Chapter 20: Horrificator

(Author's notes: In this chapter, Horrificator will have to contend with Dragon Butterfly's dragon mode to see who is scarier. But will Dragon Butterfly win? We'll find out.

Also, just so you know, there'll probably be some interlude chapters detailing the future of the story, either for the purpose of exploring the near future, or for simply proving a peek at what could happen in this story's future since even the future of Miraculous Ladybug isn't set in stone. At least, if you're in the same room as any of the characters.

Enjoy chapter 16: Horrificator.)

(Quantic Universe Earth 139, Paris, France, April 24th, 2015, third person POV...)

At Francoise Dupont High School, Ms. Bustier's class is filming a horror movie project, completely devoid of gore, swearing and nudity that is traditionally seen in real horror movies, not the ones in school projects.

Marinette may or may not have protested at first to signify that she hates horror movies, but when she found out that there won't be the traditional things from most real horror movies – swearing, nudity, gore, grisly murders, and other kinds of things that could make even Marinette puke or even make her pee her pants – let's just say she was only joining the project so she can get a good grade alongside her classmates.

Adrien/"Officer Jones" exclaims while in character for the movie, "Agent Smith, it's too dangerous! We must evacuate!"

Mylene/"Agent Smith" replies while in character, "You're suggesting we run, Officer Jones? After it devoured my family, my friends, even my beloved dog, Sniffles? Never! I won't run! I no longer fear it. I'm going to face it, then I'll—"

Ivan looms over Mylene in a monster costume eerily similar to Horrificator's Akumatized appearance.

Mylene exclaims in fear but not in character, "Waaaaah!"

Nino exclaims in response, "Cut!"

Mylene hides under Ms. Bustier's desk, completely scared.

Ivan takes off the Horrificator-looking mask and says, "Sorry, Mylene."

Nino states exasperatedly, "Mylene! That's like, the tenth take, and we're only on the first scene!"

Holding up the clapperboard, Alix replies, "Fourteenth, actually. But then again, who's counting?"

Nino bemoans, "Ughhh..."

Mylene states in reply, "I'm... sorry. I'm gonna do better on the next take, I promise."

Steel Butterfly's voice rings out without giving his position away, "Don't make promises you can't keep, Mylene."

Rose holds up a tea pot and asks, "Anyone want some tea?"

Aiden glared hotly at Rose, who shrank in fear.

Nino states to Mylene, "You're playing a hero from the Special Forces. You're not supposed to get all freaked out!"

Steel Butterfly's hologram is shown on the projector as he states to Nino in response, "Idiot. Even if Mylene conquered her fears, it's only a matter of time before something like this happens again. Besides, you can't just force someone like Mylene to suck it up and push away their fears. That in itself takes practice from years of experience. And FYI, when it comes to people like Mylene, you can't force them to change, but seeing as how your '"horror movie"' is taking too long with filming due to Mylene's tendency to get scared by every little thing, including monster costumes that don't look too realistic, I'm afraid that you'll have to find someone else for the first scene."

Nino exclaims, "But there's not enough time!"

Steel Butterfly's hologram replies, "Pity. And it's also a pity we can't use my time travel ability to help you guys in the past. Even if we could do that, time travel is not meant to be used in such a way, especially when it comes to getting good grades or comforting a fallen hero who brought about the end of the world in an apocalyptic timeline unintentionally."

Pushing that thought aside for now, Marinette asks, "Isn't there any way Mylene can overcome her fears long enough to get through the first scene?"

Steel Butterfly's hologram replies again, "Well... I could try absorbing Mylene's fears long enough for you guys to get through the first act of your movie. But the problem is, my ability to absorb fear from someone long enough for them to get through their assigned tasks without being afraid of anything is not permanent. And I don't even know how much time we would have before Mylene's fears returned."

Chloe states in response, "That maybe so, but anything is better than to constantly do more and more takes just because Mylene gets scared easily – no offense, Mylene."

Mylene replies a little shakily, "N-none taken."

Steel Butterfly sighed as he materialized into the room, and absorbed Mylene's fears... in the form of purple streams of light.

Soon, the crew manages to get through the first act of their movie project without messing up. If only because, despite having her fears temporarily removed, Mylene has reason to fear Steel Butterfly's anger issues and his intolerance for failure.

Ever since Ms. Bustier announced the movie project, she contacted Steel Butterfly to lend a helping hand.

Steel Butterfly protested, saying that he was a superhero, not a film director with the needed experience. And he also protested because of the fact that he hates children.

But of course, Ms. Bustier protested in response that even Marinette and Adrien needed their good grades while simultaneously ignoring Steel Butterfly's statement of how he hates children.

