Guardianverse 3 - The Heart of the Darkness - BenRG (2024)

Chapter 1: A New Day Dawning

Chapter Text

“Markov! Stop the Machine!” With a flash of electric blue-white light, the machine-like armour known as Mettle turned into a brief hologram-like pattern of lights before they were absorbed into the smartphone mounted on a wrist-strap being worn by Max Kante. As it did so, a flash of blue light spat out of the screen and resolved into Markov, who looked around himself proudly.

Ladybug, resplendent in her fighting mantle with a simple silk robe in her colours worn over it, walked over to her friends and looked at the… Mon dieu, the new Miraculous… thoughtfully. “Astonishing, Max, truly astonishing.” Ladybug looked over at the young adept, Chong-Li, who had been recording the incident in elegant classical Chinese but had dropped his stylus as Max had de-transformed. “So, it has been this way ever since the Blackest Day?”

Max nodded. “I panicked when I couldn’t find the suit anymore but it now seems to be permanently stored in my remote’s memory as a holographic template. I don’t even want to imagine how it is possible for that amount of mass to be stored as data and energy!”

Ladybug smiled slightly. “The active force is magic, Max. I know that answer won’t please you.”

The bespectacled boy did indeed frown in annoyance and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose in an agitated manner. “Why can’t anything be based on solid and repeatable physical law anymore?” he muttered, receiving a consoling pat on the shoulder from Markov in response.

Chong-Li coughed politely and spoke in an apologetic tone. “The power of the Miraculous is beyond mundane understanding, M Kante.” He looked over at Ladybug. “It would be better if this new ‘Miraculous of Technology’ were entrusted to the Order for safekeeping…?” He shot Ladybug a pleading look which earned a very negative response from the superheroine.

“This Miraculous, if that is what it is, was formed around Max, Markov and their work, Adept Chong-Li. I don’t believe that separating them will achieve anything useful, especially given that Markov has independent sentience and I do not believe that any of the spells that the Guardians use would affect him in a predictable way.”

“Master…”

Ladybug gestured for silence. “Chong-Li, the most recent work of the Founding Grandmaster was the creation of the Prodigious of Virtue some 5,000 years ago. No new kwami has been defined nor any Miraculous forged since then. What we see before us seems to have been a random confluence of the maverick talent of a prodigy artificer and the magic of the Ladybug Miraculous. We are only guessing about the nature of what was created as a result and there can be no decisions made until we have a clearer idea of what this is.”

Chong-Li scowled but he couldn’t deny this. “All I am saying, Master is that we have the sacred obligation to protect powers like this and that M Kante is in unspeakable danger should news of this… whatever it is… reach the ears of the Dark Order!”

Max and Markov had been following the conversation in angry Wu Chinese by looking from one speaker to another and hoping to get a translation. Realising this, Ladybug switched back to French. “For now, I believe that Markov and his newfound power are safer with his friend and creator.”

The adept wasn’t happy but he was too well trained to obedience, even to a Master purely by the Council's arbitrary fiat, to argue any further. However, Ladybug did wonder just how long that would last. Not just about Max and Markov either.

~*~*~

The rooftop was really nothing special beyond the fact that it was more-or-less in line-of-sight to the roof of Tour Mountparnase. SPECIAL had thus highlighted it as the starting point where one could hopefully track down a particularly important fugitive who had fled in this direction. Chat Noir, now wearing his United Heroes badge as a belt buckle of his black, grey and green costume with its distinctive shoulder chains, was more than a little pleased that his Lady had chosen him to lead a team to track down that person. People called him a 'sidekick' but this reminded him that Ladybug trusted him as her partner and equal.

“She died here.” Ladydragon's pronouncement sent Chat's train of thought screeching to a halt. No-one needed to ask who 'she' was. After all, attempting to find Nightshade was the whole point of this mission.

No-one knew how Ladydragon could know that but no-one was willing to question something said with such an air of certainty. In response to Chat Noir's silent nod, Scorpia, Tempestia and Uncanny Valley began to slowly spread out from the point where the Champion of Shanghai stood, wearing a sad expression, looking for more evidence.

“Blood stains,” Scorpia said, crouching to look at her find. “Uncanny, can you get anything from them?”

“Low-energy blood splatter indicative of bleeding from a serious stab wound.” Uncanny Valley attempted a deeper scan and was astonished by her findings. “I am detecting carbonised traces on the roof,” the android girl finally remarked. “Bizarre ones: Organic molecules and calcites that have both been flash-heated to well past the point of incandescence but also electromagnetically displaced from each other.” Uncanny Valley felt the bizarre need to swallow. Was this… nausea? “Whatever weapon was used here, it is unlikely that the target had sufficient time to be aware of what was happening before all their biochemical life processes and synaptic activity would have ended instantaneously.”

The only thing that could have killed so thoroughly and completely was a magical attack. Chat could feel Plagg silently hissing in rage as he approached his sister and her find, so it was something done by a Miraculous. What Uncanny Valley had described had to be the only Miraculous attack that could disintegrate a target so completely other than his Cataclysm: The Vanquish attack of the Leo Miraculous; that meant Leonidas… his grandfather.

Chat scowled; it was obvious that, whether or not Nightshade had been working with the Lion's Pride, she'd turned the power of the Prodigious of Fire and Chaos on them too. Nonetheless it still shocked him that his grandfather would have responded with such a lethal effect.

Scorpia shook her head as she considered Uncanny Valley's words. “From what I know of the Lion of Crime, he would have made sure she knew what was happening. Paonne says that he likes it that way; probably why she was stabbed and only then blasted with magic.” Chat Noir nodded sadly in agreement with his twin.

“Here’s the proof,” Everyone turned to Tempestia; the blonde girl raised a familiar-looking wooden stick."Found this in a dark corner."

“A magic wand!” Scorpia gasped. She stamped down on her reflex to pronounce the discovery as ‘cool’ because this was something dropped by a woman that, supervillain or not, had been in the process of being disintegrated alive by a magical weapon.

Chat nodded. “Look at the decorative vine, leaf and berry carvings; I saw them in the CCTV recordings from when Nightshade triggered that plague of unnatural plant growth from on top of the Eiffel Tower. She was here.” Chat paused thoughtfully before continuing. “From what Miss Rose told M’lady, a wand-wielding mage would never let themselves be separated from their wand unless it is destroyed. So, there’s a good chance that this is where Nightshade was ambushed and murdered by Gr… Leonidas’s ‘team’.”

“For the Rat Prodigious,” Ladydragon said in a dark and dull tone of voice. “As the Guardians always warn, so long as you bear one of our magical gifts, your life is always in jeopardy from the evil.”

Uncanny Valley tilted her head as her sensors failed to properly categorise the composition of the artefact in Tempestia’s hand. “There are unusual quantum properties in that artefact, Tempestia. Please be wary as I cannot predict what effect it may have on you from prolonged exposure.”

Ladydragon stepped forwards and took the wand from her apprentice and put it in a red felt bag with arcane runes embroidered across it. “We will need to give that to the City’s magical authorities so they can call off the hunt.”

“Who was she, though?” Chat sounded aggravated. “Who was Nightshade?”

Ladydragon looked at the bag holding the dead witch’s wand again. “There may be magical ways to determine this and Ladybug’s allies in British Intelligence may have access to them but… honestly Chat Noir? I don’t think that we’ll ever know for sure unless someone who loved her makes a missing person report. Given her nature, I find it hard to believe that any such person exists.” With that, the gathered heroes had to be satisfied.

Chat Noir shook his head. “Okay, I’ll let Orbweaver know what we’ve found. She was hoping that this would end more cleanly though: A trial and a legal punishment.”

“I think that we would have all preferred that,” Tempestia said quietly.

~*~*~

Standing in Chloe’s hotel suite, Marinette reflected that she wasn’t all that comfortable being around any mechanism that originated in the laboratories controlled by Tsurugi Tomoe. However, she had to agree with Kagami and Chloe that the woman’s former house-servitor was almost certainly the only witness to what the woman had done, where she had gone and what her future plans might be. “So… um… I can call you Dawnie, right?”

It was bizarre to have this impression that a faceless robot was grinning smugly. “Miss Kagami prefers that and Miss Chloe has, for the lack of a better phrase ‘got into the habit’. You may do so too, if you so wish!”

Marinette offered the horizontal barrel-shaped robot a nervous smile and was relieved when Kagami entered from the suite’s outer reception area. As always since learning the truth about her mother, the Japanese woman was smiling only half-heartedly. Only Chloe seemed to have the ability to make her genuinely smile now. Of course, Marinette understood that. More than once, she’d been with Adrien and he’d started to think of his father, the disgraced and imprisoned terrorist and racketeer. It was so agonising and frustrating to watch people dear to your heart torturing themselves over other people’s choices for no other reason than they were their family. “So, Kagami, what can I do for you?”

Kagami opened her mouth and, as if a dam had burst, all of it came boiling out of her, seemingly in one breath. Her mother’s treachery, her plot to take control of the East Asian Dark Order and the region’s Miracle Box. Her threats to Kagami and the rest of the team and the horrible demand that she surrender the Dragon Miraculous and act as her mother’s slave as a price for surviving what was to come. “Kagami, this is horrible! Whatever you need, I’m here for you!”

Marinette hadn’t noticed that Kagami’s left hand was clenched closed until she held it out and opened it to reveal the inert Dragon Miraculous held within. “Marinette-same, I called you here to return this ancient and sacred heirloom of my bloodline and of your chosen duty. I must go to face my mother and prevent her plans from bearing fruit. However…” Kagami sucked in a deep breath. “However, if I fail, am captured or die in the attempt, the Dragon must not be potentially in my mother’s hands. I ask you to return it to its place and, spirits willing, if I return, we can discuss if I am still worthy of bearing it into the world.”

“Kagami, this is stupid! You can’t face that madwoman without a Miraculous!”

Kagami’s smile was bitter but there was a mysterious aspect to it. “Do you have so little faith in my abilities, Mari-chan?” Marinette blushed at the intimate suffix; Kagami was one of her paths not taken, after all. “I do not dare have it with me and I do not believe that I will need it with me.” The woman stood up straighter and looked directly into Marinette’s eyes, her amber irises alight with certainty. “All I will require for this quest are my training, my blades and my bow.”

Marinette couldn’t say that she understood her friend’s decision or the traditions of martial honour that were doubtless driving it but she felt that she was obliged to respect them. She closed her hand and felt Longg’s power within her grip. “Very well, if this is where your heart leads you, I must respect that. However, I refuse to allow you to go into the face of evil alone.” Kagami opened her mouth again and Marinette didn’t let her begin her argument. “Chloe will have told you that I am going to Tokyo. I will not interfere, Kagami, but at the very first sign that you are in peril, Ladybug will be at your side. That is my final decision on this matter!”

Kagami’s smile became crooked. “You are learning the mindset of a Master, my beloved friend. Very well, I will not dishonour you by demanding oaths and absence from this fight.”

“Damn straight!” Completely unexpectedly, Adrien and Chloe appeared at the doorway into the room’s outer chamber. Chloe launched herself into her girlfriend’s arms as Adrien sauntered up to Marinette and dropped a briefkiss onto a surprised Marinette’s lips. Chloe glared at her team leader. “If you think that you can persuade me or Pollen to say out of this fight, you’re crazy, Marinette. Obviously the idea of you going anywhere without Adrien is utterly ridiculous.

Everyone was surprised when Kagami started laughing. “I am blessed to have so many good friends. Yes, you are all welcome, for better or for worse!”

“Hopefully for better!” Adrien remarked dryly, making Kagami chuckle.

The Japanese woman suddenly seemed to be having trouble breathing and her eyes were filled with tears. “i am blessed… so very, very blessed to have friends such as you. I came to Paris not knowing what a friend is and I will leave to face my Destiny with truer friends than I ever imagined possible standing at my side.”

Chloe smiled up at her girlfriend. “Just friends?”

Kagami responded in Japanese. “Friends and more, my love.” The two women’s lips met and they embraced; Adrien and Marinette felt that it was the best time to take their leave.

~*~*~

Zoe sucked in her breath as she stepped out of the taxicab outside the Gare du Nord. This was the ‘no turning back’ moment although, in honesty, she knew that she’d never had any choice in her own heart about carrying out this mission.

Still, at least she'd been able to escape the hotel without too much fuss. She loved her father more and more with every passing day she spent in his company but he was such a suffocating presence in her life when he thought she was in trouble or needed help for something. She remained genuinely surprised that he’d let her sign up for the photography course at the South Bank College of Art in London without more argument at her being out of the country for the summer.

Fortunately, he was too focussed on the security for Chloe’s upcoming ‘business trip’ to Tokyo which, if Chloe’s plans went according to her intentions, would be the big ‘coming out’ of MDC.com as a recognised global name in visual design. With Emilie Graham de Vanily also involved, she thought it was unlikely that her sister and the other two guests of House of Harmony could go more than three steps without a crowd of security accompanying them. When she’d left, he’d been locked into his office in a planning and strategy session with ‘Auntie Em’, as she had been gravely instructed to think of her. Because of this, she had more-or-less been able to sneak out of the hotel before the man thought to assign bodyguards or make troublesome demands of the Dean of the College for special treatment or security measures on her dorm block.

Nervously, the girl adjusted her Prodigious, disguised as a bronze bangle with eight lapis stones around her left wrist. She leaned into the cab to pay her fare before heading into the station with her luggage in tow.

As she threaded through the crowded concourse to the platform heads, an odd through intruded into her mind. It had been a couple of months since she'd met that strange English boy, David, and had that mad adventure with that English superhero, Paladin. Now she was going to their hometown! Now, admittedly, London was a big place but she couldn’t help but wonder if she might run into them again, either as a civilian or in her costumed identity.

Zoe had to take a deep breath. Why did the thought of rescuing David as Tempestia or being carried across the skyline of London by Paladin excite her so? Ugh! She was as hopeless as Alya with her superhero fetish!

“Your attention please! The 10:15 Star Train service to London St Pancras International will depart from Track C, calling at Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy, Lille Europe, Ashford International, Stratford International and London St Pancras International. Passengers with first-class tickets should board coaches 4 to 10. Passengers with club-class tickets should board coaches 1 & 2.” No such exalted accommodation for Zoe, of course. She was travelling by economy coach class like any other summer student would. All the better for remaining unobtrusive and, hopefully, unobserved. She had no reason to believe that anyone knew that she was the Renren of the Prodigious of Virtue but why should she take any risks at the very start of her mission?

Towing her travel case and with a satchel of immediate necessities slung over her shoulder, she walked down the length of the train to coach 12, just behind the main buffet car, and clambered up into the air-conditioned interior.

As she expected, there were dozens of other European students heading off to London for summer courses or as part of the Gap Year travels. She put her roller-case into the luggage rack at the end of the carriage and found her window seat. Within minutes, she was in an excited conversation with two girls who were headed to London to start a course on film and TV makeup design. As she had planned, she was just one more anonymous traveller.

~*~*~

“David, your… uh… contact in the Office just sent me the list of flagged passenger lists for today.”

The sandy-haired young man turned to look at his friend, Joyce O’Byrne, the trainee reporter, who was tapping on her laptop in the generally-quiet technical library of the college where they were both temporary students. “Anything stand out to you, Joyce?” There might be something of interest because ‘the Office’ was Joyce’s way of indirectly referring to MI8, Her Majesty’s Office of Dangerous Anomalies. Becoming semi-official was useful but everyone in the team was worried about whether it might bring with it the requirement to compromise in some areas of governmental control.

The brunette pressed her lips together in annoyance as she read what was on the screen. For a few seconds, she actually considered keeping her findings from her team leader but she really was already too well trained to do so. “That girl you met in Paris in the spring? The former mayor’s daughter?”

“Zoe? What about her?”

Joyce clamped down hard on her surge of jealousy at the young man’s burst of interest in that name. “Her name was flagged by my search software; I’m not sure why your contact was interested in her; probably because she’s Queen Bee’s twin sister. Anyway, she’s got a coach-class ticket on the morning train from Paris.”

“Really? I wonder why?”

Joyce tapped at her laptop’s keys for a few moments. “Okay, according to this, she’s got a summer course here at South Bank College; photography.” The student reporter smiled thoughtfully. “Huh. Maybe she and I should meet? Ace reporter and ace photojournalist?”

There was no chuckle in response to Joyce's quip. In circumstances like this, the young man rarely indulged his emotions. Experience with him and with his ways notwithstanding, Joyce was still worried by the way he seemed to gather the shadows around him and his voice dropped to a meditative growl. “I suspect that may be necessary, yes,” responded David deVere, the Paladin of London. “There are enough unanswered questions about Zoe Bourgeois that she definitely needs our attention during her time in My City.”

~*~*~

The thuggish mugger thought that Queen Bee’s back was an open target and was about to lash out with his machete when an ultra-tough cord wrapped around his midsection and yanked him into the evening sky. He just about had enough time to see the scowling red-and-black masked face of Ladybug before her fist exploded his nose, rendering him unconscious. Ladybug scowled at the limp body dangling from her Yo-yo’s cord. “What was it that Scorpia said that time? Oh yes: ‘Wrong night, wrong city’.”

Queen Bee drop-kicked the last knife-wielding street gang ’solider’ into a wall and stepped back as he slid to the ground. Then she switched her attention to the two young women who were hugging each other in terror and watching the two superheroines’ fight with amazement. “Ladies, I think that your… admirers now have other matters to think about.”

Ladybug chuckled as she lowered the thug she’d snared down to the ground and then leapt back down onto the street. She and Queen Bee dragged the entire gang of four out into the street to tie them to a lamppost for the Gendarmes to pick up, much as Ma’xave’keso told her that her mother did in New York. “Please stay away from the less travelled parts of town in future mesdemoiselles;" she instructed. "There are parts of this city that are not safe at night.”

“Of… Of course Ladybug!” the older of the women gasped. The two superheroines were about to jump away when the woman grabbed Ladybug in a hard hug and the other nervously stuffed a piece of paper into Queen Bee’s hand. “We owe you!” the first woman continued shyly. “Please, anything you need as repayment! You only have to find me and ask!”

Before Ladybug could deliver her usual line about ‘duty’, the second addressed the blonde superheroine in a shy but flirty tone. “Q… Queen Bee? Please call me? If you have a free night?” The Bee Heroine blushed brightly as the two women turned and fled out of the alleyway that they had been using as an ill-advised short-cut.

Queen Bee looked at the bit of paper with a phone number in her hand. “Does stuff like this happen to you often, Hot’n’Red?”

Ladybug didn’t know whether to giggle or whether to just roll her eyes in annoyance. “More often than I like to think about, Queenie. You would have thought that me being very publicly in a relationship with Chat would have stopped the propositions that being very obviously a minor wouldn’t but…” she threw her hands up in the air, making her friend laugh.

“Maybe we should start patrolling with our significant others? Stormy-chan is so adorable when she makes that ‘Hands off! Mine!’ growl! Does your Kitty scratch to mark his territory?” Ladybug blushed brightly and Queen Bee decided that she was about to stumble onto one of those things about her friend that she would prefer not to know. “Penalty of being a superheroine sex symbol, I suppose!”

“If you’d told me two years ago that I’d be a sex symbol!” Ladybug grumbled.

“If you’d told me that, I’d have loved the idea!” Queen Bee responded. “Now I’ve experienced it? Well, too many creeps and too many people who are only making the offer because of what we are, not who we are. I guess that’s something I’ve learned the hard way!”

The two young women effortlessly ascended to the roof, Ladybug with a single cast of her Yo-Yo and Queen Bee with the power of her magical wings. “So, all packed for the big voyage?” Ladybug asked.

“Yep! Managed to bring it down to just one airline cargo container!” Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Don’t get all superior with me, MariMousieBugJustice! I know you too well to think you know how to travel light!”

Ladybug gave her friend a tongue poke. “Don’t judge me, Queenie! This is a business trip; I have samples to show off, my full tailoring kit and spare materials for crises during the shows and a full set of clothes for Adrien to wear. We need to impress a lot of people and I’m not letting anything get in the way!”

Queen Bee smiled. “You’re becoming quite the professional! I’m glad I thought of recruiting you for my start-up!” Once again, she got a tongue-poke in response and the two young women started laughing.

“Mon Dieu! Someone stop that guy! He's out of control!” Instantly back to ‘business mode’, the two superheroines flitted off across the twilight rooftops towards the cry of distress.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat.php?subthread=rotas
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@BugBoss) - OWNER/ADMIT

@BugBoss: Okay, so everyone know their roles?

@BugBoss: Snake, you’re in charge until I get back;

@BugBoss: Make sure that none of the younger Guardians that #Celestial_Guardian has in the city looking for clues about these ‘lost’ Miraculous cause any trouble.

@TrueQueen: Yeah, make sure the losers remember whose city this is!

@Cool4Catz: Rena, you know your end of the job?

@FoxyBabe: I’ve done it enough over the past couple of months, Chatty so, yeah, I’m up to speed!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: So, is Dragon-dudette going to be okay?

@BugBoss: It’s a tough path she’s chosen for herself

@TrueQueen: No-one’s hurting my Stormy whilst I’m around, Cap; so don't you worry about that!

@TrueQueen: You focus on looking after your fox!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Eh, we’re a team, QB! Gonna look out for each other!

@BugBoss: Mel, you’ve been suspiciously quiet!

@IStingU: I guess I’m worried about your sister, QB

@IStingU: I mean, I’d been looking forward to maybe getting her into the dance group this summer but, suddenly, this photography course comes out of nowhere!

@IStingU: Do you have any clue what that’s about?

@BugBoss: I’ll field that one, Queenie

@BugBoss: Zoe is on a mission that I assigned, Mel; I’m afraid the details are classified but… Hmm

@BugBoss: How best to put this?

@TrueQueen: She can look after herself, as much as the fact makes my hair want to stand on end!

@IStingU: Huh; guess I’ll have to trust you and her then

@FoxyBabe: Come on, Sting-gal! I know for a fact that you’ve wanted to get out from under your brother’s shadow!

@FoxyBabe: You get to be our stealthy scout without any of the superstars to take your spotlight!

@BugBoss: Besides, I’m sure Aimee will be glad to have more of your undivided attention!

@SnekCharmer: Wow. Am I the only one who can feel the blush through the Internet?

@BugBoss: Anyway, Tokyo time is minus 7 hours from Paris

@Cool4Catz: So, try to avoid messaging us when we’re likely to be asleep

@TrueQueen: Or at a party

@SnekCharmer: My condolences, by the way.

@BugBoss: ?

@TrueQueen: ?

@SnekCharmer: Ever since #Captain_Hardrock became who she is now?

@SnekCharmer: Let’s just say that I’ve learned just how boring society balls can be!

@ShadowClaw: Speak for yourself, bro!

@ShadowClaw: Remembering that I post as an introvert,

@ShadowClaw: I’m coming to love them!

@SnekCharmer: Only because you have a certain flower to swing around the dance floor

@ShadowClaw DELETED a reply

@FoxyBabe POSTED GothBlushKissu.png

@LovingHam: Don’t worry, Vipey! I’ll make sure her virtue is unsullied at all those ‘boring’ mayoral balls!!

@BugBoss: IF we can get back to the point

@BugBoss: Are there any questions?

@FoxyBabe POSTED shoo.mov4

@FoxyBabe: Get going, Master! We’ve got it all sorted out here!

@WatchWabbit: Yeah, you’ve got your own stuff to worry about!

Sabine Cheng started crying as she stood in the departure lounge of Charles de Gaulle airport, Fei and Marinette in her arms. “My babies!” she whispered. She kissed Fei on the forehead. “Be safe, my beloved niece.” There was a quality to that word that made Fei wonder why it sounded different from the other times in which Sabine had used it.

Sabine turned to Marinette. “Be safe, my beloved daughter. Never forget where you came from!”

Marinetteblushed in response. “Mama, I am not heading off to the Moon or something! It’s Tokyo and only for a week!”

Sabine smiled sadly. “Oh, darling; if only you really understood. You’re not a child anymore. You are heading away on a long and exciting adventure! It’s called ‘adulthood’ and you’ll never be the same again.”

Marinette hugged her mother back, switching to Wu Chinese. “I will always be your little girl, mummy, no matter where I go or who I become!”

“Marinette! Chloe! Adrien! So good of you to join us!” Emilie Graham de Vanily had an odd look on her face. Perhaps, that might be understandable given her recently-expressed ‘concerns’ about Adrien and Marinette’s ‘personal interactions'. “Of course, you‘re both on time.” She raised her eyebrow. “Who do I thank for that?”

Marinette, Sabine and Chloe all pointed at different people and the disinherited English noblewoman began to laugh. “OKay, we’ll call it a team effort then.”

“Miss Graham de Vanily?”

As Emilie leaned over to listen to the man wearing a House of Harmony-branded uniform of some kind, Fei heard the announcement of her flight. She exchanged a high-five with Adrien, hugged Marinette and actually found that she didn’t want to leave Sabine's arms. “I will miss you all so much… Especially you Ayi Xia-Bing!”

“We’ll always be here,” Sabine responded, touching her niece (as she'd recently discovered in blood as well as heart) over the heart.

Sabine watched as Emilie, very much a peahen herding her chicks, led Adrien, Chloe and Marinette away to where their flight would be boarding in a few hours. She sighed. Shu-Yin had been right about that: The most a woman can do is have her children ready when the time came to grow up and go about their adult lives. She wanted to believe that she’d done well in that most sacred of tasks.

Chapter 2: Destiny's Call

Chapter Text

Zoe knew that it had been going too smoothly. If she’d learned one thing in her young life, it was this: Luck is a finite resource and one should never count on it. Even then, what happened after the Star Train left the station that served the Fantasy World Amusement Park still came as a distinct and unwelcome shock.

She imagined that she was quite the sight, standing in the aisle of the train and glaring at the young Oriental man who was conspicuously without any obvious luggage and upon whom his casual Western clothing looked wrong somehow. Zoe grit her teeth and strode over to the aisle seat on the opposite side of the table to the young man (somehow he had got a square of four seats around a table all to himself on the crowded service). “Chong-Li,” she hissed. “It’s possible that this is a coincidence but I doubt it!”

The adept-level Guardian looked at Zoe in an inscrutable way. “Apprentice Bourgeois,” he responded calmly, just loudly enough that others might hear.

Zoe stamped down on her anger. Well, that’s off to a bad start; he’s already implicitly pulling rank. “Once again, Adept, do you have a reason for being in this particular part ofthis particular carriage of this particular train?”

Instead of replying in words, Chong-Li reached into his jacket and pulled out a small scroll on which Zoe could see neat Chinese text. The young man touched it to his lips before placing it, face down, on the table. Around her, she felt that the air seemed to go still. “Anti-eavesdropping charm,” he explained. “No outsider has the need or right to hear this.” The Guardian adopted a calm posture as he turned to Zoe but one that still had an air of arrogant condescendtion about it. “Tell me, Apprentice Bourgeois, can you possibly understand my current predicament? All my life, I had been trained to assist the Wu family with their sacred duty; I was to be the one, should it have been necessary, to take charge of the Prodigious of the Spirit during the Magical Eclipse. Then that imbecile Wang Fu lost control of his passing whims and ended up coming perilously close to destroying the whole Order! I wake up to find myself eighteen decades out of my time, having missed not one but three Eclipses and that the Prodigious of the Spirit… my Prodigious… had found its way into the hands of a foundling girl, who was barely worth being a maidservant at Wu’s kwoon but had somehow ended up becoming the Holder of the Prodigious by default!” Chong-Li’s expression hadn’t changed much, but he was now scowling and Zoe felt more than a little frightened of his rigidly-suppressed rage. “I have been stripped of what was to be my duty and destiny and instead find myself having to follow the Grandmaster around as he and the Council throw out titles, rights and duties to untrained heathen outsiders!”

Zoe wasn’t just Chloe’s blood-sister. They shared a mother and, by the simple fact of Audrey having borne them, they both had acquired by upbringing certain reflexive reactions. To Zoe’s shame, one of those reflexes came to the surface. “Well boo-hoo, Adept. Here’s what we modern folks call a ‘news flash’. Destiny doesn’t care for your ambitions or feelings. It gives positions and responsibilities to the deserving; maybe you should meditate on that?”

Chong-Li briefly grit his teeth in anger. “Mock as much as you want, girl, but you are no more worthy of that Prodigious that has fallen into your lap by chance than your ‘master’ does the one that she only acquired through being the last one of Wu’s line standing. Maybe even less. The Grandmaster and the Council seem willing to indulge this band of thieves, usurpers and so-called ‘Chosen Ones’ that have been inflicted on this world but I know that they are wrong!” He leaned forward and glared at Zoe from very nearby. “You will fail girl; you will fail and the world will be in peril when you do. I cannot and will not allow that to happen so, from here on, where you go, I will follow so that, when you do, a truly worthy Bearer can take up the Prodigious of Virtue and ensure that it, and all the misplaced Miraculous are returned to the safe-keeping of the Order and this…. this anomaly that is this current crisis can at last be safely forgotten!”

One of the skills that Master Fei had taught Zoe was control of her emotions and she (at last) called on those disciplines. “Well, Adept Chong-Li, I cannot sympathise with your viewpoint, nor can I help the fact that you clearly consider yourself wiser than your teachers. Just remember that the Council entrusted this duty to me and me alone. Follow if you must but stay out of my way!”

Zoe then reached out and took the scroll. On an instinct that she barely understood, she called on Lupus’s powers and fungal rot grew through the parchment, reducing it to blackened dirt in less than a second. The blonde girl’s voice rose to a light, airy and casual tone. “You know, it isn’t really fair, you having his whole set of seats to yourself! I’ll be sure to tell anyone who gets on at the next stop that they can sit with you, okay?”

As the girl strode away, her head held erect in pride, Chong-Li looked at the half-handful of dirt that was all that remained of his spell scroll. He was not so proud so as to deny that the casual demonstration of power had shaken him. It is just whatever fell magic she used to bind the Renlings to herself, he told himself. Once she has fallen, they will be free too! He hunched in on himself, desperately repeating that rationalisation over and over again.

WAZZAP! @SneakrDiva

@SneakrDiva: Yo, Twin-sister of mine!

@SneakrDiva: Greetings from Merrie Old London!

@TheOfficialChloeB: Oh, good, you arrived safely

@TheOfficialChloeB: I mean, I wasn’t worried but…

@TheOficialChloeB: Well between all the supervillains and terrorists who have hit the Star Train

@SnearDiva: No, mostly nothing happened on the trip

@TheOfficialChloeB: ‘Mostly’?

@SneakrDiva: Yep, all is fine

@TheOfficialChloeB: Don’t try that with me Z!

@TheOfficialChloeB: What happened?

@SneakrDiva: Don’t worry about it, sis! I’ve got everything under control!

@SneakrDiva: Oops! Here’s my mad goth artist roomie who I want to avoid!

@SneakrDiva: GTG sissy!

@TheOfficialChloeB: That girl gets more insufferably independent every day!

@TheOfficialChloeB: I swear, if I wasn’t on a long-haul flight to Japan!

Zoe breathed in the warm, soot-tanged air of London from the roof of the South Bank College of Arts, something that she found quietly reminiscent of her original home city of New York but somewhat less overwhelming.

As everyone had told her, adult education, even as a mid-teen summer student, was exhausting! From the moment she'd stepped onto the campus, she'd been rushed off of her feet: Confirming her registration, meeting with the Bursary department, getting her timetable and finding her dorm. This was followed by a long string of initiation meetings: First with the Floor Supervisor, then a general meeting of all summer students with the Dean and finally a commencement talk by some random flowery upper-class arty type.

Well, at least it was over. Even better, her roomie was about as disinterested in her as could be imagined and wanted to spend the night listening to self-composed music which was loud enough to be heard even when she had her headphones on. In any case, the other girl's eye-mangling combination of dyes in her hair was making Zoe's inner Chloe scream in agony and her inner Marinette wasn’t reacting to her clothing choices much better. So, all in all, she decided to avoid Grunt (for that was the only noise she made when asked for her name) for now and came up to the rooftop to look over the city.

There was a reason why Zoe had chosen this college, as well as its suitable course. Checking the London newspapers suggested that Paladin's vigilante group – Forever Justice – had been heavily active south of the river and eastward of the city centre. This was a guess on her part but she figured that, where she found the vigilantes was probably where she would find the villains and finding the supervillain known as Leonidas was a major goal of hers trip.

"Zoe? Bloody hell, is that you?"

Zoe turned and would later fret that her grin probably made her look a bit stupid. "David!" She reflexively slipped into French. "David, my dear friend! It's so good to see you again!" She took a step forward before mentally slapping on her brakes. She didn't know the other teenager anywhere near well enough for a hug to be explicable to a non-Francophone. Several months of occasional correspondence couldn't possibly justify such intimacy with an Englishman.

Zoe was relieved when he didn't seem to notice and, instead, took her half-extended right hand in a firm handshake. "Well, fancy meeting you here! Did they run out of decent unis in France or something?"

"Ah no! Honestly, I wanted to study photography and the course here nicely meshed with my desire to see new things!"

David nodded. "Well, then you've come to the right city, Zo. There is not one more cosmopolitan place full of surprises in the Western world!" A lifelong New Yorker and Parisian, Zoe doubted that but she would allow the other teen his view of his hometown. He seemed to be studying Zoe for a moment but the impression passed so quickly that she wasn't sure if it was even real. "So, Miss Parisian Student! Want to see what there's to see in this part of town? I'm meeting my friends in Borough Market!"

Zoe decided that, one way or another, travelling ground increased her chances of finding what she was looking for. "Sure, why not? I'd love to meet your friends!"

~*~*~

It was Zoe's first time in an English pub and her brain was having a hard time keeping up with all the sights and sounds. They were pretty ID-happy here but were pretty cool about teens ordering alcohol so long as it was heavily diluted.

David's friends were a weird bunch.

Joyce she'd met outside the dorm building; she was doing a summer journalism course and was already the editor of the school newspaper at David's high school. She kept on sliding closer to David as they walked through the streets in a way that yelled: "Mine!" However, fortunately (fortunately?), David seemed unaware of it or was at least politely ignoring it.

Lanisha was all smiles on her dark skinned face. She was already moving in the direction of becoming a medical student and was quite proud of her weekend volunteering at an old people's hostel. However, Zoe could at once tell that this was a girl who was a gymnast at heart. She moved in a way that reminded her of several of the girls in her class who fancied themselves in acrobatics although none were as natural as Lanisha herself, who was on Marinette or Chloe's level.

Harry was… Well, the dark-haired English boy was already a giant, tall and wide alike and his movements told the French girl that he was ultra-aware of his (possibly superhuman) strength. Whilst she got the feeling that he was a genuine teddy-bear of man, she definitely wasn't planning of ever getting on his bad side.

Sherri ("Sheherizad is too long", she'd explained) was pretty much the living definition of 'exotic', with olive skin, bright amber eyes and a very glamourous bronze-coloured hijab around her hair contrasting with her otherwise quite Western make-up and clothing. She'd introduced herself by picking Zoe's pocket and then offering her pocket-book back with a proud smile and launched into an enthusiastic summary of her interest in stage magic.

Last arrival was Jake, who was a rather impatient-seeming engineering student like David. His dark skin and accent spoke of West African origins but he was easily welcomed by the others although he occasionally shot David a look that suggested a history of some kind. He'd actually had some rather annoyed words to say about Zoe's presence that David had responded to by his face going blank and Jake turning away with a sad sigh.

As they entered the establishment called "The White Horse", Lanisha jumped into another boy's arms and hugged him delightedly with a cry of 'Mo!" That, Joyce explained, was Moses, Lanisha's older brother who worked at a nearby car body-shop and that he preferred the street name 'Monkeywrench'.

Within a few minutes Zoe was sipping on her drink, a uniquely British thing called a 'Shandy', made of equal parts lager and lemonade and watching as David and Jake played darts in a strangely intense manner whilst listening to Lanisha, Sherry and Joyce's gossip with half an ear. Then a dangerous voice hissed from behind her in Chinese. "Do you think that these are appropriate associates, Apprentice Bourgeois? Or that this inn is a place where you should be rather than being about your sacred mission?"

Bad pennies! Zoe thought in annoyance, putting down her shandy on the age-and use-stained wooden table and turning to face Chong-Li. "Adept Chong-Li," she said, switching to her sketchy but serviceable Wu Chinese. "As surprising as I'm sure you will find this, I doubt that I would find much if I went out and started canvassing the people on the streets about the whereabouts of the Lion of Crime or of the missing Prodigious gems."

At least the young Guardian was in clothes that could pass for ordinary London street wear but his general body language was uncomfortable and it would attract attention. The man sneered. "So, instead, you choose to carouse with your fellow heathens?"

Zoe snorted. "One heavily-diluted lager shandy does not classify as 'carousing' by any lexicon of which I am aware." Zoe decided to switch back to English. "I think that I've already told you that I don't want you around me," she said firmly.

Chong-Li's sneer stayed firmly in place. "I think that I said that I can't trust you and I will be there to pick up the pieces when you fail!" Zoe scowled and stood, intending to push past him and find somewhere else to be when the young man snatched her wrist. "I'm not letting you out of my sight, girl!"

"Having problems here, Zo?" Chong-Li swung around and his eyes opened a bit wider in a comical way. David and Jake were slightly shorter than him and, though well-built, were not overwhelmingly intimidating. Harry on the other hand was about twice as wide as the Guardian and Monkeywrench, although, more normally-proportioned, was well-built, likely from hard work in the garage. "This a friend of yours?"

"Friend?" Zoe asked. She considered how best to put it. "Hardly; his… cousin works in a bakery near my high school but he's recently joined him from overseas and suddenly decided that I'm his problem. He actually followed me all the way from Paris for some reason!" Chong-Li visibly grit his teeth and Zoe was careful to retain an annoyed and angry expression; no great difficulty right now.

The three other girls all made some disapproving noises and she was fairly sure that she saw Lanisha slide was might have been a Pepper Spray into her lap. Harry, on the other hand, kept his cheerful smile in place. "Look, mate, word to the wise. Zo here seems to be the sort of girl who will let a bloke know if she wants to spend time with him. Just pushing in and insisting that she focus on you? That's just wearing a big, fat 'L'."

Chong-Li briefly looked at the four young men and decided that the odds were somewhat against him, especially in the crowded pub where other patrons were now starting to look in his direction and at how he was holding this interloper's wrist in a very hostile way. He was not foolish or ill-trained; he dropped the girl's wrist and stepped away from the looming confrontation. Before he left, he turned back to the girl. "This matter is only postponed, girl. We will continue this when you are not surrounded by these interfering outlanders!"

David stepped in front of him as he moved towards the door and, shockingly, spoke in Mandarin. "No, you won't. In fact, you will be very careful to leave Miss Bourgeois alone. Ideally, you should go back to Paris as you've already outstayed your welcome. However, if you choose to remain here and impose upon her time again…? Well, London is not a city that treats such things with good humour."

Chong-Li scowled at David inscrutably before storming out. "Thank you," Zoe said and then blushed about how she had moved closer to the English boy and was almost touching him.

Any further consequences were averted by a huge crash from outside and a series of screams. Joyce's phone started making a strange rhythmic drumming sound. The titian-haired girl glanced at the screen and gasped in horror. "What the hell is this breaking story? Tunnel collapse on the Jubilee Line south bank branch? That stuff's way underground!"

"I've got to see this!" David was already through the exit and his voice had changed timbre somewhat.

"Me too!" Zoe pulled out her phone and thumbed on the camera mode, grateful that her interest in photography and journalism was a credible cover story.

Joyce was on her tail. "Hey! No scooping me on your first night!"

Jake shook his head. "Journalists and do-gooders!" he remarked to his friends. He threw a couple of £20 notes onto the table and headed up the rush out of the door.

~*~*~

Zoe very quickly got the feeling that she’d run into something that was probably a bit out of her league. The entire far side of the road was collapsing, building by building. However, as she filmed the slowly-ongoing disaster, there was something strange about it. Each building was collapsing neatly and precisely into its own ground footprint as if it was being deliberately being pulled into the ground from below rather than caving in.

Zoe’s Prodigious was itching and she wasn’t surprised that Noctua, the Owl Renling, was hovering by her head. “This is unnatural magic, Renren,” the owl spirit hooted urgently. “Something is directing this to their own end and I cannot tell who! One thing is certain though: Melis is here”

Zoe shook her head at the news that this was probably another rogue Prodigious holder similar to things that had recently happened in Paris. Questions like ‘who’ and ‘why’ were nice to answer but, right now, who knows how many people’s lives were in danger. It wasn’t as if she could reverse the effects of misused magic the way that Ladybug could! She still had a responsibility that came from bearing the Prodigious of Virtue. Zoe made sure she was hidden in the alleyway from where she’d been filming the action and then called on her transformation, raising her left fist in front of her face and letting the cuff of her jacket slide down, showing the disguised Prodigious. The light of the Wolf, Owl, Lynx, Falcon and Otter formed a rainbow of magic around her body that resolved into her blue-and-white fighting mantle.

“Lupus!” Zoe called. With a blue-white flash of fire, she transformed into a white-maned blue wolf and ran towards a collapsing building. Fortunately, London streets were liberally planted with trees (‘London Planes’, if she remembered her research) and this gave the Prodigious of Growth lots of resources. Sappy branches sprang from the ground and wrapped around the structure, literally holding them rigid and giving the shocked inhabitants something to enable them to clamber to safety.

The Wolf could feel something tugging down the building from below and its outrage at the structure being held and resisting. Instinctively, she leapt into the air as the asphalt below her feet suddenly caved in. Mid-air, the Wolf transformed into a blue-white falcon with a white crest.

Zoe’s thoughts settled as in her Falcon form she continued to circle and her hyper-keen eyesight caught sight of what was in the hole that had tried to swallow her alive - A man in neon-yellow plastic overalls and a red safety helmet of some sort, starting up at her through welder’s goggles.

“What is the meaning of this interference?!?” he yelled. “Don’t you know that I have work to do?!?”

Tepestia/Falcon looked down at the unknown individual. There was no way she could get at whoever this apparent supervillain was from where she was. Instead, she created a vacuum by speeding around in a tight spiral. With a cry of surprise, the man, who was of average height and build, was sucked up into the air and then deposited onto the street and not gently. With a flash of blue-white flame, she returned to her human guise and landed agilely a few metres away from the man. “Okay, let’s have your story!” she snapped.

The man dragged himself to his feet. “I am The Mole, you foolish surface-dweller!” The man grit his teeth. “Mankind has been long determined to pollute the surface of this world with his structures and acts when there is an alternative! To build underground! Access resources directly and not polite the rivers, skies and fields! This is our destiny! This is the future of our species and our certain means of survival should doom crash from the skies, be it meteor or solar flare!”

Tempestia raised an eyebrow behind her mask. Well, someone has been listening to radical environmentalist lectures, I think. “Naturally, you aren’t going to go to the trouble of giving people the choice as to whether they follow your plan?”

The Mole grinned malevolently. “I have power by my friend the Badger! I will see this done no matter the cost!” The man raised what at first looked like a rock broken in half and clutched in his fist. However, when Tempestia looked closer, she realised it was a geode and, nestled within, was a gemstone glowing with a deep orange light. Her Prodigious burned for a split second and she realised that her friends were telling her that this was one of their siblings.

Tempestia raised a warning hand. “Sir, that power is not what you think it is; it is sentient and it is dangerous. It can cloud your thinking and make you do things that you’ll regret!” The blonde stepped forwards nervously. “Sir, it is better if I take it and ensure that it is no longer in a position to cause harm!”

The Mole snarled. “You want the power for yourself! I won’t let you have it! It’s mine!” The orange gem shone brightly and suddenly bit of the pavement rose up and launched themselves at the blue-clad superheroine, forcing her to perform a series of somersaults to stay clear of the attacks “You cannot win! I… UGH!”

The last bit was uttered when a figure in black armour with a dark grey hooded cloak landed beside The Mole after an acrobatic swing from a grappling line. The traditional knight’s shield strapped around his left arm slammed into the man’s face and sent him flying.

Paladin drew his sword, the edges of which lit up in blue and began to hum insistently and he pointed it at the fallen Mole. “Stay down, you destructive idiot or this will get… painful.”

As Tempestia looked on, Paladin was joined by several other figures: A dark-skinned woman wearing skin-tight black leather unitard with a silver leaping gazelle emblazoned across the chest and abdomen somersaulted over and drew a silvery collapsible staff; a huge man in a grey wrestlers’ costume marked with jagged red, white and blue stripes strode over, the ground shaking with every footstep; an olive-skinned woman wearing a tuxedo with a top hat and a magician’s wand in hand and, overhead, a man in a maroon-and-black costume marked with a feather pattern flying using some kind of wingsuit with micro-engines pulsing on his back and ankles.

“Ma’am, you’ve done the right thing but we recommend that you get into cover,” breathed a feminine voice in Tempestia’s ear. She turned slightly to see a masked light-skinned woman wearing a Lincoln green costume and a brown hooded cloak; she jogged past over to where Paladin was standing, nocking an arrow into her longbow as she did so and pointing it at Mole.

This is Paladin’s team! Gazelle, Avalanche, Abrakadabra, Nightglider and Ranger! Tempestia thought excitedly. This is Forever Justice! Although the Bearer of the Prodigiouis of Virtue were awed at the sight of the mostly non-powered vigilantes, she couldn’t help but feel a bit slighted by Ranger treating her as a bystander to get out of the way.

“It was a very pretty speech,” Paladin was saying. “However, your methods belie any claim to good intentions on your part. I suggest that you surrender… now.”

Mole’s smile… if you wanted to call it that… was terrifying to behold. “You… idiot children!” He snarled. “You have no idea what power I have and the importance of my mission! Nothing will stop me! Least of all you!” Orange lightning was building up around the geode in his hand and Tempestia already knew enough about the power of the Prodigious to know what was about to happen.

“Everyone! Get off the ground if you can but keep moving!” she shouted.

Gazelle blurred into motion but claw-like spears of rock burst out of the ground around Paladin, Abrakadbra, Avalanche and Ranger, closing around them and leaving only their faces (or helmets, in Paladin’s case) visible. As the claw closed around Tempestia, she focussed her mind inward, calling on Lynx’s power and blowing the rocky prison apart from the inside with a golden flash of lightning.

“What?!? Inconceivable! How do you have that power?”

“I’m the one entrusted with it, Mole!” Tempestia boomed, letting the Air carry her aloft. “You are the usurper here and you are the one who must give up that power for your own safety!” Tempestia wasn’t 100% about controlling the Renlings’ powers yet; she’d hoped to use a combination of water and growth to break the rocks around the other heroes but she may have put a bit too much power in it. A three metre-high tsunami rose from the nearby River Thames beyond the submerged houses and swept everyone (except those luckily entombed in rock) into the rows of shops opposite. “Whoops?” Tempestia whispered and swept down to catch Gazelle, who was now hanging from the ornate sign hanging on the outside of a watchmaker’s shop where she’d leapt for safety .

At that point, Forever Justice proved that they’d only needed time. There was a building humming noise and suddenly, the rock around Paladin exploded open and the black-armoured knight strode out, leading with his glowing sword. Avalanche did the same, shrugging aside the rock that had seized him. At that point, Tempestia finally got her act together and Lupus’s power made thick growth explode through the remaining rocky traps, letting Abakadabra and Ranger go free. “Thanks newbie!” Abrakadabra called with a flirty wink before vanishing in a puff of white smoke.

“You will all stop this interference or you will DIE!” On the edge of hysteria, Mole was generating hails of razor-sharp rock, possibly roof slates, from the geode and direct them at the heroes; Tempestia tried to catch them with the air and actually managed to deflect the majority, the rest cleaning off of Paladin’s shield and bouncing off of Avalanche’s broad chest as if they were packing peanuts. Night Hawk had saved Ranger and was soaring around, trying with variable levels of success to draw Mole’s fire.

“Well, it didn’t take long to wear him down to his essential nature,” Ranger growled, slipping clear of Night Hawk’s hold nd somersaulting down to land on the roof.

“We need to separate him from that geode!” Tempestia called out. “It’s the source of his power!”

“Are you sure it isn’t just a casting focus?” Gazelle asked. “We’ve encountered magic users before…!”

“Trust me, Gazelle.”

The ebony-skinned girl looked at the blonde for a moment before nodding. She dropped from Tempestia’s arms and began to somersault over-and-over towards Mole, somehow always being in the wrong place for him to hit her with geokinetically formed and thrown rocks. Mole yelled in frustration. “Stay away! Just stay back, you interfering…”

Night Hawk fired what looked like taser lines into Mole’s chest. The man shouted in pain but some effect of the magic of Resolve let him just tear the prongs loose. Meanwhile, Ranger had nocked a trio of arrows, loosing it at the maddened geokinetic. Seeing the attack incoming, he ripped a shield of rock from the ground and held it in between them. Unfortunately for him, Ranger had expected that and the explosive arrows exploded on impact, knocking him flying. Already in position near where he fell, Gazelle swung her bo staff and knockedthe geode from his hand.

“NO! MINE! MINE! MINE!” Mole yelled, scrambling on all fours to grab the disguised Prodigious as it bounced along the street, only to have it swept away by a wave of water from a burst pipe that deposited it in Tempestia’s hands.

The man hauled himself upright and was about to physically charge the hovering Tempestia when Abrakadabra appeared at his side in a puff of smoke. A bunch of roses materialised in her hands and spat a cloud of knock-out dust into his face from the flower-heads. The man made a loud ‘thud’ as he collapsed. “Sweet dreams, crazyman!” Abracadabra said, blowing him a kiss.

Paladin strode over to Tempestia, suspicion leaking out of him. “Who are you and what business do you have here?

“I am known as Tempestia and I am the Chosen Bearer of the Prodigious of Virtue, one of which is in the core of this… rock?”

“Geode!” Gazelle chirped helpfully.

Paladin scowled at his longest-serving ally before turning his attention back to the costumed blonde who was strangely familiar to his eyes but he was unable to place her. “That’s a bold statement to make, Tempestia. However, if you want me to trust you…”

Tempestia held out the geode. “Look, just smash this thing will you? I’ll do the rest!” She tossed the geode into the air and Paladin swung his sword, its hypersonic vibrating edge shattering the rock into gravel as it dropped back down.

Mole was consumed in orange light and, when it faced, a man wearing the ‘uniform’ of an infamous environmental action group was lying in his place, moaning as Abrakadabra’s knock-out dust began to wear off.

“Okay, now what?” Night Hawk asked as he landed beside the black-clad knight and also stared dangerously at Tempestia.

Now was the hard part. Tempestia pressed her hands together as if in prayer and focussed on her lessons from Master Ladydragon. She reached out as much with her soul as she did her voice. “Melis! Come on out!”

“Oh shit! Magic’s happening!” Ranger gasped as a ball of orange light appeared over the small patch of gravel and formed into a chibi blue-and-white spirit that looked somewhat like a… a badger?

“Okay, I grant you that’s a new one.” Paladin growled.

“Ithink it’s cute!” Avalanche remarked, earning a grinning nod from Abrakadabra.

“Who are you and why do you summon…?” The badger renling paused and frowned as he considered the blue-and-white clad blonde girl. “Wait… You have my siblings I… You're the Renren!”

“Are you?” Night Hawk asked Tempestia; he knew that Chinese title from somewhere but something told me that the name of a social network was somehow not to what the little spirit creature was referring..

“One of them, yes. However, most importantly, I’m his Renren.”

Paladin’s frown was invisible under his helmet but was perceptible in his voice. “Like the Rat spirit that Cash was using.”

Tempestia nodded as the blue-and white badger flew around her head, clearly fascinated by her. “Ratus is the rat Rengling of fire and chaos… Unlike Melis here, he’s still unaccounted for. I have to assume that he’s wherever the Lion of Crime may be.” Paladin nodded dangerously, the very mention of his sworn enemy making his grip on the hilt of his sword tighten.

“Well, let’s not dilly-dally!” Melis announced. He dropped down to the street and rose back up carrying the thumbnail-sized orange Prodigious Gem that had somehow escaped notice up to now.

“Now, hold on there…” Gazelle said, stepping forward to intervene but it was too late. The speedy Badger Spirit of Resolve shot up to Tempestia and slapped his gem into one of the three empty places on her golden armband. The Setting seemed to flow around the gem locking it in place and the stylised outline of a badger’s head formed in one of the empty hexagons on the pattern on her chest. The Badger flared into opalescent light and was absorbed into the Prodigious.

Ranger had an arrow aimed at the vaguely French-American sounding blonde but wasn’t sure what to do. “Interesting trick!” she growled. She had to seriously retrain her urge to start asking questions; the time for scoops was not right now.

Paladin gestured for Ranger to lower her weapon. He looked at Tempestia thoughtfully. “How do I know I can trust you?” Paladin asked, now in Tempestia’s face.

The girl swallowed and her reply impressed even her with its bravery. “You can’t. I can’t only prove my trustworthiness to you.” The knight scowled under his mask again but he couldn't dispute that.

“Paladin, we haven't got time for this.” Nightglider said. “There are who knows now many people trapped in those buried buildings and…” The ground was trembling. “Oh great! Now what?!?”

Tempestia was holding her hands, palms out, at her side and she slowly lifted them up to shoulder level, arms outstretched as the rumbling grew louder and louder. As Justice Forever looked on, the buildings rose out of the ground and vines burst from the street and wrapped around them, helping them keep their structure together despite the forces they’d experienced.

Tempestia dropped to one knee, gasping with effort and feeling Melis’s silent approval of the Resolve she’d shown in the face of this test.

Paladin looked around his team. “Let’s go, people! Evacuate those buildings double-time! We don’t know how long Tempestia can or will hold them together.”

The evacuation went smoothly and, by some prodigy of luck, the severely damaged buildings didn’t collapse entirely, something that was due in no part to the vines that remained in place. All the team were a bit weirded out by the rafts of air, lacking any other term, which Tempestia used to glide casualties down to the street and the waiting paramedics. However, when the Paladin of London decided that all was under control and looked back at the other side of the street, he wasn’t surprised to see that the Parisian superheroine had vanished. Then he heard a click and moved his head to see Zoe Bourgeois, kneeling on one shop’s ground floor flat rooftop extensions, photographing the events. “Abrakadaba, make sure you get that camera’s memory card and edit it for security. I will need to see all the images she took.”

“No point talking about ‘freedom of the press’, boss?” Ranger remarked sarcastically as Abrakadabra just wasn’t there where she’d been standing up to just moments ago.

~*~*~

“Miss Rose, whilst I don’t make the mistake of expecting too much cooperation from you or your agency, I would have appreciated it if you’d told me that the newest member of Ladybug’s team was coming to London. Also why she was doing so.”

Miss Rose smirked and pushed her fake glasses up her nose. “Paladin, I did tell you all that you needed to know! You just don’t know it yet.” The Knight Errant shifted in annoyance as the witch-spy inflicted her usual trick of teasing him for her own amusement. “I know that you like mysteries, my friend. I’m sure that you’ll work it out in time. Until then, please be assured that Tempestia is never going to be an ally of the Lion of Crime. Indeed, her mission requires that she be his enemy!”

“I see and I’m supposed to take this on trust?”

Miss Rose shrugged easily and shot the mundane hero a mischievous grin. “No, you are meant to do your research, learn her secret identity and realise just why you ought to have known who and what she is, as well as her place in the greater scheme of things, from the start.” The titian-haired witch patted the other hero on the shoulder. “What you are meant to trust is the fact that she had plenty of opportunities to do harm and has taken none of them. Instead, she chose to do good when she had completed her mission of the day and could easily have just taken her leave and left more of the clean-up to you.” She drew her wand and held it in front of her face. “Translocatus!” With a ‘pop’ of inrushing air, Paladin’s MI8 ‘handler’ (and how he despised that term) was gone.

“It’s always guessing games with her,” Paladin muttered, not appreciating that it was as much that way with him too. “I suppose that, at her power level, political as well as magical, things that are important to the mundane are little more than games!”

Ten minutes later, David deVere walked out onto the roof of the dorm block at South Bank University to find Zoe there, taking photographs of the panorama of His City. “Zoe?”

“David! Bonsoir mes ami!” David could have sworn that she’d not been alone out here but there was nothing here, just an afterimage of rainbow lights. “Well, I thought that coming from Paris to London would have meant leaving behind the super-fights but I guess not.”

“London has its own problems.”

“Fortunately it also has its own heroes.” Here, she frowned. “I’m going to find out how Abrakadabra palmed my memory card though.”

“She’s like that,” David responded. “She’s a mystery wrapped in a conundrum all with a sparkling stage persona!” Zoe gave David an odd look and he chuckled. “That’s how Joyce described her in the school paper when she first appeared.” Zoe laughed. On a whim, David fished into his hip-bag. “Speaking of Abrakadabra, she stopped me on the way back to the campus after that bit of excitement this afternoon. Is this yours?”

Zoe looked at the SD Card and she virtually pounced on it. “David! Oh my God! You are a life-saver!” She blurted out in French and then blushed, stepping back from her spontaneous hug and switching back to English. “I thought that I’d lost all those pictures that I’d taken of the fight! I was sure I’d need to buy a new one! Sorry about the bilingual switch thing; it’s already been too long with my family in Paris, I guess. I’m just glad that all the effort I went to so as to photograph Forever Justice in action wasn’t wasted!”

David nodded. “What about that new girl? From Paris?”

Zoe looked confused. “Who, the blonde with the elemental powers?” David nodded. “Isn’t she one of Forever Justice? I thought after she’d fought alongside them…”

David smiled but knew that Zoe had just given herself away. As a Parisian native, she’d know that Tempestia’s first appearance and every appearance to date had been in Paris. She knew something about that magical girl and was rather clumsily trying to obscure that fact and actively attempting to hide who and what she was. This indicated that there was a connection between the two. “She’s certainly never been seen with Forever Justice before.”

“Well, maybe they should team up?” she suggested with a game smile. “Heroes should stick together, shouldn’tthey?” The girl blushed. “I wonder if she finds Paladin as mysteriously hot as I do?”

“You what now?” David managed to hold in a blush by sheer will. He was used to women of all ages being attracted to his costumed persona but somehow this girl mentioning it affected him more strongly.

“Never mind,” Zoe said with a laugh. “Just a silly… crush? It’ll pass. ”

I hope not, David thought, earning a snort of annoyed but good-natured disbelief from the part of him that would always be Paladin. “Still, joining Forever Justice is understood to be an invitation-only thing; Paladin doesn’t give his trust easily.”

“So, I understand too,” Zoe said. “Well, I… er… she will just have to prove herself!”

“Perhaps,” David responded. “So, what can you tell me about Tempestia?” The girl looked genuinely confused. “She’s evidently from Paris, just like you after all. You must know something about her suspected origin, her relationship with Ladybug’s team and the nature of her powers.”

“Well, really, I only know what’s in the Ladyblog and that’s basically what Team Miraculous are happy to publicise.”

Yes, David was aware that Mlle Cesaire was a compromised source and had been from since a few months into her career as the official chronicler of Team Miraculous’s adventures. Still… “Oh come on, Zoe! A budding wannabe photo journalist has to have her own sources and have done her own detective work! Don’t you know anything about her that I couldn't find with a web search?” The English young man’s charismatic smile made Zoe feel like she was heating up inside. None of the other heroes had been able to prepare her for dealing with a hot guy like this pumping her for information!

“Well… Maybe we… can compare notes?” David raised an eyebrow at Zoe’s words. “I mean, you tell me about Paladin and I’ll tell you about what I know about Tempestia!” Lynx yowled in approval but all the other Renlings seemed to be of the opinion thatthis might either be a great mistake or one of her most brilliant ideas.

Zoe set off back to the emergency roof exit that would take her back into the dorm block and she was pleased to sense that David was following her. Somehow, she knew that, one way or another, this was the right way to go. Destiny, as Ladybug had explained to her, was a strangething. However, she felt certain that, one way or another, her destiny was this way.

Bloody hell! David realised in his head. Mum is right: I’ve got a type! It’s Joyce all over again; show me a quirky, courageous girl with a thirst for hidden truths and justice and I’m lost! All that it would take is for Zoe to have some unexplored combat talent and I’ll consider myself a hopeless case! His train of thought was derailed as Zoe turned to him and shot him a sunny smile. “So, David! Are we partners in this little superhero hunt?”

It would be a long time before Zoe understood how David seemed to be cloaked in shadow as he replied. “I think that you could say that, yes!”

~*~*~

“Damn that girl! Damn her!” Chong-Li was stamping around in his humble student hostel room and was ready to start tearing his hair out (if he had any). “How was that possible? She literally had the Badger appear right next to her and it came to her on her call! What kind of perverted magic has that Shanghai foundling bitch taught her?!?”

The young oriental man threw himself onto his bed, too angry to even think about meditating. He could no longer rely on the possibility of Zoe making a mistake and being defeated. She was already too well-adjusted to the powers of the Prodigious for that to happen except in the most extreme of circumstances. “I can’t let this carry on! At this rate, she’ll complete the Prodigious and those fools on the Council will let her become its permanent keeper without a second thought! I have to stop this! I have to!” The young man sighed. “I just have to think about this! There must be an enemy who I can manipulate into helping me!”

After a moment, the young man frowned. There was that group of do-gooders. “Maybe those heroes? If I can convince them that she’s a danger to this city? Surely that couldn’t be too hard?

Then there was the thief of the Rat Prodigious, what was his name? Ah yes: The Lion of Crime. What a wonderfully bombastic name for a man who was nothing more than a barbarian swordsman and bandit.

Chong-Li began to rub his chin thoughtfully. If handled right, this could actually be beneficial! Not only could he rescue the Prodigious but also the Leo Miraculous and all the others that this man apparently had in his hoard! Rescue all these and he would be remembered as one of the Great Heroes of the Order’s history! It might even get him a set on the Council, the youngest person to ever claim it!

Chong-Li’s smile became sinister. Starting tomorrow, he’d see if he could find the long-lost IshtarMiracle Box of Babylon. He had a lion to hunt, it seems.

Chapter 3: Vitality

Chapter Text

Being a big sister was harder than Mylène Haprèle had imagined. Oh, no question: She loved baby Genevieve ('Jenny' to the family and friends) to bits and would gladly throw herself in front of a bus to protect her. The little girl's bewitching smiles, infectious giggles and heart-breaking sniffles never failed to touch her heart. However, there was no question that the girl was high-maintenance and Mama Caline needed all the help she could get to keep up with her. It had reached the point where Mylène had begun to worry that the amount of time that she had to spend at home helping her stepmother out was going to seriously impact her relationship with Ivan.

Yesterday had been particularly awful as Genevieve was fighting her way through a case of colic. Mylène had been so exhausted that she'd fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. She as so deeply asleep that, frankly, anything could have happened in the family's apartment and she would have slept through it!

So, perhaps, she shouldn't have been surprised when she awoke and found an octagonal wooden box about the size of her hand and with an elaborate Chinese abstract shape picked out on the back with inlaid gold foil. It might have been Mylène's imagination but… was there bronze light shining out from under the lid as she touched the enigmatic object on her night-stand?

Mylène was tempted to investigate further when she heard her stepmother calling from down the hall. The dreadlocked girl looked at the screen of her cellphone and squeaked in horror. She'd done a Marinette! She'd slept in so late that she was about to miss breakfast!

She managed to appear to not race into the dining room. In there, she was confronted by the sight of her father, Fred, spreading jam on his croissant as Caline gently and lovingly nursed Jenny. "Hello, lovely," Fred said with a smile that had an air of seriousness. Mylène knew why: Today was the anniversary of her birth mother's death and, as always, the family was due to visit her grave in the nearby Orthodox church's graveyard. This wouldn't be the first time that Caline went along; she'd attended last year too and had left with a strange certainty that her upcoming marriage to Fred had Zleska Haprèle's blessing.

"Sleep in late today?" Fred asked.

Mylène looked at her little sister, in her stepmother's arms. Caline was just cleaning her lips with a wet wipe. "Oh yes, papa. Jenny has a way of tiring me out, don't you, you little menace?" That last bit was said with a smile and a little boop on the nose, not that Genevieve was old enough to know the difference between playful teasing and actual annoyance. In a strange bit of timing, the baby girl let out a strange long outward gasp of gas as her mother patted her back and she then grinned toothlessly at the older sister who was already such a large part of her life.

After an abbreviated breakfast, Mylène returned to her bedroom to shower and then to change into appropriate clothing, a black velvet jacket over her dark grey vest top with a white angel logo (chosen by Ivan) and black cargo pants. She also tied back her multicolour dreads with a black headscarf with an abstract silver embroidered pattern and, on an impulse, she tied her dreads together with a black ribbon.

That was when the young woman's eyes fell back to that strange box. Now she thought about it, the symbol on the back was identical to one that she'd seen picked out on a blouse designed by Marinette. Was this hers? However, she should be in Tokyo for the fashion show by now so where would this have come from? She flipped open the box and the first thing she saw was a note, upon which was written a message in neat cursive French:

"Mylène Haprèle, it has come to Ladybug's attention that your new baby sister needs a lot of attention. Coincidentally, this problem matches the gifts on offer from a Miraculous which she believes you can wield for the benefit of the people of Paris and the wider world.

"This is the Miraculous of the Rooster, which will grant you the power of Vigour to use to defend the innocent. Whilst we are not expecting a fight, Ladybug would be grateful if you could see how well its powers match with you. Ladybug will take the Miraculous back when she is next in Paris.

"Just a personal note: Carapace's kwami has suggested that you should take this Miraculous with you today and Wayzz has yet to be wrong about such things.

"Your ally in heroism and friendship, Rena Rouge."

The note was signed with a chibi sketch of a tongue-poking Rena Rouge giving the reader a 'V-for-Victory' salute around a wink.

Mylène didn't really know what to say or think. She looked into the box and, staring back at her, was a five-segmented golden thumb ring with a talon-like end and red scale markings across its surface. How punk! the young woman thought. Ivan would love this on principle! However, this wasn't just an appropriate body decoration: This was a Miraculous, a source of power, of a deep personal responsibility and of catastrophic potential personal danger, the very thought of which made her shudder in horror.

For a long moment, Mylène stared at the artefact, frozen in indecision. "Mylène! It's time to go!" Mama Caline called, banging politely on the girl's door. There was no time left to think about this or ponder the positives or negatives. A Miraculous can't just be left lying around the apartment when they were out. Without a second thought, Mylène pulled out the ring and jammed it onto her left thumb, making it transform into an platinum form with scale-like shapes etched onto the outside.

At that moment, a ball of bronze light materialised in front of her and resolved itself into an orange chibi creature that was a bit of an anthropomorphic chicken. "Cock-a-doodle-doo! Hello there, early riser!"

Mylène squeaked in terror and nearly went flying backwards onto her bed. "What…? Who…? Where?"

"I'm Orikko, the Rooster Kwami of Vitality and I'm gonna be your kwami for today… Or for however long Guardian Ladybug decides! All you need to do to unlock my power is say: 'Orikko! Rise and shine!' Isn't that great?!?"

Mylene slapped her hand over the kwami's beak. "Orikko, hush! My mama is right outside the door!"

"Mylene, are you coming? Are you talking to someone on your phone?"

"Coming, Mama Caline! No, I was just thinking aloud!" She glared at the surprised-looking multi-millenia old spirit. "Orikko, please for all that is holy try not to make a spectacle of yourself!"

Orikko nodded but privately thought that any hope of them being 'inconspicuous' was as futile as hoping for the same from one of Nooroo's 'champions'!

~*~*~

Zleska Haprèle

'The Magician'

1974 ~ 2008

Beloved wife, loving mother

Master of the Magic Circles of Bulgaria and France

Seeing is Believing!

As silly as it sounded, Mylène always giggled a little at the epitaph on her mother's gravestone. 'Seeing is believing' had been her maman's catch phrase, usually delivered with a mischievous smile either to her audience or to her wonder-struck daughter when she did something simple like pulled a centime coin from behind her ear or something similar. To the last, she'd retained that confidence and certainty that there was nothing that belief could not do for her family, even as that accursed disease ate away at her.

Even now, Mylène could see her mother in her stage costume, her small top hat perched jauntily at an angle atop her pageboy-cut red hair and grinning at her with the charismatic confidence that so defined her. "Hey, maman!" Mylène whispered to the gravestone. "Mon dieu! It's been another year already!" The girl paused, thinking about what to say; she'd never figured out in her head what to say today; her life was just moving so fast now. She knelt before the marker before beginning. "A new year and a new member of the family: Little baby Genevieve. I know that this sounds crazy but I think you'd love her; she's about as different from me as you could imagine: Four months old and she's already fearless! What she'll be like when she seriously starts crawling…!" Mylène rubbed her nose, struggling with her sudden urge to cry. "I'm still trying with Ivan. It's just so hard to let myself open up when it feels so much safer to just be closed off to the world and to people in general but… He's important. I can't let myself be scared and lose what he means to me!"

Mylène finally worked out how to continue. "Please don't be mad Maman but… Mama Caline is a good woman. She makes daddy happy; she makes me happy! All she ever wants is for people to be happy and to succeed. She can be silly about it sometimes but I love her for her good intentions. I… I love her. I want to know that it's okay for me to love her!" She honestly wondered what Zleska would have thought of Caline; the two women could not have been more different in personality: One accepting, gentle and nurturing and the other brilliant, determined and with a cast-iron sense of righteousness that made it hard for her to forgive. It was silly but Mylène hated the thought of making choices and feeling things that would have displeased her mother.

Much to Mylène's surprise, for a few moments she was certain that she could feel Zleska touching her shoulder, squeezing it and smiling down in the same sadness and resolution in her face when the doctors told her that further treatment would be hopeless and cause her only further pain. Young Mylène, just five at the time, had not understood but she would always remember her mother's words as she'd reached out to mess up her daughter's natural red hair. "You will be okay, Pilentse. You are strong; I know that you'll be okay." Maybe that is why she'd always been so afraid to be strong: Because that would mean that she didn't need her mumiya anymore.

"She would be proud of the woman that you are becoming," Mylène heard someone say and realised that Orikko was hugging her cheek. Automatically, she raised her hand to hug the kwami a bit closer.

Suddenly, Orikko was gone, diving into her jacket. "Are you okay, My?" Ivan asked. She looked up and, perhaps by coincidence, his simple but good-natured face was backlit by the sun and, at that point, she realised something that it would take her years more until she could fully elucidate even to herself.

"I'm okay, Teddy-bear."

What happened next would later impress Mylène in that it reset her mental scale for 'weird' despite all the strange things that had happened to her in the past two years including at one point actually travelling in time with a friend who turned out to be a space alien as well as a Miraculous heroine! As she turned around, she noticed Mama Caline reaching into her baby satchel for something, maybe a bottle for Jenny. As she did so, a human arm that was somehow about five metres long snuck out from behind a grave marker, extended into the redheaded woman's purse and retracted with her pocket-book.

"H…" Mylène coughed to clear her throat from a mix of fear and astonishment. "Hey! Uh…! Stop! That's… not yours? Thief?"

Ivan saw what his girlfriend was looking at and stepped towards the gravestone in question. Caline made a strangled sound of surprise and fear as Fred jumped in between her and the marker.

The laughter was very sinister. "Oh well!" said the man in a seal-grey body-stocking and wearing a black eye-mask as he jumped out. "Don't feel left out, friends! There's plenty of Contortio for all of you!"

Contortio's fingers were as extensible as his arms and two fingers reached out, ducked into the inside pocket of Fred's jacket to grab his own wallet and cellphone. Ivan charged but the man's legs quadrupled in length and he easily stepped over the young man before reaching out with his arms and swinging up onto the nearest building, still laughing maniacally.

Mylène took a few useless steps towards the building before realising that there was no hope whatsoever of catching up to the thieving supervillain as he swung across to the next roof. She looked around and briefly observed Ivan, who had just dialled 112 to call the police as Caline tried to comfort the wailing Genevieve and Fred looked around himself helplessly.

But you aren't helpless, are you Pilentse? Mylène's eyes opened wide at hearing her birth mother's voice so clearly. Maybe it was just her imagination but was Zlenka squeezing her shoulder?!? Go, I will hide your secrets as anyone of the Circle ought. Make that filthy thief sorry for intruding on our family's time together! Mylène looked down at her jacket to see Orikko looking up at her questioningly from just inside. No, that was not his voice; was she going mad?

"What do you mean he's been hitting all over Paris?!?" Fred snapped into Ivan's phone, talking to a police dispatcher who, as seemed typical in the face of superhuman crime, was practicing being totally useless. "He's taken everyone's money and you can't do anything right now?!?"

All Mylène could see was Zlenka's mischievous smile and her sly wink that she always shot at her audience after performing some remarkable feat (or at Fred for reasons that Mylène was only now starting to understand, thanks to Ivan). There were several screams as Contortio reached down from the roof of the building he was currently atop of to grab several people's bags.

Instinct took over and the dreadlocked girl ducked out of sight behind her mother's grave marker. "I'm trusting you here, mumiya!" she whispered to herself. Sure that she could again see her mother's secretive smile, she touched the Rooster Miraculous. "Orikko! Rise and shine!"

When the orange-bronze light faded, Mylène was wearing a body suit with feather markings in bronze with a brown bustier and a brown v-shaped feathered tail at the rear. Brown wings stretched from her sides down her arms and her hair was styled up in a blood red Mohican with long dreads running down almost as far as the base of her tail. Across her face was a brown-bronze feathered mask with a yellow beak-shaped nose-guard. Grasped in her right hand was a concert bugle.

In the way that she remembered from the times she'd used the Mouse Miraculous, Mylène just knew what to do. She raised the bugle to her lips and belted out the traditional tones to order a cavalry unit to charge. A ball of bronze-white light appeared at the mouth of the instrument and Mylène raised it by its loop-grip to the skies. "Charge!" she yelled. The light jumped into the air before slamming down onto her, causing a ripple of displaced earth and air as the spell burst around her.

Mylène had never felt so alive! She was ready to run a marathon at sprint speeds! Jump tall buildings! Fight a dozen men at once! Seeing Contortio jump to a third roof, she took a sprint start posture before launching herself forwards. She wasn't going superhumanly fast but she felt strong! There was no sense of fatigue or hesitation as she vaulted over one car and somersaulted over a second before reaching the front door of the building. She shoulder-charged the door out of the way and began to leap up the stairs a half-dozen risers at a time without needing to catch her breath.

The girl smashed through the doors at the top of the emergency stairs still at a running pace, not even breathing fast. "Hold it right there, thief!" she yelled at the startled Contortio.

"What? Yet another super-freak? What the hell are you supposed to be? A mascot for takeaway fried chicken?"

The girl snarled; the excesses that these American fast-food chains went to with their suppliers, employees and the environment for the sake of profit made them one of her personal berserk buttons. She wasn't at all happy being compared to them. "You can call me 'Henpeck'!" She was proud of the name despite it being the work of a moment's panicked brainstorming.

The bronze-and brown-clad girl put her hands on her hips. "What on Earth do you think you're doing, stealing from people who are far less able to afford losing their money than some super-rich tycoon or faceless corporation? Do you really think that this makes anything better?" Contortio's eyes bulged slightly with surprise as the relatively tiny superheroine walked right up to him and began to shake her gloved finger under his nose. "It doesn't matter how hard your life is, monsieur; nothing justifies stealing from the ordinary people of this city!"

Contortio shook his head in some disbelief. "Oh no!" he said mockingly, holding an arm to his brow in an exaggerated show of grief. "I have done so much wrong to the ordinary men and women of Paris! I repent! I'll hand back my loot and dedicate the rest of my life to supporting the workers' struggle!"

Henpeck smiled and nodded. "That's a good start. So, if you will hand over the stuff you took and I'll let you go on your way!"

With a roll of his eyes, Contortio looked mockingly at the girl. "No," he said before he simply extended his legs and stepped over the gap before the next building. He turned back to the visibly-dumbstruck Henpeck from the next roof and waved cheerily. "Here's a clue, mon ami, it doesn't work that way! I'm not doing this because I have to but because I want to! Not because I'm poor or desperate but because why should I work to get rich when I can just take from others?" He'd probably expected his going to the next roof to be enough for his escape. He wasn't anticipating Henpeck to dart forwards and effortlessly leap the 10-metre gap between the two rooftops.

On Henpeck's thumb, the Rooster Miraculous made a polite double-beep before going iron-black and the claw segment over her thumb-tip beginning to flash bronze. Was this what Ladybug called a 'cool-down timer'? "Is that really all you've got?" she taunted. "I suppose a greedy sneak thief really does nothing else but run away to avoid responsibility for his choices!"

Contortio rotated his head as if he was trying to relieve tension in his neck and turned to her with a snarl. "Okay, Chick-a-chick, have my full attention and you won't be happy to have done that!" The man drew out two rubber clubs from behind his belt and used his extensible arms to lash out at Henpeck with a sweeping cross-blow at her face. With a squeak, the young heroine fell onto her back, avoiding the first blows before blocking the next ones with her Bugle. With a roar of fury, Contortio used his extensible legs like pogo-sticks to launch himself at her, this time ready to slam both blackjacks down onto her head with his arms at normal length.

Henpeck back-flipped out of the way (and was briefly stunned that she'd done that) and avoided the blows. On instinct, she brought the Bugle to her lips and blew a single long note that sent Contortio tumbling away from the concussive shock-wave of sound. As Contortio reached with his arms to brake his fall and used his legs to absorb most of the impact force of his landing at street level, Henpeck looked at her Miraculous Tool in awe. "Rena's flute doesn’t' work like that!" she remarked to herself. Shaking her head, the girl took another running jump forwards, using a rolling landing when she reached street level.

Contortio really had no stomach for a prolonged fight. He considered himself first and foremost a professional artist – He took quickly, professionally and without complications from those whose unpreparedness for him was the result of careful preparation on his part. He wasn't interested in having to fight his 'subjects' and certainly not any of Paris's super-freak 'protectors'. He stepped forwards and made several experimental jabs at the chicken-girl's abdomen but, frustratingly, she always seemed to be somewhere else. "Enough of this!" he snapped. "Let's see how tough you are without your little toy horn, little girl!"

Contortio reached out and snatched the Bugle from Henpeck's hands and brought it back to himself. "Now you're going to dance to my tune, Chicken-Gal!" He touched the Bugle to his lips and attempted to play a note. The magical tool made a long, flat and unimpressive 'peep' noise.

Henpeck couldn’t help but giggle at the look of affronted disbelief on the thief's face. "Here's a clue, mon ami: It doesn't work that way!" With a shout of anger, the thief tossed the Bugle aside and lashed out at her with his extensible arms, seeking to snare and crush the girl. With a squeak of terror, Henpeck jumped forwards through the looping rubbery limbs, somersaulting and tumbling until she was in the clear and found herself quite close to her tool, which she snatched up with a sigh of relief. "Okay," she whispered to herself. "Next time, don't lose this so quick!"

With another cry of anger, the thief lashed out in all directions, lashing out at the Gendarmes who had been setting up a safety perimeter around the sudden super-fight. He'd already sent several crashing to the ground, weakly clawing at their throats before finally grabbing another half-dozen around the throats with arms that he'd stretched into fire-hose-like tendrils. "I don't have any problems suffocating them until they have brain damage or die, little chicken! Back off or their torment is your doing!"

Henpeck looked around herself desperately for ideas about what to do next when she realised something: Contortio's arms didn’t really seem to have that much strength in them when they were stretched out like this. He'd had virtually no strength in his attacks when he'd attempted to hit her with his blackjacks when his arms were at full extension and he'd retracted them to put any power behind his blows when he jumped at her. Now, he'd had to wrap them around his victims' necks several times before they visibly were suffering any discomfort and he was visibly struggling to hold them still.

Is this what they call 'over-extending yourself'? Henpeck wondered before nearly face-palming in frustration. Leave the puns to Kim or Chat Noir, Mylène! She raised her Bugle to her lips again, this time to play a very different tune. It was one soldiers across the world knew from the start of their day. Once again, a ball of bronze light formed at the mouth of the instrument. "CLARION!" Henpeck yelled before lashing out the Bugle towards Contortio's hostages and earlier victims.

The ball of bronze light broke up into many smaller balls of light that struck each trapped policeman and their eyes began to shine with bright bronze light. Their struggles suddenly became stronger and they were suddenly able to grab the grotesquely-lengthened arms and pull them loose by simple brute force. "No… Wait, this isn't fair!" Contortio squeaked.

Henpeck was so far beyond angry by this point that she had nothing else to say she pressed her Bugle to her lips again and once again blew for all she was worth, the powerful note blowing the superhuman thief off of his feet and tumbling end-over-end away until he hit a wall. "… Owie…" he moaned. He staggered to his feet and his arms were dangling loosely like over-stretched socks. "Well… merde! That hasn't happened to me for a while!"

The superhuman thief turned to run but, with his limp arms dragging behind him, there wasn't much chance of him building up much speed. Within seconds, he was under a dog-pile of about twenty gendarmes, who were wrapping chains around him, unsure whether traditional handcuffs or leg hobbles would be sufficient to hold him. "Someone call SPECIAL!" yelled Roger Raincomprix as he strode over from his van. "They've got experience holding freaks like this!"

The segment of the Rooster Miraculous closest to Henpeck's thumb joint had begun to flash and it began to make regular double-bleep noises. "Well, mademoiselle…?" Roger raised an eyebrow as he walked over.

"Oh… Henpeck; I go by the name Henpeck."

"Well, Mademoiselle Henpeck, you've done the city a great service. I could give you the usual lecture about dangerous criminals and the dangers inherent in confronting them but I have no doubt that you've heard it all before. Just keep the vigilantism down to a minimum, okay? I can't stop Ladybug and her senior members from beating up on street gangs or muggers but it isn't conducive to public confidence in the civil authorities!"

Henpeck gave the police sergeant an odd look and she again felt very, very sorry that this blowhard was Sabrina's father. The quiet and studious redhead didn't deserve to have to deal with a parent who thought in these very narrow terms on a regular basis! That was setting aside the mindless way he did anything that someone in authority ordered him to do! "I'll… bear that in mind, Sergeant. Now, if you'll excuse me? There had been another bleep and the middle segment of the Miraculous had seemingly transmuted to iron.

Roger watched as the girl crouched, bracing herself and then leapt up onto the roof. "Was that her timer? She must be new to this; I haven't seen that problem from one of Team Miraculous for a while!"

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@FoxyBabe) – CO-OWNER

@FoxyBabe: Hey, boss!

@BugBoss: Foxy, it's like… 5AM here!

@BugBoss: What's got to be said now rather than later?

@FoxyBabe: Just that a certain cluck-cluck-not-so-scardy-bird has had her debut adventure!

@FoxyBabe: Just finishing up working with @Ladyblogger on the next Ladyblog headline!

@BugBoss: [POST REDACTED]

@BugBoss: Sorry, still getting my brain in gear; nearly broke Rule 1.

@BugBoss: So, the new hero I'd suggested? She worked out well with the Rooster Miraculous?

@FoxyBabe: Like she'd been born with it on.

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Dudette was really smooth in action

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Had some early stumbles but recovered well!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Just got to the action zone as she was wrapping up so I made sure nothing and no-one was following her home.

@BugBoss: I knew she had potential; it was just a matter of finding the right Miraculous.

@BugBoss: Arrange for her to have some training and work with one of the regulars and I'll assess her when I get back.

@LovingHam: Rena already asked me, Ladybug.

@LovingHam: Something about the Rooster and Pig being a good match in terms of application?

@SnekCharmer: Are we… I dunno… Drafting her no matter what?

@BugBoss: Absolutely not, Snake

@BugBoss: Whether or not she remains… Hold on, reading the article.

@BugBoss: Ha! 'Henpeck' really fits her when she's on activist mode!

@BugBoss: Anyway, whether or not she stays on the roster permanently is up to her.

@BugBoss: Basically, the Rooster is too valuable a support miraculous to leave in the box until needed

@BugBoss: One way or another, we'd need to find SOMEONE.

@BugBoss: Foxy, make sure that Henpeck knows that she has my full confidence, okay?

@BugBoss: Anyway, got to cut this short; don't want to wake up kitty.

@LovingHam: Oh, so you two are sharing a bed out there? <3 <3 <3

@BugBoss: Yes! I mean no! I mean it isn't like that!

@SnekCharmer: Don't worry, Melody; we won't misconstrue even if it mattered

It had been a fraught day, especially after all the 'excitement' with Contortio.

It had taken so long for the police to release the Haprèles' property to them, even after SPECIAL had turned up with a weird elasticated body-cuff to take Contortio into custody. Mylène had done her best to keep the trust she owed to Ladybug by not saying anything to anyone about being Henpeck. However, as Nadja Charmak's reports grew in detail (to the point where the dreadlocked girl was starting to reflexively hate the catch phrase "Don't be bemused, it's just the news!"), Ivan had started looking at her in a thoughtful way. He had experience with the Miraculous and knew the deal; he wouldn't say anything but still…

Right now, Mylène was perched on her office chair next to her work desk where she occasionally did homework but more frequently worked on campaign signs, slogans and protest plans. Her eyes were closed and she didn't know whether she was meditating or whether she was dreaming.

"I'm very, very proud of you, Pilentse," Zleska Haprèle said, wearing her favourite floral-patterned blouse and caressing her daughter's face. "You were so brave and so resolute; you even gave him that one chance, no matter how little he deserved it."

"Oh mumiya! Mumiya!" Mylène collided with her mother and hugged her for all she was worth because this was her mother; she feeling of warmth, the intonations of her words and even the scent of her favourite body wash all called to her. "Mumiya, I missed you so! Please don't ever think that I'm forgetting you!"

Zleska gently stroked some of her daughter's plaited hair behind her ear. "I would never think that of you Pilentse. You are true in your spirit, you are loving and you deserve happiness and love in return." The stage magician smiled broadly. "You are the woman that I knew that you would come to be in time and never doubt that I am proud of you and all that you have done and will yet do." Zleska's smile was now sad in a way. "I wish that I could be there for you but I cannot be beyond this brief short time but I want you to know something: You deserve happiness. Fyodor deserves happiness and I know that Caline will give this to you both, both in her own nature and by the new life she has brought to our family. She would have been a wonderful sister for me to have and I have no doubts about this. Trust her, believe in her and love her, my Mylène, my little chick… my beloved little Pilentse."

That last part struck a spark in Mylène's mind: Pilentse was Bulgarian for 'chick'; Zleska had used that pet name for Mylène from as far back as she could remember. How much had her mother known about her daughter's destiny (for Mylène was increasingly sure that it might be just that)?

Somehow sensing that this moment was coming to an end, she hugged her mother tighter still and, as the woman continued to stroke her daughter's dreadlocks in a gentle, loving way, she heard a voice singing. Was that a lullaby? But it wasn't her mother's voice at all. Mylène's eyes snapped open and she searched for a source to the soothing music.

"Hush little chicky, don't you cry! Orikko's gonna sing you a lullaby!" Mylène looked over at Genevieve, who was lying in the centre of a nest made up of a mass of shirts and jumpers in the middle of Mylène's bed as Orikko hovered over her face, booping her nose and singing a song that something told Mylène might predate the French language by several millennia. Jenny was giggling at the behaviour of her sister's kwami and Mylène was smiling too; the whole thing was just too wholesome for words!

Oddly enough Mylène didn't feel tired at all. Indeed, she was pretty sure that she could transform and do a loop of the limits of metropolitan Paris without needing to stop once to catch her breath. Was this the power of the Rooster that Rena Rouge had mentioned in her letter? Would she even sleep tonight? Did she even need sleep any more or would her magic now sustain her wakefulness forever?

That was enough of a worrying thought that Mylène was still fretting about it when a voice suddenly spoke up: "Hey, Sister Rooster!"

Jenny giggled as Mylène nearly threw herself on her back when Rena Rouge spoke. The fox-themed heroine was crouched on the room's open window ledge, looking in with her usual fearless and mischievous grin. She clambered into the room and helped the shorter Holder of the Rooster Miraculous back onto her feet. "Sorry, when you're used to illusion and acting silently, you don't always think to ensure people know when you're in the room when you want them to know you're there!"

Mylène smiled genuinely at the Fox heroine. "No, Rena Rouge, it's fine. I guess I'm a bit highly-strung right now after that fight; maybe also from the power of the Rooster? I understand that this is a side-effect?"

Rena nodded. "Yes, but from what Master Ladybug says, it's also something that would only really help if you are particularly compatible with it. You are, aren't you? You feel tireless right now?"

3Mylène wasn't in any way ashamed of her body shape but she understood that she was considered overweight in medical terms. She looked at herself and then looked back at Rena oddly. The Fox Heroine chuckled. "Really; I'd spoken to several of your school peers about this and they all agree that, when something needs to be done, you're a real Rooster: Tireless and fearless in protecting your roost and your chicks." The dreadlocked girl blushed. "That's why Master Ladybug chose you for the Rooster."

Mylène blushed slightly and began to fiddle with the Rooster. "Uh… This sounds like you want me to keep it. I thought that you were here to collect it?"

Rena nodded. "I'm just the messenger-fox, Mylène; as I say, the Master selected you for this Miraculous and it will be up to her as to whether you keep it." The Fox heroine touched the smaller girl on the shoulder. "So, keep doing good with your Miraculous and familiarise yourself with its powers; we'll let you know if you've gone down the wrong path!" The coffee-skinned heroine winked.

Rena walked over to where Jenny was just starting to drop off to sleep. Rena's clawed glove touched the baby's soft cheek so gently that Mylène wondered if her sister would have even felt it. "I was only eight when my baby sibs were born; I was jealous at first but it was the start of one of the most important and significant growth experiences of my life; treasure this time." She shot the smaller girl another naughty grin. "Especially as, in about three years' time, she'll be making you tear out your hair!" Mylène laughed too.

"Oh, one last thing," Rena added. She touched the Rooster Miraculous. "This never leaves your person, even when you're asleep or in the shower. I don't care how you do it." With a nod, the Fox Heroine clambered through the window and was quickly gone in the night.

Mylène didn't really think about it as she threaded a synthetic plant-based cord through the Rooster and hung it around her neck like a kind of amulet. "Goodnight, Orikko!"

The kwami pecked Mylène gently on the nose. "See your fresh at dawn, Mylène." Then he landed on Mylène's pillow and tucked his head under his wing.

Within a few minutes, Mylène was fast asleep, curled around her baby sister; Jenny instinctively snuggled into her sister's chest, lulled and comforted by the regular sound of her heartbeat and breathing.

Chapter 4: Kanto Dawn (Land of he Rising Sun, Part 1)

Chapter Text

"Kagami-chan!" Ito Ikuko cried out, pulling Kagami into a tight hug. "You should have said that you were coming! And this manner of your arrival! What is your mother thinking, forcing you to hire a mere taxicab from a public air terminal?"

Kagami blushed. The woman was a former housekeeper for the Tsurugi Mansion here in Tokyo and had known Kagami from infancy although she had married well to an executive in one of the country's larger investment concerns. However, she had never stopped being the woman who had comforted young Kagami from childhood falls and frustrations. "Konichiwa, Ito-san," she murmured with an embarrassed smile. "Mother and I… We are quarrelling right now, so I had to make my own way to Tokyo." The women didn’t need to know the full truth; it was probably safer that she didn't.

Kagami couldn't help but wonder what the woman had guessed anyway. "Quarrelling, hmm?" she remarked with a shrewdly-arched eyebrow. "Well, Tsurugi-san makes that easy, there is no question." The women looked on shrewdly as the girl she'd known from her earliest steps notably failed to leap to her mother's defence. "So, you have business of your own back here in the homeland?"

Kagami nodded. "Yes, and it is business for which I need to remain… 'off the grid'. So, a room at a hotel is not entirely to my needs." The young women stood up straighter. "However, I appreciate that I have given you no notice; I can make other arrangements if…"

"Nonsense!" Ikuko hauled Kagami and her minimal luggage into the Ito family home. "What manner of surrogate aunt would I be, turning you away? Hiro! Michiru! Come see who it is!" There was a stampede of feet and two familiar figures appeared. Michiru (Michi) was taller than Kagami remembered, her black hair grown out and, like a lot of Japanese girls of her age, had started wearing a plastic flower headband. Michi had never been a playmate like Ischi had been; her family was not 'suitable' (i.e. rich and traditionalist) enough for Tomoe's tastes to permit that. However, she had been an invaluable study partner; the happiness in the girl's eyes made Kagami wish that it had been more. "Ohayo, Kagami-chan!" she called excitedly, launching herself into a hug that was a mirror of her mother's.

"Ohayo, Kagami-chan," said a deeper voice.

Kagami turned and had to look up. "Oh! Hiro-kun! When did you get so… tall?"

Ito Hiroshi was a lot taller than Kagami remembered; even though he was only two years Kagami's senior, he seemed to have rocketed up since the last time she'd seen him when he'd left for an out-of-city boarding school. He laughed and nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "Mother tells me it happens," he said in a nervous tone. "Why…?" He shook his head, reminding himself that he had no right to the other teenager's secrets. "Welcome back to Tokyo; will you be staying long?" Was that hope in his voice? Kagami was no fool and had noticed that the young man had been steered in her direction by his mother but that was before Paris, before mother had all but sold her to that honourless bandit Gabriel Agreste as a mate for his son and before Chloe.

"Not for too long, I think," she said. "I am pleased to see you again, Hiro. As long or short as it will be, I have always treasured time I spent with your family." Hiro beamed and Kagami mentally kicked herself for having given him hope, no matter how unintentionally.

“Anyway,” he said. “What business brings you to Tokyo in which you cannot involve Tsurugi-san?” Hiro knew Kagami well enough to recognise the way the expression on the woman’s face turned closed and he knew that she wasn’t going to say anything more. “Ah… So, I heard correctly that you and she are at odds?” He raised his hand. “I will ask no more, Gami. However, please tell me if you need any help! I will gladly be there for you!”

Kagami’s face was grave and serious. “You have been a dear friend since my earliest days, Hiro. That is why I will never place you at risk in this way.”

~*~*~*

“Madame Graham de Vanily, please come this way. Your limousine is waiting.” Emilie nodded soberly and allowed the man from the Tokyo Council of Trade to lead her away through the VIP arrivals lounge of Haneda Airport with Adrien and Chloe in tow. She turned to look for Marinette and it took all her willpower not to start laughing.

