37: Phase 2

Chat Noir liked Phase 2.

It included water, oil and yeast.

The yeast was already taken care of courtesy of Multimouse as she explained how she had managed to include a few packets of yeast while pouring the sacks of flour on the monster. Leaving water and oil as the final touch. Being former Ladybug, Multimouse had already scattered herself to set up the water contraption of the plan.

"I've already unlocked the museum door for you two." She gestured at the door behind them. "I'll give you 5 minutes to search for oil inside the museum and bring it out. Then we meet at the foot of the monster."

"You unlocked the heavy security door? How―Is that why you were climbing from Viperion's back from awhile ago?" Chat smirked.

"Ugh." She groaned, "You and your priorities. Yes Chat, now go!"

She jumped off of Viperion running towards the cloud of flour and the boys dashed towards the museum door.

Thanks to their ultra swift hero powers, the boys didn't find the hustle problematic. Running was as easy as counting one-two-three. Only problem was the fact that they had no clue where to find oil inside the museum and the clock was ticking.

While they were on their feet, Chat decided for a short conversation just so the plan could kick in. "I know this is kind of anticlimactic but...do you have any idea what we're looking for?"

"Barrels of oil." Viperion replied as they slipped under a barricade of velvet stanchions. "Multimouse told me there were some inside the museum's maintenance workshop."

Chat glanced up and saw a rust colored sign that read: Aircraft.

"So that's why we're here." He said as they run past a replicated model of the first aircraft made by the Wright Brothers.

Viperion led them deeper into a fork in the hall turning downward right then to a secret passage like those halls only for celebrities. At the end of the hall was a two-door employees only entryway that was supposed to be locked.

"It's open." Chat glanced at Viperion after he twisted the knob. "Did she..?"

Viperion raised a hand. "Let's ponder on that later."

The two trudged inside and found themselves entering a warehouse, face to face with six barrels of motor oil heavily stacked across the room.

"I thought those planes weren't functional?" Chat mused as he walked towards their prized goal.

Viperion shrugged, "Maintenance needs oil too so..I guess that's it?"

"How are supposed to get all of these out?"

"We only need one." replied the Viper. He understood what Chat meant. Even with two boys, they can't possibly carry a barrel weighing over 300 pounds. He grimaced. At the end of the room, Viperion noticed a parked vehicle. He dashed towards it and realized..."It's a forklift." He breathlessly supplied.

He glanced back at Chat Noir who looked busy analyzing the barrel's features and yelled, "Is there one that has been separated into a wood block?"

Chat studied and saw a lone barrel on the right of the stack, "Yeah!" He yelled back.

Viperion grinned, "Alright, grab some rope and tie the barrel to the wood block to secure it."

"What are you planning to do?" Chat yelled arching an eyebrow.

Viperion patted the vehicle beside him and Chat Noir immediately understood the boy's idea. He began to run around searching for rope and found a roll of plastic chains and duct tape underneath a workstation.

"This could work." He mumbled and cradled the supplies to the barrel of choice.

While Chat Noir was busy anchoring the gallon of motor oil, Viperion hopped on to the driver's seat and positioned himself for a ride. Luckily, the keys were left on the ignition slot.

Luka had no formal training on using forklifts. However, thanks to his mother's band instruments stored in a crate somewhere within a city warehouse, the boy had tried driving one.

He gripped on the head of the key praying that the forklift would work and turned the power in a short tilt. A muffled 'haroom' erupted underneath him and the forklift was alive.

"Good." He praised himself. Igniting the machine was one thing. Making it move was another. He turned towards Chat Noir who had been hoisting an arm full of chains while ripping several duct tapes every now and then.

"You okay there buddy?" Viperion yelled from across the room.

"Almost there, bud!" replied the cat who had dived into the shadows of the beam.

Viperion glanced down to his feet remembering which pedal to press to get the thing moving. He took a deep breath and reached for the lever on his left. He recounted his experience, "Depress the brake pedal and shift the select lever into forward."

The machine boomed in agreement and the wheels began to move. "Wohoo! Yeah baby!" Viperion cheered as he veered the wheel towards the barrels. Chat was just right on time when Viperion scooped up the tied crate to the barrel of oil into the forklift.

"Awesome!" Chat beamed.

"Now hop on!" Viperion locked a lever, "We gotta get this thing out there, fast!"

