Dreams of You

Chapter 27

Crap!

Chat growled, clenching his teeth as his body slammed into an invisible wall.

Annoying!

This was getting very annoying.

Not that Nino's contraptions were indestructible—Chat's cataclysm could break through anything—but his dear best friend had been increasingly creative with the way he used his newfound powers. Gone were simple green spheres, easily noticeable and fragile. These days, Nino was building invisible labyrinths and human-sized traps, very hard to notice and quite painful to slam against. This invisible wall was the third one Chat had smacked his face into in the past hour.

And today, of all days!

Marinette would kill him if he were to show up with bruises on his face.

"Did I finally catch the cat?" Carapace's voice neared from behind bushes.

Chat cursed under his breath and called for his cataclysm. His friend might have gotten harder to fight against, but the day Carapace would finally best Chat Noir had yet to arrive. The coveted croissant would be Chat's again today.

Like always.

The glass-like box shuttered under his touch; Chat vanished from view before his opponent could make a step into the clearing.

He was very close.

So close he could practically taste the pastry. Perhaps because it was Marinette who'd created it? Her croissants were superior even to Tom's.

"Got you!" A few transparent disks ripped into a nearby tree.

Chat slid behind another one and stilled in his place. He glanced around, his eyes zeroing in on a few trees standing in a circle nearby. If his calculations were right, Carapace should be there in a few moments. He moved towards them, careful not to breathe too loudly.

His opponent didn't leave him waiting for long. Dressed in green camouflage, his head covered with a hood and his eyes with specialized goggles, Carapace walked slowly along his route. His eyes shifted between the bushes ahead and some gadget in his hand.

"I know you're here, Chat." He stopped right where Chat wanted him, scanning his surroundings. "Stealth isn't my greatest suit, but I can and will cage you the moment you as much as squeak. You know that, right?"

"Good thing cats don't squeak!" Chat smirked and ran around the circle, destroying the bases of the trees in a way that sent them toppling over Carapace before he could lift a finger.

"Shit! Shelter!" Carapace yelled, barely protecting himself with his shield before the trunks enclosed him in a trap.

"Adrien! A little warning next time?"

"And let you win?" Chat raised an eyebrow. "It's my fiancée's croissants we're talking about. Do you really think I'll share?"

"That's if you get them." Carapace looked anything but defeated.

"Don't see why I won't, now that you're trapped. Good luck getting out of this."

Chat sprinted ahead with a smile on his face. Marinette's croissants were just up ahead. His feline sense of smell was yet to betray him... and it was telling him that those croissants weren't alone at the moment. Chat's grin widened. He sprinted faster.

"Hello, Kitty."

His beautiful bride stood right beside the plate of mouth-watering croissants inside of some kind of force field dome, no doubt created by Nino, smiling at him.