A loud explosion went off near the railway and Honeybee went straight to it.

Honey heard the sounds of the group call after her, but she didn't listen. She needed to stop Quartz, she knew that if Quartz hurt anyone, they would never forgive themself. "Quartz! Stop! You're going to hurt someone!"

Exchanger turned to Honeybee and let out a laugh, "I'm not hurting anyone, I'm simply exchanging."

Honeybee looked at the last car Exchanger had abused, the car was swirling and was about to crash, Honey gasped, "Got it!" She heard Tartaruga call out from behind her. The turtle-themed hero jumped on top of the car, "Shell-ter!" A light green dome formed around Tartaruga and the car, Honeybee watched as the car stopped and a six-year-old boy, a ten-year-old girl and two adults ran out of the car.

"How is that not hurting anyone?!"

Exchanger grinned, "I don't see any blood."

"Thanks to Tartaruga!"

Honeybee's grip around the spinning top tightened. She wanted to get this over and done with, she wanted to walk up to Exchanger, snap her headband in half and bring her crush back. Honeybee was annoyed. Annoyed at Mrs Chase and Miss Gracie for not helping Quartz more, they're supposed to be teachers, adults, and yet they let Quartz fall victim to Mariposa.

Honey looked into Exchanger's eyes, her eyes were the same colour, the same shape, even looking at them now Honeybee found herself mesmerized, although she didn't recognise them. "Honey, she isn't going to listen to you, just grab her akumatized object!" She heard Renard yell from behind her, Honey fought back the urge to roll her eyes, Renard should stick to the fighting part of being a superhero, at least he's good at that, she thought.

"Ha! You wanna get my akuma? Come and get it foxy!" They turned around, aimed at a mother and her baby. Ladybeetle threw his yoyo at the demi girl, Exchanger caught it as it was seconds away from collecting her headband. "I was talking to the fox, but I suppose a bug will do."

"Beetle!" He corrected as he pulled on the yoyo, he was so fast that Exchanger didn't have time to let go, the yoyo threw them off of the railway and into a building.

Honeybee gasped as Exchanger went flying through a glass window, shattering it. Ladybeetle, Renard and Peafowl followed Exchanger while Tartaruga went somewhere to quickly detransform and feed Wayzz.

Night looked at Honey before moving. "I do not know the relation but focus, they need you."

Honey nodded, "Thanks," he smiled before grabbing his baton and joining the group.

[ With Souris ]

Holy shit, holy shit, he was panicking. When he had agreed to side with Andy, he definitely didn't agree to Quartz being akumatised. This is his first time transformed since he had agreed to help Andy, he had skipped last night's patrol which was fine since his patrol was the one with an extra person. He could feel Mullo's disapproval. Souris watched Honeybee and Night Noir (a pair who he had realised were probably the closest out of them all), Honey had been acting weird, he thought it may have been because she knew Quartz and unfortunately, Night and Honeybee's conversation made it clear he was right.

He tapped a button on the right handle of his skip rope, "Andy, I have information."

"So do I!" A shaky voice exclaimed from his weapon. "Benj, you're not going to believe this! Quartz- they're Peafowl!"

"No way."

"Benji, I wouldn't lie about this."

Souris shook his head, "No. No way! We live in the same house! I- I would have known, they're my best friend!"

The air around him stopped as his skip rope when silent, shit, he realised the mistake he had made. "I didn't mean it like that- You're my best friend Andy but my relationship with Quartz is different, y'know?"

Souris was glad that the others were fighting and not with him because his cheeks were an unnatural shade of pink which matched his mask. "Sure... What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh right! So, Honeybee seems to know Quartz in real life! They seem to be close; Honey is super out of it."

"So, Peafowl and Honeybee know each other, me and you also know Quartz so that means the other heroes probably live around the city, good job Benj."

He grinned, "I should rejoin the group soon, they're gonna be so annoyed if I'm gone anymore."

[ With Others ]

Night Noir wished he could ignore the thought that kept popping up in his mind, but it was hard. He glanced at Honeybee, he took note of her curly black hair, her dark chocolate skin and her deep brown eyes. Night looked at every small detail that he never felt a need to take notice of, and then he compared them to his best friend. "Oh no-"

"What?" Ladybeetle turned to face his partner.

"Red, watch out!" Tartaruga threw his shell in front of Ladybeetle, Exchanger's powers reflected off of the weapon and hit a cat and dog across the street. Night flinched as he heard the hisses coming from the now-distressed kitten.

"Okay, that's enough! Lucky charm!" Ladybeetle threw his yo-yo in the sky. "I-"

"We're screwed."

Ladybeetle looked down at his lucky charm, a plastic rubber ducky, he rolled his eyes at Renard's unhelpful comment, while a rubber duck wouldn't be his first choice, he knew he could make it work.

"What are we supposed to do with that?! Bath her?" Tartaruga remarked.

Night placed a hand on Ladybeetle's shoulder, the American boy felt heat rush to his cheeks at the touch, "Give Ladybeetle a second, he will plan."

"Thanks, Night."

Ladybeetle looked around the building, they were on the first level of a five-level building, and the outside of the room was all glass. There were computers and paperwork all over the large room, Ladybeetle didn't need to be a genius to understand that they were in an office. No one was there, not even cleaners or employees, he assumed they all ran home the second they saw the Akuma warning. He looked out the window and saw a kitten and pup chasing each other, "I got it."

