The iconic Eiffel Tower stood serenely in the midmorning sun. The landmark averaged millions of visitors a year, and that day seemed no different than any other. Dozens of tourists were milling around the structure, on the ground below and on the observation decks. Oblivious to the turmoil around them and of the three pairs of eyes watching them from the roof top of a building on the edge of the Champ de Mars.

Ladybug, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir were crouched on a rooftop, not far from the tower. None of them could see any Centurion activity, but they reasoned that they wouldn't be out in the open. But, they would have a hard time hiding a base in the structure, most of it consisting of crisscrossing iron latticework. All three of them had spent time in each of the rooms contained within the tower at some point in their lives, so they were familiar with what could be found inside.

"It makes no sense in them having a base here," Chat Noir said. "They have nowhere to hide in the tower."

"What about beneath the tower?" Ladybug wondered.

"How would they get underneath it though?" the blonde man asked. "I think that man just sent us on a wild goose chase. I really don't want to be a part of this."

Rena Rouge had already noticed how nervous her former partner was. He had been jittery the entire time they had been studying the tower. Without a word, Marinette grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze. She smiled gently at him.

"It's going to be alright," she whispered. "You'll do fine. It'll be just like riding a bike."

Chat nodded and turned back to the Eiffel Tower.

"If there is an underground base, they'd probably have an entrance through one of the buildings at the bottoms of the legs," Chat Noir said, pointing at the bases of the two nearest tower legs.

Ladybug nodded.

"Stands to reason," she said. "If there is an entrance in the tower itself, it will be in one of the bases. Wait, I remember hearing that the northeastern base was closed to the public for a whole month about a year ago…do you think the entrance could be there?"

"It's a place to start," Rena Rouge said, standing. "Let's get going."

Hoping to not attract attention, Ladybug, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir walked under the tower and into the gift shop located in the northeastern most leg base as Alya, Marinette and Adrien. Luckily, no one had recognized the famous Adrien. The shop was empty except for the trio and a green-clad employee who was standing at the cash register. He seemed irritated that they were in his shop.

"We are closed," he said. "Please leave."

"I didn't see a sign," Alya said. "Plus, it's the middle of the day, why would you be closed during potentially peak tourist hours?"

The trio stepped up to the counter. As they did so, the clerk's face paled.

"You! Adrien Agreste!"

The clerk pulled out a laser pistol from beneath the counter and pointed it at the three friends.

"The leader ordered your capture or death!"

The trio of heroes made a hasty retreat out of the shop and to the cover of a rooftop nearby. They had agreed to pull back if any evidence of the Centurions were found so that they could change and preserve their secret identities, in Alya's and Marinette's case anyway, they clearly already knew who Adrien was. They changed into their superhero outfits and hurried back to the tower, shouting a warning to the tourists still enjoying the site. They began clearing off as the three of them shouted a warning. Tower security took over leading tourists away from the landmark from the three Miraculous League team members.

Ladybug, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir burst through the door of the gift shop. Now, it was no longer empty. Now, the room was packed with upwards of fifty Cataclysm Centurions. Rena put her flute to her lips and played a short tune.

"Mirage!"

Clones of all three heroes popped out of thin air all around the trio until there were at least the same number of them as there Centurions. Ladybug, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir hid amongst their clones quickly. The Centurion forces wasted no time in rushing into the line of fake Ladybugs, Rena Rouges and Chat Noirs. The real heroes attacked the large group from three sides, all the while looking for the secret entrance to the Centurion base. They had kept an eye on the building while they had left to change, they knew that no one had entered or exited it. Rena had moved to the side with a door leading to what she surmised was a supply room. She only had a few minutes before she would detransform. She was planning on using that room as a changing station.

Chat Noir and Ladybug used their staff and yoyo, respectively, along with their numerous doppelgangers, to cause chaos within the fifty or so green-clad enemies. If touched, the illusions would disappear, but they could jump and dodge about, making it hard for the Centurions to land a blow on them with their swords. The laser bolts passed right through them, but they wouldn't disappear. They made it even harder to find the real heroes amongst them, who were employing a hit-and-run method of fighting. They'd emerge quickly from a group of illusions do some damage and then hide and run to one side before striking again. Chat and Ladybug sprung out at their opponents again and again, taking on three or four at a time, using their magical weapons to knock the Centurions' weapons out of their hands and then pummel them into unconsciousness. The noise that was being created was deafening.

The only problem was, that when Rena's Miraculous powers timed out, the illusions would disappear as well.

