Continuing Tales

Secrets and Betrayals

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by LilyTheNinjaGirl

Part 33 of 41

<< Previous     Home     Next >>
Untitled Document

"Oh no," Marinette whispered, her face paling. Alya and Nino stood there with extremely worried looks on their faces. The rest of the teens crowded around the screen and gaped at the images being displayed.

It was Paris. The same Paris that they walked around in every day. The same places they always went and knew by heart. But they almost didn't recognize it anymore. Buildings were crumbled, and wreckage like bricks and wood were spread everywhere. Clouds of dust rose into the air.

Trees were torn from their roots. Lamp posts, telephone wires, benches, and posters were ripped and shredded to bits, left lying on the ground. People were crying and calling each other desperately. Half of Paris had no cell reception. There was no sign of who or what had caused the damage. Nadja Chamak offered commentary as her camera crew moved around, but it was white noise in the background.

Marinette felt her heart rise into her throat and she fought the urge to puke as she watched families run out of burning buildings, holding their children in their arms. A little girl was lying on the ground next to a pile of rubble, wailing that her kitten had been buried alive. Marinette tossed a fleeting glance to Adrien at that, not daring to think about him lying broken and battered in a pile of rubble.

"Oh my god," Chloe covered her hand with her mouth, shaking as they showed the destroyed and burning Le Grande Paris hotel.

"How did we not notice this?" Adrien demanded.

"Because we're on the other side of Paris," Alya explained, also shaking slightly. She glanced outside. It was early in the morning, but it was still pitch black outside. "Whatever did this was moving quickly. They haven't gotten here yet, but they'll be here soon." She blanched.

"W-we h-have to evacuate!" Nathaneal insisted, voice quivering. Chloe nodded in agreement, stepping up behind him. Nino and Alya wavered. Adrien didn't say anything. He knew what Marinette was going to say.

"We can't just abandon the city," she said firmly. "I don't know if this is Gabriel's doing," Adrien winced at that, "But I don't really care. I'm a super hero for a reason. You guys are super heroes for a reason!"

"I didn't expect our first test run to be so... deadly," Chloe said weakly. A loud CRASH sounded outside and the lights flickered. Chloe screamed and pressed herself against Nathaneal, who grabbed her in fright.

"Are you gonna chicken out on us before we even start?" Alya asked, putting her hands on her hips. Chloe whimpered slightly. Nino looked around, listening. He heard soft thumps moving closer, and the sounds of breaking glass.

"We don't have a choice!" Marinette whispered, listening to the muffled footsteps come closer. They were almost to the bakery. The lights flickered dangerously again. The blackness of the night outside offered no comfort.

"What about me?" Adrien whimpered, grabbing her hand as the lights flickered again. "I can't help you!"

"Yes you can!" Chloe said, pulling something out of her pocket. Alya frowned.

"How did you get that?" she demanded.

"You guys should really watch where you hide the precious miraculous," Chloe whispered. There was a sudden, high pitched scream from right outside. Suddenly, the bakery door was slammed off of it's hinges.

"Everybody, transform!" Marinette screamed. "Tikki, spots on!"

"Nooroo, wings out!"

"Wayzz, shell on!"

"Kittsu, tail out!"

"Buzza, stripes on!"

Adrien tossed the peacock pin on his shirt. A little blue peacock kwami shot out. "Say: Pavvo, feathers on!"

"Pavvo, feathers on!" Adrien screamed. A flash of blue light illuminated him and then Ladybug grabbed his hand and nearly dragged him up the stairs after the others. As she shoved the trapdoor open and led the others onto the rooftops, she nearly fainted.

Surrounding her bakery, her home that she had lived in all her life, was about two hundred people. Except they weren't exactly people. Their skin was distorted and their eyes were misty and empty. They ripped at the foundation, threw bricks into the glass, and started to storm inside.

Turning around, Ladybug could barely see the rest of Paris. It was so dark. Fires were everywhere around her, lighting up the night with an eerie orange glow. Screams pierced the air. Suddenly, one of the 'undead' ran up onto the roof after them.

Volpino let out a shriek, but Ladybug calmly took her yoyo off of her hip and used it to slice the guy in half. The others stared at her. "Come on guys, let's move," she commanded. Suddenly, Queen Bee gasped.

"It's putting itself back together!" They spun around and watched as the entity returned to being whole. Ladybug froze as its empty eyes searched hers. It looked like a little boy, maybe seven or eight. It started to move towards them again.

"Let's go!" Ladybug commanded. Papillon threw herself off of the roof, spreading her wings and flying to the next undamaged one. Queen Bee swallowed and followed suit, gliding along. Jade Turtle dashed across the gap. Volpino just kind of stood there.

