Miraculous Detective (EN)

Encounter with the enemy

As soon as Ratigan was seen, the hatred was reflected in the faces of Basil and Ladybug. The heroine knew he was just one more victim of the bearer of the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous, but being the archenemy of her childhood hero, the young woman couldn't help but let her fury out. Chat Noir was cautious, attentive to any action of the villain and his sentimonster... wait a minute, where was that bat?

"My Lady, I don't see Fidget..."

"I never thought the day would come when the Napoleon of Crime, Professor Padraic Ratigan, would ask for help in achieving victory." Basil taunted his rival. Despite the mockery in his voice, his gaze continued to be hard, reflecting the hatred he had for the rat.

"You are not far behind, Basil." Ratigan replied. "I see you made a new friend." The professor looked at the doctor, Dawson was overwhelmed by the look of the rat. Chat Noir noticed and stepped in front of the doctor to protect him. "Which I find funny and pathetic, you're getting help from a couple of brats! And one of them couldn't even get me the first time!" The villain let out a laugh followed by his thugs who also came out of the shadows and surrounded the detective and the others.

Hearing the rat's taunts, anger and humiliation coursed through Chat Noir's body. As Severus Snape was used to and put up with them, but as a superhero... he wouldn't let that filthy rat get away with it. The laughter intensified, that was enough for the hero. He gripped his staff firmly with both hands and ran towards Ratigan past Basil, Ladybug and Olivia.

"CHAT NOIR, NO!" the heroine shouted.

Ratigan stopped his laughter and looked superiorly at the young man running towards him as an evil smile appeared on his face. The thugs warned their boss, but the professor remained calm in his place, confident absolutely nothing would happen to him, and so it was: Chat Noir raised his staff over his head and as soon as he was in front of the professor, he attacked him with his weapon... but nothing happened.

Everyone present looked surprised at what happened: Chat Noir's attack was stopped by a semi-transparent force field of black-purple energy.

"What...?" stammered the motionless feline-rodent, still with his staff in contact with the energy field.

"Nice try, kid," Ratigan scoffed. The professor raised a hand and the hero felt as if his weapon had become stuck in that energy field. He tugged on his staff, but it didn't move; seeing him, the villain's evil grin widened. "That's what you get for underestimating me."

Ratigan snapped his fingers and the energy field shocked Chat Noir. As soon as the electricity stopped, the professor's defense disappeared. The rat held the other end of the weapon with one hand and smoothly flung the feline-rodent towards his friends. The hero crashed to the ground and rolled until Ladybug stopped him.

"Chat Noir!" exclaimed the heroine. She helped his friend to sit down and looked him over from head to toe, checking he wasn't hurt. "Are you okay?" The young man looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry, standard question."

The Miraculous bearers stood up and stared at Ratigan in shock. What kind of powers did Papillombre give him?

"What the hell was that!?" Basil asked puzzled.

"It's the power Papillombre gave Ratigan." Ladybug reminded him. "Though we've never seen anything like it before."

"That's because Monsieur Papillombre gave me complete freedom over my powers." Ratigan boasted, overhearing the conversation between his nemesis and his targets.

"What?" exclaimed the heroes.

"Unlike the opponents you're used to defeating, from the beginning I agreed with Papillombre to do everything my way, including my abilities and Fidget's, because you don't know me or Basil. In short, you don't know our world. Proof of that is Papillombre thought I was the 'rodent version' of Professor James Moriarty, and you two naively believed the same thing when I first contacted you through the sentimonster. But hey, this is a huge advantage: facing the unknown. However, the fact you managed to bring Basil and his fat friend is a sign I should not underestimate you."