Symbiotic Whiskers
Chapter 12
The alarms ringing, the doors sealing, it was all becoming a disaster. Cat Noir triggered the lockdown, by inputting a single command into the system. Intruder alert, and it could have been fixed if the computers didn't register them as intruders. All his caution, his preparation in case his identity was discovered, now turned on them.
Hawkmoth's private chamber made to shield himself from harm had become a tomb.
The villain could barely keep track of Volpina's actions, too busy fighting for his life alongside Mayura. Missiles, guns, all baring their lasers at the two in an attempt to eliminate the 'intruders'.
"Can we turn them off?!" Mayura shouted as she whipped her fan in front of herself, kicking up enough wind to throw off the trajectory of one of the ballistics.
"If I can get to the control panel perhaps!" Hawkmoth swung his cane to intercept a barbed net, swinging it to entrap another set of guns. "But I need time."
Time he was currently using to keep himself alive. Mayura tried to find an opening, or even make one. But the computers were intelligent, only firing as many as necessary at a time with plenty in reserve. How long could they keep this up? Hopefully long enough for the munitions to run out.
It crossed their minds to summon Volpina up with her sentimonster to assist, but that would lead Cat Noir right to them. Anytime they could spare their senses to check up on her, they questioned whether they were safer taking on explosives in a death trap, or dealing with him.
Just how did he manage to stay one step ahead of them?
The blades swung through the several bodies, hacking them in large swipes as Volpina stood her ground to create and throw as many duplicates of herself at him. But for as many as she made, he kept ripping them apart.
All the while his savage grin was pointed right towards her.
"Come on little fox!" Cat Noir taunted as the mangled sword in his grip extended out, spearing its blade right next to the real Volpina's head. "We expected more!"
Rolling away from the weapon, Cat Noir tugged it out of the wall as the hilt retracted into his hand, before a sleek tendril emerged from his palm to let him flail the blades around on his whip. Volpina hurriedly made something else, a massive scorpion that screeched at Cat Noir.
Its venomous tail shot out, Cat Noir stepping to the side and grabbing it with one hand before swinging his weapon around to slash across its eyes. Clenching his grip, his claws sliced the dripping appendage of the tail making the fake monster squeal out. Anything he cut off vanished into orange mist, and when he threw his sword out to bisect the creature the whole thing disappeared.
The fight gave Volpina a chance to create an electric hand saw to cut herself through the steel door, to amass more forces in the main hall of several knights with blades and crossbows. She managed to make it to the next doorway, looking inside as Cat Noir leapt out Adrien's room and clung onto the ceiling. She thought that would be enough to distract him, but the cat slits of his eyes stared right at her as he kept smiling.
"Illusions can't poison us."
"Fire!" Her captain of the conjured knights ordered, crossbows shooting out towards the hero. Cat Noir, knowing it was an illusion, jumped into the center of the crowd, throwing his arms out as two tendrils filled with green claws swept over the army and bashed many away. Four tentacles with their own sets of claws erupted from his back, lashing out to slash, grab, and slam anything they got their tendrils on. All while Cat Noir was free to rush towards any nearby knight with his own sharpened fingers to cut through the knights like butter.
Volpina ran further through the house, creating more distance as she made a few more copies of herself to begin scattering through as many sections as they could access. Making her way to the next doorway with a slab of steel cutting her off, she conjured another tool to begin cutting it open. "Come on, come on!"
"The same trick won't work twice." Cat Noir was right behind her, holding his staff behind his head with a spearhead of emerald at the end.
Volpina turned around, seeing a couple of her copies had returned to provide back up. They slowly came from behind Cat Noir, ready to pounce to give the real girl a chance to flee.
Cat Noir, without looking back whipped his staff out, slashing the head off the one directly behind him. "Are you watching Hawkmoth? Do you see how strong we have become?"
The others scrambled to tackle him, Cat Noir relishing in displaying his strength as Volpina desperately used her flute to pry the rest of the cut open enough to allow her to get through. Once on the other side, she tried to begin wedging it shut as she could hear the slaughter on the other side dwindling. Once she felt it was secure enough, she ran through the dark kitchen area to try and find somewhere to hide.