Steel Butterfly replied that Bustier might have a point, but he also gave off a fair warning: if Ms. Bustier tried to bribe the butterfly hero in such a manner again, he'll have her tickle tortured while dangling her from the top floor of the Eiffel Tower, and he'll have the whole thing broadcasted on TV.

Ms. Bustier literally backed off because she didn't want to be tickle tortured on TV, signifying that she's very ticklish.

Soon, the second act of the horror movie project was underway.

But during the end of the filming, Mylene's fears returned.

When there was a break between takes, everyone looked at Steel Butterfly expectantly, only for him to say emotionlessly, "I told you my ability to absorb fears to help people was not permanent. And I did tell you I didn't know how much time there would be before the effects wore off."

Mylene ran off in tears at the notion that her fears were not permanently taken away.

SB vented, "Urrgghh... Ivan, please make sure that she doesn't get Akumatized."

Nodding, Ivan takes off after Mylene, taking the monster mask with him.

Steel Butterfly growled softly, knowing that his plan to avert Horrificator's Akumatization went down the crapper.

And everyone in Ms. Bustier's class subtly noted that Steel Butterfly's anger was a sign that his Dragon Butterfly power-up can easily activate by itself if he's not careful.

In the courtyard of the school, Ivan looks for Mylene and eventually finds her.

Ivan sits next to Mylene and says, "Mylene, don't beat yourself up about Steel Butterfly's powers. He told us that his powers might be extraordinary enough to appear godlike, but even he has limits on his powers, mostly because of specific vulnerabilities and because if his powers had no limits, he would become a god. And that wouldn't exactly be a good thing if he were to get Akumatized or if he otherwise turned rogue. But please come back. I guarantee you Steel Butterfly can increase the intensity of his fear absorption ability to make the effects permanent."

Mylene looks at him with a sad eyebrow raised.

Ivan takes out a black skull pin and gives it to Mylene.

Ivan states, "Here. It's from my favorite band, the Zombie Skull Crushers."

Mylene puts the pin on her hat as she says, "Wow... Uh, that's really sweet of you, Ivan. But at this point, what does it matter anyway? Steel Butterfly didn't amplify his powers in time—"

But she's interrupted when Steel Butterfly teleports in front of her and says softly and sternly at the same time, "That's because even I didn't know how temporary me absorbing your fears would be in terms of a time limit ranging from sixteen minutes to forty-five minutes. And also because of the fact that users of my Miraculous and its mothy counterpart can't upgrade themselves under normal circumstances. Even so, my powers do have limits, Mylene. Many superheroes like me need to have limits for our powers because, as I use myself as an example, there's no telling what kind of damage I could do to the entire multiverse and the multiverses beyond it if I ever became a villain for any reason. But remember, fear is a negative emotion, sure. But unfortunately, until God Himself wipes all forms of negativity clean from this Earth at the end of days, we can't get rid of our negative emotions on a whim. And even if it weren't for Hawk Moth and his potential successor in the future, we've all been trying to find constructive outlets of our negative emotions for hundreds to thousands of years."

Mylene replies softly and sadly, "I understand, but at this point, it doesn't matter anymore."

Mylene walks away to the girls' bathroom with tears in her eyes.

Steel Butterfly's gaze lingers on Mylene as she disappears into the girls' bathroom.

Steel Butterfly turns over to Ivan and says, "I hate to say this, Ivan, but it looks like there's not much I can do."

Ivan asks in reply, "How is it possible you couldn't do more?"

Steel Butterfly replies back, "You gotta understand, human beings are high-strung and emotional carbon-based creatures that have existed for two hundred thousand years and we all still have a large deal to learn. Human teenagers are especially the most emotional. The moment something goes wrong or something bad happens to a friend or family member, any particular teenager will be a crying hot mess or a beast of pure anger in any situation involving bullies, corrupt politicians and so forth. Therefore, in Mylene's case, because of the fact that she can't overcome her fears to save her life in the world of film acting, and because of the fact that she's choosing to look at the negatives of today's film shoot, that's why I said there's nothing else I can do for now."

Steel Butterfly walks away, his metallic boots making clinking sounds on the ground with every footstep.

Ivan sighs in response before following Steel Butterfly back to Ms. Bustier's classroom.

In Hawk Moth's lair, the window opens as Hawk Moth remarks, "A film shoot... oh, yes. So many emotions. Some of them are fake, yet others are very, very real."

Hawk Moth turns another butterfly into an Akuma.

Hawk Moth sends it off while saying, "Fly away, my evil Akuma, and overpower this young, misunderstood artist..."

The Akuma flies off towards the school's girls' bathroom where Mylene is.

Steel Butterfly reenters the classroom with Ivan.

Marinette asks expectantly, "Well?"

