, "I've fought monsters three times my size, what am I so afraid of?" Sturnn responded in his pocket "the unknown" Ben felt his brain fizzle as he trembled to open the door to Ray's, he looked through the door to see Nadia was already there "okay Ben...you can do this, what's the worst thing she could say?" Ben flashed back to the hospital where she told him she loves him and he began to freak out "okay, okay, okay, fuck, okay" Ben opened the door and stepped in with Nadia shooting her head up to look at him, her face became red and she shrunk down, Ben made his way over and sat down "hey..." Ben said attempting to start the conversation, the awkwardness was so thick it felt like a heavy fog around the two "I...I wanna apologize" Nadia said "it was so not cool for me to do that, and with your girlfriend in the room I-I don't know why I said that and I don't know how you or Sophia could forgive me if she found out and I don't blame you if you never wanna talk to me again and" Nadia put her hand over her mouth and started crying softly and Ben finally spoke up "Nadia, I don't want to lose you as a friend, what you did for Sophia at the Zoo, it shows you're a good person and are willing to help people and I need people like that in my life but...if our friendship hurts you, I can't have that" Nadia stood up "I don't want to lose you either, and it doesn't hurt me, after coming to terms that you are happy with Sophia, then I'm happy, and I would rather be friends with you and Sophia, than be the reason that everything fell apart" Ben got up and approached, he hugged Nadia "so...friends?" Nadia hugged him back "friends..." Ben and Nadia walked out of the Ray's "I'll see you later Ben" Nadia said with Ben nodding and waving goodbye as she walked away.
Ben looked down at his feet and sighed "life is confusing" Ben said with Prowwl and Sturnn nodding "we've been around since time began and yet every life we've witnessed is so different" Ben looked at his phone "I should probably get back home" Ben began making his way back home when his nose twitched, he picked up a smell he wasn't familiar with, Ben looked up at a rooftop to see someone watching him, just as he focused on them, they disappeared "on second thought, let's not go straight home...we could go on an early patrol" Ben slipped into an alleyway "alright boys, first Transformation out of the hospital" Ben suddenly smelled the same scent in the alley, Ben looked to his left to see someone shrouded in purple cloth, a distinct feature was that their right arm was nearly a stump "an alleyway? Really?" Ben turned to them to face them fully "I guess you know who I am then" the person suddenly disappeared out of sight, Ben looked down to see them reaching for his Miraculous. Ben threw a knee up and hit the person in the elbow causing them to back up, Ben then shouted "Prowwl, Let's Hunt!" Ben transformed and took a defensive stance "your reflexes are sharp" the person said before getting ready to charge again. Beowulf readied himself and when the charge came Beowulf summoned three clones and they tackled the cloaked figure, Beowulf moved in a flash and punched the villain in the midsection causing them to go flying backwards. The clones then leaped up and dove at them, as they were about to strike the mysterious person's cloak ripped in the area of the right arm and a mechanical arm caught the limbs of the clones, the person then tossed the clones up into the air and their arm suddenly morphed into a cannon and with pinpoint accuracy shot each of the clones in succession with rays of red energy.
The person looked back down to see Beowulf in the middle of throwing a clone at them, the clone headbutted the assailant in the arm. Beowulf suddenly appeared below them and uppercutted then in the chin, Beowulf then spun in the air throwing a kick into their chest making them slide back "impressive, your clone trick seems to serve you well...but how long will it last you?" Beowulf looked at the clone and they nodded to eachother and they began to rapidly move from side to side switching places faster than the eye could follow. The person suddenly thrusted their arm forward and their hand shot out of their arm attached to a metallic cord, the hand suddenly grabbed the real Beowulf lifting him up and slamming him down into the asphalt "how-" Beowulf uttered before being lifted up again and slammed down with even more force "I've been around the block a few times kid, nothing tricks me" the clone slipped behind the Shroud and grabbed their ankle lifting them and throwing them into the air, Beowulf followed as he was still connected to the hand. Beowulf and the Shroud were now level with eachother, Beowulf spun and freed himself, he then turned himself upside down and kicked the Shroud straight into the ground, the Shroud then jumped straight back up colliding with Beowulf with a lariat to the gut, the Shroud then grabbed Beowulf by the head and pointed him toward the ground, little thrusters appeared on their arm and they both began to rocket toward the ground at high speed, the clone saw this and jumped up, the clone grabbed Beowulf's back and all three of them collided with the ground causing a large boom and dust filled the air, the Shroud held Beowulf up by his head.
"That clone saved your life, looks like that trick can last you a good bit" the Shroud reached for Beowulf's Miraculous, Beowulf's eyes widened and he thrusted his claw into the Shroud's mechanical arm and pried it open causing the Shroud to let Beowulf go and bacm away "you...that was dirty, I'm impressed" a portal opened behind the Shroud and they stepped into it disappearing, Beowulf breathed in hard "shit...looks like they know who I am now, they'll be coming back for me".
Meawhile in a space where time is dead
Shroud approached Chronoa "so...who is Beowulf?" Shroud responded "nothing to report, I fought him, but couldn't find out who he was" Chronoa folded her arms and paced "we need to get rid of him as a variable, I can only send in one of you at a time to the true present" Shroud opened a compartment in their arm and pulled out a crystal, they gave it to Chronoa "if we get more pieces then I can send more lf you AND for longer and once I have all the pieces, you all may have a future to call your own" the rest of her crew emerged from the shadows "now...all we have to do is wait...when one reveals itself we will strike hard, and kill anyone who is in our way"
Back in New York
Ben opened the door to his apartment where he was greeted by his mom and dad, they hugged him and all of them sat down at the dinner table to eat, Ben poked at his food thinking about today "honey? Are you okay?" Ben looked his mom in the eyes "y-yeah, just...weird to think that I was that close to a battle" his dad patted him on the shoulder "you were on the news today" Ben looked at him "really?" His dad nodded "yeah, you save a lot of people by getting them to the exit". Ben sighed "Adrien" Ben got up from the table "I think I'm gonna turn in tonight" Ben went to his room and sat on his bed "man...I think all that's happened is starting to catch up with me and I think I'm gonna have a panic attack" Ben began to breathe rapidly and clutch his chest "oh man, okay, wow" Ben stood up and leaned against his desk, he looked in the mirror, he was pale and sweat peppered his face which he tried to wipe off only for the beads to reemerge from his pores. Ben breathed in and out to calm himself down and he sat himself at the desk "okay, I'm good". Ben looked out his window "the fighting is gonna get a lot more intense, but now we have the firepower to fight back" Ben put all of his Miraculous boxes on his desk, he then looked at the vent in his room, he detatched it and pulled out the Pangolin Miraculous and put it on his desk "we've got six Miraculous, let's hope it's enough".
