Chapter 12 Compulserator part 2

'That was so close, I wonder if she spotted me,' She bent forward, resting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. The only thing left to do was calling for help. She opened her yoyo and typed out a quick message, sending it to Max and Rose. After a moment's thought, she took the Snake miraculous out of her pocket and clasped it on her wrist. The bracelet lit up with light that coalesced into Sass, who shook his head and then offered her a smile.

"Long time, no see, Ladybug," Sass said politely.

"I'm Sorry Sass, I don't have time to talk now. I need to get back to Chat Noir, he has been fending for himself for a long time now, needs me, " Ladybug said apologetically.

Standing tall, she clasped her hands together, calling out "Tikki! Sass! Unify!" Sass immediately turned back into light and vanished into the bracelet; warm light ran over Ladybug, and she staggered with slight dizziness as the pink and yellow light faded. She glanced down at herself and realized that all of the red parts of her suit had turned turquoise, so she knew it had worked. She then reset Second Chance.

With that done, and now duly prepared in case she encountered the akuma along the way, she started taking the fast way back to Chat and the battle. Her heart thudded in her chest as she ran, and she prayed that she wasn't too late. If Chat had been turned into a germ-obsessed-zombie, that akuma wasn't going to know what was coming for. Snakebug gritted her teeth and pushed herself to run faster.

Neither Chat nor Compulserator were to be seen. Snakebug surveyed the array of soap foam littering the streets below her, swallowing hard and hoping that her partner hadn't been attacked. But there was an easy to find out. She opened up her yoyo and checked the map, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that Chat's dot was moving. Furthermore, it wasn't that far away.

LB-X-CN-

He was perched on the edge of a building, taking a breather. His blond hair was plastered to his head from the rain; his kitty ears were so waterlogged that they drooped, and his tail was a sodden dark line on the roof. Snakebug landed behind him. 'Now this is a sorry sight,'

She wet her lips and began to speak.

"I thought cats were afraid of getting wet," Snakebug gazed at him with a combination of affection and exasperation.

Chat's right kitty ear twitched at her voice and he twisted around to smile at her. "It's a bit funny actually. All cats love fish but they're afraid to wet their paws. I would rather be snuggled up next to the fireplace at the moment, but I'm glad to see you again, I thought you had left me for good, Bugaboo." Chat said, shaking his hair like a wet dog shakes its fur, sending droplets raining in all directions.

"Hey, now!" Ladybug squeaked as she was hit by a fine spray of water.

"Oops, sorry." he smiled impishly, his green eyes glinting.

He offered her a genuine smile and she felt her heart swell at the unrestrained happiness. Snakebug mock scowled. She fought back the huge smile that threatened to form on her lips, then she sat down beside him. She refused to admit that the once-hated nickname had actually grown on her to the point where she didn't mind if he used it now. It would give him too much satisfaction.

"But now I guess I need a new nickname for you," Chat said with a grin.

She punched him playfully in the arm. "Stop!"

"Why? I obviously can't call you bugaboo now that you're half-snake," he paused. "How about... snakeaboo?"

"Oh God, no! Don't you dare." she groaned. "No more nicknames."

There was a moment of silence between them before he glanced at her.

"Hey, Chat?"

"Mmm?"

"I'm sorry I left you to fend for yourself back there, we're partners, we're a team, we're supposed to do this together."

Chat remained silent.

"I won't let it happen again. I just too-"

"I thought you went to get help? Couldn't you find anyone?"

They hadn't really talked about the new team she had picked out. She hadn't been able to figure out how to tell him that she had shown her true identity to them first. Ladybug knew he would get furious as he hated secrets. He didn't know that she had given some of the Miraculous permanently to her classmates. She sometimes doubted her own decision, since it was risky to involve anyone else from their school. It would be too easy for Hawkmoth to put two and two together and figure out that Ladybug attended Collège Françoise Dupont. But it was too late to take them back. They just had to be really, really careful.

Her eyes lowered. "I have called Tortuga and Beatrix. They should arrive here shortly."

"Tortuga and Beatrix?"

