#ladycat

Her paws sang against the concrete, carrying her faster and faster as she attempted to catch up to the running figures. But try as she might, the distance never seemed to lessen. 

Within a couple minutes, they ran out of buildings. The superheroes and the Fake jumped down onto the green grass of the open park. Not that they stopped to appreciate it; the four of them simply continued running, though slower now. To Panther’s surprise, she actually started closing in on them.

Her leg muscles bunched up, then released energy in one explosive burst. With a blinding flash of speed, she lunged at the Fake.

Only to pass right through her, the Fake disappearing.

WHAT.

Confused, she looked around wildly. 

Hawkmoth was attempting to pin down his own foe, Her Boy (she twinged at the realization). 

“Attempt” was the operative word. None of his attacks connected, nor did Her Boy attempt any of his own. He never even tried to block any attacks, but only dodged.

That made sense, because-

You should intervene, a voice in her head said. You don’t want Hawkmoth to hurt him, do you? And you still need to get the Miraculous from Your Boy if you want to bring back his mother, to make him happy.

Yes. Yes, that’s right. That’s what she needed to focus on now: helping Her Boy, both by obtaining his Miraculous, and by protecting him from Hawkmoth’s overzealous attacks.

Previous train of thought forgotten, she surged forwards, swiping at Her Boy’s ankles. A small pang went through her heart, but it immediately smoothed over. Things would be better if Hawkmoth got to make the Wish, he’d see.

The cat boy pole-vaulted out of the way, passing far over both hers and Hawkmoth’s heads, sailing over a small park building. The other superheroes, Fox Girl and Turtle Boy, as she’d decided to dub them, followed closely behind.

“You can’t run forever!” Hawkmoth shouted, bounding towards the building. Panther followed suit, shaking her head. She’d forgotten something, she knew it, but… What?

As she jumped over the roof of the park building, several voices gasped.

Three people stared up at her; Her Boy, Turtle Boy, and-

Her ears flattened. The Fake was back.

Immediately she zeroed in on her. This time, the Fake was a lot slower, worse at dodging - she got a few good claw swipes in, causing the Fake to wince, her face screwing up in pain.

She didn’t waste time revelling, instead pressing her advantage, using the opening to aim a bite at her leg-

Her jaw closed on metal.

Teeth smarting, she let go.

“Need a hand?” Turtle Boy asked the Fake.

The Fake nodded, spinning her yo-yo to create a shield, blocking Panther from making another attempt.

“Is this all you can do?” She heard Hawkmoth taunt Her Boy. “Put up this feeble defense? Do you really think it’ll be enough to stop me?!”

“No.” Her Boy replied curtly. “I don’t.”

Then he ran off, Turtle Boy and the Fake following suit.

AGAIN.

WHY WOULD THEY NOT STAY PUT.

WAS THIS A GAME?! PLAY “WHO CAN ANNOY THE AKUMA THE MOST?!”

Hawkmoth let out a few curses before following them once again. Panther immediately felt better after that.

“You can run, but you can’t-!” Hawkmoth shouted as he ran after them, Panther at his heels.

He never got to complete that sentence.

Mostly because he was too busy screaming as he fell down into a 200 feet deep crater that had previously been concealed by one of Rena Rouge’s illusions.

Panther had a similar reaction, but the sounds she produced would be more accurately described as “caterwauling” rather than “screaming”.

With a heavy thud, the two of them landed in a heap.

“You really think this will be enough to hold us?!” Hawkmoth yelled, shaking his fist at the distant light from the surface. 

In answer, red-and-black spotted goo rained down from above. Between the narrowness of the hole and the limited visibility, neither of them were able to dodge.

Which was how one extremely sticky akuma kitty and a very grumpy Hawkmoth ended up face-to-face with Chat Noir, and not be able to make a single threatening move against him.

“Yes, in fact, I do think this will be enough to hold you, Father,” Chat spit out. 

Hawkmoth would no doubt have had some scathing remark about how he would come back from this and take the Black Cat Miraculous, or perhaps just tell Chat once again what a terrible son he was and how disappointed his mother would be in not joining in the magical terrorist bonding experience.

Unfortunately for him, a blob of the sticky goo had landed over his mouth, rendering him temporarily mute.

“This does not belong to you,” Her Boy said coldly, ripping the Butterfly brooch from Hawkmoth’s chest. A flash of light ran down the length of his body, leaving Gabriel Agreste behind - luckily, the goo remained in place, so she wouldn’t have to listen to a new tirade from the man.

Her Boy turned to her. Immediately his eyes softened. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to protect you,” he told her quietly. “I’m sorry you got hit instead of me. I’m going to put this right.”

He reached for her collar. She shied away as much as she could, but couldn’t get up the nerve to bite him - not when he was looking at her with those eyes, and Hawkmoth was unable to give her orders.

Tugging on either end of the collar, he broke it easily, a dark butterfly flying out. Deftly he pulled a small container out of one of his pockets, trapping the corrupted insect inside it.

Purple goo receded from her feline form.

-------

Ugh. 

She wished she’d developed the amnesia other akuma victims had; she didn’t need to know what being Hawkmoth’s “pet” felt like. At least some part of her mind had been uncorrupted during the process; she didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if Panther hadn’t let Alya go, back in Hawkmoth’s lair, or had thought through what that- that fake Ladybug (her heart still ached at the thought) disappearing meant. 

But the headache-

In the process of trying to rub her head with her forelegs, she tipped over, letting out a startled “Mew!” in the process. 

Damn her newly quadrupedal form.

“Woah, look out!” Chat chuckled, tipping her right side up. She leaned into his hand, purring. Even just that short time opposing him, feeling her body do things against her will, with the possibility of hurting her partner-!

“Don’t worry, I’m safe, the others are safe, everything’s fine,” he told her soothingly, moving to pick her up. “Come on, let’s go home.”

She shook her head, prancing just out of reach, wandering towards Gabriel.

“What…?” Chat asked, tilting his head.

She trotted up to Gabriel, as friendly and nonchalant as you please.

And promptly bit him on the hand.

As Gabriel tried his damndest to swear as best he could with a mouth goo guard in place, she trotted back to Chat, tail high in the air, a smug look on her face. That’d teach Hawkmoth not to lay hands on her.

With a chuckle, Chat offered an arm out to her. She leapt onto it, using it as a ramp to get to his shoulders. With an extension of his stick they were off, pole-vaulting back to the rest of the world, leaving Gabriel for his eventual rescue by the Parisian police - as well as his subsequent arrest.

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(A/N) In case anyone didn't catch it, Rena Rouge created illusions of Chat Noir, Sentibug, Carapace, and herself in order to lure Hawkmoth and Panther out of hiding. They lured Hawkmoth and Panther to a park, where the illusions were swapped out for the real people, except for Rena Rouge, who stayed hidden so she could recharge and create a new illusion, making it look like there WASN'T a giant hole in a nearby field. (Chat Noir created it with his Cataclysm. Finally, after Hawkmoth and Panther fell into the hole, Sentibug called her Senti-charm: a giant goo spewer that trapped everyone it hit. It's the charm she had in "Ladybug".