Someone isn't too happy with the results of the Ultimate Mecha Strike III Tournament...
A/N: I AM SO SORRY THIS IS A DAY LATE
I FORGOT TO POST
ANYWAY
Surprise! Did you think I'd just brush over the akuma from that episode? Now for something not-so-different!
"YEAH! Go Max! Go Adrien!" Marinette cheered, waving a handmade banner along with the rest of their class as the two boys took their places on the bench.
The crowd was electric with their enthusiasm, and as the match began, Felix slipped into the seat next to her with a whispered, "Am I late?"
"No," she answered, smiling. "They just started."
Nodding to himself, he folded his arms and watched the match.
Max's expression was pinched with concentration, and Adrien's gaze, though determined, was the most emotive part of his face.
A quiet cough next to her caught her attention.
"So," Felix began, "you gave up the chance to play with Adrien... why?"
Marinette looked somewhat taken aback for a moment. "A chance to play with Adrien? What do you mean?"
"Well, you and my cousin... aren't you...?"
"I mean, I consider us friends," she explained, brow furrowing as she tilted her head. "Does he consider us friends? Because at this point it would be reeeeally awkward if he didn't..."
"Huh." He sat back in his seat, dumbfounded. "You're friends."
"Oh, good, he does." She wilted a little, putting a hand over her heart in relief. "Here I thought adding him to the class schedule board already was taking things too fast. Rose wins that debate. Again."
Her words hung there for a few moments, before Felix turned to her with a raised brow and an incredulous, "Wait, you have a class sch-?"
The opposing team's robots falling, defeated, interrupted whatever it was he was about to say, along with a roar of excitement from the crowd. Adrien and Max leapt from their seats, their hands smacking together in a high-five.
"The winner of the tournament is... Team Collège Françoise Dupont!" The announcer exclaimed. "Congratulations!"
Max looked happier than she'd ever seen him before, laughing along with Adrien as they exchanged good-natured handshakes with the opposing team. While one of them looked exhausted, the other seemed... quiet. Contemplative. Putting on a smile, one could see a congratulations on his lips as confetti rained down from the ceiling.
Marinette's phone buzzing frantically on her bedside table was what woke her from a sound sleep.
Mumbling to herself, she felt for the device, and as she grabbed it and raised it, she squinted at the screen before her eyes went wide, suddenly alert. "Akuma?!"
Tikki lifted her head from the other side of the pillow, frowning. "Where?"
"Akuma spotted near Place du Châtelet," she read slowly. Then she sat up with a gasp. "Adrien! Tikki, Spots On!"
Citron peeked out from the closet with a worried-sounding warble as the girl transformed. Ladybug looked over to the Sentibeing with her own pinched expression. "That's where the Agreste mansion is," she hurriedly explained. "If my hunch is correct... I think Adrien's in danger."
Citron looked even more distraught at this, fully poking their body out of the closet and making their way over to her as she moved for the skylight. With one sweeping motion, they took her hand in their gelatinous body, their sounds almost resembling human words.
"It's okay," she reassured, giving the being a smile. "I'll be back soon."
It took no time at all for her to swing her way towards the Agreste mansion, and as she got close, she heard townspeople screaming and an alarm system blaring.
"Adrien!" She screamed, seeing a giant robot pulling its hand out of a destroyed wall of the mansion. A blond stood there like a deer in headlights, looking up at her frantically.
"Ladybug!" He called, reaching for her as she swooped in, scooping him up just before the robot could shoot him.
"He's after Max! Help him!" He urged, looking back at the mech with a particularly sick-looking pallor.
"What about you?!" She demanded, landing on the roof safely.
"I'll be fine," he reassured her with a smile. "Just go! Quick! Before he makes it to Max's apartment!"
"I'm not leaving you here alone," she stated firmly. "C'mon, let's figure out where we can hide you until Cat and I can beat this thing."
With a good-natured eye-roll, he allowed her to hoist him up and swing away, just before the beam took out part of the roof.
"Oh, it even sounds like something from Gundam," she heard him mutter in annoyance.
"Is your cousin safe?" She asked, searching the Parisian streets.
"Felix? He should be," he answered tentatively, gripping tighter to her neck as she made a particularly-daring swing over the canal.