The first hint of her presence was the ‘click-click’ of sharp heels on the tiles as she came around the corner. Was this Chloe’s idea? No, that wasn’t André’s daughter’s style because it was coming a bit too close to mimicking Audrey. No, Marinette was the mind behind this, taking her normal day wear and making it more mysterious; appropriate for the faceless ‘guerrilla’ visual artist that was her professional persona. She’d swapped her usual jacket for an ankle-length black velvet duster with silver embroidery that Emilie was sure was Guardian spell-calligraphy. Her t-shirt had been replaced by an off-white button-up blouse with the ‘signature’ MDC sakura embroidery and she was wearing a pencil skirt over fishnet stockings and at least 8cm stiletto heels. The ensemble was topped off by a loose pink silk headscarf that looped around her shoulders, neck and head, leaving only her face and some of her black hair visible, with the one long braid of her hair trailing down her left breast. Was that the Mouse Miraculous braided into it? She was wearing circular sunglasses with reflective copper-toned Mylar lenses and her lips were painted bright red and compressed into an emotionless line.

Another Council functionary, a small woman with dark blue-dyed hair in a pageboy cut rushed over and nearly genuflected before Marinette. “MDC-sama!” she breathed. “We are most honoured to have your personal presence here! I am Ami and I will be your assistant for the duration of your visit! Whatever you wish, I will be pleased to provide!”

Welcome to Japan, Marinette, Emilie thought. The Japanese were polite and formal but tended to massively over-react to particularly notorious figures that they wanted to impress. She wondered if the girl was ready for it?

Marinette seemed to consider Ami thoughtfully, the obscuring lenses of her sunglasses making it hard to read her thoughts. Then her bright red-painted lips quirked upwards in amused approval and she gestured with her black-gloved left hand for her ‘assistant’ to proceed. Ami turned with a hard expression on her face and snapped her fingers imperiously. Several large Japanese men rushed over to take Marinette’s carry-on luggage. “We will, of course, take your luggage to your suite, MDC-sama!” Marinette bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement, comprehension and agreement.

Outside the lounge, they ran into thething that Emilie had been dreading. The Paparazzi were a lot nicer in Tokyo and formed an orderly and respectful row of cameras to one side of the path from the terminal to the limousine waiting rank but still the flashing of the cameras was dazzling.

Long prepared, Adrien and Chloe gave their best red carpet poses. Emilie hadn’t been expecting for ‘MDC’ to stride over behind them and pose behind them in a possessive and imperious manner, gesturing to the day suits she’d designed for both the others (Chloe’s so closely resembling the Queen Bee costume that Emilie wondered if Chloe was planning to merge her two identities in the public eye). Then she took them by the shoulders and steered them towards the waiting limo.

Sensing ‘MDC’s' implicit instructions, Ami stepped forwards and gestured to the security detail, who began to politely but irresistibly usher the photographers away.

After getting into the limousine with strongly tinted windows, Marinette crossed her fishnet-clad legs, took off her sunglasses and pulled down her head-scarf, laughing nervously. “So, Chloe, did I pull off being the New Style Queen adequately?”

“Are you kidding me?” Chloe asked. “That get up was a work of genius! I could feel Audrey’s jealousy dripping onto the page from the other side of the world! You’re so wearing this at any public appearances in Paris from now on!”

“Okay,” Marinette agreed whilst thinking of ways to talk Chloe out of that impulse later. “We need to negotiate about the stilettos though; I hadn’t realised they made your feet hurt like this!”

Emilie looked over at her dumbstruck son and decided that he would definitely be on Chloe's side of the negotiations. Nothing about Marinette’s ‘costume’ was wrong in his eyes!

“Don’t get too used to it!” Emilie warned.

“It’s just another kind of costume,” Marinette assured Emilie. “Just something to make everyone look the wrong way and for all the wrong things so that ‘MDC’s assistant', Marinette, can walk the streets without being swarmed by the press!"

Emilie smiled and nodded in approval. “Ask me about some of the tricks that I used to be just Emilie Agreste as opposed to Emilie Graham de Vanily when Adrien was a baby.”

~*~*~*~

Tsurugi Tomoe was sitting expressionlessly in front of the tri-D hologram tank with an infrasonic ‘hard light’ function to let her sonar sense let her 'see' the image despite her visual blindness. Her face revealed nothing of her feelings about the sight of MDC proudly displaying her presence to the press corps. Oh, she had no doubt that was young Mlle Dupain-Cheng. It had been reasonably easy for her agents to confirm that it was she who was using the ‘front’ of MDC as a professional alias. A wise precaution; certainly enough to fool the witless mundanes who were, even now, excitedly speculating about her in the city’s news broadcasts.

None of Tomoe’s staff were present in her office; none of them had a need or right to be viewing this. Thanks to several diviners in the Dark Order’s employ, she knew that this was no longer simply a Miraculous holder before her. No, now she was definitely a sister Guardian from the rival Old Order. Even if she had not been connected with Paris’s Team Miraculous, it certainly was enough for Tomoe to wish to arrange a ‘warm welcome’ for her city’s visitors.

If she had any disappointments, it was the absence of her ‘daughter’. Had she gone into hiding? It seemed so out-of-character. However, her absence from that blasted gaijin girl’s side was even more so. She didn’t like that one bit.

“Mainframe,” she spat out to the building's master computer system that was essentially invisibly all around her and was answered by a musical tone. “Inform Inari-oni that I require her immediate presence.”

~*~*~*~

Ami was amazingly easy to charm. Marintte wasn’t sure what the young Japanese woman was expecting – probably a new incarnation of Audrey Regine – but Marinette wasn’t meeting any of her expectations. There were no diva-like insane demands for menu items that, in all likelihood, there were only one or two chefs on the entire planet that could provide. There were no impossible demands for changes to the décor, immediate spa items, luxuries or even men (or even women) to sate her physical lusts. No, once she was in the multi-level and multi-room suite, she's shed her jacket and headscarf and her sunglasses were perched into her hair. 'MDC' was suddenly all kindness, charm and solicitous concern for Ami's schedule and convenience.

Ami was listening to Marinette deliver instructions about the stage dressing and decoration for the 'unveiling' meeting at the Tokyo Trade Centre tonight, what items she would need on hand and the facilities she would need for herself and the models. The Japanese woman's dark eyes were shining in devotion as she considered Marinette's cheerfully-smiling face and Marinette wondered if she'd somehow gained some kind of cult follower just by being kind and considerate! "Okay, and Ami?" She drew in a deep breath and let it out with just one breath. "M Agreste has full access to my suite. There is to be no question about this, we are to be given our privacy together and no-one else is to know."

"Hai, MDC-sama." Ami responded with her lips curving up in a smile. Of course such a woman would have chosen such a devastatingly beautiful man to be her comforter! "None of the staff will question and all will understand the consequences to their careers should they ever speak." Marinette smiled in return. If only she realised just why she and Adrien and Marinette needed their privacy! It wasn’t about any kind of physical liaison at all!

"Good, I'm glad that is understood. Now, I have my own private line for calls that I will accept; I will not be answering any other calls which are not arranged in advance through Mlle Bourgeois or Mme Graham de Vanily and they will have sent us both a text message to inform me if they do so." She gestured by shaking her fingertips. "Now, I'm sure that I have filled the rest of your day adequately. Be off with you."

As soon as the ever-focussed young woman was gone (and she seemed so young; Marinette couldn't believe that Ami was six years older than her), Marinette blew out a breath.

"Don't get too immersed in your role!" Tikki warned as she popped out from behind her headscarf, thrown over the hand-tooled leather recliner in front of the two storey-high windows.

"Don't worry, Tikki! You have no idea just how uncomfortable an experience that was! Having to… redefine everything in terms of her expectations and to prevent suspicion wasn't exactly easy for me!"

Mullo rubbed herself across Marinette's cheek. "It's all part of having secret identities, Marinette! You've always been good at it even though I know that deception of any kind makes you unhappy!"

"It is still possible to get too comfortable being served," Tikki responded. "I think that you should schedule time for meditation so that you can keep your balance…"

At that moment, Marinette's phone began to ring; not its normal ringtone or any of the custom tones she'd assigned to her friends. No, it was a particular tone she'd arranged with Max to show a message was incoming from the MiracuChat network. Making sure the microphone was muted (not all of the team knew her secret identity after all), she flipped open her phone and looked at the text message.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@BugBoss) - OWNER/ADMIN

@DragonGrrrl: Ladybug-sama, can I come in?

@BugBoss: Stormy? Where are you?

@DragonGrrrl: Please check your balcony.

Marinette boggled at the message for a moment. Then she walked over to the long stretch of sliding glass doors that led out onto the suite's ludicrously large balcony area and found a black-clad ninja waiting for her. Marinette's brain locked up for a moment as she looked at the professional-looking stealth get up with the ivory-sheathed and white-hilted long- and short-swords strapped to her hip and the shining steel bow over her shoulders. Then the intruder pulled down her face covering and Kagami smiled.

"Ohayo, Mari-chan. Well, as Chloe-chan likes to put it, you seem to have fallen onto your feet!"

The only thing that Marinette could think of to say was: "Kagami? How did you get up here?"

Kagami showed her hands and feet and Marinette saw the climbing claws, then the Japanese woman showed a grappling line attached to the end of an arrow poking out of the top of her quiver. "Mother always taught me to rely on nothing but my own skill; I purchased this equipment a while ago and have been practising getting around the skyline of Paris whilst detransformed." She gave her friend a slightly embarrassed and pleading look. "Please don't tell Chloe. I think that she gets frightened when she hears of me doing things like this."

Marinette shook her head and decided that this was something Kagami and Chloe needed to sort out for themselves. “What brings you here, Kagami? I mean, I can guess why you came in disguise and came in ‘the back way’ so to speak but why?”

Kagami nodded. “I have been monitoring my family’s estate ever since I arrived in Tokyo,” she said. “Mother is paranoid and has many levels of security but familiarity breeds certain skills and Mother’s routines and patterns for her security are sometimes predictable. I have been able to find ways into the grounds that avoid the security sensors and enable me to eavesdrop on her.” The Japanese woman frowned. “She is planning something, Mari-chain. She has had a long meeting behind physical barriers, something excessive even for her. However, one thing I was able to see was a floor plan for the Tokyo Trade Centre.”

Marinette frowned. “We’re having our inaugural show of the House of Harmony’s wares and the businesses that Emilie wants to set up in Japan tonight. However, it seems a bit outside of Tomoe’s normal interests to attack a fashion conference though!”

Kagami shook her head. “Mari… I believe that your identity as a Guardian of the Celestial Order is known at least to her; she has used the term several times whilst walking in the gardens which means she suspects she may be being monitored and wants it known that she knows.“

“Oh…. Well, that is worrying.” Tikki responded, her voice rising in concern at that news.

“Very much so. Much like Audrey-baka’s ‘demonstration’ when you last visited New York, I suspect that she wishes for the Dark Order to show its power by attacking the Celestial Order’s current champion directly. It is you that she is targeting here, Marinette, not Emilie-san’s business interests.”

Marinette nodded. “Well, I can’t just hide away when she could harm innocent exhibitors at the Centre. I’ll have to think about how I can do this without revealing too much.”

Kagami nodded. “I will, of course, be there, Mari-chan.”

The two young women embraced. “Can I at least convince you to…?” Marinette began.

Kagami shook her head. “My reasons for renouncing the Dragon remain the same, Marinette. Trust me; I know what I am doing.”

~*~*~*~

Marinette had originally intended to attend the conference’s opening session in mufti and just be one of MDC’s assistants, answering questions but Kagami’s news made her concerned that this was exposing herself unnecessarily. Instead, she was there as MDC, with Adrien walking nervously on her arm (and Emilie visibly trying to restrain her laughter). Chloe was a marvel and seemed able to interpret Marinette’s every silent gesture and movement of her head. Being Chloe, she was leaning heavily on the implied authority and the notoriety of the anonymous and infamous designer by scornfully suggesting to various textile merchants that their ‘demands’ (prices) were insulting and greatly overselling the value of their wares.

The reason that she had Adrien in personal attendance on her arm was because he was wearing the Aires Miraculous as well as the Black Cat and she had the feeling that he would be able to predict and counter any attacks from Kaze Gozen. Every time he stopped, he looked around himself warily. This was not a young man nervous because of being openly displayed as a mysterious celebrity’s trophy lover but an experienced young warrior, looking for snipers or other threats.

In many ways, being in-character for the habitually-silent and faceless ‘MDC’ fit Marinette’s mindset a lot better than the passively-aggressive negotiation approach that Chloe was using. If necessary, she could haggle over prices but she preferred just to pay and go rather than make an issue of it. It didn’t help that MDC’s role was at least partly to be an intimidating presence; Marinette didn’t know if she could pull that off.

Leaving Chloe to her negotiation over whole shipping containers of the finest chiffon cloth, Marinette wandered off with Adrien to a smaller merchant’s table. A pleasant-looking south Asian woman in a colourful Sari was representing this particular merchant and the bolts of saffron behind her. Deciding to try her role, she pointed to one of the bolts and the woman reacted with genuine confusion. Marinette held back her urge to laugh. At last! Someone who hadn’t heard of the reputation of MDC, or at least didn’t associate it with her current disguise!

That is when she froze and she wasn’t sure exactly what she should do. At least a dozen Miraculous, all amongst the lost ones, based on the illustrations she’d seen in the Grimoire, were all neatly spread across the merchant’s table in front of the young woman. Her benign smile indicated that she had no idea of the unimaginable value and danger associated with the treasures lying in front of her! What to do? The obvious thing was to snatch them up immediately but she had no idea if anyone had claimed them; she had to avoid causing panic or a scandal as would naturally follow ‘MDC’ suddenly stealing a dozen items of probably-priceless ancient jewellery!

“Marinette?” Adrien was adjusting the Aires Miraculous and looked like he felt uncomfortable

Marinette blinked in confusion. “Adrien, can’t you see them?” she hissed. He shook his head. “The Miraculous! Adrien! Right there! There’s the Thunderbird from the Native American Box and… Is that the Blue Dragon from the East Asian Box?”

“M’lady, I can’t see them!”

Marinette would have been even more confused if trouble were not breaking out all around her. People were lunging at seemingly nothing and lashing out at people.

“Give it to me!” the merchant’s assistant suddenly yelled out and launched herself at Ami, making the representative of the Council of Trade take several surprised steps back but… She didn’t seem to be attacking her. “It’s mine! I’ve always wanted a necklace like that! The jade and the diamonds! It is sobeautiful!”

The paradox of wanting a mundane necklace (which evidently wasn’t even there) when there was enough Miraculous power in front of her to make her almost a god just didn’t scan for Marinette and it snapped her out of any remaining illusion that those treasures were really there. Whoever this woman was… but many people were doing this now! Marinette and Adrien grabbed Ami and yanked her away from the saffron merchant’s saleswoman and she lunged at Marinette instead with a cry of “Give it to me, thief!”

Adrien easily caught the woman’s clumsy lunge and pushed her away. He grabbed Marinette by the upper arms and shook her hard. “M’lady! There is some kind of magic being used! I think that the Aires is protecting me but…”

“Marinette, it is a magical illusion!” Tikki yelled in her ear from her hiding place in her Holder’s head scarf. “You have to resist its lure!”

Marinette looked around her and saw that the missing Miraculous were now appearing on everyone around her (sometimes in several places at once) as her gaze travelled around her. Meanwhile, these supposedly-respectable businessmen clashed, yelling demands or scrabbling after invisible objects. The impossibility of what she was seeing cleared her mind somewhat. “Adrien, find Chloe and your maman! If they’re affected, use the Aires’s power to protect them!”

With a nod, her boyfriend darted away into the growing anarchy. Although she was still seeing impossible treasures all around her (fashion awards with her name on it were appearing too now), Marinette knew that this couldn’t be real. Someone was projecting this illusion but who and how?

That is when Marinette’s befuddled brain picked up on the fact that Ami didn’t seem affected at all. Indeed, the majority of the panicking attendees of the conference weren’t but those that were affected were showing a huge amount of aggression. The saffron merchant’s saleswoman had staggered back to her feet but, instead of returning to the attack, instead was ripping her display apart, as if trying to get to something, scratching and clawing at anyone who came close

Marinette fell to her knees, clutching her head and trying to clear the frantic urges to find her treasures, take them, keep them and drive away any rival claimant from her mind.

~*~*~*~

Out of Marinette’s sight, perched on top of the ducting for the hall’s ventilation system, near to the roof, Kagami was amongstthose who weren’t affected by the illusions. Like all those so unaffected, she had no idea what was happening beyond the fact that her friend had fallen to her knees and several rich and influential men and women were fighting tooth-and-nail over something only they could see or hear.

With an angry snarl, the young warrior women stared around her and then saw her quarry: A woman in flowing formal robes in orange with white tips, black gloves and black knee-length Tabi, standing in the lighting fixtures over one particularly large exhibition booth. Her first guess was that it was somehow Rena but there was no sign of the flute. Instead, the woman, who had short black hair, was wielding a body-length scythe with orange fire burning along its edge and had a wooden fox mask covering her face. The woman was laughing in cruel delight at the chaos around her.

Whoever you are, I cannot allow this to continue! Kagami unslung and strung her bow, pulling out an arrow. Unlike her mother, Kagami’s first instinct was not to kill; she had to know who this was and why they were doing this, after all. The arrow struck at the woman’s feet and the stun grenade arrowhead detonated with a bright flash and a loud ‘bang’. The woman tumbled to the exhibition floor with a cry of anger and surprise.

~*~*~*~

Even across the increasing chaotic hubbub of arguments, the crashing of overturned displays as well as claims and counter-claims over objects that everyone except the disputants could not see, Marinette heard the stun bomb. She looked in the right direction and saw as the masked woman, very obviously in a Miraculous’s fighting mantle dropped to the floor, landing in a crouch and shaking her head in disorientation.

As they rose to their feet, their fox-themed short kimono with pants stood out to Marinette as did what was obviously a MIraculous: A rope necklace with five large polished wooden beads. The fox-masked woman glared at her. “I don’t know how you did that but it won’t stop me, Guardian!” she hissed. “If you want this attack to stop, you will leave the Dark Order’s lands and never return!”

The woman pointed the end of her Scythe in Marinette’s direction only for Ami to throw herself in between them. “No! You won’t hurt our guest!” she squeaked.

“Do you think you can stop me, you fool? Treasured Gift!” Marinette had absolutely no idea what to expect to follow but a long, rippling sheet of silk wasn’t wasn’t it. On reflex, the noirette woman grabbed Ami and launched herself into a sideways hand-somersault that avoided the rippling bolt of cloth. Behind her, the cloth struck the saffron merchant's saleswoman and bound her up like a mustard yellow mummy.

Marinette would later tell Adrien that she was struggling with the mental attack and wasn’t really thinking straight. With an enemy right in front of her, she reacted automatically. “Tikki! Mullo! Fusion Transformation!” Before the eyes of Ami and dozens of others who had followed the costumed woman’s movements and her confrontation with the mysterious foreign fashionista, MDC exploded into a two-tone pink lightshow, which cleared to reveal what anyone who knew anything about recent events in Paris as one of the forms of Ladybug.

The Fox Villain grinned. “Ah, so! You choose to reveal yourself? Well, that confirms that you have Miraculous on you, something that my Mistress has ordered me to claim from you.”

LadyMouse scowled. So, this was one of Tomoe’s people? Evidently, the East Asian Dark Order did already have some Miraculouses to its name! “Over my dead body, villain!”

LadyMouse’s foe laughed. “Oh, I was intending to do it that way anyway!” The fox-dressed supervillain leapt at her, leading with her Scythe ready to strike. LadyMouse dived under the attack and lashed out at her foe’s knees, which the villain barely avoiding the blow by leaping over it. She swung the scythe at LadyMouse’s legs in response; LadyMouse jumped the attack and got the blunt end of the Miraculous Tool in her guts on the backswing.

The Fox Villain looked down at her Miraculous and hissed in anger as she released that the three of the orange beads around her throat were still black and the fourth was flashing orange. This gave LadyMouse the opportunity to flip back onto her feet, slap her Yo-Yo onto her forearm and activate the tool in its BugShield/BugSaw mode.

The two Miraculous wielders leapt at each-other and there was a brief interchange of blows with Scythe blocked by shield and saw blocked by shaft.Every golden-white contact sent a shower of silver sparks flashing through the air.

LadyMouse jumped back. “Who are you?” she snapped with a scowl. “Why attack a group of clothing merchants?”

The other woman laughed mockingly. “You fool, my target isn’t this group of worthless peddlers! It is you that is my prey! I have long awaited my chance for vengeance on you and that Gaijin whore who took what was mine and now I, Inari the Fox of the Heart’s Bounty, am seizing that chance!”

LadyMouse had no idea what that might mean but villains rarely made sense in these situations, especially ones with strong revenge agendas, until you learned who was under the mask. There wasn't time to consider it anyway, as Inari made another swing with her scythe, this time at LadyMouse's neck. Fortunately, the BugShield was still in place and was able to divert the blow upwards (made with enormous power like most attacks from a Miraculous Holder) and drive her foot into the villain's face with all the skill that Nora had taught her over the past year and a half.

Inari was stunned and staggered back several paces before looking back at LadyMouse with a grin. "Ah! Akido! You aren't without skill as some in my Mistress's service have claimed! Well, that will make my victory all the sweeter!" The Miraculous had completed its cooldown. Now! Treasured Gift!" The fox-masked villain swung the Scythe towards LadyMouse and, amazingly, a hail of her parents' macarons materialised out of the orange magic. Something told LadyMouse that they were somehow deadlier than her parents' pastries could be.

At that moment, there was a blessed interruption as Belier Noir's shield span through the air and intercepted the weaponised pastries mid-air, causing them to detonate, spraying what acted like acid everywhere.

"Now, I'm one for sharp tastes, but that is desert-ally not fit for sale, I think!" Belier Noir said with an impudent grin from his place in between the two combatants. The Aires shield already back over his back he drew Cat Staff, extended it and balanced it on his shoulder. "So, what say you Tail-or your methods to handle your Fur-lings in a more reasonable way, Oui?"

LadyMouse rolled her eyes but… Inari wasn't looking at her boyfriend as if his mockery had distracted her, as was its usual role. Beneath the richly-decorated wooden ritual mask of the Fox of Bounty, her grey eyes had locked onto something behind him. Chloe was holding up a shaken and dishevelled Emilie but Inari's gaze was locked on Chloe. "Y… you!" she spluttered. "Still alive! Well I can fix that!" Completely ignoring the Guardian of the Mother Miracle Box, Inari leapt at the detransformed Bee Heroine with her Scythe swung back to decapitate the blonde with a single blow.

The edge of the Miraculous Tool instead struck something that had dropped out of the overhead ventilation fixtures with a shower of white sparks. Everyone blinked as if they needed to reset their brains ajd saw a young woman in black, masked and hooded as if imitating the robes of the ancient Ninja. Her katana and wakizachi were crossed like scissor blades, holding the blade of the Fox Harvester's Scythe, crackling with orange fire, immobile barely three centimetres from Chloe's face. "Whoever you are," said the unmistakable voice of Tsurugi Kagami, "I will not allow you to harm the one I love."

Recovering from the shock of the sudden insane attack on her friend, LadyMouse unfurled the Tail Rope and slung it at Inari, snaring the Miraculous Villain's legs just above the knee. "That is enough, Inari! I don't understand your grievance is with Mlle Bourgeois but it does not justify murder! End this now!"

With a hiss of rage, Inari seemed to gather her wits and her awareness of her priorities. She yanked back her Scythe from Kagami's crossed blades and slashed it around at ankle height. Kagami tackled Emilie and Chloe, carrying them over the attack and LadyMouse jumped over the Tool's sweep but in doing so made the Parisian superheroine had to loosen the tension on the Tail Rope, giving Inari the opening to jump clear.

The woman landed on top of a display booth and there was a piercing double-bleep, she looked down and realised that two of the five beads on her necklace had gone black and the third was now flashing. "Damn it! The Mistress warned me this would happen!" She visibly focussed her mind before continuing. "Well, this attack has mostly failed. However, these greedy fools will continue to tear this place and each other apart to seize the treasure that they value the most, even though it isn't really here!" She grinned maliciously. "Good luck stopping it, Gaijin!" She leapt vertically away with a prodigy of strength that only a Miraculous could provide and vanished into a ventilation duct.

LadyMouse looked around her as she took in the knots of violence as the people somehow bewitched by Inari's power continued to brawl and tear apart random objects, trying to find treasures that only existed in their minds. "M'lady?" Belier Noir asked.

LadyMouse detached her Yo-yo from its place on her arm and cast it up into the air. At the apex, the Miraculous Tool unleased a whirling galactic spiral of shining ladybird beetles and, from within its centre, something dropped out that Belier Noir caught. "What is this supposed to be?" Like all Lucky Charms, this one was in the colours of the Ladybug but it was a strange object, like a carpenter's awl with a strange patterned disc at the base of the handle. The Disc was decorated with the outline of the mask Inari was wearing.

The heroes looked at it for several moments when Marinette realised that she'd seen it before. It was a decoration on the nameplate over the chiffon merchant's booth, which had begun flashing in her mind's eye in her colours along with the awl and, surprisingly, the Mouse Miraculous around her neck. "How many…?" she whispered in horror. It didn't matter. She re-holstered her Yo-yo and drew the Tail Rope, spinning it around her. "Multitude!" The heroine exploded into pink light from which dozens of miniature-sized LadyMice emerged.

Meanwhile, Chloe had recovered enough to act. "Pollen! Buzz on!" The blonde exploded into yellow light from which Queen Bee emerged. "Boss?"

"Get Madame Graham de Vanily and Ami-san to safety and then restrain those affected by the spell as best as you can, Queen Bee, You too, Mon Chevallier! "

There was no question that having the Bee Hero made that easier. As the LadyMice ran to and fro, clambering into various places to lever the coins out of their settings, Queen Bee's Soldier constructs swarmed out over the conference hall, stinging the rioters and paralysing them on the spot.

Belier Noir looked on in concern as the LadyMice made a pile of coins in front of him. Although they appeared inert, he could sense the magic and the malice with which Inari must have cast her spell. "Lots of injuries here, M'lady," he said quietly.

LadyMouse nodded soberly as the Singularity power finished reassembling her duplicates into her full-sized self. She hefted the awl in her hand. "Fortunately, Mon Chevallier, it is all the work of dark magic!" She gestured down at the pile of coins. "If you will?"

Belier Noir nodded. "You only ever have to ask." His clawed right glove began to crackle with green-black light and he plunged it down onto the pile. Instead of corroding into rust, the pile of golden coins exploded into orange smoke on contact with his Cataclysm and they were all gone in an instant. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the frantic light fading from the eyes of all the afflicted.

With a nod, she threw the awl into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

In the aftermath of the wave of restorative beetles, the event hall was seemingly untouched with the exception of the missing fox coin decorations. LadyMouse helped the saffron merchant's assistant to her feet, the woman babbling confused apologies,

"Oh Arigrato Ladybug-sama… Or should I call you MDC-sama?" Ami babbled as she ran over and practically seized LadyMouse's arm. "You saved us all! Of course, your civilian self would be such a great woman!" The heroine fought mentally with a surge of panic of how to explain away her very public transformation that basically left her secret identity in tatters.

At that moment, salvation came in the form of Kagami. "Actually, that wasn't MDC," the Japanese woman explained without a hint that this was a hastily-constructed lie. "Ladybug had gained intelligence of some sort of attack to take place today and persuaded MDC to allow her to take her place behind a disguise created by Rena Rouge's Mirage power. MDC is still backstage, waiting for the all-clear."

Ami shot the younger woman an odd look. "Who are you that you know this?"

Kagami's smile was tight and professional. "My name is no concern of yours. All you need to know is that I am known as Gozen the Swordswoman and I am MDC's chief bodyguard." She turned to LadyMouse. "Ladybug-sama; on behalf of my employer, I thank you for handling this incident so efficiently."

"Uh… My pleasure, Gozen-san. Now, if you excuse me, my team and I need to be about trying to find this Inari's trail." As LadyMouse grabbed Belier Noir around the waist and, with Queen Bee buzzing alongside her, rose into the air using her rarely-used wing constructs the attendees started a chant of: "Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!"

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@BugBoss) - OWNER/ADMIN

@FoxyBabe: Okay, Boss, look at this!

@FoxyBabe posted MDC is Ladybug? – Tokyo Sun-Times (English).lnk

@FoxyBabe posted NelsonHaHa.png

@FoxyBabe: Aw! And I thought that I'd get the first exclusive for when you were unmasked! :(

@FoxyBabe: You'll be glad to know that this has already gone worldwide.

@BugBoss: For heaven's sake, Alya, please don't rub it in!

@TrueQueen: Well, as we've said before about necessity sometimes making stuff inevitable!

@FoxyBabe: Oh, and orders for the LadyMouse, Belier Noir and Queen Bee action figures in the Japanese Market are up 50% and we still don't have the final figures.

@TrueQueen: That's a great action vid on the Ladyblog, by the way Foxy!

@TrueQueen: Really caught the full detail and power of the dual transformation!

@BugBoss: Chloe!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Want cheese with that whine, Mari?

@Cool4Catz: Well, you'll be glad that the ever-efficient Ami is already spreading the cover story that #Gozen made up on the spot there.

@FoxyBabe: The Ladyblog is going to do the same, so this should be suppressed within a day or two.

@BugBoss: Saving my secret identity in the process.

@BugBoss: Just a relevant side-note – #Gozen's identity is currently a secret. Me, Queenie and Kitty recognised her after we'd had enough time to catch our breaths but it is currently a necessary secret that no other team-member has a need to know. If you think you know *don’t mention it on the chat*

@BugBoss: Now, we have a bigger issue here.

@Cool4Catz: Who is #Inari?

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Whoever she is, she has a serious hate-on about Queenie!

@TrueQueen: Which narrows her down to… maybe several thousand people?

@FoxyBabe: Not anymore girl; it hasn't been that way for over a year.

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Even then, it was mostly in Paris, dudette

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Since when do you have enemies in Tokyo?

@TrueQiem: I have a suspicion on that but I just can't make it all link up in my head.

@TrueQueen: It's that damned disguise magic at work! Can't you do something about this Mari?

@BugBoss: Unfortunately, the disguise magic is an intrinsic part of our transformations

@BugBoss: We won't know until we force her detransformation in front of us!

@Cool4Catz: Which is a real problem

@TrueQueen: Don't worry, guys

@TrueQueen: I've got a feeling that we're gonna get another shot at this. She'll be back and soon.

@BugBoss: GTG, guys, Ami wants to talk to me; Chaton, let me know anything important comes out of the brainstorming.

@BugBoss LOGGED OUT of the Chat

"Yes, Ami?" 'MDC' said, getting off of her large leather couch to face her Japanese temporary assistant.

"I am pleased that the day went well, despite the interference of that masked bandit," Ami began. "Your countrymen have clearly been trained to a high level of readiness by the long war against Hawkmoth and the various attacks by Nightshade and other villains."

"It has been a difficult couple of years, yes," Marinette responded. "I'm glad that our presentation went ahead as planned but I am supposing that all the agreements that Emilie-san and I had previously inked are now effectively void?"

"Oh no!" the Japanese woman replied with a sunny smile. "If anything, the security you'd arranged reassured many importers and wholesalers here in Tokyo that House of Harmony is ready to deal with any possible 'disruptions'. If anything, you have got better prices than initially had been proposed!"

Marinette was still trying to process this when Ami continued in an uncertain tone. "Should I have a camp bed placed in your sleeping room? For Gozen-san?" Marinette gave the other woman a strange look. "As your bodyguard, she should of course sleep by you to protect you from intruders in the night!"

Marinette honestly didn't know what to think or say about that! After a few moments of imitating a fish, she finally spoke. "That would be an insult to the hotel's security and the Council of Trade's own arrangements, would it not?" she offered at last. That response seemed to please Ami. Kagami hadn't told her where she was staying yet but she had a feeling that she didn't need to sleep at Marinette's foot like a medieval-era personal servant! Sleeping at Chloe's feet however…? Marinette stamped on her urge to grin naughtily at that.

Marinette was going to have to arrange to speak to Kagami and soon. Her prediction that her mother was going to move against Marinette as a Guardian from a rival Order had turned out to be very true and it was also clear that Tomoe had access to at least one Miraculous and a trained Holder with which to do so. This whole situation in Tokyo had just managed to somehow get a lot more dangerous!

Chapter 5: Inari's Deception (Land of the Rising Sun, part 2)

Chapter Text

Ito Ikuko wore a fixed smile as she admitted Tsurugi Tomoe to her family home late that evening. What she knew of the woman made her long to treat her with the contempt that she deserved but the elaborate and strict ritual formality of Japanese hospitality required that she be a gracious host. “Tsurugi-san, please take a seat. May I offer you a tea?”

Tomoe’s blank face and obscuring sunglasses revealed little. “That would be welcome, Ito-san. Conflicts in our respective affairs may leave things between us strained but this does not mean that we cannot treat each other in a civilised manner.”

Ikukko sent her daughter to prepare the tea and filled the air with small talk before Michiru arrived with the tea service on a whalebone tray. Michi looked like she wanted to be anywhere but in the sight of the uncanny not-a-gaze of the technology mogul but she had a duty and poured the tea through a strainer into the pre-warmed china cups.

Tomoe took a sip and smiled thinly in a kind of macabre and skeletal approval. “You have trained your daughter well, Ito-San. I wish I was able to say the same of mine.”

Ikukko gritted her teeth slightly. “Kagami-chan is a young woman of the greatest potential, Tsurugi-san; perhaps you need to accept that she defines her own life rather than judge her choices through the filter of your father’s own demands upon you.

Tomoe drew in a deep, angry breath but couldn’t deny that the other woman knew her father’s ways very well, he having still been alive when she took up a role as a housekeeper at the Tsurugi mansion. “I see we cannot keep business out of this conversation,” she said through gritted teeth. “I have no doubt that the girl has told you much about how matters stand between us.”

Ikuko looked fearlessly into the opaque lenses covering the other woman’s sightless eyes. “Less than you may believe, Tsurugi-san; she has revealed only that you and she are quarrelling. She would not betray confidential family matters beyond that.” Ikuko shifted on her seat. “Beyond that, I have guessed much. I know that you inherited your position from your father and that he was involved in business that was…” The kindly round-faced woman paused to take a sip of her own tea. “That was debatably legal. You and your father were far less discreet than you imagined, my former mistress; did you think a mere house-servant was not worth lying to or hiding from? In any case, I am very aware of what you are capable of and the ambitions that come first for you. Did you really think that someone so painstakingly trained to the highest ancient standards of martial honour like Kagami was would approve of your actions?”

Tomoe didn’t reply at first. She put her hands into her lap and returned the other woman's glare with cold, precise calm. “I do not seek her or anyone else’s approval, Ito-san, least of all yours. I am here, as a courtesy to you due to your family’s long history of service to mine. That dispossessed girl is not welcome in Tokyo unless she wishes to come to beg my forgiveness. I strongly advise you to expel her from your house; for your children’s sake, even if you have no care for your own safety.

Ikuko snorted. “I expected a bludgeoning threat against my husband’s business interests, Tsurugi-san, not these passive-aggressive hints!”

Tomoe’s grin was ghastly and terrifying. “I try not to be predictable, Ito-san.” Tomoe stood in a relaxed, controlled and fearless way and nodded without a hint of courtesy, smiling dangerously. “Thank you for your hospitality, Ito-san. I have delivered my warning. What happens next is your decision to make, not mine.”

Outside the house, Tomoe stepped into her Tokyo sedan, not dissimilar to Tatsu but with far more capabilities. “Inari,” she commanded to the figure sitting opposite her in the passenger compartment. “You may proceed as we have discussed.”

The Miraculous Villain looked at her mistress. With the face-obscuring fox mask, her expression was unreadable to most people; even Tomoe’s gaze was blocked by the disguise magic but she could hear the younger woman’s concern in the tone of her voice. “I cannot guarantee that the Itos will not suffer harm from this, my Lady.”

Tomoe gestured idly. “They are of little concern to me. Deliver my message to my wayward child in the manner in which you have been instructed.” Inari nodded and disembarked at once. “Oh, and Inari?” The fox villain looked back. “Ito-san either knows or has guessed far too much for the sake of her health. She is to die.”

~*~*~

LadyMouse swallowed her nausea. Kagami wasn’t using lethal force but the near-mechanical precision with which she’d disarmed and hamstrung the guard in the Tsurugi compound before leaving him tied to a tree was more than a little terrifying.

“I think that we are secure in our position and unlikely to be interrupted now, Ladybug-sama,” the Japanese woman reported as she sheathed her katana. LadyMouse nodded spasmodically and tried to clear her mind of her immediate memories of that blood-soaked moment.

She whispered to herself in Tibetoka: “Memories and magic of generations past, guide me now to this stolen treasure!” There was immediately a sense of orientation that led her gaze across the square to the three-storey building with an elegantly-tiled roof that served as the main residence. “This way,” she told Kagami and the two young women were instantly jumping from rooftop to rooftop across the compound.

LadyMouse suddenly lurched to a halt as Mingzhede Xiangdao manifested in front of her as a spectral blue shape, his hand virtually touching her chest. “No further, my Apprentice,” he announced. “There are protective spells here!”

“Master…?” LadyMouse’s mind was reeling as it always was whenever she in some way encountered this echo of the Mage.

Kagami had nearly ploughed into the other heroine’s back. “Ladybug-Sama, what is it?” she asked querulously.

“The roof of the residence building has protective spells,” LadyMouse replied said. “If we go up there, we’ll optimistically just be discovered.” The Champion of Paris shook her head as she watched the Mage’s ghost point to the window behind which she could see the shadow of Tsurugi Tomoe talking to a large, hulking male figure and then wave cheerfully before vanishing. She sighed. “In any case, we know where the Miracle Box is hidden. It is in your mother's personal chambers; possibly never out of her reach.”

Kagami nodded slowly; like Chloe said, there was always something a little unnerving when Marinette used her Guardian magic in this way: The feeling that the other woman could see things and knew things that most people could not. “We will obviously have to wait until Mother is out before we go any further.” She smiled slightly. “Let me take you to my lodgings and I will introduce you to some of my… Well, mother didn’t allow them to be my friends but I regret that fact and hope that will change now that her approval is no longer something about which I need to concern myself.”

After jumping over the walls and landing in the street just outside the compound, Marinette stepped out of the pink light of her detransformation whilst Kagami removed her face covering and tied it around her neck as a scarf of sorts and adjusted the rest of her costume so she just appeared as a teenage girl with an black-dominated personal aesthetic (right down to her lipstick and nail polish).

The two friends walked down the street, passing the open gates of a Shinto shrine (by custom, their gates were never closed). Marinette blinked; she was startled by the light-not-light streaming out of the gate. She looked at Kagami. "There aren't any floodlights in there, are there?" she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Kagami gave her friend a hard look, once again reminded that Marinette had, over year or so they had known each other, developed far more powers than those that came from her Miraculous. "Holy ground," she reminded her. "It makes sense that you would sense it."

The two young women proceeding down a road of high-status houses to one with an American-style mailbox marked ‘Ito’ in the kanji script.

“So, this is where you are staying?” Marinette asked. “Looks a nice place.”

"Nice place, even better people. Not as rich as mother but their quality proves that worth does not come from wealth.”

Kagami was about to boldly walk into the garden when the Mouse kwami, Mullo zipped up to hovering front of her face, breaking her stride. Simultaneously, Marinette’s hand closed around hers with a startling and painful intensity. “I sense something evil here,” she whispered. “Be wary!” Kagami frowned and flipped back her duster to grasp the hilt of her Wakazashi shortsword as the door burst open with impetuous force. Someone had obviously been watching the camera-equipped doorbell's live-stream.

“Gami-Chani!” Michiru sang out as she burst out of the door and into an unselfconscious and strangely intimate hug. “You’re home!” She smaller girl looked over at Marinette and scowled. “Oh… You have brought a… guest.”

“Marinette!” Tikki hissed from within Marintte’s hair bun. “I sense Miraculous magic being used for evil!”

Marinette could sense it too. It reminded her of the howling sense of wrongness she always felt around Hawkmoth’s akumatised victims. There were other sources of Miraculous Magic here in Japan, just as corrupted and misdirected as the Butterfly Miraculous in Hawkmoth's hands; magic that could influence, corrupt or even control minds and she knew that it was in the hands of evil. “Marinete Dupain-Cheng,” she said aloud, extending her hand to the girl for a shake and not missing the look of repulsion that flitted across her face. She looked over the girl's shoulder and wished that the interior of the house did not seem to radiate dark malice. "Is there anything odd happening at the house tonight?"

"Oh, Tsurugi-san visited to talk to mother," the girl chirped in a way that was far too cheerful for the likely dread content of that meeting. "Who are you to ask about our family and its private affairs?"

"She's a good friend of mine, Michiru-chan," Kagami explained.

That was obviously the girl’s berserk button and she posed aggressively and glared dangerously at Marinette. “Kagami already has friends and she doesn’t need any more friends; least of all you, outlander!”

“Michi!” Kagami scolded.

“Come now, forget about her and come in, Onee-chan!” Michi sang, her eyes filled with a disturbing fixated fanaticism. A teasing and slightly-seductive smile filled the small girl’s face, the implied evil in it not fitting her innocent countenance in the slightest. “Come on, Gami! Hiro is waiting for you!”

With a near-superhuman display of determined strength, the girl yanked the taller woman into the house and very obviously slammed it shut in Marinette’s face. "Well, that was rude! Marinette said in an ironic tune. "I was expecting some friction on the grounds of being part-Chinese but that…?" Tikki and Mullo both rolled their eyes at her. “Well, at least we know where Inari is striking next!” Marinette said dryly as Tikki nodded in agreement. The young Guardian pulled out her mobile ‘phone and sent an SOS message to Chloe and Adrien’s Miracuchat accounts. "Get your tails in gear, guys! There is a fight starting!"

Inside the house, Kagami was in the middle of a bizarre kind of nightmare. The Ito family had always been an island of 'normal' in the madness of her personal life. As soon as Michi slammed the front door behind her, she was confronted by perversions of these good and kind people. Ikuko was looking at her with undisguised avarice and Hiro was… Ugh! She was used to his hopelessly noble crush on her but he was staring at her with undisguised lust! He reached out, grabbed her face and yanked her into a digusting, possessive and bruising assault of a kiss.

"Well?" Ikuko snapped. "What are you waiting for, boy? We have debts that we need to pay with her share of the Tsurugi fortune! Take her to your room and make her your wife and my daughter!"

Kagami didn’t know what to do. She still had her weapons but she couldn't use them! She'd kill or permanently maim them! At that point, she heard the most chilling laughter. She looked to one side and found Inari standing there, orange fire playing along the edge of the blade of her scythe. "This was your mother's idea, Kagami, but I confess that I find it apt: That you will be broken by your own false 'family's' exposed darkest desires. You will crawl to Tsurugi-san after this, Kagami and you will be grateful that she… and I… will take you back!"

With a leer, Hiro grabbed a handful of Kagami's hair and began to drag her towards the stairs to the sleeping level as she screamed, shouted and struggled. Inari's poisonous smirk became regretful for a moment before she looked over at the matriarch of the family. "Ito-san, we need to discuss Tsurugi-san's further plans in private."

Ikuko nodded. "Of course, Inari-oni; come to the kitchen. Michiru? Guard the house from intruders!"

Michi pulled her titanium-bodied softball bat out of the umbrella stand by the door and took on a guarding posture. "Hai, mama! No-one will pass me and steal my sister whilst I still live!"

~*~*~

Outside the house, LadyMouse was responding to the sound of Kagami's panicked cries by preparing to break into the house. Then she heard a familiar buzzing sound, making her look up with a happy grin as Queen Bee, flying on her energy wings, dropped Chat Noir into the small front garden. "Sweet Honey, Chaton, it's good to see you both. She cast her yo-yo into the air to summon a Lucky Charm. What came back down was instantly recognisable as one of Inari's mind-warping coins but painted in the black-on-red colours of the Ladybug Miraculous.

"What's that for?" Queen Bee asked. "We already know who's behind this!"

LadyMouse frowned at the lucky charm as it started to bleep with three pink hard light arrow indicators flashing, pointing towards the house in three slightly different directions. "Thank you Tikki! I'm letting you hang out with Max, Markov and Alex with their technomagic ideas more often from now!"

"It's a tracking beacon!" Chat realised.

LadyMouse nodded. "Yes, it's showing us the way to each of Inari's charmed coins that relay her mid-warping powers." She nodded decisively. "I'll take the one in the front; Chat, you head around the back; Honey, you've got the top floor!"

As the front door seemed to leap off of its hinges, yanked away by a yo-yo cord wrapped around the door-handle, Michiru swung to face the intruder, her mind babbling with fears of loss and abandonment that normally she would never countenance. "Ito-san, stand aside," LadyMouse commanded. "You are being ensorcelled by dark magic and are not in full control of your own thinking!"

"I won't let you take away my sister!" Michiru screamed, charging the red-black-grey-and-pink-clad superheroine. Her first wild overhead swing connected with the whirling yo-yo cord and slid off at a wide angle. Michi reeled off balance before recovering and jumping back, considering her foe before swingint edge-on to the whirling yo-yo. The cord wrapped around the shaft of the bat and Michiru laughed in triumph. "Ha! Let's see how well you do without your toy. She yanked on her bat but, much to her shock, LadyMouse's grip didn't shift in the slightest. With a frustrated yell, the girl tried a sweep-kick but LadyMouse effortlessly dodged. The French-Chinese superhero yanked back with her Yo-yo cord, pulling the bat from the girl's grip and sending her stumbling into a high-kick that broke her nose and sent her reeling back before a second high kick to the jaw; the Mouse Tail Rope had lashed out to catch Michi around the shins and she fell back heavily, banging her head on the floor and sending her into dreamland.

LadyMouse knelt next to the mind-controlled girl and detached the Lucky Charm from her left forearm. "Now, let's see where you are, little evil charm," she murmured. The magical detector's bleeps hastened until the arrow was pointing right at Michi's forehead. LadyMouse frowned as the outline of one of Inari's charmed coins flashed in Ladybug colours on the girl's forehead followed by the softball bat where it lay on the ground between them. "Now what are you telling me?" she murmured. She picked up the bat and held it aloft, channelling Tikki's main power of Creation into the simple titanium sporting tool. The power of the Ladybug swept up its length in a beautiful Ladybug-patterned lightshow as it was reshaped into a police baton with two metal prongs at the far end.

LadyMouse gawped at the electrical arc between the two prongs. No, not electrical; the arc was pink; this was not electricity but the magic of the Ladybug Miraculous. "Are you sure?" she whispered to her kwami. As if in response, the magic detector Lucky Charm made a pleasant 'ping' of confirmation. "Okay, but this had better work!"

LadyMouse drove the prongs down onto Michi's forehead. There was a smell of ozone and a crackling noise and the unconscious girl arched her back with a horrible scream of agony. However, as soon as it started, it was over and Inari's charm appeared on the girl's forehead, smouldering slightly. The heroine snatched it up. "No more evil-doing for you, little charm!" On an instinct, LadyMouse drew her forefinger across the Yo-yo's face, making it split open like a ladybug's wing cases and she dropped the coin into the pink light shining out from the interior. "Gotcha!"

Upstairs, the sounds of Kagami fighting one of the other mind-controlled Itos had ceased. LadyMouse stepped toards the stairs. "Stay down, Ito-san," she remarked to the groaning Michiru.

~*~*~

Kagami probably would have been more afraid of Hiro's near-frantic attempts to assault her if he were an even slightly-trained martial artist. As matters stood, she was easily able to hold him off, tossing him around the room and ultimately driving him against the wall of the room with a series of punches and chops. "Hiro, this is not you!" she yelled. "You would never do this to me, no matter what you thought it would take to win my love!"

At that point, the taller boy physically picked Kagami up and, with a roar of fury, threw her onto the bed before jumping onto the stunned and smaller woman, pinning her arms over her head with a large hand around both wrists and using his free hand to tug at her clothes, his eyes wild and barely human-seeming with the animalistic impulses they reflected.

There was a whiz of something fast and airborne as it whirled around Hiro's head. "Hey! Asshole! That's my girl!" yelled a strong French-accented voice. Hiro made a choking sound and reeled back, clawing uselessly at his neck as the cord of Queen Bee's Trompo tightened around his throat as she levered him back almost double with a knee in the small of his back.

"Bee-chan! He's under Inari's control! You don't have to hurt him!" Queen Bee shot her girlfriend an odd look but shifted her balance point to one of her high-heeled boots pressed into the bed and continued to haul backwards, tossing Hiro over her shoulder and tossing him clear across the room to crash into his wardrobe, making its contents spill out in a small avalanche of pin-ups, magazine covers and even posters, all featuring Kagami in her red fencing gear and, oddly, Ryuuko in a variety of mysterious and alluring poses. Sweet lord, I've got a lot of those pictures! Queen Bee realised in some embarrassment. This guy must be the fanboy to end all fanboys!

Queen Bee flicked her wrist and the Bee Trompo returned to its mistress's hand and she pushed her fist into the interior, turning it into a boxing glove of sorts. The Trompo developed a sting-like point and began to pulse with power as the stunned Hiro struggled to rise. "N… No… mine…!" he managed to grind out before the Trompo touched his chest with a golden-white flash of power and he collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut.

"No, creep, you'll find that she's mine," Queen Bee responded with a devilish grin.

The two young lovers embraced, Kagami sobbing into Queen Bee's shoulder. "We… we should find a way to restrain him…" Kagami began before there was a hum of energy wings and LadyMouse was climbing through the window, her wing constructs fading as she did so. She was holding a police shock-prod in the colours of Ladybug in her right hand, which she levelled at Hiro. Seeing the obvious threat, the youn man's irises dilated in genuine fear. "I've got this, Kagami," she announced, stabbing the paralysed Hiro in the forehead.

There was a metallic 'thud' as one of Inari's charmed coins fell to the bedroom floor. With a pink flash, the Ladybug Yo-yo snatched the coin off of the floor.

Kagami glared at her paralysed and unconscious surrogate brother. "I will kill the witch for this!" she hissed.

~*~*~

Inari straightened her kimono and looked over at Ikuko. "Indeed, I do have a gift for you, Ito-san, one that Tsurugi-sama personally bade me to give you," she announced. "Please kneel." She had to make this quick, as distasteful as it was; the thuds and crashes from upstairs and Kagami's occasional panicked cry told her that time to carry out her plan was very short. As soon as she was done here, she'd be upstairs to rescue her darling Gami-chan from that horrible, filthy man and, recognising her as her heroic saviour, she would forget about that gaijin whore and accept her as her lover.

There was not even a hint of hesitation in the older woman's face as she knelt in front of Inari, who raised her Scythe. "Sometimes, someone can be too smart for their own good," Inari announced, positioning her scythe to decapitate the woman with a single blow. She swung but, much to her shock, the Scythe blade was stopped just short of its mark by a dark metal staff with a green pawprint logo. "What?"

Chat Noir's green eyes were filled with anger. "Ah-ah, bad Foxy! We don't want you doing anything that isn’t easy to reap-pair, do we?"

With a growl, Inari launched herself at Chat and it very quickly became clear that he was her superior in terms of bo-jitsu. Suddenly, surprisingly, he retracted the staff to its small carrying size and a crackling blade of green-black elemental destruction appeared on one end. "Cool!" he said with a grin. "The minute I started being able to use Catscratch, I wondered if I could turn it into some kind of a foil! I guess that like a lot of cats, I'm just one for sitting on fences!" He game Inari a querying look. "What do you have to say Inari? Call it a… Catsabre, maybe?" It was equally obvious that the gaijin renegade superhero was a skilled a swordsman too (perhaps even Kagami's equal) and Inari was rapidly driven back with a dazzling series of thrusts, lunges, cuts and flicks as well as other fencing moves (not dissimilar to those used by Kagami). Realising that she was outmatched, the fox villain looked at Ikukko, who was still kneeling passively with a vacant smile on her face. "Ikuko! He's trying to steal your gift! Stop him!"

With a growl, Ikukko leapt to her feet and lunged for her broom, which was leaning against the sink. "Have no fear, my lady! I'll see off this mangy neko," she screeched.

Popping his Staff back out to its normal fighting configuration, Chat Noir effortlessly blocked the woman's clumsy blows; he wasn't even all that surprised, long used to having mind-controlled akuma victims attacking him with murderous intent. At that point, the door out into the living room burst open and LadyMouse, Queen Bee and Kagami burst in. Kagami's lips were drawn back in rage and she lanced right at Inari, leading with her blades. "YOU! You did this to these good, innocent and peaceful people! I'll not forgive you for this!"

Kagami's mundane blades should have been no match for Inari's Scythe but, somehow, the enraged young woman seemed to always be getting inside the Fox Villain's guard and was steadily driving her back; she found herself having to desperately repeatedly adjust her grip on her scythe to avoid allowing the raging swordswoman to cut off her fingers. "Gami-chan! Wait! You've got this all wrong! This was for your own good! I was just trying to open your eyes to your mistakes!"

Kagami wasn't impressed. "How? By making them into your puppets? By mind-controlling Hiro, poor, sweet and innocently-noble Hiro, to try to rape me?!? That is your conception of 'helping'?!?" Kagami's katana caught the edge of the Fox Mask and knocked off of it a long splinter, sending Inari staggering with a cry of dismay. "That's what I think of your 'help', Inari-baka! I want nothing to do with you or whoever is the coward hiding under that mask!"

With an enraged and horrified cry of "Treasured Gift!" Inari waved her Scythe and several iron-link chains with every alternate link being medallions with the Tsurugi signet sigil, wound around Kagami, binding her weapons to her side and making her fall to her knees. Both the girl and the supervillain stared at the bindings in a stupid way. "The thing that you treasure… is your family's honoured name?" Inari whispered. "But… Why do you need that now?"

LadyMouse had already seized Ikukko with her Yo-yo. As the struggling matriarch fell to her knees, the frowning heroine jabbed her in the forehead with the Ladyupgraded baton and, with a flash of orange, a singed bronze coin marked with Inari's mask dropped to the linoleum with a metallic 'clink'.

No longer having to fight the enraged woman, Chat Noir was free to continue with Inari. There was a flash of green as Calameowty collapsed an overhead cupboard containing the Ito family's dining wear and made it collapse onto Inari's head. As the Fox Villain struggled with the broken woodwork entangling her arms, the Cat Staff, back in Naginta mode, arced around and, with a flash of broken orange magic, it severed the shaft of the Fox Scythe at mid-length.

"You're Tail-talally disarmed, Inari," the Cat Hero sneered. "Give up and stand down!"

Queen Bee, her Trompo ready again to deliver a Venom, stepped to his side with an evil grin. "Or you can choose to not to; it doesn't matter either way at this moment."

Inari stared at the two halves of her destroyed tool stupidly. "No… That's impossible!" Without one look back over her shoulder, Inari threw herself through the window into the Ito family's well-tended tea garden, got up and fled.

"NO! You can't run now!" Kagami yelled; with the destruction of the Fox Scythe (already dissolving into orange magic), the Treasured Gift had de-manifested and she was able to flip back onto her feet, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow. "You will pay for your crimes tonight!"

"Kagami! Wait!" Queen Bee yelled as the Japanese woman sighted along the length of the arrow and loosed it towards the fleeing Inari.

Maybe it was in response to Queen Bee's call or maybe it was just an insight into her essential character. Either way, if Kagami had aimed for the back or head, it was likely that Inari would have been killed. Instead, the silver arrowhead, laboriously etched with magic nullifying runes by Guardian Dupain-Cheng herself, punched through the otherwise-impenetrable costume of Inari and buried itself into the back of her right knee. The Fox Villainess collapsed with a long scream of agonised defeat.

As the expressionless Kagami climbed through the window, her swords drawn, somehow, Inari got her left leg underneath her and, dragging her maimed and useless right leg behind her, she stumbled to where one of Tomoe Tsurugi's self-driving cars was parked in the alley behind the garden. "Tatsu! To the Keep! Emergency speed!" she sobbed out as the car's computer sealed the doors and pulled away as fast as the driving surface would allow.

LadyMouse watched as the car vanished into the distance. She felt no urge to pursue; her heart told her that this fight was not yet over. With a thankful smile, she looked at the Lucky Charm in her hand. "Thank you," she whispered before turning to Chat Noir where he was standing by the window. "Chaton, if you please, dispose of these for me?"

Chat looked with interest as his Lady dropped three bronze coins out of her Yo-yo onto the windowsill. "My pleasure, M'Lady!" His claws crackled with the power of Cataclysm and the three evil charms dissolved into wisps of orange magic .

"Good riddance, evil charms!" LadyMouse hissed angrily before throwing the magic tracker into the air. " Miraculous Ladybug!" At that point, her Yo-yo started trilling urgently.

Millions of magical ladybird beetles swarmed over the building, repairing all the damage caused by the battle, healing Michi and Hiro in an instant and clearing their minds of Inari's perversions and control. However, it didn't clear their memories of what they'd said, done and even thought under her influence.

LadyMouse popped open her Yo-yo again to answer the MiracuChat summons.

___________________________________________________________________________

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@BugBoss) - OWNER/ADMIN

@FoxyBabe: Boss! Trixx just had to bite my nose to wake me up and I saw your SOS, are you okay?

@FoxyBabe: Should I pull out the Horse and bring Team B over to Tokyo? Henpeck is good for her first major op; Tigrette and Piggiwig too.

@BugBoss: Stand down, Rena; we're at Code Blue here;

@TrueQueen: Yeah, the bad Miraculous user is on the run and the victims are freed of her.

@Cool4Catz: Although, like all the times this happened in Paris, I wouldn't call them 'okay' and they probably won't be for a long time.

@FoxyBabe: Phew but… yeah.

@FoxyBabe: I still have nightmares about #LadyWifi so, yeah, I feel for them.

@WatchWabbit: "Snake and me are available right now if you need time travel backup, Boss.

@BugBoss: I'd prefer to limit the number of Miraculous users I have in Tokyo right now, Bunbun.

@BugBoss: The Big Bad is #IkariGozen and we know she's a Dark Guardian.

@TrueQueen: GTG; Sword-babe needs another hug.

@FoxyBabe: Do you need me to brief the grandmaster and the other Guardians?

@BugBoss: Thinking about that… One way or another, this ends tonight;

@BugBoss: Optimistically with the East Asian Miracle Box back in our hands.

@BugBoss: Tell Master Su-Han that we'll need a recovery team to meet me on top of my hotel tomorrow at local midnight to take possession.

@FoxyBabe: And pessimistically?

@BugBoss: I'd prefer not to think about that.

@SnekCharmer: Let me know your zero and I'll set Second Chance.

@BugBoss: Yeah, I forgot that power has a global reach.

@BugBoss: Thanx for the offer, Snake, but I don't want to give myself a get-out clause to get away with being careless.

@Cool4Catz: Yeah, we work best against the worst odds.

@BugBoss: Pass the word to #Orbweaver though.

_____________________________________________________________

As the four heroes gathered in the kitchen, Michiru and Hirosh both barged through the door. They both dropped to their knees, pressing their foreheads to the linoleum in front of Kagami. "Kagami-san!" Michiru sobbed. "Gomen! I can never undo the shame of being corrupted by that… that… demon!"

"Kagami! I am so sorry!" Hiro cried out. "I never wanted that! I never would! Your choices are your own and I would never force you! I love you!" Maybe no-one noticed how Queen Bee blanched at hearing that heartfelt declaration.

"Tsurugi-san! We are dishonoured!" Ikuko was sobbing. "Please! My children are blameless! If you must take revenge, take it on me! I am the oldest and the responsibility falls on me!" The woman extended her neck, clearly inviting Kagami to behead her.

Kagami swallowed her nausea and instead reached out to tilt Ikukko's face up. "Ikuko-obaa," she said quietly. "What happened today was the power of evil magic worked at the behest of Tsurugi Tomoe. She alone and her hirelings along with her will receive blame and punishment for these crimes." She dropped onto one knee to hug the woman. "You have always been the only woman here in Tokyo who ever showed me the love that a mother can show a daughter and, for that, you have my unending gratitude."

Kagami moved over to hug Michiru. "Imoto-chan… Never doubt my love for you." She turned to Hiroshi. "Hiro-Ani…" She tilted up the man's chin to place a sisterly kiss onto his forehead. "Never doubt my love for you and your place in my heart."

The Japanese woman dragged herself to her feet. "This day, blood has been spilled between my mother and I; the honour of the name Tsurugi is besmirched. There is no going back from this; she knows this and I know this."

"This does not need to be a blood feud, Kagami," LadyMouse insisted. Kagami's amber eyes were tired but there was hope there too. As angry as she felt, she did not want to have to execute her own mother. "We know where the East Asian Miracle Box is now. We take that from her and she will be powerless and her place in this land's Circle of the Dark Order will be lost.

Kagami nodded uncertainly. "Agreed;" she said at last. "When do we begin?"

LadyMouse smiled grimly. "Can you think of a better time than now?"

~*~*~

Lying on the floor of Tomoe's inner sanctum, the woman who was the true face of Inari wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth after being knocked to the wood-panelled floor by her Mistress's blow. "Failure is becoming a habit for you, Inari," Tomoe said, lowering her bokken from where she'd just used it to strike the younger woman to the ground and stepping back, her face blank with angry formality. "I will take no further chances. You will return to the Ito house, where our foes are certainly still gathered. There you will destroy them all!" She raised a finger. "All except Kagami; she is to be brought to me alive!"

Tomoe sighed in disappointment as she shook her head at Inari. "As I cannot trust you to do this on your own power and initiative, you will be accompanied on this assignment." The Dark Guardian beckoned idly over her shoulder. "Jishin, you will accompany her; your duty will be to handle the fighting, as Inari here has proven too mediocre in her skills to fight for the Dark Order's honour to my satisfaction."

A huge man in a black fighter's kimono, belted in red with red stripes across his arms, sides and back stepped forwards. "It will be as you command, Tsurugi-sama," he growled. "Simply do not forget your promise."

"I forget nothing," Tomoe hissed. "Complete your task, bring me the heads of Ladybug, Chat Noir and Queen Bee and I will personally carry out your marriage with my daughter, marking you as my heir in the Dark Order."

Rubbing her fast-healing wounded leg, Inari growled deep in her throat. That the Mistress was selling Gami-chan… her Gami-chan… to this thuggish mass of muscle! She would not allow this but, for now, she had to be cautious and bide her time.

Meanwhile, Tomoe had stepped over to a six-sided bamboo-wood box on an ersatz-altar in the centre of the room, surrounded by smouldering ritual candles at each corner. She popped open the top, extracting a beaded headband with a bear face panel. She slid the decoration onto her head with the bear 'looking out' to her left and, with a slivery light a small silver-grey chibi spectacled bear-spirit materialised to one side of Tomoe. "Mistress, I am summoned."

"Indeed, Katorii," Tomoe said to the kwami, her face expressionless, something matched by the inappropriately cute-looking spirit. "The time has come for me to take personal charge of these affairs. She closed the lid of the Miracle Box and stepped away from it. She looked at Inari and Jishin with a macabre smile. "It isn't as if I don’t trust you," she began and then stopped with a humourless bark of laughter. "Oh, who am I fooling? Of course I don't trust either of you, so I am going to lead you personally in this attack, just as any good general ought." The woman stepped forwards. "Katorii, Let the shadows reign!"

Both Inari and Jishin stepped back nervously as their Mistress was consumed in silver light.

Chapter 6: Jishin's Rage (Land of the Rising Sun, Part 3)

Chapter Text

Ito Hiroshi was kneeling in his bedroom (miraculously repaired thanks to Ladybug’s magic) and trying to come to terms with his memories of his nightmarish time under Inari’s control. He was horrified that he was capable of even contemplating doing that to Kagami. How could he ever look at her again, let alone talk to her? Had he ruined everything?

Hiro’s waste paper basket was filled with his collection of magazine covers and posters. It was evidence of his own lack of self-control and unjustified and shameful desire for Kagami and, if he had the means, he’d burn the whole lot here and now!

There was a loud banging on his closed door. “Open up, adi! Okay, fair warning, bro, I’m coming in!” Hiro looked up in time to see his bedroom door barged open and his angry younger sister to come storming in. Michiru had changed her normal home clothing for a black gi and her school backpack with her softball bat (fortunately, transformed back from the weapon Ladybug had used so well) stuffed through its straps.

The vivacious girl looked at her older brother in a scornful way. “Well? Are you planning on just kneeling there, sulking and mourning?” she asked.

Hiro drew in an angry breath. “What else would you expect of me, Michi? How else am I to respond to my sense of shame…? Of betraying the woman that I love?”

Michi rolled her eyes. “As the Americans like to say: ‘Don’t get mad, get even! We know who is responsible, brother, Tsurugi-baka!” The girl began to gesture with her bat for emphasis. “The heroes have left with Kagami; they are going to try to bring her to justice!”

“O… kay. So?”

MIchi got into Hiro’s face. “This is our chance to restore our honour, brother! Be a part of the fight!”

Hiro raised his hands in a warding motion. “Woah there imouto! They’re professional and experienced superheroes! What are we compared to that?”

“We. Are. Kagami’s. Friends.” Michi reminded him. “We have a responsibility to support her in her fight with her mother!”

Hiro sat back on his heels and considered that with a deep frown. “Yes, she’s in this too, isn’t she?”

Michi nodded fiercely. “We can redeem ourselves in her eyes; make her forgiveness more thanjust the words of a decent and honourable woman to something we have genuinely earned.”

Kagami’s forgiveness, Hiro thought. Something genuinely worth having, I think. “Michi, this is very risky,” he said quietly.

“Are you afraid?” Michi challenged.

“To fight for Kagami? Never.”

~*~*~

In later times, Ladybug would confess that the next meeting between heroes and villains on the streets of Tokyo was unintentionally funny. Both sides were determined to go on the offensive and they met head-on on the street outside of the shrine.

The two sides looked at each other in genuine shock and there was a long, frozen moment as the two sides tried to work out what to do before the dozen or so barrel-shaped TsurugiCorp combat robots identified the superheroes as their targets, deployed their lasers and started shooting. The shriek of super-heated air as the energy beams slashed at the Parisian heroes was deafening but one thing that the company could never have predicted was the durability of Miraculous tools. Chat Noir’s staff, Lady bug’s Yo-yo and Queen Bee’s Trompo all whirled and somehow intercepted the laser fire.

It was only a matter of time before a shot got through if only by blind luck. LadyMouse suddenly flashed back on the film she saw with Luka and Juleka on the Liberty called Galaxy Battles or something similar. She slapped her Yo-yo onto her left forearm and willed the Bugshield into being. The shield deflected the laser shots back on themselves and, with a proper angling, several of the robots were hit by deflected fire and were disabled with dramatic fountains of sparks from the laser impacts.

Chat Noir jumped over the next volley of energy weapons fire and slammed the energy blade of the Cat Staff into one of the barrel-shaped robots, making it suddenly turn into rust and crumble apart. LadyMouse’s Bugsaw ricocheted between two other robots and Chat Noir pogoed away from in between another two, letting them shoot each other.

“Cease fire!” yelled a familiar voice from the ranks of supervillains. “Attack hand-to-hand!” Kaze Gozen was shaking her head in fury. The amount of money her company had spent on developing those enforcer droids and they were defeated so easily!

Everyone seemed to be unlocked by that command. Queen Bee spotted Inari and, remembering just how badly Kagami had been hurt by the supervillain,dived onto her. Kagami and LadyMouse lunged towards the figure that was unmistakably Kaze Gozen but wearing a bizarre bear head cowl and a shimmering silver-grey bearskin-like cape. Chat Noir stepped between the two heroines and the huge man wearing a black costume with red tiger stripes, his tsurugi two-ended sword and the Cat Staff clashing several times as he tried to charge LadyMouse is support of his Mistress.

Inari called on her Heart’s Bounty power and tangled Queen Bee in a gold-linked chain made up of wedding rings and little golden dragon figurines. As the yellow-clad Bee Heroine was forced to crash to the ground, entangled in the symbols of her truest love, Kagami ran towards her through the burning pyres that had been the villains’ robot soldiers, screaming her vow of vengeance against Inari.

This left LadyMouse to face Kaze Gozen alone. The BugShield easily blocked several blows from the Master of the Dark Order’s katana. The woman sprang back a few paces, observed the Parisian superheroine through her blindfold-like mask without eye-holes with a cruel smile. “You are not the only one with tricks, girl,” she said with malicious humour. Let’s see if you can fight without eyes as I can? Spirit's Shadow!”

To LadyMouse’s surprise, Kaze Gozen seemed to shimmer from view; she could just about see a hint of a moving outline in the flame-lit pitch dark of the nighttime street and barely blocked the next dizzying series of attacks.

“I will crush you, mangy neko!” Jishin raged at Chat Noir, frustrated beyond words that the blond hero was blocking his every attack. “Let us see how well you can do without ground beneath your feet! Hungry Fissure!” The ground split open at Chat’s feet and he plunged into the seemingly-bottomless maw-like gap with a surprised cry. With a vicious grin, Jishin raised his free right hand and closed it into a fist, making the fissure close up like a mouth slamming shut with bone-pulverising force. The Tiger villain laughed sadistically.

“Er, hello! i’m up here!” Indeed, Chat was three metres above his foe, balancing on the end of his staff, which was still sticking out of the ground. “I don’t want to boast but that happened a lot to me in Paris. You’ll have to come up with a far more O-roar-iginal tactic!”

Jishin did roar. He swung at the Cat Staff with the Tiger Tsurugi but it had already collapsed into Chat Noir’s hand. The Cat Hero performed and airborne somersault and landed on his feet behind the Tiger Villain. With an ever more bestial cry of rage, the man turned back to him and launched another attack, only for it to be caught on the staff, which suddenly obtained a shimmering blade on one end made of pure elemental destruction energy. The Tiger Villain had to do a back-flip to avoid the naginata-like blade as it nearly slashed through his nose on as Chat swung his Tool at his head.

At that moment, LadyMouse’s whirling Yo-yo barely managed to deflect an attempted decapitating blow at her head from a katana. The invisible swordswoman was attacking from random directions and LadyMouse couldn’t see where she was until one of her weapons made contact with the Yo-yo.

The young Guardian looked around herself urgently; she’d never had a situation where her ladybird-like sensitivity to motion had been her only warning of an attack. She saw what might have been a moving shadow to one side but it didn’t seem to have any real substance. She lashed out with her tail rope and it deflected a stab with a wakizashi that seemed to flash out of nowhere at the centre of her chest. “I can see you, little Guardian!” gloated Tomoe’s voice, seemingly from nowhere. “I wonder… can you see me?”

Kagami had quickly and efficiently untangled Queen Bee whilst managing somehow to keep Inari back with a series of attacks with kunai throwing knives. At the end of her patience, Inari forgot her own desires for Kagami enough to deliver a cleaving blow with her Scythe that Queen Bee caught wti the Bee Trompo. The Fox Villain back-flipped away to avoid a follow-up Venom.

Frustrated by his inability to slow or even greatly impede Cat Noir, Jishin drove his Tsurugi into the asphalt with a loud cry of “EARTHSHOCK!” The resulting localised powerful earthquake the area, sending everyone stumbling making all the buildings sway and shed any loose fittings.

Several more flimsy buildings collapsed and LadyMouse easily heard the cried of pain terror from around her. She’d let herself be distracted and Kaze Gozen took the opportunity to move. This time, the sense of motion was a lot less subtle but LadyMouse was still driven back several paces as she desperately and barely parried three sweeping blows. After the last, she swung her Yo-Yo at head height and saw Kaze Gosen‘s outline as the Dark Master back-flipped away. Sure she had an opening, she cast her Yo-yo up into the air. “Lucky Charm!”

The young woman both saw and felt the shape of a caped figure stumbling back from the huge prism and lens in an articulated frame that waspainted in ladybird colours that dropped out of the sky.

“Unsubtle and bludgeoning,” Kaze Gozen’s disembodied voice murmured. “I must say that I’m disappointed.”

LadyMouse picked up the large and cumbersome Lucky Charm, her mind racing; What am I supposed to do with this? "Maybe I have a few surprises?" she taunted aloud but felt that Kaze Gozen was already somewhere else.

“Jishin, you clumsy fool!” The Red Tiger Villain stared frantically at his now-visible Mistress, Her katana was pointing at the Tiger Bracelet on his right wrist, with two of its five rubies around its diameter already black and another one flashing. “Break off to recharge your transformation and get back here! Inari! Let them be dazzled by their own deepest desires!”

Inari had no idea if her MIstress’s idea would work but disobeying a direct order in combat would be unhealthy to say the least. She lashed out at the air with a cry of: “True Treasure!” At the top of the Fox Scythe’s swing, dozens of coppery coins materialised out of the orange magic and flew into the air, ready to create illusions of every person in the area’s deepest desire.

“Oh no you don’t” Queen Bee yelled. “Worker Swarm!” Scores of bee-like magical energy constructs spat from the tip of the Bee Trompo. In response to the Bee Heroine’s unspoken command, each one caught an airborne coin and self-destructed, taking Inari’s weapons with them, leaving the Fox Villainess visibly stupefied at her sworn enemy’s easy victory.

LadyMouse was looking around herself again. The ritual gate of the Shinto Shrine began to flash in her colours, as did the Lucky Charm itself and, surprisingly, the Contemplation Garden from which the light that Kagami had identified as the sign of ‘holy ground’. “Okay, we’ll go with your idea Tikki. Everyone, break off and into the shrine!”

Kaze Goz charged the retreating LadyMouse, knowing that her rival guardian was the lynchpin that made the Parisian heroes able to fight. However, she didn’t have the capacity to sense the power from the shrine until she struck a completely invisible barrier, her skin seemingly crawling with a thousand electrical shocks. A part of Kaze Gozen’s mind snapped back to a lesson that her mother taught her: That no-one who wielded magic with selfish intent could enter and do battle on holy ground. She’d always dismissed that as superstition but…

Shaking her head at the unknowable and innumerable secrets of the magical universe, Tomoe stepped forwards. “You are wise to seek shelter on holy ground, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!” she announced loudly. “However, it can only shield you and your followers whilst you remain in its boundaries. I will wreak havoc on this city until you come out and face me! How long do you dare to hide from us?”

LadyMouse’s reply was… unexpected. “Who says we’re going to be hiding, Tsurugi Tomoe?”

On the H-shaped holy gate of the shrine, LadyMouse was working frantically to erect her lucky Charm with the lens facing the contemplation rock garden below and the prism pointing out into the street. Kaze Gozen found herself in the spotlight-like redirected holy light, completely visible. “What the…? Spirit's Shadow!” There was no perceptible effect; she was still fully visible. “Katorii, I have commanded Sprit’s Shadow!”

LadyMouse had somersaulted off of the gate and was standing in front of Kaze Gozen, her Yo-Yo strapped to her left forearm in Bugsaw mode. “The magic of your Miraculous will not avail you, Tsurugi Tomoe. The power of the Shrine will not allow you to hide anywhere that is touched byits light.”

LadyMouse’s verbal sally was followed up by the Mouse Tail Rope that wrapped itself around the woman’s upper body, trapping her arms and swords at her side.

“HUNGRY FISSURE!” Jishin yelled again as he raced forwards from where he had just re-transfomred. The crack in the road created by the Tiger's power ran straight through the shrine’s entrance gateway, sending its cross-lintel crashing to the ground and making LadyMouse stumble, losing grip on the Tail Rope.

~*~*~

At that moment, the two young Itos were clambering over the Shine’s perimeter fence. Hiro’s eyes tracked over the battle, shaking his head at the magics being so effortlessly used. “Go, help Ladybug!” he commanded his younger sister. “I’ll help Kagami!”

What no-one knew was that Michiru had, since Kagami's arrival in Tokyo, been fanatically absorbing every bit of information on the Ladyblog about Ryuuko’s fights with the Shadow Swordswoman, Kaze Gozen (and there was no doubt that she was the one leading the supervillains today). The girl had learned what Team Miraculous knew - her vulnerability to random noise. Reaching into her backpack, Michi pulled out a handful of spherical collar-bells, patiently removed from dozens of cat collars that she had bought over a period of weeks. The girl threw then towards the confrontation between LadyMouse and Kaze Gozen.

Kaze Gozen detected the approaching projectiles effortlessly but they were so small and light that she ignored them as irrelevant. Then they hit the floor and began to clatter across the asphalt, tinkling randomly and making her ‘vision’ of the area briefly break up into a chaotic mass of random sounds and motions.

“Multitude!” LadyMouse cried out and, with a fountain of pink light, dissolved into dozens of miniature LadyMice that fled in all directions, snatching up the little bells and ringing them, further disorienting Kaze Gozen.

Meanwhile, Jishin had taken the opportunity of the breach of the shine’s perimeter to burst into the courtyard and launch himself at Kagami. “Kagami-san!“ he roared. “Why this futile struggle? Why do you, one of the nobility of this world, willingly fight alongside gaijin and the weak? You are supposed to be a ruler, not a servant!” Despite his words, Jishin was launching lethal-seeming cleaving attacks at the Japanese Woman’s head.

“You know nothing about me!” Kagami responded in a growl, parrying as best as she could against the Miraculous Villain’s nearly-titanic strength. “I know that honour is more than money and is more than power over others!”

“Nonsense!” Jishin laughed. “Look at me! I have sought to hone my strength and my will all of my life and I have been rewarded with this power! It is power that you will share when you become my wife!”

Kagami shook her head. “Is that what mother promised you, you honourless kyōaku-han?” She slashed at the man’s ankles, an attack which he barely jumped over. “There is no event that could make me marry you!”

Jishin snarled. “Then I will beat your submission into you, whore! Hungry Fissure!” The crack in the courtyard sent Kagami sprawling and, with a roar of fury, the Tiger Villain drove his fist down into Kagami’s face again and again until the young woman’s face was a bloody mask and she was flirting with unconsciousness.

At that moment, a bokken lashed out from one side, knocking Jishin’s hand away as he reached for Kagami’s throat.

“You insolent fool! Interfere and die!” Jishin hissed, knocking Hiro’s practice blade away aside with an almost-negligent motion of his Tsurugi. The man’s hand closed like a vice around the young man’s neck and hoisted him into the air.

“NO! LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Kagami yelled, driving her wakizashi into Jishin’s arm and making him let the younger man go.

With a hiss of rage, Jishin parried and staggered back, clutching his wounded arm.

“Everyone stand down!” Inari shouted. She had her Scythe poised at Hiro’s throat. “Kagami-chan, I know that this commoner boy is of value to you! I will end his life if you and your allies do not surrender to us now!”

Kaze Gozen knew that she had to get out of the mystical light and she followed Jishin into the shrine’s grounds. As she ran under the ritual gate, she fired an arrow upwards that knocked the light gathering lens up into the air, making the pool of mystical light vanish."Singularity!" she heard LadyMouse yell but ignored it.

With a cry of triumph, the Dark Master straight-armed her wakizashi and lunged for her weakened daughter’s back only for the Mouse Tail Rope to wrap around her forearm and yank her off balance. “How…?” she blurted. Then she looked around her and realised that she was in the rock garden and her footprints were easily visible in the soft sand.

“You’re only any good when striking unseen from the shadows, aren’t you, fumeiyona mono?” LadyMouse taunted. ‘Dishonoured One’; that is the real impression she had of Tsurugi Tomoe right now.

Kaze Gozen hissed. “I am not about to be judged by you, child!” she spat. “Inari! Kill him!”

Without any visible hesitation, Inari swung down her scythe at the young man’s throat when suddenly the world exploded into pain and she reeled. Michiru had just slugged her around the back of the head with her softball bat and jumped onto her back her free arm wrapped around the other woman's throat in a chokehold.

From LadyMouse’s perspective, the cool light of the courtyard had concentrated on Inari’s Miraculous necklace, which was now crackling with orange magical fire, which kept leaping to the girl hanging like a raging monkey on the supervillain’s back.

Michiru was never able to explain, even to herself, what motivated her next action. She grabbed the necklace and pulled. Inari screamed in rage as her transformation collapsed.

Kagami’s mouth dropped open in horror at the face revealed as the wooden fox mask vanished into orange light. “Ischi?” she whispered. Nakamura Ischeka looked bitterly into the eyes of her childhood crush and tried to think of something… anything that she could say that would ease the horror and rage she saw there.

“Makes sense,” Chat Noir said in a cynical and ironic tone of voice. “A girl who Tsurugi would have allowed to be her daughter’s playmate would have to be somehow a tool of the Dark Order. It was all part of a plan to make Kagami-san your weapon, wasn’t it?”

Kaze Gozen had shaken her arm loose of the Tail Rope and glared at Michi, who had staggered back, staring at the MIraculous she had claimed that was dangling from her hand. “Ito Michiru,” she intoned, extending her hand to the girl. “That is not your property and you have no conception of what it is and what it can do. Return it to me and I will consider the feud with your bloodline resolved.”

“NO!” Kagami yelled. “MICHI! RUN!” The girl didn’t have to be told twice; the turned on the spot and fled from the evil sword-wielding witch.

“Jishin! Seize her!” Tomoe countered.

Jishin took two steps towards the girl before the Ladybug Yo-Yo slammed into his temple, sending him staggering. LadyMouse followed the motion through, swinging her Yo-yo up towards the broken and dangling Lucky Charm. “Miraculous Ladybug!” The lid snapped open as it always did when capturing an akuma and swallowed the mechanism into its brightly glowing pink depths, instantly unleashing a tidal wave of glowing ladybird beetles that flowed over the area, repairing buildings and healing people. Even some of the war robots (those destroyed by Chat Noir's Cataclysm) were restored to functioning order. “Ultimate Creation!” LadyMouse yelled as the Yo-yo, now boiling with power, reached the bottom of the arc of her swing and snapped into her hand. A laser-like beam of pink light zapped forwards from the tool. Just a few steps away, a pink-white outline of the BugCycle appeared that filled in, first with a wireframe mesh and then rendered like one of the assets in a computer game with the bike’s powerful engines beginning to wind up to full power.

LadyMouse leapt onto the saddle and her bike helmet formed over her head. With a roar, the BugCycle launched itself into motion, Ladybug picking up MIchi and throwing her onto the pillion as she overtook the fleeing girl. “Hold tight, kiddo!” LadyMouse yelled over her shoulder, forgetting to translate into Japanese for once and hoping that the girl could speak English.

“No!” Kaze Gozen yelled apoplectically. “All units pursue and destroy! I want that Miraculous returned!“ Several barrel-like robots emerged from the streets outside, lateral fans deploying to let them fly and launched themselves after the BugCycle. Even more rolled out of hidden depots around the district and rolled towards their target far faster than a running human soldier could go.

On the street, LadyMouse activated the vehicle’s jet walls and performed several tight turns, the magical light walls deflecting several laser blasts from the robots still on the ground and causing several to crush themselves by rolling at full speed into the indestructible magic barriers.

Jishin swept up the limp and speechless Nakamura Ischeka and ran with her in his arms back towards the Tsurugi citadel.With a whisper of "Shadow step" Kaze Gozen stepped into a dark corner of the courtyard and vanished from the battlefield.

“We… We were playmates!” Kagami whispered, her face pressed into her hands. “I knew that she’d succumbed to jealousy but… to become one so evil? Oh Bee-chan! How? How could this happen to that beautiful little girl?!?”

Queen Bee embraced her girlfriend. She had no idea how such a thing was possible other than to reflect once again on just how easily corrupted the human heart was.

~*~*~

Michi threaded her arms through the passenger’s securing sleeve on the back of LadyMouse’s costume and held on for dear life as the BugCycle slalomed its way through the city’s streets at over a hundred kilometres an hour, heading for the countryside. Every few seconds, the vehicle would go through an S-turn, the jet wall barrier blocking the shots and pursuit of the ground robots.

That wasn’t doing any good with the air combat robots swarming down towards them from above. LadyMouse twisted in her seat and blocked several shots with the BugShield. Then, with the BugSaw, LadyMouse slashed open several of the robots as they tried to attack from ahead. The superheroine decided to channel her inner Carapace and throw the BugSaw at her airborne pursuers. There were several explosions as a few of the robot enforcers were hit by the BugSaw’s energy blades as it ricocheted between them before zipping back to its mistress's arm. However there were always more…!

At that moment, the skies was filled by golden light as a huge swarm of Queen Bee’s energy constructs descended on the robots, unfastening every bolt, undoing every screw and pulling their computer ‘brains’ apart cable-by-cable and chip-by-chip.

“I think we’re in the clear!” Michi cried excitedly over the clatter of falling metal and computer parts. "Kami-sama! This was so cool! It was like being in Akira or some other action animé for real!"

“Hold on, honey,” LadyMouse instructed. No longer having to fight she was able to focus on speed. She leant over the handlebars, twisted the throttle handle and exploded out of the city limits into the open countryside around Tokyo.

~*~*~

“Destroy targ… zzzz!” The last ground soldier robot around the shrine exploded into rusting debris and Chat Noir blew an imaginary stream of smoke from his right fore and index fingers with an insolent smile after unleashing a Cataclysm beam.

“Do you know where Ladybug-sama went?” Kagami asked urgently before turning back to HIro. “Hiro-kun… What were you thinking?!? That was a supervillain you tried to fight there! How would have I explained to your mother if you’d died?”

“I… couldn’t let him hurt you, Kagami-chan,” the young man said lamely and was surprised to be wrapped in his crush’s arms.

“Nothing is worth your death, Hiro-adi,” she whispered into his ear. “Please, never risk yourself like that for me again! Swear to me!”

“I… I swear, Kagami-chan! I swear!”

“Guys…?” Chat Noir jogged over. His staff was folded open in ‘phone mode. “I’ve just got a message on the chat from Ladybug. It reads: ‘I’m safe, on the slopes of Fujiyama. I’ve met a new friend and I’m going to be coming back with her as soon as I can. Regroup back at the Ito house.’”

The heroes were all looking at each other in confusion. “‘New friend’? Hiro parroted dumbly. “Did she mean Michi?”

Queen Bee slapped the man on the back. “With Hot’n’Red, you can never tell what she’s thinking but I’ll say this much: She’s never abandoned an innocent in danger before and she’s not likely to do it now!” The Bee Heroine of Paris smiled at the young man who she knew felt that he was her rival for Kagami but wasn’t really. “Come on, wannabe-samurai; let’s head back to your home.”

~*~*~

“Hello, Yokkai,” Ladybug said to the cute red nine-tailed fox kwami hovering above the beaded necklace that she’d wrapped around her right wrist for safety.. “I’m glad to see you free of the evil ones!”

“Not as relieved as I am to be free, Guardian-sama!” Yokkai replied, shooting a cunning wink at the slack-jawed Michi, who was watching with Mullo sitting in her hair, braiding the long black strand into some pattern that had probably not been seen since the Jomon period or longer. “You have a most courageous and determined young ally here, along with your very impressive powers! Routinely using Unified Miraculous? Are you the Champion of the Order of Celestial Guardians?”

“Amongst other titles, none of which rest any lighter on my shoulders!” Ladybug replied, rolling her eyes. “In any case, we must free all your brothers and sisters. Tell me, are you able to fight for them?”

Yokkai swung around. “Oh, yes I am. Guardian-sama but surely you cannot risk having three active Miraculouses at once, can you?” The kwami’s startling amber eyes opened wider. “Chosen One?” she asked, noting the sick look of resignation in the Guardian’s eyes.

“In any case, we have to make some preparations.” Ladybug announced. She reached into her open Yo-yo and extracted a deep indigo macaron. “Okay, let's try this!” she said. This was a new concoction, prepared with some advice and direction from Master Su-Han. "Armour Power-up!" She swallowed the confection in one gulp and grimaced at its metallic after-taste. The superheroine’s body was surrounded by pink light as her transformation altered with metallic plates, painted with Ladybug’s colours, appearing over her chest, arms, legs and abdomen like a mediaeval knight’s plate armour. It was rounded off with a helmet not unlike the one that was provided by the BugCycle that covered her head and face. “Okay, this is great! For now, think of me as ChampionBug!”

ChampionBug reached into her Yo-Yo again and pulled out a long metal rod with leather wrappings around one end. She held it aloft by the wrapped end and concentrated as a pommel and cross-guard appeared, each end tipped with a ladybird-patterned disc. The shaft of the rod flattened and honed into a long two-edged blade.

Mullo gasped. “That’s that sword of Scarlet Fate!” the Mouse Kwami realised. “You did remember what she taught you in that Reunion!”

ChampionBug sheathed her new sword in a scabbard provided across her back by her augmented transformation. She snapped up the faceplate so she could smile at Michi and the girl see her doing so. “Okay, Mullo, time to head back home!” Mullo flashed into pink light that was sucked into the Mouse Miraculous as she gently dropped it into the pink depths of her Yo-Yo. ChampionBug snapped her tool shut and attached it to her left lower arm again. She then unwrapped the Mystical Fox Miraculous from around her right lower arm and held it out to the younger Japanese girl in front of her.

“Ito Michiru, this is the Miraculous of the Mystical Fox. It will grant to you the power of the Heart’s Bounty with which to protect the innocent. You will use it to fight for the greater good and, when the fight is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?”

Michi was nearly vibrating out of phase with reality from her sheer excitement. “Oh hai, Ladybug-sama! Yes, yes you can trust me and you can be sure I will fight at your side until my dying breath!”

ChampionBug laughed. “Well, I hope that it won’t come to that!” she said ruefully.

Michi put on the necklace and looked at Yokkai with a big smile, which the fox Kwami returned. “Very well, young giver,” Yokkai said. “All you need to say is: Yokkai, bring the harvest and we will begin!”

Michi raised her hand, imagining that she was holding aloft a henshin wand and called out: “Yokkai! Bring the harvest!” With a loud cry of 'Banzai!', Yokai was sucked into the Miraculous. Michi was swallowed up by a fountain of orange light. When it cleared, she was wearing a white-tipped orange gi with a black under-robe. The rear hem of the gi ended with nine tail-like extensions with white tips. A bandanna-like mask decorated with the image of a fox’s head was tied around her face with the bow at the back of her head poking up into two black-tipped fox’s ears.

“So, what do I call you?” ChampionBug asked the newest young Miraculous hero.

“Kitsune!” was the joyful reply. “You can call me Kitsune, ChampionBug-sama!” Kitsune looked at the Fox Scythe in her hand for a moment before pushing down the blade until it folded down into the shaft and then sheathed the shaft through her obi.

ChampionBug nodded soberly as she pulled down her face-mask again and stepped towards the parked BugCycle. “Very well, Kitsune, we have a battle to fight. Let us be off!” She turned back to her newest team-mate. “Don’t forget that your identity is your greatest secret and your greatest vulnerability. You cannot tell anyone who you are under that mask, not even Kagami, your mother or your brother, okay?” The girl nodded frantically, her chocolate brown eyes wide with sincerity behind her mask.

The two young heroines swung their legs of the BugCycle’s saddle and the bike’s powerful rotary engine caught and its LED headlights illuminated the tourist road back to Tokyo.

~*~*~

Ito Ikuko alternated between hugging her son and loudly reproving him for his foolishness as the heroes stood around the entrance of the Ito family home, feeling more than a little embarrassed by the display. “But where is Michiru?” the woman asked.

“She is with Ladybug, okaa-san,” Kagami replied quietly. “Wherever that is, it is safe. No warrior in the world is equal to her and her power.”

Ikuko didn’t know whether she could trust Kagami’s Chinese friend but was not about to question her openly now that her family’s honour was tarnished by the Tusrugi woman’s witchcraft. The tall blond boy in a neko costume looked over his shoulder with a smile. “Here she comes now!”

With a high-pitched whine of turbos, the BugCycle prowled up to the head of the path. ChampionBug swung off of the saddle and the vehicle burst into pink light that was sucked back into her Yo-yo. Everyone stared at the armoured form of Ladybug in shock. ChampionBug flipped up her visor and pulled Chat Noir’s chin down for a kiss. “I thought: Why should you be the only one to occasionally have an armoured form, right, Chaton? Besides, Jeanne told me that I was probably going to need it with the direction history is taking!”

The other woman who had got off the bike… wasn’t Michi. Both Hiro and Ikuko struggled as their brains skittered away from any attempt to identify the girl wearing a fox-patterned bandanna mask. “Everyone, this is Kitsune,” Championbug announced. “She is going to be a key part of my plan to retake the Miracle Box from the Tsurugi compound.”

“That will be difficult with that giant around who throws earthquakes!” Queen Bee remarked.

“Maybe not as difficult as you think, Bee-chan,” Kagami remarked. “I believe that I have that brute’s measure. In any case, I have business to transact with him.”

“As I do with Tsurugi-san,” ChampionBug added. She unsheathed the Sword of Scarlet Fate and gave a few practice swings before twirling it around her wrist, glad that Kagami and she had sparred using occidental sword-fightingstyles on so many occasions before. “I can no longer endure such a woman perverting Miraculous to use for her selfish ends!”

“Woah,” Queen Bee remarked. “I think that I can safely call that mindset ‘metal’?”

Chapter 7: Way of the Warrior (Land of the Rising Sun, Part 4)

Chapter Text

"The East Asian or Nipponese Miracle Box," ChampionBug announced, showing the hexagonal-framed box on the screen of her Yo-Yo in phone mode. "It's the third oldest of the Boxes and was made by The Mage when he returned from Babylon after defeating The Pharaoh. It's interesting, according to the Guardians, in that much of Chinese and Japanese folklore is identical, due to the two races' common prehistoric origins. So, there is a lot of overlap of the powers and totemic animals we see represented in the kwami." ChampionBug shook her head. "Anyway, long story short, the Box was lost during the Edo period and the Shogunate began to restrict overseas contact, making it harder for Guardians to travel here. The last Guardian assigned to it was killed by an attack by one of the various warring clans about 400 years ago, possibly in revenge for Tomoe Gozen's role in the Shogunate's ascension. No-one saw it again.

"Until last night," Kagami said.

ChampionBug nodded. "Yes, until a Guardian location spell led me to its location in Tsurugi Tomoe's personal rooms in the family compound. Kwami alone knows how and where she found it but she has full access to the twenty Miraculous it contains, as we have all seen by now." She shook her head. "We cannot allow her to continue to control it and the distribution of its contents. The Dark Order is too acquisitive and aggressive to take that risk. That is setting aside Tsurugi-san's own… less than stellar morals."

