The Summer Festival // A Lukanette/Adrinette Story

Chapter 10: Something like deja vu

Ladybug's POV:

I don't know how I got to this point.

Just a couple of hours ago I was sitting in my room getting my hair straightened and laughing about memes with a bunch of girls.

Now I am standing on top of a hotel building, eyes wide as a giant dog charges at me, my heart pounding wildly and Chat's shouts resonating in my ears.

Normally the akumatised didn't scare me, as time passed they had just become something like characters in a jrpg. They all had their weaknesses their strong points and it was up to me to figure out how to use them in order to get the akuma. Obviously, there were times in which it was a lot more complicated than that, mistakes always happened of course, and Chat always had my back. Nonetheless, Chat was now barking on the street below me and my plan had blown itself to ashes in the process, the giant dog treat in my hands trembling along with me.

"Come doggo! Come here for your treat!" I mutter and with a swift spin of my yo-yo narrowly avoid the dog, who barrels on through the street right behind me. For a second, I have an intense deja vu to the typical spiderman chase scenes, the ones where Spiderman swings around buildings a villain on his toes, but it soon vanishes replaced by my increasing anxiety regarding what I was supposed to do next. So far my only idea had been to lure the dog through the emptier streets praying it'd tire itself out in the process, while chat somehow managed to communicate in barks to the other civilians and move them out of the way. Originally, the plan was to lure the dog to a closed off street and have Chat surprise the kid on the dog, successfully using cataclysm to secure the leash and catch the akuma. Nonetheless, the dog had managed to knock over Chat in the process and in the quickness of the moment he had forgotten to cover his ear, the dog's powers taking over and transforming him into well...a dog. Initially, I had tried to continue the plan, but all I had gotten from him where dog-like reactions and a half-baked order to go interact with the other "dogs" which had miraculously worked. So now, I was alone, quickly running out of options.

Suddenly though, I hear a human bark from below and look down to see chat running in all fours next to the dog and grinning up at me, the whole scene being slightly disturbing, to be honest.

"Chat! Chat!" I scream on instinct and don't get more of a response than another confused bark.

He is a dog...right?

"Chat, come here boy!" I call out in the sweetest voice I can manage and it seems to work, Chat smirking and jumping to the roof adjacent to me his eyes trained on mine as if awaiting further instructions. For a moment I think of it as a cute, ironic moment, the boy in a catsuit acting like a puppy, but I snap out of it, the dog moving fast.

"Chat...I'll give you some delicious croissants..." At the mention of the treat, he suddenly seems to brighten, jumping to my side of the roofs and following my lead, "but only if you use cataclysm on the necklace...there..." I say breathlessly pointing to the fast-approaching boy and creature, praying that the message would get through. There is a moment of indecision in which I am terrified to think that doggyfied Chat didn't understand me, but he quickly barks in agreement and as soon as the giant pet and boy turn the corner he jumps next to the boy, the boy screaming in protest. Immediately, I make my move too throwing the treat at the dog who catches it and stops momentarily, giving Chat the sufficient time to bark something that sounds like cataclysm and attack the dog collar which disappears, replaced by the usual black akuma. Then I proceed to follow the usual procedure the world returning to normal and the boy's giant mascot being reduced to its tiny size.

"Arthur! There you are! And there's Honey! I've been looking for you everywhere!" Someone exclaims slowly and I turn to see an old woman hurriedly approaching the boy, her eyes filled with reproach.