Susie/Alice was in a bit of trouble.

She was currently pinned under one of Malice's claws, her gun out of reach. The twisted angel was almost drooling over her, a second mouth that had been hidden under her face opening and closing.

"Once upon a time there was an angel," the fallen angel intoned. "And she was beautiful. And loved by all. She was perfect. No matter what Joey says." Malice angled her head so that her tearing eyes were looking straight at Susie/Alice. "But those days can come back. Dreams come true, Susie. Dreams come true."

Alice glared in defiance. "Do your worst," Susie said. "I don't care about perfection anymore. And I will no longer be Joey's pawn!"

Malice hissed. "I'll take your insides so that I will be perfect!" she cried, her other hand morphing into a long blade.

Several thing happened in quick succession.

Malice brought her bladed hand down at her.

A bolt of red lightning struck Susie/Alice.

And a can of bacon soup struck the side of Malice's head.

Susie looked to her right. Boris stood there, another can readied to be thrown. She looked back at Malice just in time to see her get blindsided by some man swinging a Gent pipe upside her head.

"On one hand, that's my face. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure she was going to eat me, so you can see my conflict."

Susie stilled. "Who said that?" she asked. That voice was very close to her.

"I did... wait, who was that?"

Slowly, Susie looked to her left.

Right into the face of Alice Angel.

The two of them screamed in identical voices and tried to move away from each other, but to no avail. Susie looked down to see that Alice's body was coming out of her waist. "What the hell?!" she cried.

"Language, and maybe we should hold off on this can of worms until nothing is trying to kill us?" Alice asked, calming down quickly.

"You've got a point," Susie replied, before getting up with some difficulty. When she was upright, Alice handed her back the Tommy gun. "Thanks... wait, how did you reach over there?"

Alice stretched her hand out, much farther that it should be able to. "Cartoon logic?" she asked, shrugging.

"Let's go with that," Susie replied.

"So does this count as talking to yourself?"

"Not now!"

With some difficulty, Susie started firing on Malice, who had downed the man and was about to stab him. It distracted her long enough for the man to get out of the way and for a barrel of ink to land on her.

"Thanks for the save," the man said, before making a double-take.

"Hi," Alice said, waving.

"That's new," he said.

"Tell me about," Susie said, reloading her gun.

"NO NO NO NO!" Malice cried, covered in ink that was beginning to steam for some reason. "WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE!?" She let out another roar... before letting out a gurgle as the point of a blade jutted out of her chest. The twisted angel tottered a couple of steps before falling on her side dead, her halo dimming before bouncing on the ground and spinning to a stop. The body then dissolved into ink.

Standing where the Malice had been was another Alice Angel, this one holding a makeshift sword. As she was wiping off her blade, she was joined by a Boris with a mechanical arm jumping down from a higher level where the ink barrel had come from.

"Thanks for the save," the man said.

"Our pleasure," the other angel said.

Alice stretched out her arm and grabbed the fallen halo, dusted it off with her other hand, and set it above her head. "So what do you think?" she asked.

The new arrivals blinked. "What are you?" the other angel asked.

"Wow, second time today. Seems like a popular opinion."

"Good golly gosh," the Boris with two arms spoke up, one of his ears sticking up. "Does anyone hear that?"

Alice raised a hand to her ear. "You mean the dun-dun-DUN-dun?"

That was when the ball of energy exploded.

-MToLaCNBatIM-

Chat Noir moved through a dream.

As he went deeper into the energy field, the harder it got to move. The air was charged with energy, so thick he could almost taste it. When he jumped, he basically floated through the air. As he moved through the dissolving halls, he passed various objects suspended in midair.

And the deeper he went, more and more of those objects gained black dots.

But finally, he came to the center of the orb.

A immense being floated in the air facing away from him, seemingly tranquil. Softly glowing wings burned through the red tint the air had. Long legs extended downward past his point of view, with glowing white spots. Three shells that resembled coat tails more than anything else. Two more shells that mimicked sleeves.

"Tikki!" Chat cried. "Wake up!"

The kwami did nothing.

Chat gritted his teeth before noticing several floating objects in the void. "This is a stupid idea," he said to himself, "but it's the only one I've got."

With that, he jumped to the table that was floating nearest to him.

Fortunately, the table was able to bear his weight, and soon enough he was jumping from object to object.

"Feels like I'm in a video game," he said to himself. "And me without a 1-up."

After several more jumps, he stopped on a giant button. Now he could see Tikki's face. The impossibly blue eyes of the giant kwami were looking at her hands, all four of which were holding a ball of energy.

Chat jumped a few more objects forward. "Tikki!" he cried again.

This time, the kwami stirred, turning her head and looking straight at him.

CHAT NOIR.

It was less Tikki speaking words, and more like she was creating them directly.

"You have to stop!" he said. "You're going to bring the place down or something!"

Plagg hadn't said exactly what would happen, but he had a pretty good feeling that it would be bad.

I CANNOT.

"What? Why?"

I NEED TO SAVE HER.

"Save who?"

Tikki didn't answer, only moved a hand until it was positioned in front of Chat's platform, palm facing up. After some trepidation, he jumped to the hand, bracing himself as Tikki moved it to her other hands.

Inside the ball of energy was Marinette, who looked like she was sleeping. Or at least she would have been if not for the big knife sticking out of her chest.

SOMETHING HAS INFECTED HER. I CANNOT HEAL HER UNTIL IT IS REMOVED.

"Why can't you do it?" Chat asked.

I AM THE ACT OF CREATION. IT IS AGAINST MY NATURE TO DESTROY.

"Okay then." Chat grabbed the knife and pulled it out surprisingly easy. Once the blade was removed, something erupted from Marinette's chest, something that hurt to look at.

DESTROY THE INFECTION SO I CAN SAVE HER.

Chat started to call for his Cataclysm, but he then remembered the new power Plagg had revealed back at the Archives. Placing his hand on Marinette's, he intoned, "Catastrophe."

A flash of black went across Marinette, before congregating at her chest wound. An unearthly screech echoed through the air, as whatever-it-was retreated before vanishing, leaving only an inky black scar.

Tikki then smiled. Picking up a nearby bead, she lightly tossed it up and intoned:

MIRACULOUS LADYBUG.