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The Management recommends playing "Villain" by Wild Fire over reading this chapter.

There was something different about this one. Ladybug could tell just by looking at his huge manic grin.

The normal process of Akumatization was a metamorphosis of body and soul. The Moth Miraculous fed on anger and transformed the body of the host to reflect their darkest desires. It also dulled the inhibitions of the host, making them more susceptible to Hawk Moth's suggestion. More willing to act on violent impulse.

With this guy... It felt like the change was just a makeover.

He had the powers, and the twisted appearance. That couldn't have happened without an Akuma, but the way he looked at her... It was like there was no soul to corrupt. Pure evil had seeped into every crag in his mind, but nothing had changed.

“Do your parents know you're out this late?” he said, looking earnestly surprised. “Good god, I called you 'Little Ladybug,' to demean you, but seriously? What are you fifteen?”

“Oh no, didn't you hear,” Alya said dryly over the Bluetooth. “She's over five-thousand years old...”

“Not the time, Wifi,” Ladybug replied quietly.

“What did you just call me?” Alya asked.

“Sorry,” Ladybug said nervously. “If I'm going to do this comm thing with you, you'll need a codename. It was the best I could come up with on the fly.”

“No, no, it's cool,” Alya giggled. “'Lady Wifi' was too cool of a name to waste on a villain-of-the-week anyway.”

“While you're having that convo with...” The villain shrugged. “What I can only assume is the mothership, at this point, I would like an answer to my question. Are you a gambler?”

“First answer mine,” Ladybug shot back. “Who are you?”

The villain stared blankly back at her. “You're serious?” he said dryly. “I just did a whole TV thing for your benef- The camera was definitely still working! Did this whole big speech where I-- Screw it. I'm the One-Armed Bandit! Get it?! Because slot machine?!” He pointed to the turning slot reels in his chest.

“One-Armed...” Ladybug was completely lost. “Slot machines?”

“Oh,” Alya said over the Comm. “I actually do get it! That's clever.”

“You kids with your music...” The Bandit straightened his arm and pointed the revolver back at Ladybug's head. “One more time, are you a gambler?”

“Not exactly my scene,” Ladybug shot back.

“Oh, come on,” the Bandit laughed. “Your whole shtick is based off of a symbol for good luck. You do this for a living. Honey, you've gambled a few times, I guarantee it. And not just with money, with your life, the cat's life, and other peoples lives.”

Ladybug and the Bandit had begun to slowly circle each other. Never losing the eye contact. “I risk my own life,” she said, trying to think of a plan of action. “Cat Noir risks his, but we never put civilians at risk.”

“Not directly,” the Bandit admitted. “But here's what you are doing. By facing off with me here on the street, you're betting that I haven't stuck an bomb on some roof somewhere.”

Ladybug stopped dead.

“I've only been like this for about six hours,” the Bandit admitted. “With that little time, it would be hard for me to get my hands on an bomb in that little time, but not impossible...”

Ladybug didn't know what to make of this. Was it a taunt? Was there a bomb? Should she diffuse that first and then deal with the Bandit himself later?”

“The odds of that being the case are... I don't know... 100:1?” the Bandit surmised. “Smart money says stay here and deal with me personally. Because if you leave, I'm just going to keep having fun out here. Here's a bet for you... How long do you think the people who live here can run before I get my aim right?”

Marinette couldn't believe her ears. This wasn't the Akuma talking. This man was insane.

“That's all gambling is,” the Bandit's grin widened. “All life is. Risk versus reward. That's how we make every decision, and how everything we do plays out. You're betting that I don't have something bigger planned somewhere else. Hawk Moth is betting on me liking these powers enough to care about your jewelry, I'm betting on good ol' reliable human hubris. And...” The Bandit pulled the gun back and smiled even wider. “Your partner is betting I didn't see him back there...”

The Bandit whirled around and fired a shot at a hitherto unseen Cat Noir, who nimbly leaped out of the way of the shot. Then the next three. “You'd think with those eyes, you couldn't see anything,” Cat Noir quipped, ducking out of the way of the next shot.

“That ain't my handicap kid!” The Bandit kept firing.

“Really?” Ladybug called out confidently. “Because I'd call you pretty blind!” The struggle with Cat Noir had given her time to wrap her yo-yo around the Bandit's ankles. She pulled the chord hard, making the villain trip over and faceplant into the concrete, his gun skidding away. She ran up to hopefully finish off the Akuma, but she was stopped short by a gunmetal grasp around her throat.

Marinette committed the next few seconds to memory, as they were the first sign of the danger that would hound her for the next few nights.

The Bandit looked at Ladybug's face. Over and over, as if he was taking notes. Then he moved his false hand to her ear. He caressed her Miraculous... Then he looked her squarely in the eye, and winked.

“Ladybug!” Cat Noir called out, rushing towards the villain. The Bandit tossed Ladybug, one handed, into her partner. They both fell back hard onto the concrete.

“Oh, come on!” the Bandit laughed as he retrieved his revolver. “I know you guys can do better than that. You have some... I dunno... powers? Use them! A fistfight with teenagers I a waste of my talent!”

“What do you think, milady?” Noir whispered. “Maybe whipping out the Powers isn't a bad idea...”

“Not yet,” Ladybug replied. “He had the perfect chance to grab my Miraculous and bail. He didn't take it. He's stalling...”

“Stalling?” Noir asked. “That doesn't make any sense. Aren't the Miraculouses the endgame? Once you collect the two of them you get absolute power or... whatever?”

“Power over creation and destruction,” Ladybug nodded. “The Power to-”

“Play god,” the Bandit said. “You guys aren't as quiet as you think.”

