Although it was the weekend and the sky was dark, Collége Françoise-Dupont was abuzz with activity. A particular class of students was bustling to and about one of the second-story classrooms; they were moving boxes (some of which were wrapped), hanging streamers, and arranging tables and chairs.
"Dudes, this party is gonna go down in history! You won't believe the tracks I got lined up for tonight!"
"I won't believe if you ignored Marinette's clear instructions to keep away from the crazy rave dance music! Where is that girl, anyway? She's supposed to be here with the cake, and she lives next door, for pete's sake!"
"You're the one that would know, miss BFF!" a higher-pitched voice snarked.
"No, not that wall! Markov's schematic clearly labelled the snack table as being against the wall across from the windows!"
"Affirmative, my calculations determined that obtaining refreshments will be 31.2% more convenient in that position!"
"Why did your calcumajiggies demand we set tables together anyway? You try carrying both of these all by yourself!"
"Everyone, please, calm down! This won't be fun for anyone if we're all fuming at each other the whole time."
"Hey, someone's coming! I think it's Nathaniel! Aurore, you said he wouldn't be here for another five minutes!"
"I did! He didn't text me anything about being early! Quick, everyone hide!"
"But we're not ready yet!"
"You sure that's Nathaniel? Looks like Marc to me…" someone said quietly.
"Oh yeah, that's definitely Marc, thank goodness. Don't scare us like that, Mylène!"
"I'm sorry!"
"Oh, and there's Marinette with the cake! It looks so yummy– even from here!"
"Great, that should be everyone, then! Wait, Alix, wasn't that new friend of yours supposed to come with you? Lucy or something? Remind me why she was invited, again?"
"Lila, her name's Lucille, and she was invited because I wanted her to meet all you guys and Nathaniel was cool with it. She said she was running late from practice and wouldn't be by for another hour or so."
"Excuse me, pardon me, cake coming through!"
"Woah, that's a lot bigger than I expected! You gonna need some help with that?"
"Relax, Kim, I've been working in the bakery lately, so this is literally a cakewa– wu, wah!"
Everyone gasps.
"Phew! See, nothing to worry about!"
"Don't scare us like that, Marinette! Poor Marc looks like he's seen a ghost!"
"Aurore, don't announce that to everyone! You're only making him feel worse."
"Now kids, what's going on here?"
Everyone suddenly grew quiet as a grey-haired gentleman walked into the room. Mr. Monlataing was their 'supervisor' for the party, which is to say he let them use his art room as a free space for it and unlocked the doors so they could get in on a Saturday night. He was still around in case of emergency and to lock up afterward, but he had otherwise allowed them to plan their night as they wished and wasn't trying to interfere.
"Uh, sorry, Mr. M," Alix spoke up. "Were we being too obnoxious?"
"Oh, no, it's quite fun hearing you banter back and forth," the art teacher said with a smile. "I just wanted to make sure everything was going alright. Rose is right, try not to get too worked up, or someone might end up going one step too far and saying something that causes a real problem. Nathaniel's birthday is an important occasion to him, we certainly wouldn't want to spoil it."
"Definitely not," Mireille agreed.
"Hey, uh… he says he's here," Marc interjected, holding up his phone.
"What?" Alya exclaimed. "Everybody hide, for real this time!"
Nathaniel felt nervous going up the stairs. This was why he hated surprises, and he was grateful that the others had decided to tell him about it ahead of time. Still, this was the largest birthday party he had ever had… and it would be a lot of socializing for a guy like him. It was out of his comfort zone.
Room 33 was tucked in the corner right near the right-side stairwell, so he could see that they had closed the door even before he got to it. Taking a breath, he grabbed the doorknob and turned it, opening the door to view an admirably decorated room. Majestic purple valances drooped down between the curtain rods in front of the windows. The large sculpting platform sat in the far corner and had its place taken by one of the normal art tables, which was stacked up with presents. The other two had been moved together against the right wall; one held up a beautiful sheet cake frosted with a red-orange gradient with the black half-lidded eye of his favorite shirt decorated on it, and the other displayed a variety of charcuterie and other snacks. All three had been draped in tablecloths matching the valances. The statues had been moved to the edge to make room for plastic chairs arranged in a semicircle, but they had also been decorated with streamers, lights, and balloons like they were dressed to party, too. He couldn't help but smile.
His classmates and friends were all poorly attempting to hide behind the tables, the supply chest, the loudspeakers, and the various art pieces. It really wasn't a good room for this sort of thing, especially when their purple party hats all stuck out like traffic cones.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAYYY!" they all shouted, leaping out from their hiding places.
"Wow, guys," he said, his smile growing wider, "this is all so amazing!"
"Of course it is, because we're amazing!" Alix responded. "And so are you, buddy! I hope you're ready for the best night of your life!"
"Yeah, we're going to blow the roof off– um, I mean, have a pumped but not too overbearing night of celebration!" Nino laughed.
"Really, words fail to describe how in awe I am," Nathaniel said. "So… where do we begin? Cake? Presents? I'm afraid that I'm unfamiliar with birthday party proceedings."
"Why not both?" Aurore answered with a mischievous smile.
Soon, everyone was lined up to get their slice of cake from Marinette, and once each got theirs, they moved to bring the pile of presents over to Nathaniel, who sat in a chair facing everyone else.
"I didn't know your bakery made cakes this large," Ivan wondered as his slice slid onto his plate.
