Miraculous: Tales of Heroes

Chapter 9

Nino (10 minutes later)

"This is bad," I say to Wayzz. "How are we going to stop Hawk Moth?"

"You need to take out Dark Cupid," he replies. "After that, you should take care of the akumas closest to Hawk Moth. Then you can charge him and take his Miraculous."

"That's what I'm thinking, but how are we supposed to pull it off? We have a limited amount of time once we've used our powers. Most of those dudes we couldn't beat without the lucky charm or cataclysm." I take my hat off and hit my leg with it. "I'm just stressed, little dude."

"I understand, Nino," Wayzz sighs. "But you must regroup with the others! Talk to them. Ladybug should have a plan."

"Ya, I think it's been enough time." I do a quick handshake with Wayzz for good luck and transform.

I struggle to find the storage closet, but once I do, I land and prep myself before walking in. As Carapace, I let my serious side out and dropped my cool-dj persona. Whenever I'm Carapace, people take me seriously, and I can get away with not being chill. Sometimes I mess up and start acting the way I do outside of the mask... people always ask if I'm okay, or treat me like I've lost my mind.

I take a deep breath in and exhale. Now is not the time to be thinking about the whole mask thing. Ya, the mask makes me act more like myself, but now is the time to focus and deal with Hawk Moth. This could be our best chance to take him down once and for all.

I grab the cold door knob and pull the door open. Inside, Chat Noir is sitting on a table, talking to a pacing Ladybug. I notice Rena in the corner, playing a calming melody on her flute (it's one of Alya's favorite songs) and Queen Bee staring at her top.

"Carapace, there you are," Ladybug says once I close the door behind me. "I was worried you got caught by someone." I go to the far corner and stand beside Rena.

"Now that we're all here, M'lady," Chat begins. "Why don't you say what's on your mind?" Ladybug stops pacing and faces everyone.

"We need to take out Dark Cupid," she states. "Queen Bee will probably be our best bet at getting him..." Her eyes wander to Queen Bee, who still hasn't looked up. "Are you even listening?"

"I listen whenever I want, Ladybug," Queen Bee hissed. "Currently, I'm doing something way more important than listening to you blather." You could practically see the steam coming off of Ladybug's head.

"Hey, now isn't the time for that," Rena attempts to soothe. "We all need to work together."

"What's more important than this meeting!?" Ladybug shouts. Queen Bee isn't fazed and continues looking at her weapon.

"The news. Da-erm, the mayor is addressing the people," Queen Bee explains. "But I don't think he's planning on staying in Paris." Chat Noir opens his staff to his screen.

"She's right, he's giving a weak address," he says and shows Ladybug. "But what's so important about that?"

"That doesn't matter," Queen Bee snaps. "I was hoping to get a layout. We don't know what Paris looks like right now. I expected the news station to do an aerial, or at least for Prime Queen to do something, but so far nothing."

"That's-" Ladybug starts. "That's actually pretty smart..."

"Okay, but how about we focus now," I say, pulling the attention. "We can assume that Hawk Moth has sent his army to search Paris for us, that could mean that they've split and aren't around the Eiffel Tower now."

"That could mean he's vulnerable as long as we don't get spotted," Rena simplifies.

"So we should try to find out where the sewers connect to the Eiffel Tower and sneak attack him there?" Chat says.

"But we don't know if Hawk Moth is still there," Ladybug retorts. "What if he's changed positions?"

"I highly doubt that," Queen Bee says. "Why would he move? He's trying to get us to come to him and surrender our Miraculous. We can't surrender if we don't know where he is."

"That makes sense," Chat Noir starts. "But then again, there's probably still going to be a group of Akumas at the tower protecting him."

"He's right," Rena adds. "We could end up walking straight into a trap."

"We could split up," I suggested. "One group is the distraction while the other goes straight for Hawk Moth."

"That risks the people who are the distraction getting akumatized," Ladybug points out. "We can't take that risk."

"He's only after you and Chat's Miraculous," Rena Rouge says. "If you two are the only ones who go after Hawk Moth while the rest of us are the distraction, then there's no risk."

"What do you mean there's no risk?" Chat Noir questions. "Of course, there's a risk! He could akumatize you and find out your identities!"

"We don't matter in the big picture," I tell him. "All that matters is that you and Ladybug aren't exposed."

"Carapace..." Ladybug mumbles. She turns away.

"I'm not okay with that!" Chat Noir stands up and gets in my face. "I would never sacrifice a friend." A sweet sentiment, but one that doesn't matter right now.

"Think about the future of Paris!" I argue. "Do you want to stop Hawk Moth?"

"I do!" He shouts back. "But not if it means risking you guys. What if you get seriously hurt? These are super-powered maniacs who have proven they aren't afraid to kill us. Do you really think I will say okay to a plan that risks your lives?"

That's the problem with Chat Noir. He never thinks of himself. He just wants the best for the people around him.

"If our roles were swapped, you wouldn't hesitate to offer up your life." I make eye contact with him. "Please, dude, let me be the one to make the sacrifice this time." Chat looked so sad. When I said that, he turned away, as if ashamed of the fact I was right.

"I don't think there's any more time for debate," Queen Bee cuts in. "I finally got an aerial view of Paris. Hawk Moth is still at the Eiffel Tower, and as we speculated, the Scarlet Army has scattered. The time to strike is now."

Everyone looked around, glancing at each other. The only plan we had managed to come up with required three of us to draw out the attention of every single akumatized victim. Plus, with or without Dark Cupid wouldn't matter, we wouldn't be able to cleanse the Akuma's, so they'd only be reakumatized within minutes.

"Fine," Ladybug mumbled, breaking the silence. "Let's do your plan." I gave her a slight smile, glad she was letting us be the distraction, but also terrified to go up against so many people without her and Chat Noir. Rena placed a hand on my shoulder.

"We won't let you down," she encouraged.

We moved out quickly. It took us a bit of time to figure out where exactly we would ascend back up to the surface, but once we had everything figured out, we said goodbye to Ladybug and Chat Noir and returned to the plaza outside of the tower.

"Hawk Moth!" I shouted when all three of us were far away from the sewer entrance. Prime Queen's drones had locked onto me, and I could see an air balloon playing my face above me. I gulped and mustered up some courage to continue. "If you think you scare us, you're dead wrong!"

"Come and get us you ridiculous loser!" Queen Bee shouted.

"We won't be losing!" Rena added.

"You'll regret ever trifling with me, superheroes!" Hawk Moth's reply echoed from the air balloons.

Everything felt so dramatic. From every angle, an Akuma victim appeared, surrounding us. Some were huge, I forgot all about Gorilla being akumatized. Others were normal, but one thing was for sure: we wouldn't be escaping this time.

"We can do this," Rena reassured. Queen Bee scoffed.

"I don't need you to tell me what I already know," she said back. "Don't get yourselves killed," she added in a mumble. Taking a deep breath I grabbed my shield.

"Let's do this."