"You don't need to try to spare me, Ladybug-sama," Kagami said desolately. "My mother is a murderer and a bandit." Queen Bee reached over to squeeze her shoulder in comfort.

ChampionBug looked over at Kitsune, who was shuffling uncomfortably, her hand half-raised like a schoolgirl wishing to ask a teacher a question. "Speak, Kitsune."

"I suppose I'm uneasy with the thought of us seizing an ancestral Japanese treasure to give it to a Chinese secret society, no matter who originally made it."

ChampionBug smiled. "The Order of Celestial Guardians is not bound by any national group or loyalty," she said. "We serve all humankind's interests equally and…" She shook her head. "Honestly, I can't see the Box being taken away from these shores permanently."

Kitsune looked at the armoured superheroine closely. "You swear that?"

"Be careful, young one," Kagami hissed but ChampionBug continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"I do, Kitsune. I won't betray your trust, nor require you to betray your nation so long as I have any say in the outcome of this matter." She snapped her Yo-yo shut. "So, anyway, we can't just go storming in there to take it. I have no doubt that, beyond the magical defences that I've already detected, she has that place fortified like a castle; not just robot guards but human ones too, some of which we have to assume have Miraculous. My plan is for us to draw her out of her strong point to face us-head-on again and, whilst she and her forces are so engaged, Kagami, you and Kitsune will sneak into her rooms and take the box." ChampionBug nodded slowly. "I think that, once she sees that she has lost her prize, she will not feel able or willing to continue the fight."

ChampionBug spun her Yo-yo and cast it upwards. "Lucky Charm!" Something small and round dropped out of the galaxy-like swirl of ladybirds. ChampionBug looked at it and smiled. Just as she'd wanted. "Kagami, this compass will direct you to the Box, no matter how well-hidden or magically shielded it is." The superheroine ran her hand around the edge. "These characters will light up if you're approaching magical defences, active or passive. However, you'll have to find a method to disable them once you have located them."

Kagami smiled. "Don't worry, Ladybug-sama, I have a few ideas in that area." She looked over at Kitsune. "Young one, try to keep up, okay?"

"I won't have any problem, I think!" Kitsune chuckled, taking the taller and older woman around the waist and leaping with her up onto a rooftop.

~*~*~

ChampionBug snapped down the visor of her helmet as she stood at the gates to the Tsurugi compound. She was pleased that it was a breezy evening and that the wind caught her two long ponytails and made them wave impressively. "LET THE CENTRE OF THE EAST ASIAN CIRCLE COME FORTH!" she called out at the top of her voice in her best Japanese. "Tsurugi Tomoe, I call you thief! I call you murderer! I call you coward! Prove your worth to your claim to your position and face me now!" The Parisian superheroine turned to her two colleagues. "Okay, if I did that right, those insults can only be redeemed by death. Get ready, friends, as she is likely to throw everything she has at us!"

At that moment, ChampionBug felt a warning in the very air around her, as if all the hairs on her body were trembling. She turned and met the sweeping high cut with Kaze Gozen's katana with the Bugshield as she used her free arm to draw the Ladybug Sword and use it in a reverse grip to knock away the blade of her foe's wakizashi as it made a follow-up stabbing attack. ChampionBug span her sword around her wrist and lunged forwards, forcing the Dark Guardian to dance backwards to avoid being spitted through the centre of her chest. On a near-reflex, ChampionBug yanked her sword arm back before Kaze Gozen could hack her sword arm off at two points.

The two combatants got their distance. ChampionBug looked out of the corner of her eye as the high razor-wire-topped steel gates of the Tsurugi compound began to roll open, revealing Jishin and possibly hundreds of the barrel-shaped fighting robots. Jishin pointed his two-ended Tsurugi towards the heroes and roared a wordless command to attack.

~*~*~

"HA!" Kitsune lashed downwards with her Scythe and the stone mounted on the roof of the residence building split in half with a shower of green and orange sparks. Kagami watched approvingly as, on the display of the compass that ChampionBug had given her, the illuminated symbols warning of a magical ward all went dark. The young warrior smiled. "As I suspected, shattering the lettering etched on the surface of the wardstone broke its spell."

There was a loud 'boom' and Kagami looked towards the open gateway where she could see the three Parisian heroes clashing with her mother's minions and other security forces. "The way is now clear; we must enter the building now before our friends are put at too great a risk from the continued battle outside."

With her usual tactical extravagance, Kagami somersaulted over the edge of the building, using her grip on the safety rail to turn the jump into a curving turn and drove her boots through the window directly below.

Whilst the two young heroines had done all that they could to eliminate all magical defences, there was less they could do to defeat technological ones. Almost as soon as Kagami rolled to a halt, a barrel-shaped robot rolled towards her. "Intruder Alert! Surrender or I will use lethal force to subd…" The super-hardened arrowhead punched through the robot's optical sensor lens and lodged itself in its electronic brain, causing short circuits throughout its system.

A hooting audible alarm had started and the door to the day room burst open, admitting a dozen men in black suits with the Tsurugicorp symbol in white. All were waving machine pistols.

Kitsune responded automatically. "Treasured Gift!" the girl yelled. At once, ropes made of golden chains linked with old fashioned hexagonal Yen coins clattered out, wrapping around the guards arms. There was a secondary effect that Kitsune had not expected. As well as tangling up the guards, the magical bindings seemed to cloud the men's minds. They dropped their weapons and began to stroke the illusions of wealth with ecstatic smiles. "Okay, that's unexpected," Kitsune said. "I've heard of people being obsessed with money but…"

"In the end, wealth is all they value and the Mystical Fox's power makes them think that they are going to possess it," Kagami said dryly. "Now… Where are we going?" She unholstered the compass from her belt again and let the free-floating pink energy needle guide her eyes to a plinth in an ornate wooden altar in the middle of her mother's home office, surrounded by guttering red candles (the symbol of luck in Japanese culture).

"Um…" Kitsune's eyes grew wide behind her mask as she recognised the Miracle Box from the picture that ChampionBug had shown them. She cleared the railing around the altar with a single vault and stepped towards the box. "Okay, this seems simple. No more magical traps?"

The rim lights on the compass dial were still dark. Kagami shook her head. "No, but that doesn’t mean that there are no other…" She raised her hand in warning. "Kitsune, don't!" It was too late; the young Fox Heroine picked up the Miracle Box and lifted it off of the altar. There was a click, several spring-loaded plungers popped out of the top of the altar. Outside the window, Kagami saw a flash of green light followed by the 'boom' of a detonating firework.

"Well… crap. That's my bad," Kitsune said dryly. The girl made a 'yipe' sound as Kagami yanked her closer by her collar.

"Yes it is! Next time wait and be sure of your environment before acting so precipitously!"

At that moment, someone new stepped through the door to the corridor. Nakamura Ischeka glared at the two intruders in her mistress’s rooms, most fiercely at the girl wearing her Miraculous and holding the stolen MIracle Box. “Whoewer you are, that is not yours!” she hissed, raising the Naginta in her hand to an attacking positon. “Give it back!”

“The choice as to who bears the Mysical Fox is not yours to make, Ischi,” Kagami said quietly. “Not yours and certainly not my mother’s. Far less do either of you have any rights over the Miracle Box that mother stole from wherever it had been hidden!”

“Traitress!” Ischeka screeched. “Do not speak of the Master in that way! She is far greater than you will ever be!”

“Only greater in darkness and evil, Ischi,” Kagami said in a quiet, sad tone of voice. With a high-pitched and borderline-insane war cry, Ischeka charged at Kitsune, who side-somersaulted out of the way of the clumsy attack. As the servant of the Dark Order turned back to the girl, instead she found herself facing Kagami who had somersaulted over her head and landed facing her with her swords drawn. “You have gone far down the Dark Path, Ischi, but it is not too late for you to turn back.”

There was something disturbing about the look in Ischi’s eyes. It reminded Kagami of the demented look that was in the eyes of the akuma known as Sakura.

“Why should I turn back?” Ischeka asked. “Your mother has promised you to me if I defeat you and bring you to her feet! She’s offering me everything that I want and I have to do is to kill whoever she tells me to kill!” The maddened Japanese woman lunged at Kagami's ankles, only for her attack to be parried and for Kagami’s wakizashi to open a shallow cut on her cheek, making her shriek with outrage.

“Then, my once-playmate, I will do whatever I must to end the threat to others that you pose to the innocent.”

~*~*~

On the street outside the compound, Chat Noir was duelling with Jishin whilst Queen Bee was single-handedly trying to destroy the scores of TsurugiCorp Enforcement Droids whilst dodging their lasers and grappling hooks.

Meanwhile, Kaze Gosen and ChampionBug were circling each other warily. The Dark Mistress looked the Parisian Heroine up and down thoughtfully, noting the glowing pink magically-augmented cutting edge of the sword in particular. Oriental sword-masters tended to look down on occidental longswords as being bludgeoning and inelegant but something told Kaze Gozen that this one was a different story. “You’ve changed girl; you have donned a warrior’s armour and bring a warrior’s tool into this battle.” She smirked. “Do you think that changes anything?”

ChampionBug shrugged. “Just consider these an indication of how seriously I’m taking this fight.”

The Mistress of the Dark Order looked a bit sour. “It takes more than a warrior’s possessions to make you a warrior, girl.”

ChampionBug’s smile in return was also somewhat mocking. “Your daughter taught me well”

Kaze Gozen’s face tightened into a mask of rage. “Mention not that vile girl in my presence!” she snapped. “She seems to seek to frustrate me in all I do! Where is she anyway?”

“Far from here,” ChampionBug said levelly. “I felt that you have already had far too many opportunities to harm my friend and I decided not to grant you another.”

With a shriek of rage, the officially-blind woman lunged at her rival Guardian and they were instantly in a blinding-fast series of blows and parries with swords and shield bright yellow flashes marking every contact between both sides' weapons. How it might have ended is impossible to say however, at that moment a green firework detonated over the compound, bringing all activity (by humans) to a halt as all eyes turned to the green light. “The Box…!” Kaze Gozen whispered before whirling back to ChampionBug. “A distraction!”she yelled accusingly.

ChampionBug smirked. “Does that surprise you, oh Centre of the East Asian Circle? I knew that I didn’t need to physically vanquish you to defeat you! Why take the risk when the real prize was elsewhere?”

“Jishin! Return to the compound and recover the box!” Kaze Gozen yelled at the top of her voice. The huge warrior backflipped away from Chat Noir and leapt into the air towards the compound running quadrupedally along the perimeter wall.

Kaze Gozen turned in the same direction but her attempt to leap away was caught by the cord of ChampionBug’s Yo-yo and she fell heavily to the ground. “Leaving so soon?” ChampionBug asked levelly. “Why? We have barely begun our dance!”

Kaze Gozen flipped agilely to her feet. “Very well, girl. It seems I must defeat you before I can reclaim my property. Shadow Step!” The Dark Guardian seemed to melt out of existence into the shadows at her feet and ChampionBug had to jump to one side as she appeared again right behind her and attempted to stab her through the back. The woman’s katana scraped across ChampionBug’s shoulder pauldron, sending a shower of sparks flying off.

Behind and to the left, Chat Noir drove his Catscratch pike through another enforcement droid, making it crumble into rust. “Need any help over there, M’lady?”

“Just getting started, Chaton!” Championbug replied. Don’t aim for where they are, aim for where you know they will be! Kagami had told her that during one of their sparring sessions in the Place des Voyages.

Relying on her evidently superhuman awareness of her environment around her, she saw a patch of shadow to her right flickering in her colours. She stepped forwards and thrust her sword into the space highlighted by her intrinsic superpower just as Kaze Gozen blurred into existence, seemingly rising form the shadow itself. The older woman barely had time to react and the sword stabbed through the Bear Cape that seemed to be the tool provided by her Miraculous, barely missing her flesh as she twisted side-on. “How…?” Kaze Gozen whispered.

“As I said, Kagami taught me well… and she was taught well by someone she called ‘Uncle Toshi’?”

Kaze Gozen grimaced. “That foolish old man! I should have killed him the moment I knew about the nonsense he was pouring into my daughter’s head!”

~*~*~

Kagami was more than easily blocking Ischi’s clumsy attacks; the girl was frantic, almost insane with rage and desperation to get back her lost favour with Kagami’s mother.

At that moment, Jishin exploded into the room, charging Kagami, who had strapped the Miracle Box over her back, with a roar of defiance and fury.

Seeing an opening, Ischeka lunged at the back of Kagami’s legs with her naginta’s blade, hoping to cripple her quickly and easily but the blade scraped off of the super-hardened wood of the Fox Scythe. Kitsune jabbed its butt into the centre of the other woman’s chest, leaving her staggering back in shock. “Kagami-san is correct;” Kitsune remarked. “You have no honour!”

Meanwhile, Kagami was focussing all her attention on Jishin, who had metamorphosed seemingly into a blurring fan of razor-sharp cutting edges. “Hungry Fissure!” Kagami effortlessly leapt over he crack in the floor as the attack from the Miraculous of the Living Earth caused the floor to shatter and cave in.

“Mother will not be pleased at you vandalising her rooms, Jishin-baka!” she taunted with a mocking smile.

Jishin scowled behind his mask. “She will forgive me if I present to her your friend’s head and your broken spirit, traitorous girl!”

Kagami and JIsihin stepped towards each other and, through the chaos of the collapsing room, the swordswoman and the hulking berserker continued their clash, any hope of the use of magic temporarily removed by the fact that the Red Tiger Miraculous was in cooldown mode.

Enraged at the girl’s continual defiance of his power, Jishin finally made a mistake, clumsily lunging at Kagami whilst twirling his Tsurugi two-ended sword. With a shower of silver sparks, its blade met Kagami’s wakizashi and was deflected upwards and his elbow joint met Kgami’s katana coming the other way.

Jishin’s scream broke Kitsune and Ischeka’s focus on each other and the two combatants spang apart. The Red Tiger Villain’s transformation collapsed as the lower half of his right arm dropped to the floor with a ‘clink’ as the Miraculous Bracelet struck the wooden floor panels.

Her eyes wide in horror, Kagami looked into the wild, agony-filled eyes of the man who had been Jishin, subconsciously noting the five teardrop tattoos under his right eye marking him as a yazuka killer with a considerable body-count in his past. The man staggered back, blood fountaining from the stump of his right arm; a strange, paradoxically merciful impulse seized Kagami’s mind. She lunged and drove her wakizashi through his heart and drove him back towards the window through which he had entered, seemingly a lifetime ago.

“Wuh… we… We were meant to be… to… geth… uh…” he murmured, the light of life fading from his eyes before Kagami altered the angle of her shortsword and let him slide backwards through the open window and into the courtyard below.

“Heart’s Bounty!” Kagami turned to Kitsune as she caught a bronze coin with a fox’s mask impression out of the air and slapped it onto Ischeka’s forehead…

The blood-splattered and ruined day room was replaced instantly with a sunlit Shinto temple, decorated with all manner of colourful banners and flowers where an old priest was intoning the sacred words of the marriage ceremony. Ischeka smiled as she looked into her new wife’s amber eyes, seeing the love and devotion shining in in them that she’d always hoped to see and smiled ecstatically as Kagami leaned in for a kiss to seal their marriage…

Kagami looked at her childhood best friend, who was on her knees, smiling vacantly and ecstatically at something only she could see and occasionally making little gasps of pleasure, her weapon forgotten on the floor beside her.

“In some ways, I think that releasing the spell would be a cruelty,” Kitsune remarked thoughtfully, gesturing to the bronze coin crackling with the orange magic of the Mystical Fox Miraculous. “Has she ever been this happy before?”

Kagami chose not to reply. Instead, she turned to the grizzly sight of the severed arm of the man who had been Jisihin. She picked it up and shook the Red Tiger Miraculous loose before sliding it onto her wrist. A bright blood red light appeared over her hand and resolved into a black anthro-tiger chibi with red stripes. “Greetings, young cub,” the kwami announced. “I am Kodamaa, the kwami of the Living Earth. Do I have you to thank for freeing me from that… monster?” The kwami’s wise eyes quickly picked up the severed arm, blood-smears and the absence of his former Holder. “Do not feel ashamed. It is the Way of the Warrior and it is impossible to calculate how many lives you saved today by ending his.” The kwami swooped into Kagami’s face and spoke again. “To unlock my powers, simply say: Kodamaa; let the Earth Speak!” Then he added (in a quieter voice). “Explaining this to Longg is going to be a task all of its own!”

Kagami raised her bracelet-clad arm above her head. “Kodamaa! Let the Earth Speak!” With the roar of an earthquake, red light consumed Kagami and, when it cleared, she was wearing a black body-stocking with traditional bamboo armour plates painted black with red tiger stripes and a painted wooden tiger-faced mask covering her features.

“Woah!” Kitsune was surprised. “Cool look Ka… Uh… What hero name do you have?

The new Red Tiger Heroine of Tokyo#s smile was invisible behind the snarling fangs of her mask. “You may call me Reddotaiga, Kitsune.”

~*~*~

Somehow, Kaze Gozen was holding her own against ChampionBug, Chat Noir and Queen Bee. She was even managing to advance single-handedly, driving them back from an endless series of attacks with blade and missile weapons, some of which had only barely been blocked from striking the hero that she’d been targeting.

“You children are out of your league!” Kaze Gozen was raving. “You have your tricks and your cunning that served you well against Gabriel Agreste and St John Graham de Vanily but they are nothing before the heart and spirit of a true warrior! I will reach the Ito home and I will kill all of them unless you surrender to me! I will…” She reeled backwards as Chat Noir’s staff and the pommel of ChampionBug’s sword hit the centre of her face simultaneously.

"Woman, you talk too much!" ChampionBug spat.

“Mother!”

Kaze Gozen looked up in horror as she saw the figure of Reddotaiga running quadrupedally along the perimeter wall of the compound before she and Kitsune jumped off of the wall to land behind her. Her magical senses easily picked up the MIracle Box strapped to the Tiger Heroine’s back and also noted the new set of weapons, a katana and wakizashi in red-striped black sheathes, also strapped across her back. She didn't need long to realise what this signified. “NO!” the woman screamed in outrage.

“Mother, it is over; your champions are defeated and the Miracle Box is recovered.”

Completely ignoring the Parisian heroes, Kaze Gosen lurched towards her prodigal daughter wearing a demented smile. “Kagami! Oh, Kagami, my precious little dragon! You have done so well! You have proven yourself by defeating my strongest servants with nothing but your swords and your skills! Oh, my darling child, I am so proud of you! Now! Claim your place by taking the Ladybug, Cat and Bee Miraculouses and I will make you my heir and my Strong Right Hand!”

Reddotaiga shook her head. “Mother, even now, you don’t understand, do you? My goal was never to prove myself to you but to ensure that you do not have the means to harm others in your single-minded pursuit of wealth and power.” She sighed. “Mother, this madness is over and your plans are defeated. I urge you now to stop this and stop your support of the Dark Order. Their time is done as Ladybug told Black Gold.”

Kaze Gozen’s face went slack as Reddotaiga walked right past her and placed the Nippon Miracle Box into ChampionBug’s hands before bowing deeply. “Master, the battle is done and the prize is recovered. I stand before you as Reddotaiga, proof that the Nippon Box is once again in the hands of the Celestial Order.”

ChampionBug smiled and drew the woman into a hug. “Well done, Reddotaiga; I cannot think of any woman more worthy to bear one of the Universal Pair Miraculous of this Miracle Box. Just as worthy as she was to bear the Dragon back in Paris.”

Kaze Gozen mentally kicked herself when she realised that she’d allowed Kitsune to come close enough behind her to put the blade of the Fox Scythe to her throat. “Now, isn’t that nice, witch?” the Fox Heroine spat in formal Japanese. “All your plots, threats and plans all come to nothing. Now… all that remains is to hand you over to the police for your innumerable crimes!”

Kaze Gozen turned and her bizarre, eyeless mask behind the Bear Headpiece glared at Kitsune. “I will have my revenge,” she vowed. “On you, on that girl and on all she loves. It will not come at once and it will not come in a direct way or with warning! Beware that day. Shadow Step!” With that, she was gone.

~*~*~

Kitsune felt that it was appropriate that it should end where it began, on the slopes of Fujiyama. She, Reddotaiga and Ladybug were standing at a small tourist bus-stop. She imagined that they must look quite the trio in their colourful super-suits (Ladybug only marginally less-so because she’d discarded her power-up).

Ladybug looked strangely at ease, as if she knew exactly what must happen next, something that Reddotaiga suspected was exactly true. "Everyone," she said. "The time has come to fulfil your promises."

Kitsune seemed puzzled but paid attention when Reddotaiga announced: "Kodamaa, let the Earth fall silent!" Her costume turned into blood red light that concentrated on the Miraculous and resolved into the Red Tiger kwami.

Ladybug immediately noticed something wrong. "Kagami, your weapons!" Indeed, her hip was bare of the ivory sheathes and the bow was gone from over her back.

"The swords that Kagami-san wielded so ably in the defence of the innocent are a worthy replacement to the tool so dishonoured by my previous Holder, Milady Guardian," Kodamaa said primly.

Ladybug gave Kagami a worried look. "Kagami, I'm sorry, I had no idea that could happen. Kodamaa, you should not do things like that without permission!" The kwami remained serene and unapologetic, so Ladybug looked back at her friend. "Kagami, I know that these were important to you; a legacy from your teacher…"

Kagami put her hand over Ladybug's mouth to silence her. "Uncle Toshi was a honourable and wise man, Ladybug-sama. I can think of no more fitting legacy for him than for his weapons than to be part of the Red Tiger Miraculous and to serve justice… and whoever should bear it… for however long it exists." There were tears in Kagami's eyes, but Ladybug also saw that Kagami was sure about this and found herself wondering if Kodamaa had acted with her permission after all.

"Yokkai, bind the hervest!" With an explosion of orange, Kitsune vanished and Michiru was revealed, with the small Fox Kwami floating beside her.

"Michi!" Kagami nearly collided with the girl. "Oh, Michi! If only I'd known! How could you have put yourself in peril like that?"

"How could you, Kagami, daughter of Tomoe?" Yokkai challenged. "It was her free choice, just as opposing your mother's madness was yours!"

Kagami sucked in a breath and then let it out again with a rueful smile.

"Ladybug-sama, I understand that the Miraculous need to go back to your Order now but…" Michi looked at Yokkai mournfully. "Yokkai, will I ever see you again?"

The Fox kwami stroked the girl's cheek. "What does your heart tell you, Michiru?"

The girl managed a brave smile. "I… I want to believe that our story isn't over yet."

Yokkai smiled warmly. "There you go then; we will meet again!" Michi nodded and took off the Miraculous, making the kwami flash into orange light and get sucked into the middle bead. Kagami pulled off the Red Tiger Bracelet too, making Kodamaa vanish. Ladybug popped open the lid of the Miracle box and put the bracelet into the centre of the top section, opposite a blue ear-ring in the shape of a dragon and placed the Mystical Fox into one of two empty slots around the edge of the upper compartment with one other empty space with the sigil of the Demon Bear.

Suddenly there was movement by the bus stop and Su-Han unfurled himself from under the waiting bench. "Master Ladybug, I see you have recovered the lost treasure of this Order."

"Yes, Master," Ladybug replied. "All save one; the Demon Bear is still in the Dark Order's hands."

Su-Han frowned. "Disappointing but this day has gone too well to quibble at such things. It is in the nature of the Dark Order to attempt to gain more power. The Demon Bear will be misused again and, for that reason, this Box and its Miraculous will need to be ready." The bald man took the box from Ladybug and tucked it reverently under his arm. "I will need to speak to the Council and have a Guardian assigned to this land. Then the work can begin in earnest."

"Okay," Michiru said. "Am I allowed to be freaked away that he just stepped behind a tree like that and vanished?"

Ladybug shrugged. "That's just the Grandmaster being the Grandmaster." She turned from the bench to pull out her Yo-yo. She popped open the top, reached into its depths and extracted a necklace with a single transparent pearl as its centrepiece. "Kagami, with your mother defeated, for now, I believe that it is safe for you to reclaim your place in Team Miraculous."

Kagami looked at the Dragon Miraculous for a long moment before smiling and tying it into place around her neck. Longg materialised from a ball of golden light and launched himself at Kagami's face, hugging her cheek. "Yes, Longg-sama," she laughed. "I missed you too!"

"Never say a word, Michiru," Ladybug said as she reattached her Yo-yo to her belt. "No-one can ever know for their sakes too."

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@BugBoss) - OWNER/ADMIN

@BugBoss: Well, hopefully, that is that.

@BugBoss: @FeatherLady; with the Dark Order defeated for now, hopefully the trade conference can continue.

@TrueQueen: Yeah, without supervillains rampaging!

@TrueQueen: It will be great to get back to good, old fashioned business again!

@FoxyBabe: Just to let you know that #Celestial_Guardian has sent word that he's got back to the Temple without problems.

@FoxyBabe: Magical holo-call whilst I was working on an assignment;

@FoxyBabe: Going to have to learn to get used to that!

@FeatherLady: Marinette, whilst you're online, have you seen Adrien?

@FeatherLady: He hasn't come back to the hotel room since the battle.

@BugBoss: Oh, he's with me. I'm finishing the fitting for the Daywear collection he's going to be modelling at tomorrow's presentation.

@FoxyBabe: Oh? Just that?

@BugBoss: Yes, Rena, *just that*.

After logging out, Marinette pressed the side button that switched her smartphone to standby mode. In the sudden moonlit darkness of her hotel room, Chat Noir's charcoal grey costume and golden shoulder chains stood out quite starkly. "So, all done for tonight, Purrincess?" he asked with his quick and flirtatious smile.

Marinette smiled and stretched, enjoying the feel of her silk pyjamas and enjoying the sight of her kitty standing in the moonlight even more. "Yes, Chaton, all done. Now maybe we can rest and relax."

"Plagg, Claws in!" There was a green flash and Adrien, sans his pyjama top, climbed up onto the bed next to her. "Now you're talking my language. I honestly thought that you were going to suggest that we play cat-and-mouse tonight!" Plagg rolled his eyes and soared up to join Mullo and Tikki resting on the rail of the curtains over the wall of windows.

Marinette laughed. "No, my love; as much as I'm sure Queenie and Stormy are currently flying around Tokyo's skyline, looking for rooftops and antennas where they can make out in sort-of-public, I'm not interested in that for tonight."

Adrien put his head on his pillow and looked into Marinette's cornflower blue eyes. "So…?"

"Just hold me whilst I sleep," Marinette requested, stroking her boyfriend's face gently. "Hold me and make me feel safe in a world without evil and violence."

"Always whilst I'm here, Marinette: Always."

~*~*~

"No," Tomoe said aristocratically. "No, I don't think I'll be standing down at all." The woman stepped over the cooling body of the other Master of the Dark Order who'd just made that demand of her and made sure that her wakizashi made a loud, scraping noise as she re-sheathed it.

"No, the Demon Bear Miraculous is still in my possession as is… This most beautiful Crane Miraculous now." The woman tucked her prize into her belt thoughtfully as she used Shadow Step to return to her sanctum from her late peer's own personal office where she'd just ended his tenure as a Master of the Dark Order (how foolish to have so many shadowy spots in his room). She began to pace up and down in front of the magical holograms of her ten surviving 'peers' as they sat, their faces tight with outrage and terror.

"There is no question that tonight was a great setback for us. The Miracle Box is lost to the Old Order. However, we can still reclaim it. We just need to be patient, careful and sufficiently cunning. We must draw them out and, in time, opportunities will come to increase our holdings again." She sighed and shook her head. "Until then, we must be sure to not give SPECIAL or the Old Order reason to try to hunt us down in our weakened state." She shook out her robes as if shedding a skin of the day's events. "Well? I am sure that you all have businesses to attend to! Be off with you!"

One by one, the magical holograms that were the other Masters of the Circle vanished.

"Servant, fetch me a tea," Tomoe said aristocratically and watched indulgently as Nakamura Ischeka, with a terrified expression on her face, scuttled away like the failure of a rat she was. Yes, it was obvious now that the foolish girl was good only for manual labour and other menial tasks; giving her the Mystical Fox Miraculous had been Tomoe's first mistake. Never recruit as a critical ally one who is likely to be distracted by a strong agenda of their own. It wasn't a mistake that she planned to make ever again.

She supposed that, eventually, she would have to find a permanent position for the girl but there was no great hurry right now.

"Yes, you are worthy, Kagami-chan," Tomoe said as she detransformed and dropped into a meditative posture in the centre of the room. "Worthy of the Dragon Miraculous, worthy of Tomoe Gozen's legacy and worthy of being my enemy. I wonder, how will this end?"

Chapter 8: Mysterious Hero

Chapter Text

David deVere, the Paladin of London didn't like magic. Mostly this came from his upbringing by his father and grandfather, both skilled materials and mechanical engineers. Magic tended to play hockey with the Laws of Physics, creating energy and matter seemingly from nothing and ignoring conservation of mass, energy, momentum and even obvious constants like mass.

However, more than anything, he hated magic because it was The Lion of Crime's most powerful card. Magic made St John Graham de Vanily so rich, powerful and untouchable by the Law so that everyone in Britain had to just endure he and his minions’ systematic looting of the country.

With a sigh, David sat back and nodded in satisfaction as the latest installation in what he thought of as his headquarters and Scheherazade had teasingly nicknamed 'The Knight Cave', a workstation installed partly inside his forensic lab table that was networked into the cave-wide network. Science was his tool, both in solving crimes and in fighting them. Those who went outside those limits were a target of particular suspicion. If you can't understand how they achieve what they are doing, then fighting them is so much harder and what possible reason do you have for trusting their motives? The 'why' with the 'how'?

Stepping across to the main home cinema-sized screen of the main computer display, with a touch on the right part of the touch-screen controls he had mounted in the desk surface, he played the video that Joyce had painstakingly captured at great personal risk.

It was that visitor from Paris, of course. The cause of the collapse of the cable car had not yet been established and Paladin was working on the assumption that it may have been something to do with the superhero who was conveniently in the right place to save the day. Using the computer's video editing and analysis software, David picked up the earliest hint of Tempestia's presence, the blue and white otter proposing through the waters of the lower Thames as the cable car's cables began to sag and deform. Then, as the car came off the cable, the sudden waterspout that struck the bottom of the car body and then turned into a hand-shaped claw if ice holding it mid-air as the otter 'swam' up the ice column before transforming into a white-crested peregrine falcon that circled the car, lofting out the passengers with controlled air currents to land on the nearest bank of the river.

David paused the playback and frowned at the expression on Tempestia’s face when she transformed back to her human form and landed with the rescued passengers. She was very obviously very embarrassed by being at the centre of everyone’s attention and acclaim. That didn’t fit with his prejudices about her doing this for attention. If that wasn’t her motive then what?

“Wow, Dave! Are you going to burn a hole through that screen with your stare?”

There was only one person who could get into the Cave who would talk to David in that manner. He turned his office chair around and glared at Jacob Kobang, Night Glider. In elementary and middle school, the two of them were as close as brothers but, after David’s family were impoverished and basically dispossessed by The Lion of Crime and David became more and more focussed on his Mission, Jake had become ever more worried and hesitant about where his friend’s soul was going. “She’s an unquantified element, Night Glider. I’m not pleased with having her at large in My City.”

As David had expected, Jake’s reaction was a mocking smile and an impatient gesture. “Do you have any reason to suspect her of bad motives other than your own paranoia and suspicion of the supernatural, Dave?”

“I don’t like unquantifiable factors, Jake. The fact that she is an unknown makes her a potential threat!”

“No, you don’t like her because you prefer being in total control of everything around you, don’t you? Magic is one of those few things than you can’t control and you hate that!”

David jumped to his feet. “Night Glider, I’ve said this before but if you don’t like my methods and mindset so much, why do you stay in my team?”

“Two reasons,” Jake said without a hint of hesitation. “Firstly, because it enables me to keep you from harming yourself and others and, secondly… because the good that Forever Justice can do is far more than the harm that I fear that keeping up this crusade is doing to your sanity.”

“Sanity?” David spluttered. “Okay, I may be a little harsh in my tactics and theatrical in my style but I’m not crazy!” Am I? He wondered silently. Sometimes, he did wonder if it was healthy for a 16-year-old to have his focus and interests but he shook that self-doubt off as he always did. When St John Graham de Vanily was in prison or dead, he could commit himself for psychiatric treatment if that was needed but not before.

“Dave, for pity’s sake, it's 3am and, according to Lanisha, you’re re-analysing this footage for the umpteenth time! You can’t even tell me what you’re looking for, can you? The fact is that, because she doesn’t fit in your grand plan, you don’t know how to respond to Tempestia or how to manipulate her. Because of that, you don’t trust her!” Jake’s expression became teasing as if they were in the schoolyard again. “Or is that really the problem? Are you… crushing on her, oh emotionless Paladin of London?” The ebony-skinned engineering student leaned in very, very close. “Maybe… that’s your problem? She makes you feel vulnerable?” Jake looked at the picture of Tempestia on the big screen again, his eyes narrowed as he considered her and thought in the methodical way that made him so good in his chosen field. “No, no, I think that I understand. It's that she… is the light to your darkness, isn’t she, Dave? A hope that there could be an… afterwards?”

“Get… Out.” David’s voice went all the way to his Paladin growl.

With an insolent laugh and a wave over his shoulder, Jake walked towards the exit hidden in a disused utility shack in the Chingford housing estate that David called home. Meanwhile, David was on his feet, pacing restlessly. This is why he hated talking to Jake these days. He somehow knew just how to ask questions to chip away at his own edifice of self-belief and give power to all of his doubts.

Jake is right about one thing: She’s a distraction that I can ill afford. David sighed and ran a shaking hand through his messy brown hair. There’s nothing for it! I’ve got to find out who she is!

~*~*~

Apropos of nothing, the first person David met upon returning to the college campus was his fellow summer course student, Zoe Bourgeois, sitting at an outside table at the student cafeteria. “Wow. You look half dead, David! Up late finishing homework or something?”

“Or something,” he confirmed. David blinked hazily at the grinning blonde. His research indicated that it would take a few more years of acclimatisation to be able to handle all-nighters with only a few strategically-placed power naps. A voice very much like his mother’s reminded him to speak again rather than be rude. “How are you this morning, Zoe?”

“Charging up the batteries for a long day of architectural photography,” she said. “It’s very different from portraiture and landscapes in lots of ways.” Zoe cocked her head and touched David’s arm gently. “I feel you; my old martial arts teacher was very much into all-nighters. I once had to spend five hours in a Crane Pose.” David shot her a sceptical look. “I managed it!” the girl insisted.

David was sceptical because he couldn't imagine the daughter of privilege that was Zoe managing the discipline, intended to build the student’s ability to remain absolute focus when exhausted and when their circadian rhythms were an enemy to be conquered. He had managed it but not on his first try. “It just sounds a bit unlikely, you have to admit.”

Zoe laughed. “Yeah, Fei Shifu was very, very hardcore from the beginning there!” Seeing the look in David’s eyes, she shrugged. “Paris, remember? Mental, physical and emotional disciplines were a survival necessity during Hawkmoth’s reign of terror and we’ve stayed in the habit ever since!”

“You fascinate me, Zoe,” David said, his fatigue making it slip out even though normally he would never admit such a thing.

“Same,” Zoe replied with a dreamy smile as she rested her head against her hand before slapping her free hand over her mouth with a mortified expression. “Merde! Sorry, David! I guess I’m not as good at controlling my emotions as I thought!”

“It takes practice, David admitted. He looked at his watch. “Look, I’ve got a double period of engineering lab literally right now and you’ve got a field assignment to complete. Maybe we’ll meet again this evening for dinner?”

Zoe’s smile was like the sun and David admitted that it had him dazzled. “I’d like that,” the French-American girl responded cheerfully.

Now, why did I ask that? David asked himself. I’ve got so many other demands on my ‘free’ time, as illusory as that is!

~*~*~

It was summer so it was late as the sun was going down. Paladin was perched on a roof overlooking a Credit Union amidst the tangle of streets that was Southwark. Always being alert, Paladin and his allies had picked up the street ‘chatter’ about a ‘big job’ being planned by The Lion’s Pride. Nighthawk had rather bitterly complained about his team leader’s insistence on dealing with this alone. “What’s the point of having a team if you insist on dealing with stuff like this without backup?” he’d challenged.

Paladin would never admit it but the truth was that he wanted to keep his friends safe from the Lion, his powers and his fanatical thugs.

Go time , he told himself as a grey panel van with specially-designed ‘dazzle’ number plates that could not be read by conventional CCTV, pulled up outside the Credit Union. Credit where credit was due, the Lion had trained his hirelings well. Four raced into the shop, barging aside the doors and quickly disabling the security with pepper spray and black paint on the CCTV cameras. Two more thugs, hefting reinforced pickaxe handles as weapons, took up guard positions outside the doors.

It was immediately obvious what was happening. Paladin heard a few screams and the crowds on the street began to move away in a flowing motion like a herd of disturbed herbivores. No sign of the police, of course. The nearest station was closed to the public after 5pm and they would not respond to a 999 emergency call in anything less than 20 minutes.That was assuming that Lord Graham de Vanily hadn’t discreetly told the Chief Constable to have his men looking elsewhere in this matter.

Paladin had chosen his sentry spot well. He stepped off of the roof, flaring his cape to partly brake his fall and dropped right down in front of the two thugs guarding the entrance, back-lit by the setting sun.

“What the f…?” one of the masked criminals began before Paladin’s armoured boot drove into his gut, sending him crashing into the wall of the building.

The other guard didn’t bother with any verbiage; he lunged at Paladin’s head with his bludgeon, which was instantly cut in half by the vigilante’s vibro-sword. The thug staggered forward, wildly off-balance by the sudden change of the centre-of-gravity of his swing and Paladin’s armoured elbow guard slammed into the back of his head, sending him flat out onto the pavement. The first guard picked himself up, shakily drawing a kitchen knife from the back of his belt. Paladin effortlessly knocked it aside, got his full attention with a slash across his chest, opening a shallow cut from shoulder to shoulder across his waist and finished the matter with a clubbing blow to the face with is left gauntlet and the pommel of his sword smashing into the man’s temple from the other direction.

Psychology is a huge factor in winning melee fights. Instead of smashing open the doors of Credit Union, Paladin pushed them open gently and unhurriedly stepped into the brightly-lit interior of the establishment, his helmet's eyepieces automatically adjusting for the ambient light level.His calm entrance with the implication of total confidence gave him total control of the situation.

The four thugs turned towards Paladin, their eyes behind their balaclava masks widening in terror. “It’s the fuckin’ knight-freak!” one blurted. “We’re dead!” Paladin rewarded him by slashing him across the hip with a thrust of his sword, making him topple over sideways with a scream of agony. The rest of the gang moved towards him. Within five seconds, two of them had been disabled by pinpoint sword strikes to the shoulders and hips. The last was back against the wall, holding a weeping Caribbean woman by the throat as a human shield, a battered-looking WW2-era Webley .455” revolver clapped to her head.

“I really strongly advise you to let her go,” Paladin said dryly. “That popgun is only likely to piss me off.”

“You back off, freak!” the man squealed. “Back off or this bitch is dead!” Paladin considered his foe. He had pulled the woman right across him, leaving almost none of his body exposed to attack.

Almost .

Paladin's round shield bounced off of the floor immediately below the man, then off of the wall behind him and finally slammed into the wrist of the hand holding his gun, shattering it and sending the gun clattering to the floor. The criminal released the woman, staggering away with a panicked keen of pain just before the knight-themed vigilante's armoured gauntlet slammed into his nose, bouncing his head off the wall behind him. Paladin looked at the unconscious man's shattered hand briefly and without a sliver of pity. "Put some ice on that, filth," he advised.

Paladin never sought acclaim but he couldn't help but feel a little abashed at the growing applause as he tossed the robbers into a pile outside the Credit Union one-by-one.

“You again!” Everyone scattered. Paladin looked up to see no less a figure than Leonidas, The Lion of Crime, standing in the spot where Paladin had been less than 10 minutes ago. “My traitor of a daughter isn’t here to save you this time, boy!” the supervillain boomed. “You should have thought twice before interfering with my business again!”

Paladin frowned; he really didn’t like Leonidas’s habit of monologuing instead of fighting. “Maybe I don’t need La Peon’s help to beat you?” he challenged in response.

“I have changed since our last meeting, boy; you’ll need more than luck this time!”

The lenses in Paladin’s mask zoomed on a glowing red light on Leonidas’s collar and he immediately recognised the brooch worn by his sworn foe from that night he first met Zoe. He swung his shield around to intercept the lance of fire cast from the man’s hand.

Experience with the Rat Prodigious’s powers in Paris had taught Paladin new tricks and the reinforced ceramic-overlaid titanium of the shield resisted the heat and force of the flame attack effortlessly, making the fire bloom out around him uselessly. “Impressive;” Leonidas allowed. “But I doubt that you are ready for all of my new abilities!” The man raised his hands above his head. “Let CHAOS REIGN!” he roared.

To Paladin’s surprise, the area around him darkened supernaturally. The pavement around him began to warp, the pavement turning into jagged spikes, light poles transforming into clutching metallic claws and even the nearest people, pigeons and dogs mutating into macabre horrors. Recognising what was happening from recordings he’d seen of Leonidas’s last attack on Paris, Paladin grimly braced himself for the fight ahead. The first hell-dog that launched itself at him… struck a glassy white field that materialised right in front of the vigilante and transformed back to its normal shape before bouncing off of his breastplate and fleeing, yelping in terror as it raced down the mutated street.

“You leave him ALONE!” yelled a feminine voice.

Surprised Paladin looked behind him to see Tempestia standing on the flat roof of the Credit Union, her arms stretched out to either side, bright white lights shining in the palms of her hands and her shoulder-length blond hair waving in a mystical breeze. Paladin looked down and noticed that the nearest mutations of the world around him had changed back. The bubble of light was slowly radiating outwards, curing everything it enveloped.

“Foul old man!” Tempestia said in a freezing tone of condemnation. “Exploiting powers that you don’t truly understand to harm and terrify! Stop this! Surrender the Prodigious and your Miraculous and you may yet save your own soul!”

“Preach to the weaklings who are willing to listen, foolish child!” Leonidas hissed. He raised his hand imperiously again and fired a blast of flame from his fingertips at Tempestia, who stamped her foot, making a chunk of concrete detach from the façade of the Credit Union and jump into the air to intercept the attack, making fireball and rock mutually annihilate. Paladin noticed that her eyes had flashed orange when she did so. That flash became a continuous light as Tempestia raised her hand and the roof under Leonidas’s feet began to flex, turning into stony tentacles that tried to grasp him, only to be smashed aside by the Leo Sword.

“Your hate, greed and malice are no match for the true power of the Balance, Old Man,” Tempestia hissed. “You only have one opportunity and one choice to save yourself and that door is fast closing to you.”

“You’re wasting your breath,” Paladin drawled. “His heart is the very definition of human darkness and he will never stop… short of death.” Tempestia shot him a look and Paladin saw fear in that glance: Fear that he was right and that, to stop Leonidas, she would, inevitably, have to kill him. In that moment, Paladin swore that he would not allow her to have to make that choice.

“Enough! This distraction is over!” Leonidas gestured again and flames boiled out of the roof around him. When the black-red pyre was gone… so was he.

The white bubble of light vanished as soon as all of the victims of the mutations caused by Leonidas’s new power of Chaos were transformed back. Paladin turned to face the magical superheroine in time to see a fountain of blue-white flame take her place and leave behind a giant blue owl with white feather-tips and face-ruff that fluttered away.

“Oh, not so fast!” Paladin muttered, pulling out his grappling gun and firing its winch cable at a nearby rooftop decorative vent installation.

~*~*~

Somehow, Paladin got ahead of the owl and landed on a fortuitously-placed rooftop in time to see her transform back into her normal human guise. “Ah, Paladin,” Tempestia said flatly. “I understand from some friends that you and your team have been looking for me.” She shook herself and shot the armoured vigilante a tired smile. “Convenient as I was hoping to meet you too.”

Paladin parsed that into being a confirmation that Zoe had contact with this person. “You have been correctly informed,” he responded before stamping towards her, the very force of his presence forcing her to take a few steps backwards. “What do you want, Tempestia of Paris? Why are you here?”

“Leonidas,” she said, her voice a bit higher with nerves. She wasn’t the veteran that she tried to pass herself as, it seemed. “His powers… The fire and chaos? I have been tasked to take back their source!”

Paladin nodded. “And then?”

“Then… Then I suppose I go home, although…” Paladin had driven her all the way back to a fire exit on the edge of the roof and he pressed the palms of his hands to the brickwork either side of her head. The look on her face was endearingly vulnerable and pleading. “Although… perhaps… I could stay?”

That surprised Paladin. “Why would you do that?”

The magical girl stamped her booted foot in impatience, an act that Paladin remembered someone else doing in a not-dissimilar circumstance. “Well, stupid as it sounds, I was hoping that maybe a certain masked vigilante not a thousand kilometres from this spot might want me to stay!”

“Want you to stay…?” Mentally, Paladin slapped himself upside the head. Oh, very well done, oh Paladin of London! How in control of a situation can you get?”

Tempestia’s body posture was coy but Paladin felt that this was unconscious on her part. “Paladin, I was hoping…” She shook her head. “Paladin, you love your city. I can tell that; everything Ladybug told me about you confirmed that. Having been here… I see why. I can see the potential for good here! I… If you would permit it… I would like to help you.” Tempestia was resting her hands against his breastplate and Paladin took a few steps back to open up some distance from the openly intimate act. "I deeply admire your goals and dedication and being part of them would be a reward of its own!"

Paladin wasn’t sure what to say or do next. He certainly hadn’t expected such honesty or interest in the wider needs of His City. He certainly wasn't prepared for her to show personal interest in him! "I… cannot allow Leonidas to continue to wield such powers, Tempestia. If you would permit it, I would wish to be at your side in your quest."

Tempestia's smile was like the sunrise after a dark, dark night. "Paladin, I… I could not hope for more!" Paladin was shocked into silence by that. As he was struggling to find his thoughts, Tempestia transformed again, this time taking on the form of a gigantic peregrine falcon that launched away, assisted by a gust of wind.

He glared as she vanished into the distance. This is a hell of a time to realise that Night Glider was right.

~*~*~

‘WAR OF THE FREAKS - Paladin and Leonidas fight it out on the streets of London!’

Zoe grimaced as she read the story on the front page of the Daily Mirror newspaper. The pictures of the battle outside the Credit Union were very good and she wondered how the photographer had stayed outside the area of effect of the Chaos spell.

‘Who is this mysterious new super-girl? Ally or Enemy?’ the article asked in a sidebar under a picture showing her casting Noctua’s order shield to protect Paladin. The tabloid reporters, ever ones to speculate, remarked on the female members of Forever Justice and the strictly professional way in which they wereobserved to behave around their team leader. That didn’t stop them describing her as ‘the latest beautiful super-girl to populate themysterious Knight of Old London’s personal harem.’ Oh girl! Zoe thought. You’ve dived into the deep end this time, haven’t you? This was crazy; she was already crushing on David; now Paladin was in the mix too? After their adventure in Paris, she knew that she was soft on him, but this was getting too intense.

No , she scolded herself. Chloe has told you enough about the soap opera that was the Love Square. You don't want to get into a worse mess! Focus on what you can have, the kind, honest guy, not the unattainable superhero who is a little scary-intense at the best of times!

“Hey, Zoe!” speak of the devil… David offered her a cheery wave before sitting down opposite her outside the student cafeteria. He put down a serving tray and, being English, offered her a cup of breakfast tea. “I see that you’re keeping up on the news? I’d wondered if you were the photographer!”

Zoe grinned weakly. “Huh! I wouldn’t have had the guts to hang around that long with superheroes duking it out! I got killed a few times in Paris in crossfires!”

David frowned. “It still shocks me how easily Parisians say that,” he said at last. “Dying in a battle and then being resurrected by Ladybug had become such a commonplace experience for those fourteen months that it has become a… mundane thing for you!”

“Mundane,” Zoe confirmed. “No, I wouldn't say that. No-one liked having that happen and we all could do without a repeat engagement.”

David clenched his fist for a moment at the thought of Zoe dying and being grateful that Gabriel Agreste was not at liberty to tempt his moral refusal to kill except in direst need. "You know," he said at last, "we've never really finished that mutual job that I challenged you with? To tell me what you know about Tempestia so that I could tell you what I know about Paladin? So, what does Tempestia want, Zoe? I know that you know her and I know that you've discussed Paladin with her. So, what is her game plan? What's the end move for her?"

Zoe made a helpless gesture. "She wants to help," she said at last. "The Prodigious is a symbol of the Balance, elemental abilities that are powered by both good and bad emotions all being used together to help people. That's the nature of the universe, after all. Good and bad in balance to bring harmony and growth." Zoe was pleased that seh was able to retrain her impulse to rub said Prodiious as she spoke about it. “What she wants, David, other than to stop Leonidas, is to help London to heal."

"Not Paris?"

Zoe shrugged. "Paris has Team Miraculous and they don't need more help; London has Forever Justice but I think that it will be a life's work for them."

David nodded. "That it would be; I'm sure that Paladin would be more than willing to accept help so long as the magic in question was not used to dominate others and their lives."

Zoe shivered and looked nauseous. "Hawkmoth did that; so does my mother's bodyguard, the Raven supervillain Black Gold. I could never… she would never do something like that." She shook her head. "What about you? Who is Paladin?"

David smiled and launched into a long-rehearsed deflection. "Paladin is more than a person, Zoe, he's an idea: An idea that nobility is not a thing dead and that the world can be made a better place simply by refusing to yield to human evil but instead choosing to fight it." David shook his head. "I don't think that it matters who is behind the mask; not really. What matters is to understand that essential truth." He settled back, his mind whirling with all the clues and pointers Zoe had given him, consciously or not. "Enough about heroes though. What about Zoe Bourgeois? What are you plans? After your course is finished?”

Zoe sighed. “I guess that I’ll go home to Paris,” she said at last. “With the qualification, I’ll easily score a place in a Technical College to get a Journalism degree and then I’ll try to get a job at some publication.”

“Any one in particular?”

“I’m not too worried about that. The only publication on my blacklist is Style Queen!” She chucked and David grinned in response.

“That’s your mother’s loss,” he said. “From what I’ve seen of your portfolio, you’re a natural portraitist and fashion photography would be something you’d be naturally good at!” He gave her a pleading look, realising just how much he'd miss this quirky, brave and stubborn girl from his life if she were absent. “I’m sure that you would easily find a job… a life… here in London, if you chose to stay.”

Zoe smiled. “Thank you, David. However…” She shook her head. “There are other concerns… duties, really… in my life and I’m not sure if I could justify staying here rather than going home.” David looked so crushed that Zoe didn’t know what to say. “David… Do you know of a reason why I should stay?”

There followed an interesting stream-of-consciousness babble as David told her about how much Joyce had come to like her and how he thought that, together, they could be a serious force in investigative journalism. Then he added that Sherri loved having someone to ‘experiment’ on with her magic, Lanisha liked having a sister (her blood family was all male siblings) as did Harry. “Jake, of course, thinks that you’re a problem for him to solve although that’s how he views everyone!”

Zoe blinked in surprise before she had to acknowledge to herself that in her few weeks in London, David’s friends had all come very close to her in just this way.. “What about you?” she asked, barely believing that she had done so.

David looked at her, and she could see the way his brain was racing behind his eyes. “Me? I…” The sandy-haired English boy paused. “You make me feel… easier, Zoe. There's just something about you that makes me feel that I’ve seen the dawn after too long wandering the streets at night.”It was true too. Tempestia, for all her light, was an abstract; an unattainable symbol of mystical perfection. Zoe was real, physical and could be touched and understood in her love and compassion.

Zoe’s mouth dropped open in shock at that declaration and her face bloomed with a bright blush. “David, I…”

“Please stay,” he said. “Even if not for me, please.”

With the air of someone jumping over a barricade into a hail of gunfire, David torched his lips to hers and Zoe reciprocated immediately, not pulling back even when he grabbed a handful of her hair to deepen the kiss.

When they parted contact, both panting a little, they both realised that they'd gone over a red line from which there was no return. "David… Is this okay?" she asked. "Would you share your life with me? With all the baggage we both have?"

"Would you share your life with me when I’m such a mental and emotional mess?" David responded. “It would be an honour beyond words if you were to…"

"To love you?" Zoe offered. They both looked at their entwined hands and realised that something had started.

WAZZAP! @SneakrDiva

@SneakrDiva: Chloe, Chloe, please be online

@TheOfficialChloeB: You're lucky, Z;

@TheOfficialChloeB: @MarinetteDesigns and I are just cleaning up after a big floor show. We've got plenty of time before our next big production meeting!

@TheOfficialChloeB: What's the problem?

@SneakrDiva: I… may have kissed a guy.

@SneakrDiva: Twice

@SneakrDiva: The second time after using the ‘L’ word.

@SneakrDiva: Chloe, I’ve fallen for him!

@TheOfficialChloeB: Woah! Congratulations, I think?

@TheOfficialChloeB: Barely a third of the way through your time in London and you're already stealing hearts!

@SneakrDiva: So… Help?

@SneakrDiva: I'd never imagined feeling as strongly as this!

@SneakrDiva: Especially about a guy who I've only known for a few weeks in real life!

@TheOfficialChloeB: Let me get @marinettedesigns onto the chat. If anyone knows about sudden and life-consuming crushes, it's her.

St John Graham de Vanily frowned at the bald young man in the orange robes of a Buddhist monk standing in his atrium. At first glance, he seemed no older than Felix or Iris/Lila but he knew only too well how easy it was to disguise age or appearance. "Well, young man, you've gone to a lot of trouble to gain entrance to my home without being detained by my security guards. Now, what business do you have here?"

Chong-Li glared up at the four thieves standing at the top of the stairs. There was the cousin of the False Cat, so startlingly similar to his cousin that he had to wonder if some magic was involved there. There was also the Peacock Thief's twin sister, identical in appearance of course but radiating darkness in place of the Parisian woman’s public facade of light and good. Then there was that girl about whom every Guardian who had been to Paris had been warned to beware of and whose cruel smile told him that he was in the presence of one with the soul of a demon.

Then there was the Lion.

"Greetings to you, St John Graham de Vanily, Holder of the Leo Miraculous of Valour and the Rat Prodigious of Chaos and Fire; I am Chong-li, Adept of the Celestial Order of Guardians. I am here to speak to you in the Order's name." A lie but one that Chong-Li was confident that, in a very short period of time, would metamorphose into the truth. Not just to recover the Prodigious from that stupid girl but reclaim the contents of the Ishtar Miracle Box, something that the False Ladybug had not even tried! Surely a seat on the Council… No, the Grandmaster's seat would not be unthinkable!

St John gestured imperiously. "So then, Guardian Chong-Li, speak."

"We are in the rare position of having common sworn enemies, Lord Graham de Vanily," Chong-Li replied. "A woman who aids your enemies and who is also an impediment to my claiming the destiny that is rightfully mine. If… and this is an 'if'… we can work together to eliminate that threat, we may both profit." Chong-Li relaxed. There, it was said. This barbarian bandit would take the bait and the path to his glory was assured!

Chong-Li would probably be less confident if he knew what was going through St John's mind. Despite the young man's practised inscrutability, St John had made a fortune and forged an empire based on his ability to read people. He could see the greed and thwarted ambition in the young man's words, tone and body language as if it were written across his face. A look at Lila/Iris out of the corner of his eye confirmed that the Word Witch had noticed the same thing and was probably already planning to manipulate their visitor for her own profit. "Guardian Chong Li? I do believe that we can be of use to each other." For now, at least, the supervillain added silently.

Chapter 9: The Watering Hole

Chapter Text

“ With rains a seasonal rarity, the animals of the savannah are forced to gather to the same sources of life-giving water. Even animals who would normally be fierce foes like lions, hyenas and the herd animals on which they prey sit shoulder-to-shoulder in this common source of life-sustaining water. It is the ultimate neutral turf where we see creatures together that normally would attack each other or flee on sight of the other… ”

Barely aware of the wildlife documentary streaming on her PC, Marinette closed her Miraculous Journal after completing her record of the events in Tokyo. Tomoe was still at liberty along with whatever Miraculous were not in the Nipponese Miracle Box at the time Kitsune and Reddotaiga took it from her rooms. She recognised, on a certain level, that even chaos took time to fully form so that, so soon after these epochal events, it was impossible to know how things would turn out. However, she still felt worried at Kagami’s mother still holding so much power. The East Asian Dark Order had fled deeper into the shadows, frightened from the light of public exposure by the effectiveness of the Guardians’ agents. However, they had to still be there, using their wealth and magic to pull strings.

“Are you ready to go now, Marinette?” Tikki chirped cutely.

With the runaway success of the fashion shows and presentations in Tokyo, ‘MDC’ was now the face of the House of Harmony’s upcoming collections and Marinette had been busy since returning to Paris with finalising her designs and making sure Emilie’s employees were able to make them to a satisfactory standards. This had its own frustrations as Marinette wasn’t really much of a commercial designer; she made clothes because of her love of the art. Her place in the fashion world, although a childhood dream come true (and well deserved, according to Adrien and Chloe), had a hollow feel to it. “Yes, Tikki, let’s head out! I have a good idea of what I want to get!”

What a dress it was that she was planning too! Chloe had been giving these little hints of wanting to be more ‘Queen Bee’ in her everyday life. Marinette had a whole sketchbook full of designs now and not just for her ‘office manager’. She’d also designed day and formal clothing for all of her friends, reflecting their superheroic personae. However, Chloe’s once were the firmest expressions of interest so she was going to do that first.

Now, Emilie knew how to keep the talent fed and Marinette knew that she had access to all the materials and support she could want or need from the House of Harmony’s workshop and studio on the riverfront. However, this wasn’t any ‘official’ job and Marinette felt it would be an abuse of work resources to use them for this purpose. So, it was time to renew an acquaintance and visit a shop that was a refuge in the years of isolation and torment before Alya came into her life.

As was now a long-established habit, Marinette went to the Miracle Ball and collected the Libra Miraculous too. To fit with the punky touch of a black lace choker, she chose her most biker leather jacket and added some dark eyeshadow.

In ‘mufti’, Marinette was unrecognisable as either Ladybug or as MDC and so it was easy for her to walk down the street, totally unnoticed. She smiled at the passers-by and even received a few nervous responses from children.

Deitel’s Handicrafts was the name of the shop and it was something of a misleading name at that. It was a one-stop for everything that Marinette loved - art supplies, basic customary components and even sculpture tools! As she approached, she was surprised to see a familiar face - Charles Matheiu- walking out. This was a shock mostly because of all the students in her year at Dupont, Charles was the one least likely to engage in the visual arts; he’d even been thrown out of the ‘street art’ class so beloved by Alix because he had no idea other than scrawling his name and profanities all over public buildings. The second reason for Marinette’s surprise was the reason why he’d dropped out: The scarring of his face that had left him notably grotesque in his appearance.

The boy blinked in surprise as she recognised Marinettee. “Dupain-Cheng,” he said dryly before holding the bag containing his purchases closer to his chest, pushed past her and stormed away with a mutter of: “The old man had better have delivered!”

Marinette wasn’t surprised to feel the Libra burn as he passed her. Ever since his accident that led to his second akumatisation, Charles had become a darker and more malicious personality. If he hadn’t dropped out, she was sure he would have been expelled due to his ever worsening academics, attitude and relationship with his classmates. He’d bullied Zoe quite badly and Adrien had nearly broken his arm after he’d tried to fondle Malodie (or rather, the arm that Melodie hadn’t been twisting backwards at the time). As Marinette entered the old-fashioned shop (an antique bell chiming as she pushed the door open) she was surprised at the feel of the Libra Miraculous heating up again. She could think of nothing about the place that could be evil orthreatening.

“Here you go, Fraulein Cesaire!” Hertzel Dietel, a very old but spry and friendly elderly man dressed as an ol fashioned tailor, was saying to Nora as the woman as he handed her a paper bag. “All re-sowed and restuffed! Be more careful about what you do with it in future, yes? We can do wonders here but not miracles!” Nora shot Marinette with an embarrassed and somewhat panicked look as she fled the shop. The old man spotted Marinette and gestured over his shoulder. “Ah! Fraulein Dupain-Cheng, it has been a long time! My dear, I have some commissions to work on, so my assistant will serve you, ja?”

Now, Marinette hadn’t visited Herr Deitel for over a year so it didn’t surprise her to hear that he now had an assistant (he was elderly, after all). What she wasn’t prepared for was the person who came to the counter. It was like looking in a slightly-distorted mirror; an black-haired and blue-eyed oriental girl with a slightly more oval face and pigtails similar to the ones she’s preferred before she’d adopted her current bun-and-ponytail. “Soqueline!” Marinette said with a beaming smile.

Before Alya, Soqueline had been the only friend that Marinette had. She’d stood up to Chloe and even the staff and, ultimately, Mayor Bourgeois had pressured Principal Damocles to expel her because Chloe was genuinely scared of her and her steadfast defence of Marinette. It was a reminder of just what a reign of terror that Chloe had over College Francoise Dupont until she found the Bee Miraculous and suddenly her Audrey-induced psychotic tendencies became too much for the national government to allow to continue to go unchecked. “Oh… it’s you, Marinette.” Soqueline’s face was dull and the pain in her eyes boiled out at Marinette. “Oh, she’s not at all happy with you, Madame Guardian!” Zuuben whispered from her hiding place in Marinette’s jacket.

“Er… H.. Hello, Soqueline, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it has,” Socqueline replied dryly. “Still, you’ve been okay, befriending her and creating your own personal little empire back in the old school. I’m honestly shocked that you still remember me!”

“Well… how could I forget?”

Socqueline gave Marinette a hooded gaze. “I had to wonder, now your shop down the road lists her as your business manager! Tell me, Mari, what did she give you in exchange? Money? Her Daddy’s favour? Her help in snaring your pet supermodel lover? Or did she just promise to stop tormenting you?”

Ouch . Yes, Marinette had forgotten that Chloe was a very prominent and named figure in MDC.com’s business. It was a huge shift in her relationship with the blonde heiress and, given that Soqueline had to finish her education elsewhere, one about which she knew nothing. “I wouldn’t have given her anything if she hadn’t genuinely changed, Soqueline, you know that.”

The other part-Chinese girl scowled. “There is nothing she could say or do to make me forgive her, Marinette. Not for what she did to me and to you. Of course, apparently, all is forgiven there, isn’t it? It seems that everyone has forgiven and forgotten the sins of that girl now that she’s become the glamorous, globe-trotting superheroine; even Ladybug who once denounced her before the world’s press!”

“Soquenline…”

“So, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, what can I do for you?” Marinette’s heart ached at her childhood friend’s clear sense of betrayal and abandonment that she was now hiding behind the formal mask of a shopkeeper/customer relationship. If Hawkmoth were still terrorising Paris, she’d probably be akuma bait by now. However, the Butterfly Miraculous was in the Miracle Ball and Paris was (mostly) safe.

“I need some trimmings, faux fur, silk ribbon and lace,” Marinette told her. “Say about twenty metres of all three, please. Oh, and a new sketchbook and a box of coloured pencils.” There was nothing that would male Marinette tell Soqueline that she was going to make daywear for Chloe that would reflect Queen Bee’s costume. That would take too long and Soqueline was in no fit state to understand it.

After getting together Marinette’s requirements, Soqueline rang up the sale and grimaced as if in physical pain when she saw the customised ‘MDC.com’ payment card that Marinette presented. “You’ve come a long way, Marinette,” she whispered.

“I still miss you, Soqueline,” Marinette replied.

“Why?” Marinette looked back at her childhood friend. “Why her?”

“She’s changed, Soqueline. You don’t know how totally she’s changed; how much she’s suffered, repented and worked to try to be a better person. The nightmares that she’s been through to become the woman she is now. She’s not the bully that made my life a living hell anymore.”

Soqueline nodded. “I’ll never believe that,” she replied emotionlessly. “However, if she’s persuaded you that she’s changed enough to forgive her… I suppose that I must accept that it’s enough for you to be satisfied.” The other girl reached out and, unexpectedly, she grabbed Marinette’s ponytail and stroked her hand along it. “Is this her idea?”

Marinette smiled. “No, this is 100% Nonna Gina,” she replied.

“The rock-punk grandma? That’s her idea?” Marinette blushed at the humour in her friend’s eyes. “Yeah, I should have guessed that you would have ended up going ‘rock chick’ on me!” The other girl’s fingers touched the chain linking the two halves of the Ladybug Miraculous. “Obviously, a full aesthetic for you now, oh knitting fairy!” Soqueline sobered up. “Please be careful out there, Marinette. Bourgeois can’t escape the taint in her blood and she’s no more trustworthy than that horror of a woman who bore her; she will hurt you eventually, even without meaning to.”

Troubled, Marinette left the shop. “I’m sorry, child,” Hertzel said. “It is never easy when childhood friends move on.”

“I’ve seen her out on the town with Bourgois so many times, sir. I knew that she’d changed and that she’d chosen Chloe over me but, somehow, seeing her in person, so happy, prosperous and carefree about it only made it worse.”

The old master crafter nodded in acknowledgement. He didn’t entirely agree with his apprentice’s conclusions but he saw no point in debating them.

Soqueline passed through the curtain into Hertzel’s workroom and, with the ease of practice, set the positions of the clothes hooks that opened the door to his secret workplace. It could not be more different. Under blazing LED lights hung the costumes of superheroes and supervillains. Individually-customised tools and weapons were neatly racked or disassembled for cleaning and inspection. With a subvocal ‘tch’, Soqueline moved aside the reinforced mask of Blank of the Five of a Kind Gang and looked at her personal Journeywoman’s project. She looked at her drawn, upset reflection in the brass-simulated laminated breastplate. “If she will trust Bourgeois, she’s a fool,” she hissed. “Ladybug is no more reliable than any other of the idiots dancing to that brat’s lying tune and I will prove it. Paris may need a champion, but it can’t be her. After tonight… it won’t be her.”

~*~*~

Ladybug was patrolling that night; alone at the moment as Chloe had planned a date with Kagami but she was fairly sure that she could handle essentially anything that came her way with the agents of the Dark Order not in Paris and the Lion’s Pride sheltering in London, the centre of their ower rather than risking crossing the Channel for any business.

She’d certainly not been greatly troubled by the usual selection of muggers, peepers and other petty criminal types that night. So, the smashing of glass on the street. Ladybug diverted her swings to head in the direction of the noise and was shocked beyond words by what she saw.

A few months ago, she’d reluctantly sat with Juleka through Rose’s favourite film, a 1980s Australian-made sci-fi action film called ‘Maximum Madness’. Honestly, what she saw, smashing the windows of shops in the street below really reminded her of one of the antagonists from the film: Wearing metal-spiked leathers and decorated with chains and made up to look like a grotesque punk with an acid green mohawk and various anarchic piercings in his nose and ears.

She recognised him at once: Street Demon. Of course, with the Butterfly Miraculous out of circulation, this had to be just Charles Mathieu in a fancy-dress costume and using the twin metal bludgeons chained to his wrists to smash things. “Yeah!” He was shouting. “Too many pretty things in this city! Let’s shake things up into an age of anarchy!”

Since the fall of Hawkmoth, there had been a sleet of unpowered or non-akuma super-powered criminals appearing in Paris, most notably of which had been the Five of a Kind Gang and the now-dead Nightshade. Most of them had been too afraid to target the city when Gabriel Agreste was only too willing to help a random victim of crime if that meant having another weapon to turn on her and Adrien. However, most of them had a goal - wealth, revenge or power. Street Demon here seemed determined just to cause havoc purely for havoc’s sake.

Thinking about what she knew about him, it was in character. What surprised her was that he had actually come out to do something about his basically anarchistic mindset.

From her place on a nearby rooftop, Ladybug cast her Yo-yo to snatch the laughing young thug’s right wrist and yanked back hard. The ultra-tough Yo-yo cord tugged Street Demon into the air.

Remembering the bruises on Zoe’s face after one of his last attempts to ‘seduce’ her, Ladybug didn’t hold back. She shoulder-threw the thug as he reached her level and slammed him into the rooftop wth sufficient force to put him in traction for several months. However, it was immediately apparent that his grotesque costume had somehow absorbed most of the impact. With disbelief, she watched as Marteiu staggered to his feet. “Woah! Cool! Nice way to get my attention, Babe!”

“So, what is this about, Street Demon? Seriously?”

The thuggish punk shrugged easily. “Ah, things have got boring in this down since ol’ Gabe was locked up. I kind of hoped that Lionface would shake things up but I think he got tired of you beating his ass!” The leer that Marteiu shot her made the double entendre clear enough for Ladybug.

"You know what, I really don't care." Ladybug put all the twisting force she could into the punch. Somehow, Street Demon got his arm in the way and the crack of the superheroine's fist hitting the armour plate under the leather jacket echoed across the rooftop. Street Demon staggered away from the transmitted force but didn’t seem too badly fazed. Ladybug raised an eyebrow. There was a time when that would have bothered her but, after all she had experienced, it was barely a thrown handful of water to her. “Had an upgrade?”

Street Demon grinned. “You said it, babe! I didn’t want you or any of your do-gooding drags of friends messing up my fun, so I made sure that my suppliers were aware that I’d need flexible but tough armour!” The anarchist thug’s smile became a lot sicker. “It’s not the only thing I got either!” He yanked one of the chains on his arms and it came loose, and he started to swing it. “Same material as the armour, Ladybutt! Now I’m the one doing the beating!”

The thug lunged and quickly realised that his raw strength was no match for Ladybug’s magically-enhanced agility. The bike chain slammed into the roof several times with Ladybug agility somersaulting out of the way. His brain finally caught up and he tried to counter this with horizontal strikes, once at her ankles (which she leapt over) and once at her neck.

Street Demon staggered forward, off balance. the end of his chain was tangled up in the cord of Ladybug’s Yo-yo and, even though the cord was seemingly fragile compared to the alloy links, it was far tougher and Ladybug was using it to try to yank it out of his hand. He grinned unpleasantly. “No dice, Ladybug! I made sure I’m not losing my stuff!” Ladybug noted that, indeed, the chain was attached to the thug’s obviously-armoured gauntlet. She could remove it, so long as she had no problem removing his arm in the process but things hadn’t gone that far yet.

“Nice trick, Street Demon but there are disadvantages to ideas like this.” The red-and-black-clad superheoine yanked hard on her Tool’s cord and Street Demon staggered forward to be met with the flat of her left foot. The impact sent him flying back across the roof, his nose crushed. “Okay, now we’ve got a moment…” Ladybug cast her Yo-yo upwards. “Lucky Chaaarrrmmm!” Something emerged from the galactic swirl of magical ladybird beetles that dropped into her hands. Painted in her colours, of course, but… “Rare Earth magnets?” She shrugged and attached them to her right hip.

“I’m not waiting for you to figure it out babe, seriously!” Street Demon said. “Somewhere out there is a fragile work of art with my name on it! Later!” Street Demon lashed out with his chain that somehow doubled in length and wrapped around the safety rail around the rooftop space on the next building along and enabled him to swing across the gap, landing inexpertly but relatively softly on the next roof. “Later Ladybitch!” Street Demon’s laugh was choked off as Ladybug was deposited on the same roof by her energy mesh wings.

“You’re new at this, aren’t you? Really new, I mean. Did you bother to even practise with your equipment and think out escape routes?” Ladybug couldn’t help but smirk at the heavily-made-up thug’s look of utter dumbfoundment. “Nope; that’s ‘boring’, right?” This time, Ladybug didn’t bother to dodge Street Demon’s attack but caught the flailing chain in her gloved hand. “If you can’t be trusted with your toys, I’m gonna have to take them away, I’m afraid.” Ladybug’s Yo-yo was attached to her left wrist and a half-dozen miniature wing-like blades appeared and began to spin around with a high-powered scream like a power saw. “No, let’s see how tough the material on this armour is, shall we?”

Street Demon wasn’t stupid and he had sort of bothered to listen to his supplier when they’d explained the features of his new equipment. His hand jabbed the emergency release button and he staggered away. “Hokay, this was fun and all but I gotta go now, babe! See you in the funny papers!” He was staggering more than running and Ladybug figured that he’d get maybe three metres before she ran him down.

A huge bronze guillotine blade on the end of a long chain slammed into the rooftop at the fleeting thug’s feet. “Okay, that’s far enough, scofflaw!” shouted a strangely familiar voice.

Ladybug watched as a young woman wearing a bronze romano-hellenic armoured breastplate and helmet landed on the roof. She was garishly dressed in a red-white-and-blue tricolour-striped pant-suit under the armour plates. “You may have got off lightly from your previous misdeeds, but Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte is here to see that you are finally punished, oh enemy of the people!”

“What the hell is this?!?” Street Demon shrieked. He looked at Ladybug in horror. “Is she one of yours, babe?”

Sans-Culotte had reeled in her weapon in a way very reminiscent of the way Street Demon’s chain worked but instead wrapped the chain around her left arm. “No way!” she snapped at the question. “She’s a failure and a dupe of that Bourgeois brat! I’m the real protector of the people of Paris!” The young woman (who, Ladybug noted, had red and blue-tipped twin pigtails hanging from the back of her helmet grabbed Street Demon by the collar and yanked him towards her. “For the record? I don’t give second chances the way she does with her Bee-bitch!” Given the gleam on the edge of the bronze-coloured blade, Ladybug could figure out what that meant. Street Demon began to visibly sweat as she held it under his chin.

“That is enough, Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte, or whoever you really are. He’s a dangerous, violent thug but he hasn’t done anything deserving of death.”

“You’re not the boss of me, Ladybug!” was the reply. “With Hawkmoth gone, the time has come for you and your colleagues to retire and leave protecting this city to those of us who really hold the interests of its people as paramount!”

Street Demon grinned weakly, his flattened nose lending a demonic aspect to the gesture. “Ladies, ladies!” he said weakly. “You don’t need to fight over me! I’ll be leaving!” There was a click as a second chain dropped out of his other gauntlet. With a twirl of his wrist, it tangled around Sans-Culotte and Ladybug’s ankles and he pulled back hard, causing both women to crash into each other as he dived out of the way. “See you later, babes! Maybe change your dancing costumes to show more skin in future too, y’know!”

“I hate that man!” Ladybug hissed. She was about to launch herself after him but she couldn’t untangle herself from the new vigilante. There was a flash of pink light as the guillotine blade severed the chain around their ankles.

“Come back!” Sans-Culotte was up and running after Street Demon as he deployed yet another chain to swing over to the next roof. Sans-Culotte meanwhile, instead ran towards the edge and made a tremendous somersault to clear the same gap, making Ladybug think that she was a borderline-superhuman of some sort. She caught the lip of the next roof as she fell just barely short and swung up and onto the roof space as Street Demon yanked open the fire escape door. With a scream of rage, she flung her blade at him and it slammed into the doorframe with enough force to bury itself to its entire depth into it.

Street Demon made a high-pitched squeak of terror and disappeared into the stairwell.

Having completed her own crossing, Ladybug landed on top the the stairwell’s enclosure and was facing Sans-Culotte as she ran over to yank her weapon out of the wall. “That’s enough!” she snapped. “Stand down, whoever you are!”

“I’ve already told you that you don’t have any right to issue me orders, Ladybug,” Sans-Culotte said in a tone of ice-cold anger. “You lost that when you let Chloe Bourgeois wield the Bee Miraculous again!”

“What is your problem with Queen Bee anyway?” Ladybug snapped. “She’s proven that she’s a friend of Paris and has fought tirelessly for its people. Redemption is hard but she’s done just that!”

“People like her can’t be redeemed!” Sans-Culotte snapped back. “Oh, hey say the right words and dance the right moves but it’s just a masquerade to get people to worship them more than they can force them to with their wealth and political power!”

Ladybug sat back on her heels. “I’m sorry that you feel that way,” she replied gently. “I’m not going to deny that Chloe Bourgeois was a monster; her mother’s neglect and her father’s evil example of how to use power both contrived to almost drive her insane.” Sans-Culotte made a vindicated snort and crossed her arms aggressively. “She’s not that person anymore. She has addressed her mental issues, disowned her mother and helped her father to see a better way of life. She’s trying to become a better person.”

Sans-Culotte growled dangerously. “If you believe that then you’re either a fool. Or, worse, you don’t believe it and you’re her accomplice!” Ladybug somersaulted out of the way as the tricolour-clad vigilante swung her blade at her ankles and neatly peeled off a millimetre-thick layer of the material making up the top shelter of the stairs.

That blade is impossibly sharp , Ladybug thought in concern. Probably not sharp enough to penetrate my costume but I’d prefer not to find out, given how big and heavy it is.

“Your time is done, Ladybug!” Sans-Culotte sounded strangely tired. “The people of Paris thank you for your courage and service but the time has come for you to stand down and let the deserving, like the Bourgeois brat, face the consequences for their crimes!” She looked over her shoulder. “Like that idiot Street Demon too. He will kill someone one day!”

The tricolour-clad vigilante turned, ran to the edge of the roof and threw herself off.

Ladybug stood up. Damn, I can’t let her go, especially given how enthusiastic she is about dealing out lethal ‘justice’ and her obvious vendetta against Chloe!

~*~*~

It was a sign of the essential overconfident and lackadaisical nature of Charles Marteiu that, after being attacked by a superhero and a homicidal-seeming vigilante, the moment he was out of the apartment building that had been the scene of the confrontation, he immediately succumbed to the temptation to vandalise things again. He was systematically smashing the windows of parked cars with his armoured gauntlets and stealing anything that caught his eye. “Y’know, I should have got a flamethrower too,” he said to himself (it was the sound he liked hearing the most, after all). “With all the wood in these buildings, hey’d make a great-looking fire!”

Far above, the rapidly-descending Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte deployed her suit’s wingsuit aerodynamic surfaces to brake her descent. For maximum effect, she steered herself to land in a four-point crouch on top of the car that Street Demon was looting, She didn’t try to even disguise her approach and Street Demon nearly jumped out of his skin. “Heeeyyy,,,!” he squeaked, backing away nervously. “Uh… Miz… Sang-froid or something, right? So, how’s it hanging? You and Ladybitch finished your fight? If you’re gonna kiss and make up, I wanna see it!”

“You don’t need that, scum,” she remarked, lashing out with her guillotine blade to sever the straps of the canvas bag that he’d been using to carry the loot and making it spill onto a street. “You’re just determined to be the picture in the book next to ‘Recidivist’, aren’t you?”

“Recidee-what?” Street Demon sneered as his two bike chains deployed and he began to spin them around. “Whatever, let’s dance babe!”

Sans-Culotte’s guillotine blade flashed twice, severing the chains near where they were hooked onto Street Demon’s gauntlets. She began to drive the street thug back with sweeps of her blade; her moves would have been more deadly if she were not so fuming and frustrated. “You know, this was supposed to be simple. From the moment I saw you, I knew that you’d attract Ladybug’s attention and I was expecting you to humiliate her with the armour and weapons in your costume so that I could swoop in and save the day, persuading her non-violently to stand down but no! You were too dumb to manage that, weren’t you? Now I’ve got to do this the complicated way, not that you’ll be around to see it!” The vigilante kicked hard, striking the thug on his chin, the force knocking him onto his backside. “Okay, well, never let it be said that I don’t fix my mistakes, Monsieur Mattieu.” She smirked at the thug’s expression. “Yes, I know who you really are. I don’t think anyone familiar with you wouldn’t. Anyway, the time has come to accept the bitter harvest of the choices of your misspent-life.”

Sans-Culotte raised her guillotine blade to decapitate the thuggish youth when, with a ‘Twip-whizz! Ladybug’s Yo-yo wrapped around his ankle and yanked him out of the way, leaving the weapon to crash into the sidewalk with a blinding pink flash, cutting deep into the concrete paving slabs.

Street Demon found himself hanging upside-down from the Yo-yo cord and staring into the grinning face of Ladybug where she was standing on top of the cross-beam of a light-pole. “Time for you to clock-out, Street Demon,” she announced. “You really aren’t cut out for the costumed villain role without Hawkmoth’s help. Oh, and for the record?” She leaned a bit closer and whispered the next part. “There is a version of this costume that shows skin but only my boyfriend sees it… and gets to peel me out of it!” Ladybug released the cord, slamming the back of the thug’s head into the pavement after a two metre drop, knocking him unconscious. Okay, now onto the serious stuff, she told herself, leaping off to land two metres away from Sans-Culotte. “This is where it ends, Mademoiselle. You are too out of control to leave on the streets.”

Mademoiselle Sans-Cullotte had pulled herself together and walked out to face the superheroine fearlessly. “You don’t get to make the choice about who fights the fight, Ladybug. You may have special powers and seem to have been chosent to lead the Miraculous Holders of Paris.” She sighed and visibly sagged. “I don’t want to hurt you, Ladybug. You’re a good person for all you’ve made bad choices. Please… just walk away.”

“I could say the same for you, Mademoiselle,” Ladybug said sadly, not without compassion. “You want to help, this much is clear but you have chosen the wrong way to do so.”

Sans-Culotte, feeling that the time for words was over, lunged with her blade only to have it strike the Bugshield and slide off to crash to the street. Off balance, the transformed Yo-yo swung back and the vigilante only avoided being struck by an acrobatic backwards somersault.

Sans-Culotte adjusted her balance. “My blade of justice can penetrate any alloy or material, Ladybug, this is hopeless.”

“Any mundane material, perhaps.”

The flash of pink as the blade and the bugshield connected again illuminated the nighttime street and the force made both women stagger. Sans-Culotte looked at her guillotine blade and was horrified at the visible nick in its cutting edge. “But… that’s impossible! How did you…?”

Ladybug made a beckoning gesture and then touched her finger to her lips. “Shh! It’s magic,” she said in a mocking whisper. This seemed to trigger Sans-Cullotte who launched herself forwards again with a scream of frustrated rage.

The duel lasted only a minute but seemed far longer as the two young women traded blows and parries, Sans-Cullotte somehow matching Ladybug’s acrobatic tumbles and jumps move-for-move but unable to connect with her weapon.

Sans-Cullotte wasn’t so lucky and a sweep of the Bug-shield’s saw-blade edge slashed open her costume over her left shoulder, leaving a deep, bleeding cut. “Give it up!” Ladybug snapped.

“Never! Coward!” Sans-Culotte countered.

Ladybug hissed angrily as Sans-Culotte jumped over a sweep of her Yo-yo. This is ridiculous! It’s only so long before she starts to tire and ends up getting injured but how do I stop her before then without harming her? At that moment, her environmental intuition kicked in, making the metal plates of Mademaoiselle Sans-Culotte’s armour flash in Ladybug colours as did a nearby panel van and the Lucky Charm still attached to her hip. Really, Tikki? Okay then.

With an objective in mind, Ladybug advanced, driving the far-less experienced vigilante towards the van. She then reached for her hip and threw the Lucky Charms, which tumbled through the air and connected to the side of the van with loud ‘clang’ noises. Decoyed by the odd motion, Sans-Culotte swept her blade to block the objects’ flight but instead remained over-extended to one side. Following through from the motion of her throw, Ladybug cast her Yo-yo that struck the vigilante’s wrist, making the blade come into contact with the magnets. It was instantly apparent that it was stuck fast.

Sans-Culotte’s inexperience showed as she began to struggle with the blade, “No! This can’t be happening! You…” the vigilante grunted in anger and exertion. “You’re non-ferrous so this can’t work on you! COME ON!” With a hard yank she pulled the blade loose but the magnets were still attached and, instead, the weapon was attracted to her breastplate with enormous force, knocking her back off of her feet as it attached to the nearest bit of metal.

Off balance, Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte staggered back a few paces and fell over with a loud and painful-sounding crash, her helmet coming off and tumbling along the road.

With the helmet and its cheek and nose guards out of the way, Ladybug recognised the vigilante at once. “Socqueline?!?” she rushed over. She was not so shocked as to miss her trying to rise and slammed her foot against the guillotine blade, pushing the other girl flat. “Socqueline Wang! Why…. Why are you doing this?”

“How do you know my name?!? Have you been spying on me?!?” There was fear as well as anger in her schoolyard best friend’s voice.

“Because… Because I know you, big sister; my champion!”

Socquieline’s eyes widened as she heard the names she’d been called in a voice that was suddenly so hauntingly familiar but which her brain refused to identify. “Who…. How?”

Ladybug wiped her face in fatigue. “Its me, big sister. It’s Marinette.”

“M… Marinette? You… You’re…? I was…! I was going to hurt you, I…” Socqueline tilted her head back and wailed in horror as the full reality of what she’d been doing struck her all at once.

Ladybug took a huge risk, given the fact that Socqueline was clearly just coming out of some kind of psychotic episode. She pulled the magnets off of the guillotine blade, kicked the now somewhat-battered weapon aside and gave her friend her hand. As the shaking older teen got to her feet, she found herself enfolded in the red-and-black clad arms of the girl she’d protected in school for two years but whom now, not so it seemed, no longer needed anyone to do that for her anymore. “It’s okay, Jeijei,” Ladybug whispered. “I’m here and it’s going to be okay.”

~*~*~

Socqueline watched as Marinette somehow pulled several metres of twine from inside her Yo-yo and used it to tie Martieu to the light pole. Then she tossed those blasted, physics-defying magnets into the air with a cry of. “Miiiracullous Ladybuuug!” There was a flash of pink light and ladybird beetles seemed to boil out in every direction, skirting over every damaged object and restoring them to pristine condition.

“I… was so frustrated. It was Chloe, of course…” Socqueline shot Marinette a weak smile from where she sat beside her friend on a window ledge. “When does something go wrong with people when she is not involved in some way?” Socqueline’s laugh was bitter and sounded borderline-hysterical. “I just couldn’t get over her becoming this world-renowned hero when all I knew her as was for being…”

“A brat,” Ladybug completed. “A horrible, entitled, bratty little girl who got whatever she wanted because Daddy said so and never faced any consequences for the same reason.” The superheroine smiled. “See? I do remember that.”

Socqueline frowned and stared at her tricolour-painted face reflected in the back of her helmet. “It was like… Like my head was filling up with rage. You’d moved on and seemingly Chloe had become your best friend forever. You’d started a business, seemingly with her help, and…” She rubbed her face. “You didn’t need me anymore. You’d maybe even changed sides and forgotten everything she’d done to you… to both of us. I… just couldn’t think anymore. All I felt was pain and I wanted… I needed to take it out on someone!”

Ladybug frowned. “The deciding point was at the time she hijacked that train, Socqueline. Things could have gone either way from there but, maybe for the first time in his life. André Bourgeois stood up to her. Maybe it was me denouncing her before the press or maybe it was The President threatening to have Paris taken under National control that might have helped him make a decision. He had Chloe put into therapy and on strong medication. From the way she talks, the medication made her life hell but the therapy sessions really helped and it made her think carefully about who she was becoming and the choices she was making. She started changing; slowly at first and with lots of stumbling mis-steps but she genuinely tried to make herself a better person. By the time that her father was akumatised into Malediktator, she was changing a lot. Her mother wasn’t someone that she wanted to be anymore but was a horrible embarrassment to her who she wanted to avoid.

“After the creature called Feaste attacked, I’d made my choice. I decided to let her prove herself a hero by showing how she’d handle having the Bee Miraculous full-time. Oh, she made some howlers of mistakes but she just kept bouncing back, learning and… This part is important, Socqueline and I think that you can learn from it too: She never made the same mistake twice. She risked her life more than once and you know what? She stopped self-publicising. When her father resigned in disgrace after Gabriel Agreste’s arrest, she just faded into the background and seemed happy to do so.”

Socqueline was looking around her absent-mindedly from where she was sitting at Marinette’s side on a window-ledge, six stories above the city’s streets. Ladybug and Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte, side by side, she thought irreverently. I do hope a picture finds its way to the Ladyblog. “I think that having her sister to care for and that semi-public relationship with the daughter of the owner of TsurugiCorp probably sucked up a lot of her time and attention.” Socqueline snorted. “Chloe Bourgeois, the LGBTQ+ icon! Who would have imagined that she’d be the diverse one?”

Marinette managed an innocent look. “I’m bisexual, by the way.” She caught the other girl’s startled look. “As we’re in the process of telling some truths.”

“I… I… Did you… Were she and you…?”

No , Marinette reproved herself. Don’t laugh! This is serious! “We could have been but I’d already committed my heart to someone else, even though I hadn’t realised it yet.” Marinette grinned in a familiar way and Socqueline found herself wondering just why she’d never suspected that it was her baby sister behind that polka-dotted mask before tonight. “The power of love?” Marinette asked rhetorically. “Certainly, she’d had to do a lot of thinking, do a lot of growing and make a lot of changes about her self-image and her behaviour to help Zoe settle in Paris and to maintain her relationship with Kagami!”

“So, Chloe is officially Little Miss Redeemed and I seem to have slipped backwards into becoming a costumed villain as her father had once accused me; is that what we’re taking away from all of this?”

Marinette looked at Soqueline seriously. “You were lucky;” she said. “You haven’t done anything irrevocable for which I’d have to denounce you or hand you over to the authorities the way I have with Marthieu. You almost stepped over the line there, Jeijei. If you had, there would have been no going back for you.”

Soqueline made an annoyed noise and continued in Chinese. “Since when have you learned to speak in our mothers’ tongue, baby sister?”

Marinette laughed. “Remind me to tell you about my aunt’s lost daughter and my multilingual boyfriend some day.” Ladybug stood up. “Now, we have to decide where this goes next. Come on, there’s someone I want you to see and… maybe she can help.”

~*~*~

Titania beamed where she was standing on the rooftop in the Eastern warehouse district of Paris. “Ladybug! You decided to visit!” she boomed in her bombastic voice. She looked at the wide-eyed Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte who was staring at the woman who looked like a boxer, wrestler or power-lifter from behind her friend’s reassuring form. “Aaannnd who is the trembling little tri-coloured waif?”

Ladybug stepped to one side. “Titania, meet Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte. She’s something of a newbie but I think she has an enhanced physicality power, given the way she jumps and tumbles. What is most important is that she wants to help the people of Paris but really is struggling to find an effective…” Here, Ladybug raised a finger. “An effective and a wise way to do so. I was thinking that maybe you could help her.”

Titania frowned in a fearsome way and Sans-Culotte inspected the bulging muscles and fierce countenance and once again tried not to list all the ways the woman could tie her in knots. “H.. Hi?” she squeaked.

“You know, I’m a teacher,” Titania said. “Seriously, I am; I run a dojo of sorts and I like to think I’m good at it. So, yeah, I can teach you a few moves and how to avoid a few mistakes.” She raised a finger in warning. “However, if we’re going to do this, you need to be clear that you do exactly as I say without hesitation or question, are we clear?”

“Yes, Titania-Shifu.”

Ladybug was smiling all over her face. “I’ll leave you two kids to it.”

As she swung away on the end of her Yo-yo, she heard Titania’s booming voice. “Rena Rouge once told me that the best way to learn is to teach. Me? I thought that was a bit condescending but this is the way we’re both going to find out, or so it seems. Now, tonight, we’re looking for street muggers…”

~*~*~

After swinging through the night for a while, Ladybug found a rooftop grotesque on the corner of a public building where she could perch and look for more troublemakers tonight. Socqueline and Mattieau had similar equipment, she realised. It felt like the same materials too as well as common engineering ideas. So, there might even be a common supplier. So, someone is supplying vigilantes and criminals alike with advanced equipment and the feeling is ‘no questions asked’ is a part of it. The question is who and why? She frowned. It’s too early to approach Socqueline about this; she’s realised that Marinette hasn’t betrayed her and that Ladybug isn’t a credulous fool but it’s too early in our healed relationship to ask for that level of trust from her ever again. The team will have to keep on the look-out for unexpected new heroes with third party technology that comes from a bespoke source rather than TsurugiTomoe’s money-no-object technology.

Ladybug frowned slightly as she remembered the pink flashes of light every time Soqueline used her outsized guillotine blade weapon. Or is it just technology? Could it even have an element of magic in it to make it so sharp and so powerful? Is there someone in Paris, one of the French equivalent of Miss Rose’s magical community, that is selling magically-enhanced tools, armour and weapons to the highest bidder? If so, it’s a threat to everyone in the city and they must be stopped!

The young woman stretched. “It honestly feels like the mysteries and responsibilities never end!” she sighed tiredly. The Ladybug Miraculous tingled in a way that told her Tikki agreed.

Chapter 10: Caline's Baby

Chapter Text

“My, you’re the most beautiful thing in my world!” Ivan murmured. “I love you so much and I want to show it! If you’ll let me?”

Mylène felt like swooning as her boyfriend’s lips grew closer and closer to hers. “Oh Ivan! Of course I want that!”

With a warm, desire-filled smile, Ivan leaned close in, opened his mouth and yelled into her face: “Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!“

Snapped out of her oh-so-pleasant dream, Mylène fell out of her bed in shock. As she lay on her bedroom floor with Okkido looking down at her in a thoughtful manner, all she could hear over the ringing in her head was her baby sister, Geniveve, laughing cutely at her sister’s sudden awakening. “Okkido…” Mylène groaned, rubbing her sore head.

“Come now, Mylène, there’s no time to be a slugabed!” the Kwami of Vigour said primly. “You have much to do today and there’s no better time to start than now!”

The rainbow-dreadlocked girl shot her kwami a dirty look; “You have no idea how lucky you are that I was able to convince my parents that your ‘gentle wake-up call’ is my new alarm tone for my phone.”

The Rooster Kwami grinned unrepentantly. “It’s thinking of that calibre that makes you worthy of being my Holder, Mylène!”

Mylène looked over at her giggling baby sister. “How much of this are you going to remember, Jenny? At this rate, you’re gonna grow up with some weird half-formed memories of your infancy!”

~*~*~

It was an enjoyable breakfast with Mylène's recently enlarged family. She'd found that her mother was an excellent vegan cook. Mylène was getting used to her and to her behaviour patterns. She was an educator so, of course, she was hyper into Mylène keeping up with her homework, no matter how much she intended to dedicate her adult life to non-academic and non-professional endeavours in the social activism field.