"We don't, usually," Marinette explained. "It's a special request we take for medium-sized parties like this. Not a lot of patisseries in Paris offer it; it's something my dad started doing since we can use our bread and pastry machines together to make them. But I made this one all by myself, with my own two hands!"
"You did a great job, Marinette," Mylène complimented. "It's too bad we're going to eat it all."
Marinette laughed. "Well, that's kind of in its nature! Can't have your cake and eat it too!"
Once everyone had received their serving and gathered around, the auburn-haired boy began to open the presents. Most of it was nice art supplies or merchandise of the Miraculous heroes or his favorite anime. Marc got him a nice canvas of the two of them holding up the final version of their comic's first issue.
After all the gifts had been opened and gathered back on the table, Nathaniel spotted a forgotten little box, striped and held with a bow, that had been hidden among the rest.
"Oh, what's this?" he pondered as he picked it up.
"Aw, man, can't believe I forgot about that!" Nino said, surprising a few of the others.
"Is that from you?" Mireille commented.
"Actually, it's from Adrien. He had me bring it since he couldn't make it."
"Huh," Nathaniel replied. "How thoughtful of him."
He pulled the ribbon on top to loosen its hold and remove the top. Inside was a note and a figurine that made his jaw drop.
Delicately, he pulled out a scale model of himself on a stand, just small enough that he could fit it in his palm, except that it wasn't dressed like him. It had been painted with a white top half and black bottom half, transitioning in the middle and with black zigzagging stripes over the white, and a black circle in the middle of his chest that had red, yellow, and blue circles placed within it in a triangle shape. His hair was styled into tufts instead of his smooth combed look, and it stuck out downward from a black beret. His eyes were concealed by a plain black domino mask, and his right wrist was covered by his drawing tablet.
"Hey, isn't that…" Marc began.
"… yes… it is…"
The figurine was of Mightyllustrator, his persona from the Ladybug comic.
He stared at it in awe for a few seconds before someone pulled him from the trance.
"Hey, what's his note say?" It was Kim.
"Oh, um…
"Dear Nathaniel. Sorry I can't be there at your party. I know how much your comic means to you, so I contacted my friend over at Musée Grévin and commissioned this for you. Who knows, maybe if your comic gets popular, they can make more! Anyway, enjoy your time with everyone. Happy Birthday. –Adrien."
"Awww, that's so sweet of him!" Rose exclaimed.
"I can practically hear it in his voice…" Marinette added wistfully. She was blushing and staring into the distance.
"Yeah… I'll have to thank him at school," Nathaniel said, looking downcast.
"You seem unenthused. Is… this because of your last birthday?" Alya inquired.
His green eyes blinked. How very observant… not as if her skill as a journalist had been in doubt.
"I suppose it is… though I don't know why. I have no reason to dwell on the trainwreck of last year, because I've gotten a new muse for my art, and," he stole another look at Marc, "a writing partner to share it with from the event. I certainly have no complaints to air about this one, I'm grateful that you all put this together for me."
"Still, being akumatized isn't something you just 'get over'," Alya replied. "Trust me, we've all been there. Some of us, like me… very recently."
"Having all your insecurities broadcast all over Paris is never fun," Myléne agreed.
"Even worse, you broadcast them, and then you don't even remember doing so," Nino added.
Max sighed at that. "And it doesn't even end there… I mean, do you guys ever wonder like I do, whenever I go somewhere new, if people recognize your voice from all the cringe statements you made as an akuma and are judging you over it?"
"Definitely, which sucks because they're not even that accurate," Kim answered. "I get this sick feeling whenever I'm near the Pont de Arcs. I hate that Hawk Moth prays on those little never-supposed-to-be fantasies that we don't even mean. Nate, it totally makes sense to look back on that with disgust."
"Hey now, cheer up, everyone," Lila suddenly countered. "Aren't we here to have fun tonight? Let's not ruin it by moping about the past. Otherwise, Hawk Moth might decide to pay another visit."
The dim light of the moon began pooling into a dark observatory as a lens opened its cover blocking a large window. It was a display that always pleased the one inhabitant of the room, as it heralded the time to reap what misery the chaotic elements of life had thrown in some poor fool's path.
Hawk Moth refrained from his normal commentary as he looked down upon the silver brooch in his palm. Tonight, he was going to run an important test whose success was necessary for the completion of a greater scheme. Gabriel was technically supposed to be taking care of a business matter with a retailer, but the window of opportunity for this akuma was slim and only existed on this particular night, so Nathalie would have to handle it for him. The reason for this test was that if he wanted flexibility in scheduling to keep planning his attacks, then he would also need to be flexible in how he planned them. Because, as Jubilenie showed, sometimes an amok is the right tool for the job, even if Chat Noir was potentially capable of Cataclysming them… which was also why, sometimes, both powers would be needed simultaneously.
Mentally preparing himself, he pinned the Peacock Miraculous below the Butterfly, it attaching seamlessly into the supersuit material.
"Nooroo, Duusu, Unify!"
Once again, Duusu barely phased into existence before being recalled back to the Peacock, his indigo painting it as its five eyespots lit up red. It sent a lighter purple pulse out across his suit, flaring out his black collar like wings as an overcoat formed over it, spread out to his hand and down towards his waist, where it split and circled to his back.