Steel Butterfly sighs heavily as he answers, "I did all I could, but Mylene continued looking at the negatives of her real life character and her inability to conquer her fears on her own accord. Now, there's not much else that I can do to prevent Mylene from getting Akumatized. Now, all we have to do is wait, watch and listen. When Mylene's Akumatized form arises to put fear into the hearts of you guys, me and my teammates will save the day once again."

Everyone smiled at Steel Butterfly's assurance.

Even Marinette cracked a small grin.

Soon, talks were in place to have a fearless clone of Mylene take the real Mylene's place in the meantime.

Having frozen time itself to save the students time, albeit without accidentally freezing anyone, Steel Butterfly allowed the students to continue filming their movie.

Meanwhile, the Akuma reaches the girls' bathroom.

Mylene asks her reflection in the bathroom mirror, "Why are you so easily intimidated and scared all the time?"

Mylene cries and the Akuma enters her pin.

Mylene looks at the mirror again as Hawk Moth monologues, "Horrificator, I am Hawk Moth. Up until now, you have felt fear. From now on, you will cause fear. And after you have shown them all how they make you feel, you will do something for me in return. Do we have a deal, Horrificator?"

Mylene/Horrificator replies, "Yes, Hawk Moth."

Mylene becomes Horrificator, and spits goo at the mirrors.

Suddenly, Horrificator hears someone coming and hides perfectly in one of the bathroom stalls.

Marinette comes into the bathroom and calls out, "Mylene? Mylene?"

Marinette sees the mirror covered in goo, but she doesn't notice Horrificator hiding in one of the stalls despite the signs.

Marinette touches the goo, and some of it gets on her finger, completely disgusting her as evidenced by the expression on her face.

Alya asks, "Marinette, did you find Mylene?"

Marinette replies somberly, "No..."

Marinette and Alya leave the girls' bathroom, unaware of Horrificator about to make her move.

Hawk Moth says from his lair, "Time to use your scare tactics, Horrificator, and thrive!"

The film finishes shooting, and the crew cheers.

Steel Butterfly turns to Mylene's clone and states, "Well done, my little friend, but now, you're relieved of your duty for the time being. But don't worry; I'll call upon your assistance at some point in the future."

Steel Butterfly snaps his fingers, and the Mylene clone dissipates in a puff of blue smoke as a Compos Mentis is purified, revealing the Mylene clone to actually be a Sentibeing.

Everyone is shocked to their cores.

Marinette asks, "What was that?"

Steel Butterfly answers, "That was one of my main superpowers: Composization, the ability to use a magic feather to create a Sentibeing, a creature that can look like anyone or anything and is born from the recipient's emotions. Some of them are heroic Sentibeings in the right hands, and in the wrong hands, Sentimonsters are the total opposite of their heroic counterparts thanks to Composization being used in the wrong hands as Amokization."

Adrien remarks, "Wow. That is so cool."

SB replies, "Yeah, but bear in mind that the originator of this superpower, the Peacock Miraculous, is in Hawk Moth's hands. But thankfully, he forbade his only ally from using it on the field for any reason because it's damaged, and it turns out that using a damaged Miraculous jewel can leave you with coughing fits, worsening headaches, dizzying spells, a high fever, intense fatigue, and permanent paralysis from the waist down."

Everyone whispered among themselves in wonder at the butterfly hero's explanation.

Chloe asks, "And what happens if someone overuses a damaged Miraculous jewel?"

Steel Butterfly replies, "If someone overuses a damaged Miraculous jewel, that person will be put into an endless coma due to the fact that Miraculous jewels and their associated kwamis feed off the energy from the bodies of adult Miraculous users like me and Hawk Moth so that way, a Miraculous user's powers as an adult can be used an unlimited number of times. Ergo, if an adult Miraculous user uses a damaged Miraculous, the afflicted kwami feeds off of more energy from the Miraculous user's body than normal, and when an adult Miraculous user overuses a damaged Miraculous, their bodies become drained to the point where they enter an endless magical coma, and if a cure is not found over the course of two to four years, eventually, they die."

Everyone gasped in horror at the ending of the explanation.

Suddenly, there are screams outside the hallways.

Adrien asks, "Did you guys hear that?"

SB retorts, "How could we not hear that? It's obvious that Mylene has been Akumatized into Horrificator, a monstrous supervillain with the ability to feed off of people's fear that comes from seeing her in person. The more scared people that see her, the bigger and stronger she becomes. In addition to having super strength."

Nino asks excitedly, "Horrificator, like the monster costume for the film?!"

SB replies, "More like a physical match with added details from what could've been a full Horrificator costume."

Marinette states, "We better scope this out!"

The other students follow Steel Butterfly as he multiplies himself to provide an omnidirectional guard.

Rose lingers on as she holds out fruit snacks and asks, "A fruity snack for the road?"

A Steel Butterfly duplicate gently grabs Rose by the arm and speeds off.

