Ladybug Nutcracker

Chapter 2: Midnight Magic

It was nearing midnight as Marinette, who was still asleep on the sofa rolled over, her arm falling down the side.

The old clock on the wall which had a carved owl sitting on top showed the room it was now midnight, to which the owl opened her eyes watching the room as the magic of the holiday went around the room, bringing the nutcracker to life and creating a small door in the wall where loads of small people dressed as knights came out.

"This year I will get you Hawkmoth!" the nutcracker said pulling out his weapon and charging head first into the fight.

Because of the noise Marinette woke up and looked around.

"Nutcracker?" she asked not finding him next to her where he should be.

Hearing munching, Marinette looked up to see a tiny knight eating one of the cookies.

"Hey get away from there!" she said waving her hand to make it go away, but he just slipped off the arm of the sofa.

Looking around the room Marinette saw more tiny knights and her nutcracker, brought to life fighting them.

"Back off you traitors!" he yelled using his staff and kicking at them, making them fall down from the pile of presents that were under the tree.

"I must be dreaming..." she said trying to wake herself up as a very important tiny person came out of the door wearing a crown and holding a sceptre.

The fighting stopped as this man moved towards the nutcracker.

"Even as a nutcracker, you are the most annoying person I have ever met, Chat Noir!" he said to the wooden cat boy.

"And that's what I will be until you are gone!" Chat Noir said kicking over a book shaped present on top of this wicked looking man squashing him flat.

Just as Chat Noir was about to jump down to fight him, another knight caught his tail making him fall and land on his arm breaking it.

Gritting his teeth Chat Noir kicked this knight away and started fighting the other man who had gotten out from under the book, fighting him one handed.

Because of this, Chat Noir was a little off balance so when Hawkmoth slashed at him just right, Chat was disarmed from his weapon and shoved to the floor.

Seeing her nutcracker was in trouble Marinette looked around for something that could trap this man.

"It's time I turned you into something more useful..." Hawkmoth said changing his sceptre into an axe "Like fire wood!"

Just as he was about to take strike at Chat Noir, Marinette came up behind him with a vase she had turned upside down.

"Not in my house," she said firmly.

Hawkmoth turned around to see the human girl, this allowing Chat Noir to get up and retrieve his staff.

Swiping his sceptre back into its original shape, Hawkmoth grinned as he said: "Meddling human towering tall. Let my sceptre shrink you small."

"Look out!" Chat Noir called out, but it was too late.

With a flash of purple light Marinette saw everything around her getting bigger until she was the same size as the person in front of her.

"This... is not good," Marinette said backing away nervously.

"Not so fearless now, hmm?" Hawkmoth said slowly walking towards Marinette.

Suddenly a toy wooden cart, with Chat Noir riding it, came and knocked Hawkmoth over sending him flying a little.

Jumping down and pulling his staff out, Chat was about to start to fight Hawkmoth again, when two knights blocked his way and pointed their weapons at him.

"Can you make it up to the mantle?" Chat asked Marinette while fighting the knights, knocking their weapons out of their hands.

Marinette looked up at how high it was. "There is no way –" she began but then spotted more knights coming "- I'm staying down here."

With that she ran to the fire place and started to climb the line of fake evergreen decorations.

Except... rope-climbing had never been her best sport-skill in P.E.

While she was slowly making her way up the line, she looked to check how Chat Noir was doing in fighting one of the knights, seeing a second one sneaking up on him from behind and seeing his arm was still broken.

Chat had just disarmed the first knight when he heard the second and span around to block the attack.

Seeing more coming, Chat pushed the second knight away slowly backing up towards the fire-grid feeling the heat from the embers on his back.

Looking up Chat got an idea. Using his good arm, he placed his staff into the grid a little higher than he was and jumped up, holding onto it as he kicked the first line of knights away, but once they were gone he found he was stuck.

"You've got nowhere to run, Chat Noir!" Hawkmoth said smiling wickedly his sceptre an axe again.

Chat tried to pull his staff out of the fire grid but it was wedged in tight.

Seeing his chance, Hawkmoth swiped his axe at Chat Noir, but the boy sung himself away and then leaped over the villain landing on his feet and spinning around, now weaponless, slowly backing up away from him.

"You're not going to get away from me this time..." Hawkmoth said quietly a pleased look on his face. "Unless of course you'd like to feed the fire." he said using his axe to point towards the last burning log in the fireplace.

Looking around for a solution, Chat Noir jumped up onto the fire-grid and started to climb it going slower than he normally would thanks to his arm.

Up from where she was, Marinette was watching all of this and gasped when Hawkmoth took a swing at the wooden cat-boy.

"Nutcracker!" she said afraid for him.

Finally reaching the top, Chat Noir edged to the opposite side to Marinette and jumped onto a bulbul that was hanging onto it.

Marinette sighed in relief thinking he was safe, but then saw Hawkmoth jump onto the pile of wood next to the fire place and changed his axe into a already armed cross bow and slowly take aim...