The Peacock Fan formed in his right hand, which he brought up to his face. A large eyespot, black with a purple rim, formed over his right eye, with the spot itself a transparent purple so he could see. He grinned and opened the fan, leaning on his cane in a pose as the transformation completed.
The grimoire had warned of the stress of combining multiple miraculouses, but if Ladybug and Chat Noir could pull it off, it should be easy for a man of his conviction. He supposed he ought to have a name for this particular transformation so his targets would know he meant business. Something grandiose like a peacock, but still intimidating. Definitely not Peacock Hawk or Peacock Butterfly, despite the latter being a real animal. Actually, anything involving the word peacock would more likely be made fun of than taken seriously. Perhaps the unnerving of the eyespots, which hawk moths also had, or how the spread tailfeathers loomed over the body. Yes, something shadowy…
Shadow Moth. That would do. Now that the matter was settled, he could move on to the second half of the test, since it was the much harder and more important one. Duusu had told Nathalie that creating humanlike sentimonsters was incredibly difficult, and ones with humanlike intelligence were even more so. It was a fact most infuriating, since it meant the mistake that led him and Emilie to this point had been doomed to failure before she even put the brooch on. It only furthered his determination to reverse that mistake.
Gabriel could feel the lingering damage of a roomful of akumatized victims, but he only had one target in mind tonight. There was only one there who fit into a particular mindset that could test the extent of this difficulty, one who existed in the small overlap of knowing what an akuma was like and having a strong hatred for a sentient being who has been akumatized, while also having had the faculties while akumatized himself that he could direct the sentimonster effectively.
He pulled a feather from the fan as one of his butterflies flew up to meet it. Transferring his cane to the other hand after it closed the fan, he opened his palm, which he then closed around his two vectors and imbued with dark power that saturated them to a deep purple and an indigo. His empowered butterfly knew its task, and with a wave of Shadow Moth's cane, instinctively flew out the gap in the center of the view to the streets of Paris, the feather fluttering around the wind of its wingbeats as if it knew to stick close.
Some time after the main festivities, the circle had broken into its usual social pairings. The members of Kitty Section were gathered together discussing band stuff, but during a lull in conversation, Rose suddenly released Juleka's hand and shifted her position to be closer to the other girl in the group.
"Oh, Mylène, I just remembered something I wanted to ask you about. A little hush hush, if you know what I mean?"
Juleka nodded ever so slightly, but the other couple looked confused. Rose gently took Mylène by the hand and snuck away while the taller girl turned Ivan's way to explain that it meant her special penpal was involved.
"I'm confused about this need for secrecy."
"Well, normally, it pertains to info that Prince Ali has mentioned in a letter that's not supposed to be public. But in this case, I actually just wanted to separate the group!"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Marinette was right at the park last month. We should try to socialize with everyone instead of keeping to our same couples all the time. But you and I both know that Juleka and Ivan wouldn't do that on their own, so I did it this way! I bet they're already striking up a conversation!"
She glanced over at them subtly to see that they were both standing there awkwardly and not saying anything.
"Well… maybe soon!"
Mylène's eye was caught in another direction, however. "Oh, look, is that Alix's friend? I haven't seen a girl like that around school."
Rose followed her gaze to an impressively tall blonde wearing a goldenrod-yellow t-shirt and brown mid-thigh khakis, with matching sneakers. Immediately, the girl was approached by Alix and Kim.
"Yo, you finally made it!" Alix exclaimed.
"So this is your new buddy buddy? Almost as tall as me!"
"Kim, why are you acting like you've never seen her before? You literally watched our football game together."
"Yeah, but I didn't know her then! I was watching the game, not checking out the ladies! I'm a taken man, you know."
Alix rolled her eyes, and Lucille looked at him fretfully. She didn't seem especially discomforted or disappointed by that statement… in fact, she looked a little relieved. But she was glancing more at Alix than Kim, and it was with a look Rose could identify from kilometers away. So that's how it was…
Interestingly, Alix either hadn't noticed it or wasn't interested. She had always been one of the boys, so her kinship with Nathaniel and being unfazed with Kim's obvious showing off made sense, but if even girls looking at her like that didn't spark anything, then it made her wonder…
The triad was joined by another girl, one who walked with confidence trailed by flowing brown hair. "Oh, so this is the Lucille we've heard so many stories about! I'm Lila. It's a real pleasure to meet you," Lila greeted, outstretching her hand.
"Um, hi?" Lucille replied, limply accepting a handshake. "I, uh, I didn't know you were telling stories about me, Alix…" she continued with a blush.
"Not that many. Lila just has a flair for the dramatic."
"I've heard enough through them to get a good impression. You're a rising football player, is that right? I happen to know some talent agents looking for young new acquisitions, if you're interested."
"I– well, I'm not that good, yet… I dunno, if you wanted to, maybe you could watch a game and see for yourself…"
"Why, I'd be delighted! I'll have to find a time to fit it in with my busy schedule, between all my charity work, visiting with important figures from around the world…"
"You know," Alix said suddenly, "how about I introduce you to everyone else? We do have a party going on."
"Um, sure. It was good to meet you, Lila."
"Let's talk again soon!"
When Lila turned around, Myléne was standing a short distance behind her, looking a little unhappy.
