White Butterflies

Ephemeral

"We have to get to Moolak if we're gonna defeat him," Marinette breathed to no one in particular, her heart rate rising as she began to panic a bit.

"Pegasus, use your power now!" she shouted over to Max, desperate for anything to work.

Max—Pegasus, Marinette reminded herself—waved his arm in a circle, leaving a line of powdery-blue light in its wake. The ends of the line connected, completing his Voyage and opening a portal into the safe.

Marinette kept her eyes trained on him as he leapt forward into the portal, only to bound back onto the hard rooftop.

He shook his head as he stood, shouting, "I can't teleport. The safe is so filled up with coins there's no room!"

From behind her, Marinette heard Zoe yell, "Maybe it would be simpler just to Cataclysm the whole safe?"

God, where was that cat?

"I know," she shouted back to Zoe. "I've already left I don't know how many messages for Chat Noir."

Another few minutes passed filled with frenetic chasing and calling Noir's phone, only to have to listen to his absolutely intolerable voicemail over and over again, always hanging up before the last meow.

Nothing was working, Noir wasn't answering, and more and more citizens were turning into godforsaken gold coins. Marinette almost began to miss the days of Mr. Ramier turning into Mr. Pigeon, only needing herself and Noir to be taken down.

She had to use it, she told herself. There was no other choice.

"Lucky Charm!"

A pink flash of glaring light blinded her vision for a couple seconds as it always did, dissipating only to leave a... wait, what the hell was that?

Only Luka's yell from her right reminded Marinette to get out of the way as a full-sized fire truck fell from the sky, landing only inches from her feet. It bore her signature Ladybug pattern, the black spots seeming to mock her with the secrets they held.

Still, she knew the responsibility of figuring out what to do fell on her, it always did. Marinette scoped out the people and objects that could be helpful in defeating Moolak, each one lighting up in her mind.

"Got it," she relayed to her team.

It all happened so fast, as it always did. One after another, each Miraculous holder played their part in the battle as Marinette told them to. First, it was her own turn. With her yo-yo, she held the vault in mid-air, stopping it from traveling any further around Paris.

Mylene was next, jumping towards the vault as she transformed into hundreds of smaller versions of herself, almost all of which were immediately turned into gold coins by the Akumatized. Then Zoe took her chance, diving for the safe with her Venom ready to be used. Riding on the fire truck earlier produced by Marinette's Lucky Charm, Nino used his Shield to protect Zoe from the Akumatized. At the last second, he took away the protection, allowing her to drop onto the vault and use her Venom.

And... nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. It was unbelievable how strong the Akumatized was, worrying almost. Shadow Moth's latest creations had become not only more powerful, but more confusing, as well.

This one fit the mold, certainly. It was a puzzle for her to figure out, except nothing she tried got her closer to figuring out how to solve it—how to get to the Akuma. Everything only tired her and the others out more, decreasing morale and increasing pessimistic thoughts.

Marinette's eyes scanned around the area again, their rapid movements mirroring her high heart rate and uncontrolled breathing.

"Viperion," she finally got out to Luka as she pointed to the combination lock on the safe, "Try every possible combination."