Shape of a Miracle EP 2 - FreezeFrame

Lovely

WHAM!

Mew slips, slamming her face on the ice. She had just barely managed to save sixteen people falling out of the building but she can still see two children hanging onto window sills and many more people frozen inside the apartment complex. Her job isn't over. She has to get up. She has to save those people!

Her shaking hands try to pull herself up, but her body feels heavy and her arms grow weak. She looks up above her. Freezeframe stands, staring down on her with their one hate filled eye. They're tired of playing with their prey.

Mew tries to make a fist again, but her fingers are too numb to move. She doesn't have time for this, there's still people up there! They're going to fall! Why can't her body react fast enough! This can't be happening! She can't let herself lose! She can't let all those people fall! She has to save them! Why can't she just move!

Freezeframe snaps their fingers and everything goes... Red .

She blinks. She can blink. She can still move. A sea of red fabric blocks her vision, bright and beautiful, with a few black spots printed into it. A silver web holds this fabric into shape. It's the inside of an umbrella. An umbrella covering and protecting her from the flash. She looks over her shoulder, to the handle of the umbrella, to the person holding it.

He's crouching over her, donned in scarlet armour, and holding the umbrella over her to protect her. He somehow shines in the darkness around them, especially the thick burgundy visor covering his face.

He turns to her, his expression stoic yet concerned. His eyes seem to pierce through her, to her very soul. It's overwhelming. But she can't look away.

He, however, is able to take his focus away from her and looks over the umbrella to a just as stunned Freezeframe. He turns back to Mew and nudges his head towards the building. There are still people that need saving. She still needs to be a hero.

She holds onto her baton and launches herself to the people hanging over the building.

While she helps the civilians. The red armoured boy, or whatever Ishida wants to call himself, gets back on his feet and stares at his opponent, Freezeframe.

"It's... You..." the villain hisses in disbelief.

"Yeah..." he says, trying to keep his voice from breaking "it's me."

" You're the holder of the ladybug miraculous..."

"Yeah...I am... " he grimaces, awkwardly itching behind his right ear, where he had jammed both earring onto just a few moments ago. "But we don't have to fight. Look, I know that voice probably promised to give you what you want when it akumatized you, but trust me it's a bunch of baloney. It's just using you."

"Yeah?" they say, tilting their head to one side "how would you know?"

"I- uh..." he hesitates. "That's not the point. It's turned you into a monster! You're hurting people! Whatever it promised you isn't worth all this!"

"You. Don't. KNOW. ANYTHING!" The monster roars, throwing their claws up and snapping their fingers. Ishida jumps behind the umbrella that's still stuck where he left it, avoiding the flash, then pops his head out and swings his yo-yo towards his foe. Surprised, They instinctively cover their lens, but that's not where he's aiming. The yo-yo zips right onto the stack of photos hanging from their lip and winds around it, snatches it right out of their mouth and swings back to Ishida. Even he's a little impressed. He searches his surroundings and finds Mew a few dozen metres away from him, leading a little girl to safety. He swings his yo-yo with the photos to her, but this action isn't as graceful: the photos disperse out of the stack and scatter onto the icy floor in front of her the moment the yo-yo untangles itself from the stack.