butterflies

part ii

with that, the two heroes dove in. neither of them were looking forward to this, knowing the outcome would arrive, accompanied by cuts and bruises; yet ladybug lunged toward the threat without hesitation. within seconds of her pursuit, her path was blocked by a pillar of rock bursting from the ground.

"what the hell?" she said to herself as dust rose in billows around her. "chat, be careful!" she shouted across the way. "she has some kind of rock manipulation."

chat leaped across the expanse, claws outstretched toward gi magissa, ready to pounce. he didn't see it coming as a tree in the background came to life, a branch whipping out and wrapping around his ankles, effectively pulling him back. the branches stretched out fast, unpredictable, like they had a mind of their own.

suddenly, white-hot-searing pain ripped through his side like a scalding knife. chat cried out loudly, his scream causing ladybug to whip her head in his direction. his body went limp for a moment as the tree's tentacle-like branches moved around him. ladybug's chest tightened, her thoughts muddled by blind panic.

no, no no no no, her thoughts screamed at her. she held her breath, her body frozen in time as she waited for him to shift, to move, to do anything.

"you're nothing without your counterpart, ladybug. you're weak." gi magissa hissed out in an almost snakelike way. her words coiled around ladybug and threatened to squeeze the life out of her.

the heroine knew she was trying to distract her from helping chat, her words attempting to create hopelessness and doubt as she screamed for her partner to resurface.

"i thought she controlled rocks?" chat exclaimed breathlessly, his body struggling against the thin bark around his ankles as he seemed to come to life. ladybug exhaled, her lungs screaming for oxygen. she knew that she had lost precious time waiting for her partner. she couldn't freeze like that again; she couldn't afford to. ladybug prided herself in rarely letting her emotions get the better of her in battle, but this had thrown her.

get yourself together lb, you have a job to do.

it was when ladybug swung at gi magissa once again and the tree went lifeless, releasing chat noir who let out a sharp yelp before quickly leaping to his feet, that she realized two things.

one, the villain must have the ability to manipulate the earth. but two, and this could be important, she could only control one thing at a time. if she was busy worrying about holding off ladybug, she couldn't worry about chat and vice versa.

this was the opening they needed to finish this.

"chat, let's go with the old one-two, yeah?" she shouted at him.

there really was nothing elaborate about the 'one-two': it was simply chat going in on the left and her taking the right. she knew that he would know what she meant without having to verbalize it; and they needed to get to her without voicing their plans, or she'd just be one step ahead.

gi magissa was fast and they both found that out the hard way. even though it was only early on in the fight, they couldn't afford any more slip-ups like that. granted, they were only just figuring out her power, but chat was already wounded, and the way he was cradling his side made her think it was worse than he let on.

they needed to hurry. at that moment, it was all or nothing. ladybug and chat went at her with everything they had, getting in close to her in order to avoid any surprises from far away.

ladybug's yoyo was virtually useless at that point due to her proximity to magissa, so she had to rely on her hand-to-hand experience. she went at her from the right, kicking out her leg to collide with her head. she evaded the attack easily, almost as if she saw it coming from a mile away, sending a spray of knife-like stones at ladybug.