―――――

While the boys were busy with their greasy situation, Multimouse (well, all of her separated selves) had finished surrounding the monster with grass sprinklers. She checked the door for signs of Viperion and Chat Noir but the air was still. She began to wonder whether sending those two together was a good idea. Chat seemed very suspicious and uneasy earlier which did not calm her thoughts. Just when she was mulling in her sea of questions, the monster bellowed. From the plume of white, beams of light erupted and hit random objects around her. She saw a mailbox turn to stone and a bench crumble to dust.

"Oh no." She muttered and immediately closed her eyes to focus on her other selves. In her mind she shared her plan of attack and instantly she ran towards the cloud of flour that was almost gone. As soon as she reached the foot of the monster, visibility was back. In front of her hovered a dusted mummy struggling to keep balance on the pyramid its been floating with.

"Slippery isn't it?" She grinned. The monster groaned and towered over her. It fired its petrification beams that aimed at her feet but Multimouse was agile. She dodged every single laser shot while landing in very cute poses she could think of. She was doing fine until she heard it spoke. Multimouse was unable to move from what it said. She tried urging it to explain but the monster cackled and lunged for an assault. With her state she was sure to be hit by its tackle. Suddenly, several handled strings attached to its limbs like grappling hooks, stopping the monster from its attack. Jumping ropes, she thought. Multimouse grinned. "Good job girls." She yelled but she knew the weapon wasn't going to last as it was not meant for that. She scuttled towards a blindspot and glanced towards the museum once more.

"Where are those boys?!" She gritted her teeth.

As if summoned, a forklift burst out of the museum door with Chat Noir riding on the barrel. Multimouse ran to her post preparing the water. Viperion pulled two levers making the lift push the barrel up as if serving a volleyball. Chat unscrewed the oil tank mid air and bronze liquid spilled over the mummy and all around it. Amidst the confusion, the sprinklers spouted water that produced steam and Multimouse charged towards the mixture and yelled, "KNEAD!"

Several of tiny figures ran from the sprinklers and hidden spots gathering like hundreds of mice on one prey. Some spun and kicked into the flour while the others pulled and weaved. Viperion and Chat Noir stared with their mouths hung open as the monster began to look like a mummy in a coccoon.

"What in the.." Chat mumbled staring into the monster who was now unable to move. He began comparing the scene to all those timelapses he had seen before only this was real time. "She could move that fast?"

Viperion absentmindedly nodded. "When she told me about the plan, I thought it was crazy but.."

In about five counts, the workers stopped moving and the monster had a blanket of white wrapped around it like an enlarged croissant up to its neck and was beginning to be enveloped in thick rising bread dough.

Multimouse gathered herself into one spot away from the downed creature and regained her human size. Viperion and Chat ran to her cheering and clapping, but before she could speak she collapsed backward. Luckily, Chat Noir caught her before she could hit the floor and Viperion fanned her face.

"You okay?" Chat asked.

"Yeah." She said pulling herself up. "I got a little bit dizzy."

"You did great." Viperion tapoed her shoulder.

She smiled and pulled away from Chat then stepped forward to face the creature they had snared.

"What now?" Chat asked.

She looked back at him and glanced to Viperion who had his wrist on check. She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply.

"Chat you'll come with me." She said then she looked down at his claws. "Ready your Cataclysm. I have to confirm something before we destroy it."

Multimouse leaped towards the wrapped creature with Chat Noir following after her. They both landed on its pyramid looking down on its flour covered head. She gestured Chat to lend me his stick and he gladly obliged. The stick grew resting on the mummy's neck. Multimouse carefully raised its face towards her revealing the mummy's beady red eyes and alien like caricature. On its forhead was a blue and yellow striped ringlet finished with a ruby in the middle. It glimmered like its eyes but emitted a strange aura similar to an akuma. It hissed at her, sneering like a hungry snake.

"Who sent you here?" Multimouse urged.

The mummy continued its hissing now grunting under its breath.

Multimouse bit her anger, "Don't play with me! I know you can speak!"

Her yelling shocked Chat Noir. He turned to her and noticed how her eyes looked more tired than usual. Her hand was shaking as she gripped on to his stick as she forced herself not to strike the creature.

The creature laughed which sounded like tin cans dragged on concrete.

"I ssssssaid what I ssssssssaid young hero." It beamed. "Your miraculousssssss will soon be uselessssss against the master once he completes hisssss final piece."

