Miraculous One-Shots!

Escape Artist

For rapunzelina664! My computer apparently doesn't like tags. 

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Marinette knew that this was probably her fault. She hadn't planned for Nathaniel to get akumatized, quite the opposite actually, but it had happened anyway. Why had she invited Chloe to the escape room again?

"I'm so sorry, Nathaniel. I thought Chloe was getting better!" Adrien called to Nathaniel, who was now calling himself Escape Artist.

Ah, that's right.

Adrien had practically pleaded with her to invite Chloe along. After Miracle Queen, she had become isolated with everyone. Only Sabrina hadn't left her in the dust. Adrien thought that if Chloe had some reliable people to count on, maybe she'll go back to doing better.

So of course, Marinette had arranged a class-wide escape room outing that could be used as bonding time. And of course Chloe just had to blow up at Nathaniel and blame him when they didn't figure out the room in time.

The only good thing about this was that Lila was busy today, so she couldn't make things worse.

"Well, obviously, you thought wrong. And now you will pay! All of you will pay!" Escape Artist was dressed in a rust colored suit with keys hanging from the ends of his coat and sleeves and seemed to be floating, raised up in the room. Different number combinations were on his black tie in white and changed periodically.

Marinette looked around, trying to find a way to escape. She needed to get out of here so she could transform! Weren't there supposed to be security guards checking the cameras, so they would see Nath getting akumatized?

"Nathaniel, I know that you're upset. That's perfectly understandable, but don't give in to Hawkmoth!" Marinette went to stand next to Adrien, the rest of the class behind them.

"It's Escape Artist! This is all your guys' fault!" Out of the corner of her eye, Marinette saw Chloe run for the door, but before she could a wall fell in front of her. "You want freedom?" Escape Artist grinned. "You'll have to escape from me first." He snapped his fingers and with that darkness surrounded them.

The first thing Marinette registered was that it was dark.

It was too dark in her opinion. She waved a hand in front of her face only to see absolutely nothing.

"Ow." A voice said from beside her.

"Hello? Who's there?"

"Where are we?" A third voice piped up.

"How many of us are there?" A familiar fourth voice asked.

Suddenly, light invaded the space as a screen flickered on.

Taking advantage of the faint light, Marinette scanned the area to see the illuminated faces of her classmates and several objects scattered around the room.

"Hello and welcome to my little game." The voice of Escape Artist filled the room as he appeared on the screen. "Don't try and get out, the only way you can is if you win." He grinned. "I have trapped you all in a maze. The only way to get out of this maze is if you can get all the keys and unlock the final door." He smirked. "If not... well, I'm afraid you will come to an unfortunate fate."

"So you've locked us in an escape room?" Adrien asked. Escape Artist grinned.

"Correct and since you're the one to blame, you have the honor of going first."

"I'm sorry." Adrien said again.

"Sorry doesn't cut it! Why would you trust Chloe? She'll never change." Escape Artist sneered. Adrien just frowned.