Right When I Saw You | Lukadrien

Chapter 12 | Tower Showdown

   After Luka's transformation into the temporary ladybug hero, Cat Noir and him immediately began to search for Coeurcass to deakumatize her and declare Paris safe once again. Luka was keeping up swiftly with the other hero, almost as if he'd also used powers and been a superhero as long as Cat Noir had. This is kind of fun, Luka thought before shaking his head slightly and quickly dismissing it to focus on what he was supposed to be doing. The boys kept skipping over buildings like stepping stones until they saw the figure they were looking for standing on one of the buildings ahead. Both boys ran towards her. Luka landed on the building that Coeurcass was on first, followed promptly by Cat Noir who landed beside him. Coeurcass turned to face the pair with a face that looked like she didn't expect them to be there. Despite that, it seemed as if she was ready to take both of them on, despite the clear disadvantage she had. There was only one of her, and two of them.

Coeurcass strikes first, throwing a couple pairs of shurikens from her hands as they split apart in mid air. Just like before with Adrien. The shurikens split into two parts of a heart, Luka recalled. The air was suddenly full with sharp objects hurtling at them as fast as go-karts, but because of their enhanced abilities as superheroes, both of them were able to dodge the weapons with ease. After failing to stop them, Coeurcass seemed to go a little on edge. In clear frustration from not being able to stop them, she reached into her purse and took candy-like objects out and scattered them around the area. Then the rooftop of the building exploded with heat and smoke. It was almost like a meteorite had crashed upon them at that moment. At the same time the explosion happened, the air around them was starting to be polluted with toxic gas. Cat Noir and Luka both jumped onto different buildings nearby to stay out of it. By this time, Cat Noir was on the opposite side of him, and the smoke was so thick he couldn't see him behind it. The space where the candies exploded contaminated the area for a couple of minutes, spreading outwards slowly.

"Cat Noir, come to me!" Luka decides to yell. There was no response, but he could hear his footsteps as he started to make his way over. By this point, Luka found it odd that Coeurcass was silent. Was she waiting for the smoke to disappear to attack? He was trying to figure out what her next move was so that Cat Noir and him could try and counter it. Cat Noir was soon standing next to him again as they watched the smoke disappear silently. When it was completely gone, Luka wasn't all that surprised to find that Coeurcass wasn't there anymore. She had vanished in a puff smoke. Literally. Luka searched around urgently for her, knowing that she couldn't be far if she escaped only a few minutes ago. Cat Noir did the same as him, which led to the other spotting her.

"She's at the Eiffel Tower! I can see her. Let's go alrea-" It was easy to see that he was propping himself up with his staff to jump and head off after her, but Luka stopped him by putting his hand on the other's shoulder.

"I don't think we should do that right away. From what I've seen, I think her akuma is in her purse. It's where she stores all her weapons. Let's try and think of a plan before going farther," he concluded.

The cat-like superhero sighed and turned around while loosening his grip on his steel baton.