"Lila… I thought you were working on your lying habits. You know, I did some research on ways to retrain your responses, I use it for–"
"Oh, shoot! I did lie to her, didn't I? Sorry, I was so worried about making a good impression to Alix's special friend that it came out automatically and I didn't even realize… I'll need to go apologize once Alix has shown her around. It might ruin the mood to talk about it with everyone around, and if she finds out before she knows me better, she might never trust me again, just like Marinette!"
She sighed with anxious intonation. "But that's what happens when I dig holes for myself, so I guess I need to bite the bullet…"
"Okay, okay, maybe you should wait until you feel a little more comfortable. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities."
The brunette smiled at her. "Thank you so much for understanding. Oh, I'm so nervous now. I think I need some water, if you'll excuse me."
Myléne didn't smile back as the slender girl walked towards the refreshments table. She didn't think having a friend with a mental disorder could be this frustrating.
Nino was also at the table, oddly by himself. He gave a rather leery look to Lila and turned the other way to leave, only to be startled as Max was standing right next to him.
"Nino! I was not aware that you appreciated the fine creations of Syncretia!"
He paused for a moment to process the statement and identify the electronic lo-fi track that had recently began playing through the speakers across the room. "Oh, uh, yeah! Of course I do! This is a great focusing tune when I need to work on an assignment. I figured it'd be appropriate for the chillaxin' vibes tonight, y'know?"
"I do find it very fitting! I feel that I have underestimated your variety of genres in your mixing skills. Say, have you done any work with VGM?"
"Since I don't know what that stands for, I'm going with no!"
"Video game music. And not just bit-tunes like the ones you made for Miraculous All-Star Brawl; modern games have music spanning all kinds of genres! It is a big well of untapped potential you might find intriguing for your hobby."
"Oh, well in that case, I might just have to give it a look!"
Alya re-entered the room then, but as she looked around for her boyfriend, she took in how everyone was intermingling, and she smiled. She soon spotted who she was looking for; after catching some of his conversation, she decided that she could let him geek out for a bit on his own. Instead, she singled in on the singular person by himself, as she had recently learned of his proficiency as a writer and was curious to know more since publishing was such an integral part of journalism.
"Heeey Marc, how's it hanging?" she greeted as she approached.
"Um… okay, I suppose. Can… can I help you?"
"As a matter of fact, I have some questions for you! You're a writer, isn't that correct? How long does it take for you to write one of your comic strips? Would you say your final product looks very different from your first drafts? Do you have any tips for when to use certain words?"
"I, um, I dunno, I'd say maybe, um…"
"Alya, please let up on the poor boy!"
"What– oh, Marinette!" The girl had waded through the crowd gathering around Lucille to reach them. "Are you snooping on my conversations, girl?"
"No, you're just not at all discrete when you get into interrogation mode," she replied with squinted eyes. "Which you should be careful about, some people like Marc here are shy and don't like being pressured into answering a lot of questions at once."
The boy exhaled. "Yes, um… that. Thanks."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Marc," Alya said. "I guess I got a little too passionate…"
"It happens. Can't say Nathaniel and I haven't had our moments."
"Speaking of which," Marinette said, "where is Nathaniel?"
"I… don't know. I thought he was just here."
The red-haired boy stood in front of the mirror in the bathrooms, his eyes still glued to his figurine. The others were wrong: Mightyllustrator wasn't a reminder of The Evillustrator; Mightyllustrator was a reflection of The Evillustrator. Mightyllustator was a reflection of himself.
He remembered his time as an akuma. His desire wasn't a twisted, unrealistic fantasy, it was only to give Chloé the payback that they would agree she deserved… and he even gave that up, just so he could enjoy time with his crush at the time, Marinette. The power he had been given was to make his drawings, his dreams, come to life – to make his imagination into reality.
It was because of this that Mightyllustrator existed in the first place; he easily could've picked an original appearance or more unique power for himself. He could've gone with a regular superpower like the ones he and Marc made for the American capes, or changed things once Ladybug started calling allies and made up some miraculous not under Ladybug and Chat Noir's care, like a lot of competing fanfic writers did with their OCs. But he didn't. He chose the powers he had already had, because they were everything he could've wanted to make the world a better place. Expressing that was his true inspiration for Miraculous Adventures, but even Marc didn't quite understand that about him. Nobody did…
Nathaniel didn't notice the butterfly or feather until they landed in his figurine, painting it black and causing the purple outline of a butterfly to appear around the edges of his vision. Only, the Hawk Moth that appeared looked a little different.
"Welcome back, Mightyllustrator."
"I'm not going to fa– wait… what did you say?"
"That's right, Mightyllustrator," the man repeated, his emphasis of that name causing Nathaniel to flinch. "I am not Hawk Moth, and I am not here to make you a villain again. I am Shadow Moth, and I'm here to transform you into a hero like you've always wanted."
"What…?"
"Firstly, I must apologize for nearly disabling your power last time, which you surely remember from your unique experience. All you wanted was to use your powers for good… and fortunately for you, I believe in second chances. Right now, we are both in a special position that allows me to grant you your wish, for I, too, have undergone a transformation to improve myself and my powers. With it, I can bestow upon you your very own villain to fight so that you may prove your worth to Ladybug and Chat Noir. You might be familiar with her as the nemesis from your comic… Queen Wasp."
