A Masked Deal

Height Difference

Ladybug landed with a thud after throwing herself away from the akumas water stream.

Over the past nine years, they'd fought three types of villains; the bring my wife back from the dead villain - who also happened to be your best friend's father, cue the Star Wars parallels, the psychopathic liar - who just didn't know when to stop, and the new villain. The 'I must prove myself as the best Papillon' villain. He or she, yet to be determined, was something else. They had no boundaries or morals with their attacks. Even with the Miraculous Ladybug's, one attack left Chat Noir in no man's land for two days. The scariest two days of Ladybug's life.

Since the arrival, around a year ago, of this new arch nemesis, Marinette had relied on Chat a lot more. Same for Rena Rouge. She needed a team, it got too messy and too tiring a lot of the time. Around six months previously she'd pulled all the team together for a meeting. They had a choice there and then if they wanted to pull out and go home to their loved ones they could just reveal themselves and walk out the door. To Marinette's amazement every single one of them stayed. They were in this together, they were an unstoppable team.

Ladybug skidded across the floor, quickly grasping onto a chair and pulling herself up to standing. She dived behind a turned over table and considered her options. She needed additional help but there was no time to call for reinforcements. Opening her yoyo she pulled out two additional Miraculous'. The bee and the dragon.

"Chat," she shouted, "you need to unify."

Chat bounded over to his Lady and crouched next to her behind the table.

"Fancy meeting you here?" He smirked.

"Not now, kitty. We need a plan." She took the dragon choker and handed it over to him. "Unify Longg with Plagg."

He took the Miraculous and placed it around his neck, calling his transformation. At the same time Ladybug joined Pollen with Tikki. She turned to Chat ready to fill him in on the plan when she caught the goofy grin on his face.

"Don't!" She said, sternly. His eyes were shining and she knew what was about to come next before he even said anything.

"You look -"

"Chat, I swear I will 'lucky charm' you out of existence."

"No you wouldn't, you love me. Bee-utiful lady." Ladybug couldn't help the slight laugh escape her lips. This was not the time, and usually she wouldn't let him get to her like that. She needed to focus.

"The akuma's in the flower, by the way." He suddenly said in a serious tone.

"Okay. I need you to set the stage of fire. Let him concentrate on putting the fire out. Lucky charm." She called into the air. Placing her hands out to catch the object, she turned to face her partner. The smile he was giving her made her insides quiver. She needed to get over this. She couldn't let it affect the way they worked. Looking back at her palms, she was now the proud owner of a banana skin. Great.

She looked around and it clicked together, she knew exactly what she needed to do. She needed to get high. Signally to Chat to start the plan, he leapt out and made his way to a gas tank connected to the large cooker on the hot dog concession stand. Grabbing it and rolling it over towards the stage, he called for lightning aiming it to strike the target. The tank exploded, flames beginning to spread around the main stage, and ultimately Chuckless. Wanting to keep the fire as ablaze as possible to give his Lady more time, Chat pounced towards the alcoholic beverages and began throwing them onto the fire.

"That's a waste, kitty cat." Ladybug shouted from where she was on the roof supports.

"Don't worry, Bugaboo, your gin will reappear for your consumption." Chat threw the last couple of bottles before making his way up to join Ladybug.