"Nathan, there is one solid thing you can make!" Kittsu screeched in his head. "Play your flute and picture a hover board!" Volpino did as he was told, and promptly a cool hoverboard type aircraft appeared at his feet. He jumped onto it, gliding shakily across the gap. Ladybug grabbed Peacock (for lack of better name at the moment because she was very stressed) and swung across on her yoyo.

They continued to cross the rooftops this way, moving as quickly as possible. But the new heroes were struggling. At one point, Volpino lost his balance and Papillon had to dive and catch him just before he hit the ground. Jade Turtle couldn't flat out run a far distance, so he kept using his super speed in shorts burst. The problem was his stopping hadn't gotten much better, so he nearly tripped himself or one of the others every other rooftop.

The darkness made the rooftop travel even more dangerous. Volpino was the only one who really had some kind of night vision. Ladybug was restricted with her movement because she had to carry Adrien, who still didn't know what he could do with his borrowed peacock powers. He kept sneezing though, and every time he did it made Ladybug jump and nearly lose her balance.

Fifteen tortuous minutes later, the six gasping teens stopped. Ladybug glanced behind her, deciding that they were far enough into the outer limits of the city that they could regroup and then go back and try to save Paris. Queen Bee slumped onto the ground. "So...out...of...shape..." she gasped.

"What now?" Papillon asked Ladybug. Ladybug looked down.

"I honestly don't know... I've only fought akumas and the occasional mugger. All of those people could be stopped. And Miraculous Cleanse fixed the akuma attack. I can't fix this," she whispered. "At least, I don't think I can..."

"Let me out!" Wayzz asked Jade Turtle politely. He quietly detransformed and Wayzz flew into the middle of the circle.

"Ladybug, Tikki would explain this but we need you to stay transformed for now. She can sense it too. This is Gabriel's doing. He is using the cat miraculous for great evil. He has done a horrible thing. He summoned the dead back to life. It doesn't necessarily make them 'zombies'. More like-"

"Empty children?" Peacock asked. Wayzz looked at him quizzically. Nino fist bumped Peacock while Papiloon and Ladybug shook their heads. Adrien continued, making his voice sound more high pitched and younger. "Mummy? Are you my mummy? Muuuuuuuummmyyyyyyy?"

"I don't know what you are saying," Wayzz said, looking extremely confused. "But I suppose 'empty' is a good way to put it. They are empty shells. An object without a purpose. A person without a soul. An entity without a state of being."

"Is there any way to stop them?" Volpino asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Yes, but there is only one way. But it will be incredibly difficult," Wayzz said solemnly. "We have to get the cat miraculous back and cleanes it. Then the undead will vanish and Miraculous Cleanse can be used to fix everything."

Ladybug breathed out a sigh of relief. "So I can fix it."

"It won't be easy," Peacock said. "ACHOO! Argh, I hate this," he groaned, sniffling. Queen Bee looked at him sympathetically.

"We're not looking for 'easy'," Papillon said. "We're looking for 'possible'."

Nino transformed back into Jade Turtle and the teen super heroes began to plot.

"It doesn't really matter who gets the miraculous, as long as I can get it and cleanse it," Ladybug said. "But getting it will mean coming extremely close to him. That could be dangerous."

"I could breeze past and get it," Jade Turtle suggested. Ladybug shook her head.

"Too dangerous. It's an option, but I doubt you can grab something, especially a ring, while using super speed. You'd have to stop."

"My power is to stun people," Queen Bee offered. Ladybug nodded.

"That could be useful, but again, you'd have to get in close. I only want to do that if you feel comfortable with it. Besides," she glanced around the circle, "He has an army, and there are six of us. We may not even be able to get close."

"So what if we can't?" Papillon asked.

"Then we lose," Ladybug said simply, as if it was a fate she faced almost every day. Which of course she had, during all of those akuma attacks. "But we cannot afford to lose. We'll figure something out."

She looked around their small circle. "This is going to be more difficult than I thought. None of you are used to being super heroes."

"Hey! I-ACHOO! I'm used to being a super hero!" Peacock insisted. Ladybug shook her head.

"But not with those powers, minou. Although I suppose you are used to the extra speed, strength, and agility. But your injuries will give you limited movement. So we're back at square one." Peacock pouted and then sneezed again.

"So, now what? We aren't gonna go back and face him right now, are we?" Volpino asked nervously. Ladybug shook her head.

"We can't let him hurt any more people," she said. "We're going to go back out there and round up as many people as we can. Get as many people as you can stuff into any mostly unharmed vehicle you can find. Their should be a lot of them around the edges of the city. We need to save as many people as possible."