"You haven't met them yet. Chat," she closed her eyes. "I'm not sure if Master Fu told you before he disappeared...,"

"Told me what?"

"T-that-" She hesitated for a moment, then turned to look him in the eyes. "That I'm the new Guardian now."

"Wait, what?!"

"I guess he didn't tell you then. "she paused."I … I have picked out new heroes to help us in emergencies," she told him. "I gave the Turtle, Tiger, Mouse, Dragon, Fox and Bee…to different people that weren't revealed during the Miracle Queen incident."

"Oh…cool. Any chance you might share who they are with me?"

"No…I won't be sharing them with you. Not with as often as you get hit with mind control attacks," she sighed. He pouted at her.

"And why pick different holders for three of them? I mean, I get Chloé, but…"

"Because Hawkmoth discovered the identities of every temporary hero with the last incident," she reminded him. "If the situation escalates, he could specifically target them and their families."

"Oh, come on…this is the same guy that's picked the same baby and the same pigeon guy over a dozen times each already," he joked. "And seriously…The last incident was pretty…well you know…we always deal with Chloé's tantrums pretty easily in the long run."

"It's still not a chance I'm willing to take," she snapped. "This isn't a game."

"All right, I guess," he pouted.

Ladybug glanced over her shoulder, sighing internally when she was met with flashing green eyes and compressed lips.

"And I wanted to find someone who could use the Snake Miraculous, but the person I was looking for wasn't available."

"Who were you after?" Chat asked automatically, then caught himself and winced. "Sorry, I didn't –"

"Adrien. Adrien Agreste," Snakebug said because she was fed up with keeping everything secret, and technically Chat already knew this one anyway.

Chat tensed. "O-oh?"

"Yeah, but he was nowhere to be found. He wasn't at home. I'm hoping he didn't get caught up in something," she said.

"I'm – I'm sure he's safe and sound." he paused, turning slightly red. "Perhaps it's for the best, you know. Adrien most likely wasn't the right choice anyway," Chat answered sadly, looking down at his hands.

Snakebug looked at him sharply, perhaps sharper than she intended. "What are you referring to by...?"

"Well, he couldn't help you last time, remember?" Chat said, still not looking at her. "You said that he failed… what, over 29,000 times or something like that? That's a lot of missteps." He looked toward the city lights to hide his glistening eyes. "And at some point, he almost lost you."

"Hold on, now. That incident was different," Snakebug protested. "Desperada was a complicated villain. Even Viperion struggled to help us defeat her. And besides, you weren't around either." She crossed her arms and gave him a pointed look. "Maybe if you had been, Aspik would've had an easier time."She immediately felt a crushing sense of guilt when she saw his reaction.

A barely visible flinch from Chat indicated that he was affected by Snakebug's words. It wasn't fair to throw something like that in his face, even if it was in Adrien's defense, because he didn't like talking about Desperada. She had always assumed that Chat hated the fact that he had not been there for her.

"Chat...," She hesitated, then took a step closer to him and reached for him, letting her hand drop when she realized he didn't want her to. His reaction hurt more than she wanted to admit.

"It's all good. It's true. I was totally useless in that fight," His mouth was set, and she saw the muscles in his jaw flex slightly.

"I-" she started to say, her voice shaky. But then she shook her head, let her jaw jut out, and blinked. "I shouldn't have said that," she paused. "Chat, I'm sorry, I didn't-" Snakebug felt worry pull at her heart as she watched him.

But he merely shook his head and walked forward.

"All right," she said wearily, deciding to drop the subject for now. "Let's put an end to this akuma."

"Right," he said, still not meeting her eyes, and jumped off the roof. Snakebug wiped the rain from her face and sighed in frustration before following.

-CN-x-LB-

Tortuga and Beatrix landed on the roof beside them, "Ladybug," Tortuga called.

She turned around to face him, "Good to see you both,"

"Good to see you guys too," Beatrix grinned. "Is anyone else showing up?"

"Not for this fight." snakebug said.

"We need to find compulsator. She is-"

"I can hear some screams coming from the Arc de Triomphe." Chat muttered, his ears twitching.

"All right, so we'll head over there."