In the courtyard, Steel Butterfly's multiple clones form an invincible omnidirectional guard around the students as they and Steel Butterfly investigate the screams coming from the courtyard.

And all the while, Nino continues filming, irritating Steel Butterfly more and more as evidenced by the scowl on his faceplate.

Adrien calls out, "Hey! Anybody here? Kim! Max! Where are you guys!"

Marinette observes a part of the floor with spots of Horrificator's goo and Kim's armband.

Marinette states, "I saw the same pink goo... (Gasps) The bathroom!"

Adrien sees the armband and exclaims, "That's Kim's armband!"

Nathanael states panickedly, "They vanished!"

Alya adds, "Or they're playing a sick joke on us."

Steel Butterfly retorts, "I highly doubt it. Since I happen to be the only one with functioning brain cells and the memory-based abilities that help me comprehend what we're dealing with, I sincerely doubt Kim and Max are pranking us. Besides, as I'm sure Max would probably say, '"It's a zero percent probability that this was a prank if our screaming was any indication. And I don't usually get scared this easily when it comes to Akumatized villains."'

Everyone laughed at Steel Butterfly's somewhat humorous attempt at imitating Max's calculating-based speech patterns.

Marinette composes herself and states, "We should go to Principal Damocles' office and tell him what's going on!"

Steel Butterfly turns over to Nino and snarls, "And for goodness' sake, Nino, STOP FILMING ALREADY!"

Nino replies unfazed, "Not a chance, dude! This is just getting good!"

Steel Butterfly snarls again, causing Nino to shiver.

Steel Butterfly then warns Nino, "If your film gets shot down just because you chose not to listen and just because Mayor Bourgeois believes the events taking place to be fake, don't be looking for me, you idiotic dolt!"

Nino grumbles in anger, but he continues filming.

Steel Butterfly brings out a power-up roll of bread in white and yellow food coloring – that's the Dragon Butterfly power-up potion inside an eatable vessel – and he eats and calls out, "Steel Butterfly, power-up! Dragon Butterfly mode!"

In an animation sequence, Steel Butterfly's armor starts morphing into his Dragon Butterfly armor, starting with his boots becoming angelic and demonic dragon talon-shaped sabatons, his cuisse thigh plates becoming angelic and demonic dragon-themed and dragon-shaped cuisse thigh plates, his greaves becoming angelic and demonic dragon-themed and dragon-shaped greaves, his poleyns becoming angelic and demonic dragon-themed and dragon-shaped poleyns all the way to his gauntlets morphing dragon claws on the fingertips and his helmet – which looks like a combination of a Burgonet helmet, a close helmet, and an Armet helmet – morphing to a more angelic, demonic and draconic shape and theme, completing Steel Butterfly's transformation into Dragon Butterfly.

Literally everyone was surprised at the sight of Steel Butterfly becoming Dragon Butterfly.

Marinette says to herself, "(Softly) Looks like it's time to bring in the alter ego."

Marinette and Adrien looked at each other and they nod in unison.

Nino notices Adrien leaving back to the classroom and exclaims, "Yo, Adrien! Where are you going?"

Adrien replied while being thankful that he had time to practice his fake excuses, "I left Officer Jones' jacket back there! I should probably wear it in all of the scenes."

The other students go upstairs, oblivious to Marinette quietly snorting in amusement.

Horrificator sees them and starts covering the school in goo, completely trapping everyone inside the school.

In the classroom, Adrien takes off his left shoe as he says, "Time to transform, Plagg."

Plagg recoils in disgust from the stench coming from inside Adrien's shoe and asks, "What are you doing?"

Adrien replies, "I'm leaving my shoe here so that way, they'll think I've disappeared too."

Plagg states, "Perhaps I don't smell like Camembert, but that shoe takes it to a whole new level!"

Adrien ignores Plagg and calls out, "Plagg, Claws Out!"

Adrien becomes Cat Noir, but takes a moment to smell his own shoe, only to recoil in disgust because of his enhanced senses.

Cat Noir gags a bit before saying to himself, "Note to self: invest in more thorough showers."

Meanwhile, at Mr. Damocles' office, Alya knocks on the door and asks, "Mr. Damocles? Sir?"

She opens the door, but nobody is inside.

Rose exclaims, "Even Principal Damocles is nowhere to be found! I hope he's okay!"

At Dragon Butterfly's signal, Marinette quietly drops her phone and runs into the library, also thankful that Miraculous holders can't be filmed transforming unless the cameras in question are laced with magic.

Marinette states, "Time to transform. Tikki, Spots On!"

Marinette becomes Ladybug.

Nino notices Marinette is not at the doorway and asks, "Anyone seen Agent Smith? I mean, Marinette?"

