Lovebug

Part 7

Marinette is sitting at her parent's booth in the dining hall of Le Grand Paris hotel's restaurant, as she enters hour three of writing "Biscuits for Bourgeois" with icing on hundreds of biscuits. The mind-numbing activity takes her mind off everything going on around her; Adrien rejecting her advances, the impending wedding to Cat Noir, and the knowledge that her powers are getting weaker by the day. The next time she and Cat Noir have to fight an akumatised villain, they may not be strong enough to hold them off.

"Marinette," Tom's says and Marinette looks up at him. "You've been doing this for so long. Go outside and get some fresh air or something, take a break."

She reluctantly agrees and goes for a wander around the hotel gardens. After around 10 minutes, there is a scream and the entire building appears to be wrapped in prosciutto ham. Seeing as they are alone, Tikki flies out of Marinette's purse and takes a look at the building, also in shock.

"Come on Marinette, you need to transform. Who knows what's going on in there"

"You're right...Tikki, Spots O-" She stops as a black cat-like creature flies overhead and into the building through a window unobscured by meat.

Tikki looks up at Marinette. "What are you waiting for?"

"Oh God Tikki, I can't do it!" Marinette almost screams. "If I go in there, then it means I have to see Cat Noir and I really don't want to do that..." She pauses, realising what she just said. "Oh my God. I've gotten so wrapped up in feeling sorry for myself, that I've forgotten my duty to protect the people of Paris."

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Tikki has become adorably impatient

"Tikki, Spots On!" she shouts

Inside the building, Cat Noir is battling Food Poisoning; She looks exactly like Marlena, except her skin is purple, her chef's uniform is black, she is wearing a mask over her eyes and her toque is also black and is covered in sesame seeds, one in the middle, appearing to be the control centre for the entire operation.

The main seed on her Toque keeps zapping the ground and causing sesame spiders on spindly legs to appear and chase Cat Noir. Ladybug runs up the stairs and enters the battle.

"M'lady" Cat Noir shouts to her as she joins him in fighting off the sesame spiders. "Welcome to the banquet, first course is so fresh, it's still moving."

Ladybug rolls her eyes a little. "Talk to me Cat Noir, what do you know so far?"

"Well, Food Poisoning is spawning these creatures everywhere, and they bite! I think the Akuma is in her hat, that darker seed in the middle appears to be where everything is spawning from," he says

Suddenly, Food Poisoning rises from the ground by what look like noodle vines, entangled in more vines is the small, bespectacled Dominic DeFilute. "Give up Ladybug and Cat Noir!" She says. "I am too strong for you. Both of you, give me your Miraculous and I will let him go." She gestures to DeFilute, who is being gagged by the noodle vines.

Food Poisoning and DeFilute disappear upstairs with Ladybug and Cat Noir tailing close behind them, still being chased by sesame spiders. When the super pair catch up to Food Poisoning, she turns her attention away from DeFilute, who she has trapped in a giant pistachio shell, and takes Ladybug and Cat Noir, head-on.

The fight lasts a while but alas, the hero's are no further along in defeating Food Poisoning. She takes a swipe at Ladybug's right earring but narrowly misses and smashes face-first into the window.

"The gig is up Food Poisoning," Cat Noir says as the pair stand over the temporarily incapacitated villain. He raises his right hand and yells "Cataclysm" in preparation to destroy her Toque but at the last second, the pair are thrown back by a strong gust of stinging wind.

"Ahh, what is that?" Ladybug asks, spinning her yo-yo in front of herself and Cat Noir to protect them both from whatever Food Poisoning is throwing at them.

"What? Don't like this much pepper?" Food Poisoning laughs maniacally. "Just say when!"

The longer Ladybug spins her Yo-yo, the more tired she gets, something that has never happened before. "I don't know how much longer I can hold this off Cat Noir, what are we gonna do?"

"Use your lucky charm," Cat Noir says "I'll try and fend this off with my stick" He pulls out his stick and attempts to spin it in his free hand, but at the last second, drops it and it rolls across the room and Food Poisoning catches it under her feet.

She stops with her pepper attack and laughs again. "You're never going to beat me. Just hand over your Miraculous already and be done with it."

"We're not done yet," Ladybug says. "Lucky charm!" She yells, seconds later, a red and black polka-dotted glass cup land in her hands. "what am I supposed to do with this?" 

She scans the room. Cat Noir is backed in a corner, still wielding his cataclysm but with no way of using it yet as he is still being hit with the pepper wind. Food Poisoning has lost interest in Ladybug and is just focusing the pepper wind on Cat Noir, who she is determined she will knock over. His stick is still a few inches behind her.

It suddenly clicks in Ladybug's head. She runs and grabs a tablecloth off a nearby table and folds it up. She then rolls the glass along the floor with the right amount of force, that it hits Cat Noir's stick which rolls under Food Poisoning's foot. She slips and falls on her back. Ladybug runs up and holds the folded-up table cloth over the dark sesame seed on Food Poisoning's hat so nothing can come from it.

"Now Cat Noir!" Ladybug shouts. Cat Noir runs over and touches the Toque with his right hand. the Toque disintegrates and a small Black and purple moth flies out.

"No more evil-doing for you little Akuma," Ladybug says, swinging her yo-yo and capturing the Akuma inside. "Time to De-Evil-ise!" The moth, now white, flies out of the yo-yo. "Bye Bye little butterfly" she waves to it.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" she shouts, throwing the polka-dotted glass in the air as a swarm of magical ladybugs reverse all damage done today.  Cat Noir grins at Ladybug and she grins back.

"Pound it?" he says, offering out his fist

"Pound it" Ladybug replies, fist-bumping him with the same grin on her face. As upset and nervous as she was earlier at the prospect of seeing him, fighting crime with him will always feel amazing.

A confused Marlena Césare sits up, holding her head in her hands. "What...What happened?"

Ladybug kneels down beside her and helps Marlena to her feet. "You were akumatised, but it's alright now, no one was seriously hurt."

"Speak for yourself!" DeFilute shouts from the other side of the room. His face, once again red with anger. This time, however, the people of Paris came to Marlena's defence as she explained her akumatised state to DeFilute.

Cat Noir's ring beeps, signalling that he is about to transform back. "I guess we should split before we both transform back," Ladybug says, turning to walk away.

"Wait," Cat Noir says, gripping her shoulder. "Feed your Kwami and take a break, then meet me on the roof in 10 minutes. There are some things we need to talk about." Ladybug looks into his familiar seeming emerald eyes. She knows what he wants to talk about, but doesn't want to talk about it, however, as his eyes glimmer impatiently waiting on her answer, she agrees.

"Great. See you in ten, M'lady" he winks before disappearing out the window.