"Good. As long as the robot's only targeting you and Max, that'll make it easier to keep track." Her voice trailed off into a murmur as she paused for a breath atop the Arc.
Adrien stared out into the chilly winter sky, a surprisingly troubled expression on his face.
"Ladybug," he started.
"What?"
"Can I ask you for a favor?"
She paused, turning to face him quizzically. "What is it?"
"Leave me here. Go get Max."
"What?! Why?"
"Listen." As he grasped her shoulders, he seemed so intensely serious that for a moment it gave her whiplash to see him frowning. "As long as I keep moving, he won't find me. You focus on getting Max to a safe place, and then you and Cat Noir will be free to fight that robot."
"I can't just leave you to run around and get hurt," she insisted.
"Ladybug."
"You're being way too stubborn for-"
She stopped short, leaning in until they were practically nose-to-nose. 'Adrien' blinked, but didn't step away, confirming her suspicions. "Felix. Where's Adrien?"
"You figured...?" Confusion flickered through his face, and then realization dawned on him and he chuckled, for once not sarcastically. "I knew you were too smart to fall for it twice."
"What are you-"
"Here, let me down. I promise you, Adrien is fine. When that bloody thing broke through my bedroom wall, it mistook me for him and tried to blast me instead." With a huff, he cast a nasty look in its faraway direction upon hearing it roar. "Just focus on Max for now. I'll find a place to hide out until you cast the Ladybug Cure."
Studying him for a few moments, a distant roar made her heave a sigh, letting him hang on as she swung down to street level.
"Get inside, I don't care where," she instructed. "I'll wait for Cat Noir. Under no circumstances should you attempt to fight it yourself, got it? I don't want you to be hurt."
"With all this worrying, you might make me think you actually like me," he teased, making her flush red and splutter indignantly.
Max awoke from a sound sleep to a knocking at his window.
Squinting, he reached for his phone in the dark and suddenly registered a buzzing coming from it. As he read the akuma alert on the screen, he whirled around, only to see Ladybug peeking in. She waved, and gestured for him to open the window.
Scrambling in the dark, he got on his glasses and made his way to the window. Once it was open, he gaped at Paris's hero. "Ladybug? What on earth are you doing here at this time of night?"
"I think you're going to be targeted by an akuma," she spoke quickly. "I've already gotten Adrien to safety, and now we need to figure out a plan for you."
"Well, they don't know where I live... right?"
Both of them took pause as the mecha roared, sounding not quite far enough away. "MAAAAAAAAX!"
Ladybug gave him a deadpan look and he swallowed, nodding. "Got it. I'll get a coat."
"Nice of you to swing by, Ladybug," Cat Noir called in greeting as he landed in a crouch atop a building where the heroine was hiding, surveying the akuma from afar. "What's the situation? How do we defeat this thing?"
"The biggest issue is not getting hit by its beam," she observed with narrowed eyes. "If it hits you, it converts you into experience points that it uses to upgrade itself. Luckily it's still fairly weak considering it's the middle of the night, but with how much destruction it's caused on the other side of the city..."
With a grimace towards her partner, he finished for her, "It's safe to say he's already managed a few levels."
Huffing a sigh, she gripped a can of black-spotted spray paint. "I've already called for a Lucky Charm, but I can't get close enough to do anything yet. I hate to ask, but..." Giving him her best cheeky grin, she inquired, "I'll distract it if you manage to get its windshield?"
"Challenge accepted." Standing tall, he accepted the spray can with a smirk. "Just say the word, my Lady."
My Lady.
The nickname made her flush with warmth, and she nodded confidently. With her trusted partner at her side, there was no way they could lose.
"Miraculous Ladybug!"
As the swarm of magical bugs subsided, a groggy teenage boy was left rubbing his eyes, squinting in the dark of the night. "Wha...?"
"You doing okay?" Ladybug extended a hand, and although hesitantly, the boy took it.
"What happened to you?" Cat questioned, folding his arms across his chest with a flat look. "You were one of the kids at that gaming tournament this afternoon, right?"
