Chapter 3: Trashed

Ladybug's swimming ability was unimpaired. She got away from Chat Noir easily and reached the shore. Chat was swimming all right in spite of his fear, and he reached the shore soon after.

"I'm going to have to leave you behind, Chat Noir," said Ladybug. "You wouldn't cooperate with me anyway."

"Of course not!" said Chat angrily. "I'd rather stop you."

"Be my guest. But you'll have to keep up," said Ladybug, getting her yo-yo ready.

Chat Noir shivered and sneezed. "I'm sure I'm gonna catch a cold. I'm afraid of heights, too. As much as I want to stop you, I can't. I'll sit this one out."

"Bye," said Ladybug. "No hard feelings. I'll find a way to defeat Reverser and get us all back to normal."

Ladybug swung across town to the school. She was hoping to find Reverser's second main target, Nathaniel, and protect him before he got reversed.

She found Juleka, Rose, and the art teacher coming out of Room 33, the creative project room.

"I hate art and music! Let's destroy it all!" shouted the art teacher, carrying a painting to throw to the ground.

"I hate you, too!" he shouted at Ladybug.

He threw the painting at her, which she dodged. Juleka and Rose followed him to attack her.

"This is getting old..." said Ladybug.

Ladybug grabbed up a handful of Nathaniel's sketches and leaped away from them. On the ground level, she looked the pictures over.

"The Louvre is in almost every single one of Nathaniel's drawings," said Ladybug to herself.

That was her next stop, but she would have to sneak around carefully to avoid crowds.

At the Louvre, Ladybug found Nathaniel with Alix. He was sketching while she skated around him.

Ladybug listened in.

"Maybe you should've given him a chance to explain," said Alix.

"What's the point?" said Nathaniel. "He wanted to tease me. Like everybody else. Marinette put him up to it."

"Normally I would say It's not like Marinette to make fun of people," said Alix. "But today... I just can't defend her. I don't know what she might be capable of."

"Nathaniel, I need your help," called Ladybug.

"Ladybug! What do you want?" asked Nathaniel.

"Leave us alone!" said Alix, taking a defensive stance with her skates.

"This is an emergency!" said Ladybug. "Look at this news feed."

She held up her yo-yo and a live feed came through with Nadia Chamac.

"It's been confirmed, ten thousand tons of garbage have just been released from space and are about to rain down on Paris, unless Mayor Bourgeois cancels the process, the city will soon be under a mountain of trash. The man behind the chaos, super-villain Reverser, has given an ultimatum."

Nadia played a clip showed Reverser hovering near the Eiffel Tower, protecting Mayor Bourgeois who was sitting with his trash satellite control laptop.

"Ladybug, Cat Noir, I command you to deliver Nathaniel to me, right now! I also demand that you hand over your Miraculous!"

"You're not getting Nathaniel to turn him over to a super-villain!" said Alix.

"I know you both don't like me," said Ladybug. "It's something Reverser did to me. But I have to try and talk to him. And I'm gonna need you, Nathaniel!"

"No," said Nathaniel. "I don't trust you."

"Me neither," said Alix. "You're going to have to stop Reverser without a 'helping hand' from us. It's all your fault that we have super-villains like this."

"Then I'll just have to confront the Mayor and Reverser directly," said Ladybug. "This may be bad for Paris."

As she neared the Eiffel Tower, Ladybug saw what looked like stars in the sky.

She said to herself, "Those are not stars! The trash is entering the atmosphere. In just a few minutes, I'll be like having a meteor shower, except with dumpsters instead."

If they were already burning up in the atmosphere, it was too late to get Mayor Bourgeois to reverse anything. The only hope was to free the akuma butterfly and do a Miraculous Ladybug cure. Freeing the butterfly was the only prerequisite, so...

"Lucky Charm!" called Ladybug, and got a spotted red blanket.

"What am I supposed to do with this? Oh, it's marked 'fireproof'."

Ladybug swung up unto the tower with the blanket folded over her left arm.

"You didn't bring me Nathaniel as I demanded, Ladybug! It's on you that Paris is gonna burn!" said Reverser.

"Not if I get the controls away from the Mayor!" said Ladybug.

She swooped in on Mayor Bourgeois.

"Don't hurt me, you horrible insect!" said the Mayor.

He threw the laptop off the tower, but Ladybug caught it. She swung up with it to the top platform of the Eiffel Tower, where she worked the controls.

Ladybug couldn't put the dumpsters back into orbit, but the rockets were still working on a few of them. A swipe on the touchscreen accelerated them towards the Tower.

Reverser was on her trail, flying up on his plane.

"Give that back! You may be immune to my reversion planes, but I'm as strong as you are," said Reverser.

Ladybug pulled the fireproof blanket over her head, covering herself as the leading edge of the flaming debris struck around her. She was cutting this very close.

"People who ride paper airplanes shouldn't cause fires!" Ladybug said.

Too late, Reverser saw his risk. He tried to dodge with his plane, but burning rubbish struck one wing and set it on fire. The akuma butterfly came out.

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

Ladybug pushed the blanket, throwing it up a tiny bit into the air as burning trash rained down on it. It was enough – the swarm of magical ladybugs rushed out.

All the the trash was restored to the satellites, and all the destruction, both physical and magical, was undone.

Marc was falling – that was one thing that sometimes didn't get fixed.

Labybug swung down, caught him, and got him safely to the ground. Then she caught and purified the akuma.

"Bye-bye, little butterfly!"

"What happened, Ladybug?" asked Marc. "The last thing I remember, I was in the park."

"You were akumatized, but everything is all right now," said Ladybug.

Some bystanders didn't agree. They booed Ladybug.

"I was almost hit by flaming garbage!" said a young man. "That was too close."

A woman said. "You can't endanger people like that, even if your magic can bring them back to life."

"I couldn't help it," said Ladybug. "There was nobody to help this time. I did the best I could."

Her earrings beeped.

"Time to bug out."

Ladybug got away from the angry crowd on her yo-yo line.

Nathaniel and Marc ended up reconciling and making a comic book together. They showed it off in Room 33 to the art teacher, Rose, Juleka, and Marinette.

"Mightillustrator and de-akumatized Reverser team up with Chat Noir against Ladybug, who has become a dark vigilante anti-hero," said Nathaniel.

"Wow, great job, boys!" said the art teacher.

"Heh, thanks," said Nathaniel.

"None of this would've happened without you, Marinette," said Marc.

"In fact, we've dedicated our first issue to you," said Nathaniel. "To Marinette, who would make a super superhero."

"You'd be a better Ladybug than the real one," said Marc. "You would never put the city at risk like she did."

"Oh... thanks," said Marinette softly. She had to make extra-sure nobody guessed her identity now.

"If you weren't such a klutz!" said Marc and Nathaniel together.

Everybody laughed.

The End