Chapter 3

Note: Sorry this took so long! Writers block is atrocious. ;; Hope you enjoy though!

Ladybug jumped down from the railings above the dock landing a few feet from where the akuma victim stood, frozen, hard and lustrous; like steel.

"Alfred!" The woman beside her, cried.

The moment Ladybug's feet hit the ground, she run to them, managing to pull her yoyo back without dropping it. Though, even in her suit, she slipped and nearly fell on her face.

She looked down and saw a melted popsicle that had been turned to a polished steel, just as the man was.

The woman who had witnessed it had turned almost white from the shock and had fallen over. Looking off to the distance, she saw that her boyfriend wasn't the only victim to this abnormal fiasco.

"Here," She looked up to see the spotted hero extending a hand to her. Which she took graciously.

"Don't worry, we'll put a stop to this," Ladybug assured. "Everything will be back to normal. For now, get to somewhere safe."

The woman nodded, snatching her hand away before running towards the subway. Ladybug kept her eyes on her until she was well out of sight. With a grumble, she turned all the way around before she saw a traffic officer, and the people she was formally leading across the road. But they hadn't gotten far, as they were now silver statues, being more of the many victims of the day.

She turned around the other way, seeing a dog. It was in the stance of running at or from something, but now he wasn't going anywhere.

It was awful, but she couldn't stand around and do nothing.

"Find the Akuma," she reminded herself. "Find the Akuma. Drat! This would be a lot easier if Chat would show up..." Then, she stopped herself.

Chat Noir couldn't come. Chat was injured. The last time she saw him was when he was in her house, with who-knows-how-many injuries, let alone broken bones.

"Find the Akuma and fix Chat," she said, as to motivate herself. Ladybug hurled her yoyo around one of the taller buildings around her, and allowed it to propel her to the rooftop.

She propelled from rooftop to rooftop, strung across the bridge, climbed the Eiffel Tower, ran laps around the Louvre Pyramid, but there was no sign of the Akuma that started this; or any Akuma for that matter.

And the amount of people and animals turning into victims was multiplying.

"Tikki..."

The Red Kwami looked over towards her holder, with a mouth full of granola. "Don't worry, Marinette- Mff... You'll catch it."

After searching around a back ally, her miraculous had ran out of juice, and needed to grab something for Tikki to eat.

"You shouldn't worry about it too much, it'll start to show on you." She added.

Marinette sighed. "I've looked all over. I'm exhausted but if I take a break I might lose it. Chat's counting on me..."

"True, but it isn't good to put so much pressure on yourself-" Tikki tried to explain, but there were voices- loud voices coming from around the corner. She immediately silenced herself and looked towards the girl who was already taking a fighting stance.

"Mari-"

"Wait," she put up a finger, trying to distinguish what was being said from so far away. "Tikki, spots on!"

A piece of the granola fell out of the Kwami's mouth. "Are you sure about this Marinette? What if you-Eek!" She squealed as she was dragged into the earrings.

A red light illuminated the area surrounding her, reflecting off of the glass of the vending machine. When Marinette opened her eyes again, she was looking out through a mask, and she barely had enough time to process her body being taken over by the suit before she started running.

The voices were getting louder, and she could hear the anger generating from them.

As Ladybug turned the corner of a small building, she could see that the building beside it was under construction. It only possessed it's foundation, but was missing everything else. Around the area there was traffic cones and caution tape, bricks, and a truck load of something.

"You're asking for more money to be put into this than the bank will loan. I said I can't do it." One of them men, looking to be the head the operation, said.

"Money shouldn't be an option for people's safety. What you plan to do is cheap, and half-ass'ing the joint like this would be against regulations!" The other man shouted, pointing to the building. "If you're not going to approve of it, I'll do it myself."

"If you even think about touching that phone, you can bet the next call I make will be to the company and you'll be fired in a heartbeat."

"Hey, hey, lets calm down here," Ladybug held her hands up defensively, "Like you guys probably know, there's a bit of a situation and it's not safe to-"

"But out of this, kid," The taller, much an angrier one said, nudging her away. "Can't you see the sign?"

Ladybug looked at the caution sign but paid no mind to it. "Listen, I'm sure that... whatever this is about, can be settled somewhere with a roof, right? Somewhere not so... out in the open?"

"I mean," she nudged his shoulder. "We've got to stay away from those negative feelings, am I right?"

He slapped her hand away, and stomped off. Ladybug gave his direction a worried glance then turned back to the boss. He looked like he was about to say something to her, but his phone started to ring and he waved her off to answer it.

She tried to keep her eyes on the other, much bothersome man, but he was nowhere to be see by the time she explained the situation to the other workers on the site. For some reason though, she had a hunch that he was the man Chat Noir was talking about.

But alas, there was the man, but no Akuma.

The lanyard that Chat snatched from him must have snapped, and he turned back to his civilian form, but there was still the Akuma.

She really hated revenge. It was such a nasty thing and she didn't want to think of this that way, but the condition Chat was in really upset her, and taking responsibility for it made her want to catch the rotten butterfly more than she had ever wanted to.

Glaring, Ladybug swung her yoyo to the closest thing it could grab to get her up in the air, and with all her might, she jumped for the chimney of another building.

She was going to find it this time, for, Chat, and she was going to enjoy cleansing it.