"Looks like we're going to need a plan," Tortuga muttered.

The four gathered on the roof of a building near the Arc where they had a clear view of Compulserator.

"I..." Snakebug paused. 'Where is the akuma hiding,' she wondered while scanning the villain. "I have a feeling that the akuma is in the soap dispenser."

"What makes you think that?" Chat Noir questioned.

"Haven't you seen the way she's holding on to it for her life? She's way too protective of it."

"It could also be in her earrings," Beatrice muttered.

"Or in her belt?" Tortuga sighed.

"all right, so we don't know where the akuma is at the moment, but listen closely. I'll need everyone's powers for this, and we're going to need to make it fast...,"

-CN-X-LB-

They landed on the ground, narrowly avoiding some of the soap foam, and started running in the direction of Compulserator. As they grew near, Tortuga took the shield from his back and held it out in front of them. They rounded the corner to where the akuma was, and Snakebug slid her finger across the Snake miraculous to activate its power. The silvery flash told her she'd been successful.

"Guys. Be careful," she warned them.

"I know, but really, it's hard to take this akuma seriously when this whole situation looks a bad meme," Chat Noir remarked. His lighthearted answer gave her hope that maybe he wasn't mad after all, and she took both her yoyos in each hand and swung them loosely.

A chuckle escaped Bea's lips.

"Let's do this, guys," Snakebug said.

Beatrix nodded to Ladybug, who nodded in return.

"We are right behind you, My Lady," Chat Noir said, and launched himself out in front of her. The rest of the team followed quickly on his heels as the akuma swung around to face them.

The akuma striked again, only to hit Tortuga's force shield.

"Time to say your goodbyes, Ladybug!"

She was just about to roll out of the way to let an already controlled citizen take the blast that was heading her way when she saw Chat Noir leap in the path of the attack. He was hit with a blast of soap and started trembling. His eyes turned purple. "W-what's going on?" It just took a couple of seconds before Chat started grooming himself just like a cat. And he was... purring?

"Chat," her partner didn't react, he was just licking his glove over and over. "Chat! you idiot!" she sighed. He always acted without thinking or looking at the full situation! Her partner was completely immobilized.

"I have just started, I will not say goodbye yet," Snakebug said grimly, touching the Snake miraculous. She slid it back with a flick of her finger. The world seemed to hesitate before suddenly dissolving around them; the next thing she knew, she was standing side-by-side with Chat Noir, who was no longer acting like a cat, with the akuma somewhere in front of them. Just as it had been for the past seven times she used Second Chance.

Bea was once again throwing her spinning top at compulserator.

"I know, but really, it's hard to take this akuma seriously when -"

"This looks like a bad meme, we know," Tortuga snapped, and Chat Noir blinked at him in surprise. Then he cocked his head and understanding fell across his face. His shoulders bowed and he straightened up as though he had been pressed down by heavyweight.

"How many times?" he asked gently and swallowed hard.

"This is the eight. I don't know what's wrong! the akuma comes up from behind us every damn time, and hits you with a blast of soap," Snakebug said, torn between frustration and grief. Being turned into a grooming cat wasn't the worst way she had ever lost her partner, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Someday, she was going to kick Hawkmoth in the backside for every time she'd been forced to mourn Chat Noir.

"Hey, it's okay guys. Let's think this through. What are we doing wrong? What can we do differently? Is it better for us to separate and come in on opposite sides?" Bea asked.

Snakebug shook her head. "No, we tried that. It didn't work," Snakebug exaggeratingly huffed as she threw her arms into the air.

Bea nodded, as though she'd anticipated that answer.

"Have you called for your Lucky Charm yet?" Chat Noir wondered.

"No. Not yet. I haven't had the chance because she gets us every time before I can." Snakebug frowned. "You think I should? But we don't even know for sure where the akuma is yet...I only have a feeling." They were screwed if she had to go somewhere to charge Tikki up, and sometimes that happened if either of them called for their powers too early. But on the other hand, maybe her Lucky Charm would be just the thing necessary to turn the tides of the battle.