Everyone looks behind them, never noticing that the school is being completely covered in pink goo to cut off any means of escaping.

The remaining students continue searching for Marinette, only for Alya to spot Marinette's phone on the ground.

Alya picks it up and exclaims, "Oh, no! This is Marinette's phone!"

Chloe sees the pink goo covering the open roof of the courtyard.

Chloe exclaims, "Quickly, check the windows!"

Juleka remarks in awe at the blocked windows, "Crazy!"

Chloe tries to open the window, but finds it to be blocked by the goo.

Chloe shrieks, "We're trapped! I'm going to call Daddy!"

Chloe picks up her phone and tries to call him.

Nino points out, "Dudes and dudettes, everyone knows that cell phones don't work whatsoever in horror movies."

As Ivan checks his Wi-Fi connection on his phone after failing to call his parents on it, Ivan states, "No bars."

Nathanael exclaims, "No cell phone coverage!"

Nino states, "Told you so! Boo-yah!"

Dragon Butterfly smacks Nino in the head before saying, "This isn't something to be smug about! True, cell phones don't work in horror movie situations like this one, but you don't have to rub it in!"

Nino holds his head in slight pain as he replies, "Touche."

Ladybug appears at the door.

Dragon Butterfly comes up and pretends to whisper into Ladybug's ear, like they practiced early in the afternoon yesterday just in case Miguel's efforts were in vain.

Ladybug asks, "Is everything okay?"

Nino remarks while continuing to film, "Ladybug and Dragon Butterfly in my movie? This is double legit!"

Alya adds while filming with her phone, "And on my Ladyblog!"

Ladybug asks to lead people astray, "Dragon Butterfly, what's the situation?"

Dragon Butterfly replies in his demonic voice, "The exits and entrances are covered with goo. I tried to cut through it, but it's indestructible. If I'm being honest, it's as indestructible as a twenty thousand feet tall planet-sized Transformers character with godlike invulnerability."

Ladybug inquires again, "Did you try blowing it up?"

Dragon Butterfly retorts, "I did try to blow it up despite the fact that I could easily risk blowing up the school as well. And both fortunately for the school and unfortunately for all of us, I got the same results: Loads of goo that is indestructible to every known weapon and every known corrosive substance ever made by man or made by magic."

Cat Noir appears and adds, "Yeah, getting everyone out is easier said than done, like Dragon said."

Nino remarks, "Triple legit!"

Dragon Butterfly growls at Nino, causing everyone to shiver at the sight of his sharp dragon teeth.

Nino remarks, "Wow! Dragon Butterfly has dragon teeth!"

Dragon Butterfly snarls at the top of his lungs, "ALL THE MORE EASY FOR ME TO BITE YOUR HEAD OFF!"

Alya suggests fretfully, "Nino, I think you should take Dragon Butterfly seriously with his threats and his orders!"

Nino replies, "Yeah, maybe I should."

Cat Noir continues, "So, because of the fact that getting everyone out of here is easier said than done, it definitely looks like we're trapped inside the school until we can resolve the problem. Just stay put and try to relax, guys."

Ladybug, Cat Noir and Dragon Butterfly have a small conference with each other.

Cat Noir points out, "We all know that Hawk Moth has taken another innocent victim somewhere in the school."

Dragon Butterfly replies, "Yep, and we know that the only way to truly get rid of this disgusting pink goo and get everyone out of here in time is this: to capture that victim's Akuma."

Cat Noir replies back, "Exactly. I love it when you read my mind..."

Dragon Butterfly states in response, "Simmer down, kitty. We better find this thing first... and its load of prisoners."

Cat Noir remarks, "Wow! You did it again!"

Dragon Butterfly slaps Cat Noir hard in the face, making everyone wince.

Dragon Butterfly snarls again, "Nrgh! If I were reading your mind, it would be obvious because when I read someone's mind, blue psychic waves emerge from my forehead and expand to show me the next actions and next words of dialogue from anyone in front of me, in addition to any thoughts."

Ladybug nods and smacks Cat Noir upside the head, making him hiss at his partners.

Nino gets closer, only to be smacked in the forehead by one of Dragon Butterfly's wings spiking up in response to his presence.

As Nino adjusts his glasses, Dragon Butterfly remarks, "Oops. Sorry, not sorry."

Nino readjusts his glasses as he continues filming and replies, "Don't mind me, just finding the missing peeps and solving this crazy mystery with Dragon Butterfly, Ladybug and Cat Noir... This movie's gonna be so swank!"

Dragon Butterfly demands, "Does everything people tell you go in one ear and out the other, Lahiffe?!"

Nino slowly backs away, seeing Dragon Butterfly's eyes glowing red and seeing smoke emanating from his mouth.

Everyone starts coughing because of the smoke from Dragon Butterfly's mouth building up.

