Running from the Night (A Ladybug and Chat Noir Fanfic)

Chapter 23

The world shook. Chat Noir raced towards the sound. His heart thumped against his chest. Another explosion boomed in the distance. Cries and screams filled the air as Parisians streamed in the opposite direction below him.

He had no idea what he was running towards. He hadn't had time to check the news reports. He could only hope Ladybug was managing until he could get there. Not that she would know he was on his way, he hadn't exactly been present at the last akuma's.

He vaulted over the tallest building between him and the explosions ready to face whatever danger was on the other side. His boots landed with a heavy thud as he took in the scene.

Ladybug backflipped away from a small figure dressed in a pink tutu and colourful accessories, including a pair of fairy wings. She held a silver wand that looked like a unicorn horn. The street around them was decimated, buildings torn apart, cars upside down with blaring alarms. The akuma brought the wand forwards and a sparkly rainbow shot forwards straight at Ladybug.

Chat watched in horror as the rainbow slammed into Ladybug engulfing her in an explosion of colour and sparkles. The smoke cleared leaving a crater in its wake. Chat felt his legs scramble to get to Ladybug, to save her. As he jumped down to the ground he saw her standing as she was before without a scratch.

To his astonishment she took into a run forwards and in a mid front handspring grabbed what appeared to be a mallet and at the end of the move threw it forwards so it flew towards the Akuma. The mallet smacked into the small villain's side, sending her spinning. Ladybug threw her yo-yo forwards along it to wrap around the mallet and pulled back, returning the weapons to each of her hands.

Chat slowed his run into a jog as he realized Ladybug wasn't wearing her usual red and black suit. Her shoulders, hips, and legs were covered with dark blue material. A thin tail in the same colour lashed behind her with a tuft at the end of it. He noticed gold rings and fringe hung from her suit where the blue decorated her. The rest of her suit was her usual red with black spots. As his eyes scanned upwards he realized instead of her signature pigtails her hair was pulled to the top of her head and shaped to look like two curling horns each wrapped in red ribbon.

"Lucky charm!" Ladybug yelled as she threw her yo-yo spinning into the air. A polkadotted stuffed animal dropped into her hands. Even at this distance Chat could see it was a small stuffed animal, a cat complete with a bell on its collar. He watched her look around for the solution until her eyes met his. He gave her a small awkward wave, he felt out of place and it didn't help that now that he had stopped running his vision was doubling ever so slightly.

Ladybug glanced back at the recovering akuma before sprinting towards Chat, throwing her yo-yo to let her swing past him. He braced himself as she swept him up in her arms and placed them both onto a nearby rooftop. She spun around facing away from him and tracked the akuma as it looked around for the superheroes.

"What no puns to greet me," Ladybug commented over her shoulder. Chat opened his mouth and closed it a couple times. He had no idea what to say. She shot him a look before focusing her attention back to the akuma.

"Rainbow Unicorn Princesses akuma is in her wand, it wasn't hard to spot but the problem is getting close, her power is explosive and the colour obscures sight," Ladybug looked back at Chat holding his gaze with a stern expression, "don't get hit."

"What about you?" Chat asked, it didn't seem to affect her when she got shot point blank.

"Stompp, power of invulnerability," she tapped the spiky blue nose ring, the red spikes showed she only had a couple minutes left. Chat hummed in understanding, he hadn't realized how useful Stompps ability was until now. Some dim part of his mind wondered if the invulnerability would remain now that she had been hit, but Ladybug continued talking.