lila's revenge

Chapter 13

Storm Part 1

adrien's pov:

Watching the scene unfold from a nearby rooftop, I switch my baton to the tracker setting. Ladybug's icon is moving towards the area - good she knows there's an akuma. I hope Marinette's okay though. I can't even imagine not having superpowers around all these villains. It must be rather frightening when all you can really do is run and hide. Standing up, i stretch my arms and tuck the baton back in its place. 

Jumping down from my hiding spot, I run towards the akumatized victim. Noticing it's not Lila, i breathe a sigh of relief I didn't even know i'd been holding. 

Ladybug jumps down and lands next to me.

"Kitty." she nods to me in acknowledgement before fixing her gaze onto the villain. 

"Ladybug, pleasure to see you as always." i respond pleasantly, not expecting any kind of reply. She's in her element, extremely focused, extremely precise, extremely perfect. I smile, watching her as she scans the scene for any easy clue of the akuma.

Deciding there's nothing to easily defeat the villain, she turns to me and smiles back. The smile falters and she sways slightly.

"Woah you okay?" i ask quickly grabbing her shoulders in case she stumbles.

"Yeah. I don't know where that came from. I think I'm just disorientated." she shrugs.

In her defence, there were rarely akuma fights out here on Swan Island. The calming noise of the river against the banks and the swaying of the trees were far from creating negative emotions. I had of course considered asking Ladybug about going on a date here, but fighting and almost losing against an akuma sort of took the romance out of the spot for us. Even so, it was an unusual spot for a battle so I understood why she was struggling to spot the reason for the akuma.

"I think we need to get closer." i suggested "but only if you feel up to it." I was still holding her shoulders tightly. I hope she's okay.

She pushes my hands off her shoulders and straightens before nodding and replying "I'm okay, lets go." 

We make our way towards the other side of the island, where the flashes of yellow light are coming from. Ladybug takes the lead and I follow a few steps behind, watching carefully for any more dizzy spells. She frequently tells me to stop, but I'd rather be sure she's actually okay. I know she appreciates the concern really.

The light is becoming brighter and bigger so I assume we're almost there. Ladybug stops suddenly and I bump into her. I give her a questioning look and she motions upwards. Slowly, I raise my eyes to see the villain floating around, dangerously near to us. 

Grabbing my arm, Ladybug pulls me under a densely covered section of trees and motions for me to be quiet. As if she needed to tell me - I'm not an idiot. Raising her mouth to my ear she murmurs her plan to me quietly. She wants me to go to the source of the yellow light whilst she distracts the villain and follows them. I shake my head frantically but she gives me a glare so I whisper groan and step away. About 5 steps away, I turn to see Ladybug creeping towards the villain, but panic as I see she hasn't noticed the twig under her raised foot.

Bracing myself for a fight, I hear the twig crack loudly under her foot. The villain turns around quickly and sees her. I'm too far away to be seen by them, but Ladybug turns to check if I saw and her features soften when she sees I stuck around to check on her.

She opens her mouth to speak when she gets struck with the yellow light and with a crackle of electricity, disappears. I have to cover my mouth to stop myself crying out in panic. What do I do now?

 She'd want me to stick to the plan, i decide. Turning swiftly around, I make my way to the other side of the island and to the place we first saw the light.

Reaching the clearing, I notice scorch marks and a book. Assuming the marks are from the lightning powers, I make my way towards the disregarded book and pick it up carefully.

Some of the middle pages are missing, but I can still see the majority of the pictures. It's a comic  that someone has drawn. I recognise myself and Ladybug in most of the frames, alongside another superhero. Turning to a page with some speech, I work out that the superhero is called Storm. Flipping a few pages further I see a frame of us all in our civilian forms. Chuckling slightly at how far off she is about my identity, I turn my attention to the two others in the frame. The new superheros real name is Stephanie. With interest I read who Stephanie considers Ladybug to be, and blink in surprise at the name on the page. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. No it can't be her, I left her at the bakery. I'll go make sure she's okay once Stephanie's akuma is purified.

Deciding nothing else is in the clearing I make my way back to the floating villain. She appears to be on some sort of pillow. A cloud! Maybe a storm cloud? The lightning formerly identified as yellow light, is coming out of it in random directions, but I assume she can also control it, considering the incidence with Ladybug.

Speaking of Ladybug, what would she want me to do? Getting more miraculous isn't possible because she now looks after them and I don't know where her civilian form lives. Maybe I should go talk to her? It could be a misunderstanding. She's an artist, which explains her choice of location. I'm assuming other people were with her and had the same fate as Ladybug.

Wandering my way through the trees, it seems as if I'm going around in circles until I eventually come to a clearing and spot her floating just above the canopy of leaves.

"Stephanie." I call and she spins around in shock and confusion.

"It's black lightning to you, alley cat." she spits before aiming the lightning at me.

A/N hey this is mainly just Chat Noir's thoughts during the battle. I'll try to post the next part soon.

Stephanie is my O/C so you'll be seeing more of her in upcoming chapters.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!