Right When I Saw You | Lukadrien

Chapter 9 | Earrings

   Adrien and Luka both stood up as their ice creams fell to the ground with an unsatisfying splat. They both turned to look at the girl sitting mysteriously on the fence. 

"Coeurcass...?" Adrien whispered to himself. Who on earth was this girl? And why did she say 'It's a pleasure to see you again' when I've never seen her before? Is she one of my fans...?  Adrien's mind ran wild with questions. Only one question that came to his mind seemed reasonable to ask. Is she akumatized? 

"Well, now I see why Luka rejected me... because he was going to go out with Adrien instead!" she scoffed.

At the mention of his name, Adrien looked over at Luka to notice the increasing dread forming on his face. Luka must know who she is.

"...Marinette?" He asked, "Is that you?"

Saying Marinette's name must have triggered something inside of her, because when Luka said it, her face immediately flipped to rage.

"THAT'S NOT ME!! At least it's not anymore! My name is Coeurcass. Did you not hear me the first time?" She responded with obvious anger boiling inside of her.

Marinette was akumatized? How... What did Luka do? No. Right now it doesn't matter. I have to get us out of here before she does something and then I have to transform! On instinct, Adrien grabbed Luka's hand and started to run out of the park with him.

   "Hey! Get back here!" He could hear distant yelling coming from behind him. By this point, multiple other people have noticed Coeurcass and started to panic. Adrien could hear gasps and the patter of feet running from every direction. Then he heard an unfamiliar sound. It sounded similar to a knife being thrown. He had no time to think about what it was, because soon after a patch of air swiftly blew near his head and to his right he saw a metal, rose gold coloured shuriken that looked like half of a broken heart lodged into the ground. Instantly, Adrien knew what was coming. If it's only half, there must be another one! Adrien took a hard left to avoid the other incoming shuriken and gripped Luka's hand tighter so that he wouldn't fall. As it turns out, he was right and the other half of the shuriken barely missed them, hitting the ground where the boys had just been. Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing an exit up ahead he ran quicker. The sooner they were out of her sight, the better. He let go of Luka's hand once they had passed the tall fence. There was no time to talk though, because Coeurcass was coming closer each second they stood there. Adrien only said two words.

"Go hide."

Luka, out of breath from running, nodded without hesitation and took off to a nearby sidewalk and followed it away from the park. Adrien ran the opposite way he went, frantically looking around. Adrien was still baffled that Marinette was akumatized. She was one of the most strong-willed and considerate people he'd ever known. He was determined to save her, to bring the Marinette he knew back. Once he spotted an alleyway where he could safely transform without anybody seeing him, he bolted. As soon as he was hidden, he needed to check outside to make sure Coeurcass was gone. He poked his head as far as he could without anybody noticing and listened around for the akumatized girl. As if on cue, the click of high heels started to sound, alerting Adrien that she was coming.

"I was sure I saw someone going this way! Ugh, I guess I'll have to keep searching." She groaned. Then her eyes lit up, as if she had an idea. Adrien knew any ideas coming from her right now were bound to be bad. "...Why not play around with some happy, lovey-dovey, whatever couples while I look? That'll make things much more fun."

A purple mask faded in over her face the moment she stopped talking. He recognized an edged butterfly symbol that symbolized Hawk Moth. Coeurcass paused to listen as Hawk Moth communicated telepathically to her. After a while, Coeurcass exclaimed, "Fine. I'll give you the earrings first, so you can leave me alone. Come and get them already."

Coeurcass reached for her purse, and took something out. Adrien saw two black earrings placed in the middle of her hand as Coeurcass began to admire them.

Fear enslaved Adrien's body.

No way. Ladybug couldn't have been beaten that easily. That's not like her. And if she's not here and she can't transform...

What happened to her?

"It seems we have quite the situation here." A black creature spiraled out of Adrien's shirt and floated beside him.

"We need to get Ladybug's earrings back before Coeurcass gives them to Hawk Moth, Plagg."

"I know what happens now." Plagg spoke more seriously than he usually did. Adrien ducked back into the alleyway and readied himself for his transformation.

"Plagg, claws out!"