"Cataclysm."
The steel obstacle turned to ash, Cat Noir strolling through as Volpina ducked under the table. She had to come up with something fast! Something that would distract him long enough to get away. Thinking of something that might delay him, she held up her flute and as quietly as possible let out a tune. It was dark in here, but not pitch black, there could still be some light her sentimonster could use.
The table was lifted in one hand, Cat Noir about to pounce, but there was Ladybug holding out her hands.
"Stop!" Ladybug ordered. "This is going too far! Volpina was trying to help us and-"
Cat Noir's tail whipped around his body, shoving itself through the illusion's torso and dispersing the cloud through the darkened room. He glared back to the opening he made, where Volpina was running back through. "How dare you use Ladybug against us!"
Volpina rushed back into the main hall, running around the large stairs to hide again as she brought her flute back up. Then she heard a horrible ripping noise, followed by sparks before all the lights went out.
No! No no no no no no!
Without any light, her illusions couldn't be seen and her sentimonster would have nothing to make them tangible! All they could do was make noise, but maybe she could use that. Just so she could get outside.
"We could tell right away." Cat Noir's voice echoed all around her, Volpina struggling to figure out where it was coming from. Her eyes weren't adapting well to the dark, her sentimonster useless to assist her. "Ladybug was more fragile than the others when you made her in the dark. Look how helpless you are now."
If she sounded her flute out now it would be a dead give away to her position, Volpina carefully walking out from her spot to try and find Adrien's room in the dark. Maybe she could create some noisy illusions to run out to distract him.
"No one, not even Hawkmoth can help you." Cat Noir was getting closer, but she didn't know from where! "There is only the dark."
Her mind was imagining him all around, ready to strike from everywhere at once. She was so scared she didn't want to move a muscle, but her only hope was Adrien's room. Volpina's feet carefully sliding out in front of her to try and quietly maneuver over to it. Her toe tapped a door frame, Volpina knowing she had managed to find it. Holding out her flute to help identify where the hole she made earlier was, it became caught on something.
"There is only the hunt."
Two firefly eyes opened right in front of her, Cat Noir lifting up her flute as his burning emerald smile opened up right in front of her terrified face.
"There is only us."
Ladybug burst out of her room, dashing over Paris as she relied on her legs to move as she was too busy looking over the messages from Cat Noir on her yo yo. It started with him suspecting an akuma, then a possible sentimonster, then following someone who can create illusions but knowing he was following the real one.
As far as he knew, she was heading for "Adrien's house?!"
Of all the places it had to be the home of the guy she was just getting over. Not bothering to read out the address, knowing it by heart, Ladybug slammed the desire to sleep by exerting herself as much as she could. Legs pumping, feet running, and once she gave up on trying to call Cat Noir back she threw her yo yo out to latch onto the highest point and yank herself forward.
Time was just a blur of buildings and roads around her, Ladybug spotting the mansion and intending to swing right through an open window. Only there weren't any, all of them were closed up with thick steel walls. Mr. Agreste took his security more seriously than she thought.
Jumping over to one of the steel plates covering up Adrien's room, she pressed her ear against it to try and hear inside. It was quiet as far as she could tell, maybe it was sound proof. It wouldn't surprise her, but then her hand felt the metal quiver as a rumble shook the whole building.
What was that?!
Ladybug tried looking for a source, figure out what was happening and where. Another muffled bang, further up. Place was tightly secured, big bangs inside? Definitely a fight.
"Cat Noir! If you can hear me I'm right outside! I can't find a way in yet."
When an ear splitting screech yelled out from inside, Ladybug was worried it was turning into a horror show. She didn't know what she was up against beyond illusions, but Cat Noir did say there might be a sentimonster and those made things way harder than it should be.
No other choice, she needed to get in right away. "Lucky charm!"
No where was safe, she was surrounded by the dark and it was out to get her. Volpina's vision was playing tricks on her as she ran aimlessly through the black depth. While her sight couldn't find anything, her mind kept screaming the shadows were moving, out to get her.