"If people die," Queen Bee asked nervously. "Will Miraculous Cleanse work on them?"

"It will," Tikki said in Marinette's mind. "But it won't work on miraculous holders unless they die a magic related death. The undead, unfortunately, are an exception. The power of destruction over rules their powers." Ladybug gulped.

"Tikki says that it will, but it won't work on miraculous holders," she relayed. "If you die a magic related death, like when Chat threw himself in front of Timebreaker, it'll bring you back. But if you die at the hands of one of the undead... Well, it won't help you." Most of the team visibly paled or blanched. Peacock was the only one who remained calm. He already knew that.

"We should split up!" Papillon suggested. "There's too much damage and destruction. We won't be able to rescue as many people is we go together."

Ladybug hated to admit it, but she knew Alya was right. There was safety in numbers, but only for them. The Parisians would suffer. But now was the hardest part, pairing people accordingly. She looked around. Nathaneal was clearly frightened and needed reassurance. Chloe wasn't exactly scared, but she was very leery of the consequences of her choice to become a miraculous wielder. Alya was confident. Maybe too confident. And Nino was far too chill for her liking. And then of course there was Adrien.

"Um," she said. "Alya and Chloe, Nino and Nathaneal... No, Nino and Chloe, Alya and Adrien."

"I'll assign us!" Queen Bee said. "Alya and Nino should go together to balance each other out. And you need to be with Adrien, or you'll lose your mind with worry. I guess that leaves me and Nathaneal. I won't let him get scared. I promise!" she said bravely. The stared at her. She shrugged. "You can't be as evil as I was without being clever."

"You owe me like three years worth of homework," Peacock muttered. "All that time when we were kids when you said you didn't get it..."

"Sorry," Queen Bee apologized. "We need to get going!" She looked in the direction of the burning city. Ladybug nodded.

"You and Nathan head South, I'll head West, you two head East," she instructed. She paused for a minute. Then she took a deep breath and continued. "Before we go, I want to thank you guys for being so willing to risk your lives for Paris. Not many people would be willing to do that. Good luck, and God Speed." She took off, swinging into the city.

The rest of them broke off and ran in separate directions, following the screams until the got to the destroyed parts of the city. Each hero felt different emotions stirring inside of them as they viewed the chaos. Rage, fear, and sorrow... They each began their cumbersome task.

######################################################################################################################################################################

"Come on, Volpino," Queen Bee commanded. He followed her willingly, glad that he didn't have to be in charge or lead the way. The two of them took off, until they found several crumbled buildings. A mother with two children was huddled against a wobbling wall. "Come on!"

She ran down and offered her hand to the woman, who looked up tearfully. "W-who are y-you?" she asked. "T-they came in, f-from everywhere. We b-barely got out!"

"I'm a new super hero, and my name is Queen Bee. I'm going to get you somewhere safe," Queen Bee said confidently. She scooped up the two kids and handed one to Volpino, who carefully cradled the sleeping infant in his arms as he followed Chloe. They found the woman's car. Thankfully, it had been parked in the street and it was undamaged. The woman climbed into the driver's seat and Volpino strapped in the two little kids.

"Foxie?" the little three year old girl said tearfully, lip quivering. Volpino stopped in his tracks.

"Yeah?"

"Foxie gonna save our home?" the girl asked, staring at the pile of rubble. Volpino nodded without thinking about it.

"I'll do my best," he promised.

Meanwhile, Queen Bee gave the woman instructions. "They already passed by here, so I doubt they'll be back. I know this sounds ludicrous, but I need you to stay here. You can fit several more people into your car. When we find more, we'll bring them here and then I need you to drive them out of the city." The woman nodded.

Queen Bee and Volpino took off, scanning the ground carefully for people. Most of them wisely moved away from the area, fleeing into the undamaged city. But with the undead army on the move, Queen Bee knew it wouldn't stay undamaged for long. Volpino's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Chloe?"

"Don't use my name while we're in costume unless we know we're alone!" she hissed.

"Sorry," Volpino muttered. "It's just, why did you make us go together? Not that I don't like it. I don't mind. I just was wondering why."

"Because," Chloe said, growling a bit. "I could read the looks and the others' faces. They didn't trust us. They thought I would run and you would cower. If we went with one of them, they would never give us give us a chance to prove that we can do this."

"Okay," Volpino said. "Let's prove them wrong!"

"We can do it. Look, there's someone!" Queen Bee pointed to a large group of people all hiding in a subway entrance. The two super heroes headed down to do they best they could to help.

Secrets and Betrayals

A Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Story
by LilyTheNinjaGirl

Part 33 of 41

<< Previous     Home     Next >>