One thing that Mylène wasn't getting used to was the way that Caline and Fred were so deliriously and overtly in love: The shy glances, the hand-holding. Ugh! It was like being around Marinette and Adrien in the cafeteria!

"So, did you remember?" Fred asked. Mylène blinked at him in confusion. "That we need you to baby-sit Jenny tonight?" Her father shot her stepmother a heart-melting look. "We're going out to a dinner date tonight."

"But…!" Mylène protested. "There's a meeting of the Girl's Club tonight! We've had it arranged since the end of school last term!"

"Lovey…!" Fred began.

"Daaad! You've got Mama Caline 24/7 now! You don't need 'dates'!"

Fred frowned. "Mylène, when you're married to Ivan…" Mylène nearly swallowed her tongue in shock. The man grinned in embarrassment and tried again. "When you're a married woman, you'll realise that you need to have special times together to recharge and renew your bonds and that is what is happening tonight." Mylène opened her mouth but her father spoke over her. "You can hang out with Marinette's gang another night but tonight, your mother, sister and I need you to do this for us."

"Daddy?" Mylène asked. "Do I have to be here? What if Jenny were to come with me to Marinette's house?"

Fred opened his mouth and closed it again, thinking carefully. "Would your friends want to have a needy baby round them? I mean… Sleepovers are loud and fun, right?"

Caline made a snorting noise of laughter. "Fred, you don't know those girls as well as I do. The risk wouldn't be Jenny getting in the way; it would be her being smothered by the attention from all her newfound aunts!" Mylène blushed. One of the problems with having Caline Hapréle as her mother was that she knew her from outside the family paradigm and could act appropriately. "So, who is going to be there, lovey?"

Mylène stuttered. "Er… Me, of course; also Marinette, Alya, Alix, Chloe, Juleka, Rose, Melodiè and Chloe's girlfriend, Kagami. The Younger Siblings won't."

"No Zoe?"

"No, mama, she's studying in London still."

Caline nodded. "Also, Sabine Cheng and Gina Dupain will be there.

Fred nodded. “Okay, Mylène, we’re trusting you here. The slightest problem and you come home, is that clear?”

~*~*~

Jenny was a very sociable baby and she was nearly delirious with joy at meeting Sabine Cheng, who fussed over her that made Mylène wonder if the woman had been a candidate for the Rooster Miraculous too.

She made the familiar journey up to the top level of the Dupain-Chengs’ residence and gently pushed open the entrance hatch. “Mylène! You’re here!” Alya called.

There was instant silence and Mylène found herself looking into the eyes of her friends; all of them were in their sleepwear, ranging from a pink nightie on Rose, a Majestia-themed tee-shirt on Alya and lace lingerie on Chloe that looked like it was worth more than Mylène’s entire wardrobe.

“Oh… my… God!” Alix said. “She’s bought Baby Jenny!” There were several excited squeals, the loudest coming from Rose. Mylène found herself practically lifted off of her feet and carried into the room as the other girls swarmed around her, lifting Jenny from her sling.

The short rainbow-dreadlocked girl blinked in surprise and took stock. Jenny was lying in Rose’s lap, giggling happily and playing with Juleka and Alix’s waggling fingers. Sabrina was holding the bag of supplies Mylène had brought with her and was listening as Chloe delivered a long, detailed list of childcare requirements that she expected to be sourced and in place immediately. Marinette was standing to one side, her hands resting on her hips and a pleased expression on her face.

Suddenly, there was a swirl of colour and a dozen tiny figures - kwami, surely - appeared from nowhere and surrounded Rose and Jenny. “Guys!” Marinette yelled in annoyance. “Secrecy, remember?”

“We’re sorry, Marinette,” said a little scarlet kwami with black polka-dots. “It’s been so long since most of us had a baby in our presence! How could we resist?”

“Such innocence and such a pure aura!” said a lavender-coloured one with a swirl on its forehead and what looked like butterfly wings.

“There, there little one!” another kwami, an indigo one with a tail like a scorpion’s stinger was saying. “You are perfectly safe with us! Anyone foolish enough to harm you will know only disaster!” Jenny laughed and reached out to grab one of them, a purple one with tiger stripes. She hugged it close like it were a plushie.

It took a while, because every one of the girls wanted a ‘turn’ but Mylène was able to ‘rescue’ her sister eventually after she began to get fussy and Chloe panicked that she was about to start crying. The baby was back in her sister’s arms, suckling on her bottle whilst Chloe and her girlfriend both watched her with an expression of utter devotion. “You think she’s cute?” Mylène said. “Well, that’s because you haven’t smelled what it’s like when it comes out of the other end!”

“Experienced babysitter here,” Marinette said, raising a hand. “I know and it isn’t something to take lightly.” The noirette chuckled. “To use the English idiom, it isn’t something to ‘sniff’ at!” Alix groaned, holding her head in her hands.

Alya fell over from laughing so hard. “Oh, Mari, you don’t know how right you are!”

Melodié was frowning and picking at her lips. “Another thing I lost to my bio-dad’s… issues. I never got to be raised with a sibling.”

Chloe blinked, shooting the other blonde an odd look. “Mel, Adrikins is your twin; you wouldn’t have had to change his diapers or him yours.” The teen dancer blushed.

Rose spoke up. “It comes with the territory of being a mother,” she announced. “Anyone here who doesn’t want to experience it?”

Alix’s hand was half-raised before she sighed and lowered it again. “No, sorry guys. I’m gonna give Luka babies if I can.” Not being fully-human may be an insurmountable obstacle, she added silently.

Juleka went an interesting shade of green. “Alix, please, that’s my brother you’re discussing procreating with.”

Rose leaned up to her girlfriend and whispered something in her ear. “Y… You do? You mean that?”

Alix grinned at Marinette. “Of course, Mari here has already met her middle child, thanks to some time-travel shenanigans.”

“Alix, does the phrase ‘no spoilers’ really mean anything to you?” Marinette asked dryly.

The girls moved their conversation back from such emotionally-charged topics. Mylène was nodding along with a quiet rock melody that Juleka was picking out on her acoustic guitar and Rose had produced a small electronic keyboard to accompany her. “So, have you decided where you’re going next year?” Mylène asked. The upcoming autumn semester was purely prep for their baccalaureate exams and then it would be off into either trade school, university or work. Mylène had already approached several charities and environmental campaign groups for a volunteer position.

Juleka blushed and stopped playing. “I’ve been accepted into the Conservatoire Rachmaninoff,” she revealed. “I’m sure that it’s only because my father is Jagged Stone.”

Rose frowned. “No, Jule, it’s because you’re a brilliant composer and your twin brother is already one of their star students.”

Alya strode over, her voice proud but, who could blame her, given the news she had to relay? “I’ve got an entry to the Sciences Po Journalism! They loved the work I’ve done on the Ladyblog!” Mylène nodded. One’s teenage fan-blog becoming the world’s #1 resource for information on a superhero team was certainly an achievement that no professional school could or would ignore. Alya looked over at Chloe. “Hey, Chloe? I heard that Zoe has gone to London on a summer photography course. Do you think that she is working on earning an entry to the Sciences Po too? I mean, if your dad insisted, they’d let her in for sure!”

Chloe shrugged. “Zoe wants to do things 'legitimate’, Alya. She’d not want to get entry to a lycée by anything but by merit.”

“Chloe and I have been accepted into the Lycée Professionnel Commercial Pierre Lescot,” Marinete said. We’re both enrolled into the business administration course and I’m doing a double major in visual arts.”

Alix grimaced. “Man… My athletic scholarship in Lescot sounds so ordinary now!” She wasn’t going to mention that she was already studying for a far more important course on her grandmother’s homeworld that would see her awarded with a far rarer qualification: Time-Lady.

“Marais Dance School, here,” Melodié said, raising her hand. “I’m going to try to qualify for the Paris State Ballet!”

Chloe raised a blonde eyebrow. “You do ballet?” she remarked acidly. “That’s too pedestrian and conventional for you, Mel; you’re a rock and experimental interpretive dancer!” The blonde looked at Adrien’s twin thoughtfully. “You’re doing this for your maman?”

Melodié shrugged. “She loves ballet; she studied in the Royal School of Ballet in London and…” she shrugged. “It’s no great imposition, it’s a beautiful art-formand it opens doors.”

At that point, an alarm began to ring, startling Jenny into crying.

Mylène recognised it immediately; it was the ‘akuma alert’ tone on their cellphones, now renamed the ‘Supervillain Alert’ in these post-Hawkmoth days. Without thinking too much about it, she used her free hand to drag out her phone and access the MiracuChat app. Only a few moments later did she release what a horrible breach of secrecy this was. She opened her mouth to give an excuse to her friends then gaped in surprise and shock when she realised that everyone else was doing the same thing. Oh, yeah, they’re all heroes too; I forgot about the Jenny-induced reveal.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: Henpeck_temp (Temphero14.ladyblog.fr)
STATUS: Code RED - Attack Underway

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Babe, sorry to interrupt your girl-time but there is a problem!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Remember that crazy who used to work for Tsurugi who went berserk in a battle suit at a tech show a while back?

@DragonGrrrl: Yes; mother denied responsibility and knowledge of his actions but I am sceptical.

@NotARenaissanceArtist: Well, he’s back!

@Cool4Catz: He’s hit a bank on the North Bank of the Seine and is locked in with hostages

@MaxSteel: Warframe is back? I’m on my way!

@BugBoss: No, Mettle, stand by.

@BugBoss: He’s likely trying to draw you out.

@FoxyBabe: That’s right; he’s got a grudge against you and he wants the secrets of your transformation, remember?

@BugBoss: So, what’s the situation, Ma Chavalier?

@Cool4Catz: As you have guessed, M’lady, he’s demanding Mettle’s presence, or he starts killing the hostages.

@SnekCharmer: I’m here with Chat and Cap to protect the crowds and police.

@SnekCharmer: I’ve already had to rest three times because he’s executed a hostage.

@Cool4Catz: He’d be easy to appease with an illusion and take down with Queenie’s sting

@BugBoss: *Groans* It had to happen on my night off. We’re on the way, Chaton.

Marinette buried her face in her hands. “Girls… I’m sorry but duty calls.”

Chloe made a dismissive gesture. “Crazy losers will be crazy losers, Mari, it isn’t your fault.”

The noirette nodded. “Alya, grab the Horse from the Miracle Ball. Everyone, I’m heading over with Queen Bee and Red Rider, everyone else stay here and enjoy the party…”

“Fuck that, girl,” Juleka said dryly. “We’re coming too!” Rose squeezed her girlfriend’s arm in approval.

“Yeah, mess with one of the Girl Squad and you mess with us all!” Alix replied stoutly, earning firm nods from Kagami and Melodie.

Marinette grimaced and rubbed her face in frustration. “Okay but be careful; that exosuit was designed to kill tanks so keep moving and don’t be an obvious target!”

Marinette stood up and blinked in surprise when Kagami put a hand on her shoulder. “A thousand pardons, Marinette but… there is something that I must do.” She stepped back, touched the strange pearl choker around her throat and looked around the room and struck a dancer’s pose: “Minna? Henshin yo!”

All the girls started laughing before they shouted out their transformation phrases and were consumed by the light of their MIraculous’ magic.

Ladybug stepped over to Henpeck. “Henpeck, I can’t let you come with us; stay here and watch Jenny; she’s your main responsibility right now.”

Henpeck frowned and nearly stamped her foot only for her annoyance to fade when she saw her baby sister grab her little finger. “Okay, Ladybug; whatever you say.”

Mylène transformed and watched as Red Rider summoned an orange-edged portal, through which she could see Chat Noir, Carapace and Vipereon waiting and into which Ladybug, Queen Bee, Tigrette, Piggiwig, Bunnyx, Scorpia and Ryuuko entered. She looked down at a burbling Jenny who seemed to have sensed something was up and was restless. “Sometimes, being a responsible big sister is a big problem,” she told her, earning a giggle.

~*~*~

Watching the fight on the TV news on Marinette’s PC was…. difficult. Seeing her friends throw themselves into danger time and again was never easy but this happening when she had the ability to support them but responsibilities that demanded that she didn’t was a special kind of torment. Jenny was watching her pacing sister with wide, frightened eyes.

Mylène watched, wide-eyed in horror as Tigrette was blown through a wall by an anti-personnel rocket and the TV showed as Warframe strode in to finish the job with his exosuit’s horribly-clawed feet but Queen Bee was there to yank the black-haired Tiger Heroine out of the way of his stamp.

“Team Miraculous’s powers seem to be of limited use,” Nadja Chamack gasped. “Not even Queen Bee’s Venom seems to stop this mechanical monster!” There was a pause. “Wait… I think… Has Ladybug left the battlefield? Where is she going?”

Mylène could never believe that Marinette would run away from a fight out of fear. No, she had a very good idea where the noirette was going and this was confirmed when the rooftop hatch swung open and Mylène looked up to see her team leader staring down at her. “Mylène, we need you!”

Mylène looked at her wide-eyed baby sister. “But… but you said…”

“I’ve been overruled,” Ladybug said in a strained, nervous tone. “Come on.”

Mylène nodded. “Okay… Okkido, Rise and shine!” As the bronze light faded, Henpeck watched as Ladybug put Jenny in a Ladybird-patterned baby carrier pack. The carrier was padded in a very strange way that made the young Rooster Heroine think of the armour she’d seen the special tactics section of the police used. “Is that your Lucky Charm?”

Ladybug’s smile communicated severe embarrassment. “As well as a tool to defeat our foes, Tikki also uses Lucky Charms as a way of telling me when I need the help of another hero.”

As the two superheroines leapt from rooftop to rooftop, Mylene was aware of Jenny squirming in her magical carrier with excitement, sensing her sister’s abnormal motions and the rush of wind with each leap. It was not until they were half-way to the battle zone that it occurred to Ladybug that they could have left Baby Jenny with Sabine and Gina and would feel very, very stupid. It was not until later still that she realised that there was another reason, less obvious, for bringing Jenny with them.

~*~*~

It being summer, it was still light out but the evening shadows were beginning to draw in. The police had set up halogen floodlights to help keep the area of ongoing supervillain attack well-illuminated. In the bright blue-white light, Warframe’s silvery metal form was brilliantly illuminated, seeding off dazzling reflections as he marched around the small square outside the bank he’d attacked.

They landed on a rooftop overlooking the bank. Below, they could see Warframe trying to beat his way through Carapace’s Shell-Ter shield dome whilst Ryuuko shot arrow after arrow into his back: Ice, wind and thunder, one after the other, each detonating in a star of elemental energy that wasn’t greatly impeding the combat exoframe.

“Chaton?” Ladybug called out in a fearful tone of voice. She’d faced this behemoth one-on-one and the outcome had been closer than she cared to contemplate. The Cat Hero landed on the roof in between Henpeck and Ladybug. “It’s bad, M’lady. Red, Tigrette and Bunnyx are down; Queenie and Scorpia have used their primary powers without effect. Queenie several times at that and she got herself knocked down after the last time!”

“Okay, I can help with that!” Henpeck responded. She unslung the Rooster Bugle from its place hanging from her belt, pressed it to her lips and blew the familiar Reveille tune. “Clarion!” she declared before the ball of bronze-orange magical light shot up into the air, splitting into a half-dozen smaller balls that each followed their own trajectory towards their own target, hitting all the fallen or exhausted heroes, making their bodies briefly flare with their power’s colours.

“We have to stop that thing!” Ladybug snapped. At that moment, with a cry of rage, Warframe activated his jump jets and launched himself towards the rooftop where she and Henpeck were waiting.

Henpeck had never really appreciated just how huge Warframe was as she looked up into the dinosaurid headpiece. “Ladybug, I have been patient and indulged you and your childish team-mates for too long!” the suit’s pilot snarled over its PA speakers. “From now on, they will die, one-by-one until you tell me where I may find Max Kante and the exosuit known as Mettle!” With a smooth hiss of hydraulics, a secondary arm that ended with a plasma cutting torch. The torch ignited in a painful blue-white point of light and the arm swung towards Henpeck, who raised her Bugle to intercept the attack, fully ready to fight to the death to protect her sister from harm but the torch flame instead struck the spinning pink petals of the Bugshield, sparks flying as the impenetrable Creation Magic shield deflected the incandescent ionised air in all directions.

Warframde shifted to reposition and attack again but, this time, a sword arced forwards to intercept the attack. I did wonder what that thing she’d had sheathed over her back since she came back from Japan was meant to be, Henpeck thought, feeling a bit dizzy at seeing Ladybug posed like a mediaeval knight like St Jeanne herself.

Ladybug twirled the sword of Scarlet Fate around her wrist and repositioned herself, not really concerned with the fast-fading red spot where the cutting torch hit the magical blade. “Now, bâtarde, we’ll see if you can fight as one of the warriors of ancient chivalry could or whether you really are nothing but gimmicks and gadgets.”

“Indeed, you foolishly romantic child, let us do so.” All four of Warframe’s arms moved forwards, various cutting implements extending or activating.

Henpeck had no idea how Ladybug was keeping up with the monstrous armour’s movements but she was and it was incredible.

“You know, Rusty, the thing is that M’lady never fights alone!” Chat Noir hissed. His staff, now tipped with a cracking spearhead of green-black elemental destruction shoved into Warframe’s latest attack and, despite the seemingly-indestructible armour of the suit, the blade stabbed through the wrist joint of the plasma torch, which separated and fell away with a shower of sparks.

Warframe looked at the sparking wrist-joint and Henpeck thought that, if she could see the face behind the visor, it would have a dumbfounded expression. “... Impossible! Those joints are designed to withstand any kind of attack!”

“Nothing protects against Destruction, Metaloser,” Chat Noir taunted as he spun his staff around and drove it into the rooftop. “Calameowty!” The rooftop began to fracture and collapse, sending Warframe staggering, his suit’s automatic systems struggling to regain its balance on the unstable surface. Seemingly on instinct, the three Miraculous Heroes jumped into the air, drove their feet into the centre of the exo-suit’s chest plate and knocked him flying off of the roof to land on the walkway below, bits of the collapsing roof and wall falling onto it.

The heroes watched as the shockingly-undamaged exosuit staggered back to its feet on the shattered street several metres below, shaking off the rubble as if it were nothing more than annoying raindrops. “Melody!” Vipereon had leapt onto the roof and ran over to join Ladybug. “Melody, the suit can absorb huge amounts of damage and can even reset its motive systems if they’re frozen by a Venom,; we can’t just slowly pound him down without… without people being killed but we have to attack the underlying technology and the man inside!!”

Ladybug frowned and Henpeck was sure that her leader could see something that she could not as she was looking urgently around her team; she heard a crackle as a part of her mask became like a wireless earpiece and Ladybug addressed them through it. “Okay, here’s the plan: Chaton, you’re with me! Tigrette, rendezvous with us. Ryuuko, get set up for a Lightning Dragon. Red Rider and Piggiwig, you have got to distract him!”

“Got that boss!” yelled the orange-and-white heroine using the unified Fox and Horse Miraculouses yelled out as Ladybug and Chat Noir both leapt into the air to land behind the lumbering war machine. Red Rider lifted her flute to her lips and began to play a tune, creating a spark of orange light at its tip. “Mirage!” The orange illusion magic burst around Warframe and he looked around himself frantically as he was suddenly surrounded by twenty versions of Mettle.

“So, you’ve finally come, cowardly little boy!” he yelled, charging at the nearest one only to find himself staggering through a puff of orange smoke. “An illusion? Switching to enhanced thermal optics!”

Piggiwig was standing before him, glaring at him with all the determination that Henpeck always associated with her, in and out of costume. “You need to see the truth, monstre,” she declared, swinging her tambourine around her in a circular motion. “Revelation!” A mirror-like surface appeared in the centre of the Pig Heroine’s motion with her Tool and something appeared on the mirror’s surface like a TV program on a screen. Henpeck couldn't see the details but Warframe could.

“No…No! My… My colleagues! My peers! They think so little of me! How did it come to this?!?”

“Single Strike!” Her fist crackling with purple fire, Tigrette punched the distracted Warframe in the back, the magical blow visibly deforming the super-hardened titanium hyperalloy structure and opening a small gap where several armour plates plates were joined.

“Catscratch!”

“Ladyblade!”

Ladybug and Chat Noir drove their blade-tipped staff and sword into the small gap and began to strain, trying to lever the armour pieces apart.

Henpeck realised that this was something she could help with… Indeed, this is probably why the Ladybug Kwami of Creation had told Ladybug that she needed to be here. She raised her Bugle to her lips again and blew a different tune: The cavalry charge. “Charge!” She swung the Bugle, launching the ball of bronze-coloured magic flying in the direction of the battle. The orange-bronze light shone around the Cat and Ladybug heroes adding might to their efforts and the armour plates bent back with a groan of protest.

“What… NO!” Two of Warframe’s arms swung back and began to fire laser beams, forcing the two Miraculous heroes to backwards-somersault out of the way.

“Lightning Dragon!” Ryuuko yelled from where she was standing by Queen Bee. The red-and-gold-clad Dragon hero transmogrified into a sparkling woman seemingly made of pure electricity that took several looping long strides forwards and dived into the gap in the suit’s rear armour.

Warframe’s speakers uttered a shriek that made Henpecks’ ears feel that they were about to start bleeding, making her instinctively draw the wings attached to the underside of her arms over the Miraculous baby carrier to protect Jenny from the noise. However, the Rooster Heroine realised that it wasn’t a cry of pain from the pilot but the sound of overloading electronics. The exo-suit tottered in place for a moment before, with a groan like a tree falling to a lumberjack’s chainsaw, it tumbled forwards onto its face with a crash of hollow metal hitting rock.

Ryuuko’s lightning form arced out of the gap in the armour and reformed into the dragon heroine, who dropped to one knee, obviously having used most of her strength.

Warframe rocked a little for a moment before’ with a loud ‘pop’, its helm spat off with a shower of sparks from the explosive bolts. A thin, balding black-haired man with a ragged-looking bearded struggled out of his metallic cocoon and dragged himself to his feet. He looked around himself in panic and his hand darted into his partly-unzipped jumpsuit. A hidden weapon?

“Oh no you don’t, troublemaker!” Queen Bee snapped. At that point a shadow rose up behind the man, lengthening and solidifying into a blonde girl wearing a royal-blue super-suit with a golden scorpion embroidered around her body and right arm. A dagger popped out of a spring-loaded sheath on her right wrist and she jabbed it into the man’s back just as Queen Bee’s Trompo jabbed into his chest. “Venom!”

“Quick Strike!”

The man froze and his eyes rolled up into his head, falling unconscious and frozen in place onto his back. “Nice double-team, Queenie!” Scorpia said, offering her fist to Queen Bee.

“Likewise, Sting!” The two women’s fists torched. “Pound it!”

Henpeck leapt down to the battered road and landed next to the exhausted Ryuuko. On instinct, she put her arm around the other woman’s shoulder and she wasn’t as surprised as she could be as the Dragon Heroine straightened and was able to stand up unaided. “Arigrato, Henpeck,” she whispered.

All around the heroes, cheers began to be heard as the police stormed the bank building and began to lead out the hostages.

“Well, Ladybug and Team Miraculous, you seem to have saved a lot of lives today,” Sergeant Raincomprix announced as his team took Francois Forgeron into custody. “This scofflaw has an escape charge on top of all the other crimes he’s committed and that Madame Tsurugi wants him charged with. Now, where’s…?” Miss Hound staggered out of the bank, carrying Warframe’s heavy weapons that she’d used her Fetch power to take away early in the fight. “Ahl yes, Mlle Hound; yes, we’ll take charge of those. They’re stolen property, you see” The redheaded heroine looked panicked for a moment. “Stolen from Madam Tomoe Tsurugi,” he explained kindly. “She has asked that the City return them to her once found, you see.”

Ladybug sighed. I’m not happy with her getting any more weapons to use against Michi and the others in Tokyo but it isn’t as if I could publicly tell the world that she’s one of the Dark Order… That would require far too many explanations.

Raincomprix frowned as Henpeck opened her backpack (surely a Lucky Charm based on its colours) and took out a baby, who was waving her arms and burbling in excitement. The little girl reached out her hands to the heroes who were suddenly around her in a protective cluster in an infant’s plea for a hug. “A baby?”

“Henpeck’s ward,” Ladybug interjected smoothly. “The reason for her late arrival. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to arrange child-care but my Lucky Charm is essentially indestructible so….”

Scorpia had a strange smile on her face as Jenny buried her face into her breast, playing with her long, blue-streakedblonde braid. “H… Hey, little chickie,” she murmured, feeing a strange warmth rising in her heart.

“Henpeck is a foster mom?” one gendarme muttered to herself. “She must be older than she looks!”

“Maybe they all are,” one of the paramedics muttered, “Their magical disguise makes it impossible to tell how old they really are!”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow. Is that what this was about, Tikki? Did you want to fool people into thinking that we must be full adults?

Ladybug threw the baby carrier into the air. “Miiirrraculous Ladybuuug!” There was a pink-white flash of light and magical ladybird beetles swept out in all directions, repairing all the damage done in an instant.

~*~*~

It was finally night and, illuminated by the streetlights, Caline Haprelè let Fred assist her to disembark from the taxicab outside of Tom and Sabine’s Patisserie and Boulangerie. She was happy that, with all the excitement (a supervillain attack), her date with her husband had gone without incident. “Wait for a few minutes, friend,” Fred told the driver. “We’ll be right back out.”

Caline was still confused by the revelation that at least one of Team Miraculous were looking after a baby. It was a risky life but she supposed that they were just doing their best as much as any woman could in these dangerous times. “Hello, Caline!” Sabine said with a big smile. “The girls are all upstairs. I haven’t heard anything for a while, so I imagine that they’ve all settled in for the night.”

Caline raised an eyebrow in a silent query. “Not even a murmur from little Jenny. I imagine that she’s been spoiled rotten all night; even Chloe was fussing over her when I last checked.”

Caline smiled. I always knew that Chloe was destined to be a great mother one day, as different from that monster Regine as day is from night, she thought as she ascended the stairs and ladder to Marinette’s room.

What she found there made her heart burst with love and pride. These were her former pupils after all; she’d tried to be a mother of sorts for Chloe and for all of them as they needed it. She’d always felt a particular bond of love and pride for these children… no, they weren’t children any more… No, she was even more proud and joyful for the exemplary young women that they’d become. As a teacher, she could not ask for more. As a woman who was now a mother, she understood that this was the best that she could have hoped for as an outcome to her responsibility towards them.

The girls were all asleep, clearly tired out by their party, in an arrangement like the petals of a flower around Mylène, who had Jenny snoozing on her breast, Chloe and Marinette’s arms both touching the baby from where they lay. Jenny blinked her eyes open and looked up at Caline. “Ma… ma…?” she said, uncertainty forming the sounds with what was nearly the first effort she’d ever made to speak, making Caline want to cry with joy and pride.

“That’s right, my precious,” she said, picking up her child and blinking the tears out of her eyes. “Mama!”

The baby pointed at Marinette with a big grin. “M… la-ee!” she burbled before yawning and settling her head against her mother’s breast, falling asleep in an instant with the effortless ease that only an infant could achieve.

Fred joined her and looked around in disbelief. “Look at them!” He murmured, grinning at the sleeping young women in the room. “I doubt that anything interesting happened to them tonight, don’t you?”

Caline laughed. “No, no excitement in these lives!”

Chapter 11: Streets of London

Chapter Text

Lord St John Graham de Vanily stood in a neutral posture in his sanctum, looking at a large LCD monitor displaying the latest updates from his legion of agents, pawns and underlings. Of late, there were far fewer successes recorded on this status display than he was happy with. The latest update was a whole gang of his enforcers being picked up by the police after being beaten to a pulp by Paladin’s blasted human rhinoceros of an ally with the aid of one peculiar newcomer to his city. “The girl… is increasingly a problem,” he said to no-one in particular.

He was most displeased when a cunning, high-pitched voice replied. “She is the Renren, milord. She has the power of the Prodigious behind her to maintain the Balance. Did you not understand that her presence would empower all of your enemies?”

St John glared at the Renling of Fire and Chaos where he hovered next to his left shoulder. “I warned you before, Renling, that I am not interested in your mockery or thoughts.”

Rattus shrugged helplessly. “I am trying to advise you wisely, Milord. He,” here, Ratttus gestured dismissively at Regulss, the Leo Kwami who looked a bit sick and seemed to want to be anywhere else. “Well, this one is too in awe of you and your bloodline to do so with a clear mind. Certainly he will not say anything that he does not believe that you want to hear!”

“Regulss is a loyal servant,” St John hissed angrily. “You, on the other hand…?” He stormed towards the door and flung it open to find Felix sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the corridor; it was clear that his kin had selected this imperfect heir to be his errand boy today. “Felix!”

“Sir…?”

“Fetch the monk! I have a mission for him! The time has come for him to earn his keep!”

~*~*~

Chong-Li gritted his teeth where he knelt at his ‘employer’s feet with the psychotic enforcer and the sadist witch standing to either side of him. Patience, he counselled himself. This is a means to an end; it will all be worth it once you have the Prodigious. “I believe that I have the tool that you need, my Lord,” he said aloud.

“Speak.”

“There is a spell… a very restricted and entirely-forbidden spell… that can disable a kwami and lock down a Miraculous. I believe that I can modify it to neutralise the girl’s Prodigious and take her out of play.”

“You ‘believe’...?” Graham de Vanilly’s voice was honeyed and dangerous.

Chong-Li hurried to be more positive and clear. “I will achieve this sooner rather than later. I just need to be close enough to her to keep attempting it until I succeed.”

Leonidas frowned. “Janus, Enchantress, I entrust this… asset to you. see that he gets the opportunity he required and make sure that he takes it.”

“And if he fails?” Enchantress’s look out of the corner of her eyes made Chong-Li swallow nervously.

“I will not fail!”

Leonisdas smirked at Enchantress and made sure that Chong-Li could see oit. “My dear child, you are not a fool and you know my methods. You know exactly what to do if he fails.” All three supervillains chuckled evilly and the renegade Guardian Adept found himself wondering yet again if he’d chosen the wrong path and the wrong allies of convenience. He’d never anticipated being so completely at the mercy of these bloodthirsty savages in such a prolonged and alarming way!

Janus looked over at his grandfather. “My lord, when?”

Seated on his throne-like chair, Leonidas stroked his beard meditatively. “The bullion robbery,” he said at last. “We know that that fool Kellogg was intimidated into talking. He’s paid the price for his cowardice but we also therefore know where Forever Justice will have to be be next Sunday.”

Enchantress smirked. “Very astute, my Lord.”

After being dismissed, Enchantress nudged the guardian’s shoulder. “Now, I want you to see Janus and me as your backup, not there to coerce you to higher performance,” she said.

Janus put a possessive arm around his lover and partner’s shoulder. “As my beautiful partner-in-crime puts it, we are there to help you, Chong-Li. We’ll be on hand to make sure that you don’t fail and that, if worse comes to worse you aren’t captured.”

Chong-Li was no-one’s fool. He knew that this was a very clear threat to his personal safety and he was already proving very effective at concentrating his mind at getting his modified spell right on the first attempt.

~*~*~

Tempestia was… getting used to London. She realised that in her few weeks in the city, she was already learning to sense its rhythms and needs, to know where trouble most likely was going to be and where she needed to be to prevent it.

She smiled at the little girl with beautiful Mediterranean features as she handed over the kitten she’d ‘saved’ from its perch high up in a tree with a combination of Lupus and Falco’s powers. “Ești o doamnă bună! Mulțumesc!” [You are a good lady! Thank you!] the girl blurted out in her native Roma earning a ruffle of her hair.

“Now, you stay with your lady, okay Isis?” The kitten, who should have been terrified from the means of its rescue, merely mewed in response, seeming to know just what means had been used and settled into her mistress’s arms.

The girl’s mother had come out and gave Tempestia a brief hug. “Iti multumesc din nou! E prea puțină bunătate pe lumea asta!” {Thank you again! There is too little kindness in this world!]

Zoe smiled again before focussing her mind inward on the sense of aspiration to help others that had been her first goal when becoming a hero. Her body was consumed in blue-white flame and a gigantic peregrine falcon shot out of its heart into the air.

Falcon!Tempestia soared up over the rooftops, the endemic pigeons that infested the city scattering in all directions in terror at the sight of a large version of their most fearsome natural predator. Looking down, she could see the traffic flowing through the city streets; the ebb and flow of the lifeblood of a city of nearly nine million people.

I understand Paladin, she decided. I understand why he does what he does. This city could be so much if it were not ruled by crime and if that disease is to be cured, it is necessary to remove the poisoned rot of the infection. I came for a stolen magical gem but, in the process, found where I think I need to be.

There was a familiar tingle at the edge of her consciousness, a summons that Tempestia had grown to understand since taking on her costumed persona. Landing on the roof of an office building in the central ‘square mile’, Tempestia returned to her human guise and pulled out her cell (when transformed, its case had the same colours as her costume).

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@Bender4Real)

@CitySparrow: Ah, Tempestia, good; I hoped that you’d be online for this!

@TrueQueen: Hey, Prodigious-gal!

@BugBoss: So, what’s up, Ma’xave’keso?

@HotMetal: As you know, since #KingCash was picked up last year, #Style_Queen has been struggling to find a new supplier for stolen objects d’art.

@CitySparrow: Which almost certainly would turn out to be a Miraculous of some kind

@BugBoss: Which would certainly fit in with her MO as one of the Dark Order.

@CitySparrow: Well, in the past few weeks, whoever it is seems to have turned up trumps.

@CitySparrow SHARED StormBear.jpg

@Bender4Real: Whoa! Who is that with #BlackGold?

@HotMetal: That is the question that we wanted to answer;

@HotMetal: Our resident guardian has identified her as the user of the Bear Miraculous of the Summer Storm

@CitySparrow: She appears to be Regine’s new ‘muscle’ for those times when #BlackGold feels a job is ‘beneath’ her.

@TrueQueen: I have no idea why #Style_Queen ever hired that preening narcissist in the first place.

@Bender4Real: I’m guessing that those are the sort of behaviours she values and admires?

@DragonGrrrl: Probably sadism, specifically.

@CitySparrow: Anyway, the important point is that #StormBear isn’t the only one; she recently acquired a new Miraculous

@BugBoss: She did what?

@HotMetal: The Puma Miraculous of Grace, specifically

@CitySparrow: Fortunately, we have a contact at Style Queen’s New York offices and we’re ready to take action if she’s going to give it to anyone.

@CitySparrow: However, it’s the implication I don’t like.

@DragonGrrrl: Audrey-baka is forming an army of dark Miraculous users, just as #Kaze_Gozen did.

@BugBoss: Yes, not a positive thought

@BugBoss: This must be stopped before she gets a powerful Miraculous in the hands of a criminal and they cause catastrophic damage without anyone to stop them or undo it afterwards.

@BugBoss: Queenie, head over the Pond to New York to back up Ma’xave’keso and Uncanny Valley as soon as possible. #Style_Queen needs to be stopped.

@TrueQueen: I’m in, Hot’n’Red. Tempestia, are you in?

@Bender4Real: I wish I could, Queen Bee, but my mission here in London isn’t complete yet.

Zoe started pacing. It was ridiculous that she should think of the woman who bore her as ‘her’ responsibility in any way. Yet, she couldn’t break the real feeling that what Audrey was doing was because she and Chloe were not villains in nature. Additionally, the pictures of Storm Bear in action showed that she could control lightning, much like how she could through Lynx. She might be the best and only serious counter-piece to the new Miraculous villain.

However, she was startled by the main cause for her hesitation. It wasn’t her incomplete mission but… How could I explain to David that I had to leave? What reason could I give him that wouldn’t be yet another betrayal in a life full of too many of them? What would Paladin do without me?

~*~*~

It was midnight when the two heroes met as arranged.

It was a mistake to say that Paladin trusted Tempestia. He didn’t trust so easily or across a broad range of acquaintances; the unquantifiable nature of her magic often made his skin crawl with intellectual distress at its nature. However, he was getting used to her presence to the point where the others of Forever Justice had noticed and were beginning to get as irritatingly prone to teasing him about it as Night Hawk. Abrakadabra was the worst of course but that was just her nature. The one he was really worried about was Ranger. He had been aware that she was attracted to him since before he recruited her but he was worried about how she was reacting to Tempestia’s apparent inclusion in the team.

He’d warned Joyce that it could only be professional relationship between them and she’d thrown herself into making Ranger the best ally that she could be. However, he’d never shaken the concern that she was just biding her time and he wondered if she could control her own jealousy at seeing the beautiful elemental witch in his immediate presence.

“Hello Paladin,” Tempestia was on the roof, having transformed as she dropped from the air after flying over in her near-silent owl form.

“Tempestia,” he responded neutrally, stepping towards her. He blew out a breath making an odd noise through his mask’s voice distorter. “Before we begin today’s mission, we need to discuss something.” The blonde with the distinctive blue and grey streaks in her fringe gave him an odd look. “I want you to understand that there cannot be anything beyond a professional alliance between us.”

Tempestia blushed and Paladin decided that he’d been on the right track. “Oh… Paladin, I… Look, I am already in a relationship in my civilian form and I’m happy in it.” Actually, maybe he wasn’t as good at reading people’s reactions as he thought. That was good because he could say the same (but wouldn't).

The two vigilantes paused for a long, awkward moment before Tempestia spoke in a bright, cheery tone that didn’t fool Paladin in the slightest. “Well! We’re both here! Shall we go and interrupt the bank job that Leonidas seems to want to pull off?”

Paladin frowned. “Yes, my informants were able to identify where this ‘job’ is to take place. It seems that the bullion is destined for a merchant bank under the control of one of Leonidas’s legitimate concerns. However, there are certain legal… niceties… that must be observed and duty fees paid when this happens legitimately.”

Tempestia rolled her eyes. “What better way to avoid these and maybe even get an insurance pay out, than if some magical ruffians were to steal the whole shipment?”

“Precisely.”

Tempestia rolled her eyes in disappointment. “It’s a multi-million pay-off but it still feels… cheap.”

~*~*~

Paladin and Tempestia landed on the roof of an old dock building overlooking the commercial seaport of Tilbury. A large crane was lifting what was obviously a very heavy reinforced container off the deck of a bulk freighter. There was nothing distinctive about it except the Twin Rings Financial logo on the container and the ludicrous number of armed guards around. “So…” Tempestia asked herself. “How are they going to do this?”

“Duality of Cold!” a masculine voice barked out and, almost at once, a freezing fog settled over the area, reducing visibility to less than arms reach. Without any hesitation, Paladin triggered his thermal imaging lenses in his mask. “Duality of Heat!” A bright red-yellow beam of heat shot from an upraised spearhead-like weapon, connected with the load chain holding up the container and severed it, allowing the crate to drop to the dockside with a tremendous crash.

“Janus!” Tempestia realised, recognising the magical command phrases. “The Gemini Villain! He’s one of the Lion’s Pride and…”

“I am familiar with the boy,” Paladin growled, passing a pair of night vision goggles to the French superheroine. “We wait until we see the next step.”

The next step came when, without any warning, several of the guards at one side of the quayside began to advance on their colleagues and knocking them down without hesitation. Through the thermal imaging goggles, Tempestia saw a feminine figure amongst them, swaggering through the mass of other bodies with an arrogant sway to her motions. She knew who that was, she’d encountered her before, of course. “Enchantress!” she hissed. “That witch! She’s the only one who could manipulate minds so easily! Paladin, be careful not to make eye-contact with her mirror! It…”

“I have my own means of protecting myself from optical mind control methods,” he growled in response. “I will deal with the mind-controlled guards and their mistress. You try to find Janus and interrupt the extraction of the loot.”

“Duality of Ascent!” Tempestia heard Janus order and knew that the Gemini Villain was wafting the weightless container (normally a load of several tons) across the quayside to wherever his getaway transport was. Rather than attempt to do this the mundane way, Tempestia called on Lynx and transformed to her fast-moving feline guise, dashing across the quayside and crackling with thunder.

Following the Lynx’s excellent vision and sense of smell, Tempestia was at the container in less than a minute and, switching back to her human guise, called on Mellis to lock the container to the quayside with shackles of shaped stone formed out of the concrete of the quay.

Janus knew immediately something was wrong. “What the… How…? The girl! The girl is here! Monk, this is your duty, not mine!” Tempestia didn’t know what that meant but, as the fog cleared, she saw something that made her heart ache.

“Chong-Li, so you have chosen your side,” she said mournfully.

The Guardian Adept looked annoyed and superior. “Indeed, it is the right side of history and I’m sure my brothers and sisters will understand this.”

“Understand? Understand what? That you chose to ally yourself with a thief? With the one who usurped the Leo Miraculous into a tool of evil?”

Chong-Li sneered. “Graham de Vanily is a means to an end and I will set him aside, reclaim his Miraculous and leave him in the dirt in due time, girl. However, only after he has assisted me in taking back from you what is mine by right!”

Tempestia frowned. “If you want the Prodigious of Virtue so badly that you would spit on your most sacred oaths, Chong-Li, then I suggest that you come and take it!”

Chong-LI’s sudden grin was the first warning. “Oh, Apprentice Bourgeois, you have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that!” The (presumably now-renegade) Guardian took a ready pose from his order’s version of kung-fu and Tempestia did the same om the Wu form.

Careful, girl, she warned herself. Mircu-fu is specifically designed to let Guardians stop renegade Holders. He’s got moves that the Produgious will be of no help against! As she expected, Chong-Li opened the matter with his magic, dropping a spell-scroll from the bell-cuffs of his robes into his hand and throwing it at her. Calling on Falco, Tempestia caught the paper in a tight vortex of air and shredded it in an instant.

Chong-Li nodded soberly and stepped forwards, making a series of obscure moves with his forefingers before stepping forwards and jabbing with the fingers of his left hand at the metal armband that was the prodigious! A wave of weakness shot over the girl and she fell onto her backside and surrounded with blue-white flame as she detransformed.

Zoe looked at her ungloved hands in horror as her brain slowly caught up with what she was seeing. How had that happened? She concentrated on the flow of feelings that she normally experienced when she called on her transformation and it was as if she had run head-first into a brick wall. She looked at the bejeweled bracelet that was her prodigious and realised that it looked wrong. It had gone a matte red colour covered by hatch-work of black strokes that reminded her a little of the sacred script in which Tibetoka spells were recorded but, notably, there was a black ‘X’ over the place where every one of the Prodigious jewels should be.

Chong-Li laughed sinisterly. “Don’t bother, girl! The Prodigious is now locked from use until I release it! It is useless to you now and I suggest that you surrender it if you wish to avoid unnecessary suffering!”

The bald renegade Guardian reached for the bracelet but Zoe wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Calling on her Master’s abbreviated unarmed combat training, she twisted and drove her fist into Chong-Li’s chin, sending him staggering. “You little whore!” he spat.

“You forget, Adept, that Master Wu taught me an important lesson: The Prodigious is but the weakest of my powers.”

The renegade Guardian looked at her, his amber eyes narrowed and a sudden grudging respect there. “Ah, so the Dragon has not been delinquent in her responsibilities! Well, all the better. I had hoped to have the chance to beat the arrogance and entitlement out of you before this day was done!”

The monk closed in again and it was instantly clear that the battle was hopeless. He was more experienced and clearly forgotten more than Zoe knew about mundane combat. For a few seconds, she seemed to be holding her own before his pointed fingers drove into the base of her sternum and the blonde girl dropped backwards, paralysed and unable to breathe. She heard someone scream her name. David? What was he doing here?

Chong-Li chuckled as he observed the girl for a few moments before taking Zoe’s wrist and effortlessly sliding the marred Prodigious off it; proof that the Prodigious was now inert was the absence of the Renlings defending their chosen holder. “Oh, don’t worry Bourgeois; your death was never my intention, only the recovery of my sacred burden. Your body will recover in less than a minute but, by then, I and the Prodigious will be gone, and you will never see either of us ag…” That was when the hilt pommel of Paladin’s sword struck him in the temple.

~*~*~

Paladin had been… entertaining himself with Enchantress and her thralls. After jumping from rooftop to rooftop, at least as fast as Tempestia in her Lynx form, he closed with the Fox Villainess and her surrounding mass of mind-fogged security guards. Using his sword and shield, he blocked the hail of fire from their MP5 submachineguns, knocking a few aside with the edge of his shield and slashing others hamstrings with his sword, before he finally reached the two supervillains, Enchantress visibly cowering behind Janus.

Janus sneered at the armoured vigilante. “Well, if it isn’t the cosplayer?” he remarked condescendingly. “You are every bit as arrogant as grandfather tells me if you think that you can confront the power of the Gemini with your pointy stick! Duality of Repulsion!”

Paladin had been studying the two villains, knowing that this confrontation was inevitable. The Gemini Villain’s powers were broad and formidable but they were only effective if they actually came in contact with you. Paladin dropped and rolled forwards as a ripple of magically displaced air shot through the spot where he had been standing only a few seconds before.

Coming upright, Paladin triggered the resonant edge of his long-sword and sliced at Janu’s right armpit, successfully slashing open his fighting mantle and opening a bleeding cut across his side. Janus staggered away from the blow with a high-pitched keen of pain and the Gemini Assegai fell from his nerveless fingers. Clutching his bleeding side, Janus fell to his knees and Paladin stepped up behind him, his sword touching the side of his throat. “It’s over, scum,” he hissed. “Yield and you won’t have to die for your crimes.”

“Oh, not so fast, Knight Errant,” cooed a seductive voice and Paladin looked towards Enchantress, who was showing him the face of the Virgo Mirror. “Let’s actually sit down and talk, shall we? Enrapture!“

Nothing happened and the hazel-eyed Virgo Witch began to visibly sweat. “Paladin, my darling?”

“You know,” Paladin said, “I have some interesting contacts? One of them counts Ladybug as her ally and she was able to tell me how Ladybug blocked your power at the school in Paris that day so very long ago.” Paladin tapped the glass eye-covers of his helmet. “A relatively simple modification to make but one that was well worth the inconvenience and expense.”

“Ladybug!” Enchantress screamed in genuine rage. “She spoils everything!” There was a magical bleep and Paladin noticed that all the black gems on the Virgo Brooch had all turned green, confirming that her secondary power had reset and was able to be used again. He wasn’t about to give her that chance.

At that moment, he saw a blue-white flash of flame in the corner of his eye and looked in the appropriate direction to see Tempestia falling backwards transforming into… “ZOE?!?”

Whoever the bald oriental man standing over his fallen girl was, he didn’t know but… wasn’t he the man who had been stalking her and that he had sent on his way that day in Southwark?

Forgetting the groaning Janus who a desperate-looking Enchantress was dragging back to his feet, Paladin launched himself towards Temp… towards Zoe almost flying over the ground at his fastest sprinting speed as the monk took off her bracelet and held it up into the air in triumph.

Paladin’s hilt pommel slammed into the side of the man’s head and he went staggering, dropping his prize, which Paladin caught as it fell from his grasp. “I don’t think that belongs to you, filth,” he growled. Chong-Li looked at the knight with genuine fear in his eyes as he dropped one of those strange scrolls out of his cuff and slapped it onto his chest where it flashed into yellow flame and vanished form sight On trained reflex, Paladinreversed his word and slid it across the man’s throat in a motion that should have opened it from ear to ear but, instead, the micro-frequency vibrating cutting edge seemed to contact some kind of invisible barrier and instead scraped off with an agonising high-pitched screech. A shield of some kind?

Paladin repositioned himself for another attack before he heard a cry of: “Duality of Attraction!” The monk was snatched away to land in an undignified heap at Janus’s feet.

“No…!” the Monk yelled. “You clumsy, timorous boy! I was winning! We need to get over there and take the Prodigious back from that swordsman!”

“You were about to end up minus your head you arrogant idiot!” Janus shot back. “I don’t care what magical tricks you have, Paladin is far tougher than you are capable of realising and far, far more than you can handle alone!”

Paladin picked up the moaning Zoe and slung her arm over his shoulder. He raised his grappling gun and fired it at one of the tower cranes that was unloading the cargo ships and used it to launch himself and his girlfriend into the air.

Enchantress had taken a few steps forwards but stopped when she saw Paladin winch himself away. “Where does he get all those wonderful toys?” she asked herself in amazement. She turned to the security guards who were beginning to all come around from her spell. “Wonder!“ The Virgo Mirror emitted a white flash that made the guards’ eyes film over again as the spell reasserted itself. “Well, what are you idiots waiting for? Ask him!”

~*~*~

Landing on a warehouse roof, Paladin lowered the woozy Zoe down to sit against the side of the retailing wall around the edge and dropped the strangely transformed Prodigious (for so it must be) into her hands. “I don’t know if you know how to fix it but, until you do, it would be safer for you to remain here.” The knight-themed vigilante then vaulted off the roof and dropped the twelve feet down to street level and walked towards the onrushing mind-controlled horde, drawing his sword and shield and walking towards them in an unhurried, confident manner.

Zoe slid her bracelet back onto her wrist and realised at once that it felt wrong; it felt just like a random bangle, the tingle of magic and connection just wasn’t there. “Oh, Master Fei, Master Ladybug, I’ve failed you!” she cried mournfully. What was she supposed to do now? It seems that the Council had been right to doubt her suitability!

Meanwhile, Paladin was hacking his way through his opposition and seemed to be likely to hold them back single-handed until one stepped forward with a rotary-magazine grenade launcher of all things. The shell that struck Paladin in his chest was only a tear-gas grenade, not explosive but the kinetic force threw him back into a wall.

“Okay, boys, stand down; looks like he’s down for the count,” he leading guard announced before speaking into his radio clipped to the collar of his jacket. “Mistress; we’ve taken down Paladin.”

“Good,” Enchantress replied over the walkie-talkie. “Secure him and spread out, look for the girl as she has some of the Lion’s property; we’re on our way over.”

One of the guards was tapping the fallen vigilante’s chest plate with the barrel of his semi-automatic pistol. “What the hell is this stuff?”

“Ceramic composite armour,” another guard. “He could shrug off an anti-tank round with that stuff. ‘Spirit of London’ my arse; he’s human alright!”

The lead guard stepped up to join his colleagues. “Who is this idiot anyway? Anyone found his ID?”

“Take off the helmet,” the smartest guard snapped and one of his colleagues stepped forward to do so.

The mind-controlled guards closed in. Several storeys above them, Zoe was observing through her cellphone’s night vision camera (a rare app but no expense was too great for the daughter of André Bourgeois. What could she do? She just about knew how to fight but going up against these armoured men with guns with only her fists would be suicidal! Then she had an idea. She triggered the phone camera’s flash and pressed the shutter control.

“What the…?” The bright white flash illuminated the area and the guards all looked up.

“Up there! It’s the girl! Waste her!” Zoe dropped and rolled away as a hail of 9mm and .357” magnum automatic fire tore off fist-sized chunks of the parapet.

The sudden total focus of the guards’ attention was just about the last mistake any of them made. Paladin threw himself back onto his feet and started lashing out left-and-right with his sword and the edge of his shield. Screams filled the air as bits of limb flew away from every impact. Without a touch of regret, he took his helmet from the severed hand of one of his erstwhile assailants and put it back on.

“Duality of Descent!” Janus’s voice echoed around the area as he, Enchantress and Chong-Li dropped lightly down onto the ground. The three villains looked around at the scene of carnage. “Well,” Janus’s voice was ironic. “He obviously knows how to make his point.”

“Yes, he seems the edgy sort… Cutting edge, of course.” Enchantress’s giggle genuinely disturbed Chong-Li.

Zoe was fleeing across the roof, not wanting to be around when the mind-controlled guards reached the rooftop too only for Paladin to drop out of the sky and land in front of her in a perfect three-point crouch. “They’re all down and out of the fight;” he reported. “They’re still alive but most of them will be on disability benefit for the rest of their lives. Are you going anywhere in particular?”

Zoe struggled with an impulse to slap her partner on the chest for his attempt at humour. “Oh… YOU!” Then she squeaked in surprise as he caught her around the waist and fired his grappler again.

After a brief soaring movement through the night sky, they landed in a parking lot on the other side of the warehouse area. “Get in the car!” Paladin ordered.

“What car?” That, Zoe reflected, was a stupid question. There were many cars and vans in the lot but only one midnight blue super-car with an indigo sword and shield logo on the bonnet, upwards-swinging doors automatically opening when Paladin gestured at it. “Okay, you’re going to have to tell me where you got this thing!”

“Believe it or not, my dad got it for my birthday! It was originally a Ford Focus-E”

The doors closed automatically and, as soon as Paladin was sitting firmly in the driver’s seat, the engine caught, obviously some kind of multi-stage electric motor. “An idea I had;” the vigilante said. “A superconducting motor running off liquid-state charge stacks; Nighthawk perfected it and Monkeywrench made it happen. It has the performance of a formula-1 race car and there are literally zero emissions. Hang on!” With a banshee-like screech the… Knightmobile…? Paladin’s car backed out of its space, did a handbrake turn and accelerated away. Some of Enchantress’s thralls had got to the car park and opened fire on the fleeing car, bullets skipping off its body-shell barely leaving scratches. “Oh, and I replaced the body-shell with armoured synthetic panelling of my family’s own formulation. I’ve not encountered a weapon powerful enough to penetrate it yet.”

The guards jumped out of the way as the Knightmobile shot through the middle of their group, smashed through the lot’s entry barrier and darted off into the darkened night-time streets of Tilbury. Several cars turned onto the street behind it and gave chase, guards leaning out of the windows and trying to shoot out its tyres.

With an annoyed grunt, Paladin triggered a control on the centre console and a slick of ultra-low-traction chemical sprayed onto the road, making several of the pursuers spin out of control and smash into the walls of shops and houses. Another control fired an electric spark into the synthetic super-lubricant and turned the road into a sheet of fire that quickly spread to the remaining cars’ tyres, immobilising them in seconds and forcing their occupants to flee for fear the fire would spread to the engine blocks or petrol tanks.

“Look out!” Zoe screeched as an armoured van lurched out of a side-street and blocked their path. The van’s sliding side doors opened and several gunmen opened fire, their attacks no more effective as that of their colleagues back in the lot.

“Hang on…” There was a mechanical noise as a panel on the bonnet popped open, revealing a long, tuning fork-shaped gun that had electrical discharges arcing between the two prongs. A series of blinding discharges sent electric-blue trails of ionised air flashing towards the fan, which shuddered as it s body panels were cut neatly through at its mid-length. Without slowing down, the Knightmobile smashed through the now-bisected vehicle, knocking it apart with its inhabitants jumping out as its two halves tumbled off in opposite directions.

The guards (all loyal employees of Twin Ring Security Concepts shook their heads as the mind control spell started wearing off and they listened to the döpplering wail of police and fire sirens as the emergency services converged on the battle site.

~*~*~

‘Welcome to Epping Forest, part of the Lea Valley Regional Park – Please Drive Safely’ read the sign, over a red-bordered white disc with the number ’30’ clearly displayed as the Knightmobile shot past at several times that speed.

Inside the two-seater electrical supercar, Zoe was toying with the ruined Prodigious around her wrist but looked up as the illuminated sign flashed past. “Where are we going?” she asked.

Paladin looked at her out of the corner of his eye but didn’t reply in words. Instead, he pushed the accelerator pedal down further and, before the acceleration threw Zoe back into her seat, she saw the speedo on the customised race-car dashboard jump upwards. 90… 100… 120… 150...! Behind her, she heard the roar as the car’s turbofan-like air intake began to feed hot air from the motors into it’s jet-pipe like exhaust and the simple flow of heated air turned it into a rocket engine of sorts. The forest outside the car turned into a blur of motion as the car, somehow almost nailed to the road, launched itself onwards at approaching 200 miles an hour!

Zoe turned away from the blurred tree-scape. She’d seen something through her camera’s viewfinder but she didn’t know how to raise the issue right now. She looked at Paladin and, thanks to the convenient positioning of the moon and the light shining in the window, she could see the profile of his face through the tinted glass eye slits.

Paladin noticed her attention and, with a movement of his pinkie finger, turned on a powerful LED light over his helmet that shone into his passenger’s eyes, making her jerk back with a cry of surprise.

Looking forward again, Zoe saw a road sign flash by, an orange octagon with a white bar across the centre. “Paladin…”

“Hold on…”

The solid wall of rock marked with flashing red lights loomed out of the night right in front of Zoe who screamed in terror and… they were gone. She looked over her shoulder to see what looked like a vertical garage door sliding closed behind them. She rested her aching head in her hands. Daddy warned me that this would happen if he kept dating bad boys, she thought in a horrified kind of wonder.

Then the car lurched to a stop under white floodlights. The doors were swinging upwards and Paladin leapt out. “Watch out,” he instructed. Zoe, disoriented, almost didn’t and nearly fell down the pit around the turntable as it swung the car around to be quickly driven away again. Zoe staggered over to the metal steps that Paladin was ascending. “We need to find out what happened to your Prodigious,” Paladin said. “You will be in danger from that monk and the Lion’s hirelings if you cannot defend yourself.”

Zoe shook her head. “I… think that I’ll have to contact Ladybug as she is my point of contact with the Order of Celestial Guardians.” Paladin had thrown aside his cape, shield and sword and sat in an office chair, pulling up the Ladyblog’s entry on the Prodigious of Virtue on the huge monitor screen in the centre of the room. He looked towards Zoe. “I’m sure that he used Guardian magic to lock the Prodigious’s powers away and it is most likely that the other Guardians would know how to break the spell.”

“I hate magic,” Paladin muttered. He picked up a jeweller’s instrument of some kind, grabbed Zoe by the wrist and began to scan the magical weapon carefully, clearly trying to work out if the black-hashed red was a coating or some kind of cover to the normally-gold bejewelled bracelet.

“Are we going to talk about it?” Zoe asked. Paladin cocked his helmet curiously. “My secret identity? I’m Zoe but I’m also Tempestia; there’s no point trying to hide that now.”

Paladin made a noise that was probably not intended to be a laugh. “I am in a very bad position to preach about the lack of trust implicit in not revealing secret identities to your team-mates. Fortunately, apart from me only the monk saw you destransform and the disdain he seemed to show the rest of Greham de Vanily’s creatures strongly suggests that he will not tell any tales; no, if I understand him, these secrets are his to keep and use when they are most useful to him.”

“Hopefully anyway,” Zoe remarked. “David… I saw your face when those guards took off your helmet,” she ventured uncertainly.

There was a long pause; Paladin had frozen for a long moment before he sighed and removed his helmet then peeled off his domino mask underneath. “Okay then, Zoe, I understand where this is going. The question is: what are you going to do about this?”

“I… I don’t know,” Zoe said. “David you… You could have killed some of those men tonight; they were mind controlled and worked for Graham de Vanily so calling them ‘innocent’ would been an overstatement and they would have killed you, I know but even so…!” she shook her head. “I’m trying so very hard to understand here.”

David sighed. “Zoe, most days, I’m still struggling to understand this… mission… myself.” He stood up and paced around her, looking back towards the display screen from over her shoulder. “This is simply something that I must do.”

Zoe nodded. “Some of the guys in the journalism class say that you’re as dangerous and as much of a threat to the people of London as Leonidas.”

David froze. “Who?” he asked at last.

Zoe smiled weakly. “Well, let’s face it, dressing up as a knight in shining armour, talking about London in the first person and using borderline lethal force on gangsters…? It’s not exactly ‘normal’, is it?”

David grunted. “Well, this is an abnormal world, isn’t it? All I can say is that this is something that I have to do; not just to avenge what happened to my family but to protect everyone here form Leonidas and his sick schemes. I…”

“I DON’T CARE!” Zoe snapped, striking the counter-top with a clenched fist, making David jump in shock. “Look, I use a magical bracelet to transform into a superhero and, when I do so, I’m continually fighting against the animal spirits’ impulses and instincts to maintain control of my own mind. None of us in the hero community can really claim to being ‘normal’, not even Ladybug with the way she and Chat Noir behave with each other on the rooftops, according to my sister.” She sighed. “All I want to know David is this: Does this change anything?”

David looked down at his armoured gauntlets. “It should,” he said. “You knowing my identity and me knowing yours leaves us both vulnerable to all sorts of emotional pressures but…” he groaned and rubbed his eyes. “These last few weeks have been the most remarkable of my life, Zoe. Having you….” He chuckled. “Well, you are a sweet girl and I like you a lot but…” he shook his head. “But I like Tempestia too and she has become a huge part of Paladin’s life.” Zoe’s mouth had opened sightly to deliver a response but she wasn’t sure what it was meant to be. “However, now I think about it, it occurs to me that everything that I love about Tempestia is somehow what makes Zoe remarkable too: Her self-sacrifice, her empathy and her determination to help the helpless.”

Zoe nodded, sitting down in the next chair over from David. “You are Paladin,” she said. “His nobility, honour and determination to see evil punished and not get what it wants. I see that in David every day to the point where, now I know, I can’t separate the two of you in my mind anymore.” The girl sat back and reached out for her boyfriend’s hand. “So…. Are we going to try to love each other?”

“I want that a lot,” David replied, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. “However, until Leonidas is no longer a threat…” his voice trailed off and both knew what that meant. With a sigh, David stood up. “Let’s set up communications links to Paris, Shanghai or Lhasa or wherever the people you are who you need to call…”

Zoe hesitated. “I… I can’t. Look, when I was sent to London after the Badger and Rat Prodigious, I was told that I had to do this alone; my teachers and friends were told not to interfere with it.”

David bit off his automatic response. “Well, I suppose I understand their motives but surely things have changed? I mean, they cannot have predicted that you would have to deal with a renegade Guardian, right?”

“Maybe?” Zoe responded in an uncertain tone. “You’ve never interacted with the Council, David. They’re the sort of people who would claim that this is a test of my worthiness from the Balance itself, the fundamental forces of the Universe and that much depends on how I respond to it.”

“Zoe…”

“Worse, I think that I understand their point of view so, yes, this is something I must do myself. Is there… Is there somewhere in this cave where I can meditate?”

David silently led Zoe over to a set of gymnastic exercise mats and sparring dummies on one side of the cave next to a set of glass tubes containing replicas of the uniforms of the members of Forever Justice. He gestured silently to the mat in the centre of the area before turning and leaving. As he did so, he mentally sent a bidding to whatever deities watched over these magical heroes for their help for Zoe, as little as he was willing to admit their possible existence aloud.

~*~*~

When back at his workstation, he opened a draw and took out a hand mirror. I hate magic he said again, putting on his helmet. As much as I want to honour Zoe’s wishes, I have to think of the others and I have to report this to a subject matter expert. He tapped the mirror to the pattern of notes in the chorus of Tchaikovsky’s The 1812 Overture. The mirror fuzzed over like someone had breathed on it and the face a pale-faced young woman with long, straight black hair appeared. “Whoever the fuck you are, it’s 2am and you can wait until office…”

“Paladin for Miss Rose,” he snapped.

There was a long pause before the woman looked over her shoulder. “Rosie, honey? One of your Mundane friends is on the mirror!”

There was a strange motion with the mirror’s image as if there were a pinhole camera being passed over an obstruction to another person, Paladin briefly getting a visual impression of a normal plaster-clad roof of a bedroom somewhere. “Thanks Delphi,” The familiar green eyes and titian hair of Agent 0005 of MI8-ODA filled the mirror’s face. “Paladin, it’s early but that’s normal for you, isn’t it?”

“Hello, Miss Rose.”

“What? No sarcastic questions?”

“I’m sure that you will tell me about your… girlfriend… if you think I need to know. As it is, there is something that you need to know instead.”

“Fiancée, actually, and what is it?”

“Tempestia and I were attacked on a mission by a magic user whilst foiling one of Leonidas’s plots. Tempestia has identified him as a renegade member of the Celestial Order of Guardians.”

There was a long, silent pause and Paladin could easily read the concern in the magical spy’s eyes. “That’s not good, Paladin. The Order is a fully independent movement that has no connection with the International Confederation of Magic but for one of them to go… renegade? We’ve been getting ‘noise’ from our partner organisations in the United States and Japan about this possibility but for one of them to actively align themselves with the Lion? Nothing good can come of this. Their magic is very different from that practiced by wanded mages like myself and we don’t have any fully-foolproof way to block or circumvent it.”

“I will pass the details I recorded of this scofflaw, ‘Chong-Li’. However, I was hoping that MI8 would be able to contact their Council on our behalf. It is arguably their problem to resolve.”

Rose sucked in a frustrated breath. “They are hard to contact and usually they contact us, Paladin. I’ll try but there are no guarantees.”

~*~*~

Her eyes closed and sitting in a Lotus meditative position, Zoe was focussing her mind inwards on the sense of a… blockage for the lack of any other word around her Prodigious.

This was ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! She couldn’t be rendered helpless like this so easily! Worse still, the gifts that that Prodigious of Virtue had offered the world as a whole could not be locked away from use so easily just because of the hurt pride of one disgruntled Adept! There had to be something she could do and whatever it was, she would do it, not for her but for the good of the Balance, she…

Falco?

Almost as soon as she felt the touch of the Falcon Renling of Wind and Aspiration, it was gone but it gave Zoe hope and it made her remember something that Master Fei had told her. “Xuetu, the Prodigious is more, far more than a mere magical power focus that can be used by anyone who knows the right summoning phrases, the way a Miraculous is. When I first took possession of the Prodigious of the Spirit, for the longest time, I was helpless beyond the crudest manifestation of its powers. To truly master it and to unlock the Dragon, I had to conquer an inner enemy – my anger, impatience and my lust for vengeance. The Renlings are manifestations, not of concepts as much as they of feelings and you must sense, internalise and feel them, not just on a facile level but in the core of your being to truly control their powers.”

Zoe frowned in her meditation. That sounded deceptively easy at the time and so it proved to be. To feel the intent of every Renling as a group was to internalise and Balance many open and unbridgeable contradictions in one’s heart and soul.

Well, no-one had promised that it would be easy.

Yet, there was so much good that she could achieve if it were not for the malice of an ambitious and envious Adept. She Aspired to this, yes but she also was Determined to see it done and his plots defeated. For the good those with whom she had Social links, she was Resolved that she would not give into despair or panic. Rather, she would Move her mental focus and her goals so that the Order of things was properly respected and protected.

As each of these virtues were felt, she also felt one of her little friends arise in her heart and she hugged the echo of them… no, not echo but their true voices… to her core mentally, refusing to let go and…

And there was only light.

~*~*~

Paladin raced over at the flash of blue-white fire on the other side of his cave and was dumbfounded and horrified to fine a blue-white pyre of flame where his girlfriend had been sitting only minutes before. As he watched helplessly, the fire seemed to gain shape and substance, a young woman and one whose slowly-resolving face he knew. This was magic and, he realised, it was beautiful.

Zoe… no, this was Tempestia again… fell to one knee, surrounded by a half-dozen little animal spirits, all trying to hug her face and singing in joy. The girl was responding by cupping them with her hands, holding them to her cheeks and weeping in relief. She looked down at her left bicep and the bracelet decorating it and reverently ran her fingers over the now-unmarred bejewelled golden band of the Prodigious of Virtue, restored to its full beauty.

Doffing his helm, David walked over uncertainly. “Zoe?”

Zoe’s smile as she drew herself upright was sunshine but David immediately noticed the change to her mask. The simple domino eye mask was gone, replaced by a full-face mask with only her chin, throat and mouth exposed, her nose guard resembling a predatory bird’s beak, the check guards looking like they ended in an animal’s fangs and upswept ends over her ears resembling either an animal’s ears or the ear-like crests of the Falcon or Owl forms. Her eyes were hidden behind white-tinted lenses that looked a bit like the low-light filters he had built into his helm.

The chest of her costume had lost its honeycomb logo. Instead, she had a belt in the blue-and-white pattern of the rest of her costume in horizontal rather than vertical alignments with a set of six hexagonal metal panels, each with the sigil of one of the Prodigious.

“David! Oh David, it worked! I just had to feel the Renlings’ nature, their power and their ruling virtues and make them part of myself! I had to become who Tempestia has to be! Oh, it’s so wonderful! I wish you could feel just how complete it makes me…” The girl threw her arms around her boyfriend… her champion’s neck and their lips met with an electric contact. With shock, David realised that this was meant to be and someone who he wanted to be in his arms every day for the rest of his life. He took her face in his hands to deepen the kiss.

“Yuck! So much drippy feelings!” the small feline spirit remarked.

“Oh suck it up, Lynx, I say it’s wonderful and I say that they will be stronger, far stronger, together than they ever would be on their own!” the lupine spirit scolded, earning a reflective nod from its partner.

“Oh, I agree, Lupus,” the owl-like spirit added. “It all comes together so perfectly, doesn’t it?”

The two young lovers were interrupted by a musical tone from what David realised was actually Zoe’s cellphone. With an annoyed frown the girl seemed to reach into a gap in between Euclidean space coordinates and drew out the object decorated in the colours of her costume.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: [emailprotected] (@Bender4Real)

@BugBoss: Oh, Thank the Balance! Zoe, when your ID dropped off the chat system and I couldn’t even leave a text message, I didn’t know what to think! Chloe was frantic!

@BugBoss: I was about to lead a team over to London to try to find you!

@Bender4Real: I won’t say ‘everything is okay’ because that would be a lie Master Ladybug

@Bender4Real: However, things are back under control again.

@Bender4Real: Or as under control as they’re likely to get any time soon.

@TrueQueen: Z… What the fuck happened?

@Bender4Real: Master, are there any Guardians with you?

@BugBoss: I have the Grandmaster here, Zoe, what’s going on?

@Bender4Real: I was attacked, Master, by a Guardian. He used magic to disable the Prodigious.

@TrueQueen: You were WHAT?!? That piece of shit did WHAT?!?

@TrueQueen: I knew that trusting those LOSERS was a mistake!

@TrueQueen: Hot’n’Red, you need to run them out of our city RIGHT NOW!

@Bender4Real: Amp down, Chloe, he wasn’t ‘official’.

@Bender4Real: Ladybug, please tell the Grandmaster that Adept Chjong-Li followed me to London without authorisation and is now working with #Leonidas.

@BugBoss: He’s WHAT?!?

@Bender4Real: He’s incredibly embittered, Master. He wanted the Prodigious for himself and is using Leonidas to provide him with the excuse and support structure to take it from me.

@Bender4Real: He cast some sort of spell on the Prodigious to shut it down; made it turn red with all these evil-looking black hash marks.

@BugBoss is typing a reply…

@ManyAnimalGirl: You are recovered though Xuetu? You do not need support or extraction?

@Bender4Real: I’m okay now, Master; I was able to break the spell by harmonising the core of my spirit with the Prodigious’s ruling virtues.

@BugBoss: The Grandmaster is raging.

@BugBoss: Apparently, this is a *very* forbidden spell that only the highest-ranking masters are allowed to use to shut down a stolen Miraculous if no other way is possible to separate the kwami from their holder. It’s very dangerous, borderline-irreversible and very traumatising for the kwami affected.

@BugBoss: The Grandmaster says that he must talk to the other Masters about this but…

@BugBoss: If you ever see Chong-Li again, the Grandmaster has ruled that you are authorised to do whatever you have to do to bring him down. You should tell him…

@BugBoss: I’m going to send you a sound file as I don’t think that the Chat supports Tibetoka script.

@BugBoss: Roughly speaking, it means: ‘Now and forever, you are cast out and are a Guardian no more.”

@BugBoss: It’s more ceremonial than practical but, you know the Guardians: That’s everything to them.

@BugBoss: Emphasise that he will only return to the Temple at the cost of his own life.

@BugBoss: Zoe, the Grandmaster wants you to know that he is ashamed that he did not realise where Chong-Li’s ambitions and disappointments were leading his spirit and says that he will always regret not yanking him back into line when there was still time to do so.

@TrueQueen: So he should be!

@TrueQueen: Zoe, please come home!

@Bender4Real: I can’t Chloe; I have responsibilities here but soon… I promise.

Zoe slid her cellphone back into its interspatial hiding place. “Well, it looks like we’ve got the official wheels turning,” she said. “One way or another, Chong-Li is now the Guardians’ problems and one that I think they will aim to solve, probably permanently.”

“Good,” David snapped. He was on his knees with tweezers and laboriously picking up all the red and black shards of the coating that breaking the Guardian’s spell and blown off of the Prodigious and was putting the shards in a glass phial. “I want to collect all of these and I will hand them over to… my contact in the magical world of Britain. She might be able to analyse this and find out both the methods used and how to block them in the future.

He looked up and smirked. “Well, you did want to join Forever Justice, didn’t you?”

Zoe blinked and looked at her belt. In the place where a buckle would be, was a badge like a knight’s shield with the logo ‘FJ’ on it. Zoe looked at the entubed replica costumes and realised that all the members of Forever Justice had that logo somewhere on their costumes. “Ah… Sorry, the costume is magical and it must have changed to reflect my feelings, I…”

David’s gauntlet’s fingers touched Zoe’s lips, making her fall silent. “If magic has placed you with me… then who am I to question this?”

~*~*~

Kneeling at the feet of St John Graham de Vanily, Chong-Li felt cold and it was nothing to do with fear of the super-criminal’s likely response to bad news. No, something had happened since the fight and it had left him weakened. He was simply pleased that Janus was in the healers’ ward with his paramour hovering at his side, clearly unhappy to have him injured and not able to protect her. He thus was able to deliver his report without… inconvenient other perspectives being given.

“You have failed me, monk.”

“But I nearly succeeded, my Lord. Only the interference of the swordsman known as ‘Paladin’ prevented me from claiming the Prodigious and it is certainly a useless bauble now. When we engage these foolish children again, I will be prepared to counter him and in a position to take my… your prize without further trouble.”

“’Nearly’ is rarely enough, monk. However, I agree that this was more of a setback than a failure. We will bring that stupid boy and his allies to battle again and, this time, there will be no mistakes and no interference.”

Chong-Li nodded in agreement and, at the gesture of dismissal from the Lion of Crime, rose to his feet. “Monk?” Chong-Li looked towards the man and felt genuine terror at the expression… or lack thereof… on the man’s face. “Chong-Li, I do not commonly give second chances. I never indulge those who fail me twice.”

Leonidas touched the Leo Miraculous. “This time, I will take a personal role in the fight to avoid further… setbacks.”

Chapter 12: For Art's Sake

Chapter Text

“Herr Dietel?” Socqueline Wang called as she let herself into the handicrafts store where she was an apprentice and, it seemed, the likely successor. Her employer and Master had to be in, why else would the intruder alarm be deactivated? “Herr Dietl are you…?”

Socqueline turned the corner and her brain briefly locked up at what she saw. Then she reacted and ran screaming onto the streets, yelling for someone to call the police and an ambulance.

~*~*~

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was sitting at the grand dining table at Agreste Mansion, eating breakfast with her boyfriend and his mother.

Now, don’t get her wrong. Marinette loved dining with Emilie. She was in every way the woman that her savage twin sister Amelie purported to be and wasn’t: Loving, caring, noble and refined. She was the woman that child!Marinette had fantasised being: the princess in blood and soul. However, there was something about the ritual formality of these occasions that left Marinette feeling stilted and a little uncomfortable.

No, it had nothing to do with the fact that she and Adrien had to control their interactions when she’d rather be in nothing but her t-shirt and shorts, lounging on his couch and playing games with him (and making out with him in between games).

No, seriously, it wasn’t.

No, Emilie was her employer and mentor now and she owed the woman too much of her gratitude and loyalty to treat her hospitality so lightly. However, having André Bourgeois at the other head of the table, talking animatedly about his comeback to the French language cinema didn’t help. It reminded Marinette a bit too clearly of how he’d enabled Chloe at her worst and had simply not cared enough to block Audrey’s worst excesses against with their daughters. No matter how much the Gemini Miraculous interfered with his thought processes, Marinette couldn’t help but wonder if the man had simply liked the colour of Gabriel’s money too much to listen to his own better nature.

All these complex ideas, reactions and attitudes made her feel immensely guilty when her phone began to ring with the overture of the musical Les Miserables, which Marinette had chosen for a rediscovered friend. “Pardon, Emilie, Monsieur Bourgeois, but I need to take this; she wouldn’t normally call me as this is a work hour for her.” She pulled out the phone and hit the ‘Accept’ touch-control. “Allo? Socqueline?” There was no real reaction from André; unsurprising because it was unlikely that he’d remember the girl whose schooling he nearly ruined because she had the temerity to block Chloe from her chosen victim. “Socqueline, slow down, I can barely understand you. What’s going on?” Marinette’s face went bloodlessly pale and it took all her self-control from years as Ladybug not to drop the phone. “He what? In his shop? You are at the hospital with him? Okay, I’m coming over. Please don’t do anything stupid!”

After terminating the call, Marinette looked up. “That was Socqueline… Her employer has been attacked in his shop and been hospitalised. She’s… really upset. He’s almost a second father figure to her and I need to go over to the hospital to help her. I’m sorry, I really am!”

Emilie made an urgent motion with her hands. “Child, please, go, this is no time to be at a formal breakfast. Do you need me to call a car for you?”

Marinette shook her head. “No, I know a shortcut to get there myself.”

~*~*~

“Mein Kinder…”

Socqueline nearly jumped out of her skin at hearing Herr Deitel’s weak, raspy voice. She leaned over the old man’s bed, grimacing a little at the number of IVs and other medical apparatus in the way. “I’m here, Herr Dietl!”

“He… He wanted ‘free’ upgrades! He… He wanted to ransack my… special work-room, but I told him nothing; he was brutal but he had nothing on the Gestapo, ja? I didn’t let him see anything… My ledger. You will find it all in my ledger!”

Socqueline stood up straighter, her face slack with shock. It had always been an unspoken understanding that Herr Deitel’s special customers left their criminal or vigilante sides at the door in exchange for the best possible service. Never before to her knowledge had there been an instance of one of the ‘Black Hat’ customers turning on him, even the ones who were known to be violent and murderous. She took a few steps back and tried to clear her head for a moment. “I… will see to it that they pay for the violation of your trust, sir,” she vowed quietly.

At that moment, a hand touched her on the shoulder. “Socqueline! What happened?”

Socqueline reached back and touched Marinette’s gentle hand. “Someone… One of our special customers… turned on Herr Deitel and beat him when he wouldn’t help them.” The girl looked angrily over her shoulder into Marinette’s compassionate blue eyes. “Yes, I know; you don’t have to gloat or tell me that ‘I told you so’.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Marinette said, her Ladybug voice fully in place. “Do you know anything?”

Socqeline squeezed Deitel’s slack hand for a moment before laying it gently onto the bed covers. “I can’t stay here, Marinette; I have to hunt down who did this and stop them.” Socqueline’s eyes turned hard. “I will make them pay for betraying us!”

“I’ll come too.” Socqueline’s look in reply to Marinette’s words was a bit wi;ld. “Look, you’re not the only one with a stake here. Herr Dietl did so much to encourage me when I was younger. I can’t let him be hurt and do nothing.”

~*~*~

Paris had been through some odd times and the people were getting used to strange personalities in even stranger dress even in broad daylight. However, Socqueline was discreet enough to know that questions would inevitably be asked if Mademoiselle Sans Culotte and Ladybug were to walk into Deitel’s Handicrafts in broad daylight.

The superheroine and the vigilante landed on the sharply-louvred roof of the shop and Sans Culotte gave Ladybug a fierce glare. “Look, I’m doing this as a favour to you because I know you have love in your heart for the old man too. Just… stay out of my way, okay? I don’t want help and I don’t want your moralistic lectures.”

Ladybug gave the other costumed woman a reassuring smile, biting down on her impulse to remind the other that she’d been making ‘moralistic lectures’ about Chloe from the moment they had met again. Socqueline neither wanted nor needed to hear that right now. “Shall we get in there?”

With a nod, Sans Culotte unlatched the rooftop fire escape hatch. The two young women walked down the long, rickety spiral staircase that, thanks to the poor cleaning of the window in the hatch, was in semi-darkness. Sans Culotte noticed that Marinette’s earrings, yo-yo and sword were making a very faint pink glow and smiled behind the faceplate of her bronze-mimicking composite Hellenic-style helmet. That’s magic for you, she told herself.

The two women emerged through a ‘staff only’ door into the shop, untouched now since the departure of the police and paramedics. “Do you have CCTV?” Ladybug asked.

Sans Culotte nodded. “Please stay here,” she replied. “I need to get some things from Herr Deitel’s personal workroom and you know that he values his privacy.” Stepping away from Ladybug, the young masked vigilante stepped past the curtain behind the counter, flipped open a grey metal panel to turn on the lights and adjusted the coat hangers to unlock the entry into the Secret Workroom.

Once at the DVDR panel just inside the room, it took seconds for Socqueline to uncover the CCTV footage of Herr Dietel’s early-morning ‘visitor’.

She was no expert in these things but she could see that Hertzel was nervous at seeing the black-haired man in a black overcoat and wearing sunglasses. He admitted the man after disarming the intruder alarm and the two entered into an animated conversation. Things went bad very quickly; Hertzel drew himself up in a dignified way and clearly was refusing to assist the man on the terms he was insisting on. When the man whipped out what, with a thrill of horror, Sans Culotte recognised as one of the alloy escrima sticks that she made under her mentor’s guidance and started beating him, she stopped the playback. It was a weakness, she supposed. However, no matter what clues might be found in the recording of the last few minutes of the encounter, she could not bear watching the sadistically-grinning man beat her kindly employer in an attempt to coerce agreement.

After resetting the CCTV, Sans Culotte walked deeper into the workroom, she found her mentor’s records including his accounts. The ledger was, in this time of online accounting, a necessary but also very characteristic eccentricity. The things recorded here could not be left in any electronic form where one of the AIs increasingly used by the world’s security forces might stumble across and hack into.However, even if that was not a concern, she was sure that Deitel would prefer a physical record in pen and ink rather than something on a computer screen.

The ledger also served as an appointment diary and the entry for that morning had just one name: Katzeunheimlich; Cat Sinister. Frowning, Sans Culotte started racing back through the ledger, looking for the last entry under that name. Hertzel was a professional and he kept meticulous records to ensure that his product was exactly as required. Here: ‘Cat Sinister’ was associated with a very unpleasant man - a house-breaker who wanted the tools and equipment to sneak into rich homes, defeat their security (and win encounters with any security personnel) and extract valuables. Sans Culotte swallowed her nausea at reading the old man’s antiseptic description of the villain’s requirements as well his personal distaste at someone who had so little appreciation of the ‘art’ of being a sneak thief and safe-cracker. Oh Hertzel, you silly, silly old artist of a man! Don’t you understand that not everyone sees this as something done for the sake of art but out of selfish greed? Naturally, they’d see you as much as a target as they would anyone else!

Putting the ledger back in its place, the young woman unlocked her cellphone (signed into the shop’s staff Wi-Fi network) and accessed the TV+ News website. The crime pages were a useful resource for a vigilante after all. She quickly found what she was looking for: A spate of burglaries going back to shortly after the date of Dietel completing his ‘commission’ for Cat Sinister of robberies and brutal assaults on homeowners in the exclusive and high-status 1st and 4th Arrondissements. Naturally, the gendarmerie had no clues - the suit Hertzel had made for his foul parasite would stop him leaving any forensically useful identifying material. There was also a name and an address. No doubt that this filthy slug was confident in the old man’s vow of confidentiality to keep that secret but Sans Culotte felt he would have taken the precaution of not leaving this vulnerability now he’d chosen to betray her mentor. No, she would have to predict his next outrage against the people of Paris and intercept him there.

At that point, she heard the unmistakable sound of a submachine gun’s cocking mechanism being cycled. Her heart frozen by panic, she spun to see a very disappointed-looking Ladybug holding the heavily-customised UMP-45 submachine gun that belonged to Spade of the Five of a Kind Gang and was in for servicing and recalibration. “Marinette, put that down! It belongs to one of our customers! Also, I told you to stay outside!”

“You were gone a long time and you left the door open,” Ladybug replied tonelessly. Sans Culotte kicked herself mentally for forgetting that elementary security precaution. “As for the gun belonging to Spade, I know; I’ve been shot at with it.” Much against her will, Sans Culotte grimaced and cringed at this reminder of just what sort of people her employer was serving. “So, did you get the information that you were looking for?” Ladybug’s voice remaind cold and impersonal.Sans Culotte couldn’t exactly blame her. The Five of a Kind gang were amongst Hertzel’s most dangerous clients and he always ensured that Socqueline was away when they came in for a consultation.

“I… We can discuss this later, Ladybug. However, yes. I have a name and I have a likely location.”

“Socqueline… The Five of a Kind gang aren’t just mischief-makers, shoplifters or cat burglars, you know. They’re vicious and professional armed robbers. They hurt people.”

Sans Culotte grimaced at the blow to her conscience; it was so much easier when you kept deliberately ignorant of what they were going to do with the fruits of your labours. “I don’t want to talk about this right now, Ladybug! Look… Have you ever encountered a housebreaker who goes by the codename Cat Sinister?” She sucked in a deep breath as Ladybug shook her head to indicate not. “Listen, I’m going hunting for him tonight and make sure that the villains of Paris know the price for betraying Herr Deitel’s trust. You can come with me if you like but I won’t let you stop me doing whatever I must do!”

Sans Culotte looked at Ladybug and could see the cogs turning in her friend’s mind: About her duty to Paris and to the law balanced with their freshly restored friendship. Given her previous failure to beat Ladybug before learning her secret identity, she very much doubted she would be able to stop the superheroine if she decided to drag her by her hair to the chief magistrate and blow the entire operation wide open. “Marinette, please…” she whispered. “That old man… this job… they’re both important to me!”

“Very well,” Ladybug said at last. “We’ll table this discussion for now; I am not in any way retained by the Prefecture of Police to sniff up leads for them.” She tossed the gun at Socqueline who dropped her phone in her haste to catch the valuable weapon midair and she then watched in disappointment as her childhood best friend carefully placed it back on its working rack. “You have no idea how disappointed I am in your choices, sister. Nor how disappointed I am with Herr Deitel for his choices and naivete.”

Mademoiselle Sans Culotte had never felt so small and wretched.

~*~*~

He had a ‘real’ name, of course, but why use it when Cat Sinister was so much truer to his real self than the words his vile parents had scribbled on his certificate of birth?

Now, the thing to remember about Cat Sinister is that he was not by instinct or reflex a thug or hooligan. He was first and foremost a thief and taking other people’s treasures for his own enrichment was his real motive. If he had to occasionally deal out a beating to convince people to let him go about his business…? Well, then so be it but he didn’t actively seek out those opportunities.

For that reason, he was currently stalking through Agreste Mansion, looking for where that English bitch kept her jewels under the cover of the stealth suit, which made him invisible to sensors of any electromagnetic frequencies. It could even refract laser tripwires around him! The problem was that, if he didn’t want to stumble around in the dark, he had to leave his eyes uncovered. He’d gone back to the old man for a pair of night vision goggles and the old fart had the unmitigated gall to demand extra pay for new equipment! Is that how he defined ‘professional service’? Well, if he ever learned to walk and use his hands again, he might think twice before looking down at customers’ requests!

Pausing in the hallway outside of Graham de Vanily’s bedroom, he pulled out a sleep gas spray. If he wanted to avoid trouble, it was advisable to ensure that people didn’t wake up at inconvenient times during a job! He wouldn’t even be here if he wasn’t aware of the fact that the woman was on the outs with her dad; no-one wanted the trouble of treading on the toes of the Lion of Crime, even now his hold over Paris was weak and was slipping even in London.

“Y’know, monsieur, I’m pretty sure that you aren’t supposed to be here.”

Cat Sinister whirled on the spot and saw one of his worst nightmares. A blond young man standing behind him and leaning on a two metre-long bo staff as he grinned insolently, his unearthly green eyes glowing in the darkness of the corridor.

“Stay out of this, cat-boy!” Cat Sionister said, raising his gas spray to a firing position, only for it to be met by the Cat Hero of Paris’s claws with green-black energy crackling around them. The aluminium gas canister corroded into shards in moments and detonated with an audible ‘pop’ of releasing gas pressure. Fortunately, amongst the extras included in his ‘super-suit’ had been a filter mask over his nose and mouth. However, some of the vapour still got into his eyes and he rubbed at them furiously in an attempt to restore his vision.

Chat Noir was coughing but had been far enough away to not be seriously affected by the soporific vapour. “Okay,” he gasped, waving his hand in front of his face. “New mental note: Identify the weapon before you Cataclysm it!”

“You interfering freak!” Cat Sinister growled. “Why don’t you mind your own business and leave me to my livelihood?”

Chat Noir laughed. “Oh, please; don’t you think that I’d want to leave a sneak thief to rampage through my best friend’s house unchallenged?”

Cat Sinister glared at his foe. “How did you find me anyway?” Had the old man failed him somehow?

Chat Noir laughed easily. “Cat eyes,” he said pointing to his mask. “Cat ears,” he added, pointing to the decorations in his hair. “I can see and hear in the dark a lot better than you can, oh Monsieur failed sneak!”

Right. Merde. Cat Sinister had forgotten about the animal sensory mimic powers that a lot of these Miraculous freaks had. Well, don’t say that he didn’t know when he’d been beaten! “Okay then, chum; I’ll be off!” He paused. “One day you will be able to tell your children that you witnessed the daring escape of Cat Sinister!”

“Going so soon?” Chat Noir snarked as he lashed out with the Cat Staff at the man’s legs, sending him tumbling onto his butt. “I wouldn’t want to miss being able to tell M’lady’s children that I was there the night Cat Sinister tried to escape!” The superhero shook his head in disappointment. “You know, you’re a real discredit to all of us who use the name ‘Cat’. I mean… You don’t even have a cat theme to your costume!”

The thief lay on his back, considering the Miraculous tool whose tip was touching his throat and smiled bloodlessly. “Oh, don’t count me out yet, friend! I have a few extra tricks to pull and, like a cat, I am always fiercest in a corner!”

Chat Noir saw the man’s hand moving and saw another item in his hand - A concussion grenade! Without hesitation, he backward somersaulted away from Cat Sinister before there was a loud ‘Clank’ and a bright flash of white light. The moment he was no longer at staff-tip, Cat Sinister jumped to his feet and ran for the window, ducking a wild sweep of Chat Noir’s staff as he did so. Pulling out one of his escrima sticks, he shattered a window, making the intruder alarm start to scream and amber lights flash all over the hallway. “Okay, time to call this a busted job!” Cat Sinister muttered to himself, clumsily throwing himself out of the window onto the tiled portico roof.

Behind him, a black shape with glowing green tracers all over his bodysuit leapt out onto the roof behind him. “Going so soon, oh False Cat?” Chat Noir taunted. “Why, we were only just getting started!”

Unable to run and not having enough time to find a way down from the portico, Cat Sinister span, drawing a second escrima stick and turned to face his pursuer. His instincts smoothly switched from ‘flight’ to ‘fight’ and he charged the blond superhero.

Chat Noir grinned, breaking the Cat Staff into two shorter bludgeons and letting his power flow into both, creating blades of destruction energy on the end of the longer half. He took a classic main-and-gauche fencing starting pose. With a smooth series of practised motions, he went into a smooth ballet of thrusts, parries and ripostes, quickly driving Cat Sinister back several paces. The other man had trained himself since childhood in the martial art of escrima so that the rich bullies at school and his father wouldn’t be able to beat him so easily but he was having a hard time adapting to Chat’s fencing style. He decided to start playing dirty and began kicking at Chat’s knees and ankles, trying to knock him down.

With a hiss of annoyance, Chat Noir boosted the power of his Catsabre blade and Cat Sinister’s escrima sticks started to corrode and crumble everywhere they made contact with the glowing end of Cat Hero’s weapon.

His eyes wide with sudden fear, Cat Sinister disengaged, using a tuck-and-roll to open a gap between him and his opponent; he looked at his crumbling weapons, his mouth hanging open in shock. “Fuck! That isn’t supposed to be possible!”

“Does the word ‘Miraculous’ ring any bells, False Cat?” Chat Noir mocked loudly. He lunged forwards, intending to carve open his costume with the destruction blades, something that would quickly immobilise his foe.

At that moment, one of Chat Noir’s ears twitched slightly as he heard something dropping towards him and he reflexively backward-somersaulted away as a woman in bronze-like Hellenic-style armour, painted in the French tricolour, dropped out of the sky. “No! He’s mine!” the woman yelled.

Silently, Ladybug dropped to the roof a few paces away, dispelling her wings. Chat Noir sidled over to her. “Friend of yours, M’lady?”

Ladybug blew out a worried breath. “I thought so, yes but we may have to stop her from hurting this thug.”

Cat Sinister heard that. “Hey! I’ll have you know that I am not a ‘thug’! I am a thief and a good one! I’m a professional, you know! Over a year in his game and I’ve never been caught yet.”

“I know.” Madamoiselle Sans Culotte’s voice could have been used to freeze nitrogen solid. “I know because my mentor is the one who made the tools you use for your ‘profession’!” Chat Noir was about to intervene when Ladybug seized his hand and squeezed it in warning. She shook her head slightly in warning. Sans Culotte continued to speak. “How did you thank him for this? By trying to steal from him by wanting more without paying and then beating him half to death!”

Cat Sinister sneered. “Oh, spare me,” he spat. “He knew the kind of guy I was when he took my money. He sounded like an idiot or a madman, going on and on about the ‘art’ of cat burglary and how I didn’t understand that more and better tools wouldn’t help if I wouldn’t learn that!” Cat Sinister shook his head. “I didn’t want to ‘learn an art’, I wanted to steal and I wanted it to be easy! He’s not an ‘artist’, he’s a gun and armour smith and nothing more! That’s why I paid him several thousand Euros for this get-up, which. by the way, was useless against the Furry over there! Do I get a refund? Erk!”

Cat Sinister’s rant was cut off when Mademoiselle Sans Culotte levelled her guillotine blade against his throat. “I’m afraid that using our equipment against Deitel Handicrafts staff or premises voids the warranty, sir.”

Cat Sinister took a step back to avoid a throat-cutting slash of the blade. “You are a thug who exploited an artist.” *Slash* “A kindly old man who only wants to help kindred spirits!” Cat Sinister tried to block the next blow but his corroded escrima sticks shattered with a flash of pink light from the impact like they were made of glass. “He knew that you had an evil heart.” *Slash* “So he refused to give you more tools.” *Slash* “Because he knew that you were hurting people!”