Something was though, and it was toying with her.
"Come out and fight me!" Volpina screamed out, gripping her flute with white knuckles as she was ready to strike against anything that moved. Slowly backing up, her head on a swivel, Volpina felt something bump against her back.
"AH!" With a panicked swing her improvised weapon smashed against something, shattering along the floor.
It wasn't him, he was somewhere else. Why couldn't he get this over with?! She would prefer facing this monster than not knowing where it is!
Wait, could she make light with her illusions? They wouldn't be solid at first, but if she could make something like a flashlight then maybe she could make something to break herself out!
Bringing up her flute, hoping to wake up from the nightmare, Volpina froze when she felt warm air brush against the back of her neck. Look back, don't look back, her debate was decided when something touched her ankle.
It yanked her high, hoisting her up into the air by her foot as she screamed out. Without the ground to stand on, her body had nothing to determine where she was except for in a trap. Reaching up to try and free herself, her one hand tugging furiously as she clenched to her single hope of her powers in the other.
The line quivered, Volpina's stomach collapsing on itself as she glanced down towards something past her foot. Those poisonous emerald eyes were staring at her from the bottom of the string holding her up. The hideous smile snapped open, steam hissing out from the radioactive glow behind the black fangs.
He didn't speak, only stalking forward as he crawled down towards her.
An uncontrollable shake overcame her body, Volpina hastily rushing the flute to her wavering lips as her eyes dared not glance away from the deadly gaze. A quaking tune escaped her lips, rushing to get something out to save her from this hell.
Her thoughts manifested into swirling flames, licking along the high walls and the staircase of the house. The whole area was bathed in dancing orange light, her predator leaping onto the ceiling to briefly examine the fire.
Volpina let out a hollow laugh in relief, regaining enough courage to bring her flute back up to turn the battle back into her favor. Then it was snatched away by a black line, right into her enemy's hand.
"We grow tired of this." Dropping it down to the floor to let the harmless illusion flow along the weapon, Cat Noir descended a few feet by his tail as he stared down Volpina face to face, both upside down as he gripped her chin to face him. "Bring us Hawkmoth."
His claws pinched against her skin, Volpina fearing to give a wrong answer. If she knew anything she would spit it out, but the fact was she was oblivious, her distress and panic only paralyzing her.
Her emotions flooded through her akumatized object, and in turn relayed it straight to her sentimonster hidden at the end of her flute. It coiled up the light all around itself, pulling the flames into its body and breathing them back out.
Cat Noir glanced down to the event, watching in interest as it began to grow in size. The hazard conjured itself into a flaming fox, roaring up towards Cat Noir to pronounce him its enemy.
His cat eyes squinted towards the being, sensing no heat from its seemingly dangerous appearance. Electing to accept the challenge, he harshly pushed against Volpina's forehead. "Don't go anywhere."
Then he dropped, several tendrils erupting from his body covered in the toxic emerald claws as he entered the fight. They tore into the sentimonster's face, the creature fuming in pain as it kept swatting away with its paws. Cat Noir met each one, bashing it with a powerful hit to meet the obstacle head on.
Volpina reached back up to the trap she was stuck in, gripping the strange material wrapped around her leg and pulling as hard as she could. It stretched out, the girl straining to get enough of an opening as she kept rolling her ankle around to try and squeeze it out of the gap.
When her sentimonster was thrown up onto the ceiling, it spread cracks out all through the building including the piece keeping her in place. The rubble fell loose, Volpina dropping over twenty feet before crashing into the ground.
Her enhanced durability granted by Hawkmoth let her body remain uninjured, her mind on the other hand was scrambled in fear. Everything around her was being ripped up, torn apart in the fight between beasts.
Volpina just ran, ran to wherever was safest.
Hawkmoth was getting tired, his arms weakening and aching each time he swung his cane. His mind stopped focusing on Volpina, it stopped focusing on what was outside, not even able to keep track of how many he had destroyed all he could do was anticipate where the next attack would come from.