"...A-Alright. What were you thinking of?"

~~~

   By this time the sun was starting to set and it had been quite a few hours since this whole situation had started. The air was starting to become more cool from the absence of the hot sun. Their plan was set, and now all they needed to do was to put it into action. Coeurcass was standing near the edge of the Eiffel Tower throwing candy bombs onto the street and citizens. Her face was calm doing so, compared to what was happening below. The sounds coming from the streets were unbearable. There was so much crying, yelling, and just overall fear originating from it that it could probably be heard from space. It was horrible to have to hear people suffer. Luka just tried his best to ignore it for now. The akumatized villain was sitting on the lower level of the Eiffel Tower. He used his ladybug-themed yo-yo to head over to where she was. Marinette was going to be saved if everything went as planned. He landed on the sturdily built beams, but he still needed to be careful of where he stepped. There were a couple of areas where the beams didn't meet that he could fall off of. Coeurcass heard the cling of the steel as Luka stepped on it and turned around to see one of the boys from before standing in front of her.

"You superheroes should stop following me already! LEAVE ME ALONE!!" she screeched with anger.

In order for the plan to work, Luka needed to distract her with something. He looked around with his eyes to see if there was anything he could distract her with, but there was nothing. Luka wasn't confident that he could outrun her with his new powers, so this was the perfect time to try out his new ability.

"Lucky Charm!"

Luka took his yo-yo and shot it straight into the air as a flurry of red and sparkles shot out of it, revealing a guitar pick to fall into Luka's hands. He put the yo-yo away again. The guitar pick had Jagged Stone's face on it and it was... It was the pick that he gave to Marinette the first time he met her. What am I supposed to do with thi-

Coeurcass threw what seemed like about five shurikens which each split into about ten coming straight at him at extremely fast speeds that he needed to dodge. Luka furrowed his eyebrows as he immediately became stressed. He tried his best to balance himself on the steel while avoiding the shurikens flying at him. What he didn't realize was while he was dodging the objects, Coeurcass was coming closer to him. When he did notice the predicament he was in, he suddenly spotted a black rope tied in a loop hanging off the level above him. It kept moving downwards, towards the ground but not quite. When he saw that he knew what he had to do next. He snatched the yo-yo attached to his waist and threw the end around a vertical beam used for the foundation far enough away from Coeurcass to escape her. The yo-yo pulled him closer to the steel and farther away from her in an instant. He knew clear as day what he had to do next.

"Hey, Coeurcass! Look!"

Coeurcass looked over to the superhero irritatingly when her name was called, her face scrunched up in fury. Her eyes were hidden behind her pink shades, but Luka could almost guarantee that they were most likely popping out of her head by this point. However this expression didn't last for long as her face morphed to shock as soon as she got a good look at the boy. She saw Luka throwing the pick off the edge of the extremely high tower. Luka had never seen a person change emotions this quickly. He saw her go running after it as fast as she could, jumping off the tower just to even touch it. Her body flew off the tower, and for a few seconds Luka thought she was flying. He saw her form become smaller and smaller until he saw her stop in mid air. It seemed as if she was so desperate that she couldn't see the hoop that Cat Noir had lowered down and trapped her with. He looked up and saw Cat Noir do a thumbs up sign with his free hand. He was holding his baton vertically which was tied to his leather belt and would tighten once Coeurcass went through it. Cat Noir seemed to have tightened the rope at the perfect time, because her arms were tied too, meaning she couldn't grab anything from her purse. Just to make sure, Luka untied the yo-yo from the beam he was holding on to and tied Coeurcass up a little more from where he was with the slender yet strong string of the yo-yo. It was better to be safe than sorry. Cat Noir jumped down to the same metal flooring that Luka was standing on so they could pull Coeurcass up. After a few moments of waiting patiently, he finally pulled her up. When she was on her knees in front of them she was sobbing quietly. Her face formed a pitiful expression and she seemed helpless to do anything. There seemed to be endless streams of tears pouring down her rosy cheeks. Her mouth opened slightly and she spoke,

"I d-don't want to lose it... It's t-too i-important... I c-can't," she bawled.

The poor girl's head was looking off the Eiffel Tower, most likely in search of the pick, but it would've been impossible to see it at this height. It was such a small object, it would've been like looking for a needle in a haystack. Luka bent down and took the purse to break it. There was no fighting this time, and he took it freely. When he tore it apart, Coeurcass was deakumatized and turned back to her usual self. From it came a pitch black butterfly, most likely an akuma. It seemed to emit an ominously dark aura from it. He quickly untied Marinette with his yo-yo in order to capture it.

"No more evil doing for you, little akuma," he captured the polluted butterfly inside his yo-yo, then briefly released it after purifying it. "Bye-bye, little butterfly."

A beautiful, white butterfly appeared from inside the yo-yo, contrast to its former self. The aura of this one was natural, and it was like any other butterfly that flew around. It flew away into the skies of Paris, which were now orange and darkening with purples and blues. A few stars started to reveal themselves as well. Then, Cat Noir did something unexpected. He extended his fist towards Luka, now with a relieved expression. Luka was a little surprised, but accepted it. He too moved his hand, which he closed into a fist, forward. As they did this, they both seemed to brighten a bit more. They had saved her. It was over.

"Pound it."