"From… my comic…" Nathaniel gasped, his face contorted as he wrestled with the idea. "But… you want the miraculouses… for evil…"
Shadow Moth gave him a furtive smile. "Why, of course a hero would never agree to take such things, now would he? Your only job will be to make sure Queen Wasp doesn't get them, just like your story. Simply accept my power, and all of your dreams shall come true."
The redhead's face dropped, then relaxed as he opened his eyes. "How could I say no to that…?"
His figurine's dark color spread, a matching blue substance mirroring it in the mirror, until he was fully coated and a second human figure had formed next to him.
Everyone heard the buzzing before they knew what the disturbance was.
"Nino… are the speakers not working properly?" Marinette asked. Marc was covering his ears next to her.
"They should be… lemme check."
He muted the music, but the drone remained, and the disquiet rose.
Then Rose squealed and pointed. "Out there!"
A cloud of glowing yellow stirred up in the courtyard, erratically patterned with black from the bodies of the magical bees that composed it.
"That looks like an akuma!" Alix cried. Lucille was already pulling up the SNAP app – Système de Notification des Akumas de Paris – next to her.
"Not just any akuma, it's Queen Wasp!" Alya amended.
The door crashed as Ivan slammed it shut. "So Chloé got akumatized again?"
"Wait, isn't Nathaniel still out there?" Mireille asked.
Replies to either were cut short as several bee monsters punctured straight through the door. Their glowing eyes glowered down upon them, but as they rose their stingers to attack, the rest of the door burst into fragments, and a disk-like apparatus was tossed inside onto the ground. With no apparent source, it began spraying water above it to distract and agitate the bees.
The source then leapt up from the first floor, looking very familiar to them all as he drew on his tablet to create a clear dome around them.
"N-Nathaniel?!" Marc exclaimed, pushing through the others in front of him with surprising confidence and pressing himself against the smooth wall.
"It's Mightyllustrator. Don't worry, Nathaniel's safe," he said with a wink.
"But how do you–"
"That's not important. What matters right now is staying safe while I handle Queen Wasp."
As the bees regained their composure, he erased a hole in the floor beneath him, falling through just as they came in to attack for him. The others tried to look down the hole or out the door for signs of the battle, but they were too far away to see much.
"Do you think he's coming back? I don't know if I like being stuck in here…" Mylène asked.
"I see why Marc's the writer now," Aurore added snarkily.
"Hey, wait a sec," Kim interrupted. "What happened to Marinette?"
"I… don't know. I thought she was just here."
Each stroke was deft, yet meticulous. Swift, yet precise. Artful, yet still writing.
Adrien placed his pen down with a heavy sigh. Those were the mantras his Chinese tutor consistently repeated to him, at least, but as he stared at a two-thirds blank sheet of paper, he knew they weren't going to help him today. He couldn't bring himself to care right now about how perfect his characters were… much like himself.
"Adrien, what is the matter?" his tutor, an older Chinese woman, asked. "You don't usually have this much trouble with the simplified characters."
Comments like that certainly aren't helping.
Both of their attentions were pulled to the angry buzzing of their phones from their place by his computer, where the tutor had insisted they be left so they would not distract from the calligraphy. The blond quickly registered what was happening, standing instantly and moving into action to see what foreknowledge the alert could provide him.
"Ey, and where do you think you're going, young man?"
"It's an akuma alert, and another bad one! Hurry, in here!"
Already seeing the glowing minions rise up above the buildings, he half-pulled her over to the bathroom and towards the shower.
"Is that any way to treat your elder! Your father will be hearing about this! What's got you so worked up, anyway? They won't come here with all the security."
The model had to keep an unfriendly scowl from appearing on his face. "Akumas can tear right through the defense system; trust me, I've seen it before. The bees don't like water, so use my showerhead to defend yourself. I'm going to the guest room to spread out."
He almost slammed the door on her, refusing to listen to a second of her angry retorts. The demands of his father to be here, the demands of Ladybug to be there… no, he knew he shouldn't conflate the two. He'd rather throw away his Miraculous than let Chat Noir become the boy that cat walked down the runway.
"Plagg, claws out!"
His mask and ears appeared, then his costume spread out across his arms and down to his feet, quickly joined by his belt. He steeled himself as he vaulted to his window. If nothing else, he wouldn't let any responsibility of Adrien get in the way of protecting his friends again.
Ladybug leapt up to the railing of Françoise Dupont's upper floor, swinging around to avoid a pod of wasps that flew up after her. Another rounded the corner from the courtyard stairwell, causing her to run away from them until a third group flew out from the door at the end of the hall. She readied her yo-yo shield, but then a shimmering blue forcefield trapped the minions in a cube.
"Did someone call for a hero?"
Mightyllustrator, as he was calling himself now, leapt down from the ceiling onto the cube, flicking his pen out from his tablet like it was one of those kids' top games to form water balloons already in flight to smack the wasps on the other side.
"Evill– Mightyllustrator, what game are you playing here?!"
The wasps that had been contained began jabbing their enclosure, quickly forming cracks that caused Mightyllustrator to wince.
"There–gah!– isn't one. I have been called upon to help you against our most heartless enemy."
More wasps came diving at them, which the self-proclaimed hero hurriedly erased. His imperfect job left a head and some limbs to smack against the wall behind them.
"We need to get out of here, there's not enough room to us to maneuver," Ladybug commanded. "Follow my lead."