Tiring of attempting to decapitate the retreating Cat Sinister, Sans Culotte lashed out with its chain, tangling it around his legs and sending him tumbling back onto the rooftop with a cry of surprise. “Now, for your crimes against the people of Paris and a kind old man, you will pay!” The guillotine blade swung around again but, instead of hitting Cat Sinister, it hit the blade of a longsword, with pommel ends on the hilt decorated with Ladybug colours. There was a screech of metal on metal and the guillotine blade, with a pink light along its edge, scraped along its length before biting deep into the roof tiles.

Ladybug glared down at Cat Sinister. “Stay down and stay quiet,” she spat in warning. She switched her fierce bluebell gaze to Sans Culotte. “It sounds to me that you have a lot of responsibility for this man’s crimes yourself,” she snapped. “Most of what he did was only possible because you were making tools for anyone who would pay. However, that didn’t matter to you, did it? Not until one of them turned on your employer.”

Sans Culotte was totally wrongfooted. “Ma… Ladybug. Look, Hertzel is an artist and he loves art, you know that! That’s why he helped you so much; why you loved him so much!”

Ladybug shook her head. “I loved who I thought Herzel Deitel was, Sans Culotte. I didn’t know that he was so… careless about to whom he sold his wares.” Ladybug sighed. “You know now, thought, don’t you? That he was wrong about who these people were and how safe it was to do what he did?”

There was a long pause before Sans Culutte took two steps back and leapt from the portico to the perimeter wall and from there onto a streetlamp.

“Well, thank god for…” Cat Sinister started before Ladybug’s foot crashed down onto his forehead.

“Shut up, filth,” she said quietly before turning to Chat Noir. “Ma chevallier, I have to get after her. Hand this thief over to the police; if her research was right, he has at least a year of serious and violent crimes behind him.” She looked over to smile at a flabbergasted Emilie and Gerard, who were looking through the broken window. “Everything is under control, my friends. She pulled her Yo-yo off her belt and cast it upwards. The galaxy of magical ladybird beetles dispersed and something dropped into her hand - a duplicate of Marinette’s purse, but in the colours of Ladybug. “Message received, Tikki.” She threw the purse into the air. “MIraculous Ladybuuug!”

A tidal wave of ladybird beetles poured over the rooftop, fixing the window (making Emilie jump back with a yelp of surprise) and restoring the damage to Cat Sinister’s costume. He grinned as he considered his restored escrima sticks and was about to get up when La Paon grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet, holding the Peacock Fan to his throat. “Do yourself a favour, criminal and just give up.”

“Er…” He looked and saw Ladybug swing away on the end of her Yo-yo cord. He also took in Chat Noir’s soulless green gaze and let his weapons fall to the tiles rooftop. “Um… Yeah, actually I think that you’ve got a point.”

~*~*~

“Those were the lies you told yourself, weren’t they, Socqueline?”

Mademoiselle Sans Culotte sighed, looking down. “Do you so desperately have to give your ‘I told you so’ lecture that you had to hunt me down, Marinette?” She looked at her white-gloved hands and felt the most intense pain in her heart. “Chloe Bourgeois is now the hero and I have allowed myself to become the villain.” She groaned broken-heartedly, covering her eyes. “Have you ever been given meaning, Marinette? To be in such a low state that you have doubted if your life was worth anything but, instead, found a vocation that fits you so perfectly that you realised that it was your first, best destiny? Have you ever met someone who took you at your lowest ebb and made your life mean something?

With a blast of pink light, Ladybug became Marinette again with a black-spotted red spirit of one kind hovering beside her head. The noirette walked up to her friend fearlessly, gesturing to the Ladybug earrings. “Yes.” she said. “The start of my junior year. It was when I found these and I met my first Master.” She crouched down next to Sans Culotte. “It was the beginning of a long, hard path that has led me through pain, fear, self-doubt, failure, self-discovery, revelation of my destiny and becoming a very different person from who I imagined that I would be as a child.” She touched her friend’s chin and turned her helmeted head so they were looking into each other’s eyes. “Tell me,” she encouraged gently.

Sans Culotte drew in a deep breath. “It was just a Saturday job to help me pay for the school fees at my new college. I was just minding the counter but Hertzel noticed my origami skills. He offered to help me make something of that. He taught me so much: fabrics at first, then metals, ceramic and mechanical tools and sow electronics into clothing. Along the way, he started calling me mein kinder and, mein lehrling, my apprentice and… no one had ever shown that amount of trust in me; certainly not teachers!” She realised that she was smiling stupidly and blushed in embarrassment. “Hawkmoth came and I saw you and your team in action! I wanted to be a part of that so desperately, although when Bourgeois was given her second chance, the feelings of hero worship soured a bit. Do you know that my first super-suit was a duplicate of your original one? Practicing parkour and acrobatics in that suit is what taught me most of my moves! I started working on the costume of Mademoiselle Sans Culotte towards the end of Agreste’s rampage so I could help stop him.” She shook her head again. “Hertzel encouraged me every step of the way. He said that my ideas showed promise and said that there would always be buyers who would need the work of an artist of my calibre…” She sighed. “He was just using me, wasn't he?”

Marinette squeezed her friend’s shoulder. “No, I don’t think that he ever lied to you, either overtly or by omission. He’s always been an idealistic dreamer since the first time I met him, always focussed on the value of art. I think that he just didn’t understand what a criminal ‘artist’ might do or understand his own culpability for their actions.” Marinette made a ‘hum’ noise, hugging Tikki against the side of her neck. “Not ignorant and not self-deluding either, just not thinking things through.” Marinette grinned and nudged her friend in the side just under her breastplate. “He was right though; you do good work, maybe better than his. Comparing the Street Demon gear that you made for Marthieu with Cat Sinister gear that he made, you have a lot more ideas about modern tools and other advanced concepts.” She smiled broadly. “Then there is the Condorman-II suit.”

Soqueline blushed underneath her heavily made-up face. “I… was just trying to deliver a commission as my customer had ordered it.”

Marinette’s gaze went sober, sombre and serious. “You understand though that things have to change.”

Soqueline nodded, hugging her knees against her chest. “Yes. Yes, I understand. Hertzel must be punished and I suppose… I suppose that I will also have to go to prison.” The girl said that in the hollow tone of someone knowing that she’s discussing the effective end of her life, even if she was able to survive prison.

On her forearm, Marinete’s Guardian Tattoo burned and she was sure she could hear the First Grandmaster’s voice “Do you? Is that the only way you can think of to repay the Balance for your actions?” she shook her head. “No, I don’t think that would be a useful way to deal with your talents at all.”

“Marinette, what are you plotting?” Tikki asked in her usual sweet voice.

“Justice and Balance,” Marinette told her kwami. “That is what a Guardian is supposed to be all about, after all, isn’t it?”

~*~*~

Hertzel Deitel sat in his wheelchair in the surgical ward of the hospital and observed the two superheroes thoughtfully. No, three superheroes, his apprentice was standing nearby but there was a very petite redheaded girl in a blue-and-aqua suit that included rabbit ears and a parasol slung over her back. Bunnyx as she was known. She was holding Fraulein Wang’s arm in a way that was loose without also being firm in a strange way.

“So, Fraulein Ladybug and Herr Chat Noir, my secrets are uncovered?”

Ladybug… or was it her? She was wearing a gauzy scarlet with black polka-dots Roman-style stola over her normal black and red costume and a blindfold made of the same filmy material was in place of her usual mask with her eyes shining behind them. He’d heard of but never seen this form before; the Ladyblogger called her ‘Lady Justice’.

Lady Justice nodded, “They are, Herr Deitel. As we investigated the attack on your shop on behalf of some friends, it became very clear that you have… another business other than selling art and crafts materials. I admit to being quite impressed about how you kept this entirely secret for so long when you had such a varied clientele.”

“It is my fault, sir,” Socqueline said miserably. “I got Ladybug involved and she just was too curious! She found out everything after visiting the shop!”

“In truth, I had suspected something of the sort for several weeks after I saw several known costumed adventurers and troublemakers going in and out of your shop, including people who had no interest whatsoever in the visual arts.” The superheroine sat in the old man’s visitor’s chair and he shivered a little under the intensity of her supernatural gaze. “Tell me your story, please sir.”

For some reason, Deitel felt no hesitation to do so. “It was… Hmm… Yes, it was in the late 1940s. I had relocated to Paris after the War; little remained of my homeland at that time and I had no desire to either labour under the Communist yoke or dodge the remains of National Socialism in the Western Powers’ controlled sectors of the country.” He thought for a moment. “I began much as my… public persona would appear; a merchant of goods required for the visual arts including various types of clothing. It was when I encountered a hero of the Resistance who needed the equipment he had used before and during the war and, I suspect, was planning to use again to hunt down collaborators. The man was of the noblest and most courageous sort but it was the art of it, Lady Justice! He was not a mere muscle-bound warrior but a detective and a master of the urban jungle. Jaques Robie was his name; a French-Canadian and a thief. ‘The Cat’ they’d called him back in the 1930s. However, he’d set aside his criminal past in favour of becoming a champion for what was right. He’d just helped the breaking of an insurance fraud that had been using his name in vain and he realised that he had so much more he could do with his skills.

“Ah, it was such a pleasure to give him the tools he needed to track down his quarry and beat the security protecting them!” The man shifted in his seat, feeling his slowly-knitting bones protest in response. “It was like a flash of light for me. My years in the Wehrmacht had taught me how to access the black market here in Paris. It was child’s play to send out feelers into the underworld of this city, informing them that an armourer and costumer was for hire. I soon had many commissions, not just those of the criminal class but private investigators and masked adventurers too. Yes, I was a weapon-smith but the real pleasure for me was to create a whole costumed persona with the tools they needed to easily get about the city. Grappling guns, retractable lassos, impact-absorbing boots to protect them from falls and climbing gloves and boots! It wasn’t just the act of creation but to see these items in action and knowing the full art that these remarkable individuals were bringing to their lifestyle.”

“But there were criminals too,” Chat Noir interrupted. “Did you feel any hesitation about that?”

Deitel shook his head. “What do I care about the law of the mundane?” he challenged in response and then waved his hand to silence any rebuttal. “Yes, I know but that was what was foremost in my mind at that time. I am an artist and so were they. What they did with my creations, for good or ill, was their choice and ach, it was the amazement the world in general felt at their exploits that was the real reward.” The old man smiled self-deprecatingly. “Of course, I am not amoral. I would not assist those whose way was destructive, like assassins or terrorists, even though my moral red lines often put my life at risk.”

Lady Justice nodded. “Of course, it turns out that ‘no harm’ is an easier rule to set for yourself than it is to enforce.”

The old man nodded grimly. “Ja, I know. There were deaths due to some of my clients. Even those who purported to work on the side of justice occasionally took lives and I had to confront the fact that, for the first time since leaving the II Army Corps at the end of the war, once again, my skills as an artisan were being used to cause harm.”

Chat Noir shifted uncomfortably. “Yet you carried on doing it.” The tone of accusation was clear.

The man shook his head. “I did, yes. I cannot deny that the sight of my art being used and being used so well was riches of a unique kind and I was loathe to give it up.”

Deitel nodded to himself. “However… The world is a changed place now, Lady Justice. I have denied it for many a long year but the era of the gentleman rogue, the artisan thief and the guerilla graffiti artist is gone and matters have grown more binary – Black and white, good and evil. My client list is dominated by ever more dangerous young men and women who desire only wealth, power and terror felt at the utterance of their names. Their requirements grow ever more in the direction of causing harm and fear in pursuit of wholly destructive acts.”

He shifted again in response to his aching bones. “The young man who described himself as ‘Cat Sinister’ is a perfect example. He wished to be outfitted as a sneak thief but his proposed methodology was wholly by brute force. He had little or no interest in learning how to get around security and avoid unnecessary conflict, only forcing his way past it. In my disgust, I told him that I had no further interest in helping him, especially not given his conceit of ‘deserving’ a ‘free upgrade’ to aid him in his brutish exploits further.” The old man’s smile was without any real warmth and he gestured to his plaster-covered legs. “You can see for yourself how he responded to my advice.”

“It was inevitable in a way, or so I now perceive in the light of hindsight. I believe that I ‘dodged a bullet’ when I declined a commission from the witch Nightshade last year. Also, of late, The Five of a Kind Gang have been… increasingly delinquent in their payments and professional courtesies. I have kept young Fraulein Wang out of their way of their commissions, fearing that they might threaten her to gain some advantage from me.”

“What were your plans for me?” Socqueline asked, her voice desolate. “Was I to carry on supplying criminals for you?”

“Ach, mein kinder, you have no idea how much you brought to an old man’s life. You were my student and my apprentice. Everything that I had would go to you for whatever purpose you wished for it. You had such skill and such art that I knew that you were my worthy heir. I admitted you into my full business, but I hoped… I prayed… that you would not become entangled with its darker side.”

Deitel looked over Lady Justice and extended his hands, his wrists pressed together as if to allow someone to bind them. “I think that I have told all my story that needs to be heard. Now, I suspect that the time has come for me to be taken to prison. I will not resist.”

Lady Justice smiled strangely. She touched the cast gold cameo of the fully active Libra Miraculous. “This is the Libra Miraculous of Justice, Herr Deitel. It grants me one often-overlooked uncanny power: I can sense evil when I wear it. I can feel who has a heart filled with corruption, hate and selfishness and know what their acts are.” She paused. “Around you, it is and always has been quiescent. You are a fool, sir. Naive, irresponsible and arrogant but never evil. Your soul is marked first and foremost by a love of beauty and the perfection of the manufactured form and you have desired only to help others experience it and produce it themselves.” She shook her head. “No useful purpose would be served handing you over to spend your few remaining years in a cell. Even less from handing over your apprentice to the same fate.” She shot the old man a firm look. “However, you know that things cannot remain as they were?”

Deitel nodded in puzzlement. “Ja. It ends; I have been unjustly fortunate in surviving this encounter, but I do not plan to push my luck to see if I will survive the next.” He looked at Socqueline. “Even worse, that I may get my apprentice in the way of harm in the process.” He held out a hand and Bunnyx stood back, letting Socqueline rush over to her Master, fall to her knees at his side and press her face against his hand. “My will is complete, my dear child. The business is yours to do with as you will, for good or for ill. I merely hope that you will not abandon your craft because of my mistakes and pride. Keep on making things of art and beauty.” He smiled slightly. “You are meant for a greater cause, mein kinder. I had noticed that suit of armour you had crafted had gone missing a few days ago and I realise now why and for what purpose you made it.”

“Master, no,” Socqueline protested, tears welling in her eyes. “There is still so much I need to learn from you!”

Deitel smiled warmly. “I have already taught you everything that you need, my dear girl; anything further would only stifle your own unique creativity. Where you go from now, I trust to your own better nature.”

“I… am still struggling with my worse instincts,” Socqueline said with shame in her voice.

“I believe that you will overcome them. No, my shop is yours and I am sure that you will make better use of it than I.”

Lady Justice stood and considered the hilt of the Libra Sword, merged with the Ladyblade as only a Unified transformation could do. “I believe that there is nothing left to be said, sir,” she said before sheathing her weapon. “Socqueline, I think… I think that Herr Deitel would be happy to have some privacy at this moment.” The old man nodded in agreement. “He has much to meditate on and so, I think, do you.”

As the superheroes left the room, Bunnyx touched Socqueline’s shoulder. “So, I hear you’re opening a shop,” she said with a slightly-too-wide grin. “I might know someone who is interested in a position, if you’re conducting interviews?”

~*~*~

“So, are you satisfied that ended well?” Adrien asked his girlfriend as she busied herself with her sewing machine.

“As well as possible,” Marinette responded. “There is a reason why I had the Libra unified during that meeting and why I asked Alix to attend too. Zuuben would have warned me at once if either Dietel or Socqueline intended to cause any harm and Bunnyx would have sensed at once if letting both of them loose would cause any harm in the future.”

“I felt sadness and the deepest loyalty,” announced the lavender Wolf Kwami. “However, no malice, only regret about what had happened and how her art had been used.”

“So, yes,” Marinette concluded. “A good ending. Redemption is possible, as I have already learned, if someone truly regrets what they have done before and wish to change for the better. It’s not as common or as easy as you might think but I wasn’t willing to lose Socqueline again so easily after I’d only just found her again.”

Chapter 13: The Younger Sibling Squad

Chapter Text

“Joyeux Anniversaire, Marc!” Marc Anciel did what they always did at parties centred around him: He blushed and tried not to meet anyone’s eyes. Not even Nathan, who they were amazingly happy to note their parents had invited to the party.

“Hey, sweets,” Nathan nudged Marc’s shoulder with an affectionate smile. “Hiding behind your hair is Juleka’s kink, not yours.”

Marc rolled their eyes. “Ha-ha, Nate,” they said tartly but looked up and smiled at their parents and their cute (but bratty) little sister, Lily. They leaned forward and with a ‘puff’, blew out the candle sitting in the middle of the purple icing selling out ‘15 Today!’.

“Sooo…” Marc’s mother said. “Your father and I debated on what to get you for your birthday for quite a while, Marc.” Marc raised their eyebrow. “It wasn’t just a case of getting something we knew you’d want but rather something appropriate.”

Marc’s father stood up. “We’re very proud of you,” he said. “Your writing is very clearly something important to you and something that lets you express what’s in your soul.”

“Because of that,” their mother continued, “we got you something that would make the act of writing down your thoughts and ideas a bit more special.”

Marc blinked at the wrapped box that their father had put in front of them and uncertainty touched the wrapper, making it come apart, as if by some magic. They knew that there were certain ways to wrap gifts that this would happen but that was something that cost a lot extra. Their father saw the protest in his child’s eyes and waved it off. “It’s an expression of love, Marc, and you’re worth it.”

Marc frowned at the elegant cardboard box, covered by gold symbols and opened it gently, aware that the box was at least as special as what it contained. “Oh… Oh maman, pere, it’s beautiful!” Much to their frustration, Marc found tears pricking at the corner of their eyes, making Lily giggle. The gift was a beautiful ebony-bodied fountain pen with a gold-plated nib.

“Something elegant with which to record your prose,” Mme Anciel said with a big smile.

“Thank you, Maman,” Marc said, hugging her. “I love you; you too, Pere.”

“Hey, what about me?”

Marc laughed. “Yeah, you too, squirt, most of the time anyway!” He messed up his kid sister’s hair (very reminiscent of Ladybug’s because, like every other pre-teen girl in Paris, Lily Anciel pretty much worshipped the ground that Ladybug walked on and wore her hair in pigtails).

~*~*~

Manon Chamak looked up from the picture book that she’d been given by her mother to meet the eyes of Chris Lahiffe, sitting on the opposite bench seat on the metro car. Seated on the other side to her mother was her best friend, Rhythm Ntumbe whilst the ‘Terror Twins’, Ella and Etta Cesaire, were surrounding Chris in a way that seemed vaguely threatening.

“Are you okay, Manon?” Nadja asked. She was still surprised that she’d somehow got time off work to spend time with her daughter. Still, with Gabriel Agreste in prison and Leonidas out of town, it was unlikely that there would be any major stories to cover and the friends all around the train carriage was a reminder for Nadja of the degree to which her little girl had grown independent a bit too quickly, having a whole peer group who seemed closer to her than her own mother.

Manon sighed in a melancholy way that belied her six short years of age. “I guess I’m missing a friend,” she said at last.

Nadja raised an eyebrow because she thought that the other kids represented the full sum of her daughter’s close friends. She couldn’t know, of course, that Manon was talking about someone who wasn’t even human… maybe not even physical. Noctua, the Owl Renling of Light and Order, had been a good friend. As well as being helpful with her homework she had been an invaluable ally, providing the girl with the ability to create hard light platforms and tools that had aided her in occasionally protecting her friends during the bursts of chaos and destruction occasionally unleashed by a visiting supervillain. It made the little girl feel amazing to have the ability to be a superhero.

Of course, Manon had a far greater reason than the glory and excitement of being a hero: A reason that was, even for one as young as her, a genuine and painful scar on her conscience, someone named Puppeteer. Noctua had made it possible to pay off that debt she’d incurred whilst under Hawkmoth’s control. She’d love to have that chance again. She didn’t regret letting Noctua go to be with her Renren but she missed the owl spirit’s calm and wise presence in her life.

Nadja messed up her little girl’s hair and Manon smiled at her. “I’ll be okay, Maman.”

~*~*~

“Well?” Blank snapped, the sharpness of his voice making his wife, Heart, jump a little in fear.

Spade shook his head. “Yeah, the rumours are confirmed, boss. The shop has ‘under new management’ on the front door and there was just this smarmy redhead girl at the counter who couldn’t have been less informative if she tried.”

Diamond presented her leader with a black canvas bag. “All the stuff is here, boss. The usual drop-off point but with a note. The handwriting is definitely that of the girl who he took on as an assistant about a year back; it read ‘Completed without charge; please don’t come back.”

Blank punched the wall and did so hard. The old man was the best armourer and gunsmith in Paris! There were other options but there would be a definite drop in quality for the Five of a Kind Gang. “Damn it! When I find that idiot who hospitalised the old man and apparently scared him off, it will be a dark day for him!”

Club shifted uncomfortably, something very, very dramatic to see from such a large man. “Boss? Do you think that there’s any point leaning on the girls who have taken over the shop?”

Blank considered that. “No; it might even work but, even if it did, do we want the sort of quality that we’d get from coerced service? No, we’d be better going to more mainstream sources.”

Spade had opened the bag that Diamond had dropped in the middle of the room and hummed in approval at the sight of his carbine. “All in good condition boss.”

Blank nodded. “Good. We’ve been on the back foot for too long with all the super-freak interference in this city. The time has come to take the initiative.” He pulled a dust sheet off of a standing display board to reveal a whiteboard with a map of the Musee Louvre, earning a ‘wow’ of approval from Diamond. “Time to go to the very top and the most unique and precious artworks in the world.”

~*~*~

Marc sat at their writing desk that same morning. They wondered exactly what to write.They looked around themselves for random inspiration and their eyes fell on the bound volume of the first twelve issues of Miraculous Ladybug, which had been collected and bound together as a birthday gift from Marinette.

You know… One thing that Marc had always wanted to do was to expand the fictionalised Miraculous universe, adding new characters and new adventures beyond their retelling of the war against Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth. Next to the printouts of their Adventures of Miraculous Ladybugon their bookshelf was a volume of The Adventures of Sparrow – The Fledgeling Without Fear. Was that it? Was the only thing that this adventure lacked was a ‘sidekick squad’? Traditionally, these sidekicks were younger siblings or children (adoptive or otherwise) of the heroes. Well, don’t worry about character creation for now. Set an adventure and let the details sort themselves out over time.

As Marc began to write, they had no awareness that their pen strokes were briefly highlighted with a shining golden radiance. The story literally was flowing through him as if… as if they already knew what it would be! “So… Let’s start by creating the crisis…”

~*~*~

Du… Dubon… Dubonnet. Nadja was watching the famous advertisement on the final approach to the metro station that had graced Paris for decades when her daughter’s voice cut into her trance-like waiting to arrive at their destination, Parc Zooogique.

“Maman, what are there posters at every station with my name on it?

The Ukrainian woman smiled at her daughter’s innocent question. “It’s advertising a ballet, precious. L’historie de Manon. When I was a little girl, I loved it and decided that I’d name my first daughter for it.”

Manon considered this with a frown. “It isn’t about me, then?” Only a six-year-old could ask that question! Nadja laughed. “No, my darling. Be good and I might even take you to see it during its current run!”

Manon wasn’t sure that she wanted that if it wasn’t about her. In her mind, using her name for a show that wasn’t about her was false advertising and a bit of an imposition.

…

Blank smiled as he pressed the remote detonator control. Normally, he rejected random violence but, on occasion, it could be useful, no matter how much heat it might bring on the gang. What he needed was something to distract this city’s blasted heroes to give him and his team a free hand to loot the treasures in the museum at leisure.

…

Manon came fully aware in a nightmare: The carriage was dark and on its side and, outside the doors, it was clear that the metro station had partially collapsed and water was pouring in from the nearby River Marne through a breach in the tunnel.

“Manon! Children! Over here!” Nadja yelled, pulling the Cesaire twins close as she looked around desperately for an obvious path of escape.

“Maman!” Manon screamed

“Madame Chamak! We need to get out!” Chris’s voice had an understandable edge of panic in it.

Manon tried to be brave, she really did. She’d encountered many fearful situations in her young life, mostly due to Hawkmoth and the other manifestations of the Miraculous. However, she didn’t have any means to act this time. As she and her friends all huddled to Nadja’s side in the wretched metro car.

More than anything, she wished that she still had Noctua with her so she could just carry her maman and her friends out of here on one of her hard light panels. However, nothing was possible now, was it?

…

You never know what power you have when you most need it, Marc thought to themself as their pen continued to flow smoothly through the narrative. Behind the pen, the words they were writing continued to glow gold.

…

What is your will and what is your hope, young one?

Manon was staring at her right hand; a blue ring and a green ring, both seemingly made of pure crystalhad materialised on her index and ring fingers. “I… I want to save my maman and everyone else!” she said, drawing Nadja’s attention.

“Manon what…? Mon dieu!” Manon suddenly blazed with a mix of blue and green light. This wasn’t any kind of Miraculous transformation that she was familiar with! When the light faded, Manon was wearing a body-hugging black jumpsuit with a half-blue and half-green waistcoat and jacket over it with gloves and boots, the ones on the right blue and the ones of the left green.

A voice boomed out from nowhere: Manon Chamak of Earth. You are a spirit possessed by the strongest Will and yet guided by the purest Hope. From this day forth, you are one of the Lantern Corps!

Nadja blinked stupidly as she looked around at her charges. Etta was suddenly dressed in a close-cut bathing suit in magenta-pink and Ella in what looked like a cave-girl’s costume but with deep indigo furred ruffs at the edges. Chris and Rhythm were both dressed in leathers, Chris’s with jagged graffiti-style art all over its jacket with golden triangular-lense shades. Meanwhile, Rhythm’s costume resembled Chat Noir’s but in tabby pattern rather than matte black. The girl posed on all fours, her slitted amber eyes looking around and her cat ears twitching back and forwards. “What the hell?” the woman asked in confusion as she and the other passengers in the carriage were suddenly swept up by glassy bubbles of light in either green, blue, indigo or pink, carried out and deposited lightly onto the platform.

Manon was looking at her ring-adorned hand, which she had clenched into a fist. When she spoke, it was words that had come into her head seemingly out of nowhere. “Joy, Healing, help me get everyone out of the carriages and we can work out how to get them to street level afterwards. Vibe, Kitty Noire, search the station for any other people in danger!”

“You got it, Lightmaker!” Rhythm… no Kitty Noire… chirped, leaping up on to the side of the carriage through the nearest door as Chris… ‘Vibe’... rose into the air on beams of pure sonic energy coming from the palms of his hands. grinning at the sensation.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: @BugBoss ([emailprotected]) - ADMIN/OWNER

STATUS - CODE RED ALERT - ATTACK UNDERWAY

@BugBoss: What’s the situation, Alix?

@WatchWabbit: Either by bad luck or design we’ve got two situations both ongoing at once.

@WatchWabit: There has been an explosion at Ponte de Charenton station, boss. The station has collapsed as has the wall keeping the Marne out of the tunnels.

@FoxyBabe: Wait, that’s near the zoo! Mme Chamak was taking Manon, Chris and my sisters there today!

@NotARenaissanceArtist: We need to get there right now!

@WatchWabbit: Also… I’m in my burrow because the Five of a Kind Gang have just burst into the museum and are holding visitors hostage in the pyramid gallery.

@TrueQueen: They are WHAT?

@DragonGrrrl: I am quite convinced that this is not a coincidence.

@Cool4Catz: Yeah. It’s cunning; evil but cunning.

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, we have to let them get away with it to save the innocents at the Metro station.

@WatchWabbit is typing a reply…

@SnekCharmer: Bunny?

@WatchWabbit: Yeah… I don’t think that will be necessary.

@FoxyBabe: ???

@NotARenaissanceArtist: ???

@WatchWabbit: I wish I knew how to livestream what I’m seeing in the Burrow’s windows.

@WatchWabbit: There are already a group of heroes there helping out.

@Cool4Catz: There are? Who?

@BugBoss: Send a portal my way so I can see it too.

@WatchWabbit: Okay, all aboard, boss-lady!

@FoxyBabe: Okay, I’m not waiting for the boss. Trixx…

@BugBoss: Hold that thought, Rena. I’m going to need Cavilera Rouge for the break-in at the museum.

@NotARenaissanceArtist: But what about my brother and Ayla’s sisters?

@BugBoss: Max, Luka transform and head over to the station.

@BugBoss: I saw these new heroes; they’re small but they have some kind of hard light shaping powers. I think that they’ve got this.

@BugBoss: Mettle and Vipereon can give them any help they need but everyone else’s priority is the Louvre.

@BugBoss: Everyone else, transform and rendezvous at the north end of the Ponte de Carousel. I’ve got Kaalki heading over to you now, Foxy.

Kitty Noire grinned as she sprang about the chaotic rock-pile that was the remainder of the station. She was simply having the time of her life; her transformation gave her agility and strength many times greater than anything she’d even imagined before. “Yo! Vibe!”

“What’s up Kitty-babe?” Vibe responded to the wild kitten heroine. Lacking the cat-like agility of his partner, he was still in a relatively-clear corridor.

“I can hear another bunch of survivors in that office but the door’s blocked on both sides. Vibrate aside that wall, will ya?”

Vibe concentrated, willing the sonic energy thrumming in the core of his being to the surface. He was still getting used to controlling its effects but, right now, he didn’t need to be careful, he needed to be strong. A wave of pure sound shot out, blowing apart the fallen rubble and making the structure of the office wall ahead crumble into rubble and dust. He then directed the force upwards to stop the destabilised ceiling from collapsing too. “Ugh! Joy, if you could?”

“Right here, Rapper-boy!” the pink-clad miniature heroine chirped excitedly. In response to the flood of deep feelings that she had for all the people afflicted by this abominable crime, a barrier of pink light formed across the crumbling tunnel ceiling and prevented it from falling in as Kitty and Vibe rushed for the door (which had shaken out of its frame).

“Okay, old folks, we’re getting everyone out!” Kitty yelled. “Don’t stop to gawk, just form an orderly line and follow us to the platforms, ‘kay?” The staff and passengers who had been trapped in the office did pause briefly, gawking at the six-year-old girl dressed in tabby-patterned lycra, before breaking into a jog and following the punk/rapper-dressed boy down the corridor. Kitty shot her team-mate a smile with sharp canine teeth on display. “Joy, I think that we’ve found everyone we’re gonna find. We’re at the far end of the station now and I can’t hear anyone else moving or calling for help!”

Joy frowned and gestured around her with her hands, the ring with the pink rhombus-shaped crystal with the starburst emblem inside on her left ring finger shining in response, little paper dart-shaped constructs flashing out in all directions. “No, you’re right Kitty. My search constructs aren’t detecting anything. Let’s head back to the others.”

~*~*~

Behind his armoured mask, Blank smiled at Dr Kubdel in a blandly threatening way. “It’s really as simple as this, Monsieur Doctor: What is more important to you? Those innocents or these shiny trinkets? I’m sure that you’ll agree with me that irreplaceable lives are more important than a few artworks that will be sold on quickly through the black market.”

Heart shoved Jalil forwards and the stunned young man, nursing a bruised jaw from where he foolishly tried to resist, staggered a few steps and fell to his knees. “Maybe seeing your little boy at risk of having his head blown off will make you more cooperative, Egghead?” The blonde woman pulled out her semi-automatic pistol and made a show of racking the slide to chamber a round.

Alim Kubdel frowned and turned from the criminal to open a safe on the wall of his office. “There is no need for threats, Mademoiselle. Your leader is correct.” With a bitter expression, he pulled out a bunch of keys and threw them to Blank, who caught them with a chuckle.

“Smart man.” He turned to Diamond and passed the woman his keys. “Get down to the others. Make sure Spade doesn’t kill too many bystanders and don’t let Diamond get too distracted by all the gold and gems. Remind her that the harder the item will be to fence, the less useful it is to us.”

Meanwhile, in a distant corridor, Club, carrying his shotgun and a sledgehammer, was walking through the outskirts of the museums, looking for any visitors or staff who may have avoided the initial round-up. The curator’s daughter was a loose end and Blank wanted her particularly as leverage on the old man. At that moment, a blue-edged hole in reality opened up, beyond which, Club could see a road bridge over the Seine. There was only one possible cause: Team Miraculous. He raised his sawn-off shotgun and fired both barrels into the portal.

The buckshot bounced off a circular green shield. “Terrapuch!” snapped a young man’s voice and a battering ram of pure energy shot out, ramming the ex-circus strongman against the wall of the corridor with a ‘crunch’ of shattering plaster. Club gasped to draw in air past his compressed ribs as Carapace and Cavilera Rouge (or ‘Red Rider’) entered through the portal, which collapsed with a ‘pop’. “Dude,” Carapace said. “You have chosen a bad day to crawl out from under your rock and threaten innocents to get money.” The two heroes exchanged a brief kiss, making Club’s eyes open wider behind his mask. “Head over to the boss, Babe.”

The young woman in the horse- and fox-patterned costume nodded, touching her triangular-lensed gold mylar-lensed wrap-around sunglasses. Club noticed that five green lights on the outer bottom corner of the frames had lit up, one after another, in the past minute. “Voyage!” she commanded, summoning an orange-edged portal through which Club could see the high-level service gantry in the pyramid gallery. As the heroine departed, Club renewed his efforts to break free, realising that he had to get word to the boss and his accomplices! Carapace frowned at the big man, feeling Club’s struggles against his force field attack move. Taking a few light steps forward, he slammed the edge of his shield against the bottom of Club’s jaw, sending him straight into dreamland.

“Out of time and luck, dude.”

~*~*~

Sergeant Roger Raincomprix jumped back in surprise as a mechanical bore drill seemingly made of green and blue light punched up through the road surface by the collapsed entrance to Ponte de Charenton station. After completing the task of cutting a tunnel onto the surface, the construct flashed out of existence and a group of dust-streaked Metro passengers began to stagger out onto the surface, led by no less a figure than Nadja Chamack. “Okay people!” Raincomprix yelled. “Let’s get the gurneys front and centre! We need to get this lot triaged as soon as possible. He turned back to Chamack. “Mlle Chamack, who got you out of there?”

“I…” Nadja hesitated for a moment, thinking of the six children who seemed to have somehow got superpowers without any hint of a MIraculous or akuma. “I… don’t know; I never saw their faces.”

Raincomprix hissed in annoyance before handing the reporter over to a paramedic to check out. Be careful, my precious! Nadja thought.

At that moment, the robotic Miraculous hero known as Mettle dropped out of the sky into a perfect ‘ground pound’ three-point crouch. Vipereon was riding on his back. “Okay, folks, this situation is officially under control!”

Vipereon, who seemed irritatingly unshaken by his flight on Mettle’s back, turned to Raincomprix. “Sargeant, we’ll need you to evacuate the survivors as quickly as possible; the tunnel walls are about to collapse and allow the waters of the River Marne into the Metro system.” He turned to his colleague. “Mettle, widen that hole and let’s head down there.”

“Got that, Vipe,” was the synthesised response. Mettle pulled a bit of equipment off of the carrying point on his left hip and attached it to his right wrist. The device folded out to form what looked like a kind of covered loudspeaker and he used it to direct pure sound into the drill hole, smoothing out the sides and creating a staircase around which the survivors could ascend.

“We have less than three minutes, Sergeant,” Vipereon continued. “Additionally, you should dispatch any men you can spare to the Louvre; this was a distraction set up by the Five of a Kind Gang.”

Raincomprix hissed in anger. “The city’s paying the price plus interest for that criminal Auric’s influence over the Chief Magistrate.” Vipereon nodded in agreement but he had no time to continue the conversation. Instead, he followed Mettle into the hole carved from the platforms to the surface.

~*~*~

Diamond was human enough that she couldn’t help but react to the attractive blond young man in green-edged black leathers perched on top of one of the shatter-proof glass box display cases in the Pyramid Gallery. She’d been just visualising the jewel-encrusted gold necklace within around her neck when the man landed on top of it. She fumbled out her machine pistol and pointed it at the grinning face of Cbat Noir.

“Ah-ah, Mademoiselle; we’ll diamond-ly have no games with dangerous toys today!” Chat Noir’s claws, crackling with green-black destruction energy, caught the gun just as Diamond squeezed the trigger and the gun literally fell apart in her hands, crumbling into rust and broken components as bullets spilled out onto the ground. Diamond took a frantic few steps back but couldn’t outrun the Cat Staff, which caught her on the temple, knocking her out.

The noise from the disintegrating machine pistol and the sound of Diamond hitting the ground attracted Spade’s attention and the gunman swung around, raising his carbine as an athletic woman’s figure in body-hugging grey and purple with black stripes dropped down from the roof in front of him. “Single Strike!” Tigrette’s Miraculous-clad right fist, crackling with purple energy slammed into the centre of Spade’s mask, shattering it and sending him flying backwards to smash through the front of a case displaying textile patterns from through the ages and, semi-shrouded in brightly-patterned cloth, he fell unmoving.

“Uh… what the fuck?” Heart, swinging the bunch of keys around her middle finger, stopped at the top of the stairs up from the tunnel to the main building and stared at the Miraculous heroes and her fallen colleagues. She reached for her walkie-talkie but instead her gloved fingers met those of Piggiwig’s, who was standing right behind her having jumped silently down to the ground behind her.

“Ah-ah, lady!” the blonde Pig heroine said, waggling a forefinger with a sunny smile. “We’ll have no calling for help. Firstly, I’ve got some home truths to show you!” Heart took a few steps back as the pink pig-themed heroine jingled her tambourine and described a circle in the air. “Revelation!” A mirror-like pink surface appeared in the centre of the circle being described by Piggiwig’s Miraculous tool and Heart couldn’t break her gaze away from the images she was seeing.

“No…” she gasped. “No, I… That isn’t…! I… I… Oh God! Oh good God, forgive me! I never realised that I was such a monster….! I…!” The woman fell to her knees and tossed her mask aside and began to sob into her hands. Piggiwig dismissed her scrying mirror and stepped forward with a compassionate look, gripping Heart’s shoulder in a supportive way.

“Heart?” The black-aired woman looked up into the blindfold-clad and faintly-glowing eyes of Lady Justice. “Do you want to make this right?”

Heart, tears still running down her face, nodded frantically. “Please! I’ll do anything to stop this pain! I…”

“Where is your leader, Heart?”

The woman gestured towards the main building. “The head antiquitarian’s office. He is holding the Curator and his son hostage and is waiting for us to confirm we have access to the main vault!” Lady Justice nodded and turned away. “Ma’am?” Lady Justice looked back over her shoulder, giving the female robber a questioning look. “P… Please, he is my husband and I’ve loved him since I was a child. Please don’t kill him!”

“He’ll be alive when M’lady’s done with him,” Chat Noir said. “Maybe not undamaged but he’ll be alive.”

Cavaliers Rouge stepped up to her team leader’s side. “Ready, boss lady?”

Lady Justice nodded silently, touching a bronze coin hanging around her neck. “Tikki, Zuuben, Mullo, UNIFY!”

As pink light coalesced into pink-edged grey panels on the inner body-suit of Lady Justice’s costume. Cavaliers Rouge made a gesture like she was twirling a lasso. “Voyage!”

~*~*~

“Heart, can you hear me? Heart, this is Blank, come in!” There was silence on the Walkie-talkie channel. “Club?” Silence. “Can anyone hear me? Diamond? Spade?” There was only static coming from the handset.

“Sounds like your friends aren’t around to talk,” Jalil snarked, earning a dangerous growl from the robber. Alim kicked his son in the ankle, warning him to stay silent.

Blank took two steps forward and pressed the muzzle of his Desert Eagle to the bottom of the younger man’s jaw. “I’m glad you find this amusing, boy. I assume you that, if my friends have been taken, you won’t be around to enjoy freedom afterwards!”

Suddenly, Heart was standing in the doorway, holding the Mona Lisa and draped in one-of-a-kind historical jewels. “Look, my love!” she called excitedly. “We’ll never have to rob again when we sell this! isn’t it great?”

As Blank stared stupidly at the sight of his unmasked wife with billions of Euros in objects’d art, Alim felt something unlocking his handcuffs. He looked over his shoulder to see a 50cm-tall girl wearing a red-and-black polka-dotted roman-style stola over a black, grey and green jumpsuit using a miniature European longsword to pick the lock on Jalil’s handcuffs. Blank was so focussed on the vision of his wife and the wealth he’d always coveted above all else to notice this strange sight.

With Jalil freed, the two miniature girls ran from the hostages towards the exit as another stepped around the corner to meet the other, all turning into pink outlines and merging together into a single normal-sized teenager. Blank shook his head to clear it and pointed his gun at the now fully-revealed superheroine with a cry of fury. He fired a single round at her face. The bullet hit a whirling orange-and-white bamboo flute and slammed into the ceiling. The red, grey, black and pink-clad superheroine pointed her sword at Blank and uttered one word: “Restitution!”

Blank’s gun clattered to the floor as he clutched his head and fell over with a scream of pain and fear. Alim had no idea what the robber was seeing and hearing but it left him writhing on the flaw, clawing at his faceless mask and yelling nonsense about things ‘not being yours’ and that he’d lose his position if so much was taken.

The blindfolded superheroine, her eyes shining with lavender light in power, held the attack for a few moments more than seemed strictly necessary, not that Alim really felt any pity or empathy for the man. “Okay, he’s down, boss,” Cavaliers Rouge said, touching her team leader on the shoulder. Lady JustMouse raised her sword away from Blank’s prone body and sheathed it over her shoulder.

The somehow-forbidding Lady JustMouse handed a pair of plastic zip-ties to the other superhero. “Okay, Rouge, make sure he’s secure. Dr Kubel, are you and your son uninjured?”

Jalil took a look at the superheroine and made a strange noise as his eyes fell on her gold-and-velvet choker. “Mademoiselle! I… Is that… Is that choker the Hassedah Scales? I thought that Shadowmoth had stolen it! They were not found in his loot when Agreste Mansion was searched and I was afraid that… You had it all along?”

Lady JustMouse touched the Libra Miraculous with a chuckle. “Let’s just say that the piece found its way back to its true owners and is… safe.” Jalil nodded, his mind racing; he was not such a fool as to accuse Team Miraculous of harbouring stolen property, after all! Besides, it fit in with the piece’s mythology for the item to be some kind of magical focus such as a Miraculous and, in effect, the property of Team Miraculous and their ancient sponsors. However, this begged the question: What other pieces in the museum might be really Miraculous? How totally had these magical gems found their way into the history of the human race?

After securing Blank’s wrists and ankles, Cavaliera Rouge helped the panting bandit to his feet. “Okay, big guy, time to take the consequences,” she said with an insolent smile. Blank, too dazed from experiencing for himself being the victim of scores of violent armed robberies all in a matter of a few seconds, had neither the will nor the wit to reply, let alone resist as he was flung over the superheroine’s shoulder and carried to the door.

With a musical ‘woosh’ a blue-white pentagonal portal opened on the wall and Bunnyx lunged out, wrapping Alim in a hard hug. “Daddy! You’re safe!” Bunnyx yelled. Realising where she was and how she was dressed, she released her father and took a step back. “Er… I mean, I’m pleased to see you and your son are unharmed Monsieur Doctor. The institution would never recover if it were to lose a man of you knowledge and wisdom.”

Alim wasn’t fooled. He was a father and there was only one woman who would call him ‘Daddy’ in that tone or hug him like that.

Lady JustMouse rolled her eyes behind her blindfold. “Okay Bunny, the crisis is over. I need to get to the train station.”

~*~*~

“Lightmaker, are you okay…? Oops, I see not.” Healing stopped in the ankle-deep water to find her team leader, visibly sweating, trying to seal a shattered section of train tunnel wall. As she watched, the Wielder of the Light of Will and Hope was lifting bits of broken tunnel shield back into place and creating patches nad braces with her powers and driving them into place.

“Could… use… help… here… Ella…”

With a gasp of understanding, Healing rushed forwards, brandishing the staff/spoon-shaped focus of her power (which she was already thinking of as the ‘magical spoon’) and waved it. Indigo light poured out of the ‘bowl’ at the top end and she took control of holding the broken bits of concrete in place.

“Manon, this is bad. This fix will only last as long as we’re here; the minute we aren’t, the walls will cave in again!”

“Don’t you think I know that, Cesaire?!? I’m trying to figure out what to do next!”

“Guys!” Kitty Noire led Joy and Vibe up to the work site. “Jeez… Uh, don’t tell my mommy I said the bad word…” Kitty was blushing behind her cat mask. “This looks bad!”

With the worst of the pressure off, Manon’s brain was catching up with what was needed. “Vibe, I think that you can help here. Use your powers to drive the water back out of the tunnel.” Vibe frowned; this was a more complex use of his powers than he had ever tried before. However, his trust in Manon and his belief in her was such that he tried it nonetheless and it actually seemed to work.

“He won’t be able to keep this up forever,” Joy remarked.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her!” her twin sister responded.

Kitty began to dance back and forwards, her back arched. “Ooh… Ooh… Oh I hate water! This is so icky!”

“Ladies, young sir, maybe we can be of assistance?”

Lightmaker grinned as she turned. “Mettle!” she grinned, recognising the exosuited hero from that horrible nightmare of the Darkest Day.

Inside his suit, Max was already running through a list of the tool options that Markov’s powers could give him. “Vipe, how long do we have?”

Vipereon stepped out from behind his colleague and looked at his Miraculous as he considered the visual effort that Vibe, Joy and Healing were showing as Lightmaker summoned several braces that she set against the buckling walls. “It’s down to less than a minute, Mettle.”

Mettle’s headpiece nodded. “Okay, no need to try to make this neat, then.” He attached a plasma arc generator to his left wrist and a chemical fluid projector to his right and stepped up to the worksite. “Okay, kids, I’m going to need you to keep the concrete steady and in place until I finish sealing and welding.”

Lightmaker nodded. “You can rely on us, Mettle!”

Mettle went to work, glueing the edges of the shattered concrete and rewelding torn structural steel. As he worked, the young heroes noticed that the effort was getting less and less. At the very last moment, Vipereon cleared his throat. “Everyone?” They looked at him in question. “Lightmaker, Joy, Healing, Vibe and Kitty Noire, your identities are your greatest vulnerability and your greatest secret. Have you thought of how you are going to transform back without your guardian and the policemen waiting at the surface noticing?” There were shaken heads with wide eyes. Vipereon smiled. “Please encase yourself in waterproof bubbles and go out into the river, holding the last of the tunnel walls in place until Mettle finishes. I’m sure that you’ll figure out the rest after we’re done.

Lightmaker frowned as her mind visualised what Vipereon was proposing. “I… Okay, no, you’re right sir. Kitty, Vibe, please stand next to me. Joy, Healing, you have that last section of wall.”

Lightmaker, Vibe and Kitty Noire were enclosed in a marble of green-blue light as Joy and Healing were in pink and indigo. The twin heroines were holding the last bit of tunnel wall and holding back the water respectively as they slipped out into the river, pulling the last segment into the hole.

“I can’t believe that kids like that managed it!” Mettle remarked.

“This is a time of miracles, brother,” Vipereon responded as his friend began to seal the last section of wall in place.

Creating backhoe constructs, Joy filled in the last of the riverbed until the tunnel was fully covered again. Then the three bubbles rose up to the surface of the Marne and rose up onto the riverbank, depositing the heroes within there.

The five young heroes looked at each other in puzzlement, wondering what to do next. They hadn’t even summoned their powers, so how would they dismiss them? Then their costumes broke up into fractal shards and dissolved into strange, scrolling text all around them like something from a magical children’s cartoon.

…

Coming out of their ‘writer’s creative trance’, Marc smiled and placed their fountain pen down, not noticing the golden light fading as they did so. “That’s a good story! I’ll see what character designs Nate comes up with when I show it to him tomorrow!” Mentally, they reached out to his new characters. You all did very well and you can be proud! they told their mental impressions of them.

…

“Manon! My baby! Oh, my baby!” Nadja collided with her daughter and swept her up into a fierce hug. Ella and Etta accepted a similar act from their two older sisters whilst Chris made a show of resisting his brother’s hug. No-one noticed Alya tucking a pair of sunglasses into her hip pouch.

Rhythm saw her maman’s car pull up and gave her mother a shaky wave. “See! All here, not folded, spindled or… mut… mutil…”

Her mother laughed as she hugged her daughter. “Yeah, I get it, little kitten!”

Nadja gave her daughter a serious look. “Where did those powers come from?” she whispered urgently. “The truth now!”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Manon hissed back fiercely, her eyes wide with sincerity. “It was nothing like Puppeteer; I don’t think that it was that lady who is using Hawkmoths’ powers now!”

Nadja nodded in acceptance. Modern Paris was full of strange miracles, she acknowledged.

Suddenly, magical ladybird beetles were everywhere, trailing pink light over the shattered road and buildings, which rapidly rebuilt themselves. She looked up to see Ladybug, in a slightly-different costume, standing on top of a nearby roof.

~*~*~

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! The notorious Five of a Kind Gang were captured by Team Miraculous today after an audacious attempted robbery of the Musee Louvre, covered by a terrorist outrage at a distant metro station to keep the emergency services occupied elsewhere. Unconfirmed reports from the Prefecture of Police indicate that one of the gang has already turned State’s Evidence and will testify against her colleagues…”

“Ma Chaviler?” Marinette was spooned up against Adrien’s back on her bed as the TV news played in the background, stroking his chest under his rainbow-striped black t-shirt.

“Yes, my love?”

“There is a new power in the city. I felt it during the fight and so did Vipereon. We’ll have to look out for the source.”

Adrien sighed. “We never get to rest, do we? Okay, we’ll start looking tomorrow. One way or another, we’ll find the truth.” He sighed. “Chloe is going to New York soon. She will have to face her mother”

Marinette sighed too. “I wish I could spare the time to go with her but there is too much happening here now. Besides, the Council has decreed that Audrey is her burden to bear.”

Adrien visibly grimaced. “I’m with Chloe. You need to be ready to tell them when you’re not listening to their rules anymore.”

Marinette looked up at the shelf with her plush toys and where Tikki, Mullo and Zuuben were dozing. “Yeah… Got to say I’m scared about that. I’m more scared about losing my friends though and that is the deciding factor.”

Chapter 14: The Knights of London

Chapter Text

London, as the capital of Britain, was representative of a culture where belief in the law and bipartisan politics to resolve injustice was far more strongly rooted than in many other European nations. However, that was only the case when there wasn’t external forces seeking to exploit things for their own ends. For that reason, the workings of democracy weren’t always sacrosanct.

The vigilante archer known as Ranger knew what this was about but it didn’t stop making her despair a little at the corruption it implied to the very core of the city's body politic. An idealistic young man was running for the post of mayor and was making a very good show of being independent of politics and commercial interests. Unfortunately, that placed him very much at odds with the interests of Leonidas and his Lion’s Pride, the former only willing to tolerate in office those whose loyalty he could buy or already had bought.

Paladin, with his usual near-supernatural foresight for these things, had guessed what would happen at the next ‘Town Hall’ the young man was holding to progress his campaign and Forever Justice were in place to prevent Enchantress from using her mind-warping powers on him.

Consequently, Ranger now found herself jumping between the rooftops of Camden, near to the Star Train station at St Pancras, exchanging arrows with Leonidas’s chief lieutenant (and, or so she understood, his daughter), Sureshot. It should be no contest: Sureshot was aided by the magic of the Sagittarius Miraculous and had a perfect aim even against the best camouflage. However, every time, one of the sparkling energy arrows came close, they flew into a piece of brick or tile that flew out of the roofs around her. She had no idea how that was happening, not with their new element-bender ally, Tempestia, apparently out of action due to an attack by Leonidas’s pet sorcerer, a monk called Chong-Li.

Like her leader, Ranger was no great fan of magic, but however Paladin was arranging this, it was okay by her.

Down on the ground, Janus and Enchantress were in the centre of a cordon made up by Avalanche, Night Glider, Gazelle, Abrakadabra and Paladin himself, clearly struggling to hold their ground.

At that moment, the game suddenly changed as the two supervillains were abruptly consumed in smoke which, when it cleared, revealed that they were gone and the renegade Guardian, Chong-Li, had taken their place in the circle of heroes. From her distance, Ranger couldn’t hear what he said but she did see him drop some objects onto the ground that he’d slid out of the bells of the sleeves of his robes.

As a child, Ranger had been a very hyperactive girl and she had on occasion detonated a stack of mini-firecrackers and what happened next was similar, with the four heroes suddenly being surrounded by loud explosions that were creating flashes of stroboscopic light. Chong-Li made a series of gestures of power, lashing out with two pointed fingers at four of the heroes, hitting pressure points that left them temporarily paralysed. Paladin, armoured as he was and with his helmet’s eye filters, wasn’t affected at all and Chong-Li had to flip backwards to avoid a slice at his throat with the Champion of London’s longsword.

As Chong-Li straightened again, Rainger loosed a taser arrow at his head and, astonishingly, the bald oriental man caught the projectile mid-air. What the hell?!? the archer thought in horror. How did he even know I was here?!? Chong-Li jabbed the arrow’s contact prongs at Paladin’s chest, only to have it strike the knight’s shield uselessly with a shower of electrical sparks. His expression not changing in the slightest, he threw another of the objects from his sleeve at Paladin’s feet and, this time, the knight was surrounded and ensared by clinging thorn-encrusted vines.

Ranger had to return her focus to Sureshot, rolling under and somersaulting over a volley of energy arrows and, when she was able to return her attention to the fight below, saw that Paladin was struggling with vines now encasing his body. With a groan of horror, Ranger saw Leonidas himself walking out of the community centre, dragging the aspiring mayor out by his collar. Chong-Li ran to his side like the minion he had evidently become, took his master by the shoulders and the three people suddenly flashed into blue light and were gone.

A teleport spell?!? Ranger thought. It was at that moment she realised that Sureshot had stopped attacking. Using all of her athletic training, she took a jump over to the gap to the next roof and found that the villainous MIraculous archer was gone too.

A few minutes later, she was using her ceramic-bladed fighting knife to cut Paladin loose as the other three members of the team were helped to rise by David’s blasted new girlfriend, Zoe. How the French-American girl knew to be here or dare to show her face in a battle-zone was beyond Ranger’s ability to guess but, hey, any help is help as her dad always used to say.

“It was as we feared?” Zoe asked.

“We…?” Ranger asked archly. Before Zoe could respond, Paladin was speaking.

“Yes, Chong-Li now openly fights alongside the Lion’s Pride… He should be considered one of their number.”

Zoe nodded, her face drawn in anger. “He’s probably trying to keep Leonidas away from his throat right now; being useful in battle is his last real card to play.”

“Wait, how do you know this?” Abrakadabra asked.

“Classified,” Paladin responded. “We need to find where he took Wilkins.”

“Poor lad is likely already dead,” Avalanche said regretfully.

“I don’t think so,” Abrakadabra said. “A dead martyr isn’t the sort of thing Leonidas wants; it would make the other candidates at least make a public show of supporting his platform. Leonidas needs him discredited or visibly corrupted.”

Zoe nodded. “You’re right, Abby; this reminds me of that last election in Paris. Everyone knew Auric was little better than a Nazi but he was so popular with the elites and the most vocal part of the people that they had to at least make lip-service to ‘addressing his concerns’.” The blonde sighed and shook her head. “Of course, he could be anywhere now.”

Paladin’s body posture was typically unreadable. “I’ll send you a list of Leonidas’s properties in the central London area; he isn’t likely to have gone far.”

Ranger shook her head. “Okay, will someone please tell me what she is meant to do with that information?” Green was a bad colour, even for a woman who dressed like one of Robin Hood’s merry men but she had no idea how this civilian (even though she was a sister journalism student) was being trusted like this.

~*~*~

“I will break him, my Lord, you can be sure of that!” Lila (sorry, Iris) was in her civvies, a scandalously short crop-top and miniskirt with knee-length red leather high-heeled boots, and was pacing impatiently, her hip-length auburn hair whipping around her every time she changed the direction in which she was walking.

“I’m sure you will, child,” St John Graham de Vanily said, taking a sip of water and patting his future grandaughter-in-law comfortingly. “No matter how strong his will, that boy cannot resist the power of the Virgo forever. After that, it is simply a matter to film an ‘indiscretion’ that he commits under your influence and then leak it to the press.”

The super-powered crime lord turned his attention to Chong-Li. “Monk, you were… useful to me today.”

Chong-Li smiled coldly and bowed his head. “It was my pleasure to serve, my Lord’, he said with transparently false (to St John at least) servility.

“Most importantly, you seem to have kept your vow: The magical trouble-maker Tempestia seems to be no longer on the board. You have done as you promised and I remember my own promise in return. You will receive the Prodigious of Virtue from my hand…” he raised his hand, “... when I am done with it.” The English supervillain touched the brooch at his throat containing the deceptively-quiescent Prodigious of Fire and Chaos. “I must ensure that the Rat is broken to my will first and the setting on that girl’s wrist is the key. JANUS!”

“My Lord?” Felix, still in costume, said eagerly as he stepped out of the studio room where he had their prisoner secured.

“I want that girl’s bauble. With or without her arm still attached is of no further consequence to me. She is intelligent enough to know the price of defying my will further.”

Detransforming, Felix grinned. “Recreational dismemberment, my Lord, is both a business and a pleasure!”

St John turned back to Chong-Li, dismissing the raving psychotic that was his grandson from his mind. The boy’s obvious inadequacies were a lingering disappointment but there was still Adrien who might yet listen if the influence of his mother, his traitorous daughter, were removed from the equation. “Chong-Li, my price for continuing to assist you is that you continue to be a useful part of my organisation. For this service, I will see to it that your needs and self-image are… suitably catered to.”

“Thank you, my Lord.” Chong-Lil’s mind was whirling. The immediate threat from the Lion of Crime seemed lifted but Chong-Li had no desire to be the man’s minion and a criminal. He was bound to a higher cause for all it had seemingly abandoned him. As part of the beliefs he had been raised with since he was an initiate, he knew that the methods one used inevitably affected one’s nature and the more he consorted with these criminals, the more likely it would be that his soul would be contaminated and corrupted… if it was not already.

“I have no doubt that the foolish swordsman and his allies will attempt to rescue our… guest. This is the second reason I have kept him alive and that is to ensure that they come here and then fall into our trap.”

Lila’s eyebrows rose and she smiled in pleasure. “So, this was all just a feint to lure those pitiful do-gooders here, my Lord?”

St John chuckled. “Oh no, Brett Wilkins is a genuine threat to my power but he has a secondary use to me as bait.”

~*~*~

“You did very well, Zoe,” David said, stroking his girlfriend’s hand at their usual dining table outside of the cafeteria.

“I hate being officially out of action, David. Especially when Chong-Li is throwing his magic around in fights that way.”

David nodded, reaching forward and squeezing her hand in reassurance. “The fact that his attempt to disable your powers has failed without him knowing is a great tactical advantage, Zoe. You can act with impunity to assist us without either the Lion or his pet monk looking to harm you any further. It isn’t an advantage that we should allow ourselves to relinquish easily.” He sat back, taking a sip of the powerful French blend of coffee to which Zoe had recently introduced him. “Did you agree with Joyce where to carry out your investigation?”

Zoe nodded. “Yes, she’s excited to be helping out a Justice Forever investigation, even though she doesn’t know who I am or why ‘Paladin’ entrusted me with that task.” The blonde sighed. “She has a special place in her heart for you, David.”

David shook his head. “She’s infatuated with Paladin, not David deVere. I’ve tried to let her down gently and avoid hurting her. Whilst I think she understands the limits on our interaction, it’s also harder for her to accept me finding someone else.”

Zoe nodded in understanding. “I’ll see if I can help her; she’s a good friend already and I don’t want her heart broken by this.”

“That’s why I love you,” David said with a pleased smile.

Standing outside the dining area, Joyce O’Byrne felt her heart clench as Zoe and David kissed with a gentle mutual adoration that she’d long fantasised having with the young man but had never experienced. Then her two friends stood and went their separate ways. Zoe caught sight of her and waved happily. “Hey, Jay!” Joyce looked over and, despite her resentment of the girl’s relationship with David and the fact that Paladin had seemingly chosen to trust her (the first person outside of the team to be so honoured), she smiled happily at hearing her French-American friend’s greeting.

“Zee! Good to see you!” The brown-haired girl hugged her blonde fellow student. “So, ready to hit the streets? There are going to be plenty of stories to hear after the attack on Wilkins’ Town Hall meet last night!”

“Tell me about it!” Zoe said, her blue eyes wider. “Even at the height of Hawkmoth’s reign of terror we never had things like that happening back home in Paris!”

As the two young women left the university campus area and waked to the bus stop to take them over Southwark Bridge and into the area of northern London where they hoped to gather eyewitness stories. Both of them wanted to complete the mission assigned by Paladin’s but Zoe not knowing that Joyce, actually Ranger, wanted to prove herself to Paladin by completing it first. As they walked down the street, they found themselves chatting companionably.

“So, can you set me up with MDC?” Joyce was asking. “After that mess in Tokyo, everyone has been wondering exactly what her story is and I know that your sister and her are…” Joyce rubbed her two index fingers together.

Zoe laughed. “Chloe never betrays her business partners,” she replied. “I tell you what, Jay, you play your cards right and, the next time we’re in Paris, I’ll see if I can arrange a ‘chance meeting’ or two.”

“Zoe! That would be…” The first ever independent interview with the infamous guerilla online design phenomenon MDC? That would be a scoop that wold confirm her place in the industry for life! Joyce couldn't believe her luck.

“So…” Zoe said as she at at the bus shelter. “I think that you and I need to have a talk.” Joyce shot her companion a worried look. “About David.”

Joyce lowered her eyes. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted him and for how long.”

Zoe’s expression remained neutral but she wasn’t fooled. Joyce had been obsessed with Paladin at first. She’d only become interested in David, previously just a distant acquaintance, when she learned the Paladin of London’s secret identity. If nothing else, the facts of that incident proved to Zoe that Joyce was a woman of impeccable honour. She’d chosen to keep David’s secrets out of loyalty to the man who had become a mentor and whose Mission she’d wholeheartedly adopted as her own.

“You’re the first friend I made here in London, Jay. I don’t want that to be ruined because we’re fighting over a boy.”

Joyce chuckled. “He’s so much more than a boy!” You could never imagine how much.

“I know,” Zoe rescinded. You’d never forgive either of us at this point if you knew just how much I know! “What I’m saying is that… I hope that, no matter what happens between me and David, we can stay friends.”

Joyce had to fight against so much pent up feeling to make a reply. “I wouldn’t want to lose our friendship either, Zee; not for anything or anyone.”

After disembarking from the bus at Angel Islington shopping centre (what Zoe’s American sensibilities called a ‘mall’) the two young women went about their trade, Zoe taking photographs of passers-by and the damage caused by the duel between Ranger and Sureshot and Joyce approaching said passers-by and asking horribly leading questions with a broad, shit-eating grin.

Suddenly, Joyce noticed that the clicking of Zoe’s camera had gone silent. She looked over her shoulder and saw that her partner was nowhere in sight. Perceptions trained by many nights on the rooftops of London, she saw Zoe’s ripped jean-clad leg vanish around the corner. Growing, she left her interviewee, who had just got into a long rant about ‘them from overseas’ and the current mayor’s inability to control them and wasn’t likely to notice she was gone.

Joyce followed Zoe around the corner but found that her quarry had vanished. On instinct, she clambered up a fire escape and, once out of view of the streets, pulled apart her street clothes to reveal the costume of Ranger. As the final step, she wrapped her blindfold-like reserve eye mask around her head and flipped up the hood in her cloak (which folded up tightly so she could fit it under her blouse). She couldn’t carry her characteristic longbow whilst in her street clothes but she did have her lighter weapons in her backpack - her two-foot-long fighting knife and a crossbow pistol. She slid a revolver-like cylinder of eight bolts under the shaft of the weapon and cocked it using the pump-action mechanism developed by Monkeywrech. “Zoe!” she whispered harshly.

One thing about the Parisian girl was her tendency to go roof-climbing for the best vantage points; all the rest of the team (with the exception of Paladin, who was never particularly talkative) had confirmed that.

Ranger lightly padded along the series of fire escapes and air-condition ducts, looking for any sight of her friend. What she saw answered all of her questions all at once: A familiar figure in a white business suit over a black button-up shirt swaggering in through the fire exit of a commercial lot carrying a take-out bag marked with the name of a local italian eatery. The blonde hair and the distinctive double wedding ring identified him immediately as Felix Graham de Vanily - Janus. A supervillain known for his sadism, his cruelty and his total loyalty to Leonidas. More importantly, he was also a frequent visitor to Paris and he would naturally know Zoe on sight as the daughter of the former mayor of that city and twin of the superhero Queen Bee. Ranger could well understand why her friend would have wanted to be out of sight if she’d spotted someone like that walking down the street.

What was he doing here, though? Ranger checked her phone’s note app and saw that this lot was owned, through innumerable shell companies, Twin Ring Holdings, one of the Lion’s many financial firms. It was one of the locations that Paladin had asked Zoe to search for Brett Wilkins

Moving to a rooftop skylight, Ranger re-acquired her quarry, handing a wrapped pastry and steaming cup of take-away tea to an auburn-haired beauty that she immediately knew to be Iris Verdi - Enchantress. She’d accidentally stumbled onto one of the Pride’s forward operating bases?

“Well?” Graham de Vanily demanded of his companion

“There seems to be something chemical in his bloodstream stopping my Ensnare taking hold, Felix,” Verdi replied. “We’re going to have to flush it out his system and that might take days.”

Graham de Vanily grimaced angrily. “Damn that Paladin! He’s always coming up with new tricks!”

Ranger later admitted that she’d been careless in assuming that Leonidas would bother keeping an outpost of his empire well-maintained. As it was, she hadn’t realised that he’d allowed the skylights of this safe house to decay when the pane of glass beath her popped out of its frame and she fell twenty feet to the floor below, only being saved from crippling injury by landing on a stack of empty packing boxes that had been left underneath.

“What the hell?” Graham de Vanily blinked stupidly at the cloaked woman lying almost in the dead centre of the room. His eyes grew even wider as he recognised his unexpected visitor. “You’re one of Paladin’s band of costumed idiots! Kastorr! Pollux! Unveil the Dark Mirror!”

“Spiica, show my dark favours!” Verdi yelled. Both fillains were consumed in magical light as their transformations took hold. The process took less than a second but it was more than enough time for Ranger to get back onto her feet and aim her crossbow at the centre of Janus’s chest.

“Oh no you don’t my darling!” Ranger looked over at Enchantress as the witch held up her hand mirror. “Ensnare!”

Ranger’s mind ground to a halt as her mind was filled with liquid pleasure and every other thought and memory was blotted out by a total, overwhelming devotion for her new mistress, someone who she would kill for, die for and abase herself utterly just in the hope of seeing her smile in approval. She lowered her crossbow and fell to her knees. “Command me, my love!” she gasped out.

“That’s better, my darling,” Enchantress said,stroking Ranger’s face lovingly and exchanging a sick smile with Janus. “Now… I’m sure that you know how to contact that spoilsport Paladin and his other ruffians. Why don’t you do so and call them here for us?”

Ranger’s charmed mind couldn’t come up with a single reason why not. Indeed, she couldn’t even come up with a single reason why she shouldn’t tell her Mistress that horrible man’s real name if it weren’t for the fact she hadn’t been directly asked. She fumbled for her communications earpiece when there was a screech and a blue-and-white bird of prey snatched the Virgo Mirror from Enchantress’s hand, earning a cry of anger from its mistress. “GET THAT BACK!”

Ranger raised her crossbow pistol and without any hesitation, fired a trio of quarrels right at her Mistress’s enemy, carefully leading the moving target to ensure a hit. Much to her surprise and frustration, the bolts were somehow caught mid-air by a gust of wind and tossed aside. Nooo! Mistress will be so angry at me!

“I’ll get this Enchantress!” Janus declared, raising his Asiegi and pointing it at the falcon. “Duality of Descent!” The magical attack snatched the bird from the air and flung it at the ground but, as it dropped, it was consumed by blue-white flame, turning into a blue-and-white badger and, as it landed, the concrete of the ground deformed upwards, meeting and shattering the Virgo Mirror held in the badger’s claws. No-one noticed how the shards sparkled into silver-white light as the whole Miraculous Tool seemed to disintegrate into pure unformed magic.

Ranger nearly fell as her mind instantly cleared. Able to think again, she turned at the raging Janus and fired a crossbow bolt at his chest. The Miraculous granted superhuman reflexes and he ducked to one side, getting hit in the left shoulder and making him shout in pain. “This is ridiculous! Come on, let’s get out of here!” He seized Enchantress around the waist and pointed the Gemini Aseigi at the distant roof. “Duality of Ascent!” Both supervillains rose into the air and vanished through the hole in the skylight.

“I… What…? Ranger’s brain was spinning and she was fighting a desire to vomit as she recalled the total conquest of her mind by Enchantress’s magic.

“Duality of Motion!” she heard Janus yell. In response to the magic, the remains of the skylight tore out of the ceiling and flew towards the startled Ranger and she felt something hit her right temple hard.

The light came back into Ranger’s mind and she realised that she was under a mass of fallen rubble that was somehow forming a dome over her as the badger stood on its hind limbs, its forepaws raised as if it was physically holding the ceiling up.

Ranger could hear Enchantress scolding Janus: “This is beyond our ability to control! We need to go and inform the Lion that the trap has been compromised!”

Janus sounded chagrined as he replied. “You’re right. Let’s not leave any loose ends though! Duality of Heat!”

Ranger winced as she heard fires begin to catch all around the rocky shield that was protecting her from immediate harm. Her and someone else too: “Er… Hello? Is the fighting over yet?” asked a plaintive voice.

Ranger looked over and was surprised to see Brett Wilkins, stripped to shorts, under-vest and socks, cowering by the badger. Seeing her torn eye mask lying on the floor, Ranger quickly made sure her hood was in place and shading her face before standing up and looking at him. “Mr Wilkins, yes, the criminals are gone but they have set fire to the building and we need to leave immediately.”

“Er… yes…” Wilkins said. “I’m fortunate that I was found by your trained badger and… er… Well, Paladin really does seem to be able to do anything, doesn’t he?” Ranger scowled at the obviously magical animal, which seemed to shrug before the fallen concrete, plaster, rooftiles and brickwork reshaped itself into a tunnel leading back onto the street. Ranger took the half-naked politician by the hand and dragged him in her wake as she made her escape.

~*~*~

On patrol that night, Ranger wasn’t surprised when a blue-white giant eagle owl landed near her watch spot. “Tempestia,” she said neutrally. “You might as well show yourself because your secret is out. after today’s caper.”

“You left this behind, Jay,” Tempstia replied after transforming into her human form. Ranger shot her a shocked look. Tempestia held out the torn remains of her eye mask. “Luckly, Janus and Enchantress don’t know Joyce O’Byrne so your secret is safe.”

Ranger shook her head wryly. “The one day that I take out my reserve mask without the anti-hypnotic optical filters then I have to run into that witch!” She frowned. “Tempestia…? Ranger frowned. “How do you know my secrets?”

Tempestia shrugged insolently. “Paladin has taught me the usefulness of making sure that I know things.”

Ranger snorted in disbelief. “Yes, but you shouldn’t know me by that name. There is only one woman in London who uses that nickname!” she swallowed. “Z… Zoe? Is that you?”

After another blue-white pyrotechnic, it was indeed Zoe Bourgeois who was standing on the roof, clutching her head in frustration. “Damn it! I knew that I’d end up outsmarting myself eventually!”

Ranger snorted in laughter. “Yeah, it’s so easy to do.” she looked up. “I mean… wow! I mean… magical super-powers?!?” She drew in a deep breath again. “Does David know?”

“He knows everything,” she said. “He’s okay with it.”

“Okay with it?!?” Ranger hooted derisively. “Hell, I remember when I started chasing Paladin around! I loved the thought of having a superhero on my arm but one with honest-to-merlin magical superpowers?!? What about that relationship is there that he wouldn’t like?”

Zoe grinned. “Yeah, there’s that,” she said, thinking of all the times Paladin and she had met on rooftops. She sobered. “Can I trust you, Ranger?”

“Can I trust you? I mean… I don’t have magic to hide my identity!”

Zoe put a hand on Ranger’s shoulder. “I would never betray you, Jay. You know that. You and the rest of the team… You are the protectors of this city. You have my oath on the Prodigious that I will die with this secret untold.” The blonde Parisian sighed. “You’re such remarkable people, you know Ranger. Most of you are 100% baseline and yet you turn your skills to the protection of the innocent. That’s a very rare trait, you know, one worthy of emulation.” She’d been thinking about this and it was now time to say it. She reached out and touched the Justice Forever shield on the shoulder of Ranger’s cloak. “You really are the knights of modern London - the guardians of peace, morality and chivalry. The ones who protect the people from those with power but no morality. It is something that I deeply admire and… and I have sworn to emulate.” Sensing that the time had come, Zoe transformed back into her costume and gave her friend an uncertain smile.

Ranger was thinking hard and was silent for a moment as she considered the JF logo that she’d only just noticed on Tempstia’s belt. “Zoe… Do you know…?”

Zoe cut her off before she could go any further. “I know enough, Ranger. Enough to know the whole truth about the man I’m coming to love.”

The two women sat side-by-side on the rooftop for a long time, just watching the city go about its nighttime business, both too discomforted by these revelations to just go about their normal activities. “You know, I got put under a spell by Enchantress too, right back when she first got her powers. I was turned against my friends and even on my sister and I didn’t think twice about what I was doing; nothing mattered but pleasing that witch.” The blonde seemed to be thinking of what to say next, “The scars in my self-confidence still ache occasionally. I guess what I’m saying is that no-one is immune and you don’t have to feel guilty. Also… If you really need to talk to anyone, I’m her, Jay, okay?”

Ranger shot her best friend a smile before deciding that the needed to change the subject. “So…” she said at last. “Tempestia, sister of Queen Bee and daughter of the Style Queen. Is there any kind of secret in the blood to these magical powers?”

“Is this going to be a formal interview, Miz O’Byrne?” Tempestia asked archly. “Should I call my agent or something?”

Ranger snorted. “Seriously, Zee, this is me and you know when I’m ‘on the clock’ or when I’m just writing a story. I really think that this is a legitimate concern though.”

Tempestia shrugged. “Well, Audrey Regine wasn’t akumatised first until my sister and I were both 14 years old so…”

“Yeah, but there’s her supervillain form; Black Gold, isn’t it?”

Zoe shook her head. ”No, Jay, Black Gold is someone else in my mother’s employ, she…”

“Really? Because she looks the same based on the footage I’ve seen.”

There was a long, dumbfounded pause as Zoe’s brain jumped through insane hoops trying to deny any link between her mother and the supervillain Black Gold. “No, they can’t be… can they?”

Ranger gave her a strange look. “My god… There’s some kind of active identity protection on those transformation gems, isn’t there? It’s fighting back against the realisation here and now!” Ranger took Tempestia by the upper arms and tried to hold her steady because the superheroine seemed ready to faint. “Seriously, Zee, have you ever seen your mother and this Black Gold in the same place at the same time?”

Tempstia shook her head; she was getting a serious headache building up. “How is the Disguise Magic not affecting you?” was all she could ask as said magic fought against the realisation.

“It’s simple, my Renren,” Noctua said, hovering beside her head. “Because Ranger has never encountered Black Gold in person, she has never been directly exposed to the Disguise Magic of the Raven Miraculous and there is no power working on her and stopping her from making connections between that villain and your mother.”

Ranger gawped at the Owl Renling of Order and Light in honest amazement. “Uh… Yeah, what it said,” she said at last gesturing weakly in the Renling’s direction.

Tempestia was holding her pounding head as her brain uncertainly grasped and grappled with this new information. “So… Yeah… Audrey Regine is Black Gold. My sister is Queen Bee and I’m Tempestia.” She looked at the Prodigious around her left bicep thoughtfully. “Chloe told me that Audrey gave the setting and the Falcon Prodigious to her as a gift but she never realised that they were magical and certainly never felt a connection to it. Did Audrey have any inkling of what it was? Did she give it to Chloe in the hope of using her to control the Second Prodigious for her own selfish benefit?” Tempestia frowned behind her new mask. “You’re right, Jay. All of us are touched by the power of the creator of the Miraculous in some way and, yes, we have to ask: Is… Is there something in our blood? Is our family line connected to Miraculous magic somehow? I’m going to have to talk to my Masters about this.”

Ranger squeezed her friend’s shoulder, aware of just what a huge revelation this was for her. “One way or another, Zee, the team will be here to help you sort it out.”

~*~*~

Enchantress was holding the stunned Janus to her breast after the tremendous backhand blow he’d just received from his grandfather. She was used to the man’s casual brutality that he handed out to those whom he had deemed to have failed him but she’d never before seen him lose his temper so totally with one of his own kin.

“So, not only has one of my properties been destroyed but you lost Wilkins too? Despite this utter failure, you have the nerve to come crawling back to me, boy?” He shook his head fiercely. “Well, no matter; I have the power of chaos at my command and the magic of the Guardians too! I will resolve this matter that my less-than-adequate soldiers cannot. MONK!”

A trembling Chong-Li jumped to Leonidas’s side, only too aware that he was in the presence of a raging, homicidal tyrant, not dissimilar to the most legendary Mongul Khan. “You summoned me, my Lord?”

“As one of the only one of minions not to be a sickening failure of late, I will require you to accompany me when I make an example of Wilkins and those pestilential children. For the sake of appearances, he must make a public appearance and soon to prove that he is not afraid of me and that will be the time to strike!”

The Prodigious of Chaos and Light began to pulse and Leonidas noticed it. “I have warned you, to be silent, Rat.”

A ball of red light materialised in front of the supervillain and resolved into Rattus. “I remember your words, my lord, but, as my Holder, I am obliged by magic far more ancient than you to give you this warning: Remember the fate of Nightshade.”

“That puny witch? She is dead and has nothing to teach me except the price of…”

“She thought to use Chaos as a weapon rather than as a tool, oh Lion of Crime,” Rattus said with a dangerous grin. “She nearly destroyed her city and ended up stripped of all her power and nothing more than a puff of dust and ash. Her ignorance and lack of vision was the cause of her ultimate and irrevocable downfall.”

“Is that meant to be a threat, Renling?”

“It is a warning, my Lord. Your continuing to resist the flow of destiny can only lead to the most complete disaster for you. Chaos itself is working against you. It has already begun.”

St John scowled. “Well, you may count your errand as done, Rat. Now, begone, I have no interest in hearing you prattle any longer.” Rattus bowed with a poisonous smirk before turning back into red light that was absorbed by the gem at the supervillain’s throat. The man did not notice Chong-Li wince and cower a little at the cavalier way he’d dismissed the counsel of one of the Founding Grandmaster’s masterworks.

Enchantress, still holding Janus and caressing his hair in an attempt to comfort him., glared at the back of the Lion Villain of London through hooded eyes as he casually dismissed Rattus’s counsel and warning (something even she would hesitate to do, even with Spiica). She’d indulged that old fool for long enough. However, she could see that, like Gabriel Agreste before him, the power as well as the frustrations of the occasional defeat was beginning to take a toll on his sanity. It only seemed a matter of time now before his foes gained a sustained advantage. Now, before she was dragged down with him, she was going to act; she had a witch with governmental connections on call, after all.

“L… Lila?” Janus said weakly. “What is…?”

“Be at peace, my love,” Enchantress replied with a cruel smile as she continued to caress her lover’s blonde hair. “I will deal with this problem for you and then we will ascend to our proper places in this family.”

Chapter 15: Chaos

Chapter Text

Harry Branch, the superhero known as Avalanche, had actually been in this game for longer than Paladin had. The moment that his mid-Delta-level enhanced physicality kicked in when he was fourteen, he’d become a sort of protector to the kids of his neighbourhood, progressing to a bane of local street gangs, dope dealers and other bullies. One of the consequences was that, as Avalanche swaggered down the street towards the community centre, he was being greeted by people from his old borough neighbourhood, exchanging fist-bumps, high-fives and other greetings with people he knew.

Standing by the entrance, Abrakadabra rolled her eyes. She’d never understand how Avalanche got away with being such a public figure… No, strike that. If his superhuman ability ran in the blood, taking on even one of them to send a message would be a bad idea, even for the Lion’s Pride.

Sheherezad al-Amain, Abrakadabra, resplendent in her stage-best tuxedo, shifted uncomfortably. She was a poor kid whose parents hailed from the slum quarter of Medina. Being suddenly trusted with being the personal bodyguard of a candidate for Mayor of London was a huge step up the social ladder for her, far larger than she was entirely comfortable with.

She touched the earpiece that Paladin had given her. “Okay, Hawkie? All clear? Everyone in place?”

Night Glider, far, far overhead, responded immediately. “There is no sign of any trouble in the area immediately around the meeting venue, Abrakadabra but stay alert as we know that the Lion has a tame teleporter on his payroll.”

Yeah, that was the worst part. She was a stage conjurer but she had little desire to try her luck against an actual wizard.

“Hey, Abra!” The black-haired young woman turned and smiled at Zoe Bourgeois. “Ah! The delightful Miss Bourgeois! How can I help you?”

Zoe pushed forward an older bespectacled woman with startling long titian hair and the most wonderful fitted red leather clothing. “Wow. Badass outfit, Miss…”

“Miss Rose,” the newcomer said with a tight, professional smile. “That is all you need to know.”

“Miss Rose is another associate of Paladin’s,” Zoe explained. “She’s a… specialist in certain special forms of security and is going to be laying detectors around the venue that should give us early warning of any uninvited ‘guests[‘.”

‘Miss Rose’ gave Zoe an odd look. “Yes… Yes, I think that’s a sufficient and accurate explanation. We’re just here to ensure that you are not alarmed by any of my… placing of detectors.”

“There is a strong James Bond vibe about you, Miss Rose,” Abrakadabra said, actually earning a blush.

“The Commander is a dear friend and mentor Madam and…” she blushed brighter and waved. “No, wait, forget I said that. A wooden stick was suddenly pointed at Abrakadabra’s face. “Amnesio!” there was a bright white flash and the last fifteen seconds were abruptly gone from the costumed adventurer’s mind as if it had never happened. Zoe frowned and she led the witch, arguing about something in a low, urgent tone of voice.

“So, what set off this surge of cooperation… as limited as it is?” Zoe asked.

Miss Rose blinked to get away the after-images of the bright warm light pouring off of Bourgeois’s bracelet. Was this what all the Miraculous looked like through the eyes of a magic-sensitive? “We received a tip from one of our confidential informants that Leonidas was going to personally attack this meeting and he’s bringing his pet Guardian with him.”

Zoe’s reaction was unexpected. She smiled bitterly. “Oh, good; I’ve got something that I’ve been wanting to say to Chong-Li.” The blonde gave Rose an annoyed look. “Please be less liberal with the mind-wipe spells though.”

“Come now, Ms Bourgeois, I’m sure you are as interested as I am in secrecy and… Well, Commander Bond is more than a film character and MI8 prefers to keep that fact to ourselves.”

Zoe boggled at Miss Rose in disbelief but decided that she had no interest in going down that particular rabbit-hole. “So, do you need a vantage point?”

Rose considered that. “No, thank you. I will finish ‘spinning my web’ and then find somewhere nice and central to wait for someone to stumble into it.”

~*~*~

Sureshot wasn’t happy. “My Lord, surely it would have been wiser to bring my son and his paramour? If we are to attack, let us attack in str…”

Leonidas’s hand cut through the air. “This is no time for timidity, my dear Sureshot. Nor is it time to be indulging weak links.”

Sureshot looked scandalised. “My Lord…!”

Leonidas raised his hands for silence. “Sureshot, he is your son and I’m sure that you love him but, despite his excellent raw skill with the Gemini Miraculous, he lacks the intellect to use it effectively. I would prefer to not have to make use of such an… imperfect tool at this time. As for the beauteous Word Witch? I have never fully trusted her and I have no doubt in my mind that she is now only biding her time to betray me; for what ultimate purpose remains to be seen but I do not expect the best interest of our family or our business to factor into it.”

As the crime lord pivoted away from his daughter, he missed the look of rage that crossed her face.

“Now, Monk, attend me.”

Chong-Li was rubbing his hands together nervously. “My Lord, whilst I do not presume to question your judgement, I feel that you should take Sureshot’s concerns more…”

“Enough.” Leonidas’s physical presence was enough to silence Chong-Li. He did not have a strong enough stake in the future of the Lions’ Pride to care if the man destroyed it himself in a fit of arrogance or temper. He did notice however, Sureshot muttering about ‘Lila’ being right but he didn’t know enough about this group to know who that might refer to.

Leonidas swung the Leo Sword around his wrist a few times. “Chong-Li, let us begin.” Chong-Li pulled out a magical scroll and threw it at the nearest wall, creating a magical portal. “Madame, if you will,” he said to Sureshot, gesturing politely.

What he never knew is that, the moment the magical passage opened, he broke a magical ‘tripwire, activating an alarm that only Miss Rose could hear.

~*~*~

“All of Forever Justice, this is Miss Rose; the Lion’s Pride is teleporting into the area,” Ranger didn’t know how Paladin’s magical contact did it but, having seen Zoe’s powers at work, she wasn’t about to start asking questions. She nocked an arrow and pivoted towards a sparkle of blue light as Sureshot materialised on a roof near her.

“Ranger, do not engage until you know what her objective is,” Paladin’s harsh, digitally-masked voice barked in Ranger’s ear.

“Copy that, Paladin.” Ranger began to move along the roof, keeping the red-and-black-costumed villainous archer in sight at all times.

A donut of blue light appeared in the centre of the courtyard of the community centre that disgorged Leonidas. Chong-Li and a half-dozen armed mercenaries. Chong-Li immediately noticed a golden dome formed out of sparkling light at the edge of his field of perception. “My Lord! They must have a mage here! They have raised a teleportation interdiction ward!”

Leonidas sneered at the renegade Guardian. “That is only a problem if we intend to run, Monk.” An experienced warrior, Leonidas immediately noticed Avalanche begin to power-walk towards him. Without a moment’s hesitation, he drove his sword into the wall of a nearby building and used his Vanquish power. The building began to collapse and Avalanche diverted away from the supervillains to grab the collapsing building and stop it from falling on the crowds. “Time… to… get… clear… folks!” he grunted; the hundreds of tons of concrete and metal were a bit much even for his anomalously enhanced strength. “Bring me Wilkins!” Leonidas boomed as he strode towards the entrance. He was not particularly surprised to see Gazelle and Abrakadabra step out to face him. “Pitiful,” he muttered, pointing towards Gazelle.

Ranger gasped over the com channel. “Crap! Gazelle, incoming! Sureshot is on overwatch!” The African woman reacted immediately, spinning her hardened alloy bo-staff to shield her. This would be enough to stop any mundane projectile but not the energy arrows of the Sagittarius Miraculous’s Deadshot attack and the energy transfer blew the young hero off of her feet, tumbling away and her weapon knocked out of her hand.

Ranger was already responding, firing an arrow at Sureshot, who easily dodged the attack. She looked at the younger woman with a sneer before her enhanced senses detected an anomaly. There were red lights flashing on the arrowhead and it took Sureshot a few seconds to realise what was happening. She somersaulted out of the way just as the arrowhead exploded with a bright white flash and a loud concussion.

Ranger took a run-up and leapt over to the roof which Sureshot had used as her sniper nest and landed right next to the woman, pulling out her two fighting knives. The archer smirked and broke her bow into the two Owl Talon knives and the two women began a deadly dance of clashing blades.

The area was a sea of chaos right now, with Avalanche desperately holding up the building, Gazelle struggling back to her feet and Paladin and Night Glider were fighting Leonidas’s Mooks. Ranger was more than a little impressed that Wings was using the pinions of his flying suit as weapons. The alloy he was using was evidently strong enough to deflect bullets and blunt force impacts and had sharp enough edges to be useful as bladed weapons. Screams began to echo around the courtyards as forearms, still clutching guns, began to tumble through the air.

As much as Night Glider claimed not to like Paladin’s violent methods, he could use them, when required.

Leonidas was a man on a mission, it seemed. He collided with some kind of magical force-field over the entrance to the community centre. “MONK!” In response to the demand, Chong-Li threw a magical scroll towards the doors and the force-field shattered like glass. Leonidas took a few steps forwards, smashing aside the glass doors with a single sweep of his Sword but then found himself entangled in brass rings, normally used for a classic conjuror’s trick, however, now masquerading as leg hobbles. Leonidas growled and Chong-Li was impressed that the man did not lose his balance and fall.

The renegade Guardian stepped forwards and smiled at Abrakadabra in a way that showed no warmth at all. “Ah! I see! You are a practitioner of those stage arts that mocks the True Arts of magic! Well, I’m sure that I can erase your conceit to have any mastery over M… AARGH!”

Rolling her eyes behind her white domino mask, Abrakadabra gestured and dropped a hand of cards into her left hand and, with quick movement of the forefingers of the other hand, started throwing them into Chong-Li’s face with speed and precision. Somehow, the cards were sharp enough to open deep cuts on the man’s high cheekbones. “DAMNED GIRL!” the monk roared. Another spell scroll dropped into his hand and the threw it at the brass rings entangling his master’s feet. In response to his gesture, the rings glowed blue, untangled themselves and flew up into the air, dropping down over Abakadabra’s neck and tightening, making the Arab girl make a panicked choking noise. “How do you want this to end, My lord?” he asked politely.

Leonidas shifted his feet and smirked. “My dear Chong-Li, you may… indulge yourself.” The supervillain power-walked deeper into the community centre as Abracadabra fell to her knees, clawing at her tools that were tightening mercilessly around her throat.

“Poor young fool,” Chong-Li said in a meditative tone of voice. “Only now, at the end, do you realise.” The tableau was broken by a golden-white flash of lightning and the severed rings clattered to the tiled floor, the severed ends glowing bright yellow with heat. “What?!?” Chong-Li turned and his mouth dropped open comically as Tempestia stepped through the doorway.

“Hello, Chong-Li, I suspect that you thought that you’d seen the last of me.”

“H.. How! I… I locked the Prodigious so you wouldn’t be able to use it!”

Tempestia’s smile was a mixture of rage and pity. “You put too much faith in your powers and their effectiveness on the Founding Grandmaster’s works, Adept.” With a growl of fury, Chong-Li threw a spell scroll at Tempestia, a Form Lock spell to stop her using her animal guises, and then launched himself at the blonde, ready to use his skills in Marcu-Fu to break the child’s neck and end this here and now but he was caught mid-air by a gust of wind and thrown back across the atrium to collide with a concrete support column with bone-splintering force.

Too stunned to think, let alone get up, Chong-Li didn’t react as Tempestia swayed towards him with calculated and mocking sensuality. “As you can see, the power of the elements answer to my needs, a sign that I am not just wearing the Prodigious but am bonded to it. Now, however, I have a message for you from the current Grandmaster.” Tempestia pulled in a deep breath and then concentrated on the recording that Marinette had sent to her and to recite exactly every one, sound and inflection of it.

Chong-Li’s dazed scowl changed to a confused look as he listened to Tempestia begin to chant in Tibetoka, the sacred tongue. one that surely no outsider could learn. Dupain-Cheng! That imposter was the weak link! Su-Han would pay for indulging her in due time! What was she…? The adept’s confusion melted into horror as his brain caught up with the words that Tempestia was chanting.

“For your treachery, the Council has judged you: Now and forever, you are cast out and are a Guardian no more.”

Words and meaningless words from the mouth of a usurper but there was power in them that indicated that she was repeating the words of one with Authority. Before Chong-Li’s horrified gaze, his monastic robes, his proudest possession, began to fray and fall apart, leaving him dressed in rags. The spell scrolls he had laboriously prepared for today’s battle fell from the remains of the bells of his sleeves and crumbled into ash and rot and… most terribly he could no longer remember the location of the Temple or any of his training. Everything was a huge blank as if someone had washed a wall painting away in his mind, leaving only a few faded shapes that reminded him horribly of the things that he once knew and could do but now could not even begin to conceive how they were possible.

“This is something that you wrought with your own envy and ambition, Chong-Li,” Tempestia said quietly. “What you do now is your own concern, not the Order’s. Do not come my way again or I will carry out the second part of my mission to bring you to the Grandmaster as a bound prisoner.”

With a cry of heartbroken despair, Chong-Li staggered to his feet and fled deeper into the community centre, holding his head as if he were afraid that it was about to come loose.

“Uh...” Abrakdadbra coughed once before continuing. “I guess the reports of your indisposition were exaggerated, Tee?” She looked in the direction of Chong-Li’s flight. “What was that?”

“Justice,” Tempestia said flatly. “Powers that you misuse for selfish ends will inevitably be used against you.” She looked outside of the building. “I see that Avalanche finally has that building propped up. Get out there and help Night Glider and ~Gazelle with the mooks.”

Abrakadabra frowned. “Where’s Paladin?”

~*~*~

Leonidas burst into the meeting room decorated with ‘Wilkins for London’ banners and looked around himself, not seeing the young aspiring politician. “Wilkins! Come out or I will have my followers slaughter your supporters to the last man, woman and child!” he bellowed. He did not get the reply he expected. The room’s skylight caved in as Paladin dropped to the floor in front of him in a crouch, sword and shield at the ready. Not fazed in the slightest, the supervillain grinned in anticipation. “Ah! I was hoping when you’d make an appearance, boy! Well, my treacherous daughter is no longer here to protect you and neither is that blonde twit and the Prodigious she stole from me!

Paladin stood unhurriedly. “You just keep on stacking up reasons for me to want to see you dead, don’t you, oh Leonidas? First you drive my grandfather to suicide and now sponsoring this attack on one of my team-makes?.”

Leonidas chuckled contemptuously. “Well, I’ll be glad to send you to your grandfather’s side, whoever he turns out to be and you can be sure that I will make it my business to destroy your remaining family too for your defiance of my will!”

Paladin shook his head. “Less talk and empty boasts, criminal. Prove to me that you can make it happen.”

