Akuma Flashpoint

Getting Answers

Ladybug felt dizzy. Ready to collapse any moment. She resisted all urge to ask herself if this timeline could get any worse. The last thing she needed was to break down, or for the universe to show that it could, in fact, get worse.

"No," she muttered. "No, no, Nino is not—"

"You know what?! Fuck you, Marinette!" Shoving her middle finger in the air, Rena Rouge turned around and jumped down to the street, letting out a battle cry.

Meanwhile, Ladybug finally fell to her knees. Nino is dead, she thought over and over again. She could not imagine a universe without her shield. She thought back to all the missing numbers in her contacts. Were all the missing numbers dead friends?

Ladybug shook her head, pushing those thoughts away. That didn't matter, because once she was done with these villains, she would turn everything back to normal. And Nino would be alive and well again. And Alya wouldn't hate her. And Adrien would be her fiancé once again.

"Lucky Charm!" she yelled with determination. On her hands landed a very long HDMI cable. Her eyes scanned the giant monster and noticed the two television sets it used for eyes. "Got it. Don't worry Nino, I will bring you back even if—"

BEEP BEEP

She jumped several inches in the air at the unexpected sound coming from her earrings. A sound she hadn't heard in over a year.

"What the hell?!" she questioned. "I'm an adult, why is this beeping?! Ugh, whatever, I can do it under—"

"LOOK OUT!"

A black blur collided against her torso, just in time to avoid a falling refrigerator. She had been so distracted by the beeping miraculous, she forgot the sentimonster was still hurtling equipment all over the city. Ladybug used the cable she had just gotten to grab a lamppost and slow down their fall from the building. A fall she suspected whoever saved her would not survive.

They landed hard on the sidewalk, but not hard enough to break any bones. And lucky for her rescuer, they landed right on top of her. It wasn't until then that she noticed whoever it was, they were wearing a hoodie and a facemask. It had to be that other person Tikki mentioned.

"Thank you for the—"

The person in black grabbed the HDMI cable and threw it as far as they could, right before they got up and started sprinting towards the sentimonster. Ladybug blinked.

"Gah! You hate me too?!" she complained, still laying on her back on the concrete. "Ugh, does anyone like me in this timeline?"

With a long, frustrated sigh, she got on her feet, taking hold of the cable. Although that had been rude, it seemed their only intention had been to slow her down for only a moment. Why they did it, she had no clue. She only hoped they wouldn't get in her way.

As she reached the sentimonster again, she noticed Rena Rouge was back on the creature's shoulder, fighting the akuma. Meanwhile, on the ground, the person—a man, she finally deduced—in black was leading people out of a building nearby. One woman grabbed him by the arms, seemingly hysterical. Apparently, someone was still stuck somewhere because the man in black ran into the building.

She had to do this fast, before Hawkmoth or Mayura decided to call back their champions, and all their efforts would be for nothing.

Ladybug jumped from ledge to ledge, up the monster, directly towards the akuma. She didn't even bother to ask Rena Rouge for any kind of help. She wouldn't get it anyway. So she slammed against the akuma, bringing her to one of the sentimonster's 'eyes.' With the cable, she wrapped the akuma against the popping television and used the ruler she had to break the screen of the other one.