DISASTROUS

Lioness

A heavy, studded golden weight attached to a gold chain slammed into the sidewalk in front of them with a crash, peppering them with chipped concrete.

They stared at it, eyes wide.

A woman landed on the street in front of them. She was tall and curvy; her sensual body was caressed by a skintight white-gold bodysuit with a darker gold "furkini" highlighting her generous assets, matched with stiletto-heeled gold boots and shoulder-length gloves with long, black claws on each finger. On her right wrist, she wore a shining copper bangle with a black lion clawprint etched on its face. A gold mask with white trim covered the top half of her face, framing slit-pupiled gold eyes. Tufted gold ears poked up out of a mane of dark red hair shot through with white-gold highlights.

In her hand, she held the gold chain attached to the studded weight. A similar copper weight was attached to the other end.

She licked her lips and growled low in her throat as she stared at Marinette. She reeled the heavy weight of her meteor hammer back in, then began whipping it around her body at impossible speeds.

The two teens glanced at one another, eyes wide, and turned around, racing back to the bakery. The front door crashed into a million pieces behind them as they raced upstairs.

As they entered the apartment, they found Tom and Sabine on their feet, looks of alarm on their faces. "Marinette, what—?"

"Trouble," Marinette said, opening her purse. "No time to explain! Stay inside! Tikki, spots on!"

"Plagg, claws out!"

Ladybug and Chat Noir raced up to Marinette's room, the wide, astonished, wondering gazes of Marinette's parents following them. As soon as they threw open the trap door, they climbed up to Marinette's bed and jumped out onto the balcony, then propelled themselves back down to street level. Ladybug, eyes hard and mouth set in a thin, grim line, launched her yo-yo into the bakery and dragged the woman who had just crashed through the door back out into the street.

The woman threw her meteor hammer at Ladybug; Chat Noir parried with his baton, but Ladybug was forced to release her. She licked her lips and stared imperiously at them. "Don't interfere in my hunt," she said.

"Who are you?" Ladybug demanded.

"A lioness," the woman replied. "A lioness who has no time to play with insects and kittens." She slung her meteor hammer around her body again, picking up speed. The golden end began to glow white-hot as it whistled through the air.

"LOOK OUT!" Chat Noir cried, snagging Ladybug around the waist and vaulting up to the balcony with his baton. The hammer hit the street where they had just been standing, and the pavement exploded.

They stared down at the street as Lioness reeled in her weapon, then began swinging it around her body in elaborate patterns, each swing of the meteor hammer gaining speed. The sound of the golden weight whipping through the air was audible even from the balcony.

Sabine's head popped up through the glass trap door, her eyes wide and alert. "Marinette, what...?"

"Take Papa and run out the back!" Ladybug snapped. "We have no idea who or what we're dealing with here, but that meteor hammer she's swinging around could trash the whole bakery! I'd rather have you and Papa over by the collège and away from this fight so I don't have to hold back!"

The meteor hammer flew past Ladybug's head, just barely missing as Chat Noir knocked it away with his staff. "GO!" Chat Noir yelled to Sabine.

"R-right!" Sabine stammered, staring. "Be...be careful, you two." With that, she retreated into the bakery.

Ladybug slung her yo-yo out, snagging the head of the meteor hammer as Lioness reeled it back in. She used the acceleration of the weapon to launch herself in a diving kick at Lioness' head; Lioness dodged, laughing, and caught Ladybug in the gut with the other end of her meteor hammer.

Chat Noir let out a wordless yell as he dropped from above, his baton split in half; he aimed a flurry of lightning-fast strikes at Lioness, forcing her to retreat. "WHERE! DID! YOU! COME! FROM!" he snarled, putting his staff back together and sweeping Lioness' legs. He pinned her to the ground with the end of it pressed firmly against her sternum, his green eyes full of confusion and rage. "Did Hawk Moth send you?"

Lioness snorted contemptuously. "Who the hell is Hawk Moth?" she sneered. "And nobody sent me, you pathetic little tomcat." Her meteor hammer's chain snaked around Chat Noir's ankles; he found himself flying down the street. Ladybug caught him and helped him regain his footing. Lioness stood up and began swinging her meteor hammer around again, a sensual smile on her lips. "I'm just here to kill a little gnat who's in my way," she said lightly. "Just walk away and I won't have to kill you."

As the meteor hammer struck out again, Ladybug and Chat Noir split to opposite sides of the street and charged, bodies low to the ground. "Any idea who she is?" Chat Noir called.

