Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

Closer, ever closer to the truth about the mysterious Damien BenDarian, not to mention others. But will the truth set anyone free?

Has it ever?

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Don't own, you know.

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When Home Is Not Home

Adriel's apartment: an electric tornado formed, depositing two humanoid forms in the middle. "Nice," said Damien, looking around. "The Home Office treats you well, Adriel. I'm glad."

Her smile looked a little shaky. "No need to be envious, Damien. I won't be here long. At least, I hope not."

"I'm not envious, Adriel." Which was true. During his long life, he no longer cared about his living quarters. "I'm just glad your HO gives you the respect you deserve."

"Well, thank you. I only hope," she frowned, "that your confidence in me is not premature."

"Alright," he said, plopping down on the sofa, "You said you wanted to talk. What about?"

She came over and sat by him, propping her arm on the back of the sofa. "There's not a lot I can tell you, partially because there's not a lot I know. What I do know, and can share, is that we've detected certain areas of this 'brane that have become…unstable. In a couple of cases, there have been incursions."

He nodded. "I know. I dealt with one." And he told her about Better, the being that had possessed, albeit temporarily, the body of Kagami Tsurugi.

She gasped, and he looked up. In all the time he'd known her, he'd never known Adriel to express such surprise. "Damien! That…that is beyond bad. You believe she came from the Darkness?"

"From her reactions to the world, and her description-perhaps I inadvertently coached her on that-I would say there's a strong possibility of it. Since life can't arise in the Darkness, she must've somehow fallen into it. But how she got out, even she didn't know."

"Do you think she's in the Earth area still?"

"I don't know. My senses have not been at their best of late. I don't know why. But I can't sense her. If she's here, she's not close by.

They were silent for a bit, the comfortable silence of two people who should not be friends but were anyway. "So…" she began, "You're going to confide in this 'Ladybug' and her people? Is that wise?"

"If I don't warn them, terrible things could happen to them. I'm the frontline warrior in this battle. They can have Monarch and whatever he plans to throw at them; I've confidence they can handle that. But the Darkness, or what it might hide? Or the Faceless Ones? They'd be basically defenseless."

She curled her fingers through his. "You won't fight alone."

"Adriel, I know you're under orders, probably not to interfere. Me, I'm the renegade, the maverick. It won't matter if I get in trouble; I stay there anyway. But don't get in trouble with your High Command. I couldn't bear that."

"I won't abandon a friend, no matter what his polarity. But," and here she was silent for a moment, "There's something else I've sensed, that perhaps you should know about." At his quizzical look, "I've sensed a very strange energy signature close by. It seems to come and go, as though searching for something. But I can't pinpoint it.

"And I've also sensed two incursions here in Paris, once distinctly different from the other. That one seemed to emanate from a sidereal universe, whereas the other…I'm not certain, but I believe it came from some other, definitely more malevolent state of being. Not the Darkness, but it wouldn't have to be to cause massive havoc. I know you've sensed those magenta K sub 1 lines…"

"Dee was telling me about those. Yes, I sensed them, but I can't tell much about them."

She smiled. "Deeana's a very smart girl. And I can tell she cares about you a lot, even with all the insults and criticisms."

He chuckled. "I suppose that's just little sisters for you. Even though we're not blood-related…"

"Having no blood, you couldn't be," she laughed. It was much better, hearing him in a good mood. No matter what their metaphysical or macrocosmic alignment, nothing could change the fact that they were the best of friends. Highly unlikely friends, but friends, nonetheless.

He stood up, the black choker around his neck unfurling into a cape-like garment. It seemed to move with a mind of its own. "Well, I'd best go. Dee's supposed to be on her way up here as soon as she can make it, and I'm certain my apartment won't meet with her approval, in any sense of the word. I'm sure she'll make my life a living home…"

Now she sobered. "Damien, that place hasn't been home to you for more years than humans have numbers for. Why do you insist on calling it that?"

"Force of habit, I guess." But she could sense what he didn't say, perhaps even better than what he did say: No place is home to me, anyway, and hasn't been for…a long time now.

Where does one go, when home is not home?

The shadowcloak swirled around him, and he was gone.

…

"Lucky charm!" shouted Ladybug. Her ultimate weapon, to use when all else had failed…

But what fell out of the sky, into her grasp, was definitely not what she'd expected.

They'd been fighting an enormous monster of some undetermined sort. It was easily the size of Gorizilla, but instead of being some sort of recognizable creature, seemed to be made out of mud. Curiously solid mud, and their attacks so far had been futile. Still, their tactics used in fighting Adrien's akumatized bodyguard had proven effective, and the monster was trapped, halfway into Paris's subterranean tunnels. But it was levering its way out…

They needed a Hail Mary pass. Fortunately, she had one.

Or did she?

"Anytime you're ready, milady!" shouted Cat Noir. He'd already used his Cataclysm to disintegrate the street beneath the monster, trapping it halfway into the street. But that wasn't going to hold, as the creature-whose movements somehow reminded Ladybug of the original stop-motion animation film, King Kong-began to climb out of the trap.

But what was this, that had fallen out of the sky? It looked, for all the world, to be a burlap sack full of something…several somethings…

But on closer examination, it looked like a garment of some sort, tied at the waist, arms, and neck. She swiftly untied it, to reveal…

…potatoes?

But the lucky charm had never failed her yet. She cast around with her Bugvision, trying to see how to utilize these things…but all that got highlighted was the potatoes and the monster's mouth.

What the hey?

Oh, well. Worth a try. She picked up one of the potatoes. "Hey, Ugly!" The creature turned its eyeless face towards her, uttering that menacing groan that seemed to be its only sound. "Open wide!" She wound up and threw the potato at the creature.

To her dismay, the potato went past its head, but it snapped around, and a long, forked tongue shot out, snaring the projectile and drawing it in. Still, the mouth and potatoes were highlighted. She readied and threw another…then another…then another…

Suddenly, the creature's midsection ballooned outward, and the expression on its nonface took on a decidedly miserable cast. In the next second, it exploded, its bloodless white interior flesh, if that's what it was, showering over the street. Cat Noir, who'd rejoined his partner, grabbed a garbage can lid and used it as a shield to keep the disgusting stuff off them both. "Well," he said, as the bits and pieces hit the ground, "That was…new."

"Good thing the monster blew up," said Ladybug. "I'm all out of potatoes."

"Is that what those were?" She handed him the burlap sack to examine.

It looked to be, for all the world, a blouse or pullover shirt fashioned from rough burlap. While it could have been worn by anyone, the design of the shirt-for such it had to be-was decidedly feminine in appearance. Especially the upper front torso, which sported two prominent protrusions. An inscription across the front read: "Perfectly programmed potatoes! Grow anywhere! Only from J. C. Jensen in SpaaaAAAaaace!"

"Ah, milady?" he said, folding the shirt and handing it to her. "Perhaps you'd best be the one to carry this. I mean, let's face it: people might think the wrong thing if they see me carrying it." She took it out of his hands, a puzzled look on her face. "But if they see you carrying it, it'll be pretty obvious you're just returning it to its rightful owner."

To the end of his days, Cat Noir, aka Adrien Agreste, ever the innocent in some respects, never did understand why she chased him all the way down the street.

To be continued…