Just as the constructed wall shattered, the spotted heroine entered a graceful dive into the courtyard, catching the attention of the wasps. She landed on her hands into a front spring, making a full rotation in the air as she grabbed the bars supporting the basketball hoop like a trapeze to loop herself even higher as her followers crashed into the backboard or the brick walls of the stairs as they missed her on her ascent. She landed three-point style on the roof, where Mightyllustrator swooped up from below riding a giant book that Ladybug recognized as Reverser's old mount.
"How's this?" he boasted.
"It's ridiculous, utterly ridiculous."
They both spun around to see the queen of the hive float up from the outer wall, a chorus of buzzing accompanying her as she lounged in a bee-shaped vehicle made of bees.
"That's rich, coming from the person riding flying barf," a fourth voice yet contributed. Chat Noir elevated himself onto the roof with his staff, taking his place on the other side of the bookcraft from Ladybug.
"Well, some of us are rich and can do as we please," Queen Wasp retorted airily, before standing and looking at her with piercing fury. "Like taking your miraculouses. Get them!"
The entire abdomen section of the swarm broke off to fly at them like a drill.
"Get on!" Mightyllustrator instructed, drawing handlebars onto the pages that the two wielders grabbed onto before he shot off into the sky with two yellow masses on their tail.
"Okay, can someone explain what's going on?" Chat inquired over the howl of the wind. "How are there two akumas?! What's the deal with your power?"
"Why do people keep asking me that?!"
Without warning, Mightyllustrator entered a nosedive, swooping down under one of the bridges crossing the Seine to soar near the water. The wasp hoard mimicked him.
"Because your power was given to you by Hawk Moth! Are you telling me you really see yourself as a hero?!" Ladybug told him.
"I'm here to help you! Only Queen Wasp is the supervillain here!"
"And what do you think's going to happen once we defeat her? Do you plan on staying as Mightyllustrator for the rest of your life?" The two heroes were alternating their arguing.
They came upon Île Saint-Louis bisecting the river. He kept right, and each of the swarms took one half… which was when he suddenly looped up, across, and around, weaving between Notre Dame's twin towers and curving to fly back the way they came.
"I don't know. Shadow Moth will probably re-akumatize me to help the next one!"
"What, Shadow– forget it, do you even hear what you're saying?! He's playing you! Why would he create more enemies for himself?"
The artist ducked down onto his glider as they entered the cramped space of Sorbonne Université, making cutting turns to confound the bees further. They made it through and cleared the fence to La ménagerie to duck down behind a building, where Mightyllustrator erased the handlebars and turned his book up to sit atop it.
"I'll make this simple. My mission is to defeat Queen Wasp. You can either join me or not."
"Go," Ladybug said just as simply.
"Fine." He flipped his ride back down and flew away.
"Are you sure about this?" Chat questioned once he was out of sight.
"Do I look unsure to you?"
He flinched at her sharpness. "I'm just saying, if we make an enemy of him, it'll be even harder to deal with Queen Wasp. She's not an easy akuma."
"That's implying he was really on our side in the first place, Chat. He's clearly just like any other akuma, having lost his common sense from the akumatization and acting purely in his own interest."
The black cat hero thought back to his exchange with Tiger Prawn last month. It was true that no one had yet to reject an akuma outright, and Hawk Moth had enough sway to make sure of that, but it wasn't always for a lack of trying. How did akumatization really work? What was Hawk Moth, or rather, Shadow Moth's agenda with this? How were they – and the normal Parisian citizenry – supposed to build resistance to this sort of thing?
"I can't deny the soundness of your reasoning… but what should we do?"
"What I always do when I'm not sure how to proceed, of course!"
"Lucky Charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo into the air to exude a multitude of hearts. The hearts then formed together into a small red replica of a well-known Parisian tower with black spots, which then fell into Ladybug's hands.
She gasped at the object, staring at it in her palm. Chat peered down at it.
"It's a miniature Eiffel Tower?"
"It's a key chain of the Eiffel Tower, and everything makes sense now. Our enemy, our real one, truly is heartless."
"You mean Shadow Moth? You think him changing his name really makes him crueler?"
"Yes."
The total lack of inflection caused him to pause. She wasn't joking.
"I apologize, but… I don't understand."
"Do you remember when Mayura made a fake Ladybug?"
"Of course. She was so like the real deal that even I–" he stopped mid-sentence. "No… No!"
"Yes. Shadow Moth changed his name because he's using the Peacock Miraculous. The Queen Wasp out there is a sentimonster."
"That's– can that actually be true?" he hissed. "Those sentimonsters from last week were also modeled after us… but were they alive? Is this Queen Wasp alive? Can the Peacock really create copies of people?"
"I don't know, Chat Noir. She's based on an akuma, but… I really don't know. And it pains me to say that it doesn't matter. Even if she is alive, we have to free Nathaniel from the akuma and purify the amok so she stops attacking Paris. Her death… can't be avoided."
Her partner was gazing the other way, but she couldn't tell if he was on lookout or simply pondering internally. "But how are we going to do that? How do we know Shadow Moth isn't holding onto the amok and can keep this up infinitely?"
Ladybug clutched the keychain in her hand, closing her eyes to concentrate on her recollection. She had had conversations with Master Fu about the limits of the Butterfly and the Peacock after the more unbelievable incidents like Miraculer stealing their powers, the triple akumatization of her friends after that fake video from Félix, and of course, the sentimonster clone of herself, which still greatly perturbed her. There was also that akumatized sentimonster, but Fu understandably didn't want to talk about it. Sadly, his training had been too incomplete to know if they had any beyond the prevention of self-akumatization, and the grimoire did not provide any useful or specific information on it. She had to assume that this plan wasn't about needing to game his powers, but rather forming some sort of strategy against them.