"Already?" Renard asked in disbelief.

Night smiled proudly, Ladybeetle turned his head away, he fought back the urge to hide his face in his hands. "We need to spit. Renard, Tartaruga, come with me. Night, Honey, Souris, you three stay here." Ladybeetle lowered his voice as he looked at Exchanger, "Night, when Exchanger is standing in the middle of the room, I need you to cataclysm the ground underneath them."

Night nodded, "Got it."

Ladybeetle grinned, "Okay, let's go," he turned to Renard and Tartaruga, the two were confused but did as told.

"Running away? How pathetic, it's okay. I'll deal with the cat first."

"And Bee!" Honey threw her spinning top at Exchanger, Exchanger dodged the weapon only by a hair.

"Woah," Souris whispered to himself. It wasn't until this moment that he realised just how awesome Quartz is.

Exchanger run over to where the others had existed, "Minnie, stop her!"

"Got it!" Souris ran in front of Exchanger, he held out his arms, stretching his length. "Not so fast."

"How cute, Mickey Mouse thinks he can stop me."

Souris pouted at the nickname. Exchanger smirked as they hit him with their powers, the second beam reflexed off of him and started going towards Honeybee. "Multitude!"

Souris threw his skip rope in the air, and it fell on top of him, wrapping around his tall body. A double of Souris appeared as he became a few centimetres short. The double ran in front of Honeybee, taking the hit. Souris and his double exchanged. "Good job, me!" Souris called out to his original version.

Exchanger went to grab his miraculous and with Souris' left hand grabbed and stopped them. Their akumatised object is just there, Souris tried grabbing it with his spare hand only to be stopped by a hard strike to the head.

Exchanger took to step back, she held her head in her hands, her head was aching.

Night Noir watched the steps Exchanger took, with each one he waited impatiently for the next. He understood they were on a timer, Ladybeetle was still seventeen, and he doesn't have unlimited powers like Night. Night glanced down at his baton, two minutes have gone by. Only three minutes until Ladybeetle runs out of time.

Exchanger took one last step into the middle of the floor, "Cataclysm!"

[ With Ladybeetle ]

Everyone was in position. Renard was standing on the other side of the room while Tartaruga was in the middle. Ladybeetle stood next to the front entrance, he was playing with a puppy, squeezing the rubber duck to keep her attention, "I'm going to name you Emilia." He whispered to the dog. Ladybeetle knew his sister is going to kill him when he takes this little guy home with him.

Suddenly the ground above them caved in, the puppy let out a yelp and jumped on top of Ladybeetle's feet, the hero tried to keep in his groans as the puppy's nails dug into his feet. "Hey, it's okay, it's okay, Emilia. Look-" he squeezed the rubber duck, "Ducky."

"Shell-ter!" A field formed around the heroes and Exchanger, trapping them all together.

Exchanger, Honey and Night landed standing up, and Souris fell landing on his bottom. "Renard! Catch!" Ladybeetle threw the rubber duck at Night Noir, the superhero caught it as Emilia ran after it. The pup ran forward at full speed, knocking Exchanger over.

Exchanger fell on top of Honeybee, the raven-haired superhero felt her cheeks heat up, she shook her head and grabbed her out of her spinning top. "Venom!" Honeybee softly touched Exchanger.

"Cataclysm!"

Exchanger transformed back into Quartz as her headband disintegrated at the touch. "Hi," Honey said breathily as Quartz was still lying on top of her.

"Ah!" She cried as she jumped off of the girl.

Honey giggled, Quartz grabbed Honeybee's hand and helped her up. "I got akumatised, did I?"

"Yeah, but it's okay. Ladybeetle will fix everything."

Quartz turned to Ladybeetle and waited as he yelled 'miraculous ladybeetle!'

Honeybee grabbed Quartz's hand, "I'll take you home."

Ladybeetle's miraculous beeped. "Shit! I'm about to transform back!"

"Language!"

Ladybeetle rolled his eyes playfully, the boy ran into the bathrooms.

One by one each of the heroes took off, Souris was the last to leave, he grabbed his jump rope and looked at the bathroom door. Ladybeetle was in there, detransformed and in his civilian identity. He knew what Andy would want him to do, she would tell him to open the door just enough, to take a small peak without  Ladybeetle knowing and to report back to her.

He placed his jump rope behind his back, he was only two minutes away from transforming back, so he knew he had to be quick.

Souris walked up to the door and placed his left ear on it, "Eat up, Tikki! We need to get home before Estella freaks!"

Beep beep

Shit, shit, shit, Souris backed away from the door, his heart was racing a million miles per hour, Ladybeetle heard that, he knew the boy did.

Souris grabbed his jump rope and sled it out to the building across from him. As the air rushed upon his face, he started to think about the name he had heard. Estella. Ladybeetle lives with someone named Estella, maybe a sister or an aunt, a pet or a girlfriend, Souris thought about that name and what to do with it.

He could tell Andy, but he figured that outcome would be unprogressive, he knew that she would hyper-fixate on that name.

So, he decided to do a little bit of research on his own. When he finds an Estella then he'll tell Andy about it.

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This chapter had a lot going on and was a lot to write. I had so many ideas and I'm not exactly happy with how I executed all of them.

Like, comment and tell me what you thought!

2042 Words