Partners in Crime (Miraculous Ladybug)

• C h a p t e r N i n e •

Two days after both heroes' akumatization, Chat Blanc and Miss Fortune got quite the surprise.

They were strolling calmly through the streets, giggling and chatting almost like they used to before everything had changed. If a stranger had happened to see them, they wouldn't have seen anything other than normalcy. For the moment, they simply looked like a teen couple out on a date, cosplaying comic characters. Except if anyone approached them and made just one wrong move, all beauty of the scene would vanish. Nothing would look ordinary.

Chat Blanc was repeatedly trying to guess Miss Fortune's identity. She knew ultimately she was going to just tell him, but they had plenty of time for the moment, and it was fun watching him hopelessly guess. Eventually he was guessing the lamest things on purpose: "Are you that five year old, Manon? The annoying one that manipulated me into the same age mindset? What about her mother, Nadja? No wait . . . she's married. Juleka Couffaine?! Sabrina? Not Chloé?!"

She was laughing harder than she could ever remember. This cat was so silly and stupid, but so loveable. He was the only one she still loved into akumatization.

"Ladybug, Chat Noir."

They stopped.

It was a female voice, one so familiar that Miss Fortune could never forget it no matter what memories she had of it. She and Chat whipped around in sync, black yo-yo and gold baton immediately out and ready.

Rena Rouge stood there, flanked by Carapace and Queen Bee. Each wore stern expressions, their miraculous weapons also ready.

"Well, look who it is," Miss Fortune sneered. "Our old allies. Old friends. Just what do you think you're doing, Alya?" In a flash she'd bolted forward and pinned down her old friend. "Come crawling back with an apology?"

Queen Bee and Carapace both gasped, while Rena stared in shocked horror, her face ashen. Most of the school had heard that Alya and Marinette had had a fight. Since then, completely unrelated to the fall of Ladybug and Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng had gone missing, as had Adrien Agreste.

"Marinette?!" Chat Blanc exclaimed with delight, still standing a few feet behind them. "This is unexpected, but quite the pawsome twist. Funny, I always considered you just a friend, but things change." He grinned, his head tilted slightly in thought.

"M-Marinette . . ." Rena whispered in heartbreak. "I'm so . . . so . . . sorry . . . I-I didn't . . ."

"I was right," Miss Fortune scoffed. "Well, apology unaccepted, sorry. Too late for any of that."

Carapace tried to tackle the villainess, tried to knock her off of Rena, but Miss Fortune ducked to the ground while Chat Blanc flew over her and knocked the turtle hero hard to the ground. "Touch her and you're dead," he warned icily, his tone quiet but deadly.

"Get off them!" Queen Bee ordered, raising her trompo somewhat nervously. "Or I'll paralyze you both!"

The two villains obeyed, only to stand as one and begin walking towards the Bee heroine. "And how are you planning to do that?" Chat Blanc questioned with an unimpressed tsk tsk noise as they cornered her. "Your power works just once. If you paralyze her, you get to feel what it's like to be Cataclysmed. If you paralyze me . . ." He shrugged. "You'll become the poorest person there ever was. No one will listen to you. You will be no one. How joyful of a life that would be, hm?"

The blonde girl hesitated, uncertainty flashing in her brilliant blue eyes.

From behind, Rena Rouge leapt into the air and came flying down towards them, her flute raised as a sword, but Chat Blanc just sighed and swatted the illusion into sparkles that drifted through the air for just a few more seconds before dispersing completely. "Honestly Rena, did you seriously think you could fool a cat's senses with that little trick?"

The real Rena emerged from behind the nearest wall, her amber eyes visibly shocked and stuck in indecision. Miss Fortune threw her yo-yo at the orange and green pair, but Carapace lifted his shield and yelled, "Shell-ter!" The dark head of the weapon bounced off the glowing green bubble that appeared at the magic word, but Chat Blanc countered by shouting "Cataclysm!" and lunging for the enchanted shield. The moment he touched the surface, it shattered like glass. Without hesitation, Chat summoned his destructive energy once again and slammed his right fist into Carapace's chest, throwing him backwards with a scream of agony.

He hit the wall and collapsed to the road, hugging his blackened torso and gasping in pain. Rena let out a cry of anguish and raced to his side, while Queen Bee gaped in horror at the scene.

"If I were in a better mood, I might feel sorry for you," Chat said, his tone contemptuous and words directed to Carapace. "I've suffered exactly what you're suffering right now. You'll die slowly, and painfully, just as I almost did. It's exactly what you deserve, for trying to stop us."

"Now get lost," Miss Fortune growled. "We'll spare you two girls, as long as you never show your faces to us again."

"We won't!" Queen Bee yelped, since Rena was too occupied with her boyfriend to pay attention. "Pl-Please just leave in peace . . . go do your villain thing . . ."

"Let's hope you've learned to keep your promises, Chloé," Chat Blanc hissed. With a passing glare at the three, he and Miss Fortune headed on down the deserted road, only stopping when Hawk Moth said in their minds, "Well done taking care of those three. But now, come to me, my dears. It's time."