"It seems logical that it would be her soap dispenser. Maybe your Lucky Charm will enable us to get close enough that I can -" He wiggled his fingers at her.

"All right. I guess it's worth a try. Lucky Charm!" Snakebug threw her yoyo aloft, watching as the familiar red light shot up the string. There was a particularly bright burst of light and then a rope fell into her hands.

"A rope?" Chat Noir said blankly. "How is some rope going to help us?!"

Snakebug looked around for inspiration. Her eyes fell upon the rope in her hands, Tortuga, Beatrice, Chat Noir, the Arc, then onto Compulserator's ankle. Slowly, she smiled. "Okay, I have a plan we haven't tried before. We only have about five minutes. We're going to lure her to the Arc, Tortuga we'll need you to use shelter when Compulserator attack.

Bea, you have the most dangerous job. During all the chaos I'll loop the rope around her ankle like a lasso. I need you to paralyze her with your venom when she tries to escape, then Chat Noir can use his cataclysm to destroy the soap dispenser. Does everyone understand what they need to do? "

"Aye Aye."

"I'm going to be the distraction," she declared. "Be ready to go after her, got it?"

They all nodded before they separated. Breathing a quiet prayer, Snakebug ran towards the Arc. She fit the rope around the Arc and pulled as hard as she could; with the increased strength gifted to her by the new suit. Snakebug then threw both her yoyos and snagged Compulserator's arm. The Akuma started to move towards the Arc. Ladybug kept hitting the Akuma with her yoyos until Compulserator was standing in front of the Arc.

The heroine formed the end of the rope like a lasso and swung the rope in the air. She tried to throw the lasso at Compulserator, but missed on her first try. She swung the shield over her head and tried again, gasping as she felt her suit's strength. Her arms shook as she threw the lasso once more, aiming it in the direction of the akuma. It was with a lot of satisfaction that she heard the akuma scream.

"Bea, NOW!"

"Venom!"

"Damn you, Ladybug!" it shrieked.

"Now!" Snakebug shouted, and saw the black figure of her partner go sprinting out from the shadows to her left. The akuma didn't see him coming, as it was paralyzed, and Chat Noir was on it within seconds, snatching the soap dispenser out of her hands.

"Cataclysm!" he shouted, and the item went up in black smoke. Snakebug breathed a sigh of relief when a purple butterfly fluttered free and began to fly away.

"Oh no you won't," she yelled, "Time to De-evilize!" She swung her yoyo out and caught the butterfly, then pulled her yoyo close and ran her finger across the surface. "Bye bye, little butterfly." Snakebug watched the white butterfly flutter away before returning to Chat Noir.

"Pound it!"

"Wh-what happened?" the very confused woman asked Chat Noir as he helped her to her feet. The woman gasped in horror as she took in the state of the street: the damaged shops, the soap-filled streets, the germ-obsessed zombies that were wandering around. Bea placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Snakebug shouted, throwing the rope into the air. It exploded into thousands of miniature ladybugs, which swept across the street. The next thing Snakebug knew, they were surrounded by dozens of equally baffled Parisians, and the streets were back to normal.

"It's all right," Bea was saying as Snakebug walked over. "You were akumatized, but it's no big deal. Everything is back to normal."

"Right. I - thank you," the young woman smiled.

"You're welcome," Snakebug said with a small smile. "Bug out!" She made her way to the top of the nearest roof. Chat Noir, Bea, and Tortuga joined her a few seconds later, and they exchanged relieved looks.

"That was a hard one." Bea sighed.

"You did a good job, I know you do not have much experience, but you both did very well back there." Snakebug smiled.

"Thank you," Tortuga smiled.

"Sass, Tikki, divide!" Snakebug said, and watched as her spots returned to just plain black. She smiled admiringly at Sass before sliding the bracelet off her wrist; she would give him his favorite treat once she got home, Sass had worked hard today and deserved a reward as much as Tikki and Plagg did.

"Well, see you soon, I guess!" Bea waved.

"Yeah, please join us on our patrol tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow, then." Tortuga smiled, and then the two of them left.

The atmosphere changed as soon as Tortuga and Bea had left. It felt tight and uncomfortable. Both remained silent, and Chat Noir avoided looking at her.

