Under The Surface

Hunters

A man walked slowly through the evening streets of Paris, France. To anyone that saw him, he was a simple pedestrian. There was nothing special about him. He was a shadow in broad daylight. But on the inside, he was a ticking time bomb of frustration that would blow at any minute. After dodging the annoyingly suspicious Griffen holder in Gordes (a village in France to those who don't know), he had searched everywhere in Paris and found nothing. He had searched the bakery, the warehouses, the hotels, nothing. He was getting frustrated. He could sense so many miraculous nearby that weren't in their box, but he couldn't tell which ones they were. Maybe it was possible that he gave the miraculous to someone else instead of hiding it. After all, there were enough Miraculous out already. If that were the case, then he would have to start checking. With this in mind, he started heading for the house with the most heavily clumped group, the Agreste mansion. When he got there, he could sense three miraculous in the building. Two weaker ones, not what he was looking for, but the other seemed...familiar. He couldn't be sure if it was the one he was looking for, but it was most definitely one of the rings. He had to have it.

~

Adrien woke up with an uneasy feeling in his stomach but didn't know why. A quick look around the room proved that Plagg was still sound asleep in his cheese cabinet, and no one else was there. So why did he feel like someone was watching him? Despite the unsettling feeling, Adrien opted to stay still and tried to slow his breathing, hoping that if there was someone, they would show themselves if they thought he was asleep again. A minute passed...nothing. Five minutes...nothing. Ten minutes...he heard something move behind him. There was someone in his room!!! And they were getting closer! It took every part of his being to stay still, but it was when he felt the stranger reach for his ring that he finally reacted.

"Plagg, Claws Out!"

He shouted, whirling around on the man. His staff materialized in his hand, and he swung at the intruder with all his strength, only to be blocked by another similar looking staff. Their battle progressed very quickly, and soon, the whole house was awakened by the sounds of Chat and the unknown intruder as they made their way downstairs to Gabriel's office.

~

It would be an understatement to say that Gabriel was surprised when a strange man came flying through the doors of his study, knocking over a number of things in the process. One of which was the large wooden desk beside the door spilling its contents on the floor. Two small square jewelry boxes slid out in the open. Oh, no! The Miraculous! A sudden glint in the stranger eye told Gabriel that he knew exactly what they were too. Chat Noir soon approached the doors to continue the fight, but he was too late. The stranger grabbed the two boxes and was out the window in seconds.

~

As the stranger fled into the night, he chuckled to himself, rubbing the miraculous' in his hand. He didn't need the miraculous he got, but he never expected to find the chat miraculous there, and that meant the Ladybug couldn't be too far away. He chuckled. This was too good to be true. Finally, all four were in one place again. He couldn't believe his luck. He would have to leave the chat miraculous for now, but he could use the ones he had to get them all. It would be just like old times.

~

Marinette yawned as she sat up in her bed that morning. She still felt extremely drained, but it didn't seem to be getting worse at the moment. It was a Wednesday morning (meaning she was pretty much going through the motions at this point), so imagine her surprise when she heard the words, "Happy Birthday" from both Tom and Sabine when she came down for breakfast.