Multimouse balled her fist, "Your master. Is it Hawkmoth? What are you?!"

The creature merely gave her a wicked grin bearing its grimy yellow teeth. "Your kwami'ssssss negative energy wasssss icing on the cake."

Unable to control her anger, Multimouse lunged the stick to its forehead breaking the ruby in half. The creature wailed and a blood red feathery winged butterfly covered in black aura emerged, fluttering to the sky.

"Chat! Destroy it!" She yelled.

Chat Noir's hand erupted into black energy as he lunged for the weird creature. As soon as it was in his grasp, the butterfly crumbled and so did mummy-man after exploding and becoming a pile of gold dust filling inside the dough.

As soon as the they knew it wouldn't regenerate, Chat Noir and Multimouse dropped back to the ground and Viperion came to meet them. They were both covered in white grime from dealing with mummy-man's self-destruct, but their faces looked terrible as of they've just been to a funeral.

"What happened back there?" Viperion said patting off a pile of flour from her shoulder.

She shook her head in exasperation. "Just as we expected, a new monster from Hawkmoth. That feathery butterfly akuma Chat destroyed, proved it."

"What was that thing?" Chat crinkled his nose. "It felt similar to an akuma and a sentimonster but wasn't exactly the same thing."

"No idea." She replied. "We did try to extract information but it kept hissing and grinning and I lost it."

Chat wanted to ask her about what she mentioned earlier as she had his pogo stick pointed at mummy-man's chin that had convinced her it could talk. He had a feeling the creature spoke to Multimouse while they were gone, but seeing how she looks extra stressed already, made him set the question aside.

Viperion noticed the petrified mailbox had returned to normal and somewhere in the far distance, people had started to re-animate themselves. "People are gonna flock here soon. What are we gonna do about this?" He gestured to the enormous slab of weaved dough behind them.

Multimouse groaned, "Right. If only this was part of my lucky charm, I would have gotten rid of everything in a flash."

"Speaking of flash." Chat interrupted. He showed them his ring and it was blinking one bar down. Viperion and hers also began blinking.

"We're losing our disguises soon. We have to do something about this." Viperion mimed.

Multimouse scanned the area hoping for something to click. It only took two glances when she immediately snapped her fingers. "I got it! Huddle up."

She gathered the two talking as fast as she could whispering at each other. Once her plan was relayed, the three of them nodded and dispersed. With their utmost cooperation, cleanup was easy. Moving like professional restorationists, it was like looking at a train in max speed. As soon as the people have regained consciousness, the plaza was in order but a new ravishing sight erected a few yards before the entrance, possibly triggering hunger and excitement for both humans and birds.

"Paris's first largest bread." Viperion mused landing next to Chat Noir and Multimouse standing at the roof of museum.

Multimouse cackled, "The museum will have to mark it as a new sculpture or the people will think it came from aliens. Is the forklift back to its place?"

Viperion finger gunned. "All clear."

"Well," Chat Noir stretched his arms satisfied of the flock of people getting amused of their work. "I guess we didn't have to use your powers today after all, Viperion."

"Chat Noir is that how you―"

Viperion held her shoulder, "It doesn't really matter to me. Staying by her side eases me."

Multimouse blushed loudly.

"Staying by her side?" Chat inched forward. His eyes narrowed and his voice sounded tense.

Multimouse caught him by his shoulders. "Whoa kitty. Viperion's just teasing. You might have not noticed but I had him use Second Chance before I ran in and kneaded the dough just in case things go wrong."

Chat's eyes glanced from snakeman to her. He began questioning whether these two were hiding something, but before he could even pry all three of their miraculouses blinked and they were down to their last bar.

"We gotta go." Urged Multimouse. "Thanks for today Chat Noir."

"Anytime, M'lady." He saluted.

She clapped his shoulders and hesitated for a smile which she eventually did. As soon as she stepped away, she gestured her head to Viperion. "Let's go warrior."

Viperion nodded bidding Chat goodbye and followed after her.

The two of them leaped to another building and disappeared in an alley leaving Chat Noir feeling stupid that he actually thought the two were an item or something.

He kicked a pebble off the roof and extended his stick ready to head home when his communication device beeped. He opened the teetering envelope on the screen and found himself reading an email from his trusted friend, D'Angelo.