"Technically… it wouldn't be infinite if you Cataclysmed it, which he knows you can do now. So he has to be relying either on us not figuring out that she's a sentimonster, or on something preventing you from getting the opportunity to do it... or maybe, someone."
"So he akumatized and amokized Nathaniel instead so he could protect the sentimonster out in the field? But doesn't he want to stop her as much as we do?"
The spotted heroine looked at her Lucky Charm again. "No… he doesn't. He wants to be Mightyllustrator.
"That's why he couldn't comprehend what would happen after Queen Wasp's defeat. Think about it: comic book superheroes wouldn't be interesting without a villain to fight. As long as he has powers, Nathaniel has a reason to keep Queen Wasp around, which means stopping us if necessary. It's two superpowers for the price of one in Hawk Moth's book, and he doesn't have to lift a finger to maintain it."
"Wow… after all that talk about this not being a cartoon, he turns around and preys on someone to make them think that it is. You're right, it's heartless. It's despicable. We have to put an end to it."
"Hold on, we're not going to be able to take them both head-on. We'll need some way to get one of them to stand down, and I have a feeling finding the akuma and amok isn't going to be that simple. Fortunately, I have just the right plan to figure it out."
Ladybug swung up to the central roof of Notre Dame where Mightyllustrator and Queen Wasp were duking it out. The art hero had decked out his book with a windshield and twin water blasters that he was using to stave off the latter's swarm as she continued to recline on the throne of her minions. The spotted heroine wondered if he was actually challenged or if this was some kind of display to try and earn her or Paris' favor.
"Mightyllustrator!" she called. "I'm here to help!"
He looked her way and reversed Reverser's ride towards her slowly, keeping most of his attention on preventing the wasps from breaking past him.
"I'm glad you realized that working together is better. Where's Chat Noir?"
"He's not coming, because he couldn't swallow his pride. He's going to be waiting for us to defeat Queen Wasp so he can Cataclysm the Bee Miraculous. It's not going to happen like it does in your comic."
Mightyllustrator got fidgety at that statement. "That's risky with her minions, but whatever, we can make it work. Do you have a plan?"
That's clue #1. She doesn't have the Bee. Ladybug smiled and held out her key chain. "Yes, thanks to my Lucky Charm. I'm going to need to get up close to her."
"Right. Hop on and I'll do my best."
She did as instructed, going to hold onto his waist in lieu of available handlebars, but he suddenly grabbed her left wrist with his hand and redirected it up to his chest area.
"I need my waist for pivoting our ride."
That raised suspicion in her, but she didn't let it show. Instead, she made sure to touch him delicately as she wrapped her other arm around to embrace him as her hold.
"Right. My bad," she whispered as innocently as possible.
She could see his cheeks fluster with color, but he remained focused on his opponents. She thought about how much Chat Noir had struggled with that; it was a shame that none of this was actually real, because she could see Nathaniel being a powerful ally if given the opportunity.
An opportunity I have the power to give him… she reflected on, before shaking her head. She needed to be like him and not get distracted.
Once he had begun battling the wasps again, she snuck a look at where her hand had been about to be placed. She saw a pouch had been tied around his waist.
That's clue #2.
"Ahahaha, look, wittle Wadybug has to rely on her wittle boyfriend to do the fighting for her! How pathetic!"
"Chloé, it doesn't have to be like this! You don't need to resort to Commands to try and fix your life!"
"What are you blabbing about? With Shadow Moth's power, I can force everyone else do whatever I want to make my life perfect!"
"Relying on someone else's power to get what you want isn't going to make you happy!"
"Yeah, right! Says the person using a miraculous to live out her dreams of being a hero!"
"This isn't my dream! I didn't ask for this!"
"What?" both of the others exclaimed, but Queen Wasp quickly regained her composure. "Enough of this, Ladybug! Shut her up, minions!"
Clue #3. We have a winner. Migthyllustrator remained entirely quiet as he turned around and took to the sky.
"It's true! I'm not a bigshot hero that fights comic book monsters! The only monster is Hawk Moth for turning life's victims into his tools! Can't you see that?"
"Do I look like a victim to you? I enjoy being akumatized! I'll never change no matter how many times you try to force your help upon me!"
"You are a victim, Chloé! You've allowed yourself to be defined by how others see you. But you also recognized that it was wrong to create your own problem just so you could look good while solving it. Do you remember what I said after you became Queen Wasp the first time? Even heroes are capable of making mistakes, but a real hero will fix them. Make the right choice. Don't repeat the mistake that was made then."
Her last statement was pointed directly at Nathaniel, who was pointedly looking straight forward as Shadow Moth's insignia appeared around his face. She tightened her hug on him.
"See, there's Shadow Moth right now, telling you to keep doing his dirty work for him by fighting us! This is the same man who said to all of Paris last week that he's not a cartoon villain!"
"Both of you stop it!" Mightyllustrator cried, turning and smacking her away with his arm. She stumbled back off of the book with a cry, leading to his own as he realized what he had done.
"Ladybug!"
The world seemed to stop as she fell, the wasps around them remaining still.
