A while later, Marinette explained everything to Alya while Adrien explained to Nino about what they'd discovered.
"Blu Tembo and Panthera are underground? No way!" Nino gasps.
"Yeah. Milady and I have to find them. Can you make an excuse that I am wandering around in Italy just to explore myself ever since I went through a lot because of my father's strictness? I hope Marinette understands that I wanna figure out who I am by myself. She can't know I'm Cat Noir" Adrien said.
"You got it, Dude. You can count on me" Nino said.
"Good" Adrien fistbumps with him.
With Marinette, she was going through her overthinking panic mode again whenever she talked about Adrien before. But now this is different she and her kitty have to find the missing heroes but her teacher and classmates have to know what Marinette is doing.
"I'll just tell them that you decided to join Adrien in exploring Italy and that his mother allowed it," Alya said.
"But Adrien can't know I'm Ladybug. He's been through enough from his father" Marinette said.
"I know. But he's no more and Adrien's a free man" Alya said.
Nino and Adrien came into the room, startling Marinette as she stumbles down from her clumsiness.
"Oh, hey guys!" Marinette waved.
"Hey, girls. What were you two talking about?" Adrien asked.
"Nothing! Nothing! Uhhh....Alya and I are gonna explore! Yeah! Just us girls!" Marinette quickly said with a stammer whenever she tried to make a white lie.
"Yeah, exploring" Alya nodded.
"Oh, Nino and I were gonna do the same too. Just us big boys. Right, Nino?" Adrien said, telling him to go with a white lie.
"Of course. A best buddy needs to tag along to explore Italy" Nino said.
"That's awesome! Awesome that you can explore and find what you want to be, Adrien" Marinette stammered.
"Girl, breathe" Alya calms her down.
"Sorry. Just got excited" Marinette said.
"It's alright, Marinette" Adrien replied.
"Will you be okay, love?" Marinette asked.
"I will, and I will think about you" Adrien held her close and kissed her.
"And I will think about you my prince," Marinette said.
-
The next day, it was time to go and find the missing heroes. Their friends covered for them while the superheroes went to Mt. Vesuvius to find anything that had a volcanic tube that could lead to something.
"So we're going into the crater, Bugaboo?" Cat Noir asked.
"Yeah. But be careful. This tube could have deadly gas like sulfur" Ladybug said.
They slide down the slope of the crater without any park rangers noticing them. They stopped on the side of the mountain, finding a dry lava tunnel.
"No hot springs to relax in but we do need a vacation once we find them," Cat Noir said.
"I'd look good in a swim suit" Ladybug joked as they got inside.
Cat Noir used flashlight mode on his staff. Despite he can see in the dark, his bugaboo can't.
"I got a bad feeling about this, Kitty," Ladybug said.
"Earthlings, we come in peace," Cat Noir said in the tunnel, trying to cheer his lady to not be scared.
"Hehehe....looks peaceful to me" Ladybug giggled.
They soon came to a stop, "What is it, Kitty?" Ladybug asked.
"Strange, an abandoned mine?" Cat Noir saw an old generator and flipped the switch.
"Why build a mine inside a volcano?" Ladybug looks around, "Must have been built after 1944"
"Probably to dig for minerals or something. This mine is very old and it's too dangerous to ride the mine cart, milady" Cat Noir said, kicking the generator to make the power lights work. It all lit up the mine, revealing all the equipment.
"Incredible. But I wonder why it was abandoned" Ladybug looks around.
"Maybe because Vesuvius did not like visitors" Cat Noir points at the old human skeleton remains.
"Clearly toxic fumes," Ladybug said.
"Sulfur is very deadly" Cat Noir traced his finger on the mine tunnel wall and smelled it, "Yup, definitely sulfur. We should keep moving. Our friends are waiting for us. Who knows what they are dealing with right now"
-
Panthera and Blu Tembo managed to get away from a stampede that almost crushed them and they are now in a jungle area filled with carnivorous plants.
"Don't smell their sweet scents. It's a trap, chico" Panthera said.