Chat Noir had just jumped out at a group of four Centurions, hitting one of their rifles out of one of their hands with a crack of his staff, when the illusions suddenly disappeared. Rena Rouge was nowhere to be seen. Chat guessed she had ducked through the door at the back of the store to recharge. He and Ladybug were on their own for the time being. Ladybug had not been in a defensible position when Rena Rouge's illusions had disappeared. She was grabbed by three Centurions and hurled through a window and out of the shop. That left Chat alone with about twenty of the villains. Despite his predicament, the blonde felt some pride at how well he had fought and that they had more than halved their enemy's number.

But, that thought didn't really make him feel any better. As it stood, it was twenty to one and Chat was getting tired. He knew he wasn't going to be able to fight them all on his own. He tightened his grip on his staff.

Well, I'm not going to let what happened with my younger self happen again, he thought. I'm going to stay and fight to the bitter end.

The Centurions were closing in on him and he was preparing to use his Cataclysm attack, when a streak of orange hit on flank of the Centurions forces. Two men fell unconscious to the floor during the orange streak's initial attack. Stopping next to Chat, the streak turned out to be Rena Rouge.

"I found the entrance," she said, breathlessly, smacking aside a Centurion with her flute. "We just need to get rid of these guys. Where's Ladybug?"

"They threw her out the window a couple minutes ago," Chat said, fending off a sword attack. "She hasn't come back in though!"

The pair fought on until there were no Centurions left standing. Chat felt like his arms were going to fall off from the reverberations that travelled down his staff from hitting so many armored people. He followed a slightly limping Rena Rouge out of the shop. Ladybug was lying on a pane of shattered window glass. Luckily, her suit had protected her from being cut, it appeared she had just been knocked out. Chat and Rena carefully lifted her out of the glass and sat her against the wall to the destroyed shop. The movement had roused her from unconsciousness. She grunted and put a hand to the side of her head.

"I'll snap those two's necks if I ever find out who they are," she grumbled. "Glass and concrete are not soft."

"Can you keep going?" Rena asked. "I found their secret entrance."

"I'm fine, help me up."

Once Ladybug was steady on her feet, the trio headed back into the shop and into the supply room. On the back wall of the room was a once concealed door, but it had been left open. Beyond it was a dimly lit staircase leading down into the depths below the Eiffel Tower. Running perpendicular to the ground, thick cables could be seen snaking their way down into the depths and up into the tower structure as far as they could see. The staircase also went up a story were it ended in a door. As a precaution, Chat climbed up to the door and opened it. He discovered that it joined up with an existing emergency staircase.

After briefly discussing their options, they decided to follow the staircase down. They all thought that if they were find a power generator, it would be directly beneath the tower. Alya commented that the tower could possibly be used as an antenna to transmit the mind controlling signals. They descended about three stories worth of stairs before they found a way out of the staircase. Alya opened the door a crack. There was no one in sight on the other side. Leading the way, Ladybug stepped through, Rena Rouge directly behind her. Too late, they heard a click.

With his insanely fast cat-like reflexes, Chat pushed the two women forward as hard as he could. He intended to go forward with them, but found he had used all his built up momentum pushing them. He had no choice but to turn and fling himself back the way they had come. The explosives that had been rigged to the door weren't particularly powerful, likely due to the Centurions not wanting sensitive equipment being damaged, but it was powerful enough to collapse the door and a portion of the hallway beyond it.

The trio coughed and spluttered as they picked themselves up off the floor. Ladybug and Rena were separated from Chat by a thick wall of debris.

"Ladybug, Rena, are you alright?" the two women heard Chat call out from the other side of the debris.

"Yes, we weren't hurt," Rena called back. "Are you OK? Can you get through?"

"I'm fine, just a little shaken up. I couldn't try my Cataclysm attack on this debris, it should break through it."

Ladybug had been looking at the walls around them closely.

"No, don't," she cried. "The blast weakened the walls around us. Cataclysm could cause the entire hallway to cave in."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Chat asked.

Ladybug was about to respond when she and Rena heard the sound of dozens of sets of feet running in their direction. The foot pounds reverberated off the walls around them. Chat Noir heard them too.

"Lady, Rena can you escape?" he asked frantically.

"There are doors along this hallway," Rena called to him. "We'll find a way out. You get back to the surface and get the others here when you can."

"Try destroying the cables in the stairwell while you're at it," Ladybug shouted. "Now, go!"

Chat Noir's mind raced. He didn't want to leave them. He left his teenage self and he was captured. He couldn't let people he knew be captured again, especially not twice in one day. He examined the debris that fallen into the hallway. Alya was right, using his Cataclysm attack was too risky. He turned around and used his claws to slice through the cables. He shredded the cables as he climbed the stairs to the gift shop, rendering them completely useless. As he exited the shop, he had an idea. There had to be more than one entrance to the underground base. One could not get a significant amount of supplies and people through one small entrance.