"No!" Marinette replied. "And how could there be an Akuma, anyway? I have the Butterfly Miraculous!"

"Maybe it's one he created before, and we've just never seen her? I mean, who knows how many—" Chat Noir broke off as he was forced to jump over a wild swing of the meteor hammer, countering with a quick thrust of an extended baton.

"I don't think it works that way!" Ladybug said as she tried to trip Lioness with her yo-yo. Lioness leapt high into the air, reeling her meteor hammer in.

"Do you two always do this much talking?" she asked as she landed lightly on all fours. Her faux lion ears twitched. "...did I hear you say 'Miraculous'?" She stood up and tilted her head. "Now that is interesting." She began twirling her meteor hammer at her side, idly switching it between hands, moving it from one side of her body to the other, slinging it around her back, across her chest, and over her head. The horrible whistling of the massive weight grew louder and lower in pitch. The white-hot glow of the weight was almost blinding.

As the weight flew at Chat Noir's head, He dropped low to the ground, shooting his baton out to knock it high into the air. Ladybug snagged the chain with her yo-yo and yanked hard, pulling the weapon out of Lioness' hands. "CHAT NOIR!"

"Right!" Black motes of energy gathered in Chat Noir's right hand. "CATACLYSM!" He grabbed the meteor hammer as Ladybug tossed it to him, intent upon reducing it to a pile of rust.

Nothing happened.

The two heroes stared at it.

Lioness laughed long and loud. "FOOLS!" she roared. "My meteor hammer is indestructible!"

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged alarmed glances. Chat Noir's Miraculous gave a warning beep.

"Go," Ladybug said. "I'll keep her busy until you get back."

Chat Noir hesitated. "Ladybug—"

"Go," Ladybug repeated. "I'll be fine."

Chat Noir shot Lioness a dubious glance as she circled them, a predatory grin on her face. Spitting out a curse, he launched himself to a nearby rooftop and took off down the block.

Ladybug narrowed her eyes at Lioness, spinning her own yo-yo so fast that it left a whirling red disc of blurry afterimages in the air. "How do you have an indestructible weapon?" she asked. "Only Miraculous users are supposed to have completely indestructible magical weapons."

"Hmm...I wonder," Lioness purred. She flipped forward, diving past a strike from the yo-yo that she shouldn't have been able to dodge, and snagged the chain of her meteor hammer. A second and third yo-yo strike hit her in the shoulder and back, but she tucked into a roll and came up with a short length of the chain near the copper weight held in both hands. With a roar, she charged Ladybug, slamming her in the chest with the copper weight like a bludgeon. Ladybug cried out and went down; Lioness straddled her, leaning close until their faces were almost touching. She smirked. "Trapped like a bug in a cat's paws," she purred. "You know, my mother always told me not to play with my food, but...I think in your case I'll make an exception."

Ladybug glared defiantly up at her. "There's only one cat who's allowed to be on top of me like this," she hissed menacingly. "You're absolutely not him!" With that, she kneed Lioness sharply in the inner thigh, wrapped her right arm around Lioness' left arm, twisted sharply, then rolled out from under her, pausing only to drive an elbow into the small of her back. Backflipping away, she hit Lioness in the butt three times with her yo-yo, then settled into a defensive stance, yo-yo spinning to create a shield.

Lioness yowled and leapt to her feet, her meteor hammer swinging rapidly around her body as she glowered at Ladybug. "Little pest!"

* * * * *

As Plagg wolfed down a chunk of cheese, Adrien paced restlessly in an alley. "Where is her Akuma?" he wondered. "Is it in the ears? The bracelet? What?"

"There isn't one," Plagg said. "Whoever or whatever she is, there's no Akuma. It almost feels like she's a Miraculous user, but—"

Adrien swore violently. "ANOTHER evil Miraculous user?!" He thrust his ring out. "Plagg, claws out!"

"But I haven't finished—" Plagg was sucked into the ring, and Chat Noir sprinted back to the battle. *Hang in there, Marinette...*

* * * * *

Ladybug had been driven back half a block by Lioness' renewed onslaught. The street was smashed and cracked; several buildings had huge holes in their walls from errant swings of the meteor hammer.

"Give up, little insect," Lioness said coldly. "You can't win. I'm stronger than you, I have a more powerful weapon than you. You're nothing."