Mayura's wrist snapped out, the woman blowing away another barrage of ballistics. In the short span of silence after an explosion, her strained breathing filled the room as she wavered in her balance. "G-Gabriel, I-"
"Keep fighting." Hawkmoth ordered because if they slowed down it would mean death. "We can't afford to do anything else!"
Was this how he was defeated? Not in some grand battle, not Ladybug and Cat Noir tracking him down, not with him close to victory, just a mistake of letting one of his akuma's bring the fight into his home to trigger the defense systems by accident. They didn't even know he was here, and yet they seemed to only assure his demise.
Still, there was too much he was fighting for. Mayura was still by his side, and he didn't want to see her suffer for his error. Adrien was still so young and had so much potential, he wanted to see it grow. Emilie, he had started all of this for her.
Life wasn't worth living without her.
"Gah!" Mayura's hand tensed, dropping her fan as another rocket launched out to her. Hawkmoth stepped over her, knocking the obstacle away for it to ignite against the opposing wall. The whole building shook at the impact, the man's lungs filling with smoke as he forced his eyes to remain open.
"Nathalie!" He called out to try and help her up. She was covered in sweat, her eyes sealed shut and her breathing scratching with every rasp. The body had reached its limit, the damaged miraculous infecting her spirit and throwing its ties to her body out of synch.
When he heard the beeping nearby, Hawkmoth pulled her away from the blast for them to be thrown to the other side of the room. Today was a disaster, and at this rate they wouldn't be able to hide the damages.
Unless Ladybug fixed things, he needed to help his enemy in order to preserve his only trusted ally. "Mayura, if you can hear me, release your sentimonster."
The woman's glazed eyes barely opened, a muttere escaping her lips as her fingers twitched. Then her costume vanished, Duusu rushing out her miraculous. The kwami was about to pipe up in its usual chipper attitude, until it witnessed the same thing he did. Hawkmoth stared down the lasers of several weapons taking aim at the two of them. Too late, they were finished.
Closing his eyes, releasing Volpina from his power, and preparing for what might come next, he feared he wouldn't be allowed to see Emilie. "Forgive me."
"Lockdown lifted." The weapons systems shut down, retreating themselves back into the still working parts of the lair. Hawkmoth's eyes snapped open, the man relieved to be given a second chance. With the limp weight of Nathalie in his arms, he resolved himself to try and clean up his mess of the day.
Cat Noir battled directly against the creature, clawing away as the vicious grin across his face only got wider. The adrenaline of the fight, the strength in his body, it was intoxicating to experience. Leaping over the injured sentimonster, Cat Noir sent out several nets of black yarn to tangle around its back legs. They didn't burn, it was all just fake, but it was still tangible letting him abuse it like the punching bag it was.
Grabbing onto its glowing tail, his form grew larger, his muscles gaining more mass as he began to spin the sentimonster. Round and round he pulled it until it was off of its feet, helpless to fight back. Once he let go, the sentimonster crashed into the large stairway in the center of the home. It whimpered as it tried to stand back up, turning back towards the teen who was crouching down and ready to pounce.
"Weak, just like your master, your creator, that's why she remains hidden. That's why Hawkmoth doesn't dare face us. But we have grown so much stronger, and we will find him, and wear him down until he's a useless husk of meat who will never be able to manipulate or use anyone ever again."
Holding up his deadly claws, the universe recoiled as he summoned the force of pure destruction into his palm. Running towards the sentimonster, he lunged to put the pitiful creature out of its misery. "We are his disease! We, are PLAGUE!"
Just before he could touch it though, the creature vanished, its life ending by its own creator's will. Cat Noir's hand plunged past the mist, crashing into the ground and flooding it with the power he possessed. The floor dissolved, crumbling under his raw power as the pieces fell into the large chasm below.
Falling with the debris, Cat Noir landed squarely on his feet along a metal grate pathway leading through the towering basement. Metal walls lined the open area, pools of various liquids running underneath the single pathway, and a large symbol resting on the far end of the room.