"The pouch!" she cried, which confused him greatly. Then he realized what was happening.
An unexpected intruder swiped his pouch right off of his waist, one black hand tearing it open and grabbing the figurine inside with a black burst and a quick proclamation of, "Cataclysm."
The yellow in the sky remained as still as the stars as Ladybug and Chat Noir used their weapons to lower themselves to the ground, the latter setting down a de-akumatized Nathaniel. His giant book crashed down in the background.
"No more evildoing for you, amok and akuma," Ladybug said, opening her yo-yo like a ladybug opens its wings to the glowing white compartment within and swinging it to charge up.
"Time to de-evilize!"
The yo-yo caught the akuma and amok in one swoop, closing up to perform its magic purification as it returned to her hand.
"Gotcha!"
She opened the compartment again, and a regular white butterfly and feather flew up and away. "Bye-bye, you two!"
Next, she threw the miniature Eiffel Tower in the air as well.
"Miraculous Ladybug!"
It burst into a swarm of ladybugs, which flew around the city to clean up all of the wasps and cure the petrified people. One group dove into Collège Françoise-Dupont to clean up the holes in the building and remove the barrier trapping everyone in the art room.
"Pound it!" both miraculous holders cheered as they bumped fists.
"Grr!" Shadow Moth raged, throwing the Peacock Fan onto the ground. "You catch on to my ruses so quickly, Ladybug! Somehow, someday… I'll get you when you least expect it."
The lens began closing back over the observatory window, filtering away the soft moonlight until only darkness remained.
"And on that day, you'll wish you had never worn that miraculous to begin with."
With figurine in hand again, Nathaniel continued to stare up at the sky where Queen Wasp's minions had been.
"Nathaniel?" Ladybug asked, tapping his shoulder. "Do you want us to take you back to the school?"
"I don't know if I can show my face around there anymore. They must think I'm so childish for this."
"Don't be silly," Chat Noir said, placing his hand on the boy's other one. "I've actually read your comic. You and your writer have some pretty interesting ideas in there."
"Y-you have? W-we do?" Nathaniel exclaimed, looking embarrassed.
The green-eyed hero smiled easily. "Of course I have! I love reading what our fans have to say about us. Uh… except the ones that take advantage of our costumes, if you know what I mean."
Ladybug cringed. "There was one sicko who threw me into a dumpster without any– you know what, let's stop talking about that. I think the point is that it's natural to put some of yourself into your work. Especially when you do so literally."
"I can guarantee that whoever gave you that figurine did so because they also believed in the power of your ideas," Chat added.
"Yeah, but…" he started, pausing to look at the figurine again. "You know, maybe you're right. And I can use this experience to further develop these ideas."
"That's the spirit!"
He hesitated before speaking again. "So, Ladybug, I need to know… what you said about yourself, and about Chloé… was it all true?"
"You… remember that?" Ladybug asked, startled.
"Yes. That's how it happened last time too to get me into this whole conundrum. Please, tell me."
"Every word of it," the bluenette confirmed, looking somber. "Chloé was able to become Queen Bee because I lost the Bee Miraculous, and she did it to impress her abusive mother who doesn't even remember her name. She was a good hero when I called upon her after that. The reason she can't be that anymore is because her identity being public is too risky. Hawk Moth has already preyed on her multiple times over it. That's all there is to it."
Her earrings beeped, having just one spot left. "By the way, if you want us take you back, it's a limited-time offer."
"I'd rather not walk half the length of Paris to get there, if that's alright."
"I can take him," Chat offered.
"Before you go," his partner interjected, "I'd like to talk to you for a second." She turned to Nathaniel. "We'll make it quick." He shrugged.
She threw her yo-yo up high, and Chat placed his staff and extended it to follow her. She brought them both up all the way to the top of the cathedral.
"Is everything alright, Ladybug? I heard what you said out there too."
"Yes, well, that's not new information to you."
"No, but it has helped me understand the Chloé situation better. And it sounds like you haven't given up on Chloé as much as you said at Marchanderie."
Ladybug crossed her arms. "It doesn't change what the situation is. In an ideal world, we could help her, but that's not the world we live in. I even had a civilian contact who I thought might have an in, but they said no. Regardless, I didn't ask to talk to you about her, or about me. I want to ask about you."
Chat Noir crossed his arms too. "What about me?"
"I still want to try and help you. What I just said also applies to you: we should consider all the options available to us before giving up and saying our situation can't be helped. If I can do even a little bit, it would be better than nothing."
"… okay."
Her eyes widened. "Wait, really?"
"Yes. Like I said, this has helped me understand the situation better." He allowed himself to relax, before looking at her with determination.
"There's a lot I still don't know about, well, a lot of things… but that doesn't mean I can just give up because it's getting hard. A friend told me recently that you can't turn back in the middle of a big change, and I've realized that I can't turn my back to all those who care about me, and who I care about, with so many changes happening in our lives. It might take a lot of time, but I have to trust that we'll find the right answers eventually."
"Chat, I…"
She started to reach for his hands, but stopped herself. "I'm proud of you. Let's say the Secret Special Spot, middle of next week?"
The cat hero thought for a moment. "I can make that work, but I'll have to figure out how and then message you a specific day later."
Beeps from their miraculouses served as their buzzers. "I appreciate it, chaton. Let's get going."
They both disappeared into the night.