"You're wrong! She's everything!" Chat Noir leapt down from above, slamming his baton over Lioness' head. Caught off guard, she staggered; he shortened the baton, slipped his right arm under hers, extended it just beneath her breasts, then grabbed it from under her left arm.

"H-HEY! Let...let go!" Lioness struggled, but Chat Noir held firm, pressing her against him. He dragged her to the ground; they rolled and struggled, Lioness yowling and hissing and kicking and thrashing as Chat Noir tried to restrain her.

Ladybug watched them, trying to formulate a plan of attack even as a nascent jealousy boiled up inside her at seeing her boyfriend wrestling with an older, more mature woman on the ground. *This is not the time for that, Marinette!* Eyes narrowed, she grappled a streetlight and swung low, kicking Lioness in the back of the head just as she finally managed to break Chat Noir's grip and fling him away. He bounced up onto his feet, spinning his baton as Ladybug landed on Lioness' other side, yo-yo at the ready.

"Whoever you are, this ends now!" Ladybug said. "Once I take care of your Akuma, you'll—"

"There isn't one!" Adrien yelled. "She's got a Miraculous! We need to get it off of her!"

Ladybug's eyes widened. "Merde!" She shook her head. "But...Master Fu never mentioned—"

Lioness swung her meteor hammer in a wide arc. "INFERNO!"

Scorching flames began spreading in a spiral away from the deadly weapon, rolling over the streets in waves. Ladybug and Chat Noir sprang away, wall-jumping until they landed side-by-side on a nearby rooftop; they watched in horror as the entire block began to burn. "No," Ladybug whispered.

"Oh my god," Chat Noir breathed as Lioness leapt onto a taller roof, her laughter ringing over the roaring of the flames.

Ladybug shook her head. "There's a hydrant in the sidewalk in front of the bakery," she said numbly. "Can you—"

"On it!" Chat Noir leapt down to the street, bracing himself against the flames as he searched frantically for the hydrant. Once he located it, he began charging his right hand with destructive energy. "CATACLYSM!"

The entire sidewalk eroded beneath Chat Noir's touch, bursting the water main supplying the hydrant; a geyser of water sprayed into the air. Chat Noir leapt straight up, extending and spinning his baton into the water spray, directing it out over the flames. "It's not enough!" he yelled.

Ladybug threw her yo-yo into the air. "LUCKY CHARM!" In a spinning burst of light, a fire extinguisher dropped into her waiting arms. She glanced down at it, then at the rapidly spreading flames. "Well, that's helpful," she huffed.

Chat Noir landed beside her. "Nevermind the fire extinguisher!" he shouted. "Do the other thing!"

"Well, it's worth a shot," Ladybug said dubiously. She threw the fire extinguisher high into the air.

"MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!"

Swarms of glowing ladybugs spread out over the burning block, smothering the flames, reversing all the fire and smoke damage, and repairing the busted water main, sidewalk, streets, buildings, and even the hydrant. Ladybug let out a relieved sigh. "Whew."

Lioness landed behind them. "Now you're mine," she said with a smirk.

Ladybug and Chat Noir took off running even as their Miraculous beeped. Lioness gave chase, her meteor hammer flashing out at them, clipping Chat Noir in the side. Ladybug grabbed him and threw her yo-yo, swinging in a low, wide arc, gaining momentum as she found higher and higher purchase. By the time she'd put several blocks behind them, Lioness was nowhere to be seen.

* * * * *

Minutes later, Marinette and Adrien huddled close together in an alley, hearts racing. "How can she have a Miraculous?!" Marinette cried.

"There's no Lion Miraculous," Plagg said tiredly.

"Yeah, I don't know what that was," Tikki added, her eyes full of worry. "I mean, her powers worked just like yours, but..." She shrugged helplessly. "Like Plagg said, there isn't a Lion Miraculous. I just...I don't know what's going on here."

Adrien got up and crept out into the street, ignoring Marinette's protests. A minute later, he returned. "She's gone," he reported.

"Yeah, but who was she?" Marinette wondered.

* * * * *

The last claw on Lioness' bangle flashed, then faded away. Black lightning snapped across her body, slowly erasing her costume and her meteor hammer.

As the last vestiges of the Lioness disappeared, a tiny greyish-gold creature fell into a waiting palm.

"Well, Nalla," the young woman who stood in Lioness' place said, "I'd say we're in for a very...interesting hunt."

Nalla grinned, golden eyes gleaming as she revealed a mouth full of wicked fangs. "I can't wait to taste their Kwamis..."

À SUIVRE...

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