He ran to the northwestern support to the tower. It housed one of the lifts that took people into the upper floors of the tower. As he ran, he called Nino on his cell phone. The other trio had found his teenage self and were heading his way. Chat informed him of the situation with Ladybug and Rena Rouge. He also told him that he was trying to find another way into the underground base. Carapace assured him that Ladybug and Rena would be able to hold the Centurions off for a time and he, Queen Bee and Peacock would be there in a matter of minutes.

Chat Noir had arrived at the support as he hung up with Nino. He jumped up into the crisscrossing iron of the tower and examined the structure. He spotted what he was looking for, the same cables that had been leading up from the Centurions' base. He figured that they would lead him to another entrance to their base. But, first he slashed the cables to bits. He had been standing on a horizontal bar while he cut up the cables. He jumped down onto the roof of the lift. As soon as his feet hit the metal roof, he was hit with a powerful electric shock. So powerful that it brought him to his hands and knees, and it didn't let up. It kept him in that position for some time.

Through the vibrating pain, he realized that the lift was moving. Lifting him up to the second floor of the tower. The pain briefly subsided as the lift stopped moving, but he was hit with another bolt from whatever type of weapon they were using. Rough hands grabbed ahold of his upper arms and dragged him onto the elevator that brought people to the third floor. He was thrust unceremoniously out of the elevator doors and onto the third floor balcony. A slight breeze had sprung up since he and his companions had arrived at the tower.

As the pain dissipated, Chat Noir stood up and looked around him. The people who had forced him to ride the elevator had disappeared with said elevator. He walked a short distance along the platform, no one was there, or so he thought at first. He turned to head back to the elevator to find a tall, handsome man staring at him, a look of amusement on his face. He had dark brown, almost black hair and lightly tanned flawless skin. On his upper lip was a perfectly groomed mustache. He wore an expensive green suit, Chat recognized the suit coming from a well-known and high-end Italian brand.

The man stepped closer to Chat and smiled benignly. He was relaxed, had his hands in his pants pockets.

"I understand that you are back in action," the man said in heavily accented French. "I apologize, French is not my native language. I'm from Italy, Rome actually."

"I should care why?"

"Just making conversation," the man said. "You and I have a lot in comment after all, Adrien Agreste."

The man smirked as he said Chat's name.

"So, you know who I am. I already knew that you did," Chat said. "You already sent your soldiers to my home to capture me. I assume you are the leader or a high ranking commander at least?"

"I am Lorenzo Russo, I am indeed the leader of the Cataclysm Centurions, as was my father before me, as his father was before him and so on. I can trace my lineage back to the Ancient Romans, more or less. We've always been around, subtly influencing world powers. Destroying Miraculi whenever we can. You and I share a bond really, born into similar families."

"What? What do you mean by that?"

"Your father is Hawkmoth, he chased the Miraculouses and absolute power. My father did the same, and now so do I. You have the same heritage that I do. You could join me. I won't kill you, like I was originally planning, as you will no longer be a threat to me."

"He-heritage!" Chat spluttered with rage. "I have nothing from my father! That man is evil! I would never join you! I'd rather die!"

Chat Noir sprung forward at Leader Russo, brandishing his claws. Russo pulled out a sword from the back of his belt and used it to fend off the hero's attack. Locking the blade with Chat's sharp claws, he pushed back against the hero sharply, causing Chat to stop his forward movement. The blonde, full of rage still, stepped back from the Centurion leader and readied himself for another attack.

"Cataclysm!" he shouted and sprung forward at his foe.

His empowered claws sliced through the sword and nearby railing and safety screening. The attack caught Russo slightly by surprise and he had to jump out of the way. The Cataclysm power wore off, but Chat had done what he had intended, to destroy the sword. Now, he hoped, his opponent was weaponless and would be easy to defeat. He reasoned that a man in an expensive Italian suit either wouldn't be willing to damage it or was not a good fighter. He was wrong on both counts. Russo didn't need a weapon to deflect Chat's angry attacks, even when Chat was using his staff. He was wearing wrist guards under his jacket and was able to effectively block swings from the weapon. After a couple minutes of fighting, Chat was on his last paw pad. He had to defeat the man now.

Chat finally found an opening. Bulling forward with his shoulder braced against the staff, he knocked Russo off balance. The man fell back hard against the railing, just to the side of where Chat had inadvertently cut through it. Chat used his staff to pin the man there. Just as eh was reaching up to pull down some of the wire netting to use to secure the man, Chat detransformed, his staff disappeared and he lost his hold on Russo.

Russo jumped at Adrien, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and whirled him around, and before the young man could react, he had been shoved through the severed railing and net and was freefalling from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the pavement below.