"I'm resisting it. By the way, if we can talk about something, maybe it can distract our noses. I gotta ask you, did you encounter strange things when Monarch hacked into the Alliance rings? I admit I loved that technology ring that was waterproof but I had to get rid of it" Blu Tembo asked.
"Si. Mi familia transformed into some kind of....miraculized things. Especially when going through a major nightmare headache that wouldn't go away. It wasn't only me but everyone was experiencing the same thing" Panthera explained her story about Monarch's latest evil plan.
"I see. Well, I went through the same thing, smashing the rings one by one" Blu Tembo said.
"What really happened before that? Was your family and your people okay?" Panthera asked.
"They were but suddenly they all transformed. So I had to fight them to free them. I figured it came from the rings" Blu Tembo said.
"Same thing as I thought too," Panthera said as they both came to an open field, "That major headache of my worst nightmare felt so real. Did you experience that too?"
"Sort of. But I'm glad that monster is dead" Blu tembo said. He looks up to see pteranodons.
"Don't move" Panthera held his arm to not move.
As soon as the flying extinct creatures were gone, they both sighed in relief.
"What was your worst nightmare? The same one that we faced in Paris by that boogeyboy?" Panthera asked.
"No, it was a lot worse than the giant mouse. It was....." Blu Tembo shuddered at how horrible it felt to experience a nightmare stuck in his mind...."Elephants going extinct"
"Like the mammoths before them," Panthera said.
"Yes. When I first volunteered, I felt attached to the elephants. They were like family" Blu Tembo said.
"Oh, Chico" Panthera can see how he feels about them.
"I could not live without them if they went extinct. What's your worst nightmare?" He asked.
"Losing myself if I ever got akumatized. When I saw the victims in Paris who got akumatized, I could feel their trauma at the thought of becoming monsters. I was afraid to experience that kind of trauma. I saw.....myself as Escarlata" Panthera shuddered at the image of Panthera becoming Escarlata. An akumatized Panthera bit only as dark red with orange jaguar spots and yellow eyes.
"I'd be damned. I can't picture myself as an akuma. But at least Ladybug confirmed it's gone" Blu Tembo said.
"Let's just hope there is no more akuma again. Monarch was a major psycho. Which also reminds me of the famous fashion designer of Paris who died at the same time that Monarch died, I have a feeling it's him but I could be wrong. I mean he is somewhat of a jerk that never lets anyone in that mansion nor does he ever step out of that mansion that often. But his son es muy guapo and sexy that used to be a model" Panthera blushed at the mention of Adrien being handsome but happy for him that he has a girlfriend ever since he quit modeling.
"Well, at least he lives happily with his returned mother. Speaking of which, look!" Blu Tembo saw a herd of Columbian mammoths going into a lake to chill.
"Whoa, are they real mammoths? They really do have fur" Panthera had never seen a real one alive.
"Well, Columbian ones only have fur on their tails, woolly mammoths had long brown fur" Blu Tembo pointed out.
"And we don't know their behavior. We don't know if they are friendly like their descendants" Panthera said, getting a drink of water from the waterfall since she's very dehydrated for days.
"They were presumably like modern-day elephants" Blu Tembo scoops some water with his hands to drink.
"But they are muy grande, elefante. Twice as big than elephants. Espera!" Panthera felt trembling on the ground, "You feel that?"
It also alarmed the mammoths too as they began to get aggressive at something coming this way. They heard a roar and it came from a group of Smilodon a.k.a sabre tooth cats. The mammoth herd circled their youngsters to protect them.
"Dios mío! Are those....." Panthera can't believe what she's seeing.
"Smilodons, yes!" Blu Tembo took out his horn.
"Aggressive ones I've never seen! I'm no big cat whisperer but I hope you're a whisperer to your ancestors, Elefante!" Panthera took out her spear.
"I hope it works here to translate" Blu Tembo blew the horn.
It stopped the mammoths when heard the blow horn that got their attention. Panthera fought the big cats from going near the majestic creatures. She dodged their huge fangs from biting her as well as their claws too.
"HYAH!" She threw one over.