The symbol of a butterfly, overlooking a single spotlight that shone down to a small garden that housed a single cylinder cased in steel. Lurking forward, Cat Noir's body began to calm as Adrien's thoughts began to resurface.
How, how could his father have built all of this and kept it hidden? The truth edged around his mind, closing in as he kept coming to a single conclusion. The intense security, the secret safe that held an old book about various miraculous wielders, a vast chamber underneath with the butterfly as its crest.
The only answer that he kept coming up with, his memories recalling all of the hidden symbols around his house, around his father's designs, all of the butterfly, it was choking him.
Once he entered the light of the end of the grand area, his feet stepped across the neatly maintained grass around the object of mystery. Plague remained quiet, letting Adrien investigate his own father's hidden treasure.
"Plague, if my dad is really Hawkmoth….I don't know what I would do."
The slimy cat emerged along his shoulder, the feline alien kwami being whispering next to his ear. "Hawkmoth tried to kill us, kill Ladybug, and he forced us to kill when you didn't want to. Your father has also used you the same way, just like Hawkmoth uses others. It doesn't matter to us if they are the same person or not."
"It matters to me!" Adrien ripped his hand across his mask, peeling the symbiote away from his face to let him see everything around him with his own eyes. Taking a calming breath, staring right over the unknown machine that seemed to be at the center of all of this, Adrien reached out to touch it. "If my father is Hawkmoth, I want to know why. Why hunt us down? Why try to take our powers? He's already rich, he has connections, what else could he possibly want?!"
As his fingers brushed against the bottom of it, the seal came undone. Adrien stepped back as it opened, revealing a layer of glass housing the contents within.
"M-mom?" There she rested, in her peaceful slumber and preserved in the light. But, she died! They had a funeral, he saw her coffin buried, why was she here?!
Why would he keep her body?!
Adrien turned away, slamming his arms along the railing nearby and denting them under the force of his blow. Hunched over the edge, he felt the sickening churning of his stomach begin to grow. A soothing tail brushed against his face, calming him, the urge to throw up being taken away. Plague sat along his shoulder, keeping him company as the creature could feel the turmoil inside the boy.
"We, do not wish you pain." The symbiote/kwami reached out with its paw to wipe a stray tear from his eye. "We wish we could take it all away instead of increasing it, but know that we feel it as well. When you suffer, we suffer. That is why we wish to eliminate the source of it."
"N-no." Adrien pulled away, giving a longing look to his mother. The gentle woman who made life so beautiful, the one kept in the center of his father's life. "I can't kill him, she wouldn't want that."
So this was his burden? The sins of his father weighed down on his shoulders, and he had to face it all.
"Not alone." Plague reminded him, the cat wrapping around his head as it morphed back into his mask.
He had so much power, yet because of that he was responsible for taking down Hawkmoth, his own father. How was anyone supposed to figure out how to do that?
"Lockdown lifted." The automated voice spoke out all around, Adrien realizing that what he just discovered could be revealed to the world. Not yet, not until he figured out how to handle it.
Ladybug, with a red and black remote, watched as all the plating began to pull away. One by one the armor returned to its hiding place in the walls. Wow, this was probably one of her most direct lucky charms. Hopefully it will still help when she faced the akuma that-
"HELP!"
Lila?! Ladybug saw the girl rushing up to the window in a panicked frenzy. Pushing one of the glass panes open, Lila practically jumped into her arms. "What's going-"
"Get me away from here!" She all but shouted into the heroine's ear. "He's trying to kill me!"
"Who?"
"Cat Noir!"
Ladybug wasn't sure she believed that, but if it meant getting this girl out of Adrien's house she would assist. Jumping over to the wall along the perimeter of the property, Ladybug let Lila down onto the sidewalk. "Was Cat Noir akumatized?"
"N-no, I was. Maybe he was too I don't know!" Then she ran, fleeing from the danger as fast as she could. Ladybug glanced back to the home, unsure of what had happened inside or what she would face but she hoped what Lila said wasn't true.
Given that the girl lied about being friends with her as Ladybug, and probably making up all sorts of big lies to be popular at school, there was a good chance she was lying again. But she sounded terrified, not bothering to talk just flee the moment she could.