Dragon Butterfly quickly sucks up the smoke and holds out a clawed hand, expelling fresh air out of his palm and his clawed fingers.

Then, Dragon Butterfly calls out, "Clones! Form an omnidirectional elite guard! Everyone, stay together, and stay right behind us at all times!" As everyone leaves, Dragon Butterfly grabs Nino and adds, "That means you too, Spielberg!"

The clones laugh maniacally at Dragon Butterfly's Spielberg reference before forming an omnidirectional elite guard around the students and the primary heroes.

Meanwhile, in the cellar, Horrificator kidnaps Max in the past-tense.

Horrificator throws Max into a cocoon of goo.

Max looks fearfully at Horrificator.

Horrificator growls angrily at Max, causing him to whimper in fear and causing her to grow larger.

In his lair, Hawk Moth states, "Absorb their fear, Horrificator... feed on it! It will give you strength. And soon enough, you will be giving me strength too!"

Horrificator spits goo on the hole, trapping Max inside of the goo.

Meanwhile, in the courtyard, Dragon Butterfly, Ladybug, Cat Noir and the other students try to find Max and Kim.

They reenter Ms. Bustier's classroom, and Ladybug sees Adrien's shoe.

Ladybug exclaims, "There!"

Nino films the shoe.

Cat Noir's eyes dart worriedly as he asks, "Anyone recognize this shoe?"

Nino replies, "That's Adrien's shoe!"

Ladybug observes the ground and states, "Hey, that's weird. There's no pink slime here."

Nathanael kneels next to the teacher's desk and replies, "Actually, yes, there is."

Suddenly, Horrificator's tail grabs him from underneath the desk.

Horrificator throws the desk across the room, allowing everyone to see the monster for the first time.

Everyone shows little fear, causing Horrificator to shrink.

Ladybug remarks, "Looks like you were right, DB."

Dragon Butterfly nods before enlarging himself, spawning his dragon tails in the process.

Horrificator roars at him, only for Dragon Butterfly to unleash his sonic roar, causing everyone to cover their ears.

Thankfully, Nathanael wasn't rendered deaf despite being too close to Dragon Butterfly.

Horrificator begins to shrink at Dragon Butterfly's show of defiance.

Everyone else manages to make Horrificator scared of them by making all sorts of dangerous animal noises and making mouse noises, causing Horrificator to shrink further and further.

Dragon Butterfly reaches for the skull pin, only for Horrificator to grow again, much to everyone's shock.

Then Dragon Butterfly enlarges again, transforming to his dragon mode.

Horrificator is shocked at seeing Dragon Butterfly's large dragon mode, especially because his dragon mode surprisingly damaged the school building to the point where the hardened goo crumbled, but not to the point of burying anyone in rubble or crushing anyone unfortunate enough to be unable to escape.

Everyone is able to evacuate, but Ladybug and Cat Noir are left wondering who will win the scaring contest, Dragon Butterfly or Horrificator.

Horrificator tries crawling up Dragon Butterfly's armored dragon form, only for the armored dragon to swat Horrificator away, making her drop Nathanael safely into Dragon Butterfly's clawed hands.

Dragon Butterfly sets Nathanael down.

Dragon Butterfly absorbs the fear from Horrificator, making her shrink more and more until she becomes the size of a house cat.

Ladybug takes the skull pin and breaks it between her fingers, causing the Akuma to fly out.

Ladybug slides her yoyo open and does her usual spiel of purifying the Akuma and unleashing her Miraculous Ladybug.

Horrificator turns back into Mylene. And as the Miraculous Ladybug cure sweeps over the school, Dragon Butterfly transforms from his dragon mode to his normal Dragon Butterfly form.

The three heroes fist bump and Nino remarks, "Awesome."

Dragon Butterfly chuckles in response, "Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. You'd know better than me how awesome our battle with Horrificator was."

The heroes depart, with Dragon Butterfly absorbing Mylene's fears – permanently this time.

The filming for the movie ends with Dragon Butterfly leaving for his lair now that his duty was done for the day.

Hawk Moth sneers, "You don't scare me, Steel Butterfly, not even when you transform into a giant armored dragon. I know I'll destroy you in the end! Someday, somehow, I'll destroy you!"

Dragon Butterfly's voice retorts, "Your overconfidence, your ignorance, your recklessness, your cockiness, your arrogance, your pride and your greed are gonna be the death of you because when the final battle comes, I have a full mind to eat you in my dragon mode."

Hawk Moth recoils in disgust as he replies, "Eww! That's disgusting!"

The window to Hawk Moth's lair closes, leaving him to wallow in the horror of the revelation of what Dragon Butterfly intends to do during the final battle, which will take place on Heroes' Day, unknown to Hawk Moth.