Leonidas grinned. “I have changed and, with Chong-Li’s help, honed my tools, boy. I am not as easy as I used to be to counter. RATTUS! TO MY BLADE!”

The Leo Sword suddenly ignited from hilt to tip with diabolical red-black flame. Paladin reflexively jumped out of the way of the first swing and blocked the second with an angled shield, sending the Leo Sword skittering off target. “As you can see, scum, you are not the only one who has been honing his talents.” However, Paladin wasn’t overconfident. The fiendish fiery sword was clearly able to sever any mundane substance and he wasn’t going to push his luck. He fell back in front of Leonidas’s inexorable advance as the supervillain cleaved apart furniture, walls and even structural columns, starting fires all around the meeting room before the man cornered him by the rear wall column and delivered a crushing downward swing.

Instinctively, Paladin raised his shield and… the Leo Sword crashed into the shield as if it were an ordinary sword being used against an ordinary shield. The fiendish flames blinked out as if someone had thrown a switch.

Both Paladin and Leonidas looked at the sword and shield in contact with each other in dumbfounded way, Paladin noticing that his shield was now coated with a glass-like field of light that a had what looked like Tempestia’s old seven-cell honeycomb sigil shining on it.

“What sorcery is this?” Leonidas gasped. Paladin has his suspicions but he didn’t want to say anything. Instead, he delivered a counter-strike, opening Leonidas’s red and gold tabard from right hip to left shoulder.

“Master!” Chong-Li wailed, staggering into the room, his robes reduced to rags and his face nearly yellow with terror. “My lord! My powers! She stripped me of them all! I am helpless before the Prodigious‘s power now!”

Leonidas roared in rage and, without a moment’s hesitation, drove the Leo Sword through the young man’s chest. “I warned you, Monk,” he hissed angrily. “I warned you that I would not tolerate any further failure and yet you come and throw yourself at my feet for protection as if you have any remaining value to me? I don’t know if I am disgusted or impressed by your presumption.” Paladin looked up towards the shattered skylight and saw Tempestia looking down at the dying Chong-Li, her hands covering her mouth in horror.

“I warned you, My Lord,” said a high-pitched voice. Everyone looked to see Rattus hovering by Leonidas’s shoulder. “Your moment of destiny is almost upon us.”

“DAMN YOU RAT!” Leonidas’s crazed swing of the sword didn’t actually hit Rattus who easily swooped out of the way with a mocking laugh. “Enough of this childishness! Rattus: Unleash the true power of the Rat!”

The whole room seemed to turn inside out as waves of red light flashed from the gemstone in the centre of the booch on Leonidas’s collar. Paladin felt that the world suddenly felt like rose perfume, smelled of cloud, tasted of violin music and sounded green and he clutched his head as his brain’s sense of reality and stability was shattered.

Leonidas grinned evilly and strode towards the kneeling costumed hero, his sword raised to strike. No-one noticed Tempestia, surrounded by a glowing white bubble, gesturing and the power of Melus reshaping brick, steel and concrete into an open passage through the walls between Leonidas and the outside.

Ranger had just finally brought down Sureshot with a grappling line crossbow bolt fired at her ankles when she saw the community centre suddenly flex and reveal a shining red light in the centre of a flaming red miasma seemingly surrounding the figure of Leonidas, who was advancing on the helpless Paladin. “Ranger!” Zoe yelled over the comlink. “Aim for the gem! Now!”

Snatching up her longbow and nocking an armour-piercing arrow, Ranger sighted on the supervillain and saw Tempestia. standing on the roof, directing a needle of pure white light from her outstretched arm at the things she was talking about. Without hesitation, she loosed her arrow. Her focus on this moment was so total, that she didn’t notice Sureshot opening a holographic phone-like interface, seemingly projected from her bow, and type in a simple message.

As the arrow flew, it was coated with pearlescent white light being radiated by Tempestia and, without any loss of momentum or deflection of direction, it sashed across the collar of Leonidas’s costume, sending the brooch and its central gem arcing into the air; the moment it left the supervillain’s throat, everything snapped back to normal in an instant. “NO!” Leonidas screamed, clawing for the Prodigious gem as it tumbled through the air. “Rattus, return my property to me!”

Rattata, with a diabolical laugh, snatched the red gem from the air and flew up to Tempestia before settling into a hover and bowing respectfully. “Greetings, my lady Renren,” the Rat Renling whispersred reverently. “We meet at long last!”

“Hello, Rattus,” Zoe replied, gesturing to the Prodigious on her bicep. “Please, join your brothers and sisters.

“Thank you!” Rattus squeaked happily, thrusting the red gem into one of the two empty places on the Prodigious.

Tempestia was briefly surrounded b red-black flame and, when it cleared, Tempestia had a seventh badge on her belt, this one with the stylised representation of a rat’s face. Seven cheering Renlings were chasing each other around her head and shoulders and, one by one, flew back into the Prodigious, leaving just Noctua and Rattus hovering by Zoe’s head. “Now you see how silly your idea was, Rattus?” the Owl Renling said in a lecturing tone.

Rattus rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay, sister, you were right and I was wrong, okay? Just remember that I wasn’t the only one who thought that way!” Noctua frowned but she couldn't deny that and she hadn’t heard Lynx or Melis apologising for that mistake either. The last two Renlings flashed into balls of light (white and red respectively) and were absorbed into their jewels

Leonidas had backed up fearfully as he looked at Tempestia’s ‘upgraded’ costume, his mind racing to come up with some bribe, threat or false promise to gain her loyalty.

“You never really understood chaos, did you?” Tempestia asked rhetorically. “It isn’t just the absence of order and pattern. It’s change, entropy, evolution and growth! It is the natural process of events over time. Here, let me demonstrate!”

Leonidas looked stupidly as blood-red light radiated out from Tempestia and filled the room with a warm radiance. The concrete ground as it splintered and plants grew from the cracks; the walls shifted and took on the look of ancient Hellenic monumental architecture and the light fittings metamorphosed into photoluminescent fungus. The supervillain looked down to see that the plants had tangled around his legs. “No… I…”

Tempestia had let the Air carry her down into the meeting room and, much to her embarrassment, Paladin knelt before her, his sword braced on the ground in front of him like a crucifix. “My angel,” he said reverently.

Somehow, Tempestia managed to not giggle or gush like a crushing little girl. Instead, she offered the knight her hand. “Rise, my champion,” she said, quoting the romance books she loved during her childhood in New York. Paladin did so and turned to Leonidas, his sword raised and ready.

Leonidas’s eyes bulged behind his eye mask. “SOMEONE! HELP!” he yelled. “Save me!” There was no-one to heed his cry, Chong-Li was lying in a pool of blood, Sureshot was nowhere to be seen, the various mercenaries were defeated and either captured or needing hospitalisation.

“Duality of Motion!” boomed a young male voice. Leonidas was suddenly yanked into the air and, as everyone watched, he settled into hover in a ball of gravity-free space being projected by Janus with a battered-looking Sureshot standing next to him, a maternal hand touching him on the shoulder.

The supervillains were directed by Janus’s command higher up into the air and quickly vanished into the distance.

“DAMN IT!” Miss Rose screamed racing over into the room from the stairs up onto the roof, practically tearing out her curly auburn hair. “We had him! If Janus hadn’t come in from above my ward dome, that spell wouldn’t have worked!” The Titian-haired witch looked around her . “Wow. This place is a mess! Rebuilding this will probably be the first big-ticket job for the new Mayor and…”

“And I think I can help,” Tempestia said, touching the Prodigious. “Rattus, Noctua, Restoration!” she commanded. A bubble of blood red and then pearlescent white light flashed out and, as it passed ,all the damage was miraculously (or maybe Prodigiously) fixed as if it had never occurred.

Tempestia dropped to her knees at Chong-Lil’s side. “Chong Li…” she said, her voice thick with regret, gathering the man against her breast and stroking his face.

“My… little sister…” the former Adept whispered. “F… Forgive… me… I was b… blind and… I… I could not… I would not see…!” He drew in a shuddering breath. “Forgive me! You were worthy! I… I see that now…! I…!” then he fell still, his eyes open and unseeing.

Tempstia stood again and looked around her, letting Paladin take her under his arm. “I will see to it that the Guardians remember that you repented at the end,” she said quietly.

“More than he deserves, Tempestia,” Miss Rose said tartly. “It says more about you than it does him.”

~*~*~

So, the summer was over and Zoe’s mission was at least partly completed. The final Prodigious remained hidden but, if she understood what the Guardians had said to her, it would require meditation and time to find the eighth and final gem, which would only be revealed when she was fully in harmony with the Prodigious’s many virtues.

This morning, Zoe had finally handed in her project of London People and Scenes and it would depend on the lecturers to see if she passed the course. Tonight, Tempestia was on the roof of a hotel overlooking the Tower of London with the rest of Justice Forever. Paladin was a looming presence and the others were mostly shifting idly, visibly nervous around their superpowered magical team-mate.

“Tempestia,” Paladin announced. “You have fought hard and worked honourably with our association and there remains only one barrier to inducting you into Justice Forever.”

“Which is?”

“We all know each other’s secret identities,” Gazelle announced. “It’s a security risk but it is also a show of trust and enables us to support each other in and out of costume.”

Tempestia blinked. She’d never once anticipated this possibility. Lots of things collided in her head, most notably Ladybug repeating that secret identities were to be protected at all costs. On the other hand: What price for trust? And weren’t the senior members of Team Miraculous all known to each other? In the end, the whole rule was in place because of the dumb stunt Chloe pulled by revealing her secret identity in front of the press corps in an attempt to make Audrey notice her. Unmasking for fellow heroes was surely something different?

Tempestia looked around again. No, that wasn’t the point: The point was that Paladin trusted them all. Paladin, who was nearly a synonym for ‘paranoid’, trusted them. If he did, then who was she to not do so? Most importantly she trusted him and the fact that he asked her to do this carried a lot of weight for her.

She blew out a long breath before mentally dismissing her transformation.

Several of the assembled heroes looked shocked, Abrakadabra actually squealed in excitement, Ranger just looked smug and Paladin, as was his nature, was unreadable. The members of Justice Forever responded by taking off their masks, bandana-hoods and, in Night Glider’s case, his metallic face-mask. Lanisha! Sherry! Jake!

“Well,” Zoe remarked. “I should be surprised but, with hindsight, why should I?”

Paladin removed his impressive helmet and stepped over to Zoe, taking her chin in his gauntleted hand and placing a loving kiss on her lips. Lanisha looked at Joyce worriedly but was surprised to see the auburn-haired archer was smiling with tears of rueful happiness on her cheeks. “Welcome to Justice Forever, Angel,” David said quietly.

Next morning, the team (in civvies) were on the bustling concourse of St Pancras International station. David was holding Zoe’s hands. “Are you sure that there is nothing I can do or say to make you change your mind?” he asked hopefully. “Or, if you need to go, that I cannot come with you?”

Zoe sighed and caressed David’s face. “David, Audrey is my burden just as Leonidas is yours. You would not be the man I love if you could just leave when he is still at large to cause harm,” She chuckled ruefully. “In truth, I would not be ready for this confrontation if it were not for you… for all of you and everything that you taught me.” She stepped closer to her boyfriend and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. “You will always have a special place in my heart and I will return as soon as I can.”

Joyce slapped her best friend on the shoulder. “Well, I think that Audrey Regine should invest in some new insurance… and maybe a decent criminal defence lawyer.”

“That’s right, Jake agreed. “Against Queen Bee and Tempestia? No chance!”

The friends closed into a huddle, Zoe receiving back-slaps, sisterly kisses and hugs. Finally, she and David again. “One way or another, David, I know this much: My future is at your side,” she said. “I will return to you, my love, you can be sure of that.”

~*~*~

Many miles away, Lila Rossi smiled as she listened to Ameilia Graham de Vanily’s sobs.

After their return from London, he had started lecturing her father in an angry and hectoring tone. The man showed no indication that he was listening until, finally, he’d turned and backhanded his daughter away from him before striding off towards his inner sanctum where he knew no-one would dare follow.

Lila laughed cruelly under her breath as she watched Falix stroking his mother’s face, marred by St John’s hand-print, tenderly, wiping away her tears and whispering words of comfort and promises of vengeance.

Taking up a pen and some notepaper, Lila sat in an isolated corner and began to write. The witch had proved surprisingly useful even without being in any way under her magical control. Thanks to those ridiculous crusading self-proclaimed ‘heroes’, the Lion of Crime was all but broken; all that she needed now was one last act to finish the game. Now… How to set the stage?

Chapter 16: The Miraculous of Virtue

Chapter Text

“ZOE!!!”

“CHLOE!!!”

Adrien winced and shook his head as the Bourgeois sisters’ mutual screams of welcome reached a tone and volume that would make stunned bats fall from the belfries of Notre Dame Cathedral as they collided in an excited mutual hug.

Adrien rubbed his ringing ears. “Ah, I don’t get it kid,” Plagg said, poking his head out of Adrien’s jacket. “What’s so special about this ‘sister’ thing between them anyway? Don’t know any other siblings who are so dependent on each other!”

Adrien shrugged. “Chloe has never had anyone close to her in her life except me and maybe Sabrina. Audrey and André filled her head with garbage about maintaining one’s social position from early on and she did the very best to do the same with Zoe too. When they met, they were both fighting a huge superiority complex that made it hard for them to open up emotionally. I don’t want to guess what might have happened to Chloe especially if Marinette hadn’t made the effort to step past her resentments and reach out to her. Probably nothing good.” Adrien smiled at the two hugging blondes. “As it turns out, they were each other’s salvation, even more so when Audrey’s real nature was exposed!”

The Cat Kwami of Destruction nodded. “You humans and your social rituals,” he sighed. “We kwami are a lot more practical. Give us a warm spot and some fresh cheese and we’ll be happy!”

A very happy-looking André Bourgeois strode over to his daughters and drew them into a proud and chaste hug. “Zoe! You’re back and I have heard only good things about you from the Dean of South Bank University. I’m very proud of your achievements and the credit it brings to our family.”

There was a time when an insecure Chloe Bourgeois would have flown into a rage at Zoe being singled out for praise like that but Chloe was no longer that woman and hadn’t been for two years, longer than she’d known her twin sister actually. “Yeah, my sister the shutterbug! I do hope that you brought some photos of that hot guy you fell for over there!” Zoe went bright red in the face, earring a grin of good-natured malice from Chloe.

“A summer boyfriend, Zoe? Oh well, I can hardly treat that as something out of the ordinary!”

“I… don’t think that he’s just a summer boyfriend, Papa,” Zoe said quietly, earning an indulgent smile from her father.

Adrien blushed at a sudden kiss on his temple. HE looked around at Marinette, who smiled sweetly, nodded politely and then walked over towards Zoe. “Zoe! You’re back!”

Zoe looked over. “Mas… Marinette! Yes, home from foreign climes!” Adrien noticed Zoe pull up her sleeve nervously and adjust the bracelet that was the Prodigious of Virtue.

“Maybe we should table discussions until we’re no longer in a public place?” Chloe suggested, much to her father’s confusion.

Adrien, sensing his cue, stepped forwards. “Actually, ladies, I am instructed to invite you all to the manor for this afternoon.” He smiled before continuing, in a more discrete tone. “We’re going to meet there.”

~*~*~

Emilie admitted that this was the most crowded that she’d ever seen the Hall of Miracles, as the youngsters called the meeting room under the dome of the mansion house, so very full. All sixteen members of the Parisian Team Miraculous were present, including herself as ‘de facto founder’ as Marinette had repeatedly put it. Also present were Gerard and the bald Grandmaster of the Order of Celestial Guardians. He was standing by one of the windows, his body language neutral. The voices of the gossiping kwami were cacophonic, to say the least. That was before you added the seven ‘Renlings’ that accompanied Zoe who were soaring around the room in line astern, just missing the heads of those sitting around the table, clearly either trying to find adventure or mischief.

“Everyone?” Marinette called out. “Everyone, can i Have your attention? You kwami and Renlings too, please!” It was a sign of just how authoritative she’s become after being appointed a Master Guardian that the chatter died down quickly and the various small spirits settled beside their holders, Emilie noting with a smile that Tikki, Zuuben and Mullo were in a posture of smug superiority as they settled in front of Marinette. “Thank you. First of all, thank you all for being here. This is the first time that we have all gathered in one place since I asked all of the then Holders to reveal their civilian identities to each other in the aftermath of Miracle King’s defeat. It has been an unexpectedly difficult time, with the revelation of the Dark Order and the appearance of the Lion of Crime and his many allies here in Paris. However, our city remains secure and I believe that you all deserve thanks for that. Please, take a moment to bask in the achievements you have achieved in the protection of this city and the Karmic Balance.”

Marinette drew in a breath before continuing. “This is a time of great peril, my friends. Events before and after Hawkmoth’s reign of terror have shown that we are in an era where the balance of world events and those of us blessed and entrusted with a Miraculous…” here she turned to Zoe and nodded. “Or one of the Prodigious, all of us have a role to play. Not just in fighting crime and magical evil but making sure that the ethical balance of world events are not disturbed by super-powered individuals acting for narrow national, commercial or personal interests.”

“Many of you already know of my adventure in Tokyo, earlier this year, in which I came into conflict with the East Asian Dark Order. With the aid of new heroes from the region, we emerged victorious and prevented the Dark Order from continuing to misuse Miraculous for their own selfish ends. This is, however, merely a taste of the battles that promise to lie ahead. I have called this meeting to advise the entire team of what is coming next and our part of it. Please give your attention to Jess Keynes, Aeon Hill and Gina Dupain, who are here on behalf of the United Heroez.”

This had been a choice that Marinette had made after a discussion with Nonna Gina that had got maybe a tad ill-tempered discussion with Nonna Gina. It had been the veteran super-soldier’s wish for the three members of the United Heroes to stay in costume but Marinette had successfully argued that the identities of the UH were known to each other, even some members of the general public, so it was simply fair and reasonable that, as Team Miraculous were sharing that information with SPECIAL, there be a degree of reciprocity.

However, because of this, when Gerard opened the door and ushered in the guests, it was in the familiar forms of Jess, Aeon and Nonna Gina.

“Aeon!” Markov rose into the air from where he was sitting beside Max’s tea-cup and buzzed over to Aeon, alighting on her shoulder and showing a grinning face Emoji. “It is most agreeable to see you again!”

Aeon stroked a gentle finger along the side of the headpiece of the small AI drone… kwami? “Likewise, Markov; have you been good in my absence?”

Markov’s face screen altered to show a smug expression. “Of course! Max and I completed our project!”

“That is good news, Markov,” Aeon said with her relaxed and neutral ‘pleased’ expression. Jess gave her a significant look. “Ah, but I think that we’re ready to start.”

Gina’s face had the nostalgic look of a grandmother pleased to see her grandchildren finding happiness. “Yes, the reason for this meeting is to ensure that Team Miraculous is fully aware of the situation in New York.” She nodded at Aeon who gestured and made a hologram of Audrey Regine over the centre of the table. “Audrey Regine, née Bourgeois,” Gina continued, earning a near-synchronised grimace of disgust from Chloe and Zoe. “Owner and operator of Style Queen magazine and an investor in fine art collections of various kinds, most notably indigenous artworks of… questionable provenance. SPECIAL has been tracking her activities since she so very publicly allied herself with the Lion of Crime by giving him use of her pet mercenary, Black Gold.”

“More than that, I’m afraid, Mme Dupain,” Zoe interrupted, earning a surprised silence and a long, hard look. “During my time in London, I encountered a very astute young woman who was able to push my brain through the magical defences on Black Gold’s transformation. I can confirm that Black Gold is more than my mother’s bodyguard, she’s her alter ego.” There was a long pause and Zoe wished that she’d had the time to talk privately with Chloe about this before Adrien had rushed them over to the mansion for the meeting.

Chloe’a finger was rubbing her chin. “So, Audrey is a supervillain?” she asked. Zoe nodded silently. Chloe shook her head. “Why am I not surprised?”

Gina was frowning but she was nodding thoughtfully. “Yes, Miss Bourgois, like you, I am not surprised at all and it changes very little except ratchet up the individual threat posed by your mother a few notches.” Gina sighed. “The point is that, as a senior member of this ‘Dark Order’, Audrey Regine has been offering far-above-market value for any stolen bit of indigenous art on the grey or outright black market in the hope that it will turn out to be a Miraculous. She’s not alone; lots of suspected Masters of the Dark Order have been doing the same. However, there are two issues that make this particularly alarming and the first is the young woman known as Storm Bear.” The image of Audrey was replaced by that of a woman about the young people’s age but wearing a shaggy, dark brown costume very obviously themed on a Grizzly Bear, especially with the clawed glove on her left hand. A few more stills flashed up, showing the woman throwing lightning bolts and even hails of ice spikes.

Chloe frowned. “This is like that crazy Hot ‘n’ Red had to face in New York about a year ago known as Tidal Wave, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Miss Bourgeoiis. It seems that, possibly inspired by the Lion of Crime, your mother is busy using whatever Miraculous she can acquire to immediately empower and deploy supervillains to act as her enforcers. This leads us to a deep amount of concern about a recent purchase that she has made from a known antiquities ‘fence’ from the US West Coast.” The picture changed to show a coil of rope like a belt with a painted bone front plate like a buckle of some sort.

Su-Han leant forwards. “The Puma Miraculous of Grace. I’m assuming that Standing Coyote has told you what this is and what it is capable of? Gina nodded.

Zoe began to rug her arms as if she was feeling cold. “We can’t let this happen, guys, we have to stop her!”

Jess had walked over to her former school-friend and touched her on the shoulder. “We have an agent working in Regine’s office and she’s keeping eyes on the Puma. However, there is only a matter of time before she finds someone to pass it to. She already has one supervillain working with her and if we want to avoid that becoming two, we have to move quickly.” Jess looked annoyed, even a little offended. “I’m so done with people like her using my people’s ancient treasures to empower themselves.”

“So, we need to act and soon,” Su-Han responded in a severe tone. “This… woman is your mother, Miss Bourgeois, Miss Bourgeois. Her crimes are her own but, by the most ancient of traditions, the responsibility for stopping her excesses falls upon you, if you wish to accept it.”

Chloe frowned. “Yeah; we get a choice whether we go but it will mean we lose a lot of credibility with you guys if we don’t right?”

Marinette shifted uncomfortably. “Chloe, no-one says that you and Zoe…”

“Maybe not you, Hot ‘n’ Red but there are some not far from this spot who are kind of eager to stand as judge!”

Su-Han stepped forwards and put a hand on the blonde heiress’s shoulder. “You are a child of the Dark Order, Chloe Bourgeois. You and your sister both were carefully groomed from infancy to be Audrey Regine’s heirs to her path of evil. The Council insists that you and your sister prove that you were not corrupted by this.”

Marinette stood up, her face showing outrage. “They’ve already proven themselves a dozen times over, Grandmaster. Chloe especially has shown that she has rejected her mother’s path.”

“One test remains,” the Grandmaster replied serenely. “The greatest test: To strip their mother of her power hand her over to punishment for her actions. Only then will they be seen as free of their posterity, not just by the Council but in their own hearts. I insist on this not as the Grandmaster of the Order but because I know, as they know, that this is true.”

To say that Chloe and Zoe both looked shaken by this pronouncement.

~*~*~

Zoe drew in a deep breath and, with her eyes closed, she settled into a lotus position and released it again slowly, trying to find her spiritual centre. She’d done this with Fei Shifu several times but never with a near-complete Prodigious on her wrist.

“Hey, sis!” Chloe said cheerfully. Zoe’s eyes snapped open and she looked up into the friendly blue eyes of her twin sister. “Y’know, I was never much into all this zen hocus-pocus that Marinette loves so much. To me it was… heh… it was utterly ridiculous. If you’re strong enough as a person then you can do anything, right? Then I faced all that mind-mojo that Black Gold’s Miraculous… That really was mother, wasn’t it? It was like being back in Agreste’s reign of terror and having to govern all my thoughts and feelings all over again.”

Chloe adopted a lotus position next to her twin and smiled over at her. “Anyway, I swore I’d never be vulnerable again like I was to Hawkmoth and I’d been practising how to beat him.” The blonde smiled a bit bitterly, mixed with a reluctant nostalgia. “Of course, I was kind of dead at the time of the final confrontation, so I never had the chance to use the moves I had planned.”

It was then that Zoe noticed something: As well as the Bee Miraculous in her sister’s hair at the root of her braid with its pink strand, there were other decorations in her hair, two dark brown hairclips shaped like curved goat horns holding back her bangs. There was a flash of bronze light and a black-and-white kwami with the features of a sheep or goat manifested, hovering above Chloe’s head., “Okay, girlie, ah think that’s enough of an introduction to ya sister!”

Chloe blushed slightly. “Sorry, Ziggy. Pollen would tell you about how I’m a bit of a show-woman.”

Ziggy grinned. “That’s what makes you ideal to use mah gifts, girlie!”

“That and her love for the hive instead of herself as an individual,” Pollen added, buzzing down to join the goat kwami. “It’s what makes her so much stronger than her mother could ever be.”

Zoe looked at the two kwami with honest surprise. “So… Master Ladybug gave you a second Miraculous?”

Chloe nodded. “I’ve been practising with the Goat for over a year now and this whole thing with mother blowing up is what told us both that I needed it to confront the power of the Raven. The two of them are coming with us to New York.” Chloe punched Zoe on the shoulder in a teasing way. “So, fancy patrolling with me tonight to get used to what I can do? And getting used to what you can do with that cool new set of gems you’ve found for yourself!”

Zoe nodded thoughtfully before standing up and grabbing her Prodigious, vanishing in a tongue of blue-white fire. Chloe grinned. “Pollen! Ziggy! Fusion transformation!”

~*~*~

Tempestia was crouched on a roof-edge, a trick that Paladin had taught her. “So,” she asked teasingly. “Don’t you usually patrol with your girlfriend?” Her sister strutted over, clearly revelling in the white mid-body stripes that replaced the yellow ones in this fusion transformation and the strange extended horn-like decorations on her mask over and behind her bubble-like eye protection.

Horned Bee laughed easily. “Stormy-chan knows that we can do that any time but bonding for you and me? That’s something that my heart says I’ve got to prioritise. I mean… I know that you’ve found a soulmate or something; who knows how much time and chance we’ll have to do this in the future?”

Tempestia shot her twin a sad look but, in her heart of hearts, she knew it was true. In a short time, they would graduate lycee; Chloe would go wherever Marinette’s company needed her to be and Zoe’s future was in London with Forever Justice. “It just isn’t turning out to be fair for us, does it sis?”

Chloe hugged her sister impulsively. “We’ll always be there for each other, Tempestia. Continental distances and maybe even entire worlds can’t keep us apart.” Then Chloe changed her posture and ran the edge of her finger along Tempestia’s changed mask. “This is an interesting new look. Your London BF come up with the idea?”

“It’s modelled on the sort of masks his allies use, yeah, but it seemed to create itself spontaneously when I broke the spell jamming the Prodigious. It’s just a reminder that the degree to which the powers of our transformations are based on what is in our hearts, not what we think we want.”

Horned Bee raised an eyebrow. “Just ‘spontaneously’, huh?” she said in an ironic tone of voice. Tempestia blushed. “Still, it looks cool and practical. I’m sure that those filtered lenses scare the hell out of people in dark alleyways!”

Tempestia grinned. “Want to find out?”

Horned Bee held up a hand. “Hold that thought, sis.” She shook her head. “Foxy has her fox senses and I can sense the needs of the ‘hive’... that’s the whole city really… and I’m getting a really sharp distress signal from hereby.”

“Just point me in the right direction; Lupus!” Tempestia said before switching to her wolf form, her nose twitching as the Wolf detected the smell of cruelty and fear hanging in the air in the immediate vicinity. With another flash of blue-white light, an Owl was flapping alongside the flying Horned Bee.

~*~*~

Everyone who knew him knew him as ‘Black Jacques’. It was probably intended to be a joke when it was first coined by his schoolmates but he’d made it his business that it would be something muttered in a fearful whisper, especially by those who in some way were in his power.

Short-tempered, violent and demanding, it was not pleasant to be in any kind of relationship for him, especially for the small collection of women that he used both as servants and to sate his physical needs. He had certain expectations that he demanded that his women live up to, even if that was impossible or was contradictory in some way.

“You stupid cow!” he hissed at his current punching bag. “Why do you insist on making me do this to you? Why can’t you just be a nice, obedient bitch?”

“J… Jackie…” the woman croaked out around her bruised and bleeding mouth.

“NO! I’m not interested in your lies! Now I’m going to teach you a lesson and you need to know that this is all your fault!”

Black Jacques’ sadistic smile fell when the window of the run-down squat exploded in and a figure in yellow and black tumbled through the gap before jumping upright. The thug didn’t know exactly who his unwelcome and uninvited guest was but it was definitely one of the city’s small army of super-freaks. Now, he was far from a brilliant light but he was far from stupid. He wasn’t about to try to fight one of these super-freaks when he had a guaranteed escape door right next to him. He grabbed his current girl…. What was her name anyway? He grabbed her by the hair and put his switchblade to her throat. “Back off!” he screamed. “Get out and the bitch lives! Don’t and she’ll die and it will be all your fault!”

The blonde woman in the strange wasp-striped costume frowned at him from behind her horned mask. “Okay, neither of those options rally appeal,” she remarked. She pulled out what Black Jacques realised with a sudden rush of amazement, was a shepherd’s crook and pointed it at him. “Let’s try it this way instead: Hardhead! Now, release the woman.”

Black Jacques would trade off this story in prison for the entire time he was there because it was just so damn weird. He didn’t feel physically forced to do anything. No invisible hand seized him and no power blasted him. No, he just suddenly made the choice with a clear mind to release the woman and step away from her. “Why the fuck did I do that?” he asked himself in a dizzy tone of voice before a spinning top jabbed into his solar plexus and he fell over backwards as stiff as a board, listening to his woman’s panicked screams as he did so.

Horned Bee shook her head in disbelief as the abused woman fell to her knees at her fallen abuser’s side and began to shake him desperately in an attempt to rouse him. Horned Bee touched the woman on the shoulder. “It’s over, Mademoiselle. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“But… My man! I need him! He’s… We were going to have a baby and be happy!” the woman said, her voice only partially coherent due to the beating she’d endured and the drugs no doubt flowing through her system.

“Oh, this is utterly ridiculous,” the superheroine muttered, extending the Goat Crook again. “Just hold still you silly stoner.”

“H… Hey! Don’t hurt me!”

“That couldn’t be further from my intention. Breakout!” A flash of bronze light wrapped around the woman’s head. Suddenly, she realised that she’d been abused, controlled and essentially a prisoner of this man. she blinked stupidly and called Black Jacques an unrepeatable name in her native Moroccan tongue before kicking at the paralysed man and ripped open the door of the squat.

“You’re welcome,” Horned Bee sighed. At that moment, an internal door and another thug entered. “Yo, B J, you there man?” The tattooed guy who clearly was an addict and it had taken its toll, looked blankly at Horned Bee and the woman the paralysed thug had been abusing. “Uh… What…? You…?” The man took out a machete and held it uncertainly. He looked at the heroine with what he probably thought was a dangerous smile but just made it look like he was having some kind of detox meltdown. “You know what? I read the Ladyblog and I know that your powers only work once and then you freaks have to reset them or transform back after five minutes! So, I figure that I’ve go the cards.”

Horned Bee rolled her eyes. “That was true, about two years ago. However, things have changed and not in your favour. Venom!” The Bee Trompo began to pulse with power again and the man looked like he’d just thrown up in his mouth. With a defiant yell, he lunged for the woman standing at the door and the blade of his machete struck a faintly-glowing wall of glass-like solid white light. He staggered and turned back to Horned Bee with a snarl, hefting the weapon again. There was a strange ‘fwub-wub’ noise and everyone stared at the weapon, which had transformed into soft rubber and was waggling loosely on the end of the hilt like some bizarre prank item.

“The fuck…?” the man blurted at last.

The woman looked down and raised an eyebrow, clearly not sure whether to scream or laugh. “Uh… Ma’am? Is this… your rat?”

Horned Bee sighed and extended her arm to Tempestia in her rat form, summoning her transformed sister to run over and sit at her feet. “I guess you could say so, yes. There was a gout of blue flame and the rat was replaced by a blue-and-white maned wolf. The apartment began to glow with green light and threads of fungal hyphae exploded from the rotten rug to tangle around the guy who had been taken down with Venom and curl around his friend’s legs. He probably would have been more credible if he’d dropped the rubber ‘machete’ but, instead, he continued to wave it around, making Horned Bee and the woman laugh.

“Run away, honey,” Honed Bee said. “I’m sure that there’s someone genuinely out there for you.”

“I… I will, Queen Bee Ma’am and… thank you!” she darted through the doorway and was gone.

With another gout of blue flame, Tempestiia was standing next to Horned Bee. “Well, that was fun,” she said. She looked down at the bound thugs and leered at them. From the way they were straining at their bonds, the hyphae had somehow grown a lot stronger than ought to be possible in nature. “So, gents, how should we finish this one off?”

A rat was hovering beside Tempestia’s head, glowing blood red. “Perhaps de-evolve them into lower life-forms, my Renren? I would argue that they are a long way down that path already!”

Tempestia rolled her eyes. “We don’t do ‘judge, jury and executioner’, Ratttus.” The Renling of Fire and Chaos made a dissatisfied noise.

“Please don’t turn me into a lower lifeform!” Black Jacques whined (Venom having finally worn off).

“It’s more than you deserve, ape!” Horned Bee snapped.

“I think that we should leave them trussed up for the gendarmerie,” Tempestia remarked.

“No! If they arrest me with the stash I have behind the wall of the bedroom, I’ll be in prison for twenty!”

“Thank you for tell in us” Horned Bee said dryly.

~*~*~

Sergeant Roger Raincomprix frowned at the two men tied to a light pole with overgrown weeds, of all things. The nudged the packets of drugs that were stuffed into their pockets in annoyance. Really, this made him think of ‘an embarrassment of evidence’ and suspected Team Miraculous were behind this.. “This is them, sir!” the injured young woman said, pointing at them in an aggrieved way.

Raincomprix frowned. The way he saw it, she was probably getting revenge for this guy not cutting her a discount in exchange for her ‘services’ but he couldn’t prove that; as much as he felt that this street walker had deserved everything she got, the Law didn’t give him any of the flexibility he wanted; no, this fit the charge of common battery to the tee. “Okay, coups et blessures it is. Take ‘em to the back maria, lads.”

“Please keep the magical rat away from us sir!” the obvious junkie said, his bloodshot eyes filled with terror.

~*~*~

Zoe sat in the middle of her Renlings, listening to them complain about the behaviour of the police and, more aggravating, Rattus was feeling a bit under-used and ignored. “There is always room for more Chaos in the world!” he insisted, earning an annoyed snort in unison from Noctus, Mellis and Lupus.

“Rattus, we know that your dominant element is close to an obsession for you…” Noctus began.

Rattus sighed. “Noctus, you persist in seeing and hearing only what you want to see and hear. In your case, it is things that back up your belief that Chaos is merely causing havoc, disruption and destruction! However, that is not the case here. ‘Chaos’ is change, both the act itself and acts that encourage it.” The Rat Renling smiled at Zoe in a very toothy manner. “I’m sure that you’d agree that there are a large number of beings in this city who need to have change induced.”

Zoe frowned. “Rattus, are you suggesting that we intimate or hurt someone?”

“Oh, of course not, my Renren! I’m suggesting that we find some light-hearted way to encourage change.”

Lynx snorted. “He means pulling a prank.”

Rattus made a show of looking offended. “Only on the deserving, brother!”

Luta was nodding thoughtfully. “I cannot help but agree that there are worthy subjects for chaos these days,” the Otter Renling sounded tired. “Frankly, they are far too immobile for their own good!”

Noctus somehow had a very severe expression on her face. “I’m wiling to allow this but only if no permanent harm is done!”

Rattis’s smile would put horror in the heart of most other beings. “My dear sister, nothing is further from my intention!” Zoe, meanwhile, was thinking of that unsympathetic policeman…

~*~*~

Roger Raincomprix was nearly tearing his hair out in horror. He was looking to do his usual early start to a shift but his uniform had fallen apart. Literally fallen apart. Every seam had come undone, every thread had come unravelled and every fastener had fallen off! Hell, even his equipment seemed defective: Batteries wouldn’t hold charge or had burned out! “SABRINA!” he yelled. “Who has been messing with my uniform?”

The younger Raincomprix shrugged helplessly. She’d already made an emergency call to the police station, knowing that they’d have standard ‘reserve’ uniforms available for use in the event that an officer’s uniform was damaged whilst they were on duty but it meant that her father would be a figure of fun when the rumour mill got wind of this.

Her father was raging; whilst it was terrifying in a way, it was sort of good to hear him actually emoting about something for the first time since the divorce. She looked over at the small beagle-like kwami who was giggling a little. “Okay, Barkk, we’ve got a mystery to solve. Barkk! Walkies!”

Thanks to the Dog Miraculous’s passive ‘Seek’ ability, Miss Hound could see the tracer of blood red magic running from her father’s wardrobe to the roof of the building opposite the Raincomprix apartment. “I suppose you thought that was very funny,” she spat. The costumed woman spun around and Miss Hound’s brain jumped off the rails at seeing that it was Chloe’s twin sister! “Zoe!”

Tempestia waved in embarrassment. “Uh… Guess you caught me? Maybe I should have done as Luta said and headed home…”

“Did you know that destroying a policeman’s equipment and uniform is a crime?!?” Miss Hound snapped. “This isn’t just a harmless student prank, Tempestia…!”

“Did you know that refusing to do your duty and provide the protection guaranteed under law just because you disapprove of the lifestyle of a victim of crime is a breach of an officer’s oath?” Tempestia countered. “Doggy, your dad isn’t by any shade of the imagination a ‘good cop’. He…” she shook her head. “He reminds me of my dad at the worst during his time as mayor. He’s has the power and he enjoys exercising it.”

That served tp completely derail the Dog Heroine of Paris’s train of argument. “Look, I know that he is not the best of men but he tries his best and he believes in his work.”

“Does he?” She shook her head. “Change is a hard thing Doggy. It comes harder to some than others. Dad had to admit to himself that he couldn’t just lean on the excuse of Audrey being an evil witch and Gabriel using the Gemini Miraculous on him before he could seriously change.

Miss Hound managed a slight smirk. “I think that having Adrine’s mother to impress helped.” She ventured. Both she and Tempestia blushed at the implications. “My father… He’s not the sort of man to care about such things; that’s why my mummy left him.”

Miss Hound was surprised to find herself wrapped in Tempestia’s arms. “Change can be triggered by the strangest things; being humbled is one of them,” Tempestia offered. Miss Hound gave her an odd look. “Hey, it worked for Chloe!”

Miss Hound opened her mouth; to defend her father or to defend Chloe or to deny that there was any similarity in the cases involved, Tempestia never learned because the girl in the dog-themed costume grabbed her shoulders tightly and gasped in shock. “Wait, what was that?!?” Out of the corner of her eye, Miss Hound had seen a sparkle of purple light. Tempestia span in the same direction and saw… a fading image like the afterimage of a strobe light. A horse with wings? “Uh… Tempestia?”

Reflexively, Tempestia hugged her arms as if she felt cold. “I think that someone was waiting for me to come a realisation, Doggy. It’s… a Prodigious thing.”

Miss Hound shook her head. “I thought that managing Barkk was a challenge!” she muttered. “It sounds like you chose the hard option here! You’re having to learn to think in whole new ways to manage that thing!”

The wielder of the Prodigious of Virtue rubbed the mystical item in question where it was wrapped around her left bicep. “I’m close to something,” she muttered to herself. Suddenly Tempestia’s cellphone began to ring. “Got to go, Doggy; got a plane to New York to catch. I’ve got a bad parent of my own to face down.”

Chapter 17: Storm Bear

Chapter Text

Ever since her father had resigned as mayor, Chloe had been through a long series of life lessons about wealth and its benefits. In truth, she’d been focussed more on helping her father rediscover himself but she had been aware of how certain things had stopped happening. For example, she could no longer just hop on a state-funded private jet is she wanted to travel abroad. Now, she had her own means of support now in terms of her commissions from her job with MDC.com but still, having to travel he super-uncomfortable coach class on train or airliner had been something of a shock to the system.

Because of this, the journey from Paris to New York was a huge shock to her. Aboard Barbara Keynes’ luxuriously fitted-out personal Boeing 757-300, Keynes One, was a completely new level in luxury. She’d travelled a few times on a private jet hired by her father in her young childhood but that was completely nothing compared to an entire airliner that had been outfitted as an owned personal aircraft.

With a nervous smile, she accepted the fine white wine from the stewardess in a Keynes Foundation uniform and tried not to meet the woman’s gaze. Instead, Chloe looked in the direction of Jess and Aeon, sitting on the other side of the cabin. As she approached seventeen, Jess had been getting more and more like her adoptive mother – absolute focus on the Mission above all else, even when she should be relaxing. She had a tablet open in front of her and was clearly reviewing her research on some criminal and was frowning at whatever it was she was reading. Lirri leaning over the top and occasionally quietly making comments about whoever it was her Holder was focussed on. Aeon had a curiously blank expression on her face and Chloe suspected that the android girl was surfing the web or something inside her head.

Meanwhile, looking through the door into the next cabin along, Chloe could see Gina and Zoe engaged in yoga or something similar.

Yes, Chloe Bourgeois’s life had changed and would doubtless continue to do so in ever more amazing ways. This was the price and reward she’d got for picking up that box on the Eiffel Tower and not just rejecting what that state-mandated psychiatrist had said about her when she was just fourteen because, in the end, she wanted to be worthy of Pollen and the Bee Miraculous.

“Ladies, this is your captain speaking. Please return to your seats and secure your seatbelts as we are shortly going to begin descending into New York La Guardia Airport.”

~*~*~

One of the advantages of arriving at the private terminal at La Guardia was that you didn’t need to exit into the public terminal area after being cleared through customs control. Indeed, Barbara’s power and influence was such that even the border checks were scandalously light for her daughter and her daughter’s travelling companions. The adoptive daughters of Barbara Keynes and their visitors from Paris were quickly and efficiently ushered into the subsurface parking lot where an impressive convoy of HMMWV vehicles painted black. Gina nodded and strode towards the lead vehicle, gesturing for Chloe and Zoe to follow her. However, the two Parisian girls had other things on their mind.

Specifically, they were focussed on the sweetly smiling girl with hip-length blonde hair waiting by on one of the cars. “Hello, Jess,” she said.

Jess’s face lit up in a way that made Zoe smile nostalgically but also with real happiness. “Carole!” Jess said, stepping into the blonde’s arms and the two girls hugged in a way that made Chloe really miss Kagami.

“Uh… Should I know something about this?” Chloe asked.

Zoe smiled and squeezed her twin sister’s hand. “I’d been worried about something, Chloe. I just learned that I didn’t need to worry at all.”

~*~*~

During the drive to Keynes Tower, Zoe was strangely silent and it was left to Gina to fill in at least some of the gaps. Carole, or so it seemed, was a schoolmate of Jess and Aeon who had courageously dared to take on a summer intern role at Style Queen to keep a close eye on Audrey and her dealings. Because Audrey knew that the girl was a friend of Jess’s, there was a weird kind of double-bluff effect where Audrey knew that she probably wasn’t trustworthy and was careful to not let her see or hear anything suspicious or semi-legal. However, she diidn’t want to block the girl’s internship because that would be very suspicious.What Audrey didn’t know was that the blonde’s metahuman powers let her ‘see’ people’s true nature. It was thanks to her that the French-Chinese antiquities smuggler who had recently visited the Style Queen herself had been identified and that the rope belt he had sold to Audrey was identified as a Miraculous.

“She’s in danger,” Zoe suddenly said. “It’s only a matter of time before the Raven Miraculous reveals her true nature to Audrey.”

Gina nodded. “As soon as there is a hint of danger, we’ll extract her,” she said. “However, we do seem to have had a stroke of luck. Even though Regine is remarkably blase about her employees seeing her in costume, no-one has seen her actually talk to her kwami for some time. I have no idea why that is.”

As they discussed this in detail, the young woman herself. was sitting in the second HMMWV in the convoy, hand-in-hand with Jess. “How are you, Carole?” Aeon asked.

Carole smiled at the android girl, noting again the clockwork-like aura around her that made her question the insistence that everyone had that synthetic life-forms could not have a ‘soul’. “I’m well, thank you, Aeon. Did your trip to Paris go as planned? I see that you brought the Bourgeois Sisters back with you!”

Aeon actually blushed lightly. “I… was able to see Markov again,” she said randomly. “However, I am concerned with your being consistently in close quarters with Ms Regine.”

Carole nodded and ws grateful for Jess’s slightly tighter grip. “I won’t say that she isn’t scary but that psychopath Hatou is ten times worse.”

“Now we’ve got the two Golden Kids in New York, we can wrap up this case,” Jess assured her girlfriend. “You won’t have to risk facing them for much longer.”

Chloe quirked her eyebrow ironically. “Pleased to be of service to you, oh mighty United Heroez.”

~*~*~

“So, the prodigal daughters have returned!” Chantal Hatou purred dangerously, stroking her hand over her camouflaged Miraculous as she anticipated the carnage to come. It was remarkable how much, in the past four months, she’d become used to becoming what was effectively a magical mob enforcer and killer. There was a time when Chantal would have been reduced to horrified catatonia by all the things she’d done since entering Ms Regine’s employ but, somehow, it has just not seemed relevant to her anymore. After a while, she’d realised that indulging her cruelty and propensity for envy-driven violence felt good.

“Indeed they have, my dear Storm Bear,” Audrey Regine replied, smirking at the image on the LCD monitor screen in front of her and her enforcer of her daughters disembarking a few of Barbara’s personal cars outside of her city centre edifice. “I do believe that the time has come to welcome my two wayward daughters to New York.” She touched the younger woman’s hand. “Test them, Storm Bear. Cause some kind of disaster and let us see what they are capable of and what Miraculous they have brought to me for me to claim in due time.”

Chantal’s smile jacked up a few degrees in sadistic glee. “Oh, Master, I am more than glad to do so! I owe them both for a lot of anguish over the years!” The fact that said ‘anguish’, hadmostly been fearful anticipation, resentment and envy was something that Chantal, with her negative impulses reinforced and augmented by using the Bear Miraculous for evil, was no longer capable of realising.

“i am wondering though…” Audrey said, stroking her hand along the blue-dyed wound leather of her latest prize. “Should I hold you back for now until I have a Holder for the Puma?”

Chantal’s laugh was humourless. “Oh, I’m sure that I can curry out a simple task like this, Master.”

~*~*~

With a polite ‘ping’, the express elevator’s doors opened on the lower residence level of Keynes Tower. In every way, the Keynes’ family penthouse was exactly as Chloe and Zoe imagined that it would be.

The entire level had floor-to-ceiling plate glass and it was decorated with catalogue furniture and art that made Chloe think of the whole Scandinavian Minimalist school. In some ways, this didn’t entirely surprise her because, firstly, this wasn’t Jess and Aeon’s home, just a pad to use whilst in the city and, secondly, Chloe doubted that either of them had the time or inclination to redecorate the room. Almost the moment that the door was closed behind her, Carole walked over to a small deck of shelves and pulled out something that Chloe initially missed. It was an eagle’s flight feather, dyed blue and white, which Carole began to plat into her hair.

Zoe raised her eyebrow. “Someone been marked as territory?” she teased without a hint of jealousy.

Carole blushed but Jess fielded that, walking up to Carole’s side. The Bourgeois girls both noticed that Jess had a similar feather bound into the leather strap around her left braid. “Zoe,” Jess began. “I… don’t want this to impact our friendship but…”

Zoe raised her hand. “Jess, when I left New York over a year ago, I realised that what was between us had come to an end; I realised that I had to move beyond the person I was, the person who you had taught to be more than what others expected her to be. With time, I think that you and I could have been together but I wasn’t ready and it wasn’t fair on you to either wait or have to spend her time and emotional energy trying to fix me.” Chloe’s twin stepped towards the other two women with the matching hair decorations. “I just glad that you were not so badly damaged by me as to not be able to find someone more… worthy.”Zoe turned to Chloe. “It’s simple enough, Chloe; Jess’s tribe doesn’t use metal decorations like we Europeans do. Those feathers are… It’s the equivalent of a promise ring, I guess?” Jess nodded. “I’m also guessing that you’ve adopted Carole into your tribe?”

Carole blushed prettily. “My parents weren’t really pleased to have a ‘freak’ daughter and, when SPECIAL couldn't ‘cure’ me, they… disowned me. Jess offered me a place to call ‘home’ and ‘family’.”

Jess blushed. “What can I say? Guardian Standing Coyote has a degree of standing and he was able to talk the shamans into performing an adoption ceremony.”

“He didn’t have to try particularly hard,” Aeon offered. “Something about ‘the Spirits decreeing it.” Lirri was interestingly silent, hovering in the corner as Ziggy and Pollen shot questions at her. The Renlings were thankfully not getting involved, too busy exploring the penthouse for adventure.

Chloe nodded. “Okay, so that explains the ‘why the feather’ but not ‘why wasn’t she wearing it when she picked us up?”

Carole looked annoyed. “Ms Regine doesn’t like people displaying culturally-specific fashions like this, headscarves or things like that.”

Chloe groaned and hid her eyes. “Okay, not great surprise there.” She shook her head. “Everything that woman does is utterly ridiculous,” she muttered. “The thing with your family is their own loss, you know? When you’re at the top of the heap, be sure to make them know what they threw away in pursuit of their idea of ‘normal!” She walked over to Zoe. “So…?”

“Yeah, I’m like Marinette,” she confirmed. “Like her, I was lucky enough to find a guy who was right for me.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “I never saw the attraction of that… or of boys. I mean, Adrikins is cute enough but…”

Gina remembered being a gossip-hungry late teen and how quickly the gossip would turn to preferences and could also get rather specific in its details. So, she was curiously relieved That is when all five women in the room heard the explosion.

~*~*~

Storm Bear wasn’t an idiot. After the fiasco of Tidal Wave, Audrey Regine had stopped simply choosing suitably ruthless musclebound idiots to be her Miraculous enforcers. For that reason, she didn’t even attempt to attack Knight Owl’s rumoured city headquarters building head-on. She had no desire to end her career so suddenly.

Fortunately for her, there were other options available. Specifically, just a block away from Keynes Tower was the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal; a huge multi-storey complex stocked to the gills with busses. Since Anarka Couffaine introduced all-LNG (Liquid Natural Gas)-hybrid recharger electric-powered busses in Paris, other cities had been rushing to follow the French city’s example. These vehicles were ultra-low emission but they were vulnerable to overheating and exploding violently if the battery packs overheated. This was rare but if the bus was hit in the external charger port with a lightning bolt? Well, then the garage turned into a chain-reaction of intense gas explosions as one blazing pressurised gas tank caused another to rupture and so on.

“Okay, brats,” Storm Bear giggled. “See how you handle this!” Of course, now Storm Bear was a terrorist and had potentially killed thousands of workers and passengers in the terminal and in the buildings around it but, because of the reinforcement of her evil habits by the power of using her Miraculous for evil… she really didn’t care. One bus after another exploded, each adding to the inferno and making further explosion more likely. Already the cast steel frames of the terminal were beginning to glow cherry red; the whole building might implode at this rate! Not that she cared; frankly stuff like this had become quite thrilling for her.

Suddenly, Storm Bear’s ears went ‘pop’ as the air pressure around the imperilled garage changed. As she watched, slack jawed, people appeared on the structure’s roof and, without any apparent hesitation, threw themselves off the building. Instead of swan-diving onto the black-top, they were caught by an updraft of air and began to float to safety. Storm Bear didn’t notice the blue-and-white falcon flying in circles in the middle of this prodigy of fortune.

With a hiss of anger, Storm Bear strode out of her hiding spot and aimed her Miraculous Tool, a Tomahawk axe, at the nearest obvious cause of her frustration, the First Nation Miraculous holder, Ma’xeve’keso. “Ice Claw!” she commanded, calling on her secondary power. Her tool was briefly surrounded with a thin haze of ice crystals before dagger-like icicles launched towards the Eagle Heroine where she was standing on a rooftop opposite the terminal, only for a beam of red light to shoot out of the forehead of a gold-coloured young woman standing just behind her. Of course, wherever Ma’xeve’keso was, Uncanny Valley was never far behind. Before she could be spotted by one of the heroes who had the advantage of height over the street, Storm Bear retreated into the shadows of the fire exit of a nearby building to reconsider her tactics.

At that point, her ears ‘popped’ again as the air pressure in the area dropped radically and a globe of vacuum formed around the burning terminal. Starved of oxygen, the fires went out in an instant. Storm Bear shook her head in an attempt to restore her hearing and looked up to see a blonde woman in blue, white and grey hovering over the building, seemingly held aloft by air currents and her hands (as well as the golden circlet around her left bicep) shining with silver light. The supervillain gawped at the masked woman as, with a gesture, the light around her hands darkening to navy blue, she directed an Olympic swimming pool’s worth of water onto the wreckage, still trembling with heat and likely to reignite the moment that oxygen was allowed to return to the area. The water burst into steam in a moment as the metal radically cooled in moments, blanketing the entire building in scalding fog.

“O… kay. That’s impressive!” Storm Bear recognised this woman and her powers from several borderline-hysterical news broadcast that she’d watched over the summer: This was Tempestia, the magical guardian of London but what was she doing on this side of ‘the pond’? She shook her head; she could play the slack-jawed bystander on her own time. Right now, Master Regine wanted her to test these heroes, even though this one was entirely new to her. As she watched, Uncanny Valley and Ma’xeve’keso both dropped out of the sky and began to search the terminal for any possible survivors although surely they had had all fled as soon as the fire seriously caught hold and those who had not had already made their seemingly-impossible escape.

Storm Bear was frustrated, not just at the ease in which this newcomer had stopped the disaster she’d created but by the absence of the one person she wanted to humiliate above all others: Queen Bee. She was unfamiliar enough with the Bee Hero’s powers to not notice the energy construct bees that were aiding the two American heroes in their search and several were perched on the ceiling of the entranceway inside which she’d been hiding, observing her. Instead, she decided to flush that hated entitled girl out by attacking her team-mates directly.

The supervillain pointed her Tomahawk at the back of the woman in blue and focussed her mind. “Ice Claws!” she cast again. A hail of needle-sharp icicles formed out of thin air and launched towards Tempestia’s back with blurring speed.

“Oh no you don’t!” A Trompo spinning top in the colours of Queen Bee lashed through the air and knocked the attack out of the sky.

Tempestia half turned and smiled in embarrassment. “Well, I know better than not to be unaware of people around me,” she said dryly. “Thank you, Horned Bee.”

With a scream of rage, Storm Bear threw herself, not at Tempestia but at who she thought as Queen Bee, who was hovering beside the other hero, her energy wings humming. Driven by rage and the enormous strength that the Bear Miraculous gave her, she leapt nearly twenty feet into the air to attack with her Tool, trying to drive the Bear Tomahawk into Horned Bee’s forehead. Horned Bee intercepted the downward swing with the Goat Crook, causing a shower of yellow sparks where the two Miraculous Tools clashed. Storm Bear’s dropped back to the street of 8^th Avenue below, landing in a perfect three-point crouch and with her eyes wide with surprise. “I’ve got some new tricks,” Horned Bee remarked cooly without a hint of real apology.

“Yes, you have,” the Bear Villain remarked, backward somersaulting away whilst trying to remain calm; she’d not anticipated there being new powers involved in this fight. Horned Bee landed on the street too and took a insouciant posture of fake patience. Storm Bear grit her teeth. “Well, Bourgeois, you’re still as entitled and as vain as ever, so let’s dance,” The two women leapt towards each other, their two long Miraculous Tools meeting with a series of lightning-fast blows and parries. “You’re better at this than I thought,” Storm Bear bantered as she broke away, starting to sweat a little. “The Quarterstaff isn’t a common tool for the upper crust, is it? Don’t you feel ashamed to use it?”

Horned Bee grinned. “When your surrogate brother’s weapon is a bo staff, you tend to learn this sort of things early on in your practice sessions; it’s an easy way to stay not knocked onto your butt!” She used the hooked end of the crook to yank Storm Bear’s feet out from under her. “Like that, I mean!”

The villain rolled backwards onto her feet and realised that she’d attracted onlookers in the form of Ma’xave’keso and Uncanny Valley. There was a sudden scream of turbines as several SPECIAL gunships appeared over the rooftops. “Okay, that’s a bit too many rubber-neckers for my tastes!” She looked down at the knuckleduster-like form of her Miraculous and noted that two of the five bear claws had tarnished black and a third was flashing between ivory white and black, still recharging after using her primary power and this having been delayed by using her secondary power se several times; that was unacceptable. Master Regine had taught her that it was possible to override this safety feature but warned that it carried with it a great risk. She felt Clawzz pushing back, not wanting her to risk herself but she didn’t care because nothing mattered more than making Chloe Bourgeois sorry that she’d ever been born. Forcing all of her will into the Miraculous, the claws all filled in ivory-white; simultaneously, agony flashed up her arm from the wrist. As her mind briefly drowned in pain, she realised that there were weeds growing around her legs and tangling around her. “W… What?”

Tempestia’s right hand was half raised and was glowing green. “I’m not the only one who clearly has to learn to watch her back in a fight,” the remarked.

“Nice one, Tee,” Horned Bee said, sauntering towards the entangled supervillain. The Bee Trompo materialised around her right fist and began to glow white as she prepared to unleash a Venom attack.

“Not as good as you hoped, you privileged whore!” she spat. “ICE CLAWWW!” In response to the spell, the mass of greenery was covered in frost and began to wilt. Tearing free from the flash-frozen plant-growth, she pointed the Bear Tomahawk at the sky. “THUNDER FANG!” In response, lightning began to strike all around her, forcing the heroes to back off and try to find cover. Storm Bear felt her arm start to ache and suddenly she didn’t know if she had the strength to keep fighting. Using the storm as a distraction, she fled for one of the storm drains that she’d been using to get around the city unobserved.

Horned Bee looked at the blue-and-white badger standing in the middle of the street outside of the terminal, glowing orange and seemingly holding up a shelf of concrete in an orange nimbus of magic, catching and absorbing every lightning strike with the synthetic stone. She shook her head at this demonstration of her sister’s newfound powers. “Okay, where did she go?”

“She is in the storm drain system,” Uncanny Valley responded, her middle eye glowing dull red. “I can detect her thermal trace.”

With a flash of blue-white fire, Tempestia returned to her human form. “Okay, let’s get after her.”

Ma’xave’keso put a restraining hand on her shoulder. “Let’s not go chasing around in the sewers after someone who has the ability to kill at a distance and is clearly willing do so… and a grudge against your sister.”

Tempestia frowned. “Yeah… You may have a point. Luta!” There was another flash of blue-white light and a blue-and-white otter danced towards the nearest access point to the drains. The small mammal glowed blue and a water-spout rose out of the nearby Hudson River and focussed itself into the drains. Overloaded by the magical flood-tide, waterspouts exploded from several manholes and street drains further down 8^th Avenue. The Otter then paused, seemingly listening to something. There was a blue-white flash of light and Tempestia turned to her team-mates. “She’s out on one of the outfalls on the Harlem, guys.

Horned Bee nodded and raised her Trompo to the sky, launching a storm of drones. “Hunt her down, my swarm!”

“She’s a mental mess,” Ma’xeve’keso remarked, squeezing Tempestia’s shoulder in warning. “I could send that she was bound by rage as completely as some have been by fear.” The First Nation woman blew out a long breath. “She’s obsessed with you, Horned Bee, or at least your civilian identity. Her whole identity is tied up with hating you and publicly humiliating you. She’s as good as a slave to her vendetta.”

Behind the bug-eyed goggles of Horned Bee’s mask, the blonde’s eyes opened a lot wider. She knew that there were people who hated Chloe Bourgeois with a passion, even years after she’d reformed and publicly changed her ways; Marinette had given her a synopsis of a run-in with a vigilante back in Paris who had a grudge against her but it never was pleasant to hear about it.

Tempestia shook her head. “Look, we can’t afford to go up against a Miraculous holder with such a strong fixation; Gabriel Agreste was all the more dangerous because of his obsession, after all.” There were some hesitant nodes in the group.

“We need to regroup and come up with a plan of what to do next,” Uncanny Valley said and all the heroes agreed.

~*~*~

Chantal Hatou staggered to her feet on the garbage-strewn banks of the Harlem River, having been carried all the way here by some kind of flood-tide. She coughed, spluttered and spat out water before shakily calling out: “Clawzz, Sunny day!” She’d worked out that the heroes would be looking for her and, given that SPECIAL doubtless had spy drones out looking already, she knew it was dangerous to even have the appearance of being Storm Bear. She tucked the spike-studded glove that was the camouflaged form of the Bear Miraculous to the pocket of her jacket.

However, the pain in her arm had not subsided when she detransformed and she pulled up her sleeve and gasped in horror. The back of her right hand was marred with a horrible purple bruise-like mark and angry, poisonous purple burn-like veins of damage ran up her arm to her elbow. Master Regine was right, it seemed; there was a risk. However, the young woman’s mind was too clouded by her rage and the negative reinforcement of willingly using a Miraculous for evil to be fully aware of it. “This is all your fault, Bourgeois! I’ll burn my revenge for these into your pretty arms for this!” she swore angrily to her distorted mental image of Chloe.

She turned towards ‘home’ (the Style Queen office building). Then, holding her aching arm against her chest, fled, trying to hold in her sobs of pain.

~*~*~

“Master, I have failed you!” Chantal was on her knees (knowing that this was by far her preferred position) in front of Master Regine’s desk. “I was not able to end nay of the Miraculous Heroes whom you have named your enemies!”

Audrey Regine gave her enforcer and odd look, raising a mocking eyebrow. “Rise, my darling, I am not angry,” she said. “i merely wished to test them at this stage and you have done that and done well. No, approach.” Audrey swung her chair around and actuated the LCD monitor built into the glass-fronted cabinet immediately behind her desk. She touched a remote to activate it and used it to wind forwards and backwards through the surveillance footage taken by the cameras she’s arranged to observe the area as soon as her enforcer had told her what target that she intended to attack.

Audrey tapped her lips as she considered the close-up of Chloe’s head, noticing the new decorations. “Those are new. Tell me, my dear Chantal, did my daughter show any new powers?”

“Powers? No, Master, but she had a new Tool. A shepherd’s crook, of all things!”

A shepherd’s crook? Really?” Dismissing Hantou from her immediate notice, Audrey reached into a double-locked drawer in her desk and pulled out a copy of the Guardian’s Grimoire, one of her most treasured possessions. Not an original, of course; all of those had been lost in the Dark Order’s two hundred years of often-brutal infighting. It was, however, a copy of a copy and one old enough that Audrey’s late Master had been sure it was as good as being an original. Possession of it one of the reasons why she’d killed him on her rise to the top of the North American circle.

Audrey flipped through the pages and nodded when she saw a picture of the shepherd’s crook, just like the one she’d seen her daughter use in the tape of the fight. “The Goat,” she murmured. “So, Ladybug has entrusted you with a second Miraculous, my girl? Well, all the better.” She shook her head . ”What of the other interloper? The heroine from London?”

Chantal racked her brain desperately. “N… nothing Master, I…” she paused. “There was something; a bracelet around her bicep? I thought it was just some kind of decoration that Bourgeois was using to symbolise a collar for her pet or something!”

Audrey sighed. No, she wasn’t as stupid as Tidal Wave but it was only a very minor improvement, it seemed. “Indeed; what is your opinion, was it a Miraculous??” Chantal shook her head, rubbing her injured arm again. Audrey sighed. “I’m asking because I believe that it wasn’t, much to my shock when I realised it. Tell me: Was it made of gold and had gemstones around its circumference? And blue decorations around in in between the gems?” Eager to please her Master, Hatou nodded frantically. Audrey chuckled darkly. “That’s the Prodigious of Virtue. It means that you were facing the woman who the Lion of Crime himself has named as his greatest single enemy!” Audrey sat back. “I’ve never told him but that trinket was originally something I gave to Chloe in the hope that it would spark a little lust for power in her, like the one triggered by the Bee Miraculous, which André made sure was ‘cured’, damn him.” Audrey laughed hollowly. “If the rest of the Circle knew that I’d had the Second Prodigious in my hand and lost it so easily…”

“I will get it back, Mistress!” Chantal declared. “That and the Miraculous that her sister uses! I will take it from their bodies and hand them to you myself!”

“No, you won’t.” Audrey tucked her copy of the Grimoire into her desk and stood. She shook her head. “Your bloodthirst and taste for revenge have proven useful my dear Mlle Hatou but you must learn to keep it in its place. It seems that my girls have begun to grow to being just the heirs I needed and you must learn to repress your ill will towards them. In time, you may find yourself and them being in a very different relative position in my service than at present.” Idly, Audrey wondered if Chantal would rather die than call Chatty and Ziva ‘Mistress’. Well, that didn’t matter although she could see how slaying the Holder of the Bear Miraculous could function as a final test of sorts. “In any case, my girls have already proven themselves far too powerful for you to defeat by brute force. No, I will need to take personal charge here if my true objectives are to be met! This is a battle that must take place on the battlefield of the mind!” She stood and touched the feather tucked behind her left ear. “Nevermorr! Speak the Terrible Truth!” Chantal stepped back, still in awe of her Mistress’s transformation and the power that it symbolised.

Chantal gasped and clutched her arm. It had happened too often and Audrey wouldn’t ignore this irritation any longer. “Show me your wound, girl,” she commanded pitilessly. Wordlessly, Chantal complied. Audrey hissed in annoyance as she examined the jagged purple burns and infected blood vessels. “So, you chose to ignore my instructions about waiting out your powers recharge timer?” Chantal was about to babble and excuse or apology but the Raven Sceptre crashed onto the desk in between them. “No, you stupid fool; this is your doing and there is no way to undo it at this stage. Let this be the lesson to you about heeding your Master in matters beyond your wit to understand.”

Chantal stepped away, still rubbing her marred arm and clearly very badly hurt by her Mistress’s complete indifference to her injury. Audrey dismissed this younger woman from her mind and went back to the more important business: persuading her daughters to join her along with their significant Miraculous power. “Now, we are going to need to use a little bit more power than normal to defeat my darling little spawn,” the woman said, walking across her office to an ornate box on a corner table. She pulled out a familiar bone brooch marked with fish iconography and a beautifully decorated softwood cylindrical container with a red-dyed rope-like belt shoulder strap. “So, how do you feel trying Unification, my dear?”

~*~*~

“That wasn’t an attack, at least it wasn’t meant to be,” Chloe told her friends as they sat around on a mat back in Keynes Tower, centred on the North American Guardian, Standing Coyote.

“Yeah, she drew us out but she never had any serious hope of defeating us,” Jess agreed.

Zoe was nodding. “I think that Regine was watching, guys. She was watching and seeing what she could learn from our tactics.”

Aeon pursed her lips with worry. “It’s quite possible; as I approached the attack site, I detected several high-bandwidth cellular transmissions in the area. Certainly, that was consistent for several online transmitters sending livestreaming video.”

“So, Regine was watching to see how we dealt with her pet killer.”

Standing Coyote nodded. “Indeed, it is fortunate that you did not use all of the powers that were available to you.” Chloe and Zoe both nodded.

“We need to be ready for her to try to make use of what she has learned,” Jess announced. “She must know that Chloe has the Goat as well as the Bee and will use one of her other Miraculous to level the playing field. Maybe use the Salmon?”

The Guardian blew out his breath. “It would be logical; she’s already used the Salmon and the Raven together, so we know it is possible. I wonder if she chose to train her strong right hand to use two Miraculous too? A half-dozen are unaccounted for, after all…”

Chloe stood up, her expression resolute. “One way or another, we’ll be ready. Next time, this ‘Storm Bear’ won’t escape because we’re not going to wait for her to come to us. We’re going to go to her.”

Zoe looked genuinely surprised. Proactive to that level wasn’t normally part of Marinette’s philosophy for her team, which made what had happened in Tokyo all the more surprising when she’d heard about it. “Okay how?”

Chloe smiled at the two native New Yorker girls in a way that made them feel nervous. “Jess, my sister hero. Tell me, are you averse to me… ‘borrowing’ your girlfriend?”

Chapter 18: Grace

Chapter Text

Carole Hopper took her ‘STAFF’ badge from the security man in the lobby and mentally congratulated herself for doing so without hesitation. She’d been willing to help our her girlfriend (and SPECIAL, but it was more for Jess than them) by spying on Audrey Regine. However, she hadn’t been ready to have that change from a semi-passive ‘observer’ role to a more active form of espionage. She wasn’t afraid but…

Oh, who was she kidding? She was afraid. Actually, was terrified. This wasn’t just undermining the woman under whom her Business Administration internship was running. This was double-crossing a damned magical organised crime leader and a supervillain to boot! If this went wrong, she’d only hope for death.

Just to make things interesting, as she entered the building’s elevator and selected the 31^st floor (the entrance area for Style Queen magazine, a loud, commanding voice called out: “Hold that lift damn it!”

Carole swallowed as Ms Regine’s ‘bag woman’, her personal, personal assistant and, or so Jess had told her, her chief enforcer and bodyguard, Chantal Hantou, the supervillain Storm Bear swung into the lift. “M… Miss Hantou,” she said politely.

Chantal didn’t respond and certainly didn’t notice the blonde’s nervous stammer. That was the way she liked all of the employees at the magazine to react to her. Carole’s synaesthetic empathy kicked in and she could see Hantou’s aura, all bloody red splatter that very eloquently showed her murderous nature and the oceans of blood she’d shed since entering Miss Regine’s service. However something new was visible on the woman’s aura, something that went beyond the electric blue light around the woman’s leather glove and the relatively new First Nation brooch on her jacket that reminded Carole of the Eagle Talon but the cause of which was unknown. Her entire left arm was surrounded by a poisonous purple-black aura that simply felt rotten and sick.

“What the fuck are you staring at, you blonde non-entity?”

Carole mentally kicked herself for being caught staring at the dangerously temperamental woman whose aura screamed that she was a killer. “N… Nothing, ma’am. I guess I haven’t seen your brooch before. Is it for a special occasion?”

Hantou smirked. “Yeah, you can say that. Just keep your eyes to yourself or I might succumb to the temptation to remove them and send them to your rich girlfriend in a gift-wrapped box!” Carole didn’t think that the other woman was making an idle threat.

*PING* Carole had never been so glad to arrive at her destination. Chantal watched her scurry out of the elevator car with a smirk before thumping the button for the 35^th floor, the executive level and slumped back against the wall in anger and boredom.

“You don’t enjoy this, do you?” Said the Anthro-fish kwami, Finzz.

“She does what she must,” the Bear kwami Clawzz remarked with a sigh, his disappointed condescension making Chantal try to shoo them away by waving her arms frantically, causing her still-inflamed arm to blast with pain. The two kwami watched her without compassion as she fell to her knees, squeezing her marred arm against her abdomen and pressing her eyes closed to force away the tears of pain.

~*~*~

“I don ‘t like tis. I really don’t like this. How will we know if she’s in trouble?!?” Ma’xave’keso was pacing and, frankly, it was making Horned Bee and Tempestia feel agitated.

“We have to trust in Carole’s good judgement,” Uncanny Valley said in a serene tone of voice.

“That and Audrey’s arrogance,” Horned Bee added,

Tempstia snorted in agreement. “Yeah, she would have been fired or worse the moment that she suspected that there was any security risk to Carole being in the office. It’s that sense that she has Carole identified and contained that’s her biggest advantage,”

Ma’xave’keso was close to yanking out her braids. “Look, she is important to me, okay? Excuse me for being worried for her.”

“I know,” Horned Bee said. “My girlfriend ran off without her Miraculous to attempt to bring down her mother, the head of the East Asian Dark Order. It was a huge risk and I was nearly pulling my hair out for most of that time but I trusted her and I knew that she wouldn’t take any dumb risks.” The black, yellow and white-clad heroine rubbed at her chin thoughtfully. “In honesty, I think it was her mother’s arrogance that was her biggest advantage and kept her safe. She just couldn’t believe that her daughter was a threat to her.”

At that point, the First Nation Eagle Heroine nearly jumped out of her skin as there was a loud electronic tone. The American heroine looked down at her Bullroer tied around her waist and blushed. “Uh… Sorry, got to get this.” She unholstered her tool and activated it, making a dull green glassy holographic screen appear above its body. Ma’xave’keso sighed in relief. “She’s in the office; she had a run-in with one of Audrey’s pet minions but there wasn’t any indication they suspect anything.”

~*~*~

On occasion, Carole had heard Audrey dismissively describe the Lion’s Pride as a ‘borderline religious cult’ but she honestly wondered if that was how Style Queen operated. “Hey, Carole! So, this is a big day for you?”

Carole had just dropped her purse by her computer screen in her cubicle and looked up at Pete, the regular clerical employee seated opposite her. “Really? Why is that?” There were lots of possible explanations, some of them very bad.

“You’re going to set a record! You’re the longest-surviving summer intern. Madame Regine usually fires them or they just vanish long before this!”

Carole smiled gently as she turned on her desktop, part of her normal routine. “I guess I’m just non-threatening… or useful… or something.”

Pete raised a finger. “You want to do ‘useful’ if you want this job to go regular after you graduate high school,” he lectured. “Madame Regine is harsh but she is fair and she never fires people who are useful to her.”

Carole cocked her head as she sat down. “Are you useful?”

Pete swallowed. “I try to be and I pray that I do enough,”

Carole grabbed her coffee mug and stood up. “Well, I’m going to get my wake-up, so I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Pete looked at his monitor. “Don’t forget that Madame Regine is going to hold a meeting for all interns at eleven. You won’t want to be late.” A worshipful look came into his eyes. “Miss Hantou said that she’s going to be giving gifts!”

Carole smiled and mentally thanked herself for having chosen today for her mission. No, she hadn’t know about that and wondered what had triggered the woman to remember that she had to make a pretence of caring for her semi-volunteer student staff. As much as she was scared of Audrey Regine, she was far more thoroughly creeped out by her attempts at being the jocular, charming and caring boss. She nodded politely to Pete before walking away.

The work cafeteria was empty, which was unsurprising. Most staff at Style Queen arrived and had their morning beverate about a half-hour before the official start of their shifts in their desperate attempt to please their employer. Carole looked nostalgically at her mug with the logo: “Actually, I’m MORE than an Intern”. She would miss this thing, the only gift her mother had ever bought her since she moved out East at her parents’ insistence and the only acknowledgement they’d ever given to the changes in her life. “I’ll miss you, little guy,” she said, putting the mug in the drying rack and turning to leave.

At the intra-office elevator, which served only the five floors of Style Queen’s office space in the building, Carole carefully extracted a sticker from her pocket and attached it to the back of her ID card. This sticker had the pass barcode for a Level-5 employee (she was actually a Level-1) and gave her access to all the levels of the office. The elevator doors opened with a harsh chime and Carole presented her card to the scanner ‘eye’. “Authorised,” the security computer confirmed before Carole pressed the button for the 35th floor.

It was about twenty minutes latter that Pete went to the canteen to see where his trainee had gone. He found Carole’s mug in the rack and no sign of her. His mind briefly raced as he walked hurriedly back to his desk. He was fond of the blonde but he had his duty to Madame Regine and that duty bright with it certain duties. From memory, he dialled an internal number. “Security; Hantou speaking.”

“Miss Hantou, this is Peter Borham in Admin. I have to report that one of the Interns is… missing.”

There was a long pause before Miss Regine’s fierce and dangerous personal assistant/muscle replied. in a slightly bored tone. “Which one?”

“Um… C… Carole Hopper?”

At hearing the name, Hantou’s voice became a lot more focussed. “Understood; disconnect her computer from the network by removing its ethernet cable. IT will attend shortly to check it for intrusions and other malware.” There was a pause. “Miss Hopper is no longer an employee of this company. Please notify Security if she is seen. Make sure all staff are aware of this.”

~*~*~

Carole had never been on the 35th floor before but there was something deeply unsettling about it. To the mundane eye it was a completely typical bit of commercial New York. However, her aura sense made the walls seem to shine in a deep poison green shade that made her feel that magic had been used heavily to make this place.

The overhead halogen lights were aligned along the walls rather than the centre of the ceilings and this made the middle of wider corridors strangely dark and forbidding and that was not taking into consideration the side corridors and entire rooms where there were no lights at all and into which light just… didn’t seem to go. The yellow wallpaper had a strange repeating downward-aligned chevron pattern and, when she touched it, felt alive. The thick-weave heavy-duty carpet also felt strangely organic under her shoes and she felt like some parts were going to just be intangible and let her fall through the building into a hidden level. From the moment she exited the elevator, her ears had been assaulted by the sound of buzzing fluorescent light fittings and an anomalously-loud whine of HVAC fans. Also, what was the deal with all the illuminated ‘Exit’ signs over random doors or at the entrance to blacked-out corridors?

She looked into what she presumed to be a meeting room and saw that it was empty apart from a collection of wooden dining chairs in the middle of the room, on a rostrum under a cluster of six bright lights. The chairs were not proportioned for a typical human body frame. Wait, what was that? Carole span and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something duck out of sight. Okay, don’t scare yourself, Carole. Focus. Remember what Aeon’s mama said: ‘Your mind and imagination are your worst enemy during infiltration.’ Carole drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes, forcing her perceptions to settle before continuing on her journey towards the distant pulse of magic that she instinctively knew was her destination..

Carole turned a corner and proceeded down an older-looking corridor with buzzing faired-in fluorescent lights and a suspended ceiling made of acoustic tiles. She was startled to encounter an street-style octagonal red ‘Stop’ warning sign on a metal pole in the middle of the corridor. Beyond was a mahogany door with a nameplate: ‘Audrey Regine - Chief Executive Officer’. Yes, this was her stop, thank the Spirits! She was about to try the door when she realised that there was a green tracer light around the doorframe. That wasn’t a physical light but was seemingly an indicator of magic. She bit her lip. No, she decided. Given what I know of Mme Regine, she’d use magic to protect her personal spaces in as many ways as possible. That is almost certainly an alarm trigger; I’ve got to find another way in.

Carole paced and a cold sweat began to prickle her brow as she heard voices in the distance, which (given how this floor seemed normally deserted) was not a good thing. At that moment, her eyes fell on an air vent in the wall, covered by a simple metal grille.

Carole was able to remove the screws with her nail flle and then entered the ductwork, lighting the way by the torch on her cellphone’s handset.

~*~*~

“So, she definitely went up to the Forbidden Level?” Audrey asked Chantal over her cellphone.

Chantal was walking through the creepy 35th Floor, not in any way bothered by its strange aesthetic or the indications that something inhuman lived there. Madame Regine had cast a spell on her to protect her mind from the level’s traps and mind-confounding spells. “Yes, Master. The elevator’s security computer had been triggered by a spoofed authorisation that SPECIAL probably acquired by Hopper allowing their hackers in through her access to the office intranet.”

Regine laughed in a cruel way. “Well, the Labyrinth cannot be traversed by anyone upon whom I have not cast the immunity spell. We’ll find her dehydrated corpse fused into a wall in a week or so, assuming that one of the Entities living there don’t tear her apart. Do not concern yourself any further.”

“I’m not so sure, Master. There is something about that girl and I won’t be happy until I have personally ended her existence.”

Chantal could see Audrey rolling her eyes in annoyance. “Really, my daring Storm Bear, there will be nothing to find but…” she stopped and sighed in an elaborate expression of impatience and condescendtion. “Oh, who am I to hold you from your pleasures? Find her but do not allow her to leave the building alive!” At that moment, the various light fittings turned red and a horrible, wailing alarm began. “Impossible!” Regine screeched. “That’s the alarm on the Miraculous Cabinet! Get to my office now!”

“Oh, I will, Master!” she put away her phone and raised her left fist over her head. “Clawzz! Raging Storm!”

~*~*~

Carole was very happy to find that, for all its ostentatious luxury, Audrey’s office was far less unsettling… she’d heard the term ‘Liminal’ used to describe it... than the rest of the floor. The rooms were all the better for having windows that gave the girl a clear view of the city around her.

Being the offices of Audrey Regine, the rooms were decorated in the most expensive style and was covered in photographs from her various wealthy allies and clients as well as a handful of journalism awards she earned in her early professional years before people realised that her ‘unapologetic insight’ for which she earned her fame and made it possible to make Style Queen a global brand was just being cruel and rude and charging people to read her insults. She was a bully and, worse, had made it a lucrative spectator sport. For Carolen whose entire life had been formed around being kind and helpful for others, it was an impossible mindset to understand.

The main office was slightly different in feel, with one-of-a-kind antiquities replaced by ostentatiously modernist office furniture and ‘money is no object’ gadgets. Carole wandered around the large room for a moment, feeling a bit lost. The task would be hopeless but for her synethesetic empathy about energy fields. She stood in the middle of the room, closed her eyes and let her feelings reach out. Almost immediately a blinding blue light was visible in her mind’s eye behind a pseudo-wood-panel on the wall behind Regine’s desk.

Carole’s eyes snapped open. Naturally, the wall panel was flush to the wall and had no obvious keyhole or doorknob. Okay, time to break out the toys. Madame Dupain had given her a few new apps for her commercial-quality cellphone and she used one now, turning the phone’s torch into a UV spotlight. She played it over the wall panel. Immediately, a thumb-print was revealed, smudged as if it had been applied repeatedly. There were other fingerprints on the panel that were consistent with someone having used it to push something closed, so Carole decided to go with the obvious-looking button/touchpad. Here’s hoping that there wasn’t a fingerprint reader!

Carole touched the point where the thumbprints had been and pushed with her forefinger. There was a ‘click’ and a draw-like section of the wall popped out at about waist height. Inside was the source of the blue light that had led Carole here through the office’s many defences - a belt made up of a woven cord of tan-orange and maroon-red ropes and five plain wooden discs threaded through one end. This was it! The Miraculous of the Puma!

As Carole removed the treasure from its resting place, she heard, as if through several walls, the sound of a hooting alarm. Startled, the girl turned to the glass wall behind Audrey’s desk and noticed a red flashing triangle with an exclamation mark inside a circle. She’d tripped an audible alarm, obviously but something about the icon on the glass made her think of a control. Not knowing what to expect, she touched it and, suddenly, the glass panel was filled with CCTV displays from around the building including the strange area outside the office. The CCTV was automatically selecting cameras based on movement and there were several shots from different angles of Storm Bear jogging through the back-rooms of the 35th floor.

Carole knew where Regine’s personal killer was likely going. The young blonde had no question in her mind about what the MIraculous supervillain would do to her when she got to her mistress’s office. Nor did she have any expectation of finding her way through what she’d guessed was a monster-ridden magical labyrinth outside the office back to more-travelled parts of the building.

She looked at the rope in her hand and, based on an impulse she would never understand, she wrapped it around her hips and tied off the loose ends of the rope in a perfect reef knot.

At that moment, an orange light appeared right in front of the girl’s eyes and zipped around the girl a few times before returning to shoulder height and resolving into the cutest little chibi anthropomorphic cat-spirit. “Rawr! Greetings, young dancer!” the creature growled. “I am Vellvet, the kwami of Grace!”

“Uh, hello Velvet… Wow, you’re cute!” Not the rigt thing to say with a super-powered killer bearing down on her but Carole really was far beyond normal thinking at this point.

Vellvet laughed. “So are you, my dear. All you need to do to unlock my powers is say: Vellvet! Begin the dance!”

Carole had seen Jess activate the Eagle Miraculous countless times but she’d never imagined that it would happen to her! However, it wasn’t as if she had any choice… “Vellvet, Begin the Dance!” Carole was nearly blinded by the orange light-storm that surrounded her. She felt herself pirouetting like Ceriza’s cheerleader routine, finishing with a high kick up to shoulder level and she took a pose with her arms curved around her head, one above and one below her face as the light faded.

Carole blinked around her stupidly, looking at the maroon tassel-ended hide gloves now covering her hand and looking down at the figure-hugging tan hide body suit now covering her form with more tassels around her chest, back and shoulders and a maroon jagged stripe running from her hips down the side of her legs to her ankles. She ran her fingers across the frilled edges of her orange-tan face mask and through hair hair, noticing that a duplicate of the Promise Feather that Jess had given her recently was already braided into her hair. Attached to the back of the belt was a dagger… Carole unsheathed the weapon and its hilt snapped out to the length of her body, turning it into a spear with two blue-dyed eagle feathers tied to the base of the spearhead.

Carole wasn’t so startled by her new super-suit that she wasn’t aware of the oncoming threat of Storm Bear. Looking up at the CCTV screens, she could see Storm Bear in front of the ‘Stop’ sign and doing something just out of sight, probably to release the office door!

Acting on an instinct that she didn’t understand, Carole holstered her spear and leapt for the door out onto the balcony outside the office. Without hesitation, she drew back her right leg and kicked it hard. The plate glass exploded out and the metal door frame buckled outwards as if it were made of wet cardboard. Okay, so I’m super-fast and super-strong on top of everything else this might mean, Carole thought in a dazed way.

“Wait… Who are you?” Storm Bear’s voice was an outraged squeak. Carole looked at the woman brandishing the tomahawk throwing axe and pointing it in Carole’s general direction. The girl’s honey-brown eyes opened wider and she responded to an inner voice. “Windstep!” Without hesitation, the young Puma Heroine of New York leapt up off of the balcony and grabbed onto the lip of the floor of the one of the 36th floor above. She then began to scale up the side of the building.

“Ice Claw!” Storm bear yelled as her foe’s legs passed out of her line of fire. Carole didn’t look back so she didn’t see Storm Bear’s head appear over the balcony and look upwards in slack-jawed astonishment at the effortlessly-climbing native-costumed young woman. “Come back here!” she yelled uselessly before ducking back in and heading for the location of the (real) entrance to the building’s emergency stairs.

AFter completing her ascent to the rooftop helicopter pad, forty-two stories above street level, Carole took a moment to catch her breath and realised that she wasn’t even slightly winded. One difference that she did notice is that the wooden rings on the Puma Miraculous had gone black and one was flashing orange before filling in with an anachronistically-electronic ‘bleep’. The fourth ring then began to flash.

“I… I’m a super-hero!” Carole said, looking at her gloved hands stupidly. She wasn’t sure how long she’d stood there before the rooftop exit door from the emergency staircase was kicked open and Storm Bear emerged.

“THIEF!” the super-villainess yelled, stepping onto the rooftop helipad and pointed her Tomahawk at her. “Who are you anyway?”

Carole’s mind raced. There was no way that she’d give this killer her real name. “You can call me…” her mind went blank for a split second before an old folk story from Jess’s people came to her memory. “You can call me Windwalker.”

Storm bear’s furry-masked face twisted into a sneer. “I’ll call you ‘toast’, thief! You cannot steal from my Master and expect to live! Thunder Fang!”

Windwalker’s mind raced but she yelled out her counter with no real idea where the impulse came from. “Spirit Dance!” Suddenly, Windwalker was in a half-dozen spots at once, moving so swiftly that Storm Bear’s visual cortex was struggling to keep up with the data presented by her optic nerves. A huge finger of lightning shot from the Bear Tomahawk and exploded uselessly into the empty air occupied by the heroine a few moments ago.

Windwalker found herself standing almost directly behind Storm Bear. The villain noticed and turned, aiming her Tomahawk at the Puma Heroine’s temples with a bestial scream of murderous rage. There was a shower of golden-white sparks as the weapon struck the shaft of the Puma spear, the impact shotting up both women’s arms. Windwalker began to twirl the weapon around and launched herself at her foe, the two weapons meeting again and again, shaft blocking shaft including one feint that certainly would have cut Storm Bear’s face open, cheek to cheek, if it had struck home.

Windwalker began to somersault backwards, avoiding cleaving blows with her opposite number’s axe time after time.

Storm Bear hesitated and smirked. “I think that you’re flashing!” she drawled. Windwalker looked down. Indeed, the third ring on her belt was flashing orange-black and this time it felt different. “You used your primary power, didn’t you?” You have three minutes until you automatically destransform so I just have to keep you at arm’s length and… and…” Storm Bear’s face had gone slack and she was staring at something behind her foe.

Windowalker felt that this might be a trick but couldn't see the point. She looked and watched with amazement as Horned Bee, Uncanny Valley, Eagle and Tempestia dropped onto the rooftop behind her. “Nice work for a first outing, Newbie,” Horned Bee drawled as she dismissed her energy mesh wings.

“Wildwalker,” the girl gestured vaguely. “You can calle me… yeah, you got that bit.” She was very impressed with herself without appending her statement with ‘Queen Bee, Ma’am.”

“ENOUGH!” Storm Bear shrieked, unleashing another wave of dagger-like ice shards at the heroines. Then, to her shock, Tempestia gestured and a wave of black-red fire vaporised the ice mid air.

Horned Bee folded her arms and grinned at the supervillain. “Ready to give up yet?”

Storm Bear listened to the voice of the woman who was her personal nemesis and remembered that she had a card that she had yet to play. “Finzz! Clawzz! UNIFY!” Blue-white light flashed around her and, suddenly, there were blue mail plates like fish scales on the tops of her boot and gloves with more threated into her tunic. “I’m Storm Tide and I’m not out of moves yet, bitch! Warterspout!” Rainwater and the remains of the ice attack jumped into the air and formed tentacles of water that, in response to the villain’s mental focus, created drill-like points that launched at Horned Bee’s face. Then, they stopped mid-air.

Storm Tide looked over at Tempestia again and saw that the other woman had a hand-raised in a ‘halt’ gesture. For a few moments, Storm Bear tried to will the water drills forwards but she couldn’t resist the power of the Otter Prodigious no matter how hard she tried; even two Miraculous in her hands wasn’t enough. She took a risk and called on the Bear’s primary power. Once again, the woman’s arm exploded into pain as she electrified the water making Tempestia yelp and jump back, switching to the glassy solid light created by the Owl Prodigious to deflect the attack away.

Horned Bee had the Goat Crook out and pointed it at Storm Tide. “Breakout!” A ribbon of bronze light passed through the supervillain without effect. “Ma’xave’keso! She’s acting of her own free will!” she yelled, diving and rolling out of the way of another rippling sphere of water.

There was a whooping noise as the First Nation heroine spun her Bullroer around in a tight circle above her head. “I know what you’re saying, Horned Bee! Liberty!”

The effect of the Eagle MIraculous’s primary power on the supervillain was startling. She screamed as if something had just been torn out of her. She looked around her in horror, her eyes wide with disorientation and paling with nausea as if she had eaten something that had turned rotten. She looked around her frantically at the superheroes before running straight at the nearest railing of the roof and throwing herself off.

“Oh my god! NO!” Tempestia screamed, reaching out with the Air and Falco’s gifts. Much to her shock, the currents of air met the far denser currents of water as Storm Tide was caught by another Waterspout that carried her out over the city and away.

“Well, that was effective,” Horned Bee remarked. What…?”

“Hate,” Ma’xave’keso remarked. “Her heart and mind was bound with chains of hate, bitterness and envy. When Lirri’s power broke them, I think… I think I saw the frustrated and frightened little girl inside. She has to live with what she’d let herself become to try and hide from those feelings up to now.”

There was a long, sober pause as the women on the rooftop absorbed that.

Uncanny Valley walked over to Windwalker and put a sisterly hand on her shoulder. “That was well done, Windwalker. I… can see who you really are under the Quantum Masking, you know.” Windwalker raised an eyebrow. Of late, mostly at Ceriza’s demands, Aeon had been learning the human quality of tact, not automatically stating a facts if there was any possibility that it would cause offence.

Ma’xave’keso walked up to the new heroine too. “Yeah, good work, Newbie. So… uh… You didn’t happen to see a girl called Carole Hopper in the Style Queen offices, did you? We were supposed to be covering her exit but only you came…” Ma’xave’keso looked at the Promise Feather in Windwalker’s hair and frowned in confusion, something tickling at the corner of her awareness but something pushing back against it from ever being fully understood.

Windwalker’s mind span. The disguise magic! Naturally, it wouldn’t work on Aeon but this was a big chance for her to hide this from her girlfriend! She sighed and shook her head. No, she couldn’t lie to her friends or the woman with whom she was falling in love. “She… She’s okay, Ma’xave’keso. In fact, she’s right here, hemè’oono.”

Jess froze on the stop hearing Windwalker calling her ‘sweetheart’ in her native language. “Hemè’oono?” she gasped back as suddenly the shape of the new heroine’s face resolved as if her mask were not there.

Windwalker grinned wanly. “I… always wondered how you felt when you did this, nese’e!” She might have continued but her lips were suddenly busy with Jess’s own.

“Well, we should probably have expected that,” Tempestia remarked dryly.

~*~*~

“Vellvet, end the dance,” With a flash of orange light, Windwalker was replaced with Carole. Jess, who had just detransformed herself, took her lover in her arms again. Lirri and Vellvet circled over their holders’ heads in a happy way, making Zoe think of how she’d watched Pollen and Longg dance around each other on occasion.

Jess’s voice was harsh as she took the blonde’s cheeks in her cupped hands. “Carole, please… promise me that you won’t just go in blind against a supervillain like that ever again.”

Standing on the other side of the room with Gina and Standing Coyote, Barbara Keynes raised a sarcastic eyebrow. “Do as I say, not as I do?” she snarked at her fosterling. She got a defiant tongue poke in response.

With reverent movements, Carole unknotted the Puma Mracuous and stepped towards Standing Coyote. “Guardian Standing Coyote, with all humility and gratitude to Vellvet, I return this heirloom of your people…” Jess took her hand and squeezed. “Of… of our people to you to keep it safe.”

Standing Coyote looked down at the coils of the Puma sitting in the girl’s hands and then looked up at Vellvet and noted the Puma Kwami’s nod of agreement. “Actually, Carole Hopper, promised wife of Jess Keynes and adopted woman of the tribe… I honestly cannot think of anywhere the Puma would be safer than with you.” He looked over at Jess. “You are willing to accept the burden of training your lover?”

“That burden falls on us,” Olympia Hill added from where she’d been standing at her wife’s side. “This is a sacred burden for her but equally for us.”