Noir and Ladybug looked at eachother, worried. “Alright then,” Noir started. “So why doesn't Hawk Moth want you to get our Miraculouses?”

“Oh, he does,” the Bandit said frankly. “I don't.”

“What?” Ladybug couldn't comprehend it. “You're not--?”

He was. At that moment, around his eyes, shone the neon pink outline of a stylized butterfly. Hawk Moth was communicating with his Akuma.

“S'cuse me kids,” the Bandit burst into a wide grin. “I have to take this...”


Hawk Moth couldn't believe what he had just seen. Bousquet couldn't be so mad as to think to trifle with him. The man who made him the monster he so longed to be! This wouldn't stand.

“What do you thing you're doing?!” Hawk Moth screamed. “You had her! Seize her Miraculous!”

“Yeah...” Bousquet shook his head. “Not interested. As for what I'm doing... I'm screwing you over.”

“Are you really?” Hawk Moth sighed. He reached out mentally and took a grip over the Bandit's heart. They always stepped in line after this. From his observation room, he watched the Bandit grip his chest, then drop to his knees.

And then the Bandit began to laugh. It sounded like fistfuls of coins dropping into a steel bucket.

Finish it!” the Bandit cackled. “Hold up your end of the bargain! Do it! Squeeze my heart until it bursts! Not the way I wanted it to go down, but I'll settle! Being the fist villain so dangerous that the heroes had to put him down?! That's a legacy! That.. is immortality!!

Hawk Moth's eyes widened. What was this lunatic talking about?

“I kept telling you,” the Bandit wheezed. “There's only one way to live forever. That way is to die. Die in a place where everyone can see. Everyone can be amazed at how you went out! I wanted them to drop the blade on my neck. But no... France has evolved. We don't do that anymore... So we're just going to put you away in some dark box... Asinine. I'm the most dangerous man in all of France! I'm the Casino Killer! I'm the man who's become synonymous with blood and murder! And you people lock me in a room to think about what I've done?!”

“I deserved better! I deserved to die!

Hawk Moth could feel himself losing his grip. This man's evil was more attractive to the Akuma than his own. The moth was being drawn to a brighter flame.

“I was truly... utterly defeated...” The Bandit slowly made his way to his feet. Getting stronger with every word. “And then you showed up. Offering me the chance to make my mark in the biggest way in exchange for nothing but my word. Card sharks can only dream of having a mark that dumb.”

Hawk Moth did everything he could to tighten his grip on Bousquet's heart, but to no avail. He was losing control.

“And my God,” the Bandit said under his mechanical laugh. “You are easier to read then a goddamn road sign. You're one of those schmucks who believes that the end justifies the means, not realizing that both are unjustifiable. After everything you've done, to all these innocent people you still think you're the good guy?! Hell, at least I'm honest about being scum. You aren't even a little ashamed of everything you've done?

“What would, and I'm just guessing here...” The Bandit gave a mocking shrug. “'She' think of everything you've done?”

That tore it. He had to die. The insolent little troll had to die. Hawk Moth tightened his grip on the villain's heart, causing him to nearly buckle over. But he just kept laughing. Hawk Moth simply wasn't able to finish him.

“Touched a nerve, did I?” Bousquet cackled. “It's always a girl... How did you get her killed? You do it yourself? You the kind of guy who gets off-”

“Silence,” Hawk Moth said quietly, wrenching on the Bandit's heart once again.

“Nah,” the Bandit winced. “Not your style. If you had that kind of power when you lost her you wouldn't be doing this... So more likely you couldn't do anything about it.”

“I said be quiet.” Hawk Moth had to keep calm. He had to keep control of himself if he hoped to keep control of the Akuma.

“You could see it coming,” the Bandit continued relentlessly. “You wanted to stop it, but you couldn't. All you could do is sit there, and wait for her to get slaughtered. Did she even see it coming?! Did you try to warn her, or were you too dumbstruck to even--

SHUT UP!!” Hawk Moth screamed. Without thinking he released the grip on the madman's heart. He could see Bousquet straighten up. Confident in his victory.

“First rule of poker,” the Bandit sighed. “Leave emotion at the door. You start overreacting, you show your hand too early, that's money out the door. You don't know what to do when the other guy looks across the table and says...

“Call.”

Things had never gone out of hand so quickly in anything Gabriel Agreste had ever attempted in his life. With one little push from Bousquet the Akuma was no longer his to control. He couldn't see through the Bandit's eyes anymore.

He stood in the barely lit room, for the first time, completely in the dark.


Marinette and Adrien looked on in awe at the conversation the One-Armed Bandit seemed to be having with the air. They knew he was talking with Hawk Moth, but the inherent madness of seeing a one sided conversation that came close to killing the only visible participant was... unnerving.

It finally came to an end when the neon butterfly around the Bandit's face turned black and shattered.

“Like I was saying before,” the Bandit panted. “Risk versus reward. For example, I just risked having my heart crushed like a berry by an evil mastermind... But the reward was well worth the risk.”

He looked straight at the pair. His billboard eyes now displaying the words “FREE PLAY.”

“You see,” the Bandit hissed lovingly. “I just became a free agent.”

Logic: Had your OC villain make the Big Bad of the show look like a chode? I dunno man, you could piss a lot of fans off that way...

Me: Not my first fanfic. I know what I'm doing. If he didn't break free of Hawk Moth's control, it would just be another villain-of-the-week. While I see nothing wrong with the formula, you don't need me for that. I wanted to try something a little different. But TRUST ME, I haven't forgotten who's party this is.

Logic: Alright. I wonder how many people actually put on the songs you recommend for the chapter?

Me: Realistically? Probably no one.

And hey, if you want to read this story on a more professional format, check it out on Archive Of Our Own!

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