Ladybug was deep in her own thoughts; she wanted to tell him about the location of the miracle box, but she was down to one spot left on her earrings, and Chat Noir had three pads left on his ring. The heroine knew that a discussion like that needed to be longer than two minutes, as she knew it would take some time to come up with a reasonable alternative. Now was not the right moment. She watched Chat starting to walk away and reached out for him.

"Chat," he turned around to face her. "Please, don't leave,"

Chat frowned at her. "Don't you have to go?"

"Yes, but - " she paused. Her earrings begun to beep. Her lips twitched. "What I said earlier about the Desperada incident, I just wanted you to know that I didn't mean it." their eyes met. "What happened back then wasn't your or Adrien's fault. It was no one's fault," Ladybug said, willing him to believe it.

"Thank you," Chat said, his face softened into a smile that invaded his eyes. He then leaned in towards her. Ladybug felt her heart beating a bit faster. Her eyes grew big as saucers as soon as she realized what the blonde was about to do. Her breath caught as his lips touched the curve of her cheek, right where her mask lay against her cheekbone. He lingered for a moment, long enough for her to inhale the scent of his cologne, and then he drew away. He bowed his head to her, and then turned away and used his newly restored baton to propel himself off the rooftop.

She touched her cheek with trembling fingers, her face burning.

"... What?" She winced.

-LB-X-CN-

This wasn't the first time he'd kissed her. Chat Noir had kissed her hand before, many times, and she thought he might have even kissed her cheek before, but it had never felt like that. Her heart was suddenly galloping in her chest, and it had very little to do with the battle they'd just been through. The rain was coming down in sheets now, but she stood still, staring after him until her earrings gave the last beep that meant she only had a couple of seconds until the last of Tikki's strength would give out. Then she cursed and scrambled to get off the roof, landing in an alley mere seconds before her transformation gave out.

"Oh! Ouch! Those unifications are exhausting!" Tikki breathed, landing in Marinette's hands.

"I'm sorry Tikki. I promise I'll get you some of the really good cookies once we come home," Marinette muttered, but she was still distracted and Tikki could tell. The small, pink creature sat up, staring at Marinette with narrowed eyes.

"All right, did I miss something?"

"No," Marinette lied, and quite unsuccessfully at that judging from Tikki's skeptical expression. Marinette sighed. "I may have implied that the reason Aspik and I failed all those times with Desperada was that Chat wasn't around." She grimaced as she spoke.

"Oh, no you didn't. Marinette!" Tikki groaned.

"I-"

"Marinette, that was a horrible thing to say! You know that Chat takes your health and safety very seriously. For you to imply that Ladybug had died 29,000 times because he hadn't been there-"

"I know, I know. I shouldn't have said that. But I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I regret it so much. It was awful of me." Marinette hung her head. "It's just...,"

"Mmm?"

"He was claiming that Adrien was a bad choice to be a miraculous holder, and I was just trying to defend Adrien."

There was a small but significant pause before Tikki said, "Ah. Adrien."

"I swear didn't do it because I still have feelings for Adrien!" Marinette replied fast, assuming that was what Tikki was thinking.

Marinette was feeling very confused. She was supposed to be letting both of them go, but the date with Adrien had been nice, and there were moments where he'd made her heart flutter. And that kiss from Chat had left her spellbound, and part of her – a very small part – might have wanted more…It just wasn't fair that her feelings for Adrien were the same as ever, while her feelings for Chat Noir were deepening.

"Of course you didn't," Tikki said patronizingly.

Marinette sighed. "I'm going to have to bring Chat a lot of apology pastries, aren't I?"

"That sounds like a good plan."

-CN-x-LB-

"Plagg, claws in." Chat Noir said as he transformed out of his superhero alter ego and he knew instantly that something was off with Plagg.

Upon reverting back Plagg had flown out and instead of hovering tiredly in front of Adrien or looking for cheese, the kwami was laying on Adrien's couch in a curled ball shivering, coughing and occasionally sneezing. It was clear that the small, black creature was sick.

"Plagg! what's wrong?"