Under The Surface

A 'Miraculous' Battle

Marinette and Adrien ran across the city rooftops landing on the Arc de Triumph within a few minutes of transforming. The akuma (who was now down on the ground gathering minions) turned to face them, unphased by their sudden appearance and chuckled to himself. It was then that Marinette recognized him from the night of the village fire. He worked for Jaecar! They watched as the akuma/henchman walked through the line of stopped cars in the giant round about. Panicked, people started jumping out of their cars to run and that was when he got them. All he had to do was touch them and they stopped running and turned completely grey like their leader, all but the small object that he had originally touched. 

"HEY!"

Without warning Chat Noir called out to the villain.

"Leave them alone. Your battle it with us."

The villain laughed.

"Gladly!"

The two heroes leapt down to the street to face their rival, the minion's eyes never left her.

"Hello, Hayami."

He sneered. Marinette glared at him.

"Hulda."

"Wait, you two know each other?!"

Chat asked confused.

"You could say that. He's Jaecar's minion. He's never too far away from his master."

"Master! Jaecar's not my master. We're partners."

Hulda seethed, and he swung forward to make the first attack.

"Umm, you're out here doing his dirty work. That sounds like a minion to me."

Chat teased, easily dodging his first attempt. 

"Chat, look out!"

Marinette cried, but just a moment too late for they had not seen the plethora of Parisians gathering around while they spoke; and the people were on him before he had a chance to react. Thinking fast, Marinette took the closest person she could find (that was under Hulda control away) and pushed him into Hulda just enough to send both falling backwards, she then kept sending them until there was nothing but a pile of grey. By that time, Chat had managed to crawl out of the pile just enough for her to grab his arm and pull him out.

"Wow! Thanks, M'Lady, but we are seriously outnumbered here."

"You're right. Lucky Charm!"

A small line of thickly woven cord fell down into her hands.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

This Lucky Charm confused her. What could she do with it? It was so short it was practically useless. Could it be trying to tell her something then? But if so, what? As she was trying to ponder this a huge explosion of energy erupted from the block behind them. Marinette had only ever seen something that massive once in her life. The Griffen Miraculous!! Ichigo must have activated it. But that could only mean...

"Ichigo's in trouble."

"Wait, what?"

Chat was completely shocked and confused by the harmful substance coming from the area, but Hulda just laughed, having finally unburied himself from the pile of civilians that Ladybug had gifted him with. 

"Jaecar will get what he came for. Ichigo doesn't stand a chance, and soon he'll be joining his twin."

Those last few words hit Marinette like a wrecking ball crashing through a brick wall. 'Join his twin' His dead twin. Suddenly that overwhelming guilt that she had been fighting down for so long started to crawl its way back to the surface, and her eyes clouded with the threat of tears.