Carole frowned before putting the Puma Miraculous back around her hips. Chloe made a mental note to tell the girl about the importance of keeping the Miracuouos secure whilst she slept or bathed but that could wait for later. “So, I want to know what happened with Storm Tide, as she seems to want to be called when she’s unifying the Salmon with the Bear.”

Jess frowned. “I really can’t say more than I already have. She was in a prison of hate, Chloe. She literally could not function in a world where she was not the victim of the powerful that she needed to lash out with all her fury. I think… I think that breaking that illusion literally robbed her of the solid central pole that held up her self-identity and her ability to relate to the world. I genuinely worry just what she might do without that.”

Chloe frowned as she remembered a recently-disowned girl crying onto Marinette’s kitty-cat pillow after hearing her father and mother both acting as if she was not an issue in their impending divorce. “Yeah… losing the justification for your crimes is something I know all about and it isn’t easy to live with.”

~*~*~

Chantal Hantou was scrubbing half-heartedly in the bath, trying to clean off the smell and stains of the vomit that she hadn’t been able to keep down after she’d reached a safe distance from the heroes to detransform. All the things she’d done; all the hatred, violence and casual cruelty. Did she think it made her better? Did she think that hurting all these people balanced out the social injustices she’d faced since her earliest childhood?

What had she been thinking?!?

She was engaged in a futile compulsive scrubbing of her arms and hands in an attempt to get off the sights and smell of the blood she’d shed; the clothes she’d worn to work today were already in a bin bag, ready to be taken to an incinerator; the only thing that stopped her trying to end things was the realisation that she had a responsibility to the two kawami; she had to keep these remarkable beings and the gifts that they offered out of that monster Audrey Regine’s hands. She put her face in her hands and began to cry again.

Clawzz looked at her compassionately. “You never were really happy, were you? Doing this? Doing that evil woman’s bidding? If not for the power of my MIraculous being used for evil, dulling your conscience and your ethics, you would have broken and run a long time ago.”

“I’m sorry, Clawzz,” Chantal whispered. “I would take it back if I could.”

The bear kwami nodded severely. “Regrettably, that is not something that is in your power to do, Chantal,” Finzz added quietly. “All you can do is work forward from here.”

The two kwami watched as Chantal began to scrub hopelessly and compulsively at the electrical burn-like poison purple veins running up her left arm, now up to her shoulder and almost onto her neck, the consequence of forcing the Bear Miraculous to use its primary power for evil without detransforming in between uses. “My… scars…” she said at last, fighting off the desire to fetch a knife from the kitchen to carve off the limb. “These are the marks of my crimes and my evil and I can ever escape them any more than I can the memories. I’ll always be a freak for men and women to reject when they see my marred flesh…”

Finzz swept forwards and, making Chantal gasp in surprise, the salmon kwami drew up a small rivulet of water with his power that wrapped around her left arm, making her gasp at the cool contact with her almost feverish marred skin. The purple veins seemed to blur and then sloughed off of her as if she’d just been drawing on her arm in water-soluble ink. “I… how…?”

“Healing is not amongst my powers,” Finzz replied. “However, the real cause of those marks was the fact that you abused our powers out of desire to do evil. Your repentance and the change in your heart makes it possible to do away with them. However, if you should ever do so again, they will return and, with them, your inevitable descent to ever more permanent scars, debilitation and, ultimately, an lingering living death as your paralysed and unresponsive body rots around you.”

Chantal had gone grey at that description but it was enough to just think what even getting to that point would require of her. “No… Never; I can’t do that anymore Finzz! I won’t kill more innocent people! I can’t lie to myself that they ‘deserve’ it….!”

Clawzz nodded wisely. “Well then, Chantal Hantou, Holder of the Bear and Salmon Miraculous… you must then instead decide what you are going to say to your Master, won’t you?”

Chapter 19: Willpower (Destiny of the Style Queen, Part 1)

Chapter Text

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: @BugBoss ([emailprotected]) - ADMIN/OWNER

@TrueQueen: Well, the Puma is out of the witch’s hands

@City Sparrow: We even put that monster #Storm_Bear to flight! So, we’re pretty pleased with ourselves!

@BugBoss: Yes, the Grandmaster passed on his Guardian in New York’s report. It sounds like things went well despite the real possible complications

@Bender4Real: Yeah, we’re still dealing with the fact that he’s actually letting her keep the Puma

@BugBoss: Yes, apparently there is a long-established and accepted means by which a Guardian can tell if a kwami has ‘chosen’ or accepted a holder.

@BugBoss: Tact and graciousness restrains me from asking why the Grandmaster didn’t apply that to us when he first came to Paris.

@TrueQueen: LIke I said before, Hot’n’Red, he’s a loser and he’s actually quite threatened by the way the kwami love and trust you.

@Cool4Catz: Amway, criticism of the Grandmaster’s presumptions aside, What’s the next step gooing to be?

@HotMetal: We are in agreement with #Orbweaver’s opinion that #Black_Gold will seek revenge as soon as possible. We will be moving proactively to eliminate her as a threat.

@CitySparrow: In other words, we’re going in as soon as possible to finish this mission.

@Bemder4Real: Honestly, this is something we should have done a long time ago.

@BugBoss: Seriously, Tempestia, this is something that you and your sister had to be ready to face.

@Cool4Catz: Yeah, subject matter expert here:

@Cool4Catz: Taking down a supervillain parent is not something to do lightly.

Jess Keynes blinked awake to find herself alone in her bed. After yesterday’s events, she had been reluctant to let Carole out of her sight and had somehow talked the blonde into sleeping alongside her. She was thus keenly aware of the vacancy at her side.

Blinking hazily, she looked up to see a familiar blonde shape in the middle of her bedroom atop Keynes Tower apparently practising ballet moves. “... Carole?”

Carole turned to Jess and offered her a brilliant smile. “Oh! Jess! I had promised Vellvet that I would show her what I knew of dance forms in the modern world and I suppose that I just got a bit carried away!”Hovering nearby, the orange Puma Kwami of Grace shot Jess a nervous wave.

Jess’s expression could best be described as ‘besotted’. “Don’t think that you have to stop for me!”

“No, there’s something I need to talk to you about.” Carole showed Jess the screen of her cellphone. “I’ve been kind of fired; no great surprise but it might not be a good idea for me to be seen… at least in my civilian form, anywhere near Style Queen. I… uh…” The blonde drew in a deep breath. “It looks like Regine has reached out to my parents.” Jess was shocked and didn’t hide it. “Yeah, I know. I got a ranty voicemail from my mom about how proud they were that I’d got a ‘normal’ job and how angry they were that I’d let myself throw that opportunity away. I don’t think that they know anything about the whole ‘working undercover for SPECIAL’ thing. However, Regine told them that I’m being investigated for corporate espionage and maybe theft. Mom said that they won’t protect me and would disown me if I’d chosen to ‘shame’ them again.”

Jess gathered her girlfriend into her arms. “Forget them, Carole.”

“I’m trying to, Jess but… They’re my parents and, as silly as it sounds, I was just hoping that they’d feel proud of me without preconditions, just for once.”

~*~*~

Chantal Hantou was far from a happy woman that morning. With the huge Liberty-induced revelation of the previous day, she’d been ready to flee New York and go into hiding somewhere but Clawzz had said (and she couldn’t refute) that the quicker that she hurried into this, the more likely that something would go wrong and she’d end up being hunted by both sides of the moral divide. So it was that she was at the security desk, carrying out her day-to-day duties in a way that suggested that she wasn’t a 23-year-old college drop-out who Audrey Regine had lured/coerced into becoming her bodyguard and murderous enforcer.

“Yes, Ms Hantou, we’ve already cancelled the Hopper girl’s ID card and network account,” the reception desk security guard said.

“Good; I doubt that she’d be stupid enough to return here but, if she is, she’s to be detained and only I and Madame Regine are to be informed, is that clear?”

The man nodded. “Do we know how she got out of the building?” he asked. “Her ID card just stopped responding to the RFID interrogation signals.”

Chantal had been wondering that and she’d also wondered where the person who stole and used the Puma Miraculous had come from but her mind skittered away from the question in a way that suggested active magic was at work, something that she knew she’d never be able to consciously defeat. “That doesn’t matter; focus on your duties and make sure that she never gets back in.”

Chantal’s cellphone chimed and she looked at the screen, seeing a reminder meeting arranged with her employer. It was new but she imagined that Regine would want an urgent and immediate explanation of last night’s disastrous fiasco. She swallowed nervously, not sure if she wished to risk being in the sight of Audrey Regine and perhaps let a hint slip that she was no longer the evil woman’s slave. No, what was doubtlessly true for Carole Hopper was also true for her: Not being there would simply bring the hounds to her scent that bit more urgently and, despite brainstorming for a night, she didn’t have anything approaching an exit strategy. She just had to play this one by ear.

~*~*~

There was a crowd forming at the Parc Place des Voyages. In the centre of the circle of onlookers was a blur of motion as dual-wielded shuāngdāo butterfly swords met and blocked sweeping cutting attacks by a katana and the occasional jab from a wakizashi.

“Are those real swords?”

“Jeez! Look at them move! It’s like something from Galaxy Battles!”

“Shouldn’t someone call the police?”

“Look at those smiles! They’re enjoying this!”

Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Tsurugi Kagami weren’t really interested in the view from the Peanut Gallery. Only three years ago, Marinette would have been too scared to even attempt this but then she’d become Ladybug and, along the way, gained a lot of motivation to develop her bodily coordination and develop skills with traditional types of weapon. She’d also acquired Kagami as a friend and learned that she liked fencing as recreation as well as a sport. Developing from bokken to blunted blades to live blades hadn’t actually taken that long and the two women knew each other’s moves well enough for there to be no real risk.

Marinette finally got Kagami’s katana into a cross-blade lock but felt a jab in her side and looked down to see that she’d let the Wakizashi slip through. “Oh.”

“I win, I think,” Kagami said. “That was the most entertaining duel, Marinette-san. I am constantly challenged against you.”

Marinette looked around at the awestruck onlookers. “Maybe we should do this at your house from now on? I think that we’re scaring the Normies.” Kagami laughed.

The two young women wrapped their blades in felt carrying bags and slung them over their shoulders “You have improved by leaps and bounds since the Darkest Day,” Kagami said discreetly.

Marinette nodded. “We were all taught not to rely on our magical powers that day, Kagami. However, the real secret was Jeanne’s teachings.” Kagami gave her friend a confused look. “Tikki taught me how to meet and confer with the spirits of past Ladybug heroes and I found many of them were experts with the swords of their time. Jeanne was the most influential as we could talk about our respective Black Cat boyfriends as we sparred but I think that you’d be most interested in Fa Mulan.”

Kagami gave Marinette a shocked look. “Longg said that she was a Dragon.”

Marinette nodded. “She’s one of the few heroes who routinely used two Miraculous. She was chosen to wield the Dragon but she was tasked with protecting the Ladybug. I think that she found it easier to wield it too. There are lots of tales in the past of our burdens and I want to learn them too.”

As she and her friend reached the benches and sat down, much closer to the crowds, both of the disguised heroes of Paris changed their conversation for less secret things. “So, I am going to be going to New York shortly. Is there anything you want me to tell Chloe for you?”

“Nothing urgent or that cannot wait until she returns,” Kagami said. “I’m assuming that you have been summoned for the same task as Chloe-chan?”

“Not ‘summoned’,” Marinette said. “Chose to attend is closer. I am sure that Chloe can manage this but her mother is a powerful witch and a Master to boot. I am not leaving her to face such a threat alone.” Marinette looked up at a couple of teenage boys who were nervously hovering nearby. “Yes?”

“Um… That was cool,” one boy said, stepping forwards. “Wh.. where did you learn those moves?”

“Forget that! I want a date!” his friend interjected and his face fell as both women laughed. “Let me guess, you’ve already got boyfriends?”

“Girlfriend in my case,” Kagami said. “Don’t be downhearted, she once told me that everyone has their ideal life-mate waiting for them.”

~*~*~

Audrey Regine looked at Chantal levelly. “I am disappointed, my dear,” she said without warmth. “I gave you a second Miraculous and still you were not able to prevent those pestilential self-proclaimed ‘heroes’ from stealing the Puma from me.”

In a slight panic, Chantal looked over the Raven kwami, hovering at its mistress’s side. The creature somehow managed to look both expressionless yet smug at the same time and she waited for a few moments for it to betray her secrets. However, it remained unnaturally silent. “Well?” Regine snapped.

“I… You have my sincerest apologies, Master,” she said at last. “I was outnumbered five-to-one and…” she rubbed her right arm theatrically. “You know that I have found that pushing my powers too far has… consequences.”

Audrey frowned suspiciously. She couldn't deny the essential truth of her enforcer’s words and she had been retained on the fact that she was intelligent enough to act without continual micro-management. “Well, as I said, I expect better results from you. However, I do not believe that the Puma would have greatly improved either of us in combat and I have doubts about whether it was worth the effort to protect. I mean…” the woman snorted. “‘Grace’, really?”

It was Chantal’s feeling that Audrey was trying to excuse the defeat in her own mind by saying: ‘Well, I didn’t care about that dumb thing anyway’ but wasn’t sure why she was bothering. She was saved the problem of coming up with a response that wasn’t sarcastic, insulting or anything else that would get her killed or reduced to a mindless basket-case by the building shaking and, a few moments later, a resonant ‘boom’ being heard, followed by Audrey’s desk phone starting to ring with an internal call… or five.

Chantal raced over to the window and saw something quite alarming. “Master, the building seems surrounded by dozens of SPECIAL vans. Uh… there are also several of their airships circling around the roof!”

Audrey made a growling noise in her throat. “Those idiotic ‘heroes’ have obviously decided to dispense with the fiction that they don’t know just who and what I am. Very well, as they’ve decided to do me the favour of going through the main entrance, be so kind as to go and welcome them.

Chantan nodded. “As you command, my Master. Clawzz! Finzz! Dual Transformation!” The mix of sea green and electric yellow light faded and she raced for the door of the office. If Audrey noticed her changed costume, First Nation fighting hides with yellow ‘tracksuit stripes’ and blue-green chevrons and a mask with a teddy bear’s button noise and teddy bear ears in her hair, she didn’t choose to remark on it. Instead, she touched one of the hidden controls on the glass wall behind her desk, causing storm shutters to roll closed over the windows and balcony door of her office.

~*~*~

“Welcome to the Raynard Building!” the security guard who Jess knew was one of Regine’s personal employees. The man immediately noticed that Jess wasn’t an employee of Style Queen and a suspicious look crossed his face.

“Hi, I’m heading up to the magazine’s offices!” Jess announced with a sunny smile. “I’ll need a Visitor badge!”

The man rolled his eyes and Jess saw his hand move closer to the panic button. “School tours are on Thursdays, kid. Come back…”

“No, this is a racketeering bust and that’s today. Lirri! Wings of Freedom!” The flash of Jess’s transformation into Ma’xave’keso disoriented the security guard for a few moments and gave her a moment to lash out with her Bullroer, its cord wrapping around his throat and letting the Eagle Hero yank him over the desk. “Also, no naughty pressing any alarm buttons!”

There were other armed security guards in the room and they drew their weapons but it was too late. Horned Bee had transformed and released a swarm of Soldier Bee constructs that quickly swamped them, completely distracting them with painful stings. With a crash, the entire street-facing elevation of the lobby exploded outwards with a wave of bronze-orange magic to reveal Uncanny Valley and Tempestia standing there with several SPECIAL agents in SWAT gear arrayed behind them. A wave of red light shot out from Tempestia and Jess was surprised to see the guards suddenly wearing clown costumes and making panicked-sound honking horn sounds with every step.

Storm Tide… No, that didn’t sound right with the new insights she now had. How about Waterfall Bear? She emerged from the express elevator on the ground floor to see the place was a total shambles. She came across a group of mercenaries in the employ of the Dark Order and used a combination of Waterspout and Ice Claw to freeze them in place. She could have just cooked them with Lightning Fang but that wasn’t who she wanted to be anymore.

“Hey! It’s Storm Tide… or… maybe not?” Tempesta blinked stupidly.

“Her costume has changed significantly,” Uncanny Valley agreed.

“You can call me Waterfall Bear,” the Miraculous holder said. “Look I… I surrender. I know that I’ve committed several horrible crimes in Madame Regine’s employ but now I want out. and I’ll cooperate any way that I can.”

“TRAITOR!” Yelled a guard before being knocked out by a blow from Horned Bee’s Shepherd’s Crook.

“You’re making sensible choices, lady. Where’s Black Gold?”

“Your mother’s officer is on the thirty-fifth floor but I don’t recommend you go charging up there,” Waterfall Bear warned. “The entire floor is a magical labyrinth that is impossible to navigate without magical protection that only she knows how to cast.”

“So, what other options are there?” Tempestia asked.

“The windows and balconies are protected by galvanised steel shutters,” the former supervillain said.

“Oh, that’s good news… for us,” Tempestia said, suddenly transforming into a gigantic peregrine falcon in a flash of blue-white fire and shooting out of the window, Uncanny Valley racing to follow her.

Windwalker and Standing Coyote both entered the atrium as Horned Bee and Ma’xave’keso followed their allies out. “I understand that there is something that you need to do?” Windwalker asked.

Waterfall Bear nodded sadly and allowed her transformation to drop. She caressed Finzz and Clawzz. “Thank you, both of you. I hope that you’ll find someone worthy of you one day.”

“You have already taken the first step,” Clawzz said gently, touching Chantal’s face. “Keep on the same path and anything… even happiness… is within your reach.” Chantal unclipped the Salmon Brooch and pulled off the Bear Glove making the two kwami flash into light and vanish before putting them into Windwalker’s hands. The Puma heroine turned to Standing Coyote, who was holding out the First Nation Miracle Box, several of its compartments open and allowed the girl to reverently place the two MIraculous back into their places.

Chantal didn’t react as a SPECIAL agent walked up, pulled her arms behind her back, latched on handcuffs and began to recite her Miranda rights. “I will speak for you if no-one else will,” the First Nation Guardian said quietly. “You have made a brave choice today.”

Windwalker raced out and jumped easily into the troop compartment of a SPECIAL VTOL gunship hovering about three storeys over the street. She caught the pilots’ attention. “Take us up to the roof!” she ordered.

~*~*~

The Falcon that was the transformed Tempestia was soaring unhurriedly past the closed shutters of her mother’s offices, clearly killing time as the other three heroes joined her. Then, with a flash of blue-white fire, she transformed into the Lynx, landing agilely on the balcony outside of the office as lightning crawled over the shutters, which suddenly tore out of the side of the building with an intense magnetic flux from the Prodigious of Virtue and fell towards the ground far below, Uncanny Valley catching them in an energy field projected from her third eye and lowering them to the streets.

“Mummy! We’re ho-ome!” Tempestia called out in a mocking sing-song tone as she returned to her human form; Horned Bee landed beside her.

“Indeed,” Black Gold rose from behind her desk without any hint of hurry, worry or concern. “Indeed, by girls, welcome home. We have much to discuss, you and I.” The supervillain strutted over and both heroines immediately noticed that her costume had changed. Around her upper and lower arms and legs were strange wooden bands like she had tree trunks for the legs of her trousers and the arms of her blouse.

“Watch out, Tempesta!” Horned Bee yelled. “I think that she’s unified her transformation with another Mir…”

“Dammed Up!” Black Gold gestured with her sceptre and suddenly, plants were spontaneously growing everywhere, tangling around the two young women’s arms and legs and holding them immobile.

“Damn it!” Horned Bee yelled. “Tee!”

“On it!” Tempestia said. “Lu…”

“Ah-ah!” Black Gold said with a smirk. “I know about your plant-shaping abilities my dear and I want you to think very, very carefully about the very next breath you take… because it could be your darling twin sister’s last!” Horned Bee made a choking sound as a thick, sappy branch grew around her throat and tightened. Black Gold grinned sadistically. “Oh, my dear girl, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to get you to just shut up!”

Tempestia frowned. “So, why stop here? You’re winning, aren’t you?”

Black Gold shook her head. “You have no idea, do you, you silly girl?” The woman began to pace around the office, gesturing for emphasis. “Do you know what it’s like being the Centre of the North American Circle? I’m constantly surrounded by ambitious and scheming peers who want nothing more than my wealth and position for themselves! I am running out of time, girls! I only have so long before time and age wears away at my powers and charisma and I can’t keep the Circle from being afraid of taking me on, even assuming that I somehow keep Graham de Vanily and his cultists from my throat! I need someone who can take over from me. I need…” Black Gold turned her blazing blue gaze on the two heroes. “I need heirs. Heirs that are as ruthless, focussed and determined as me and, ideally, are of my own bloodline.”

“Yes, but I’m not…”

“Oh do be quiet Zebra! Chamomile has been too stupid to keep her identity secret and it didn’t take me long to work our who you are, given the fact that the Prodigious doesn’t provide disguise magic when you transform!” Tempestia fell silent. She’d forgotten that issue and it made sense that her mother would have identified her eventually, if she’d bothered to study her photographs when transformed.

Black Gold stroked the Raven Miraculous thoughtfully. “I understand what Nevermorr was saying now.” The woman strode over to Tempestia and ran a feather-light caress across the Prodigious of Virtue. “I feel so very, very stupid. You know, I had this priceless treasure in my hands for over a year before I gave it to Charlene. I could feel its power but I couldn’t find any mention of it in the Order’s writings so I couldn’t even think of using it myself; I didn’t even know the transformation ritual. So… I gave it to my oldest daughter as a ‘gift’, hoping that, after she’d demonstrated her potential with the Bee Miraculous, she would somehow unlock it through pure luck. Of course, we all know that didn’t happen. Instead she gave it to you and…” The woman laughed sinisterly. “Well, my Master always insisted that Destiny could not be cheated and that is exactly what he meant, or so I now perceive with the benefit of hindsight.” She shook her head. “My youngest child, the Renren of the second Prodigious, the only one specifically designed for combat.” She walked over to Horned Bee and caressed one of the Goat clips and the Bee, sitting in the base of her ponytail, ignoring the way Horned Bee twisted away from her touch. “My oldest child, running around with two Miraculous that she’d proven beyond a doubt are bonded to her.”

Black Gold sashayed back to her desk and sat on the edge of it, smirking at the two trapped heroes. “My two little girls, one who has completed a scattered Prodigious and the other who has managed to fool none other than Ladybug herself to give her two Miraculous and use them for her own purposes! How could either of you not be worthy except in comparison to each other?”

The woman stood and raised her sceptre. “All that really is necessary at this point is to help you shed your naive and cumbersome and sentimental beliefs in anything except your destinies… of using your powers to enrich and empower yourselves! Harsh Truth!”

~*~*~

Outside the building, Ma’xave’keso had finally decided that trying to contact Horned Bee and Tempestia was hopeless. “Whatever those tree branches are, they’re blocking communication channels.”

Uncanny Valley nodded. “Yes, this whole building is suddenly a massive quantum anomaly.”

Windwalker wasn’t sure exactly what that meant but the gnarled, tangled mass of stacked gnawed logs and tree limbs that were blocking all the windows and doors and turning the skyscraper into a kind of ersatz tree was pretty damn ‘anomalous’ to her!

“I will try to continue to cut my way in,” Uncanny Valley continued. “However, I think that you should try to find another way in.” The android hero tipped out of the VTOL gunship’s side door and soared away on her in-built rockets.

Windwalker nodded. “Okay, take us up to the roof.”

“You got an idea?” Ma’xave’keso asked. “Hantou says that there is some kind of magical protections on the executive level of the building!”

Windwalker nodded. “Yeah, I saw it; craziest place I’ve ever seen but…” She sucked in a breath. “The thing is that I’ve navigated it before and I can again.” The VTOL set down on the rooftop helipad and the two Miraculous heroes jumped out. “Jess, I…” Ma’xave’keso looked at her girlfriend with some worry. “I have to go alone. I don’t know how far those protections extend so it isn’t safe for you.”

“Carole! No!” Ma’xave’keso ws holding Windwalker by the shoulders with bruising levels of force. “You’re barely trained! Anything could happen to you!”

The blonde hugged her bondmate tightly. “I’ll be okay, silly,” she whispered. “Trust me and get ready to go blasting in when I break out the others!” She drew in a deep breath. “Only I can do this, Jess; I won’t let yourself risk yourself trying to navigate those…. backrooms! There is an unnatural evil about them!”

Ma’xave’keso raised an eyebrow. “Like Ceriza?”

Windwalker laughed hollowly. “No, Ceriza is a natural evil all the way. No, this is synthetic and otherworldly. It’s like a whole different reality in there.”

The First Nation heroine sucked in her breath. “Okay, I’ll trust you, even though I’m not sure I should. Just… be careful, okay? The Bourgeois Girls are big, experienced heroes and you don’t have to risk yourself for them.” At that point, there was a sonic boom and the two young women looked up to see a figure in a red-and-black polka-dotted suit, a pink-visored helmet and pink energy-mesh wings under two black-doted red wing covers on her back. “Cosmobug!”

The Parisian superherone dropped lightly to the helipad’s surface, her wings vanishing with a flash of pink light and the cases folding flush to her back. She nodded respectfully to Ma’xave’keso, shot Windwalker and odd look before turning back to the most experienced North American Miraculous heroine. “Ma’xave’keso, where are Tempestia and Horned Bee?”

“Inside Black Gold’s office on the 35th floor. Regine’s sealed it somehow with magical wooden structure!”

Cosmobug frowned. “The Beaver Miraculous of Structures,” she said. “That was one of the missing Miraculous from the North American box; well, at least we now know where it is. Also, where are you going?” Cosmobug added to Windwalker as the blonde Puma Heroine edged towards the rooftop fire escape.

“I’m going after them,” she insisted stoutly. “The thirty-fifth floor is some kind of magical labyrinth but I have the power to navigate it so long as I have a ‘homing beacon’ of their power to track!”

Cosmobug was frowning as she digested that. “Agent Ladybug?” A second VTOL had landed, letting Orbweaver disembark. “I’m glad to see you on site. I think that our raid on Regine has hit a snag.”

“Yes,” Cosmobug agreed. “Please don’t try to blast through those wooden barriers. They might look like pinewood, but the Beaver’s barriers are as strong as a battleship’s armour plate!” Orbweaver grimaced. Cosmobug turned back to Windwalker. “Horned Bee told me about your role in recovering the Puma from Black Gold’s sanctum,” she said. “Do you genuinely feel able to confront her again, knowing that you’re facing the Master of a twisted dark order of Guardians?”

Ma’xave’keso rolled her eyes at the way her friend had switched so smoothly to ‘Guardian Marinette’ mode. Cosmobug’s pressure suit flashed into pink sparkles and were absorbed into the Ladybug Miraculous, leaving behind her normal costume. The Parisian heroine walked over to Windwalker. “Black Gold is a Master of perverted magics, Windwalker, so what you say about traps outside her sanctum has the feel of truth of the darkest kind. So, go, but…?” The blonde hero gave the noirette an odd look. “No heroics; if you can’t get Tempestia and Horned Bee out of there without risking a confrontation with Black Gold then simply open an exit. The rest of us will help you.” Ladybug squeezed the other young woman’s shoulders.

“I would have preferred your help persuading her not to do this,” Ma’xave’keso remarked in a bitter tone of voice. Ladybug gave her an odd look. “She’s barely any experience with her Miraculous, let alone with fighting in general but she’s so brave that I’m scared she’ll take risks and…”

“Then put faith in her courage,” Ladybug responded. “We all had to start somewhere and every Miraculous Hero in the modern era went into battle in the first time with nothing but their kwami’s power and their belief in the rightness of their cause.”

Ma’xave’keso smiled slightly; that was certainly something that was true. “I’ll, take your word for it,” she said.

~*~*~

Windwalker was nervously edging down the bare metal staircase running through the undecorated concrete stairwell. She could sense the poison green magic of the twisted area of the 35^th floor as she descended from the roof but, as much as a part of her desperately wanted to Windstep to get this all over with quicker, she’d had an abbreviated training session with Standing Coyote. During this, he’d emphasised that her primary power could only be used once per transformation without risking terrible physical and spiritual injury. Furthermore, it only worked for five minutes per time at the very most. So, she was only going to use it when she was at her destination.

She was reassuring herself that she was still some distance away as she left the landing for the 36^th floor and fell through the suddenly intangible staircase. Her Miraculous-enhanced reflexes took over and she was able to land in a perfect three-point crouch. However, as her senses cleared, she realised that she was at her destination. The area she’d fallen into was a three-storey tall area, somewhat reminiscent of a theatre of arena with sixteen huge florescent lights shining down from the distant roof and two levels of balconies rising up to either side with no obvious way of getting to them without risking the sinister and blacked-out corridors around her. Everything was decorated in the same rotten yellow shade with the strange chevron pattern on all the walls.

Now was the time to use her abilities to the full and not even the ones Vellvet had gifted her. She closed her eyes and centred herself until she had a clear sense of the distance and direction to Audrey Regine’s office. As soon as she had that fixed in mind, she opened her eyes again. “Windstep!” she cried out before blurring into motion and racing faster than the human eye could follow towards the appropriate twisting corridor.

The journey through the 35^th floor was twisting and confusing to the human mind but Windwalker was able to navigate well, able to jump up a storey from a standing start to get through vent-like connections between certain rooms and never losing orientation thanks to the blue light of the Miraculous and Prodigious calling to her.

That wasn’t to say that she didn’t have some unwelcome company. She had to dodge through the flailing extremities of an Entity that was a simulacrum of the human form but made of twisted wire-like threads and flee another Entity that was like a giant toy man with a bulbous plastic-like head with soulless black eyes seemingly painted on the outside. Out of the corner of her eyes, she occasionally saw something like the Cheshire Cat’s smile from Alice in Wonderland leering at her out of dark corners. However, she didn’t let herself get distracted or disoriented, always keeping these monsters firmly behind her.

~*~*~

It was a perversion of everything that the darkest and most selfish part of Zoe wanted. A wasteland of pain and self-aggrandisement where her friends wore chains and she drank wine from a goblet made of Leonidas’s skull, bound in brass. At her feet were a number of beautiful (and barely clad) women whilst David, in a blood red perversion of the Paladin armour stood at her side, her fierce and slavishly loyal enforcer, not that she needed anything but the power of the Prodigious to enforce her will.

She heard a voice, the first voice that she ever heard, something that her every instinct told her to trust, speaking the words of her damnation and doom: “This is who you are and what you really want and deserve. At my side, it will be yours to claim. This is your destiny! You know that this is THE TRUTH!”

…

Chloe was at the place that, on a certain level, she’d always wanted and felt she deserved. Loaded down with jewels and luxurious clothing, leading Marinette and Adrien around on leashes whilst minions simpered and offered to fulfil her every whim. There was her father, genuflecting to her. Here was Kagami, barely dressed and kissing her sandalled feet.

Then came the voice: “Friendship? Love? Those are weak dreams of weaklings my child! You are strong enough to TAKE! Stand at my side and this is the reality that I will teach you to create from your life! This is your birthright! This is your destiny! This is THE TRUTH!

“I don’t think so, Girlie!”

Chloe agreed with the second, strangely-accented voice in her head. “No!” Chloe found herself pushing back. “No, it isn’t! I don’t want this! I don’t want this! I don’t want to hurt my friends, let alone humiliate Kagami-chan! Why would I? Get out of my head!” A wave of bronze light seemed to wash out, making the figures around her ripple, distort and become transparent.

“Foolish child!” responded the imperious first voice. “You don’t know what you’re rejecting! Well, so be it! If you won’t accept my offer, I’m sure that your sister will…” The hallucinations were surrounded by gold and black sparkles and grow briefly stronger.

“NO! You leave Zoe alone! Now get out of my head, you foul witch! BREAKOUT!” The wave of bronze light rippled out, sweeping away the hallucination in a moment.

~*~*~

Suddenly, Chloe was fully aware again, still wrapped in the vines and thorny branches of her mother’s trap. Black Gold was rolling on the floor, clutching her head and moaning in pain as blood streamed from her nose.

“Lupus! Rattus!” Horned Bee heard her sister yell out. Suddenly, her bonds were all gone and a ripple of black-red flame raced out in all directions, turning the wooden walls and thorny vines around the tower into ashes and a scattering of beautiful flowers that floated away on the powerful updrafts around the skyscraper. Immediately, the SPECIAL VTOLS began to close in, rappelling ropes dropping from their open-sided troop compartments.

Black Gold staggered to her feet and pointed her winged sceptre at the two superheroines. “What…? The Goat, of course! But not just its power either! Was this how you resisted dear Gabriel all those times, girl?” With a hiss of annoyance she wiped the blood from her top lip. “No matter; we will dispense with all the theatrics and mind-magics. However, I still require privacy! Lodge!” Stake-like wooden spikes exploded from the floor all around the three women, enclosing them in a bubble of wooden walls. “Now we have that, we need to speak business. Tell me your price! Tell me what you want and I will grant it to you! Tell me how I gain your service!”

Then, completely unexpectedly, Windwalker was standing at Black Gold’s side, the Puma Spear in her hand. “Yoink!” she called, cutting the cord binding the can-shaped traditional First Nation tool bag of the Beaver Miraculous to the older woman’s belt. “You’re causing too much trouble with this to keep it, Madame!” Then the Puma Heroine was gone.

Black Gold screeched in fury as the wooden armour plates on her arms and legs vanished. “Gnaww, you incompetent creature! Why did you let her remove your Miraculous from my person?!?” The Beaver Kwami didn’t answer and the power of Spirit Dance let Windwalker easily avoid the supervillain’s clumsy swipe with her sceptre; this was obviously how the new heroine had got inside the wall of sharp-edged wood as it was being erected by the Lodge spell. Now, with her connection to the Beaver Miraculous broken, all around the women, the wooden walls broke up into green sparkles and vanished.

“A kwami will only fight to stay with its holder if they have their approval, Master Audrey,” Horned Bee spat. “Strange that a Master of the Dark Order would not know this. Or did Ziggy’s power break your spell that should have compelled this?” The black, yellow and white-clad superheroine stepped forwards and levelled the Goat Crook at her as Windwalker helped Tempestia stand. “Now, because I despise mind-magics and owe you at least one free chance because you’re my mother, I’m going to give you once chance to surrender before I use Hardhead to compel you to do so!”

“Please, don’t do me any favours,” Black Gold growled. She backed away towards the wall and kicked it with one of her high-heeled boosts, making the safe box pop open.

“Horned Bee!” Windwalker yelled over the bleeping of her Miraculous timer. “Watch out! That’s where she keeps her stolen Mirac…”

Black Gold grabbed something in the same box and then slapped it onto her throat and, as her hand dropped, the heroes saw that it was a wolf’s fang, framed in iron on a tight thread that turned it into a choker. “NEVERMORR! HOWLL! UNIFY!” Grey fur appeared in patches all over Black Gold’s costume, especially her mask, and her eyes turned amber like a wolf’s. “OUTCRYYY!” A shockwave of sonically-displaced air blew all three heroines out of the gaping gaps in the wall, only to be caught by glassy white hard light platforms created by the Owl Prodigious.

In the confusion, Black Gold… Or perhaps Gold Wolf now… fled the office.

Chapter 20: Harsh Truth (Destiny of the Style Queen, Part 2)

Chapter Text

As Tempestia’s light platforms deposited them back in the office area, Ladybug zipped in beside them. “Nice work, you three,” Ladybug said. “Now, Windwalker, I believe that you have something that I need to take from your care?”

“NO!” Windwalker said, clutching the Beaver Miraculous to her chest. She blushed. “Sorry, Master Ladybug, but I swore to Standing Coyote that I would return the stolen Miraculous to his Miracle Box and nothing else.”

Ladybug’s smile was broad and showed that the Parisian superheroine was not even slightly offended. “It is to your credit that you are so determined to keep your oath, Wildwalker. As a Guardian, I will not ask you to break something so sacred.” She touched the blonde’s hands where they were clutching the Beaver between her breasts. “Guard this well; Gnaww has been too long in the hands of thieves and others who would misuse him for selfish evil.” Wildwalker nodded nervously as Ma’xave’keso was carried over from her VTOL by Uncanny Valley. “Horned Bee, can I have your attention?”

Horned Bee and Tempestia had been half-way to the office door and paused, somewhat surprised. “Ladybug?” Horned Bee asked, genuinely surprised. “Look, she’s escaping! We have to get after her and…”

“And you will never find her in the labyrinth into which she’s twisted this floor of the building. At least not unaided. LUCKY CHARM!” A compass dropped from the air where it had formed from a galaxy of ladybirds spiralling around the Yo-Yo she had cast upwards. She looked at it and smiled at it as, in her eyes, it flashed with her colours along with the door out of the office and into the Backrooms. “This will guide you to her through the maze that awaits you out there.” She looked around her and saw something else flashing in her colours she frowned for a moment and ten smiled in revelation.

“Ma’xave’keso, please give me two pairs of those image intensifier goggles.” With an odd look, the First Nation heroine turned from where she was fussing over Windwalker and plucked the requested devices from two SPECIAL agents in SWAT gear. Ladybug held the two devices in her hand and concentrated on them, focussing the power of Ladyupgrade into them, making a wave of pink light and a ripple in the colours of the Ladybug costume pass over them. “There. These devices will now protect your sight and mind from the lies of the Dark Order’s spells and let you see the true threats, risks and shape of the labyrinth.” She passed them over to Horned Bee and Tempestia, the latter muttering under her breath about adding magical filters to her mask’s lenses.

“Okay, Tee?” Horned Bee asked, receiving her younger twin’s nod of affirmation. “Okay, one last push and we’re free of her. Let’s do this.”

Tempestia donned her goggles and yanked open the door and was instantly confronted by the most unexpected sight, something far from anything she’d expected: A children’s play-area with climbing frames, brightly-coloured miniature houses and slides that seemed to carry on forever. The walls were wallpapered like a child’s room with numers, letters and cute cartoon animals (labelled to teach the words). The blonde heroine gaped for a moment. “Okay, this is not standard-issue for these buildings or…” the holder of the Prodigious of Virtue smirked. “Or maybe it ought to be but it isn’t Audrey’s style, either way.”

Horned Bee held in her laugh. “Turn on the filters.”

What the two women did so, the sight ahead of them rippled, distorted and became an even stranger sight; a derelict-looking office area with walls in disrepair and several gaping holes in the suspended ceiling. “I’m guessing that, with her magic in place, Audrey didn’t see the need to decorate this level,” Tempestia remarked.

Horned Bee nodded and stepped through what looked like a rippling field of heat haze into the corridors beyond the evidently-magically protected office.

“Good fortune, my friends,” Ladybug whispered. Before turning to the SPECIAL raiding party and her grandmother standing in the lead. “Spread out but do not leave the office area. This place is a Dark Witch’s lair and we need to expect traps. Anything unusual or valuable treat with extra caution. Uncanny Valley, please carry out a quantum anomaly scan of these rooms as a first step.”

~*~*~

Like the Queen she imagined herself to be, Gold Wolf strode through the corridors of the 35^th floor of her offices ignoring the bizarre non-Euclidean geometry and layout of the area and the counterintuitive shapes of the offices and corridors. Her Master had been a fool and she’d always despised him but one of the few things he’d done that had proven useful was to give a blank cheque to those idiot scientists in California who had a bizarre idea of somehow creating a whole parallel world of near-unlimited space in the magnetic voids between the molecules that made up conventional reality. Their scheme had failed but only in terms of the resulting complex of rooms and structures being usable, at least to mundane persons.

As she walked down what looked like a suburban night-time street, occasionally striding through a pool of eerie red light cast from the windows of one of the houses, she smirked as several of the Entities from parallel universes that had been trapped in this place (when it had been so carelessly created by men who truly had no idea with what forces they were toying) cowered away from her magic, uttering her usual inhuman screams of resentment, terror and hate.

Stooping under the low roof of what appeared at first glance to be a misshapen road tunnel, she fearlessly stepped through a door (marked with an ‘exit’ sign for no obvious reason) that led to a mostly-unfurnished swimming pool area, marked with brightly-coloured plastic water slides running seemingly infinitely down from the ceiling. Ceiling-to-floor oval windows along one wall allowed the magical illusion of sunlight to shine through to illuminate the area. She calmly walked through an archway into another swimming pool, this one seemingly external and set far above the clouds with anonymous marble white structures rising up from either end that Black Gold knew to be an illusion of structure and pattern in a dimensional realm that was truly not characterised by either.

Bizarrely, a sun-lounger sat under a red-and-white umbrella at one end of this particular pool. Gold Wolf laughed at the sight, twirling the Raven Sceptre around her wrist before striding over and settling down. “Ah, this is a nice place for a brief vacation,” she remarked. “I think I’ll wait here for a while and let the excitement die down.” The woman closed her eyes and leant back on the lounger. “I wonder if those foolish girls will try to pursue me?”

~*~*~

“I should have bright a camera,” Tempestia said as she sent one of the strange creatures seemingly made of fence wire running with a jab of Lynx’s lightning. “I mean, it’s like we’re walking through a derelict building here but, if the spells were in place, who knows what we’d see?”

Horned Bee was looking at the Lucky Charm compass. “I’m sort of glad we can’t. I mean, Audrey intended this as a security feature to keep foes from her office door. Her idea of foes probably means that we are missing horrors from the depths of the most twisted imagination.” She sucked in a breath. “What did Harsh Truth show you?”

Tempestia paused before answering. “Like something from a 1980s sci-fi horror mixed with a cheap porno,” she said at last. “I want to wash myself all over for having anything in my head that led the Raven to create that illusion, let alone believe that it was something that I desired and could be corrupted by.”

Horned Bee sighed. “It twists all of your worst characteristics, Tee. It is a reflection of your own worst lusts and fears, not who you really are.” She pointed to one side as the needle on the Compass moved suddenly. “We must be getting close; the compass is moving more as if it’s fine-tuning the direction to her location. I wonder what Audrey is doing right now?”

“Knowing her, probably filing her nails, fixing her makeup and delivering a monologue about her perfection and glory,” Tempestia said sourly. “You know, I think that Harsh Truth backfired a little when she used it and we saw what she thought ought to want as our destinies. I’m glad that I never chose to become that person, no matter how hard she tried to manipulate me into becoming her.”

Horned Bee nodded. “I’ve seen who the Style Queen wanted to be her heir. If I’d gone down that path, I would have lost everything and anyone who mattered to me and ended up her minion and slave.” She tightened her grip on the Lucky Charm. “She’s a monster, Tee, and she wanted us to be monsters in her image.”

Tempestia nodded thoughtfully. “Think about Storm Bear,” she said. “She took a housemaid who had some resentments about the rich and turned her into a murderous monster. That’s pretty much who and what she is.”

Horned Bee had led the way into a wide area with a few scientific instruments on a small metal camp table and connected to power sockets in the wall. The archway next to the table was blocked off with wooden panels. “Is she through there?” Tempestia asked. Horned Bee nodded silently. Tempestia gestured and a near-solid mass of displaced air blew the wooden dividers in, revealing a new open space with a few dirty windows; they were obviously at the outer wall of the building.

“Ah, girls!” Both heroines spun, ready to attack but their Ladyupgraded visual enhancement goggles told them that would be a pointless act. The image of Gold Wolf standing before them, flickering a little through the magic filters on their goggles was clearly ‘solid’ only due to the effect of sound resonance. “Please follow my Pack Call. We still have some things to discuss.”

It was obviously a trap but the Miraculous messenger had gone in the same way as the Lucky Charm compass’s needle was pointing so Horned Bee nodded and silently indicated that Tempestia should follow.

They entered a former corner office, missing its door. The solid sound messenger vanished and they saw Gold Wolf, lying on a threadbare recliner of all things, in the pool of light shining in through one of the windows. A plastic tub of water was nearby, catching drips from a broken overhead HVAC duct. “Girls, please come in!” the supervillain said with a magnanimous gesture. “Please, take a drink. I recommend the white most wholeheartedly.”

There weren’t any bottles of wine but there were a couple of cans of what was labelled ‘Victoria’s Kitchens All-Natural Almond Water’. Tempestia decided that her mother was reacting to the illusion the labyrinth was providing her of her surroundings. Certainly, this derelict corner office wasn’t the sort of place where she would imagine that her mother would be so at ease. “No, thank you but we’re good.”

Coming to a decision, Horned Bee pushed her goggles upwards and nodded towards Tempestia to do the same too. Suddenly, both heroes were standing on a rooftop terrace at the corner of a swimming pool. Tempestia looked over the perimeter wall and noticed that the building seemed to descend forever with the ‘ground’ (if there was any) lost in the haze of great distance. “Nice vacation spot,” she remarked dryly.

“Well, it has its drawbacks; the human-hunting monsters and psionic killers for example,” Gold Wolf remarked in an easy-going tone of voice. “So, to business.” Horned Bee gestured for her mother to continue. “Girls, why are we at odds? All I really want is for you to have a good and secure future like any decent mother would!”

“As criminals and monsters,” Tempestia remarked dryly. “Using the magic of our Prodigious and Miraculous to control others and loot the world.”

Gold Wolf’s expression was… odd. It was if she honestly had no idea why anyone would not want that. “Zircon, Chrysolite, honestly, what more could you ask for? You have both already proven your strength and the fact that you deserve a place in the ruling class by your acquiring your Magical powers! I’m proud of you! I couldn’t have asked for much more from my children!”

“Except maybe being more prone to narcissistic psychosis and other criminal impulses?” Horned Bee asked dryly.

“The weak definitions given by the weak to the impulses, entitlements and desires of the strong,” Gold Wolf responded in a sharp tone of voice. “Those are certainly not terms or attitude that either of you should want to be concerned with.” She stood up and sashayed over. “My dear Zoe, I know that you have come to love London. Once you have finally killed that idiot dotard St John Graham de Vanily… Maybe I will give that city to you as a coming of age gift?” She walked over to Horned Bee. “And my oldest… by all of thirty minutes, and always the most precociously promising child, Chloe. I’m so proud of you for seducing that idiot Tsurugi’s witless daughter. Now you have helped her strip that idiot blind witch of most of her power, it should be easy for you to make her your Japanese regent to rule that region on my… on our behalf until she grows tiresome, of course.”

Horned Bee shook her head. “You actually can’t hear yourself, can you, Audrey? You can’t hear how selfish, entitled and psychotic you sound. Doesn’t it occur to you that, just maybe, we don’t want to rule? That we don’t need that to be happy? That our relationships might be motivated by love instead of self-interest?”

Gold Wolf gave Horned Bee a shocked look but, before she could reply, Tempestia broke in. “Tell me, mother, what were we to you? Were we ever daughters or were we only ever to be heirs to be moulded in your own image to ensure your legacy of evil in the Dark Order?” Tempestia stepped forwards, her face twisted in anger. “Tell me, here and now: Did you ever love us? For ourselves instead of how we could serve and enrich you?”

There was a long, long pause before Gold Wolf started to laugh. “You foolish, misled child. Really, what other value could you have? To me or to anyone else? What you call ‘love’, I call ‘a lie, told to make you feel better about being someone else’s possession and adornment’!” She snorted. “There is a reason why I discarded your father as soon as it became clear he wanted more from our alliance than I was interested in giving him.”

“Well, there we have it,” Tempestia said. “That answers my question.”

Horned Bee nodded. “Indeed: A world with plenty of wealth, luxuries and power but no love. Sorry, Mummy. but we’re going to have to pass.”

Gold Wolf sneered. “Well, I had feared that would be your answer. I’d hoped,” she touched the back of her hand to her forehead in an extravagant show of sorrow. “I had hoped that I could snap you out of your delirium of altruism and your childish fantasies of heroism but, alas…” She shook her head and clutched at her heart in a facsimile of grief. “Alas… it was not to be.”

Sensing where this was going, both heroes pulled their goggles down and the location was suddenly a derelict office area again. Gold Wolf continued, her voice lowering to an angry and dangerous tone. “I am not a young woman, but there are alternatives available to me, even now, so this is where we must part company my dears. Outcry!”

Expecting some kind of attack, Tempestia had projected a cone-shaped hard light wall in front of her and her twin sister, which deflected the sonic attack around her. It was still enough to blow both heroines back a metre or so from transmitted force. “Cute trick,” Gold Wolf snapped. “Not enough though; let’s try to break your concentration…” She raised her Sceptre again. “Phobos!”

Horned Bee raised the Goat Crook as her mind flared with discordant images. She couldn’t help be impressed by her mother’s mastery of her Miraculous. Phobos was supposed to paralyse and disorient a foe by showing them their greatest fear but, instead Gold Wolf was attempting to use her powers to show her and Tempestia things that they really wanted to see; their greatest desires as opposed to their greatest fears. Promises of glory, honour love and triumph. Of ticker-tape parades and white weddings. Of Ladybug shaking their hands and hailing them as the greatest heroes of their generation. Of Su-Han himself declaring them Masters of the Order. “Hardhead!”

A wave of bronze sparkles shot out from the crook threaded through the intertwined threads of gold and black magic being projected by the Raven Sceptre. Horned Bee’s was carried with it, driving into the darkness of her mother’s twisted psyche. All around her, she saw echoes her crimes and of her impulses: Her need to control and dominate and her pitiful need to be the founder of a dynasty of Miraculous queens who would wield economic and magical power to dominate the Western world for generations. A tragedy in so many want that she was a being of such bludgeoning and unsubtle mind that she knew no other way to do it except by fear and force. She knew no way of no way to make her daughters her heirs than to program them to be mindless duplicates of her own prejudices and lusts.

No, there was no future for Zoe and her in Audrey’s world and they were lucky to have realised that and shaken themselves free of her hold.

Then, Horned Bee noticed something that she realised that probably would have been no use to her if it were not a Miraculous of the mind: The twirling gold-and-black link between her mother and the Raven Miraculous of Sooth. Horned Bee reached out and touched the link, unsure of what use it might be before she realised what the link was and what it represented. She yanked on it hard and felt Nevermorr’s malicious laughter.

…

Suddenly, Audrey was standing in the middle of the street amongst the tatters of her trophies and awards, scraps of copies of Style Queen raining down on her from above as if the sky were full of shredders working its way through the magazine’s back catalogue of issues. She was dressed in rags, her hair lank with filth and sweat. She had a beggar’s bowl extended out for charity. All around her, she saw her peers, rivals and even her two daughters pointing and laughing, occasionally throwing filth at her. “See! The Style Queen!” her most hated rival crowed. “Reduced to this! Reduced to humble poverty! Why did we ever fear and adore her?”

Emile Graham de Vanily spat in her face. “So much for my ‘friend’! You were never worthy of me, Audrey! You were never worth your offer to be my Master with the power of the Miraculous!”

Andre took Emilie’s arm. “Indeed, I think I have found a far more perfect replacement for you!”

Finally, horribly, Audrey watched as her daughters took their lover’s hands in theirs and turned their backs on her, abandoning her as a powerless failure. “Ignore her, my friends!” Chloe crowed loudly. “She’s nothing to us. She’s powerless, irrelevant and worthy only of contempt!”

Zoe laughed derisively in agreement “Yes, nothing to see or hear here! Utterly ridiculous!”

AND THIS IS THE TRUTH!

…

Before Horned Bee and Tempestia’s horrified eyes, Audrey collapsed, screaming like a lost soul, clutching at her face and clawing at her eyes. Both of her MIraculous assaults ceased at the same moment as the woman seemed to go into a powerful grand mal seizure. “What…?”

“It’s all she ever really believed and what she feared the most,” Horned Bee croaked in horror. Feeling Audrey’s mind starting to crumble under the assault, she hurriedly cancelled the Hardhead and the Harsh Truth spell it had backfired into her mother before it drove her insane. “She never honestly believed that she was anything but a fake, waiting to be found out.” She raced over and struggled to pull her mother’s hands away from her face before she could gouge out her own eyes. In a moment of inspiration, she pulled the Bee Trompo from her belt and stabbed Gold Wolf with her Venom stinger, making her fall still.

With a gesture, Tempestia blew out the windows of the area where they stood. She turned and used Luta’s water-shaping powers to fling the tub of dirty water into the doorway, freezing it into a barrier. Beyond, they could hear the frantic and murderous howls of the extra-dimensional monsters trapped here, charging towards them as soon as Audrey’s mind broke and dispelled her protection that stood between her and the Entities’ murderous instincts. “Let’s get out of here,” Tempestia said, taking her mother up in an air current and launching them both out of the window, followed a few moments later by Horned Bee, who had summoned her energy wings.

Back on the roof, the heroes and Guardians stepped towards the fallen super-villain in an uncertain way. Audrey did not offer so much as a twitch of protest as Standing Coyote reverently removed the Raven Wing and Wolf Fang from her person, causing her transformation to collapse. Still in her black-and-white trouser suit, Audrey Regine cut a strange figure, sprawled, delirious and only semi-aware in the dirty centre of the helipad.

Standing Coyote looked at the Raven Wing in some surprise, clearly hearing something that no-one else could. He then tucked it behind his ear. A ball of swirling black-gold appeared that resolved into Nevermorr, who floated over to Audrey’s face. “Audrey Regine,” the Kwami of Sooth hissed, slapping her cheeks. “Audrey Regine! AWAKEN!”

Audrey blinked amd her red eyes focussed on the kwami in a dizzy way. “N… Nevermorr?”

“I warned you, did I not, Audrey Regine? Did I not warn you that seeking to assault and control your daughters would be your doom? That this path would inevitably lead to your downfall?” The Raven kwami floated in closer. “Have I ever lied to you, Audrey Regine? EVER?”

“I… You said… You said that I would get everything I ever wanted…” Audrey protested hazily. “Or… you said that everyone would see me for what I represented… My greatness…!”

“And so it has proven to be,” Nevermorr said severely. “Do you blame me that this truth proved to be a dark one and the revelation one that you find… distasteful? Everyone knows who and what you are, now, Audrey Regine; I never promised you anything else.”

Audrey’s mouth flapped soundlessly for a moment before Standing Coyote made a firm gesture with a hand. “That is enough, Nevermorr,” Standing Coyote announced. “You have been in the service of this twisted perversion of Guardianship for too long and I fear it has unbalanced your view of the world. I will return you to the Miracle Box so you may seek the counsel and comfort of your peers.”

The Raven spirit took on a posture of judicial decision. “Well, my prophecy has been fulfilled. The truth about you and about your true worth in this world has been exposed. So it has been spoken, so it has been done.” The kwami nodded firmly as he flashed back into a ball of gold-black light before fading from view as Standing Coyote gingerly pulled the Miraculous from its place.

“The Order’s writings always warn that this one is mischievous and easily misused for evil,” the First Nation Guardian said shakily. He turned to Ma’xave’keso, Windwalker and Uncanny Valley. “Remember this moment, my students; only request this power in the time of greatest need. I fear that as my fallen sister Guardian has learned, the price to pay for its gifts is far too great for all but the most innocent of hearts to bear.”

Standing Coyote placed the Raven Wing into its compartment of the North American Miracle Box, which he then tucked back into his shoulder sack. He turned to Ladybug with a weak smile. “Master Ladybug…? Thank you for this service to the Order. I will ensure that this is recorded in my Journal of the Guard as the undoing the sins of House du Motier.”

A shaky-seeming Horned Bee pressed the Compass Lucky Charm into Ladybug’s hands. “It always ends like this for anyone who misuse the Miraculous for their own selfish ends,” she said sorrowfully before throwing the compass into the air. “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!” The resulting tidal wave of magical ladybird beetles flashed over the skyscraper, repairing the damage to exterior and interior, repairing the damage done to the Dark Order’s mercenaries and, although it would take weeks to know this, unfolding the magnetic void of the labyrinth back from New York and back to its more typical haunt of the West Coast, still yet to trap and destroy many other unwary wanderers and scientists.

Tempestia and Horned Bee stood around the defeated Audrey. “I never imagined seeing her so humbled,” Tempestia whispered.

“I dreamed of it,” Horned Bee added, equally quietly. “Even begged God for it desperately on my worst nights but, seeing it now is a hollow pleasure. I cannot help but feel sorry for her.” She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “She’s still my mother and to see her so… so broken… when she’d always seemed so strong…!”

“Audrey Regine,” Orbweaver rapped out as she flipped the fallen supervillain over with the toe of her boot and hooked on handcuffs. “By the authority placed in me by the International Court of Justice, you are under arrest for multiple breaches of the Special Powers Regulation Act of 1985. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to consult with an attorney before answering any questions. If you cannot afford…”

~*~*~

“WHAT HAS THAT STUPID WHORE DONE?!?” The sandy-blond businessman shouted to his peers on a neighbouring rooftop as they looked towards the Reynard Tower, office of Style Queen Magazine, in horror from beneath the protection of an Undetectability Charm scroll in the centre of their loose circle.

“Master Regine appears to have… met her destiny,” one of the others, an anorexically-thin black man, said levelly. “She has been obsessed with the Miraculous Heroes of many cities of late and has been searching for means to equal their power and even control it for over a year.”

The first speaker’s companion, a black-haired woman, scowled. “Obsessed was the right word. It’s like the recent attempts of someone to take over the East Asian circle. I mean, we all seek power; it’s our duty as Dark Guardians. However, she came perilously close to exposing us all when she exposed herself so totally by working with that fumbling thug, Graham de Vanily!”

“ENOUGH! A third man, a chubby man of Italian-seeming extraction yelled. “We can point fingers at leisure but the North American Circle stands at a precipice.” He looked around his fellow Shadow Masters. “Starting tomorrow, I want that building searched thoroughly. I doubt that dear Audrey will have been foolish enough to leave any incriminating evidence lying around but we need to be sure. We will also need to have access to her safety deposit boxes all her files, accounts and all her hidden loot!” He looked over to an oriental man.

“We’ll have it,” the man promised. “Whether it is actually extant, I’ll see to it that we have legal access and are seen to be the rightful owners of everything.”

The first man spoke again. “Once her former property is back securely under the Circle’s control, we’ll need to search… I will need to search her home and workplaces for any Miraculous she has left hidden away.”

The black man stepped forwards angrily. “And why you in particular Carson?”

The blond smiled dangerously and tapped an ornate cufflink significantly. “Because I still own the Leopard and the Elephant, Leroy. Unless you want to try your luck?” The other Shadow Guardian stepped back with a resentful scowl. Losing the Elephant to the agents of his European colonial was a bitter blow and one that he’d sworn to avenge in time but this was neither the time nor place with those blasted SPECIAL busybodies clustered so close and with such a lot of Miraculous-using support.

A woman of Inuit descent seemed to be thinking hard as she picked at her bottom lip. “By now, SPECIAL will know of all darling Audrey’s former ‘business partners' and will be investigating us all.’' she said. “It will be better for all of us to vanish from the public eye for a while; let Carson draw attention to himself by plundering Regine’s loot to his heart’s content. The rest of us would be better advised to vanish and further reinforce our positions until the heat dies down and the Celestial Order is focussed on other priorities.” Carson blanched as he realised his ambitions could easily set him at the edge of detection and exposure himself. The Inuit woman smiled as she stroked the brooch that was the Polar Bear Miraculous, the symbol and secret of her mastery.

“She shouldn’t have kept the return of the Order secret,” a pale, anonymous-looking bald man complained. “They know all our tricks and have probably told SPECIAL everything by now!”

“Damn sentimental bitch shouldn’t have kept those ill-considered children of hers so close to her heart or tried to corrupt them in such a half-assed way!” Carson complained. “What do we do about them?”

“Nothing,” the thin black man said firmly. “They’re fully in the Celestial Order’s gaze now and that makes them untouchable. We disengage and vanish; the time has come for the Dark Order to return to the shadows and subtlety if we want to survive.”

There were nods around the loose circle, some fearful, some angry and all in agreement. The Shadow Masters turned from each other and vanished as their teleportation scrolls took effect, leaving behind their camouflage charm to unravel and crumble into ash.

~*~*~

It was the strangest place for an evening picnic, or so Chloe felt but there was something significant for the Keynes family to gather in the sight of the grave of Clayton Keynes, Barbara’s adoptive father and the third of the modern lineage of Knight Owls. However, Jess said that there was a significance to gathering in the ‘sight’ of the man whom Jess had only ever known as an elderly but kindly mentor and Aeon only as a database entry.

Marinette leant back to take a sip of her soda and look back from the Kenyes estate on Long Island, over the distant East River to Manhattan Island. She was able to pick out the 41-storey Reynard Tower, still lit by police beacons and spotlights from the earlier raid, even though the Miraculous Cure had restored the building to an intact state. “I’m glad that we’ve at least cut another major head off of the hydra that is the Dark Order,” she said at last. “More of the missing kwami freed from evil hands and another step closer to undoing the destruction wrought by Feaste.” She smiled over at Jess, who was reclining with Carole in her lap and stroking the blonde’s hair. “We’ll be out of your hair soon, Jess.”

“I’m not as paranoid about ‘outsiders’ as my mom is, Marinette,” the First Nation girl replied. “As long as I have any say in it, Ladybug will be welcome to run the rooftops of New York whenever she wants.”

Marinette laughed. “I’ve already got enough in my hands full with protecting Paris. No, I won’t impose without proper invitation and a good reason.” She sighed. “Everything is going so fast now. Next week, we start our last term before graduating collège! I already have a business up and running! Merde! We’re almost adults!”

Jess looked over at Chloe and Zoe. “You know, Mom said she’d be glad to lend her help if you want control of Audrey’s assets; controlling Style Queen would be a major boost for both your futures!”

Chloe shook her head. “It would be nice to have access to all that money, artwork and her contacts in the industry but… it’s all tainted by her evil. I would feel cleaner if I owed nothing to her beyond the brute fact of my existence.” Zoe nodded in agreement.

Jess seemed pensive as she considered that. Maybe she was thinking about her own tangled background as a foundling and her mixed-race origins.

“Heritage is a strange thing and it’s hard to escape,” Carole said, frowning as she thought of her very bigoted biological family. “Jess is going to be shadowing Barbara at the office this year and will be an Intern Executive Assistant the year after. Eventually, she’s going to have to take over Keynes International but, fortunately, that is still a long way away.”

“I never thought about the future,” Chloe admitted at last. “Two years ago, it was all about riding on daddy’s coat-tails, finding a nice, safe City Council seat and just carrying on from where he left off. Instead, I have a paid job waiting after I graduate and have been accepted by a business school. That’s beside the whole ‘superhero’ thing!”

“I will be going to the School of Political Science and Journalism after I graduate,” Zoe said at last. “After that… London. That’s my future, one way or another.”

“Not too soon,” Chloe asked urgently, earning a smile from her sister.

“No, I have to wait to graduate from lycee and to actually get an offer from one of the London papers. Besides, compulsory schooling is longer in England. David won’t graduate for another two years and he can’t marry me until…” The blue-streaked blonde stopped and blushed brightly.

“I won’t misconstrue,” Chloe said. “I’ll even forgive you so long as I’m maid of honour.”

“I’m pretty sure that I can manage it,” Zoe replied shyly.

Marinette frowned. “Of course, there is our costumed life too. I understand that Master Standing Coyote is training you to use the Puma, Carole?”

The girl sighed in agreement. “I never imagined that I’d be a superhero,” she said at last. “It’s a lot more responsibility and ritual than I imagined but… Vellvet is such a darling and it is an honour to be her protector.” She looked at Marinette. “There is also the matter of the rest of the Dark Order.”

Marinette nodded. “After Kagami defeated her mother, the East Asian Order seemed to vanish, covering their tracks and even eliminating some unreliable members. I imagine that the North Americans will do the same now. I expect them to go quiet for a few years before even the vaguest hints of their activity are felt again.”

“Mama Barbara compares criminals to cockroaches,” Aeon said levelly with an unsettling and somewhat out-of-context bright smile. “Squash a few and they scatter into their hiding places. However, in the end, they will always return.”

Chloe snorted. “Sounds right but, with Tsurugi and Audrey out of the way, hopefully they’ll be less dangerous.”

“Unless the person who cleans up after them is even more dangerous,” Jess said darkly with a tone of warning.

Marinette’s cellphone rang with a MiracuChat message alert. She looked at the screen. “That was a message from Cavilera Rouge. She’s just off to bed and will be using Voyage to create a portal for us to go home in eight hours so… It’s time to rest.” Marinette stood up and stretched in a way that Chloe and Zoe both acknowledged was one of the things Adrien must like.

“Rest for now,” Zoe said.

Her twin nodded. “Tomorrow will always bring more adventure and danger.”

Chapter 21: Wonders Under the Sun

Chapter Text

Marinette Dupain-Cheng pulled off her helmet and shook out her long black hair. Sitting on the seat of her motor-scooter, she looked around the area in front of the grand staircase leading up to the entrance doors of College Francoise Dupont. With a strong sense of unreality, she realised that this was the start of her last year of full-time schooling. Next year, she would be going to Lycee and would be dedicating perhaps as much of half her time to her fledgling business. Hell, she actually had a paying job with Adrien’s mother!

“Heeeyyy Mariii!” squealed a familiar voice. Alya raced over from where she’d just been dropped off by her boyfriend and launched herself into Marinette’s arms as if they hadn’t seen each other on Sunday and most of the summer break.

After hugging for a while, Marinette stepped back. “Alya, good to see you and to see that Nino can ride a scooter with a passenger without crashing from wearing his headphones.”

Alya stuck out her tongue defiantly. “Hey, not everyone has a BF with a chauffeur-driven limo!” she responded tartly. “Still, I notice that you still value your identity enough to come on your scooter rather than hitch a lift with Sunshine Boy!”

“Well, I kind of value my independence. Besides, Adrien’s car would have to come out of its way to pick me up nowadays.”

Speaking of Marinette’s boyfriend, Gerard 'le Gorille' Forte had just driven the Agreste family’s Mercedes up to the kerb and Adrien disembarked. Then Alya saw what Marinette meant by ‘out of its way’ as Adrien was accompanied by a beautiful fair-skinned blonde woman wearing a blue leather waistcoat that was his long-lost twin sister Melodié Alegra.Melodié delicately took her brother’s hand and let him draw her out of the car’s interior before shooting him a calm smile that Marinette was sure she’d learned from her bio-mom.

Marinette, too secure these days in her emotions to rush over to Adrien. Instead, she ensured that her scooter was chained to its spot and her helmet was tucked away under the saddle box before she walked over to the two children of Emilie Graham de Vanily. She nodded politely to Melodié, hearing Tikki and Mullo squeak their greetings to Taares from their hiding places before she wrapped her boyfriend in her arms and leant up for a blissful long kiss. Unlike the previous semester, there was no supervillain minion to scold them. Instead, Gina Dupain stepped forwards to cough: “PDA,” and gesture towards the school building.

Next to arrive (as always, in a company limo) were the ‘royal family’ of the two Bourgeois twins and Kagami, who had been staying at the Hotel on Chloe’s tab since Tomoe had disowned her. Zoe had to be chivvied out of the limo’s back-seat because she was busy on her phone, likely texting her boyfriend in London and giggling in a smitten way at his replies.

Chloe walked over to Adrien and Melodie and exchanged greetings whilst Kagami walked over to Marinette, only to be intercepted by Gina. “Mlle Tsurugi, if you please?” she said. Kagami had previously been enrolled in an expensive private school but now her mother wanted nothing more to do with her, she’d been forced to enrol in Dupont for her last year. “Mlle Tsurugi, welcome to College Francoise Dupont. I’m Gina Dupain and I’m the girls’ counsellor here. You have been enrolled in Sylvie Mendelev’s class for this year.” She looked over at Zoe. “Mlle Bourgeois? Can you and Mlle Alegra show Mlle Tsurugi around and ensure she knows the location of all the facilities?”

Zoe’s face lit up in excitement as Melodie rolled her eyes and strode over with the easy grace of a dancer. Zoe was babbling in her excitement. “Okay, Kagami, you’re going to love this! Mme Mendelev likes to play the super-strict dragon but she can be really funny sometimes!” she said, threading an arm through the crook of the surprised Japanese woman’s arm. “C’mon I’ll introduce you to Marc, Aurore and Mirelle!”

Chloe was about to interject, object or something else before Mel and Zoe descended on her girlfriend and dragged her towards the school. “Well, that’s the last I’m going to see of her for today,” she said with a rueful grin. “So, any plans for today, oh fellow heroines?”

~*~*~

“Good morning, class, Caline Haprele said loudly as she entered class 4A. The room quickly fell quiet and she was quite shocked to see the eagerly anticipatory gazes points in her direction. “Um…?”

“Mademoiselle B… uh… I mean, Madame Haprele!” Alya blurted out. “You came back!”

Caline’s train of thought was somewhat derailed by Alya’s remark. “I… yes, yes I did! I mean, my maternity leave is up now and you know that I love teaching…”

The redheaded woman’s voice trailed off as she was suddenly at the centre of a mass-hug from Rose, Chloe, Sabrina, Marinette, Alya and Juleka. Much against her will, tears started in her eyes as she received the joyous greetings from her emotional surrogate daughters. “We missed you, Mme H!” Chloe said with a beaming smile.

After the girls stepped back, Adrien led the class boys over to shake her hand one at a time.

“We missed you, Madame,” Marinette said. “Don’t get me wrong, Nonna Gina is good but…” she shrugged. “Not having a teacher who also has a familial relationship with you makes things a lot easier!”

Mylène rolled her eyes; yes, that promised to make this year harder for her. She stepped forwards, clapping her hands for attention. “Okay, hands off of my maman,” she said. Then she blinked at how easily that slipped out. “Okay, weird times.”

“Girls, boys, if you can take your seats so we can take rollcall,” Mme Haprele announced and smiled happily at how quickly her pupils responded. They were good kids. Of course, there had been changes over the time that she’d been on leave. Marinette was now sitting next to Adrien and Nino and Alya in the row behind them. On the other side of the classroom, Rose had moved next to Juleka and, although Caline couldn’t see it from her desk, he had no doubt that the two girls’ hands were tightly intertwined. And, of course, her step-daughter was sitting alongside her huge boyfriend.

The redheaded educator’s eyes flicked up to Nathaniel in the back row and the empty seat next to him. Caline would always have a regret in her heart labelled ‘Lila Rossi’ for the troubled girl whom, unlike Chloe, she had not been able to help and who had disappeared from Paris along with the threat from Gabriel Agreste. There were rumours about her on the Ladyblog, she knew, but Caline would never be free of the feeling that she should somehow have done more and that her fate, no matter what it’s nature, was somehow her fault.

~*~*~

“Okay, everyone, to your seats!” Sylvie Mendelev looked sharply around the room, plus one in the form of the stoic Tsurugi Kagami, replacing the faces of Charles Marthieu and Lila Rossi, one missing (presumed murdered by the Miracle King) and the other currently a jailed juvenile delinquent and wannabe supervillain. She sighed. Somehow, she always ended up as the ‘stick’ when the ‘carrot of Caline’s kindness didn’t reform them.

“Mademoiselle Tsurugi,” she addressed her new student. “I appreciate that you are not familiar with this class or its guiding philosophy, so I will outline it for you. Despite my… reputation, you will find me fair. I have only one rule here: Everyone works and no-one slacks off. Do your assignment and do so without nonsense and we will have no problems.”

Kagami didn’t smile; Mendelev felt that she didn’t do that easily, if at all, given the reputation of Tsurugi Tomoe to be an ice-cold woman interested only in money and power. “I will bear that in mind, Madame,” Kagami said dryly.

“You will notice that I have not reflected the romantic dynamics of my class in the seating arrangement. There is a simple reason for this: This is a schoolroom, not a social club. I do not care who your ‘significant other’ is. You will dally with them and gossip with them during break, not during lessons.” The sharp-faced woman smirked slightly. “What that means, Mlle Bourgeois, is ‘put your cell phones away’.” Zoe blushed brightly and dropped her phone into her brightly-embroidered hessian shoulder-bag.

Mme Mendelev noticed but did not remark upon M Anciel’s new and beautifully-decorated fountain pen and how he was continually fiddling restlessly with it in between assignments.

~*~*~

“Did you see that?!?” Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte blurted to Titania as what looked like a humanoid bird flew past during the start of their patrol towards the east of the city that evening.

Titania was looking upwards in shock. “Uh… Yeah. Yeah, I think I did.”

“Well, whatever it is, it’s landing on that roof; come on!” The young woman with the tricolour-painted face led her physically gigantic colleague jumping across roofs and scaling vertical walls until they were finally facing a young man wearing a full body stocking marked with bronze-and-brown feather markings, a goggled mask with a bird beak nose-guard and a folding hang glider on his back. “Ladies, can I help you?” the man with the wingsuit asked.

“Yeah, you can tell us who you are,” Titania growled, not noticing that Sans-Culotte was silent, her eyes wide in shock and embarrassment.

“Who am I? I’m CONDORMAN!” The man deployed his wings and drew them around himself like a cape.

Yes, I know, Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte screeched in her head. She’d never encountered one of her customers in these circumstances before. She was 100% sure that her costume would protect her identity but it was still embarrassing beyond measure to meet M Kurtzberg in costume and clearly ‘at work and in-character’.

“Yeah…?” Titania drawled. “Well, cool. That and two Euros will get you a decent coffee in this town.”

Condorman considered the two women thoughtfully. “I don’t know,” he said at last “Can i trust you? Innocents are at stake here.”

Sans Culotte gestured at her partner and herself. “Do we look like the sort of people who would not be trustworthy if the stakes are high?”

Condorman chuckled. “No, especially now that the Butterfly Miraculous is firmly in Team Miraculous’s hands; you might pass for akumatised villains a few years ago, but I know that you can’t be.” Titania remembered someone called Anansi and was able to restrain her blush reflex.

There followed a brief discussion with visual aids on the new hero’s condor-themed smart-phone that left the two heroines disgusted. “Where did you get these?” Sans Culotte demanded, holding back her urge to be sick at what she’d just seen.

“They’reon the Dark Web for download based on the spam email I received,” Condorman replied. “However, it’s very clear where they’re being filmed and I’m on the way to the KIDZ+ studios now to search for the hidden cameras in question and then find their owners.”

Titania closed her left hand into a fist as she imagined someone doing this to one of her kid sisters. “No, that’s needlessly elaborate,” she said. “How is it being distributed?”

“She’s right,” Sans Culotte added. “Dark Web downloads are usually on secret FTP servers and you need a login and URL. Someone must be selling these.”

Condorman sighed. “Oh, and I suppose that you know who to ask?”

Sans Culotte smirked. “We know a few rocks to kick over, yeah. I’m sure that these guys will have the start of a trail; the payment must get back to the suppliers eventually, even if it's purely by crypto, we’ll be able to track it.”

“Which means…?”

Titania cracked her knuckles with a evil grin. “What that means, bird boy, is that we start breaking a few heads!”

~*~*~

Meanwhile, a new player was about to enter the fray, not that any of the three costumed vigilantes knew anything about it.

Marc Anciel was sitting at his writing desk, his gift fountain pen with the delicate gold threads running through its wooden body. Before leaving his boyfriend’s house in his guise as Condorman, Nathaniel had told Marc all about the spam email he’d received, offering bootleg videos of Mirelle Cacquet and Aurore Beaureal in the showers after work at KIDZ+ with the rather alarming title of ‘Weathagirls Gone Wild!” Marc was every bit as angry at this abuse of their classmates as their boyfriend was, perhaps more so as Aurore and MIrelle were actually in their class and their friends on a certain level.

“What to do, though?” Marc said aloud. One thing that he’d always found was of great therapeutic value to him. He started to write, not noticing (as he rarely did) that the words briefly shone gold as his pen moved on. “Now… What kind of superhero would Mirelle be…?”

~*~*~

Aurore Beaureal was just finishing putting her personal makeup back into her shoulder bag when she heard Mirelle scream in horror. She rushed into her friend’s dressing room. “Mir… i…?” Aurore had seen a lot of weird stuff since the first attack of Stormy Weather on Paris and she’d been part of it more than once. However, Hawkmoth was gone now and there were no people being turned into supervillains by their fears, angst and desires. With this in mind, the blonde had no idea why her noirette on-screen partner and real-life best friend should suddenly be dressed in hunting leathers and have a pair of goggles with a variety of servo-positioned special lenses. “Miri, what the hell?”

Mirelle looked down at the hunting leathers that had replaced her normal day clothing and the thick, spiked gloves on her hands. “Track-R” she murmured. “This costume goes with the name ‘Track-R’.” Mirelle shook her head. “Aurore, suddenly, I’ve got this feeling that there is something wrong about our dressing rooms.” There was a buzz and an indigo-coloured lens slid in front of MIrelle’s right eye. “I just need to find it.”

From the noirette’s TV weathergirl’s perspective, the world was suddenly in a kaleidoscope of colours and patterns representing different materials and even the objects behind the walls, doors and other objects in the room.

“Mir… er… Track-R, what are you looking for?” Aurore tried to be patient but a part of her was panicking and wondering if she should put an alert on the Ladyblog to request assistance from Team Miraculous before her friend suddenly lost it and tried to kill someone for some possibly only imaginary slight or frustration.

“I’ll know when I see it, Aurore.” Mirelle then did something that few people think to do. She looked up at the overhead light fitting and made an ‘Ah!’ noise; the indigo lens slid back and was replaced with a lime green one. “So, that’s where you’re hiding, little spy camera!”

“Spy camera?!?” Aurore blurted.

“It looks like my dressing room is wired for vision and probably sound too. Let’s check your room out and then see if I can find any others!”

~*~*~

“Fuck! Fuck! You bitches are cray…” The drug pusher didn’t finish his cry of horror and protest before something shaped like a bird of prey’s talons closed around his shoulders and he was yanked on the end of a thick braided plastic cord into the air. He was then thrown into a long parabolic arc that ended with him crashing into a wall and sliding down into a pile of garbage.

Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte swayed over before levelling her guillotine blade at his throat. “Now, I believe that we were having a discussion about from where you were getting your ‘merchandise’ and to whom you were paying your fees.”

“You can’t prove nothin’,” the young man responded resentfully. Sans-Culotte raised an eyebrow behind her replica Helenic military helmet and showed the man the sheaf of leaflets with download information for the FTP archive containing the video in question. The pusher scowled and closed his mouth defiantly.

“It’s really simple,” Titania said. “Right now, you and your gangare the only people whom the prefecture of police can blame and punish for distributing your filthy tapes of two underage girls and, given that the girls in question are very public figures, you can be sure that they’d punish you and would do so harshly.” The tall coffee-skinned giantess cracked her knuckles. “After we’re done with you, of course.”

“Look… It’s all crypto these days!” the man said, his voice high in panic. “I buy Bytecoin with the takings and transfer it to the supplier’s wallet! I don’t know who…” Suddenly, the man was mid-air and a man dressed as a giant bird was holding him by the collar of his hoodie.

“What wallet?” he asked. “I’m not expecting the owner’s name but the wallet ID is more than enough to start the investigation.” The young man looked down and realised that he was at least thirty metres off the ground. “You know,” the flying man added. “I really don’t know how long I can hold you up here; this suit doesn’t give any boost to my strength.”

The gangster screamed out the Wallet ID code and Condorman, wearing a terrible smile, dropped him. He screamed all the way down and was caught just before impact by Titania. “Stay out of the kiddie porn market,” she growled. “Next time, I might miss.”

The remaineder of the gang had melted into the night and the two vigilante women looked at Condorman as he alighted as the vertex of a triangle. “I got the ID code ladies. So, what do we do with it?”

Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte raised her cell phone. “I do a lot of Crypto business in my civilian life,” she said. “I can’t trace the owners of wallets but I can track who accesses it and from what IP.”

“That doesn’t sound strictly legal,” Condorman observed.

“A lot of my business’s former customers aren’t ‘strictly legal’,” she responded with an expressionless face. “It’s been useful to be able to work out from where they’ve been sending me money. I don’t want to add further accessory after the fact charges to my mentor’s rap sheet.”

The other two vigilantes were silent as the bronze-armoured woman tapped in some commands on her cell phone. “Okay, this guy is either an amateur or he is very, very overconfident. His IP is a Paris personal account but the last time it was used… was at the offices of KIDZ+.”

Titana drove her left fist into the palm of her right hand. “Well, let’s get over there then.”

~*~*~

Track-R waved the smell of smoke away from her supernaturally sensitive nose and grimaced as she looked at the hole in the shower cubicle ceiling where the hidden camera had sat. She looked over at her companion. “That was unnecessarily demonstrative… Stormy Weather?” When Track-R considered that question, no, this wasn’t Aurore’s akumatised persona at all. She looked very similar but there were differences. Her hair was still blonde instead of dyed black with a white forelock, her pigtails were loose, not bound with black and white ribbons and her skin was still of a normal shade instead of a bloodless grey-green. Her costume was royal blue with a black jacket-like top but her gloves and boots were made of some kind of shaped white metal that reminded Track-R a little of the robotic Miraculous hero known as Mettle. The symbol on her abdomen was not a gold thunderbolt but a dark grey cloud with two blue-white snowflakes underneath.

“i go by the name ‘Cold Front’ these days, Track-R,” the blonde replied sternly. Track-R visibly relaxed and let her hands drift away from the twin hunting knives holstered at the back of her belt with a sigh of relief. “You’ll excuse me for letting out the heat of my anger.” Cold Front touched the back of her right gauntlet, turning off the yellow button that obviously let her generate synthetic lightning and made an effort to relax. “So, are we going to find the… perverts who are responsible for this outrage?”

Track-R sighed at her friend’s hot blood boiling so shallowly under the surface, just as it always was. How beautiful she is when she’s murderously angry, Track-R thought dreamily before shaking off that irrelevant thought. Instead, she used one of her knives’ skinning tools to lever the camera out of the wall overhead. “Ah. As I suspected; it has a connection to the mains power supply rather than relying on a battery that would need regular replacement. The camera has what I believe is a wi-fi uplink so someone must have a recorder nearby to collect and store the data rather than use an SD card that would need to be regularly replaced. Smart but not smart enough; however, possibly someone with experience in the requirements of TV production.”

Cold Front considered her partner’s focus. She’s cute when she gets analytical, she thought in an irrelevant mental aside. Snapping back to the task at hand, she covered her feelings with a dangerous scowl. “So, this filth must regularly check his tapes for bits he can sell,” she growled. “All the better; let us lie in wait until he comes to check why one of his toys is no longer transmitting.”

Track-R looked up with a raised eyebrow. “And then what?”

Cold Front smirked dangerously. “Then he will feel the icy hand of justice around his heart!” she said.

~*~*~

Condorman landed on the rooftop helipad of the TV+ tower, the parent network of the KIDZ+ channel. He gently set Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte down onto the pad before, with a loud ‘thud’ Titania dropped from the sky and made a three-point crouch landing in front of her colleagues “Cool suit, CM,” she remarked as the condor wings folded around their owner’s body.

“Thank my tailor,” he replied, making Sans-Culotte blush under her tricolour makeup.

“Well, let’s get moving,” Sans Culotte remarked, covering her embarrassment by switching to ‘business’ mode. “Any ideas?”

“First step will be to check Caquet and Beaureal’s dressing rooms and the showers outside of the KIDZ+ sets,” Nathaniel said. “I understand that the footage on those tapes was obviously filmed there.”

“Good enough for me,” Titania said, striding over to the rooftop fire exit door and nearly ripping it off. “Ooh… Got to rein in my temper there.” She nearly ran into a pale faced Nadja Chamack. “Eep! Oops, Sorry Mme C! Just a couple of hard-working vigilantes coming through!”

Nadja watched as the two women and the young man wearing a winged super-suit strode past her onto the stairwell. It took Nadja nearly a minute to reboot her brain and then hurriedly dialled her producer. “Claude! Its Nadi! Look, I need to get on the air live! Yes, right now! I’ll film from my cell phone but there are three costumed heroes in the building! How do I know? They’ve come down from the helipad and my ride is still five minutes away! Look, just trust me on this! Call it a Miraculous Paris special report and get me on the air live! RIGHT! NOW!”

~*~*~

Pieter D’Ouvre was a worried man. Based on long routine, he’d checked the monitoring equipment that he had hidden in the technical office just outside the producer’s booth on the KIDZ+ floor of the building and found that at least two of his remote cameras were out of order and that they had stopped recording in the past hour. He wasn’t dumb but he was greedy. In the less than three weeks since he edited together his first feature, those things had already earned him ten times his monthly salary and he was in too deep now to back out.

Besides, those ProGo cameras with wireless live streaming were expensive. That is setting aside all the remote recording equipment he’d set up in his apartment and the relays in his office, hidden with some fake wall panelling. He literally couldn't (and wouldn’t) afford this all just going to waste.

Looking around himself nervously, he made his way down to the cast dressing rooms and hygiene facilities looking every bit like the guilty man that he was. He was continually looking around him, nervously checking for anyone who might be watching him or following him. As he stepped into the shower room, he was visualising gendarmes stepping out of one of the side cubicles to seize him, to drag him off to public disgrace and financial ruin. That couldn’t happen to him! Not when he’d finally found a way to get easily rich!

Turning the corner into the ladies’ showers, Pieter was faced by his worst nightmare come true. In one cubicle, the camera was hanging out of the wall, dangling on the end of its power cable. In the next cubicle… Well, the camera was gone, replaced by a crater in the tiling that looked like someone had fired an explosive bullet into it. Frozen by uncertainty, Pieter touched the edge of the crater and, suddenly, noticed that it was getting cold, impossibly cold for the inside of a modern office building in late September. The tiles were getting sticky with frost. He spun on the spot and was looking into the domino-masked face of… Merde! Was that Stormy Weather?!?

The man’s mouth flapped silently as the masked blonde grinned malevolently. “Peekaboo, M peeper, you’re it!” she taunted. The young woman raised her left arm and touched something on the back of her gauntlet. Blue light spilled around the wrist guard and there was a building whine like an aviation wind tunnel and Pieter was slammed into the wall by a near solid blast of air before he was sucked forwards again by a reverse air current and then launched down the length of the shower room by a scream of directed air. As he floundered on the ground, he heard the infamous supervillain taunting him again. “Filming unsuspecting minors in their showers is cold, monsieur. Fortunately, I know all about cold and I’ll make sure you understand ‘cold’ very clearly.”

Panicking, Pieter looked over his shoulder to see the woman power-walking the way she’d somehow just tossed him, her hands replaced with jagged icy spikes, very obviously intended to core him out like an apple. “MUMMY!” he squealed, scrambling on all fours towards the door out to the main corridor and dragging himself to his feet as the insane supervillain laughed behind him.

This isn’t fair! Pieter wailed in his head. Hawkmoth is dead, or so Ladybug claimed! There shouldn’t be akumas around anymore! Having finally got his legs underneath them, the young man turned down the corridor and fled for his life in a headlong sprint.

He’d gone maybe ten metres when, suddenly, something flew through the air with a ‘whiz’ of spinning weights and wrapped around his legs, sending him crashing onto his face.

Pieter instinctively looked down and tugged hopelessly at the silvery bolas tangling his legs but the wire was too tight and was thin enough that the attempt to pull them off threatened to slice through the flesh of his fingers. A steel-toed high-heeled boot touched his chest and flipped him onto his back where he flopped helplessly like a landed fish for a few moments. “P… Please!” he wailed, looking up at the woman wearing Lincoln Green hunting clothes and a strange pair of goggles with multiple lenses on small armatures.

“Please what, Monsieur?” the new vigilante asked. “Please give you mercy? Please treat you with decency? Where was your decency when you filmed innocent girls without their knowledge or consent? Where was your mercy when you profited from it?”

Pieter tried to flip himself over to crawl away but, suddenly, found that his arms were frozen to the floor. The first woman (who, now he thought about it, wasn’t Stormy Weather at all but had similar clothes) sauntered over. “Tsk-tsk, Monsieur. We’ve only just begun your punishment, you know. No trying to get away.”

With a sadistic smile, the other woman pulled out two curved knives, ideal for skinning freshly caught game. With a fake sensual smile, the woman drew their points across the edges of his groin, making Pieter wail in a high-pitched note of utter terror. “Tell me, Monsieur, did you get pleasure from looking at your stolen videos? Did they… excite you? Tell me, have you enjoyed being a fully functional male? Because I can assure you that this will shortly be a thing of the past!”

“Don’t fret,” the first of Pieter’s attackers chirped helpfully, waving her weather-harnessing gauntlets for emphasis. “I’ll use cryogenic cauterisation on the wound, so you won’t bleed out. Can’t let you miss the point of the lesson, after all!”

Pieter’s shriek of soul-rending terror was suddenly cut off by a stern, feminine voice. “That is enough!”

All three turned to see that the corridor was actually quite crowded. In the lead was a woman in midnight blue with a yellow ‘T’ across her impressive chest and shoulders. A fist padded in midnight blue kick boxing gloves was being pounded into the opposite palm.

Behind her was a woman in bronze armour that looked like she’s painted her face in the Tricolour and with…. my god! Was that a guillotine blade at the end of that chain wrapped around her left arm?!?

At the back was a man in a cowled bodysuit, decorated with what looked like a feather pattern, some kind of mechanical gauntlets and boots and wings on his back as well as a mask with goggles and a nose-guard reminiscent of a vulture’ beak. These weren’t Team Miraculous. Was Pieter saved…? No, he wasn’t, because, leaning over the man in the bird suit was the last thing that he wanted to see, something that not even the two bloodthirsty women who had attacked him could match for horror: Nadja Chamack, filming with her camera-phone.

The man in the bird suit looked over his shoulder at Nadja and spoke surprisingly cheerfully. “I suspect that this is the person we were telling you about Mme Chamack.” He looked over at the two women. “Is he the person who has been filming minors in the shower rooms here that you’re interrogating?”

~*~*~

Marinette looked up from her homework in annoyance as her phone started ringing; it was her regular civilian number rather than the Miracuchat account but it wasn’t as if she didn’t want to talk to Alya at a moment’s notice. She touched the ‘accept’ control. “Yeah, Alys…?”

“Mari! Turn on TV+ like right now!”

With a frown, Marinette opened the TV+ channel on her desktop and, almost immediately, Nadja Chamack’s familiar voice blared out of the stereo speakers. “Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! We are reporting live from the KIDZ+ studio with a group of new superheroes, ones not apparently affiliated with Team Miraculous, who are investigating an alleged secret explicit video recording scandal! We understand that these new heroes have traced the money being obtained by street gangs to this building and we’re witnessing… Two other costumed vigilantes who have captured a suspect and are interrogating him!”

At that moment, the screen went blank and was replaced with a ‘Technical Fault’ card. A few moments later, a voice-over announced: “We apologise but, because of a technical fault, we can no longer bring you Nadja Chamack’s live coverage of new superheroes active in the TV+ Tower. Of course, a full recap will be available by the time of our 2100h bulletin.”

Marinette was picking her bottom lip as she thought hard and fast about what she’d just seen: Nora, Socqueline and what looked a lot like Nathaniel in his flying suit but with a stylised bird face mask. Then there were the two new heroes who had the accused man… Were those Aurore and Mirelle?

The young Guardian walked over to the Miracle Ball and extracted the Horse Miraculous. The small grey-and-white Kwami of Translocation appeared at once. “Milady Guardian! How may I serve you?”

“Kaalki, please take your Miraculous to Cavilera Rouge. Tell her to get here as soon as she can.” As the horse kwami departed, Marinette moved back into the centre of the room. “Tikki, Mullo, Zuuben… Fusion Transformation!”

~*~*~

Cold Front looked at Track-R questioningly. “Are we? Interrogating him, I mean?” she asked in a sotto voice.

Track-R seemed to visibly hesitate; Pieter took the opportunity to yell: “No, they were going to geld me! HELP ME!!!”

Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte walked over and looked at the other two thoughtfully. “Okay, so on principle I get where you’re coming from.” She gave the prone man a light kick. “Unfortunately, hurting him is against the rules and it isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Isn’t…” Cold Front stuttered. “Don’t you get it? He violated us! He never touched us but exposed us to the world for profit…!”

“And he’ll be punished,” the tricolour-faced heroine said reassuringly, being careful to do nothing to trigger the two thoroughly enraged women to precipitant action. ”We already have his trail and we’ll be able to prove what he did; he’ll be punished for this, I can assure you.”

“Being inside isn’t easy for child abusers,” Titania added darkly. “The ordinary general population prisoners are men with wives, daughters and sisters. People who abuse girls like them…? Well, they have their own unique scales of justice to use and… This scum will be lucky to live to see the end of his sentence.” Pieter had gone an interesting shade of green. He hadn’t thought about that; hell he hadn’t thought of anything except the money he could get from his clandestine recordings but now, he was wondering if his cost/benefit calculation wasn’t a bit off.

With a sudden, explosive release of breath, Track-R stepped back and nodded at Cold Front to do the same. The woman touched one of the controls on the back of her gauntlet to make the frost sticking the man to the floor evaporate in a moment. Titania stepped forwards with a satisfied grunt and pulled out some zip ties from her utility belt that she used to bind Pieter’s wrists and ankles. “Get comfy, filth,” she growled. “You’re going to be in these for a while until the Gendarmes get here.”

There was a bright flash in the corridor. Cold Front and Track-R both turned, blinking in surprise to see Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte pointing her camera-phone at them. “It’s purely for professional reasons,” the tricolour-faced vigilante remarked. “I’m sort of in the business myself.” With her phone secured back in her utility belt, she wound her guillotine chain around Pieter and yanked it tight. “Let’s stay cool, pal.”

The two neophyte adventurers were looking at each other in confusion when there was hiss of power and a blue hoop of light opened in mid-air, through which they could see a Parisian rooftop somewhere as Cavilera Rouge and LadyJustMouse stepped through. “Ladies,” the woman in the polka-dotted roman-style stola said. She looked over at Condorman. “Sir; I see that you have decided to follow your mentor’s example?”

“That was always my intention, Ladybug,” Condorman replied. The heroine nodded firmly.

Cavilera Rouge had spent some time staring at Titania before turning her attention to her prisoner. “You are a nasty piece of work,” she growled. “I’m hoping that the press tear apart everything that you’ve ever done or achieved before tonight.”

“We tracked the money to a computer connected to the internet through an IP hub in this building,” Condorman explained.

“We found his cameras and microphones in our dressing rooms and the showers,” Cold Front added dully. I don’t know how long he’s being doing this.”

“They seemed to be wirelessly connected to a central hub elsewhere in the building,” Track-R added.

“He’ll talk,” LadyJustMouse promised, the Libra sword out and tapping its long blade against the palm of her hand. “Whether willingly or after facing his own worst demons is entirely up to him.” The Guardian frowned, sensing something as she sheathed her sword. “Please show me the recording equipment,” she asked.

