No Way Out

A Useful Power and Vibrations

There was absolute silence.

After a moment, Coccinella spoke to the new Rooster villain. "Go check the other rooms, Chickira."

She nodded at the new name, and then hesitantly did as she was told. After a few minutes, Chickera returned to the living room. "There's no one here."

Coccinella didn't let her guard up. After thinking, she opened her yo-yo, pressed a few buttons, and held it up to her ear. The call connected and started ringing, causing a small smile to appear. Then the smile widened when the call was answered.

The receiver didn't say anything though.

So Coccinella spoke instead. "Hi Kitty, it's been a while. Are you here too? Or just your fearful leader?"

There was no response, just more silence.

"I bet you were shocked to hear that I got Ladybug's earrings. I was pleasantly surprised too, but here we are. Now I'm desperate to find out if you already know her real identity or not. Because I do. And I'm sorry to tell you that she's married. She even has a few crotch goblins running around. That must hurt, huh? You've been pining after her for all this time, and you have nothing to show for it. That's what loyalty will get you, I guess," she snickered. "Yes, Marinette Agreste sure has been leading you on this whole entire time." Now there was a pause to let the name sink in. "You should have taken my offer when you had the chance, but I'm not completely unforgiving, Kitty. If you agree to work with me instead of her, I'll let you finally have your way with a holder of the Ladybug Miraculous. I promise it will be worth the wait."

Now a disgusted scoff was heard through the line.

"I'll take that as a 'maybe,' Kitty," Coccinella continued. "And don't worry, I'm going to take care of Marinette for the both of us. I'm going to make it really slow and really painful. She would already be dead if we weren't interrupted last time." She paused to laugh. "You should have seen her. She was crying for help like the pathetic little girl she's always been. I was hoping that she'd put up more of a fight, but she didn't. She was so scared."

More silence.

"If you join my side, I'll even let you watch as I kill her. It'll be fun. I'll just play around with her until she begs for death, and then strangle her until I see the light leave her eyes. Then we can..." Coccinella stopped speaking into the yo-yo as the call disconnected. Lowering it down to her side, she looked over at Chickira. "Get ready."

"Ready?" she repeated in a panic. "Ready for wh..."

The question was answered as Chat Noir burst into the room from the balcony. With unbridled wrath, he called out the word "Cataclysm!"

Coccinella didn't even react. She just let him press his hand against her, and when nothing happened, she called out the word "Clout." Balling up her fist, she punched him in the face. The resulting shockwave pushed him backwards and into the wall. After he fell to the floor, she smiled at him. "I knew you were around here somewhere, Kitty."

From the floor, he bared his teeth. Before he could even get up though, two more superheroes entered the room.

Coccinella smiled wider when she saw them. "Well, well, well, it's so good to see you again, Mrs Agreste. And let me guess, this is Gabriel beside you."

Neither of them responded.

"This is Chickira," she explained, gesturing to the Rooster villain. "She's the one who attacked Marinette on my behalf on Monday and stole her earrings. Isn't she great? Chickira, say hi to everyone."

The woman remained silent, horrified that Lila would expose her like that.

"Now that we're all introduced," Coccinella continued, "I'm curious about that suit, Gabriel. Your daughter-in-law sure was nice to let you have a Miraculous again. And speaking of Marinette, where exactly is she?"