But of course, Hawk Moth doesn't know that Dragon Butterfly was bluffing, because he hates cannibals to an extreme.

Meanwhile, Nino shows the mayor the actual film made at the school BEFORE the Horrificator incident happened.

Nino asks, "Well, what do you think, Mr. Mayor? Off the hook, right?"

Outside the City Hall, Nino reveals, "We made the cut! All thanks to Steel Butterfly-slash-Dragon Butterfly."

Adrien replies, "Yep. I don't know what would've happened if it weren't for him, but I think it's best if we don't find out."

Alya adds, "Yeah, and who knows what would've happened if the whole Horrificator incident was filmed?"

Everyone shuddered, but then, Aiden comes in running and says mournfully, "Guys, bad news. Somehow, Mayor Bourgeois saw the actual Horrificator incident. And he says that because we chose to lie to him, we were disqualified!"

Nino, Adrien, and Alya exclaim in unison, "WHAT?!" "WHAT?!" "WHAT?!"

Nino, Alya, and Adrien groaned in unison.

Steel Butterfly teleports in front of the trio, "I did try to tell you about what would happen. Now, you're going to suffer the consequences for lying. And it doesn't matter whether you made the cut or not; point is, Nino, you should've listened to me when I ordered you to stop filming the moment Horrificator struck. Ergo, this is mostly your fault."

Nino growled in response before Alya took him aside.

While making sure that Alya and Nino are out of range, Adrien questions, "Did you really have to show Mayor Bourgeois the actual footage?"

Steel Butterfly answers, "Nino brought this on himself. If someone tells you to stop filming when an Akumatized villain attack happens while you're filming for a '"horror"' movie project, you should listen. That's what Nino should've done, but because of his drive to do everything possible to earn a grade, especially with a project as stupid as what we witnessed, he's gonna have to suffer the consequences for not doing the things that a responsible movie director should do."

Adrien frowns at Steel Butterfly, but even he and Plagg couldn't deny that the butterfly hero was right.

Steel Butterfly teleports to his lair and he gets out his journal.

Thinking for only a moment, Steel Butterfly starts writing.

(Steel Butterfly's voice-over POV as he writes in his Rorschach-inspired journal in his lair...)

Steel Butterfly's journal.

April 24th, 2015.

Mylene's Akumatization into Horrificator was officially undone thanks to me.

And I completely managed to fight Horrificator while in my dragon mode.

Hhhaaa. I cannot believe it. Horrificator was literally scared of me only because of my dragon mode.

And she tried to make me scared of her? Absurd!

I ain't scared of her. Not like I used to be back on my Earth.

But anyway, I intend to make sure that in the event Mylene becomes Akumatized again, I'll be sure to combat her with a Courageous of my own.

Yeah, and I would make sure that my Courageous would feed off of anyone feeling any form of courage.

It's kind of like Horrificator feeding off of fear, but Courageous feeds off of courage instead of fear.

In any case, the next Akumatization to avert is that little brat rascal, Manon Chamack, aka The Puppeteer.

I can't imagine a more childlike and more dangerous Akumatized supervillain.

Puppeteer can control the puppet-like dolls of Miraculous heroes and Akumatized supervillains, specifically reakumatizing them back to their Akumatized forms.

I hope I can prevent her from becoming Akumatized, but unfortunately I don't see how that's gonna be possible since I hate children.

And if Manon can be persuaded to not steal Marinette's superhero dolls without her raising a fuss – which I find highly unlikely – that can prevent her from getting Akumatized.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that even if that does happen, she'll still steal the dolls from Marinette under our noses and get Akumatized.

And I don't see how exactly it will be possible for me to prevent Manon from getting Akumatized because I f****** hate children.

But maybe I'll come up with something.

Who knows?

But either way, if Manon does get Akumatized, Marinette had better not make a doll of me as either Steel Butterfly or as Dragon Butterfly. Otherwise, I'd be really screwed up badly. Especially if Puppeteer makes me talk and act like a five-year old child.

Geez, me acting like a five-year old child is sure to give me nightmares. Especially if Lady Wi-Fi records it or if Ladybug records it. Yeah, there's no way she'd let me live it down.

Yeugh. That's definitely an image and sound I'll be hearing in my nightmares if it does happen.

But either way, if my plans go well, I hopefully won't have to worry about being hypnotized and acting and talking like a five-year old.

On the other hand... hehehe he he he heh hehehehehehehehehehehe.

Maybe I can hypnotize Marinette into talking and acting like a five year old child.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Ah, but all the same, there's a good chance I could end up getting her Akumatized.

Best that I don't approach this subject under any circumstances.

Especially not with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole.

But in any case, I intend to make sure that the students of Francoise Dupont today fulfill their dreams with my connections.