There was the sound of many, probably thousands, of tiny wings fluttering, echoing around such a large and empty space. They were anxious, just waiting to be called upon.

A crisp, smooth thump, made by a cane hitting the floor made the butterflies come together, hovering in a large ball of furious white wings.

"Denied when wanting to do good. Infuriated that you can't do what you know it right, and having someone's stupidity rule out your liberty. All those raw emotions forming into rage again." Hawkmoth said to himself, as if chanting.

A single white butterfly hovered onto the palm of his hand.

"A perfect alliance and an even better enemy for our courageous heroes. What better to fight justice with justice?" The man under the mask and helmet smirked as he closed his hands over the innocent butterfly. "Now, fly my little Akuma, evilize that poor soul. Show him the light- The Abilities he now has."

With that, a tiny black, but very dangerous, Akuma fluttered away.

"And this time," Hawkmoth added, "don't fail to bring back Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous's."

"Stop moving, you cry baby."

Adrien groaned, feeling everything as he turned over on his side. His broken ribs, his ankle, the headache he developed after listening to his father lecture him about the very injuries he cried about, but he also complained about something more.

His dear lady was still, as far as he knew, roaming all the streets in Paris to find the Akuma. And by the looks of it, he was sure she hadn't even located it yet.

Plagg rolled his eyes and sat on the power button to the remote, turning off the news, silencing the news reporter. She was the second one that day though. The first woman reporting the news was turned to steel, live, right on camera.

"This is awful..." Adrien breathed. "What's going to happen to Paris if all those people come alive that way? Steeler was too much to handle, but there must be... hundreds of people with the same abilities now."

Plagg nodded. "Ladybug sure has her hands full." He shoved a piece of cheese into his cheeks.

Adrien growled, staring out the window. The thought of Ladybug fighting the same villain that had beat him near to a pulp, and left him staggering with broken bones, made him feel awful. Ladybug was fast, but Steeler was sturdy. She was smart, but he was mean. She was too brave for her own good, and he had no weakness.

"I see you making that face, Adrien," The blank kwami grumbled. "Stop it."

"I'm not making any face," the boy argued.

"You're thinking about Ladybug and if you step one foot out of that bed, I'll knock you out."

Adrien turned away. "I hate being stuck here. I can't leave ladybug out there by herself. It's not right. We're a team."

"Uh, yeah, but you almost died."

"So I can't make her deal with this alone!"

"Not much you can do, kid." With that said, Plagg swallowed another piece of camembert. "You're injured, out of commission, done, kaput, conked out. Sorry bud, but you'd just slow her down."

"Geez, thanks, Plagg."

"You know I'm right."

The cat-like Kwami sighed in contentment, as he finally had a full stomach. He rubbed his belly with a paw, and pillowed his head with the other. Minutes of peace passed by before he turned on his side to look at his weakened possessor, and the rotten child wasn't in his bed.

"Adrien!" He screeched, flying out of his tiny bed on the dresser.

Adrien froze, now standing, holding his white button up in his hands. He glared at the sound of Plagg's voice and, with a grimace of painas he held his side, protecting his damaged ribs, he pointedly ignored him.

"Plagg, I have to do something." He said, firmly. "I'm not staying here, and watching these people be taken advantage of, and leaving Ladybug alone to fight them all off. Even if I'll only slow her down, and get in the way. That's all I've ever done anyway."

"Oh yeah? and how do you plan on fighting all these walking hunks of steel the way you are? You're not Chat Noir. You're just, Adrien." Plagg crossed his arms, flicking his tail in frustration. "And the last I checked, Adrien has two broken ribs! Now lay back down."

"That's why I have you, isn't it?" Adrien, clenched his ringed hand into a fist. "We have work to do. Plagg claw-"

Before he could continue, there was a loud 'thud' from the balcony. Something heavy, dropping onto the metal railing. The boy turned to the window and, without thinking, ran to it. Which was a very bad idea; his swollen ankle made sure he knew it, too.

Plagg groaned, flying over to his shoulder. And what he could see, was a pigeon. A poor innocent bird that had somehow caught up with an Akuma. For now, it looked like a lawn decoration, laying flat on it's side. The bird was made of steel. It's beak was still open, as if it had actually eaten the Akuma.

"Plagg..." Adrien's voice was low.

"No," Plagg grouched. "No, no, no. I'm not supporting this. I'm not giving you the power to-"

"Plagg, look."

"I'm not doing it. If you want to go out like this, the way you are right now, and get yourself killed, be my guest, but I'm not going to help you. We both knows what's good for you-"

"Plagg," He repeated. "Down there... look."

Finally, Plagg looked out the window, his tiny black features curled up in a dirty scowl. His eyes followed to where Adrien's were directed to, and he could see clear across the back courtyard of the mansion, and down the street. There wasn't a soul in sight that was still human. An Akuma had even gotten the gardener.

"There's too many."

"No," Plagg said again, more firmly. "No. I'm not giving into you. I said no, and if you're not going to listen to your father, or me, I'm going to lock myself in your jewelry box and swallow the key, so I know you're not-"

"Plagg, claws out!"

Plagg tried to fly away, he tried with all his might, but he was sucked into Adrien's Miraculous before he could even finish his last words to him.

Adrien was pretty sure his last words were, "You're an idiot".

And that he was...