Miraculous Ladybug: The Lifeguard

Chapter 7 - That Sinking Feeling

"You keep her distracted, I'm going to try something." Ladybug said her black cat companion.

"How am I going to do that?" Chat asked.

"What you were doing before seemed to work. Try doing that again!" She hooked her yo-yo around rafter and zipped up to up. Chat Noir started his advance again towards the villain, in a swift jog, staff in hand ready to swing. Ladybug remained perched on the metal support until Chat was past her position. 

"What are you waiting for? Seize their Miraculous now!" The deep voice echoed inside the Lifeguards' head again. She gritted her teeth, angry about having to now waste time and deal with Paris's superduo instead of enacting revenge.

Ladybug leaped to the next rafter, then the next, until she was right above the Lifeguard, without her noticing. Chat Noir had continued his distraction charge and was mere meters away, deflecting more inflatables as he went.

"Lucky Charm!" The spotted heroine yelled as quietly as she could, flinging her yo-yo up into what little space there was between the roof and the rafter. A large red, black spotted beanie materialized above her and fell into her hands. "I wonder what this is for? It's a little warm for a beanie."

She looked around the pool area, and saw a highlight around the head of the villain, looking back to her newly spawned object, it glowed with the same highlights. "Of course!" She gasped, the plan finally coming to fruition. She grabbed each side of the winter hat and stretched the opening out, then leaped off the metal beam and down onto the pool deck behind the villain. Chat was holding ground a good arm length or two away, beginning to get sloppy from continued barrages of the deflated pool floats, fearful of what had happened last time he got within striking distance may happen again.

In a swift motion just after she landed, Ladybug sprung into the air again and somersaulted over the Lifeguard, deploying the beanie as she went; pulling it far down the villains' head to block her eyes.

"Chat, now!" She exclaimed before she landed beside him. "The rescue float!"

The black cat leapt forward without hesitation. "Cataclysm!!!" He screamed, the power from his Miraculous activated, supercharging his hand with destructive power. Closing the gap in no time, Chat landed at full force into the akumatized Lifeguard, knocking them both to the ground. The Lifeguard had dropped her weapon beside her to remove the oversized hat from her face; but with a quick swipe of his claws, Chat shredded the flotation device next to her. In the same instant, the Lifeguard had liberated her face from the lucky charm head-wear and with one final act of villainy, she used both her legs to launch Chat up and away from her.

The remains of her weapon crumbled off and fell to the tiled flooring, revealing the dark butterfly that had empowered her with evil.

"No more evil doing for you little Akuma!" Ladybug flicked open her yo-yo to capture the creature. "Gotcha! Bye bye little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug!" She yelled, cleansing the evil papillon before releasing it again, using some of its power to make everything right again. The people that had been ensnared by the pool floats were no longer trapped and anything broken was mended.

The victim had transformed back, the dark power falling away to reveal their true form again - Jess, the friendly pool lifeguard. Ladybug looked around for Chat to do their customary 'Pound it', but her partner was nowhere to be found, his baton laying next to the lifeguard.

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For the few seconds he was in the air, Chat didn't have much control over his trajectory, it was certain he was going into the water, like it or not. With an ungrateful flop, he hit the surface back first. The sudden stop jerked his already injured brain, causing him to fall back into unconscious as he sunk further down into the water. Bubbles of air escaped from his mouth, his limbs were like a rag-doll, eyelids closed, hair floating up as he was floating down deeper into the pool.