If I don't, they could end up with their lives ruined by Lila Rossi's lies, regardless of whether or not Gabriel is arrested on Heroes' Day and regardless of whether or not people are aware of Lila's lies.

Nevertheless, my connections will literally be able to disrupt some of Lila's lies about having connections.

And on top of that, I intend to make sure that Marinette and all of her family and friends have bright futures outside of the hallowed halls of their superhero lives and outside of the hallowed halls of Francoise Dupont High School.

But in any case, I intend to make sure that I use my powers and my knowledge of the Bible to make sure that the majority of the human race is welcomed into God's grace, if the Antichrist isn't already making his move from the shadows of Hell.

But now, I must get myself ready to avert Manon's Akumatization into The Puppeteer.

(Third person POV...)

That afternoon, a new supervillain by the name of Red Maud showed up, shooting energy projectiles at people who were then given gender duplicates under opposite names and the same energy projectiles also created robotic clones of the Marvel Comics supervillain team The Marauders.

In his shared lair with Purple Changer that is interconnected with Purple Changer's apartment, Steel Butterfly remarks, "Just what we partially need: more overpopulation. As if the over population from thousands of years in the making wasn't bad enough for human life on Earth."

Steel Butterfly then makes a Tenshi and says, "Fly, my little Tenshi, and find Geraldine Chéreau immediately."

The Tenshi flies off to the Grand Paris Hotel and merges with Geraldine's purse.

Steel Butterfly states before asking, "Platinum Soul, I'm Steel Butterfly. I'm granting you the power to counteract Red Maud's superpowers and all other surprises she has in store. Will you accept these powers for a once in a lifetime opportunity?"

Geraldine/Platinum Soul replies, "I wholeheartedly accept your generous proposal, Steel Butterfly."

Geraldine becomes Platinum Soul, a superhero wearing a platinum blue and platinum blonde armored body suit and suit of armor that emulates a mixture between Darkblade, Dark Cupid, Dark Owl, Eagle, Simon Says, and Qilin, but without the hoofed feet Qilin has. Along with Platinum Soul having a replica of Dark Owl's cape that can turn into a pair of actual eagle/owl wings to allow her to fly.

Platinum Soul takes off in flight and finds Red Maud in the 1st Arrondisment, wreaking havoc by making gender duplicates and opposites of the police officers and reporters on the scene while maiming anyone who came too close, either by usage of her robot clone army or by using her scimitar-shaped rapier.

Platinum Soul then flies all over the place in a blur, destroying Red Maud's robot clone army, reviving everyone who was killed, and destroying Red Maud's remote control for her army, which turned out to be the Akumatized object.

Steel Butterfly teleports in a swarm of butterflies and purifies the Akuma.

Red Maud is returned back to normal, revealing herself to be a French comic book writing college student in her early 20s, and her appearance consists of long wavy brownish-black hair in a French ponytail, bluish-green eyes, peach pink lipstick, red nail polish on her fingernails, standing at six feet tall, and wearing a Supergirl t-shirt, a pair of Wonder Woman slacks, and a pair of Catwoman-style full grain leather low-heel boots.

Steel Butterfly then says before the young woman can say anything, "You were transformed into a supervillain by our residential magical terrorist, Hawk Moth."

The woman's eyes widened, but Platinum Soul states assuringly, "But don't worry. You didn't cause irreparable harm. We managed to return you to normal before something worse could happen."

The woman sighs in relief.

Steel Butterfly then asks politely, "Who are you, mademoiselle?"

The woman answers, "Afrodille Angevine."

Steel Butterfly takes Afrodille home and detenshizes Platinum Soul before heading home himself.

After Steel Butterfly heads home, he says, "Leppey Elegant Wings Die." and he transforms back into Miguel Guevara.

Miguel feeds Leppey a petal from a hibiscus flower before setting up his lunch, which was a black bean cheeseburger, a turkey hot dog with ketchup, a Reuben sandwich without any Russian dressing whatsoever, smoked ribs, a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, an apple pie, a Philly cheesesteak sandwich with provolone cheese, American cheese, and Cheese Whiz, low-sodium beef jerky, and canned tuna.

After having this big lunch alongside his troops, Miguel waited a full hour in frozen time before running around the world in super speed as Steel Butterfly without breaking the sound barrier, and without causing time to be affected in any way possible.

Miguel returns home and showers.

Seeing the time, Miguel writes in his journal what had happened throughout the rest of the day before heading to bed.

The End.

(Author's notes: There you have it, folks. Dragon Butterfly's dragon mode is mightier than the dinosaur, AND mightier than Horrificator's ability to empower herself through fear.

Additionally, in the next chapter, Manon Chamack's Akumatization will be averted, partially because Marinette is NOT her babysitter in THIS timeline. At least, temporarily.

See you all in chapter 21 : The Puppeteer Averted.)