"KA-POW!" Blu Tembo punched one Smilodon in the stomach.
"Careful, man! We don't know what they are capable of as a living fossil!" Panthera shoved one of them aside.
"Well, they are angry fossils!" Blu Tembo threw one Smilodon aside.
"Chico, earthquake stomp!" Panthera urged him.
"We agreed this was a bad move!" Blu Tembo said.
Panthera impaled the smilodon with her spear and threw it aside, "NOW!!"
Blu Tembo punched the ground to cause a crack. The smilodons all ran off before they could fall into the crack while the ground trembled. The mammoths saw the heroes scare the pack away and approached them.
"She wants to thank us" Blu Tembo read her body language.
"Careful, chico. She's huge" Panthera said.
Blu Tembo reached out and gently petted her trunk, "You're welcome" He smiled at her.
Panthera raised a brow that she never thought that this living fossil could react friendly to a human.
-
Ladybug and Cat Noir were being careful to not fall into the lava. It was hot like hell and they needed to be careful by getting across to the next tunnel where the mine track leads to.
"Man, I really need to cool down" Cat Noir fans himself with his hand.
"We are almost there, Kitty. Just don't look down" Ladybug said.
"Okay, Bugaboo" Cat Noir said.
"You're right, it is majorly hot like a sauna. Our bodies can barely breathe in hot air" Ladybug said as they made it to the end.
"Yeah. But we made it over the lava" Cat Noir said.
"Yeah. You were right that riding a mine cart is dangerous" Ladybug said, trying to let her body breathe.
"Yeah. Now we need to get to the prehistoric world" Cat Noir looks after a hole.
"This isn't like from a movie, Kitty" Ladybug said, not believing that it really exists down below.
"Let's find out" Cat Noir kept searching.
"Shh!!" Ladybug stopped him from moving, "You hear that?"
"Yeah," Cat Noir looks down, seeing the ground crack.
The more they moved, the ground cracked more, "This is not good, kitty!" Ladybug knew they couldn't get out of this. The ground shattered and they fell in.
They screamed as they fell down the shaft but suddenly stopped.
"WE'RE STILL FALLING!!!" Ladybug shouted, "DO YOU THINK YOU CAN LAND ON YOUR FEET THIS TIME?!" She screamed.
"NO THANKS!!!" Cat Noir screamed.
They kept falling until they came to a slide, gliding them into a lake. Splashing in the water so deep, they struggled to move until they did.
Once they resurfaced, Ladybug crawls over to land with Cat Noir, "Phew, we made it"
Panting from their nasty fall but lucky to be alive. It didn't make sense how there's water when there should be stalagmites pointing straight up. Coughing for nearly almost drowning but at least they are alive.
"Remind me to never do sky diving again, milady" Cat Noir said with a straining voice, holding her hand.
"You got it. But I'm glad we survived, Kitty" Ladybug stands up.
"But this is impossible. We slide down a water slide when there should be stalagmites" Cat Noir sits up, groaning from his body aching at the gravitational pull before.
"Are you okay?" Ladybug asked.
"Yeah. I'm okay, Ladybug" Cat Noir assured.
"Where the hell are we?" He asked.
Ladybug then saw the skull of a carnotaurus, "Hey, look what I found"
"What the hell?" Cat Noir took his staff out to scan the skull, "It's a carnotaur. And it's not fossilized"
"Which means" They looked over after hearing a thud.
"Shh!!!" Cat Noir moved her behind the cave wall to not move, "Don't move" He whispered.
In came a utahraptor, three times the size of Velociraptor, "A velociraptor?" Ladybug whispered.
"No, bigger. Utahraptor" Cat Noir whispered back.
It heard something but couldn't see movement. It sniffed something that reeks like Camembert cheese that Plagg eats a lot.
"Keep still, Kitty," Ladybug said.
"It's smelling us," Cat Noir said.
"Grrrrr!" The Utahraptor got their scent.
"Run. RUN!!" Ladybug ran with her kitty.
The Utahraptor chased the two out of the cave until they came into the jungle.