Ladybug looked back to the house, jumping back through Adrien's window and landing in his torn up room. It was a mess in here, so many things broken beyond repair and claw marks covering everything.
Was Cat Noir ok? Was Adrien? Where were they?
"Ladybug."
The girl jumped, turning to the bedroom door to see Cat Noir standing in the frame. He gave a short salute, walking up to her and in seemingly complete control of himself.
"What happened?"
"That girl was akumatized, also had a sentimonster." Cat Noir explained as he looked around at the mess, picking up a photo of Adrien's mother, staring at it for a few seconds before resting it on the desk.
But Lila was back to normal, that means he had to beat her in some way. "You faced them alone?"
"I'm never really alone." Cat Noir tapped his head. "My kwami has been pretty vocal lately."
That's right, he mentioned something like that this morning. "But what about the akuma? If I don't cleanse it then-"
"Hawkmoth released her." Cat Noir cut her off, already leading her to the window with his arm. "Guess he didn't see a way to win, or maybe he had to go to the dentist."
"Wait!" Ladybug grabbed his hand, pulling him further into the house. "What about Adrien? He lives here and-"
"He got out safe." Cat Noir calmed her down, reaching out to lift her other hand holding the spotted remote. "There's a chance he might be brought back here if you use your lucky charm to fix things."
Habit restrained her from doing it immediately, because usually her lucky charm was used to end the fight, not just for clean up duty. Yet Ladybug trusted her partner, tossing her remote up to announce "Miraculous Ladybug" and have everything repaired. As she glanced around, she didn't see any sudden materialization of Adrien, the girl hoping he was still alright.
Cat Noir's tense shoulders seemed to relax, the boy giving a short squeeze to her hand. "Thanks Ladybug."
"Y-yeah." The heroine felt the weight of his words, how he clung to her, and relied on her. Cat Noir still needed her in some way, as both Marinette and Ladybug. When he pulled away to jump over to the window, she only wanted to have him by her side for a little longer. "Hey, um, Cat?"
"Hm?" He stood balanced in the frame, Ladybug suppressing an urge to yawn as her body realized there was no more crisis to be awake for.
"I'm just um, wondering if you wanted to do something soon. It's been crazy and we haven't really spent much time together outside of trying to save Paris."
As she awaited his response, Cat Noir lingered in place. "I'd love that, but there's something I've got to figure out right now."
"What is it? Maybe I can-" Her words were cut off by a yawn, Ladybug cursing her own body for demanding sleep right now.
"Sorry." Sticking to the outside of the building, Cat Noir turned his body towards the city that hunted him down, away from his home. "But this is something I have to figure out myself. See you."
With barely any effort, he pushed off from the house to soar dozens of feet before whipping out a line to swing on. Ladybug was alerted by the beeping of her miraculous, knowing she should get home sooner rather than later. Maybe she could get some sleep right away, then maybe Cat Noir would tell her as Marinette tonight what was going on.
Everything was back to the way it was, almost. Gabriel walked through his repaired home, no signs of damage, everything back to working order, and even his more lethal systems were restocked, all by the power that Ladybug held.
Only one thing she couldn't fix, was Nathalie's worsening condition. She used the peacock miraculous too long and exerted herself too much, her body shutting down against her will. Carrying her sleeping form to her room, Gabriel would have to call in a doctor to make sure her immune system wasn't compromised.
Though he already knew what was wrong, and no healer could help her.
There was much work to be done, so much so that he began looking through Nathalie's schedule for him and began to clear out some of the workload. Today was a cruel reminder that his efforts were putting several people at risk, not just the people he akumatized or himself but everyone in his home. This was also not the first time Adrien had been the target of one of his villains.
What if Volpina had darker intentions for Adrien while he was distracted?
His son, the one that he had continually pushed harder and harder this last year to be the best he could be, but also pushed him so far away. He missed the old days where Emilie would arrange for them to do family activities, keeping him in place to not be too absorbed into his work.
Determined to make things right, wanting to preserve his wife's influence, Gabriel went straight to his son's room after tending to Nathalie.