With a sense of unreality Cold Front and Track-R led LadyJustMouse into the changing room and, suddenly, their costumes broke up into golden fractals that reminded the polka-dotted superheroine of calligraphy. “Thank you, Storyteller,” Aurore said as her knees buckled.

“Storyteller?” LadyJustMouse asked.

“That’s what he called himself… I think?” Mirelle said. “There wasn’t a voice, only an intention and a desire to help.”

~*~*~

Nadja had to fight and fight hard to allow her special report to still go on air later that night. The higher-ups wanted to sweep the whole thing under the carpet but she successfully argued that refusing to broadcast the story would simply create the idea that TV+ was covering up sexual exploitation of minors. For a mother like her, that was a red line; if she’d been pushed, she would have quit and published the story on her personal blogging website.

She edited the footage skilfully to keep the perp anonymous because he still had a right to a fair trial. However, she had to wonder just what those two enraged young women might have done to him if the more experienced heroes had not arrived when they did. She also wondered if that might have been the better outcome, in terms of pure natural justice.

That night, she hugged Manon very hard when she came home from Rhythm’s house.

~*~*~

“Looks like you got your open door into the big times, Nate!” Marc told their boyfriend excitedly as the two young lovers hugged on their bed that night. ”You came to the attention of Ladybug herself! For the right reasons, this time!”

“Yeah, it could have gone bad though;” Nate looked worried. “Those two new heroes, Cold Front and Track-R, they were former victims and I don’t think that they were planning to stop short of Justice on the Streets.”

“Wait, what?” Marc said, their face suddenly pale. “Nate, this is important: What were their names?!?”

Nathaniel repeated the names to his boyfriend and was shocked at the fear on their face. “Nate, I think that I might be in over my head,” they said at last. In a shaky voice, they began to tell their boyfriend the Story of their Story.

~*~*~

“Yo, Wings,” Titania said as Condorman landed next to her atop a factory roof the next night.

“Titania,” Condorman responded. “I hope that I’m not intruding?”

“Nah,” Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte responded easily. “You proved that you are useful last night.”

“It got me thinking,” Titania remarked. “I mean… Team Miraculous are great, yeah? However, their real goal is to protect the world from big-league threats and they have this whole crazy semi-religious ‘balance’ thing on.” Titania considered what she’d read on her sister’s blog about just that; she’d gotten deep into the whole religious aspect of the Miraculous Holders’ lives and work in the past year or so. “The thing is that there are a lot more crimes that affect ordinary people at the street level that never come into their field of view.”

“Yeah, I’ve felt that way for a while,” Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte agreed. “Not for lack of trying but for lack of time. So, what are you saying, T?”

“I’m thinking that we start being a grass-roots hero group,” she said. “Encourage ordinary people to tell us their troubles and fight to resolve them. We’ve got the skills, we’ve got the means and we’ve got the drive!”

“Sounds good!” Condorman said, sounding surprisingly young and chipper suddenly. “So begins the story of Titania, Mademoiselle Sans-Cullote and Condorman!”

And also The Storyteller! Gold text hovered in the middle of the air in front of the others.

“Are you seeing this?” Titania squeaked. It’s becoming my week to ask that!

“Oh yeah,” Condorman said. “Storyteller; he’s cool; he’s the guy who gave those two girls their powers last night. Sort of like Hawkmoth without all the evil-grr motivation.”

Sans-Cullotte nodded. “Yyyeeeaaahhh… Okay. Okay, why the hell not? We could always use a guardian angel or two and Paris certainly does. This is the start of the story of Titania, Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte, Condorman and The Storyteller. We are Team… Team….” She ran out of momentum at that point.

Storyteller’s gold calligraphy appeared mid-air again. Team Wonderous was written out.

“I like that,” Titania said with a big grin. “Team wonderous!” the three newly-minted team-mates touched fists in the traditional ‘pound it’ and felt a fourth hand touch theirs.

Chapter 22: Dissonance 2

Chapter Text

Xavier-Yyves Roth smiled bitterly at the trinket that Ladybug had basically forced him to wear. Oh, it hadn’t been painful or a burden or anything like that. Indeed, to be quite honest, XY had to admit that the calming emanations from the magical charm had made his life easier in several ways by way of his improved emotional stability and self-control. However, there was no escaping this key point: It was limiting him and stopping him from taking whatever he wanted. And XY didn’t like being limited and he especially didn’t like being told that he couldn’t have things that he wanted.

With a snort of annoyance, he tossed the charm over the balustrade and into the Seine. He wasn’t a fool; he knew that he had exactly one chance to get this right and he had been thinking about just how to do that. “The Age of Dissonance is about to be born, people,” he chuckled darkly.

But if one was to put on a show, the location was everything. If his useless father had taught him nothing of value, there was that. XY looked around himself thoughtfully and a malicious smile lit his face as he considered the newly built riverfront stage where his hated rivals, Kitty Section, would shortly headline the mayor’s annual charity concert. A show that everyone in the Paris… indeed all of France and maybe the world would be watching. There was literally no better option to be had.

~*~*~

“I’m just not sure this is right,” Nate Marc Anciel told their boyfriend. “Am I really any better than Hawkmoth?”

Nathaniel Kurtzberg thought about that question seriously; Marc didn’t deserve to be palmed off with false reassurances and dismissive platitudes. “I can see why you’re so worried, Marc. I mean… your… whatever it is… narrative power? It can empower people do do something that normally they never could. The big difference with Hawkmoth is, of course, you never actually change their nature as people. If anything, you simply give them the abilities to express their own best nature.” He chuckled. “I still love watching the videos of the Younger Sibling Squad, as Alya calls them, weilding those hard light constructions!”

Nathaniel took his boyfriend’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “You’re too good a person to ever force anyone to do something, Marc. Your writing seems to only find those who want to make a positive difference.” He dropped a kiss on their forehead. “Basically, as I understand it, it’s very similar to what the Butterfly Miraculous is meant to do, given the interviews Ladybug gave about Painted Lady.” He sighed. “Just… trust yourself, Marc. Trust in your own personal integrity and the fact that you’ve never made a selfish choice.”

“Nice speech, Artie,” came a strangely familiar voice from off to one side. Both boys turned to see the rarely seen but still infamous form of the Rabbit Hero of Paris, Bunnyx. “Now you’ve had reassurance that you’re not evil, even by omission, I’m gonna have to borrow you.” The redheaded and somewhat-androgynous heroine shot Marc a lopsided smile. “Usual stuff; the future of time and space depends on it.”

It was probably an indication of the degree to which Team Miraculous was held in awe by the people of Paris that Marc didn’t hesitate. He gave a startled Nathaniel a peck on the cheek and walked into the pentagonal white portal hovering in the middle of their bedroom wall.

“Wait… why was her arm semi-transparent?” Nate asked himself.

~*~*~

“W… Whoa!” Marc looked aroundthemselves at the interior of the extradimensional realm known as The Burrow. All around them were ‘rabbit holes’, circular window-like displays showing events from all over the world and time.

“Cool, yeah?” Bunnyx remarked. “You know, I’ve only been doing this for a while but I’m already getting the ‘burn’ that makes my grandpa time and space’s number one interfering busybody!”

Marc shook their head. Grandpa?

“Anyway, got something that you need to see and then maybe you’ll know why I need your help.” Bunnyx raised her parasol, pointed it at one of thecircular windows and moved it in a way that made Marc’s head ache; she didn’t seem to be moving it in three-dimensional space and his eyes nearly went cross-eyed at following the direction of the motion.

A new pentagonal portal appeared mid-air. Bunnyx gestured towards it. Marc gave her an odd look. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked.

“Nah, I’d prefer not to risk leaving the Zone of Temporal Grace that the Burrow provides, Markie. Here, anything that happens doesn’t affect me. I can’t bleed out and I can’t drop out of existence because my timeline’s been broken.”

Marc paused. “What about me?”

Bunnyx laughed. “You’re from the past, relative to me; you’ll be fine.”

Marc was not particularly reassured by Bunnyx’s easy-going reassurance. He looked through the portal and saw what looked like Paris in ruins and… were those floating bodies? Everything was lit in a hellish tone of red light. Clutching his pen in his pocket, Marc stepped forwards and…

He was overwhelmed.

It was like blood red thoughts were being poured into their head. They could feel theirthoughts being consumed and overwhelmed by a wave of ‘other’. All they could hear and all they could think was a rap-like mantra being repeated over and over…

“You are a worm through time.

“The thunder song distorts you.

“Happiness comes.

“White pearls, but yellow and red in the eye.

“Through a mirror, inverted is made right…”

At that point, Marc suddenly felt a wall of blue crystalline ripples and suddenly, he was aware again, kneeing just in front of the entrance to the Burrow. “What the hell,” they whispered.

It was at this point that Marc realised that he’d staggered forwards a few paces and collapsed at the feet of Tigrette, who had a pale and stressed-looking Piggiwig standing beside her. “You… are still you, right?” Tigrette asked. “You’re not some kind of mind-controlled zombie thing out to kill us are you?

Marc was about to answer sarcastically but something told them that this was not something to take lightly. “Is… that a common problem right now?” they asked.

Vipereon sauntered over with a stressed look of his own on his face. “Unfortunately, yes,” he said. Marc looked around and realised that he was on the performance stage that had been set up on the riverfront for the Mayor’s charity concert. Marc’s narrative-focussed mind started working and he felt another power pushing back against it. “You guys… Team Miraculous I mean… You have some kind of magic trying to protect your identity, don’t you?”

Chat Noir had been talking with Minotaurox and walked over with a nod. “We do, M Anciel,” he said. “Don’t try to fight it; trust me that it will just mess up your mind and give you a headache.”

There was a loud ‘clang’ and Marc whirled, looking over to see a squad of police trying to smash their way through a shield made of golden hexagonal panels. “So, ‘mind-controlled zombies’, huh?”

Chat Noir… No, Marc had seen this variation with bronze armour pieces added to his costume: This was Belier Noir. The hero shook his head. “It seems to be, for the lack of any better description, a viral chant that jumps from person to person, making them entirely focussed on spreading it further and eliminating anyone who isn’t infected.”

Marc frowned. “Let me guess, Team Miraculous is the target?”

“Thanks to Vipereon, we had the chance to react and Piggiwig’s powers are holding the ‘signal’ back,” Tigrette confirmed. “Fortunately, Belier here can also provide us with physical as well as magical protection or they would have tried to shoot us by now.”

Marc compressed their lips. “Wait, how did Vipereon manage to block out this signal in the first place?”

Vipereon touched the Snake Miraculous. “Trust the intuition,” he said cryptically. “I suspect that Sass may have come back in time somehow to warn me and get Piggiwig to block it before it could affect us.”

“In any case, my power seems to be the only thing holding this back now,” Piggiwig groaned, the tremor of weakness in her voice making Tigrette put a comforting arm around her. “Because of that, I’m sort of target number one right now.”

Marc considered their experiences upon leaving the Burrow and noticed how everyone in the mob outside the perimeter of the area-of-effect of Piggiwig’s Root Out power was surrounded by this blood red smoke that they’d felt trying to push its way into their mind. “Um… Can I borrow that?” Marc asked, plucking a clipboard from the hands of a backstage technician. “I think I might have an idea or two…”

Marc scribbled urgently on the clipboard for a few moments and… Tigrette could feel her hackles rising in the presence of active magic. She raised her hand uncertainly as if she were in class as golden writing seemed to scroll across every surface in the backstage area. Suddenly, Marc spoke up, gesturing at a woman who was tied up in a long TRS audio cable. “Excuse me, but what is the story with that lady Gendarme?”

Vipereon raised an eyebrow. “She came in to attack Piggywig after she first started blocking this signal with her powers. I don’t think that she’s conscious right now; the moment she got within the Root Out field perimeter, she had a grand mal and collapsed.”

Belier Noir cut in. “So, what’s with the twenty questions, M Anciel?”

“Call me ‘Storyteller’,” Marc responded in a preoccupied tone, earning a raised eyebrow from Chat, who had heard that name from His Lady’s occasional stories about ‘SPECIAL Business’ and queries she received from her British spy friend, Miss Rose. So, this short-term heroic version of Hawkmoth was Marc? “It’s always good to know the backstory before you try to continue characters’ stories.” Storyteller continued “Do you have any idea where this signal is coming from?”

Vipereon nodded. “It’s XY,” he said. “Xavier Yyves Roth. He’s in the TV studio booth and using it to send this signal across all channels.”

Storyteller looked up. “Really? I wonder…?” they shook their head. “It doesn't matter. What matters is getting to young M Roth and stopping him. I might be able to assist in that.” They gestured to a rack of stage equipment racked behind the heroes. Storyteller walked over to Piggywig and, taking her arm, he led her over to the stage operator’s booth. “I understand that you can ‘bless’ objects with your power, Mademoiselle. Please do so for this microphone.” With an odd look on her face, Piggiwig compiled. Storyteller made a few notes on his clipboard with a satisfied smile, the now-familiar golden cursive text briefly flowing across several communication headsets for stage-hands. “Good, from now on the stage workers’ earphone headsets will provide protection from M Roth’s ‘signal’.” Storyteller scribbled a few more lines. “As she is what keeps everyone safe, we need to keep Piggiwig here and out of danger. That also means we need Belier Noir here. So, I suspect that Vipereon and Tigrette will need some support.”

Vipereon picked up one of the headsets, noting the golden magic that briefly scrolled along its contours as he did so. He put one of the headphones to his ear and winced in surprise at the high-pitched white noise. “What is this?”

Storyteller’s smile was somewhat weak. “Believe it or not, it’s an audible version of Piggiwig’s magic… Or as close an equivalent to that we can manage.” The magical hero firmly stabbed a period into the end of their manuscript. “Now, we’re almost ready, Belier Noir, please release the gendarme; she will not be a threat.”

~*~*~

Jeanette Coulltard’s head was hurting. It was so empty. Where was the voice that soothed away her thoughts and enabled her to have peaceful oblivion? Where was the red glow that had consumed all her perceptions? She looked up hazily as a man in a catsuit with faux-bronze armour plats on the shins, forearms, chest and helm touched the cables tied around her body and limbs with a glove cracking black-green with power and the cable crumbled away into shards of rubber and corroded copper. “How are you, Mademoiselle?”

Jeanette opened her mouth but she couldn’t remember the chant anymore. Instead, her mind was filled by a blue light that resembled glass shattered by a bullet that pushed all the red out of her psyche. This is true, the light seemed to sing. This is real and this is right. “I… I..” Do not be afraid; you can fight and you can win. “I… My name… Call me… I am Prime Candidate and I am here to fight for you,” she said, wondering a little at the origin of the words coming from her lips. However, there was a rightness to them that made her draw herself up straighter.

Belier Noir frowned as he realised that the Genderme’s uniform had changed. She was now wearing a long velvet overcoat over a tighter-cut charcoal grey top and pants along with very stylish-looking leather knee-length boots. Her fire-red hair, out of her uniform braiding and now dangling down her back in a ponytail. “Bit of an upgrade there, Primey,” he remarked.

Prime Candidate was looking at her Service Weapon. The SIG Sauer Pro was a fairly normal semi-automatic pistol, which was about as different from what she had now as you could imagine. It looked more like a long-barreled revolver than a semi-automatic and, as she looked, the front of the barrel (which had no visible muzzle) slid up to form a foresight. “Yes… Yes, that’s how I can do it,” she said. “Just like in my dreams!”

Prime Candidate smiled. “So, I believe that we have an appointment to keep with a troublemaker?” she asked sweetly.

“Yes,” Storyteller said with a smile. “I believe that you do.”

~*~*~

Ladyjustmouse was pacing in an agitated way in an energy bubble in the middle of the booking hall of Paris Garre du Nord, occasionally looking at the mind-controlled Parisians beating against Lady Rose’s bubble shield. “There has to be a way we can get to the concert grounds,” she fretted audibly.

“Not if you don’t want to be reduced to a mindless automaton like the rest of the people here, no,” Miss Rose responded idly, twirling her wand around her hand as she’d seen Delphi do on occasion. “Inside this bubble shield, nothing that is happening outside can affect us here.”

Ladyjustmouse got into Miss Rose’s face. “You know, my friends and family out there are doubtless shambling around like the rest of the residents of Paris. I can’t just do nothing!”

Miss Rose rolled her startling green eyes. “Oh, bloody Merlin! Okay! Do something then!” Ladyjustmouse turned away but halted when the British magical spy grabbed her arm. “Just remember that you can’t help anyone if you are turned by whatever this fell power is.” Miss Rose frowned. “I’ve seen this in some of MI8’s records. It’s a viral mind control spell; every person affected reinforce and magnify the ‘signal’. The last time it was used was a Nazi-sympathising wizard in World War II and it was ugly.” Miss Rose picked her lip nervously. “I don’t know…”

Ladyjustmouse drew pit the Ladybug Yo-yo. “I have one counter-move that has never failed me,” she told the titian-haired Englishwoman. She cast the Yo-yo upwards. “LUCKY CHAAARRRM!”

Something that looked to Miss Rose like a kind of amulet appeared at the centre of the galaxy-shaped storm of magical ladybird beetles. It fell into the Parisian superheroine’s hands. “Okay, now for step two. Duplicate!” The amulet… if that is what it was… glowed with the pink magic of the Mouse Miraculous. Ladyjustmouse looked around and saw the Lucky Jarm flash in her colours, followed b the spotted bodice of her supersuit and, disturbingly, the very air outside the witch’s protective shield.

“Are you sure about this?” Miss Rose asked.

Ladyjustmouse smiled. “This magic has never failed me before,” she responded.

Still holding the second disc, Miss Rose watched as Ladyjustmouse strapped on the disc. She frowned, reached out to touch the blue disc and her face cleared. “It’s a resonating plate! Literally an audi jammer!” Her voice sounded muffled and Ladyjustmouse decided it was a sign that the device was working.

“Okay, let’s do thai,” Ladyjustmouse instructed.”

With a grimace, Miss Rose cancelled her shielding spell and instead incanted “Levispes”, pointing her wand at her feet. She immediately took to the air and soared over the mind-controlled denizens of the train station. Her Parisian contact was airborne too, swinging from her Yo-yo from roof beam to roof beam. Within a minute, the two women were out of the building and Miss Rose searched around her. “Ladyjustmouse!” she called. “Look! Towards the river!”

Ladyjustmouse looked in the indicated area and saw that, indeed, the red miasma from the mind-control magic seemed to be funnelling up from that area. “The charity concert!” she said. “Whoever is doing that must have attacked there first.” There was no time to send messages, so she could only pray that Adrien had somehow escaped unharmed.

At this point, with eerie silence, a quartet of railway workers, outlined in bright red-white light, jumped from the roof of the station and tried to grab the two heroines. Miss Rose responded with a volley of stunning spells and her eyes widened behind her corrective lenses as the trio she’d hit crumbled into black ash that blew away with the breeze.

Ladyjustmouse responded simultaneously with a sweep of her Yo-yo, maintaining her hover with the use of her energy mesh wings. The impact on the man’s chin sent him crashing back against the wall of the station but this did not make him pause. He flung himself forwards again, snatching the Yo-yo cord. On instinct, she drew the Libra sword and positioned it in a way to make him flinch away. To her horror, the man unhesitatingly impaled himself on the sword, his blank and glowing white eyes not indicating a hint of fear or any other recognisable emotion on his face as it crumbled away into ash.

“Oh! Mon dieu! Je suis désolé! Dieu me pardonne!" LadyJustmouse cried out in horror, barely holding in her urge to vomit up her most recent meal.

Miss Rose shook her head. “Don’t lose your focus!” she commanded. “It looks like breaking the spell causes the host’s body to discorporate!” The British magical spy shot the horrified superheroine a firm glare. “You know that you can fix this!”

All Ladyjustmouse could think of was the fact that she’d just killed someone but, at that moment, she felt Tikki, Zuuben and Mullo all touching her mind and reassuring her. The Miraculous Cure! she remembered First though we have to stop the cause of this!”

~*~*~

Back at the concert venue, Tigrette and Vipereon were either side of the magically-created superheroine known as Prime Candidate. Okey, mes ames, I will briefly lower my shield on the count of three,” Belier Noir said. “One… Two… Three!” The golden hexagonal plates vanished for a moment and, before the two Miraculous heroes could react, Prime Candidate raised her hand and telekinetically tore out the front of the stage and first few metres of the concert ground to create a wall of flying debris that drove back the mob of mind-controlled concert-goers. Then, she soared up into the air as if held aloft by invisible hands under her arms. Vipereon and Tigrette charged, swinging Lyre and Whip left and right to knock down anyone who had recovered from the hailstorm of debris enough to stand up.

“Renew-wool!” Belier Noir yelled, re-erecting his shield.

No amount of force could daunt the mind-controlled concert-goers and they continued to swarm and throw themselves at Team Miraculous. Suddenly, there was a series of sounds like pistol shots. A woman who was trying to grab Vipereon’s hand was struck twice by electric blue pulse of light and fell backwards. As she staggered to her feet, a folding chair struck her in the centre of the chest, causing her to explode into black ash.

“Prime Candidate! We’retrying to save these people!” Vipereon yelled.

“I’m sure they’ll thank you they are tearing your flesh from your bones,” the transformed policewoman snapped. “Besides, don’t you people have some magic restoration spell to use on people killed in incidents like this?”

Vipereon scowled. He didn’t want to make decisions based on whether this was something Melody’s magic could reverse but it seemed that Prime Candidate wasn’t about to stop, triple shots from her transformed pistol blowing two more foes from their feet. To his left, Tigrette slashed her claws across the throat of a technician who also crumbled into ash. “Sweet Gaia, this is a nightmare,” Vipereon’s twin sister murmured.

There was a louder-than-usual sound from Prime Candidate’s gun and a concert-goer who was hovering in a fountain of red smoke literally exploded into ash. As Luke watched, her magically enhanced handgun seemed to morph from a double-barrel sawn-off shotgun back into a pseudo-revolver with precision aiming sights. That was definitely Marc’s magic at work. The weapon was clearly not intended to be lethal but it was the only way to stop the mind-controlled horde

“Pick it up, Tigrette,” he snapped at his sister. “The sooner we get into the control booth, the sooner this is over.” Tigrette cast her bolo-whip and snatched her brother as she swung up into the air over the hordes of mind-controlled people, all of whom were eerily silent but tracked their motion with glowing red-white eyes.

The two Miraculous heroes landed on the gantry around the broadcast booth above the concert stage and found it packed to the gills with mind-controlled concert-goers and TV technicians. No, Vipereon was not about to start slaughtering the very people he had set out to save. Instead, he drew his Lyre and tried the most difficult casting he’d ever done of Soul Music, trying to calm the spirits of twenty to thirty different people. It was difficult. He could feel something, possibly XY’s powers, fighting against the soothing music but the Snake Miraculous was a shard of the Universe itself and there was nothing more powerful than this. With an audible ‘snap’, the red miasma was repelled from their bodies and… they crumpled lifelessly and crumpled into ash. No, it seemed that there was no way to save these people except the Miraculous Cure.

Vipereon’s head snapped up as he realised that Prime Candidate had just landed on the far end of the gantry and was telekinetically throwing chunks of steel and concrete at another glowing red denizen of this nightmare. Vipereon’s mouth dropped open as he considered the face of the man sitting in the office swivel chair hovering in the middle of a glowing red orb that seemed to be acting as a shield. Wait… that was Bob Roth! He knew that XY had an increasingly strained relationship with his music mogul father but that he’d do that to his man really symbolised how cold the other artist’s heart was. On an instinct that he’d long ago learned not to ignore, his hand snapped to the Snake Miraculous and he snapped closed the Oroubos bracelet. “Second Chance!”

Prime Candidate’s gunfire was sparking off the shield as if they were spit balls and Both responded with a huge fireball somehow fired from the air above his head that struck Prime Candidate and blew her apart as if her very body had been flash-heated like an egg in a microwave. “Second Chance!” The scene rewound a dozen seconds. “Prime Candidate!” Dodge left!” The transformed policewoman took to the air and Vipereon stepped forward to bat the fireball back from where it came with the Snake Lyre. The red shield pulsed in response but didn’t seem about to collapse. “That shield is too tough!” the Snake Hero yelled.

“Maybe I need to hit it harder!” Prime Candidate responded, adjusting her gun. The barrel split into four with three barrels arranged in an inverted triangle that transformed into… rockets?!? The woman began to squeeze the trigger and three bright blue lights adhered to the bubble. A few moments later they detonated in huge bright yellow flashes and Bob’s chair was smashed back against the far wall, the shield gojne. Within moments it began to reform and there was enough of a delay as Prime Candidate’s weapon returned to its pistol mode to render it useless. Another reset later, Vipereon was back at this point and ready. “Tigrette! Use your power!”

“Single Strike!” the Tiger heroine yelled, her fist surrounded by a purple aura. The blow smashed through the slowly-reforming shield into Bob’s face. As always, the Tiger superpower was enough to render Tigrette’s foe unconscious with a single blow and… damn it, it was enough to break the spell and Bob’s body just disintegrated into ash, the chair clattered empty to the floor of the gantry.

“Go!” Vipereon yelled as he kicked down the door of the broadcast booth.

About a half-dozen technicians looked up and a security guard stepped forwards, raising his police nightstick. Prime Candidate levelled her weapon when, suddenly, the back wall of the office space simply fell off with a slash of yellow light. Ladyjustmouse landed in the resulting hole, followed a few moments later by a woman with long titian hair and corrective lenses, wearing a rose pink duster and fedora. “Stupifex Maxima!” the pink-clad woman yelled and the stick in her hand generated a wave of red light that consumed all of the foes, making them collapse into ash.

The guard staggered but his body armour seemed to have absorbed the stunning magic. He advanced on Ladyjustmouse, leading with his nightstick. With a grimace, the Champion of Paris met him mid-way with the Libra Sword, the magical blade cutting the Xylonex baton clean in half. She then slammed the pommel into his temple and followed up with her Yo-yo, tangling him up head to foot so she could slam him into the side wall.

“Melody,” Vipereon said as the Yo-yo returned to its mistress’s hand and the possessed guard crumbled into ash. “It’s good to see you and to see that you are still you.”

“No time for small talk, Vipereon,” Ladyjustmouse responded. “This room is the source of the resonance but from where?”

“Uh, at a guess?” Prime Candidate pointed to something that would long remain in Vipereon’s memories: XY was hanging upside-down over the announcer’s microphone on the main console, his eyes rolled up into his head with an expression of ecstatic bliss as he murmured something into the microphone.

Without hesitation Prime Candidate holstered her weapon and stepped forward. As she did so, she was briefly surrounded by a crystalise blue light, radiating from her headset, which seemed to be fighting with the red miasma around XY. With a grunt of pain, she stepped back. “Damn it, we need something stronger than Storyteller’s headphones,” she sighed. “Anyone got any ideas?”

Ladyjustmouse was looking at the Ladybug-patterned amulet strapped around her chest thoughtfully. “I might have… In fact, I’m pretty sure…” She reached for the amulet only for the pink-clad woman to intercept her hand.

“Take off your magical charm and you’ll lose your protection from the spell, Ladyjustmouse,” she warned.

The superheroine rolled her eyes and grabbed Prime Candidate. “You, stay close,” she ordered with an air of impatience and confidence. Not exactly in-character but, with what this mission had required, something that he understood. Prime Candidate nodded, looping her arms under the superheroine’s arms in a chaste hug. Together they stepped towards XY. With a nervous lick of her lips, she unfastened her amulet, extended it and pressed it to XY’s face.

XY was suddenly surrounded with that same crystalline blue light patterned like a shattered pane of glass and XY voice rose in a loud, agonised ululation like something was ripping his brain physically from his head. All around them, the red miasma seemed to evaporate as if it was being blown away by a breeze. XY collapsed at the foot of the console, out cold.Almost instantly, the red light that dominated the sky was gone.

“Well… damn,” Tigrette said. “I was looking forward to cold cocking that asshole for the second time.”

Ladyjustmouse stepped away from Prime Candidate, both women smiling in relief. The superheroine extended her hand to Lady Rose who put the other resonating amulet into her friend’s hand. “Don’t worry, Tigrette. M Roth here will face punishment for his actions.” She tossed the two amulets into the air with a cry of: “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

The storm of magical ladybird beetles swarmed over the room, leaving startled people sitting and standing around exactly where they had been at the moment they had crumbled to ash. The tsunami of healing then raced out even further, restoring all those destroyed in both groups of heroes charge towards the broadcast booth.

Bob Roth looked around himself in shock and disorientation. “What… Xavier?” He glared at his crumpled and moaning son. “What are you doing here you idiot? Are you trying to ruin this broadcast for some reason?”

Prime Candidate was briefly surrounded by scrolling golden text, something that caught Miss Rose’s attention, making her eyes open wide in shock. Officer Jeanette Coulltard, back in her regular uniform and hairstyle, looked around, shaking her head. “I… What am I doing up here?” she asked. “I think… Have I been dreaming?”

Vipereon smiled and squeezed the woman’s shoulder. “Maybe it was a nightmare but you will be happier forgetting all about it,” he said.

Jeanette frowned at the superhero. “Team Miraculous? Has… Has there been some kind of supervillain attack?” She reached for her radio microphone clipped to her stab-proof vest. “Should I call for backup?”

Ladyjustmouse stepped forwards, angling her hips so that her United Heroez badge was clearly visible. “The matter has been resolved, Mademoiselle but I am afraid that the details have been classified by SPECIAL. Please do not disclose Team Miraculous or our associates’ presence at this location during this incident.” With a scowl, Ladybug yanked a woozy XY to his feet. “As for you, young Monsieur Roth, we need to talk.”

The pink-clad magic-user nodded and touched Ladyjustmouse on the shoulder. All three of them vanished from sight with a loud ‘pop’ of inrushing air.

~*~*~

“That was closer than I like to think,” Alix said after breaking a wonderful lip-lock with Luka. I was caught by XY’s little episode and my future self was starting to phase out of existence when she went to fetch Storyteller. “

Luke nodded. “It’s a good thing that Fluff was able to warn her just like Sass was me,” he said. “Is your brain still spinning, you know? That the cause can follow the effect?”

Alix watched as a besotted Marinette looked at Adrien (who was taking his bows at the end of Kitty Section’s set on the stage) with hearts in her eyes. “Luka, my love,” she said. “That’s the thing about the Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey destiny we’ve found for ourselves: We can officially wave bye-bye to any hint of causality in our lives!”

~*~*~

XY was tied to a chair in a dark room somewhere and he would be complaining about the rough treatment if he didn’t have a handkerchief roughly stuffed into his mouth preventing him from uttering a word. As he looked resentfully at Ladybug, a silver-haired but still ravishing woman in red-highlighted black leather armour strode in through a metal door, beyond which it was impossible to see because of the bright light shining in. “Agent Ladybug, why is she here?” the woman said without so much as a hint of pleasantries, gesturing to the gumshoe look-alike in pink who had somehow gathered the shadows around her. “I’m sure that I do not need to remind you that…”

Miss Rose pulled out her ID and flashed it in Orbweaver’s face. “Agent 0007 of Her Majesty’s Office of Dangerous Anomalies, Agent Orbwever,” she said. “I think that you’ll find my security clearance is sufficient to be here at Mr Roth’s debriefing.”

Orbweaver, Gina Dupain, glared at the Englishwoman’s ID before tossing it back to the titian-haired bespectacled woman. “Miss Rose, you are out of your jurisdiction.”

Ladybug cleared her throat politely. “Orbweaver, Miss Rose is in Paris at my invitation. She has traced the illegal sale of magical jtems originating in Great Britain to this city and requested my assistance in tracking down the contraband and, of course, to ensure that SPECIAL is fully aware of the ODA’s activities in Paris.”

Orbweaver scowled again. “You need to be better at communicating with your handlers, Agent Ladybug.”

Miss Rose snorted. “Welcome to my world, Orbweaver. If she’s anything like my charges, she only tells you that she’s done something a few days after the fact.”

Orbweaver mentally waved aside the British magical spy’s words and glared at XY. “Mr Roth, at Agent Ladybug’s recommendation, we took no action against you after the earlier Dissonance incident. I am… disappointed to learn that you spurned the second chance she offered you. You will now be extradited to the Hague to stand trial before the International Criminal Court for using Anomalous abilities in an act of terrorism.”

XY scowled silently. Let them drag him in front of the musty old judges. With his power, he’ll be able to twist their brains into knots…

He looked up at a sparkle of pink light and realised that Ladbug had her Yo-yo out and open as if if twere a powder compact. Somehow, impossibly, she reached wrist-deep into the magical device and withdrew another magical charm, this one without a neck pendant chain. “I’m not going to try to persuade you to wear this voluntarily, M Roth,” she said. “Not this time, not after the number of lives you have proven willing to throw away for the sake of power.” She looked over at Orbweaver who frowned but nodded. Ladybug stepped forward and the magical charm began to shine blood red and radiate heat. XY pushed himself as far back as he could in the chair and shot the other people in theroom a panicked and silent plea. Orbweaver was pitiless and Miss Rose’s face was neutral but approving.

Ladybug grimaced and pressed the magical charm to XY’s throat. She fought down an urge to vomit as there was a horrible burning pig fat smell along with a sound of sizzling bacon. Red light flared and caught the Libra choker and Mouse necklace around Ladybug’s neck as XY’s vision greyed out with agony.

A few moments later, Ladybug yanked the makeshift gag out of XY’s mouth. With a satisfied smirk, the young man started to try to deliver rap lyrics to distort the women’s minds but… What came out was gibberish with no rhythm to them.

“What… What have you done?” he gasped. With a surprisingly gentle hand, Ladybug traced the ladybug sigil-shaped scar on XY’s throat, the only sign of the magical charm. “I have locked away your ability to use your powers, M Roth. You can still speak but you cannot deliver rhythmic chants of the kind that you used both professionally and to utilise your powers.”

“You… You can’t!” XY bleated. “Rapping R and B lyrics is my living! My claim to fame! What am I supposed to do now?”

Ladybug’s smile was sad and yet there was a sense of certainty about it. “I understand that good jobs are available in the service industry. Waiting tables? Cleaning floors? Those are all things within your reach now.”

XY howled in self-pitying horror at that news.

Miss Rose grinned with satisfied malice. “If you prefer, I could just Vanish your vocal chords.” She looked over at Orbweaver. “Your jurisdiction, your problem, Agent Orbweaver. Take him to experience one of your wonderfully stage-managed public trials and a few years in your gulag… The Anvil, isn’t it?”

aOrbweaver made an annoyed noise before yanking the horror-struck XY to his feet and dragged him out of the cell, delivering his rights in a rapid-fire rhythm of the sort at which he once excelled but never would again.

Miss Rose had an air of contentment around her – Of someone enjoying the outcome of a job well done. “Okay, Ladybug,” she said. “Let’s find your Storyteller.”

Chapter 23: The Storyteller

Chapter Text

Marc would miss that particular tool but they were still able to write and that was the real gift for them. Let me tell you a story, he wrote in elegant cursive in the pen, a magical duplicate of the previous one. Let me tell you about a person, their dreams and the things that those dreams allowed them to do.

Also, let me tell you about their friends and their love, the man who gave form to the dreams, the heroes who protected their city and the Wise Woman who taught me so much in such a short time…

~*~*~

Marc frowned at Ladybug in confusion, confusion reflected on the face of their parents. Paris had become weird since Hawkmoth first akumatised someone but they’d never heard of one of Team Miraculous doing a house-call, let alone with a plain but strangely attractive older woman with titian hair and corrective lenses.

“M Anciel,” Ladybug said in a polite but kind tone. “There is something that we urgently need to discuss; can we come in?”

“Um… Ladybug? What is this ab…”

“Official business,” said the newcomer in a strange tone of voice, flashing an ID card in a leather wallet. Marc’s brain briefly reeled as their brain tried to correctly interpret what they’d just seen. No obvious name, organisation or even country of origin, just an unshakable impression of authority.

“Um… Yes, please, come in,” M Anciel senior muttered, sounding as disoriented as Marc fell.

Ladybug scowled and nudged her companion with her elbow.

Mark shook their head as he led their ‘guests’ up the corridor to their bedroom. Marc noticed that Ladybug wandered over to the window and stood at a strange ready posture as if she was prepared to either jump out the window or stop someone else from doing so. The still-unnamed woman with titian hair wandered around the room with no obvious goal, her fingers stroking along the spines of their books on creative writing, their favourite novels and even the exercise books in which they’d written their stories since they started College and discovered tier talent and interest in the artform.

Marc jumped as he heard something buzzing like an alert from a phone on silent. The new woman smiled slightly and nodded in Ladybug’s direction.

Ladybug coughed. “Marc, firstly, I should introduce Miss Rose here. She’s… a representative of the British government, here in Paris to track the movements of smuggled illegal goods.”

“I… don’t do drugs,” Marc whispered fearfully. “I don’t know anything about…”

“You wouldn’t,” Miss Rose interrupted. “This isn’t about narcotics, Mx Anciel. Several dangerous items were illegally shipped to France by a bootlegger in London and their trail ends here in Paris.” She looked around the room in an assessing way.

“Guns? Explosives?” Marc gasped. “Why would you think…?”

“Even more dangerous, Mx Anciel,” Ms Rose responded smoothly. “All the more so by being indistinguishable from mundane items.” She reached into her left sleeve and drew out… a stick. No, not a stick. Marc instinctively knew it was something far more than that. “Tell me, Mx Anciel, have you recently come into possession of some item of utility that, after used it, there were some unexpected effects. No obvious connection but something quite unlike anything you have experienced before, even in a word as strange as the one we are all living in now?”

Marc had very little experience in cloak-and-dagger stuff and, because of this, his eyes jumped immediately to his fountain pen in its elaborately-decorated box.

~*~*~

Socqueline Wang finished pulling the last of the insulated plastic boxes out of the back of her new rose-pink Citroen C3. She then reached into the back seating area to unhook the clothing in static-proof laundry bags out too. She turned to her latest customers. “Ladies! I’m glad to tell you that, whilst it took me a good while to work out how Storyteller did it, I was able to mimic most of the functions of his conjurations.” She cleared her throat. “I therefore present to you my recreation of the costumes of Track-R and Cold Front.”

Aurore Boureal and Mirelle Caquet nearly leapt forwards before being intercepted by two bits of paper in Socqueline’s hands. “My invoices,” she said dryly. “Payable on delivery. Card or bank transfer?”

“Cash,” Aurore said. “Much harder to track no matter how difficult it was to get and carry.” The two stars of KIDS+ television’s weather forecastsboth pulled out manilla envelopes that Socqueline could tell were packed with €100 notes. “Cleaned out your savings, girls?” Socqueline asked dryly.

“You know, I never realised that we could make a difference to this world,” Mirelle said. “Really make a difference, I mean. We don’t have a Miraculous or intrinsic superpowers, so how could we?”

Aurore smirked. “Then, thanks to Storyteller, we learned that we have… aptitudes that we could use!”

Socqueline finished counting the cash and tucked the envelopes into her satchel (of her own making - bullet and cut-proof). “This isn’t a joke, girls. You start down this path and your lives will always be different. You’ll never be able to go back to being the mundane people that you are again. You’ll always have this obligation and these burdens on your shoulders. I’ll take the stuff back and disassembled them if…”

“How?” Aurore butted in. “Paris is a dangerous city, Mlle Wang. How would we go back to just being TV personalities after knowing that we can help people and make a difference?”

MIrelle nodded. “So that no woman ever needs to be victimised and exploited like we were ever again.”

It was evening in the Parc Place des Voyages. The two young women quickly and efficiently stripped off their street clothes, hidden by the evening twilight and started to pull on their new super-suits. “Standard material for Deitl’s Handicrafts,” Socqueline explained, automatically switching to ‘sales’ mode as they dressed. “Cut proof, providing protection for up to medium-intensity blunt impacts and guaranteed protection from bullets up to .30” pistol calibre.” She opened one of the crates and took out what looked like a 1885-era Winchester lever-action rifle. She racked the action to chamber a bullet.

“A real 44 x 40!” Mirelle gasped. “Dad had one of these!”

“To avoid legal complications, this weapon uses our proprietary less-than-lethal concussion ammunition - Enough to stun but not kill. However…” She directed the half-Vietnamese girl‘s attention to what looked like a revolver chamber just in front of the trigger assembly. “The real game changer is in this user-defined special payload chamber. It will charge each round with a special function. By default, it’s set to ‘vanilla’ concussion mode but it can also provide others.” Here Socqueline began to rotate the chamber to select each of the rainbow-painted chambers into the bullet line of travel. “Incineration, freezing, lightning and debilitating venom; these are Tsurugi Corp-proprietary materials but are actually available on the open market to licensed resellers.” Soqueline smiled. “Dietl’s has a licence, of course.”

Mirelle was checking the view through the x4 magnification holographic scope on top of the rifle. “Which obliges us to continue to buy from you?” She shook her head at the armourer’s innocent look. “When I was little, my Daddy would often take me out into the countryside to hunt. The real challenge was tracking animals - Learning to read the signs and to use all my senses.”

Meanwhile, Aurore had finished strapping on the electrostatic control gauntlets and boots to her suit. “I’ve always loved weather effects; I loved watching storms and, as a child, fantasised about controlling them” she said. “I think that’s what Hawkmoth found in my soul when he turned me into Stormy Weather for the first time.” She offered Socqueline a sickly smile. “I… think I would like to have those powers without the disruption to my personality toward homicidal mania.” She looked at the push-button controls on the back of the gauntlets.

Socqueline gestured. “Press the centre of the D-Pad and you’ll get an interactive tutorial.” She stepped back and saw that both young women were focussed entirely on the ‘toys’ that she’d prepared for them, right down to the two razor-sharp knives in Mirelle’s belt. She’d an obligation to try to talk them out of this but… “You don’t want to do this alone,” she said quietly. “You’ll need training and support.” She looked upwards. “I think I can help with that too.” She lifted the arm with her wristwatch and touched two studs at the same time.

There was a movement above like a stooping falcon and the two TV stars blinked in amazement as, with a whine of turbines, a man in a yellow jumpsuit marked with feather chevrons and… wings… landed in front of them. “You know Condorman, of course,” she added dryly. “You also know Titania.” There was a ‘thud’ as a coffee-skinned woman in a dark midnight blue bodysuit with a candary yellow ‘T’ across her chest.

“Mlle Wang,” Titania drawled, her voice unrecognisable thanks to the voice distorter Soqueline’s mentor had supplied her some time ago. “These are the two from the TV station?”

Socqueline nodded and shot her two customers a reassuring smile. “They’re friends,” she said. “They’ll help make sure that you two don’t die within the first week or so of your running around in spandex.”

Condorman stepped forwards and offered a hand. “Ladies,” he said with a genuinely friendly smile. under his flying goggles. “Welcome to Team Wondrous.”

~*~*~

In truth, Marc Anciel knew that this day was coming sooner or later. He sat up straight on his bed and looked at… what? Their instincts told them that the British woman was some kind of secret agent, specifically responsible for regulating the strange and supernatural. “So, am I… in trouble?”

“By the book? Yes,” Miss Rose replied a little too cheerfully as she looked at the elegant writing pen that Marc had offered her without a hint of protest or reluctance. “However, you’ve cooperated so far and the things you’ve done so far have been exclusively for the greater good.” The woman touched her honest-to-Merlin magic wand to the pen and the wand made a pleasant ‘bleep’ noise. “There is a law, Mx Anciel, one that you will never have heard of: The Misuse of Mundane Artefacts Act of 1855. This… pen… is a breach of that law and should never have been sold to your parents, let alone ever used. Thankfully, you were responsible enough to not use it to permanently change people or reality itself.”

“Is it really that dangerous?” Ladybug asked, sounding alarmed.

“In the hands of a sufficiently evil or imaginative person, yes.” Miss Rose frowned. “There is a reason why MI8 assigned me to this investigation because they really didn’t expect this part to be so easy.” She grinned. “Collecting the rest of the shipment probably won’t be anywhere near as easy though.”

“Can I help?” Marc asked excitedly.

Miss Rose and Ladybug stared at them in a very surprised way. “Not easily, no,” Miss Rose said. “The only reason why I was able to find the pen so easily is because this location isn’t warded from detection.”

“Well, maybe Marc has some other reconnaissance ‘assets’ that they can use?” Ladybug suggested politely.

Miss Rose raised a gloved finger in a warning. “Yes, but I can’t allow you to use the pen and…” She blinked as Marc did something with their wristwatch. A neon blue ‘W’ appeared on the face and began to flash on and off. The witch grimaced. Mum will never let me forget this if she ever finds out; that was the sort of mistake a Oldblood isolationist would make! “Ah yes. Technology. I let myself forget that’s in play sometimes.”

A few minutes later, Ladybug was standing in the small green patch behind the Anciels’ apartment building, looking around at the strange group of vigilante heroes known as Team Wondrous. Nathaniel and Socqueline she recognised at once, of course, as she did Nora. Even though Alya had never betrayed her sister’s secret identity as the amazonian strongwoman, it didn’t take Ladybug long to work it out without any disguise magic to protect her identity. However, the two newest members of the group were not obvious, even though Socqueline’s costumes were hardly full-body disguises. However, seeing the similarity with the akumatised villain Stormy Weather, it was quickly clear who Cold Front was under her mask but Ladybug doubted that she’d know Mirelle was the huntswoman known as Track-R if she had not been present when her original magical costume had been dispelled.

“So,” Marc said, finishing their briefing. “Simple version is this: There are magical items out there unaccounted for and…” They looked in the direction of Miss Rose but the British witch was no longer visible. Unbeknownst to all, she had cast a Somebody Else’s Problem charm on herself, making herself not just invisible but impossible for the mundane mind to even notice her absence. “Anyway, Ladybug wants our help to track them down.”

“Okay,” Track-R said. “That sounds like a good graduation exercise but… Even the best bloodhound on Earth couldn’t track an object without something to go on.”

Marc nodded and pulled the case of their pen out of their pocket. Behind her stealth charm, Miss Rose’s eyes opened wide and she slapped her hand to her pocket where she thought she’d put the magical pen and it was empty. Worse, she had a clear memory of giving it to Marc against her own better judgement because they had proven themselves trustworthy. Why the heck would I do that? she panicked subverbally. How could I have been influenced like that? Yet she had the feeling that things were somehow still under control, so she took no further action. It would not be until she got home and told her mother about this that she was told about a little-understood branch of magic called Narrative Magic and realised what it was that the Pen controlled.

Track-R’s mask/headset with all the different sensor lenses made a humming noise as the Vietnamese woman adjusted it until a yellow lens slid across her right eye as she peered down at the pen. “Ah! Now I see it! Very distinctive emanations!” She looked over at Condorman. “There’s no trail but I might be able to detect any other hotspots from above.”

“You should start in the First Arrondissement,” Marc advised. “Papa bought the pen there.”

Condorman, ever the charmer, bowed at Track-R and stepped away from the others into the centre of the yard. “Milady, if you would climb on my back?” For reasons that she didn’t want to dwell on, Cold Front didn’t like watching the birdman rise into the sky with her partner clinging to his back. Cold Front held out a hand to Mademoiselle Sans Culotte and the two of them lifted into the sky inside an electromagnetically-generated whirlwind. Titania jumped from the backyard of the Anciel family’s apartment building to the roof tops and, keeping her eyes on her flying colleagues, began to leap from roof to roof.

“Quite a group you’re handling,” Miss Rose said easily, her charm dispelling as she did so. Ladybug shot her an odd look. “Are you responsible for them? Even assigning missions?” Ladybug nodded, looking increasingly worried. Miss Rose gestured in the direction the junior vigilantes had gone. “Well, then you’re their handler on SPECIAL’s books, you can be sure of that.”

Ladybug made an annoyed noise. “I’m going to talk to N… Orbweaver about this,” she growled. “She’d better have a good explanation!” With a ‘Thwip-Whiz!” her yo-yo connected with the spire of another apartment block and, using the grapple function, she swung up and away. With a laugh, Miss Rose cast a levitation charm on her boots and soared off into the air after her.

~*~*~

Perched on Condorman’s back at about a 100m above the streets of Paris’s First Arrondissement, Track-R scanned around her with her magic-sensing lens in place. Many people (especially the insular and somewhat-arrogant magical subculture) were not aware of the advances Tsurugi Tomoe’s pet scientists and engineers had made in making magic and technology compatible and, more importantly controllable. Because of this, very few people thought to insulate their homes or businesses from leaking active magic into the environment.

Track-R suspected that she could probably identify the homes of Team Miraculous with this method and technology but, honestly, that wasn’t on her mind right now. “Condorman!” she called over the wind. “I’m seeing a bright trace at about three o’clock low!” The bird-winged techno-hero turned in the indicated direction; Track-R unslung her rifle and loaded a grenade-like muzzle-launched homing beacon onto the weapon. After ensuring she had a good firing angle, she squeezed the trigger, sending the transmitter flying onto the roof of the building. The suction cup-tipped device adhered itself to the roof slates and began to transmit and… that’s when things started happening.

Whilst the person in possession of the ‘contraband’ the heroes were hunting didn’t understand or plan for technology, they did know that the heroes were a potential threat and had planned appropriately. Several skylights opened in the building’s roof louvres and a swarm of small objects emerged. “What the heck?” Condorman blurted as the swarm circled around him.

Track-R saw that each of the objects was a latch-key, polished and shining with the same magical light as Storyteller’s pen. “Um… Evasive manoeuvres?” she suggested as the keys all suddenly flung themselves at Condorman’s wings.

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea, hang on!” Condorman yelled back, going into a power ascent as the keys tried to puncture his wings’ surfaces. The fabric was made of tear-and puncture- proof material but the keys were like a hailstorm rather than any traditional attack and he didn’t want to guess if they’d hold out for too long.

Cold Front’s mouth had dropped open as she guided herself and Mademoiselle Sans Culotte towards the signal from Track-R’s homing beacon. “Are you seeing this?!?” she blurted.

Sans Culotte was honestly surprised how quickly she ignored the ‘weird’ aspect and snapped into fighting mode. “Set me down on the rooftops and keep those things away from Condorman and Track-R!” she ordered.

Cold Front released her armoured colleague from her winds and soared up towards her two team-mates. She hurriedly tapped commends into the numerical keypad on the back of her left gauntlet, altering the settings on the superconducting electromagnetic field inducer built for her by Socqueline Wang. A piercing whine filled the air as air molecules in the area around Condorman and Track-R were polarised and bean to swirl around them in a vortex, seizing the relatively light keys with their relatively large cross-section compared to their mass were all swept away.

Condorman had been hovering on the power of his boost fans, folding his wings around him to protect himself and Track-R when they both realised that the dangerous flying daggers that were the keys were no longer attacking them. Track-R reacted on an instinct, releasing her hold and going into a free-fall towards the rooftop hundreds of metres below. Condorman shook his hed. “Impetuous kid,” he muttered.

Track-R hadn’t reacted entirely without thought. She launched her bola-tipped grabbling cable at a flagpole above the building and used it to alter her momentum to a lateral one, twirling around the pole at terminal velocity before launching herself into a parkour run around the rooftop to use up the remainder of her momentum.

“Impressive,” Sans Culotte remarked dryly as the exhausted Track-R rolled to a halt at her feet. “Probably not ideal though. Condorman could have flown you down now that Cold Front has those… things… out of the way.”

Track-R dragged herself upright leaning heavily on the armoured effective leader of Team Wondrous. “In my defence… it was a good idea in my head,” she said around dry heaves. She shook her head. “We need to get in there;” she gestured to one of the now-closed skylights. “They came out of there so there may be something like a control mechanism we can smash.”

Sans Culotte nodded silently and stepped towards the hatchway. Track-R was already worrying ad the edge seals with her hunting knives and the armoured vigilante drove the razor-sharp edge of her guillotine blade into the gap before putting all the weight she could onto the handle. “Hold on, gonna try something,” she said, stepping back and gesturing for Track-R to get clear. She started to whirl the blade around on the edge of its chain, winding up momentum before throwing it at one of the vertical edges. There was a pink-white flash of discharging energy and the hatchway popped open, its mechanism smashed. Sans-Culotte gestured to the newly-opened entrance with a mocking smile. Barely acknowledging her colleague, Track-R stepped in, following the golden glow of magic to…

She picked up the object. “A key fob?” She sounded startled. “This is like one of Ladybug’s Lucky Charms!”

As if summoned, a magical portal opened mid-air and Ladybug emerged. After stepping through behind her, Miss Rose flipped her wand into a ‘guard’ position to dismiss the gateway and turned to look at Sans Culotte and Track-R plus their find. She brandished her wand and it made a strange, electronic ‘ping’ noise. “Ah! Well done!” Miss Rose said. “You found at least part of one of the items.”

Track-R looked at the keyring and fob. “I’m guessing that this is important somehow.”

Ladybug shrugged. “I don’t know; have you tried to active it?”

The huntress blinked at the Champion of Paris in befuddlement. “Activate it?”

Ladybug shrugged. “Marc never had to do anything special with the pen, according to him. Just take it outside and… I don’t know… try to concentrate on it doing what it was intended to do if it was a mundane keyring!”

“I hate magic,” Track-R muttered to herself. That said, she did exactly as Ladybug asked.

Above them, Cold Front was beginning to sweat as her equipment was heating up to uncomfortable levels. The electromagnetic field inducers had never been intended to run this long and she could feel the superconducting solenoids heat beginning to burn through the insulation on her gauntlets and boots. She looked and watched as Track-R walked out into the middle of the roof, raise something into the air and… Was that a keyring? Suddenly the swarm of wasp-like keys were no longer trying to get at her or at her friends; instead, they were tumbling limply like leaves in a storm. With a gasp of relief, Cold Front deactivated her super-suit’s overheating wind generators.

Track-R watched as the enchanted keys all arrowed towards her, many merging into just a two-dozen individual keys which slotted themselves neatly onto the keyring.

Miss Rose walked out towards her and held out her hand. “They’ll be inert now,” she said. “I’ll make sur that they’re stored properly.”

~*~*~

“Lucky Charm!” A swirling galaxy of glowing pink ladybird beetles formed at the top of Ladybug’s Yo-yo cast that solidified into something that dropped into her hands.

Ladybug frowned at the pen-torch like tool. She pressed a button and a flanged prong snapped out. “That’s a lockpick,” Mademoiselle Sans Culotte announced, familiar with the tool for a variety of professional reasons. “Uh… at least I think so.” The end of the tool was… unstable; it seemed to be continually shifting its configuration. Ladybug shrugged and holstered the item on her belt.

“Magical tool,” Miss Rose remarked. “Who knows what its limits are, if it has any.” The British witch tucked the magical keyring with its bunch of deadly flying guard drones into one of the pockets of her trench coat. “There are still a few more unaccounted for items; this isn’t over yet.”

Titania nodded. “I’m betting that they’re here too; no point to set up guards that deadly on a house if you don’t have anything to hide.”

“Where next, Track-R?” Ladybug asked politely. Track-R looked around herself for a few moments before pointing decisively at a trapdoor. “The strongest emanations are that way,” she announced.

The heroes dropped down the ladder to the level below one-by-one, starting with Sans-Culotte and Ladybug as they were the most experience and, arguably, the best-protected. “So, how many enchanted objects are there?” Marc asked.

Miss Rose hesitated before answering. “We’ve already seen the bunch of keys. Apparently, according to our source in the gang, there was also a chess set, a vacuum cleaner and a teapot.”

Titania snorted. “Teapot? What kind of lame magical object is that? I mean, what’s it supposed to do? Lull us with its aroma?”

Miss Rose frowned. “We’ve already got a pen that can alter reality and a bunch of keys that are a hunter-killer swarm. What do you imagine it can do?”

Titania’s eyes opened very wide. “Okay, not going to try to do that.”

Marc frowned. “The objects are obviously meant to operate in unison with each other. The keys are a guard for one or more of the others.”

The heroes completed a tour of the small box room into which the attic steps had led them. All the doors were locked and Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte found that her lockpicks were useless. The armoured heroine sighed in annoyance. “Well, we try magic then!”

“Osesame,” Miss Rose incanted, weaving an elaborate motion in the air with her wand and, much to her annoyance, her high-level unlocking charm didn’t seem to work. “Probably warded rather than locked; we’re definitely on the right track here.”

Ladybug pulled out her Lucky Charm and stepped towords her British friend’s target. “Let’s see how good that warding is, shall we?” Everyone was looking at Ladybug so no-one noticed one of the other doors open and a flexible hose extended out of the doorway, wrapping around Marc and then retracted back into the room behind the door. which slammed, drowning out his cry of surprise.

“MARC!” Condorman leapt forwards and struggled futilely with the door for a few moments.

Titania stepped to his side. “Let’s try a little manual override on…”

“Wait!” Everyone looked at Cold Front. “Isn’t it obvious that this is a trap?” There was an odd pause as everyone stared at the technologically-enabled weather-manipulator. “Whoever is in control is expecting us to come through that door. She gestured back to the door Ladybug had been working on. “I say we keep on going that way; as our ‘host’ went to such a lot of trouble to distract us from that direction.”

“Maybe but what about Marc?” Condorman said.

“He’s tougher than a lot of people realise,” Ladybug said. “We’ll find him so long as we don’t let ourselves get distracted from the path.” Ladybug stepped back to the door and inserted the prong of her Lucky Charm into the lock and… praise be! The door swung open as if it hadn’t been locked at all. “Lucky Charms: They never let you down!”

“Uh… Ladybug?” The look on Sans-Culotte’s face was drawn with fear. Ladybug looked and saw why. In the room ahead were over a dozen armed figures, all wearing mediaeval line soldiers’ clothing that made her think of chess pawns. There were also several other figures, stony titans that must be rooks, horsemen that must be knights and smirking witches and wizards that were doubtlessly Bishops and Queens.

“Crap, so at least we know what the chess set did!” Miss Rose remarked.

~*~*~

Marc was more annoyed by being held tightly by the vacuum cleaner hose than they were afraid. It more or less carried them into a luxurious sitting room where a pale, elderly man, wearing a black velvet morning suit, was sipping delicately on its tea. “So, you are the thief who is using my property for his own ends,” the old man said.

“By ‘thief’, you mean using something my parents legally purchased? Yes, I am.”

The man frowned and slapped a hand onto the armrest of his chair. “Don’t argue semantics, boy!” he snapped. “You were never meant to have it! I spent a small fortune to have that item created and it was meant to be held for me, not sold to the first man who turned up with cold hard cash!”

“Well,” Marc remarked. “Life is so full of its little disappointments, don’t you agree? Maybe you should have had fewer links in the chain?” The old man frowned and Marc realised that they’d struck a sensitive spot by implying that his plans may be too elaborate. “So, as I know that you’re planning to dispose of me when I no longer are of any use to you. So, you should have no problem explaining why you need the pen anyway,”

That was another bullseye. The old man clearly enjoyed talking about his genius and how he had snuck the magical items out of the UK and into Europe where the laws controlling enchanted mundane items were so much more lenient. Marc frowned. They hoped that they never wrote a monologue this boring; the man, who grandly introduced himself as Thaddeus Aklay, merely wished to boast to an audience and it was interminable. It was all about the teapot, it seemed. The teapot was seemingly a magical replicator, capable of creating unlimited amounts of whatever its owner desired. Something called ‘liquid luck’ as well as enough of something called ‘Alchemist’s Tonic’ to keep one alive and healthy forever.

“Okay,” Marc said. “So, where does my pen come in?”

Aklay was in ‘the zone’ and didn’t react to Marc claiming the pen as his own. Instead, he stood by the window, looking out onto the street and delivering what he obviously thought of as his grand pronouncement. “The Pen is the key that will make this work, my boy. It will unlock the teapot’s fullest potential.” Marc looked politely confused. “It rewrites reality, you young fool! It will create a narrative in which I have a genuine need for this remarkable gift and stop people asking troubling questions about my luck, my wealth and my eternal youth!” Aklay stuck out his hand. “So, if your curiosity is sated, hand over the pen and we can conclude this mutually-distasteful interaction.”

“Ah, about that,” Marc said. “I’m honestly sad to say I don’t have it; it’s not at my home either, before you send one of your constructs to go looking for it there.”

“You… You don’t…?”

“I surrendered iot to a hero who is evidently a representative of the British intelligence service MI8.” That identifier made Aklay twitch in fear. “So, as I’m sure you realise we’re at a bit of an impasse…”

“I… you… you did what? You little fool! You’ve ruined everything and wasted so much of my time…!”

Marc shrugged. “Like I said, life is full of it’s little disappointments.”

Marc threw himself out of the high-backed armchair as a magic wand appeared in the man’s hand and, with a cry of “Displaco!” he projected a beam of yellow light that blew the back of the chair into splinters at the approximate level of Marc’s head.

Marc frowned. At this point, he was wishing that he’d paid more attention in gym class like Marinette, Alya and Chloe did. Wherever you are guys, now’s the time! That was when the back wall collapsed and a huge titan of black dressed stone tumbled through.

~*~*~

The fight had been dramatic and had rapidly spread from the initial room to a high-ceilinged ballroom where everyone had room to fight and Team Wonderous were able to cut loose.

With a crack of shattering ivory, Ladybug decapitated one of the knights with the Ladyblade, making it crumble into rubble. She pivoted and deflected an arrow shot by the Black Queen on the Bugshield before throwing the shield the way Carapace did with the Turtle Shield, The rotating razor-sharp edge of the shield split the ebony woman in two from head to groin. The weapon, hauled back by its cord, snapped back to Ladybug’s left wrist and she was suddenly in a clearing, letting her look around to see how the fight had progressed.

All around her, the others of Team Wonderous were finishing off the other chess pieces, Track-R and Cold Front double-teaming r=the pawns with a combination of the explosive ammunition for Track-R’s hunting rifle and freezing winds that rendered the ivory and ebony figures hyper-fragile and vulnerable to her lightning bolts. Sans-Culotte’s guillotine blade had made short work of the other knights. Meanwhile, Miss Rose had been duelling with one of the White Bishop pieces, which had the ability to a limited kind of transforming magic but was limited so that a human mage could quickly overpower it. Condorman used a flying toss to smash the last Rook through a wall.

“Marc!” Condorman yelled happily, seeing his boyfriend standing in the room beyond. There was a man holding a magical wand.Ladybug, realising that her objective was beyond the next door used her Lucky Charm on the door and it swung open, immediately revealing the man that her intuition told her was the one behind all of this.

Miss Rose did not bother with her usual ‘you are under arrest’ spiel and, instead, brandished her wand. “Disarmus!” The wand flew out of the old man’s loose grip. The foot-long wooden item paused mid-air before snapping into Miss Rose’s free hand. She smirked at Cold Front’s amazed look. ”Wordless summoning charm; first silent casting I ever mastered!” she said with a wink and a smirk.

“Enough of this!” the man yelled “Send them away!”

“The vacuum cleaner!” Marc yelled urgently. “It’s behind you!”

The old-style cylinder-and-hose vacuum cleaner rose up and brandished its suction hose menacingly. It didn’t simply start to suck, instead it seemed to summon a glowing red vortex beyond which the heroes could see something like lakes of lava and flames. “Yeeesss…!” the old man laughed. “Let them burn in the fires of perdition!” Everyone felt the immense suction from the other dimensional plane. Ladybug grabbed Miss Rose whilst casting her Yo-yo to wrap around one of the decorative columns in the ballroom. Mademoiselle Sans-Culotte threw her guillotine and wrapped her chain around another as Condorman and Cold Front took to the air, Cold Front seizingMiss Rose as she was lifted from her feet and trying to resist the air flow with her wind generators.

Of call the heroes, the fastest to react was Titania. She wicked up a lump of rock that had been the chest one of the Rooks and tossed it at the vortex. The large bit of stone seemed to wedge in the vortex and the vacuum cleaner’s whining began to grow louder and… distressed. With a grinding of metal, the cylinder imploded and the vortex vanished. Marc looked at Titania who shrugged. “When I was a girl, I killed my maman’s vacuum cleaner by wedging atoy in the hose when I was trying a short-cut to clean my room.”

Seeing that he had no cards left to play, Aklay was trying to sneak out and found himself facing a scowling Sans-Culotte and Ladybug. “Going somewhere, scofflaw?” the tricolour-faced woman asked, visibly testing the edge of her guillotine blade.

~*~*~

Sitting on their bedroom windowsill, Marc watched as Miss Rose packed the last of the disenchanted items into what looked like a leather suitcase but they suspected was something far more. “I still can’t believe that thing opened a portal to hell!” they remarked.

Miss Rose rolled her eyes. “I doubt that it did; interdimensional portals like that are notoriously difficult to create, let alone stabilise. I’m pretty sure that was just a magma chamber under a dormant volcano.” She grinned at Marc in a mischievous way. “it you were designing the ultimate housecleaning tool, would you want to have regularly empty it out? Or would it be simpler to just have all the rubbish incinerated in a non-polluting way?” She looked down at the imploded remains of the vacuum cleaner. “Still, there is no telling just how much an effect that illegal enchantment may have had on its materials,” she explained. “It is too dangerous to just leave it for mundane waste disposal.”

Marc sighed nostalgically as he watched his parents gift being tucked into the suitcase. “I’m going to miss this,” he said. “Being a hero and helping other people be heroes…” He shook his head. “It’s going to be hard going back to just writing stories for Nate’s comic books.”

The woman in rose pink leathers snorted. “Oh, I don’t think that you were ever ‘just’ a writer. I also don’t think that you were as dependent on that pen’s magic as you think.” Marc gave her an odd look. “It’s a fact that magic changes us and it also reacts to who and what we are, M Anciel.” With a casual air, the woman closed her suitcase and stood up. “Just keep looking for chances to make a difference,” she concluded, mussing up their hair.

However, as annoyed as Marc was at the nonconsensual intimacy of the hair-mussing, they took her words to heart even though they did not really understand what she meant. However, they were careful not to ever write about Team Wonderous or Team Miraculous ever again nor about current events. Most importantly, they kept their eyes open for any magical effects when he was writing in the future like the golden floating writing.

One thing they didn’t look for was metaphorical effects and how his friends lives tended to follow the same narratives as his writing at times. When he finally found out, he realised that they really were still The Storyteller.

Marc sat back in their work chair. Narratives: stories; they had written. Life can be and generally always is a story and, sometimes for no more reason that our part in others lives, we affect those stories and can influence what shape their lives take. This is the true, terrible responsibility of the storyteller and, just sometimes, it can inspire an ordinary person to become a hero or corrupt them into a villain.

Chapter 24: Apprentice

Chapter Text

Marlena Cesaire looked at her husband worriedly. “I really don’t know what to think about this, Otis,” she said. She’d long suspected that Alya had been absorbing some kind of oriental spirituality from her best friend, Marinette. Back home in Martinique, the girl had attended church with them but it was obviously never more than a meaningless family obligation to her. Now, she regularly practised meditation forms and even what looked like a kind of yoga.

“Paris has been a hard experience for all the girls, Mar,” Otis responded. “Of course, she’d look for meaning and some kind of answers; a lot of teenagers go through these sorts of crises as they grow up.” Otis snorted good-naturedly. “That’s besides having to learn to control her emotions to avoid any recurrence of Lady WiFi whilst Agreste was still on the loose.”

Marlena couldn’t dispute that and there was no doubt that Alya, frequently an over-excitable and pushy girl, had only gained serenity, focus and confidence from her friend’s faith. “Maybe, Otis but… did she have to teach the twins too?”

Otis looked into Alya’s bedroom again and noted that, as Marlena had said, Ella and Etta were standing either side of their sister, attempting to copy her mediation adopting a rigid ‘T’ pose with their palms held outward and faces showing determination that reminded him that the twins idolised their sister but would never admit it.

“I mean,” Marlena said. “Those two needed to learn some kind of discipline but I just wish that they were inspired to do so by something other than their big sister’s new religion?”

Otis was not about to tell his wife what he’d caught Alya doing when he came upon her sitting in the living room with Marinette a few days ago. His daughter called the Franco-Chinese girl ‘Master’ in a very reverent tone of voice and was surprised to hear Marinette call her ‘Xuetu’ in response. A quick search on the Internet confirmed that this was Wu Chinese for ‘My apprentice’. This reassured the man that Alya wasn’t being indoctrinated by the other girl but, instead, made the man think of the ritual modes of address in several martial arts-inspired movies like that sci-fi franchise… Galaxy Battles, was it?

“I can think of worse tutors for our girls, Marlena. Certainly, I couldn’t see Marinette trying to get in an attempted dominance of them. She just… trusts Marinette and is copying how she copes with her anxiety.”

The Michelin-rated 5-star chef blew out her breath as she fiddled with her shirt collar. “Maybe you’re right but I still don’t like it.”

~*~*~

Alya was in her favourite variant of the Crane Position, with her arms above her head and palms pressed together. As she came out of her meditative state, she lowered her left foot from its place pressed to the inside of her right knee, drew her palms down in front of her nose and used that as a focus to get all the way out to normal cognition. She blinked and watched as her two baby sisters mimicked the move by bringing their palms in front of their chests and pressing them together, as unlikely as it was that, as yet, they really fully understood what they were doing. “Well done, girls,” she said. “You have both progressed very well in learning control over your bodies and will.” That praise made them both blush.

“Will it really let us be more like Rena Rouge, Alya?” Etta asked, making Alya smile at her younger sister’s clear imprinting on and desire to emulate her older sister’s costumed persona.

“It will help you think like her, yes,” she said. “That’s the first step on your path. Maybe, one day, if you are both focussed enough on your studies and can control your minds and hearts, the Master Guardian will decide that you are both worthy to bear a Miraculous.”

The two girls’ eyes widened in wonder. “So, uh… Have you seen the Real Sapotis?” Ella asked.

Alya thought about that. “Girls, why do you ask?” Because I’m putting Trixx on a no-grape diet if he’s been interacting with you.

“Oh, I’ve seen an orange shape flitting around some evenings,” Ella said. “I was just wondering if you know about him, as Marinette is teaching you all this medi… meditee… posing stuff.”

“And the horsey too!” Atta added excitedly. “He’s so cute!”

Alya decided against being angry; she’ll just be clearer with Trixx and Kaalki not to underestimate the girls’ intelligence and perceptiveness. Some scruples told Alya not to tell her younger sisters a lie. “Girls, maybe there are spirits in the apartment but, if they are, I’m also sure that they’d come out and talk to you if they want to. You should definitely not chase them or try to catch them out.”

The twins looked down in that eerie unison that made her wonder if they’d be compatible somehow with the Gemini Miraculous if they ever got it back from Adrien’s rat of a cousin. “We’re sorry, Alya,” Ella said.

“We promise not to,” Etta agreed.

Alya knelt and stroked the girls’ hair. “You aren’t doing anything wrong, girls. Smart is good but you shouldn’t seek to cause trouble for maman and papa. Now, breakfast should be ready, so scoot.”

As the two girls fled, Alya unwrapped the chain of the Fox MIraculous from around her forearm and put it in place around her neck. She then opened the box on her bedside table that had contained her prescription sunglasses and pulled out the Horse Miraculous. She settled the oval-lense sunglasses on her face and the lenses altered at once, Kaalki adjusting them to clear and to her standard prescription for her myopia. Bronze and orange balls of light resolved into her Kwami. “Honestly, Alya, I don’t think that anything good will come from putting off this confrontation,” Kaalki lectured without prompting. “Those two girls are certainly old enough for you to recommend them to the Council as Initiates.”

“And they’re smart enough and creative enough!” Trixx agreed.

Alya shot the Kwami of Illusion a level and unimpressed look. “You just want them as your little Disciples of Chaos, don’t you, Trixx?”

The Fox Kwami shrugged. “Hey, a little Chaos is good for the Balance!”

Alya turned her attention to Kaalki. “Kaalki, I know the traditions but nothing good ever came from them. Wang Fu was failed by those traditions as was Chong-Li. Master is right to say that we need to create new traditions and my new tradition will be for me to train Ella and Etta to get benefit from the Order’s disciplines without facing all the duties unless they want to.”

Trixx nodded in agreement and Alya wondered again just how long the Kwami had been pushing back against the Order’s hidebound ways.

“We trust you, Alya,” Kaalki said. It had been just before The Darkest Day that Kaalki had called Alya anything other than ‘undistinguished girl’ and finally using her name was, in Alya’s mind, a sign that the notoriously-snobby kwami was warming up to her.

~*~*~

Alya slid into the dining room and wasn’t surprised to see her mother and father fussing over the twins. “Alya,” good morning,” Otis said.

“Good morning Papa, Mama,” Alya said, giving her father a gentle kiss before walking over and giving her mother a warm hug.

The older woman smiled down at her middle child and all her worries slipped away. Alya was still the loving, intelligent and inquisitive girl she always had been. Marlena watched as Alya almost immediately started double-tasking, updating her online presence as well as eating her breakfast. “I will always remember what my grann said.” Alya gave her a raised eyebrow. “If you want to work whilst eating, you’ll always end up doing one or both not too well.”

Alya rolled her eyes but took the hint, tucking her phone away into her fanny pack. She shot her mother a sarcastic smile, something different from her usual eerie calm and so naturally teenage that Marlene also took comfort from it.

Otis took his seats. “Alya, don’t forget that we’re going to Nora and Theo’s place for supper tonight,” the elder Cesaire reminded her. “So we’ll need you to go there straight from school as we’ll be picking up the twins from their school.”

Alya nodded. “I remember, papa. Not much really going on today.”

At that point, the doorbell sounded. Alya perked up but Marlena stoo up first, giving her daughter a quelling look. Marlena went to the door and through the fish-eye lens, saw an ambiguous-welcome figure. “Alya, Marinette’s here!” she called out and notied sourly how quickly her daughter perked up.

Having no sane reason not to do so, Marlena opened the door. Marinette had changed a lot from the sweet but deeply troubled girl she’d been at the outset of Hawkmoth’s rampage on her home city. She’d changed her hairstyle and, while her colour palette was unchanged, she wore slightly tighter and more suggestive clothing such as built-up heels on her boots in place of plymsols. The inclusion of an ear cuff, a black lace choker emphasised that (a) she was growing up and (b) she was the girlfriend of the keyboard player in one of Paris’s biggest up-and-coming rock bands. I wonder if she’s thought of asking the mayor for advice on how to be a rock groupie? Marlena asked herself irreverently.

Leading in her guest, Marlena decided that she as going to talk to Alya about safe sex again; whilst she had no doubt that Sabine was keeping an eye on her daughter, Adrien’s influence might be enough to get Nino to push Alya further than she was comfortable with.

The moment Marinette and Alya’s gazed met, Alya jumped to her feet and the two young women fell into a hug. Marlena frowned. Wait a minute, what was that? At the moment the two girls embraced, she could have sworn that she saw flashes of pink, lavender, bronze and orange briefly fly around them. She shook her head. This was not a Mousehouse animated kids’ film, for crying out loud!

“Marinette, please, join us,” Otis offered kindly.

“Merci, M Cesaire,” Marinette said, taking a seat and pointedly not taking food from the serving dish. Marlena smiled; the daughter of two of the best pastry chefs in Paris would not need a late breakfast at this time of the day. “Sp. Alya, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, I didn’t think that you needed to be woken up or prompted to go to school the way I have so many times. Something is up and I need you to…”

“Actually, we have first refusal on Alya’s time tonight,” Marlena said sternly. “We have a family event and Alya will have to help you some other time.” However Marlena thought that Marinette would respond, she was wrong. She didn’t respond with sarcasm, bitterness or even an attempt to make an excuse. There was just a very, very… old look in the French-Chinese-Italian girl’s bluebell eyes. Marlena swallowed her irrational fear; was this something the girl had picked up from Chloe Bourgeois or Emilie Graham de Vanily as she had ascended through the fashion and business world? She’d gone far further than most early-teenage girls had, after all. The girl smiled at her in a genuinely warm and agreeable manner. “It can wait; we’ll talk tonight, Alya.”

Marinette politely excused herself and Marlena shifted nervously as Alya stood up. “What was that for?” she snapped. “You didn’t need to be so… confrontational, Mama!”

“Alya, apologise to your mother,” Otis snapped. Alya ground out an apology but the chilly silence persisted until she left for school.

Ooh, Mama is in trouble!” Ella giggle-whispered.

“Yeah, Alya’s gonna be mad with her for ages!” Etta responded.

Marlena sighed. Somehow, dealing with teens just got harder as their independence and self-identities grew stronger.

ChatRoom chat.ladyblog.fr/miracuchat
Status: PRIVATE/INVITATION ONLY
User: @BugBoss ([emailprotected]) - ADMIN/OWNER

@BugBoss: Foxy? You there?

@FoxyBabe: Yeah, I’m here; Trying to get over being stuffed full to burst by my sister and then listening to the most disturbing news I can imagine.

@BugBoss: ???

@FoxyBabe: As I’ve long feared, I’m gonna be an aunt.

@Bender4Real: Based on the gossip about your sis and her man in according the gossip in the circuit relayed by @Comix_Script?

@Bender4Real: All I can say is ‘It happens’

@FoxyBabe: Thanks for the sour reassurance. Oh well.

@FoxyBabe: So, what did you have to tell me tonight,Master Ladybug?

@BugBoss: Report immediately to the Miraculous Clubhouse, Xuetu.

One thing Alya had learned over the years was that, when Marinette used the term ‘immediately’, she meant it. Fortunately, having the Horse Miraculous meant not having to explain leaving the apartment in the dead of the night to your parents.

Cavilera Rouge stepped out of the blue portal into the storage room behind the main meeting hall to be greeted by her Master. She gave her best friend and sister in all but blood a quick hug before detransforming, giving Trixx a grape, Kaalki a slice of apple before accepting her orange-and-white silk outer robe and pulling it over her day wear. “So, what’s up Mari?”

Marinette shot the curtain beyond which the door to the hall was hidden. “We’ve got the entire Council out there, mostly by Magipresensce but a few in person too!” The noirette ran a shaky hand through her fringe. “It’s my fault really,” she said. “They’re so keen on procedure or protocol and I know this but I started training you as my apprentice anyway.” She blew out her breath. “They’re insisting on interviewing you to confirm your ‘suitability’ to learn the sacred arts of being a guardian. From what I remember, they never did this to Master Fu when he was an initiate and I don’t understand why they’re being so dogmatic about it now.”

Alya rolled her eyes. “Because you’re Ladybug, girlfriend. You are the champion of the Order and I think that they’re all feeling a little sidelined and inferior because of the Council deciding to make you a full master after the Prodigious of Virtue was discovered in this city. The only way they can start clawing back influence with the younger initiates, all of whom I’m betting are asking to be assigned to Paris to be trained by you. The only way they can keep their credibility, in their own eyes, is to undermine all your choices and ram home why it’s important to go by the Order’s established procedures.”

Marinette stuck out her tongue in a gesture of disgust. “Just remember this: Whatever you may or may not have done so far in your Apprenticeship was my instructions and I will take any blame or responsibility.”

Alya smiled slightly. “You can rely on me not to humiliate you, Master.”

Marinette chuckled. “I’m sure that you won’t, my Apprentice.”

The two young women entered the meeting hall where Team Miraculous had so very many important gatherings including the mutual reveal of their secret identities (Alya still remembered her shock at learning that Adrien was Chat Noir). Su-Han and a female monk in similar robes were both present in person. Behind them was an arc of the eight other members of the council were present as magical holograms.

Long used to the Council and its rituals, Marinette and Alya bowed deeply from the waist before kneeling at the mahogany Chinese tea service table in the centre of the room and directing their attention to the assembled Masters. “Master Dupain-Cheng, Apprentice Cesaire; thank you for your prompt attendance.” Alya decided that Chloe would be pleased that the Council had apparently learned to ‘make an appointment’ for Ladybug’s time.

Su-Han gestured to the other Councillor present in the meat. “May I make known to you, Master Chong-Jian, who has long been our Initiate-master at the Temple.”

Both Parisian’s ears pricked up at hearing that family name, so similar to that ofthe Adept who betrayed Zoe. Chong-Jian sighed. “My nephew,” she supplied without prompting. “All that remained of my immediate family after our nearly two centuries lost to that hateful sentimonster.”

“Ah,” Marinette said uncomfortably. “You have my condolences?”

The black-haired older woman sighed. “Kind and polite, Master Dupain-Cheng but unnecessary. I had few illusions about my brother’s son and strongly recommended against the special training that the Grandmaster insisted on giving him at very short notice.” Su-Han, to his credit, didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow in response. “However, my family’s dishonour is not why we are here today.”

Su-Han cleared his throat. “Indeed it is not. As you may be aware, Apprentice Cesaire, for many centuries, the Celestial Order has had set procedures for establishing the suitability of initiates for learning the deeper Mysteries of our Order. However, several incidents in recent memory, most notably my failure with Wang Fu and the rise of the Dark Order raise serious questions about whether those traditions are efficacious or even entirely advisable. For this reason, Master Chong has agreed to assess the training Master Dupain-Cheng has given you to determine not only if you have effectively learned the skills but, more importantly, the dedication to the Balance that the Order must show.”

Alya raised her eyebrows. “So this is an examination?”

“A crude description,” Chong responded. “However, given even the most optimistic assumptions of where your training must stand after not even a year, a fair one.”

Marinette spoke at last. “I wish to once again state my full confidence in my Apprentice’s suitability,” she said. “Alya’s heart is pure and her mind is… actually remarkably clear compared to how she was when we first met. Any failures that you feel you see, Master Chong, are solely due to my own inadequacies as a teacher.”

Chong-Jian smiled in a rather cold and reptilian manner. “That is, to use the contemporary idiom, ‘above my pay grade’, Master Dupain-Cheng. All I ask is that you do not interfere in my assessment.”

Alya took Marinette’s hand. “I’ll be okay, Master; I’m ready and I’m not afraid.”

“Not afraid?” one of the other Masters, a cheerful white-haired old woman who Marinette knew of as Mei-Ling. “Oh, my dear child, you ought to be!”

~*~*~

Alya wasn’t surprised that Marinette took the Fox and Horse from her. Even if she weren’t using the powers, the Masters probably didn’t want her kwami from ‘cluing her in’ to any puzzles she was set to solve.

However, the assessment was nothing like the young Creole woman expected or imagined. Chong-Jian didn’t quiz her on the making of the power-up potions or on any of the aspects of hte care and keeping of kwami. Instead, Alya found herself in a disused warehouse in the far East end of the city, perched on top of a narrow stack of wooden boxes on one leg, trying to keep her balance. Of course, months of yoga had made this easy. No… if anything, this was too easy and Alya was having trouble maintaining her focus as she was wondering when the other shoe would drop.

Look inward, Alya, she heard her inner ‘Master Marinette’ voice tell her. Don’t get on edge trying to detect what may be coming. Divine information from the flow of the Balance around you! That had been the hardest lesson that Alya had learned (and the fact that she and Marinette had been learning it at more-or-less the same time had made the process easier).

It would be inaccurate to say that Alya went into a trance state. She just set her perceptions free to ride through the flow of the universal ether around her. As Marinette had taught her, this flow would tell her everything she needed to know so long as she quieted her inquisitive mind and her physical perceptions. Because of this, she sensed the cloaked intent moving through the room towards her. Everything was cloaked, movements (of course) but also intents and perceptions. Despite this, the intent that the person had put into their apparel and implements radiated through the Balance and Alya was able to identify them as a threat. Honed instincts kept Alya from showing any awareness of this, letting her awareness of the balance to show her the precise moment that she needed to move. She somersaulted over the swing with a staff to her lower legs, landing on one palm and windmilling her legs to knock the staff out of her attacker’s hands before flipping back the right way out and striking the wooden rod with a dagger punch that cut it in half.

“Control! You must learn control!” Chong-Jian snapped peevishly. “You’re strong enough because of your long association with the Miraculous that you could have easily decapitated me with that blow!”

Alya blushed “Sorry, Master Chong.” The woman was a blur; she had not let Alya put on her regular glasses saying that ‘you will not need them’ and so it had proven to be.

The woman sighed in an aggravated tone of voice. “No, go to the next room.”

As Alya left, Jian picked up the bo staff and looked at the weapon’s metal core, neatly sheered in half by the pure focussed chi of the younger woman’s blow. She smiled in a pleased way and set off after her student.

~*~*~

Alya liked to think that she had learned stuff form Lila’s betrayal. She’d learned to question what people said and what they did and then ask ‘who benefits?’ Because of this, she was comfortably suspicious of the next’ assessment. The isokinetic exercise art known as tai chi hadn’t been something that Marinette had taught her but, rather, something that she, Marinette and Chloe had learned together at Nora’s gym back in the day.

Chong-Jian thus didn’t need to even indicate to Alya what to do; the Creole woman started following her motions as she’d long been used to doing for two years now. Jian’s face was unreadable, something that Alya found was typical of the adepts of the Order. However, she didn’t let herself relax, waiting for the inscrutable initiate master to reveal her hand.

“So, Alya… I can call you Alya, can’t I?”

Alya raised her eyebrow in acknowledgement. Rule 1 of Lila Rossi’s manipulation handbook – initiate an intimate form of address to subconsciously lower their psychological defences against their words.

“You seem to have mastered many of the basic skills. I was wondering though… Don’t you resent Master Dupain-Cheng?”

“My master has never misled or misused me. All I know is because of her teaching.”

Jian stopped the rhythmic movements of the exercise and turned to face Alya, her expression urgent. “Yes, but you could be so much more!”

The woman didn’t exactly get in Alya’s face but she did start gesturing wildly, her expression reflecting concern. Rule Two: Convince the Mark that you are worried about them and that what they’re hearing you say is for your protection alone.

“You have been drip-fed limited teachings. Goodness! You only received a second Miraculous shortly before The Lion’s last attack when her pet man has been gifted one for over a year!”

Alya’s smile was crooked. “Hamall’s Miraculous found its way to Adrien by its own effect on the Balance, Master. Master Dupain-Cheng had no influence on whether it should remain with Adrien permanently.” That wasn’t entirely true, Alya candidly admitted to herself. Adrien had surrendered the Aires Miraculous to Marinette after the ‘Blackout’ incident but she hadn’t hesitated to return it to him within a few weeks. That said, Alya had to agree with Marinette’s comment that the Aires had seemingly sought out its Holder, even influencing Melodié to purchase it from a knick-knack stall and gift it to him to find its way to him. As she was fond of saying to the Council…? Alya decided to say it aloud, for Master Cheong-Jian’s benefit. “As my Master says: ‘We can only facilitate destiny, not guide it’.” The Guardian scowled and this time she did get into Alya’s face, snarling out her next words. “You’re weak and you’re too blinded by your friendship to defy your so-called Master.”

Alya breathed in deeply and said something that was unquestionably true. “I have never doubted Master Dupain-Cheng, even in the hardest phases of our friendship. She has never lied to me or played me false.” Alya’s smile became reflective. “Lying to herself? Well, that’s her flaw to fight and conquer on her own.”

Jian’s face cleared of expression. “We shall see, Apprentice Cesaire. Please, come with me. The time has come now for your final test.” With no other word or gesture, the woman swept away towards the archway leading out of the room.

~*~*~

Alya kept her distance and kept her peace as she followed Chong-Jian down the hall. Her nose twitched at the distinctive smell of hot metal, which quickly became overwhelming as Jian opened a pair of fire doors.

Maybe it was Alya but, as she entered the room (which was hot and lit in a hellish shade of red, her first impression was the presence of an intensely-uncomfortable-looking Marinette standing on a raised platform. “Master!” she said, racing over to Marinette and embracing her.

“You have done well, Alya,” Marinette murmured into her hair. “No matter what happens from this point onwards, always know that I am proud of you.” That was alarming and read like the climactic conversations between superheroes and their love interests from the various ‘The Death of…’ comics that Nathaniel had collected on his personal PictoGram page.

“Master Chong?” Su-Han asked neutrally.

Chong-Jian’s reply was equally neutral, her face expressionless. “Her sense of focus and her loyalty to her Master are firm and perfect, Grandmaster. She rejected even the implication of an offer to betray the Order’s strictures and earn the Council’s approval through underhand means.”

Alya tightened her embrace slightly as she took in the contents of the small former packing room. There were two platforms, one of which with a open-air gas burner cooking grill with a beach-ball-sized metal cooking pot sitting on it, visibly sizzling with scalding heat. Marinette whispered into Alya’s ear. “Just play along, my Apprentice; we need to continue this charade to the end.”

“Apprentice Cetaire,” Su-Han boomed, making the two girls jump apart. “The reports I have received from your Master and assessors are both exemplary. Despite having only been receiving formal training for a little over a year, you have clearly mastered the majority of the disciplines required of an Adept of the Order.” He looked at Alya thoughtfully from his beetling black eyebrows. “You have demonstrated remarkable devotion and faith in your Master that…” He paused and looked at a visibly-nervous Marinette. “It speaks well of her quality as a teacher and a friend.” He turned away. “Now comes for the final and decisive test.”

“Final…?” There was a variety of reasons why Alya didn’t like it.

“Oh, it’s simple enough,” Su-Han remarked in a disturbingly indifferent tone of voice. “You simply must move that cooking pot from the burner to the cooling platform without using your hands or any kind of tool.” The man paused. “Try not to spill too much of the potion as you do so.”

The bronze cooking pot, as already noted, was filled with a bubbling yellow oil of some kind and was literally rippling with heat. Alya broke out in a sweat just looking at the thing and that was before she fully sensed the heat. She shot a desperate look over her shoulder at Marinette. “Trust me, Xuetu,” her best friend responded. “You can do this. You have nothing to fear here.”

“Seriously, Apprentice Cesaire, it isn’t even heavy,” Chong-Jian remarked in a mocking tone of voice. “Apprentices far younger than you have been achieving this test for over three thousand years!” Alya scowled at the woman. That simply confirmed just how damn sadistic the Order could be. This thing looked hot enough to strip the skin from her arms!

She looked at Marinette and noted the kindness and love in the look being directed her way. Su-Han had a hand on her shoulder, whether to restrain her or comfort her, Alya wasn’t sure.

She stepped up to the stove platform, winching away from the heat of the gas burner. There was only one way to do this as intended: Grasp the pot between her forearms and then carry it at arm’s length to the cooling platform.

Fuck, this was going to hurt. It was odd but Alya didn’t feel the slightest hesitation to not try this. Her faith in Marinette as a friend and a teacher made her assurance that she could do this and had ‘nothing to fear’ meant everything to her.

She focussed her chi to her arms and prepared to for the lift. As she positioned the arms, she could feel the heat of the burner and the smell of the hot brass of the pot. She didn’t want to seem to hesitate but she knew that she was about to face agony…

Or… did she? It didn’t make sense that Marinette would let the council test her in such a destructive way. She would have resigned her mastery and driven them out of the city before she did that. No, there was something happening here that she had not been told. Great Balance, give me strength, she prayed before stepping forwards, pressing her forearms to the pot and lifting.

There was no pain. Oh, she could still sense the heat but not through the skin of her arms. Even though she could hear the sizzling and smell the sickening cooked pork scent of burning human flesh, there was no pain and no sense of injury. Lifting the moderately-heavy pot, Alya took two steps back, half-turned and began to shuffle towards the cooling platform, aware as the daughter of a chef that full liquid containers tended to splash if they were filled too close to the top or if you moved too quickly. She was so focussed on this task that she didn’t really think about the lack of pain and what that might mean.

Finally, she had the pot centred ove the cooling platform and she carefully lowered it to the stone before releasing her hold, throwing her arms apart and practically jumping away. Alya looked at the inside of her arms and there was no strips of skin hanging off, no heat-savaged muscle tissue, only a slight reddening from the pressure she’d put on the sides of the pot. She looked blankly at the inside of her left arm and saw the same intricate geometric as the tattoo on Marinette’s arm in the same place.

“Well done, Alya,” Marinette touched her shoulder, making her jump in surprise. “I knew that you were ready.”

“Yes, very well done,” Su-Han agreed. “You have passed the very last test: The test of faith. Faith in yourself, in your Master and in the Order.”

“Really, child,” Master Chong-Jian remarked scornfully. “Did you really think that we would test you to the point where you would be maimed? This was a test of the woman you are within, not of any physical ability. Just as I tested your physical readiness and emotional stability before.” She smirked. “That was the real reason why your Master had to confiscate your Miraculouses, of course. The power of the Fox would have told you immediately that the furnace and the other sensory heat effects were all an illusion spell.” The woman shook her head. “It would have only burned you if you believed it would burn you!”

Su-Han stepped forward and grasped Alya’s wrists in a way that made her think of how her Father took her younger sisters’ hands when crossing the road. “By passing this test, you are changed. No longer are you Apprentice Alya Cesaire,” he announced formally. “From this day forth, you are Adept Alya Cesaire, fully trained and proven Guardian of the Celestial Order. So it has been written and so it has been done.”

Without any further ceremony or word, both Masters turned on the spot and strode away, leaving Alya alone with Marinette. The Noirette was crying, much to Alya’s surprise. “Mari…?”

“Oh, Alya! I never doubted for a moment! You were always the right choice, maybe more than me. You were always braver, wiser and more resolute than me from the start!” She threw her arms around Alya’s shoulders and hugged her with a desperate strength. “I’m… I ‘m going to miss calling you ‘Apprentice’ or ‘Xuetu’, Sister Guardian.”

Alya shot her an unsteady smiled of her own. “You’ll always be my Master, Marinette.”

Alya looked at the fresh tattoo on her arm and rubbed it, feeling slightly annoyed that there was no hint of it coming off or that it was in any way temporary. “Um… Mari? Do you know an invisibility spell? I don’t look forward to explaining this to my parents.”

Marinette laughed. “It’s only visible to others associated with the Order Alya. If anyone notices it, please let me know because, at the very least, it would mean that they’re either a Guardian or one of the Dark Order.”

Alya snorted lightly as she received the Fox and Horse Miraculouses back from her friend. “Good. Not just for the parents either. The Twin Terrors would want ones of their own.” Marinette’s laughter reassured Alya that her friend truly wasn’t as changed as their relative roles in the Order would suggest. “Mari? Did you know that I was graduating?”

Marinette nodded. “I had already told the Council that you were ready when you took charge of the team whilst I was in Tokyo. They needed to prove it for themselves though. The Noirette looked at Alya levelly. “From here on, girl, know that things may start getting complicated for you.”