"The... competition? Oh." The boy's eyes grew wide with understanding, and his shoulders slumped in shame. "Oh man... I lost my cool, didn't I? And in front of Ladybug and Cat Noir too. Man, I really am a loser."
"You are not," she gently reprimanded. "What happened?"
"I was just... so angry. I've been practicing for months. Literally months." With a shaky breath, the boy wrapped his arms around himself as he began to shiver in the cold winter air. "And I'm beaten by some punk kids? I was so angry I couldn't think straight."
"So you let your emotions override your reason," Cat guessed. "Because you lost."
"Chaton," Ladybug chastised.
"I know, I'm sorry..." With a miserable-sounding sniffle, the kid curled into himself. He didn't seem that much older than the two of them, but with his arms wrapped around his knees, he looked younger.
Ladybug looked him over with a pitying sigh. "Look, it's far too late to be having this conversation. I'll take you home. Cat, could you get Max from atop the Eiffel?"
Cat looked at her, bewildered. "You stuck him... on the Eiffel?"
"It was the fastest place I could think of," she lamely defended herself with a roll of her eyes.
"I suppose it worked, considering the akuma didn't think to go that way for once." With a huff of a laugh, he grabbed his bowstaff. "I got him, Ladybug. Go get some rest."
"Do you know where he lives?" She called, as he leapt into the air. He gave her a thumbs-up, and she shook her head with a smile.
"Now." Looking down at her akuma victim, she opened her arm. "Let's get you back to bed before you get sick."
The next morning came all too soon. Marinette stifled a yawn as she all but sleepwalked into her first class, slumping over her desk.
"Whoa, Marinette, you good?" Kim asked in concern, poking the side of one askew pigtail. "You look wiped."
"Akuma," she mumbled groggily.
"Oh." Nodding sympathetically, he set a thermos of coffee down with a hesitant addition of, "Uh... my mom says hi."
Peeking over her arms, she gave him a tired smile. "Thanks, Kim. Let her know Mama says hello."
The jock nodded, hurrying up to his seat when Max entered the room, bleary-eyed as well.
The room filled up slowly, some of them more tired than others, marking the path the akuma had taken the night before. Adrien and Felix's faces were inconspicuously dotted with concealer, and Adrien had to nudge Felix to keep him from accidentally rubbing it off on the side of his hand.
"Good morning, students," Miss Bustier began, all smiles as usual until she took in the state of her class. "Oh dear," she sighed. "What happened to all of you?"
"An akuma attacked last night," Juleka groused, not bothering to lift her head from the table. Beside her, Rose patted her back with a grimacing nod.
"Well, thank goodness that Ladybug and Cat Noir were there to save us," the teacher added. "If you need to take a few extra minutes to take a power nap, I will allow ten minutes of quiet time. But we must get on with the lesson!"
The students murmured various thanks, multiple of them immediately dropping their heads.
"Um... last night... that was close, Master," Nooroo spoke up timidly, fidgeting with their paws as the bearer of the Butterfly paced about.
"Yes, well, it's good fortune that those children are so gullible, I suppose." He retorted, adjusting his glasses with a sigh. "If Felix had not been there..."
The kwami bit their lip. Felix's arrival had been surprising, yet a welcome distraction for the user, they supposed. Would he have let his akuma go after his own son had Felix not been there to be the bait?
Deep down, Nooroo knew the answer. And it didn't sit well at all with them.
"Nooroo."
The kwami flinched, looking up. Gabriel was gazing into the painting of his wife again, tracing every last inch of her fabricated visage.
"Y... yes, Master?"
"... Tell me again, the limits of my Miraculous."
"I... beg your pardon?" The kwami hesitantly floated closer, large lavender irises focused on the man standing before them.
"December is practically here already, and yet I still don't have Ladybug or Cat Noir's Miraculous." He didn't look away from the painting, but the intensity in his voice made the immortal being shiver. "Tell me again. Tell me what it takes to fracture an item."
For just a few moments, the room was silent. Nooroo fought the urge to explain, fought with all their might until their face turned dark and sweat beaded on their brow. But as Gabriel finally turned to look them in the eye, their fear won - and they began to speak, magically compelled by the contract they pledged. "Well, as you know, sir, one does not simply 'fracture' a Miraculous..."