Tapping his knuckles along the door, the man called out to the boy. "Adrien? May we, talk for a moment?"
Quiet, he should be studying right about now. Perhaps he had headphones in and couldn't hear him. Slowly opening the door, he peeked inside to see what his boy was doing. "Adrien?"
No one inside, the lights out. Did he possibly sneak off to be with his friends at school again? It showed how little trust there was between them if Adrien couldn't do something his own age with the strict life Gabriel set out for him. So many mistakes kept coming to his attention, Gabriel wishing he didn't betray Emilie's wishes for him.
His phone rang, the man aggravated by the interruption until he saw who it was calling. "Adrien? Where are you?"
"I'm, away right now."
"Listen Adrien, I want to talk to you." Gabriel's voice might have come across more stern than he liked, but this was too important to pass aside. "Tell me where you are and I'll have your bodyguard come and-"
"I'm not coming home."
Of all the times Adrien was closing himself off, Gabriel wished it wasn't now, not while he was trying to fix things. "If you want to be out with friends for a while longer, I'll allow it but-"
"No, I mean I'm not coming home. Not tonight, not tomorrow….I found things that, make me wonder what kind of person my father is."
Did Adrien?...no, he couldn't have. "Adrien please, let me explain and I know you'll understand. Please come home, I'm sorry I haven't been as close but I want to fix that."
"I…don't know if I can trust you anymore." Those words shattered his heart, Gabriel immediately switching to another app to begin tracking where Adrien was. Error?! This was supposed to be the greatest that money could buy how could it not track a simple phone?!
"Until I know if I can or not, I won't be coming home."
"Adrien wait!"
"Goodbye."
Across Paris, crouched atop the highest point in the city, Cat Noir pulled his personal cell phone away from his face, staring at the contact image of his father. The man was calling him again, but he already said everything he needed to. Dropping the device, Cat Noir watched it flip around through the air, gaining speed until slapping against the concrete far below and snapping apart. Gazing back out towards the wide twinkling lights of the night, Cat Noir left behind his life as Adrien.
From now on, until Hawkmoth was no longer a threat, he was only Cat Noir.
Adrien, as far as the world was concerned, was no more.
Cat Noir is officially a stray now.
Planar-Walking-Entertainment: Yeah, to me it was the obvious choice for the symbiote name. I always imagined Lila was partially delusional, expecting everyone to easily bend over to her will and entitled to only the best despite living a constant lie.
Kamen Rider Sentry: Chloe has been buried for weeks. I'm not gonna dig up her body.
AlterInk: Looking back at the show, the yo yo and the staff have so many functions it's hard to keep track of them all. One time Ladybug was able to look someone up and immediately get their address, so their powers can clearly access the internet and possibly bypass firewalls. It's crazy, and the symbiote would only enhance that. Sometimes symbiotes even demonstrate being able to hack computers just on their own.
I'd say since it's the symbiote accessing Plagg's powers and passing them to Adrien, I'd say the 'adult' rule applies. So yes, Cat Noir can spam cataclysm so long as he's fed.
Ruby Warrior Girl 730: If it wasn't for the big reveal Plague might have killed off Lila, she got lucky. Unless she proves to be a recurring threat she'll be spared. Knowing Lila though, she'll only make things harder for the heroes.
MrMateusz: It's not so much as making new weapons, it's just adding the already existing claws onto the staff. I do agree on the fan art part, I really want to see someone sketch out this version of Cat Noir
SSJB312: I think Adrien got a wake up moment seeing how ruthless he can be when drowning in his own new power. Lila was spared, given a chance but let's see how long until she throws it away.
Next chapter I'll have the big reveal that Cat Noir is in possession of the cat miraculous on top of his own powers. This one I needed to set up for Hawkmoth's personal arc.
Fire turtle: The spikes make up the rough shape of a jagged blade while the staff is a hilt.
Sailor Dragonball 87: Don't know if you'll see this but this symbiote is Plague, not Venom. I don't think I'll have Eddie Brock but I am incorporating some movie elements.