Marinette, like every morning, left home after breakfast and headed to the high school.
As she crossed the large front gates, a limousine stopped in front of her. A blond boy got out, immediately drawing everyone's attention.
Marinette kept staring at him, so distracted that she didn't see the person coming her way and ended up bumping into them.
"I'm sorry! It was an accident!" she apologized quickly.
Embarrassed, she waved awkwardly and ran off.
While she walked through the hallways toward her classroom, a familiar voice sounded from her purse.
"Marinette, if you like him, you should tell him. I don't understand why you still haven't."
"Tikki, you don't understand…" she whispered, her heart racing.
Tikki, her kwami, the little creature that turned her into Ladybug, floated there looking worried.
"Adrien is handsome, famous, polite, rich… and any other word you'd use to describe someone perfect. There's no way he'd notice someone like me."
"You need to have more faith in yourself," Tikki insisted.
Marinette sighed, not answering at first, but then she murmured, a bit more determined,
"Well… I have a plan to at least get him to notice me. Every other Friday he has private lessons… If I sign up too…"
Talking with Tikki almost without thinking, she reached the classroom door and sat down in her seat.
"Girl, who are you talking to?" asked Alya, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Alya? What are you doing here?" Marinette asked, startled.
Alya burst out laughing.
"Here? In my classroom…"
Marinette stared at her for a second, then lowered her gaze and smiled, embarrassed.
"Right… sorry. I was distracted."
Alya, who knew her friend far too well, just laughed, and they kept chatting about other things until the teacher arrived. Instantly, the class fell silent.
---
Ten minutes later, something unusual happened.
Tikki, who always stayed hidden in the purse, floated out in front of Marinette with a serious expression.
"Marinette! You have to transform right now!"
"Tikki, hide! We're in public!" Marinette whispered, scared.
Her reaction caught the attention of all her classmates.
"What's that?"
"A new plush toy?"
"So cute! I want one too!"
Some, however, recognized the creature immediately: those who had once worn a Miraculous knew it was a kwami.
"There's no time for that!" Tikki insisted, ignoring everyone, "You must transform!"
Meanwhile, something similar happened on the other side of the classroom: Adrien heard his own kwami, and without hesitation, transformed into Cat Noir in front of everyone.
Though Marinette hesitated for a second, she did the same.
Ignoring the class's shouts of surprise, Ladybug threw her Lucky Charm.
What appeared in her hands was a wheel of the Chinese zodiac.
It wasn't the first time she'd received something symbolic: when she got something shaped like a turtle, she needed Carapace; something shaped like a fox meant Rena Rouge. This time the message was clear: she needed everyone.
Luckily, several Miraculous users were right there.
Without wasting time, she took out the fox Miraculous and handed it to Alya.
"Alya Césaire, I entrust you with the Miraculous of the fox, guardian of the power of…"
"There's no time, Marinette! Hurry!" she heard a voice in her mind.
Without asking how that was possible, she started handing them out one by one.
Alya, then Nino, Max, Rose, Juleka, and that was the last one she could give before something else caught her attention.
Nino, now transformed into Carapace, understood the urgency: he instantly created a protective dome covering the entire class.
But a second later, the ground shook.
At first she thought it was an earthquake, until she saw it: someone — or something — had struck the shield hard enough to crack it.
"Ladybug!" Carapace shouted, worried, "It'll only hold about three hits like that."
Cat Noir stepped closer.
"Any ideas, my lady?"
Ladybug shook her head, trying to stay calm.
"We don't know what we're up against. But if the kwamis forced us to transform, it must be serious. First, we have to get away and figure things out."
Cat Noir nodded. Then he turned to Max.
"Pegasus! We need to leave."
At the same time, Ladybug looked at Alya.
"Rena Rouge! Hide us!"
Alya raised her flute and shouted Mirage, creating a perfect illusion: inside the shield was a fake image of everyone, while the real heroes vanished from sight.
---
When they reappeared, they were on another continent: Egypt, right in Cairo.
Kaito also vanished from Paris and ran straight to them, guided by Bunnyx, who told him the exact location.
It only took him twelve minutes to cross the distance from France to Egypt.
As soon as he arrived, he attacked without hesitation.
But the heroes were already prepared.
A portal opened in his path, trying to trap him inside a new Carapace shield.
But they underestimated his speed: before the portal had even finished forming, he had already dodged it.
The rest of the team had also prepared attacks to corner him.
Kaito, true to his style, moved first against Rose, now transformed into Pigella, whose mental power could complicate everything.
Like he'd done before, he appeared behind her and knocked her out before she even noticed.
The rest, seeing their trap fail, decided to enter the shield themselves.
Kaito launched himself at the shield with all his strength.
But it was a trap: just as he was about to strike it, Carapace deactivated it, making him lose balance for a second.
Purple Tigress seized that moment, activated her power, and landed a punch that sent him flying, like being hit by a truck.
Even so, the moment he hit the ground, Kaito was already on his feet, running again.
With Carapace and Purple Tigress unable to use their powers again, defeating them was a matter of seconds.
But when he went to attack the others, he found it was an illusion.
He could have phased through… but it was a huge maze, where some walls were real and others weren't.
Before, something like that would've been a problem. But after learning to vibrate through matter, Kaito simply phased through everything without stopping.
While he did so, with every step, lightning spread from his feet, crackling around him.
Normally, those sparks wouldn't harm anything. But this time, he deliberately directed them to cover several meters around him.
A pained gasp broke the illusion, and a few meters away he found the group. Rena Rouge, in particular, was on her knees, hurt by the lightning she hadn't foreseen.
Ladybug and Cat Noir, however, were unharmed.
"Rena! Are you okay?" asked Ladybug, without taking her eyes off Kaito.
But Kaito didn't wait: he launched himself to attack again.
As soon as he started running, Cat Noir touched the ground.
"Cataclysm!"
The ground beneath his feet cracked and collapsed, and all four of them fell into ancient catacombs.
Kaito, who had been going at full speed, stopped abruptly, coughing from the dust and sand.
That instant was enough for the three heroes to jump at him.
For a moment, they managed to hit him, and even Ladybug tied him up with her yo-yo.
But Kaito vibrated to break free, yanked the cord, and pulled Ladybug toward him, hitting her.
As she hit the ground, she threw her yo-yo into the air and shouted Lucky Charm again.
Cat Noir and Rena Rouge reacted instantly, launching a combined attack.
Kaito, though distracted by Ladybug's shout, moved just in time: their attacks collided with each other.
He used that moment to appear behind them and knock them out.
Finally, he approached Ladybug, ready to finish it.
But she didn't attack him.
Instead, she raised the white flag she held in her hand and waved it.
"I surrender" she said, looking him straight in the eyes.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)