Chasing Chat Noir

Chapter 3

The wind was blown out of me. I tried to gasp for air, but it felt as though my lungs couldn't contract.

Even though I felt as if I couldn't move, I forced myself to roll off of Chat. Finally, my lungs began to allow air in. As soon as I could, I sat up and checked on Chat.

The force from outside the bakery had flown everything across the room. There was nothing noticeably wrong with Chats body, but as I examined his face, I realized glass had clearly scratched him.

"Chat..." I shook his shoulders. He begrudgingly opened his eyes and immediately sat up.

"Mari- are you okay?" He tried to stand, and I noted that it took him longer than usual to get up.

"You're the one that took the brunt of it, Chat." I wanted to shove him for doing it, but a certain part of me was warmed by the gesture. He helped me up and I quickly went to look outside my balcony.

I was wrong in my original assumption. It had seemed like the bomb stuck merely outside, but there was clear damage to the bakery. "Get inside, Mari. I have to go."

I knew I had to transform soon, but it wouldn't be normal for me to just comply. "I have to do something, Chat. I can't just stay here."

If looks could kill, Hawkmoth wouldn't need to go through such drastic measures to get our miraculous. I'd already be dead.

"I can't leave unless I see you go back in there." He said between his teeth.

I rolled my eyes at him and begrudgingly went through my room once more. I waited until he was just out of view and immediately went to transform.

..........

As soon as my feet touched the ground, I had to dodge multiple flying objects. I heard another loud blast and I hit the floor. It was far enough not to be a threat to me.

I checked my device for Chat's location and started to run.

From what I could gather, most of the bombs were being targeted near the heart of the city.

"Nice of you to finally show, M'lady." Chat had a playful greeting, but he was clearly on high-alert.

"It was hard to get here." I explained. The roads had been covered in debris. Ash was now falling from the sky in gray clouds.

We were on a tall building in the city. It seemed to be evacuated as I looked over the edge. I took a glance around the other buildings and tried to see where the impacts were coming from. "Where is the akumatized victim?"

The city was in chaos. People were running everywhere, and there was no suspect in sight.

Chat squinted in the distance. He raised his arm and pointed in a far away location. I followed his line of sight. "Chat, I don't see anything. Care to elaborate?"

"That's the point, you don't see anything. But the impact is coming from over there. I think the attacks aren't coming from above, but from below."

I gave it some thought. All of the bombs had been within a block distance of the drains, so that would be the only method of travel. "Looks like we're going down under, Chat."

"Looks like it, M'lady." He opened the lid to the underground tunnels and offered me a hand. The bombs must have done damage to the electricity in the pathways because there was no light and there was no ladder on this entrance down.

"I can't see how far the drop is; I'll give you a guesstimate once I'm down there." He nodded as I let go of himself and braced myself for the fall.

The first thing I noticed was an instant rush of cold air. I followed my instincts, and the fall wasn't bad as I rolled into the drop. From the amount of time it took me to fall, I'd guess about twenty feet. Have I hanged abilities had it's perks.

"Approximately 20 feet, Kit." In our time fighting together, I'd played around with nicknames. As Marinette, I only referred to him as Chat. But as Ladybug, an assortment of names was to be expected.

He saluted in my general direction before dropping. His landing was so quietly that I didn't even realize he had made it until he spoke. "This way." He grabbed my wrist to guide me in the direction he meant. He held it for just a moment before dropping it.

We tried to move quickly, but these tunnels were hard to navigate. Many times, Chat and I would come to a stop and look at a two-way path that had appeared in the tunnel. Most calls were a gut feeling that we just had to trust each other to make.

Just as I was about to assume we had missed our exit or taken a wrong turn, there was hum. With my heightened abilities, I could hear it. That must've been why Chat had been able to cover me so quickly.

This time, we were both prepared to duck out of the way when a bomb exploded about ten feet away from us. A clearing opened from above, and light started to pour in. A lean figure moved to face us and immediately started running.

I quickly looked over their appearance. They had a huge backpack- that must be where the supplies of bombs kept coming from. Other than a mask hiding their features, there was nothing else that stuck out about this akumatized appearance.

Come on, Mari. Where were they akumatized?

The figure was getting closer, and I was forced to start leaping from the opposite pathways in the tunnel. I need a second to form a plan.

Chat seemed to understand that a small distraction was in order, and he was immediately up to the task. As fast as ever, he started leaping and bounding around, getting small pushes here and there. As much as possible, we tried to refrain from hurting the innocent victims.

Right as I was about to call for my lucky charm, I saw a keychain on their backpack.

A smile formed on my face. The rest of this would be child's play.