The Management recommends playing Aloe Blacc's "Ticking Bomb" at the appropriate moments.

Marinette slowly stood, never once taking her eye of the grinning villain. The Bandit looked at her back. Never breaking eye-contact until he went to check his watch. “Well!” he said brightly. “Look at the time. Listen, I gotta run. You two kids have fun without me, okay? And remember, there's a place and time for everything, and it's called 'Senior Prom!' Toodles!”

“Do you honestly think that we're going to just let you walk away?” Noir shot back.

“No,” the Bandit laughed. “You're going to be stupid and try to charge me.”

“Damn right!” Noir said, vaulting over his extendable quaterstaff and flying at the villain for a high kick. With one swift motion the Bandit caught Noir's foot and moved it down to the ground, he then caught him by the throat and slammed him down to the hard concrete.

“Fine with me,” The Bandit shrugged. “Needed to take care of this anyway...”

“Cat Noir!” Ladybug ran up to assist but had to dodge revolver shots slowing her down.

“Blonde hair,” the Bandit muttered. “Average sized nose. Perfect teeth and complexion. Sheesh, you should know kid, the brace-laden acne-riddled nerds at your school? They hate your breathing guts. Even the ones you're nice to... Scratch that, especially the ones you're nice to.” He stood up and kicked Cat Noir away. He looked up just in time to see Ladybug's yo-yo connect with his face.

“Are you alright?” she asked Cat Noir, helping him up.

“I'm fine,” Noir said, rubbing his neck. “What the hell was he even talking about? Why was he describing my face? I'm not that pretty.”

I always thought you were, Marinette almost said out loud. Knowing Noir's identity was going to complicate things. “We need to find out where his Akuma is,” Ladybug said confidently. “If this psycho is off Hawk Moth's leash, he's more dangerous than anyone else we've personally faced...”

“Oww,” the Bandit said, rubbing his nose. “Watch where you're swinging that thing! You could take somebodies eye out.”

“What do you want?” Noir shouted back at the villain.

“You kids need to pay more attention when adults are talking...” The Bandit pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am a low-functioning psychopath with both homicidal, and suicidal tendencies. I just told that to Madame Butterfly back there.”

“Alright, so you want to die in a blaze of glory,” Ladybug said, trying to think of a plan. “Jump off the top of the Eiffel Tower.”

“Been done,” the Bandit sighed as he examined his gun. “Who else is bored of this gun? Let's see if we can get something a little more fun.” He popped off his fake arm and tucked it under his real one. He then pulled down on the metal rod that was attached to the stump. The reels on his chest spun rapidly. “Hey Ladybug? Remember that 100:1 chance of me planting a bomb somewhere?”

Ladybug started to panic. “Oh no...”

“Always bet on the longshots, kid,” the Bandit grinned. The reels each stopped on something that looked like a bike handle. The words “DEAD MAN'S SWITCH” scrolled across his eyes. His jaw flipped open with a loud KA-CHING! and he spat out what, on closer inspection, appeared to be a detonator, and caught it with his real hand.

“Ooh, tsk tsk tsk tsk...” The Bandit flipped up the cover and pressed down the switch. “Now that's just bad luck.”

Ladybug and Cat Noir looked around frantically for the explosion. It took Cat Noir to ask the question. “Where's the kaboom?”

“It's a Dead Man's Switch, idiot!” the Bandit shouted. “The Kaboom comes when I take my thumb off the button.”

“If you let go of that button,” Ladybug panted. “Thousands of innocent people will...”

“Oh, don't exaggerate,” the Bandit said, rolling his eyes. “More like dozens. The bomb's under the street and it has to have been well evacuated by now.”

“Under this street?!” Cat Noir's eyes widened.

“So why don't you just set it off?” Marinette dared the villain. “You're the one who wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.”

“A bigger blaze than that, sheesh,” the Bandit scoffed. “One street with a bunch of C4? I can do better than that. I'm a proper supervillain now. I need to get me some henchmen, come up with a scheme, then when it comes down to it, build a great big Doomsday Device right in the middle of town. The whole nine yards.”

“I don't know, gambling man,” Noir said. “It sounds to me like you're bluffing.”

“Maybe I am,” the Bandit shrugged. “Either of you got the guts to call it?”

Ladybug and Cat Noir froze. Unable to move, neither one willing to risk the civilians.

“Risk and reward, little Ladybug,” the Bandit sneered. “The switch has got a five mile range, as far as you know. I don't think the smart money is on following me. Oh, rest assured, we will cross paths again. I just have to get some stuff together.”

“We're going to stop you,” Cat Noir said defiantly. “We're going to find you, and stop you. And when we do, we are going to shove you right back in that little dark box to be forgotten all over again.”

“Kitty Cat,” the Bandit stood at the base of a tall building, his back to the heroes. “If there was no risk of losing, there'd be no point in the bet.”

He leaped over the building, across the rooftops, and out of sight.

Cat Noir moved forward to pursue. “No,” Ladybug sighed. “We can't risk the civilians, and besides... my bet is at this point we'll never catch up to him.”

Noir kicked the dust. “Dammit!” he shouted. “What the hell just happened?!”

“I don't know,” Ladybug admitted. “Is it really possible he broke free of Hawk Moth's control? Could that even happen?”

“Seems like it!” Noir exclaimed. “And apparently, that's all it takes to pate the both of us! Now we've got a superpowered lunatic on the loose, and the worse part is, he's actively suicidal. What do you hold against someone like that?!”

Noir deflated a little after ranting. Marinette thought he still must be having a rough week. And what she did back on the rooftop couldn't have made it easier. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Hey,” she said quietly. “We'll find him. Like you said, we'll stop him and shove him back in his dark hole.”

Noir gave Ladybug a weak smile. “Why is it when you say it, I believe it?”

“Because I'm always right,” Ladybug joked. “You know that.”

Noir stepped back and nodded. Obviously feeling a little better.

“I'm sorry I bailed on you back there,” Ladybug sighed. “That wasn't cool... It was just the shock...”

“No, I-I get it,” Noir said nervously. “I mean, if I... I get it...”

Ladybug looked into Noir's eyes. Adrien's eyes. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind at once. It finally occurred to her that she didn't care who was the real Adrien, and who was the mask. Someone she cared about was in a bad place. Her feelings, whatever they were at this point, could wait. “I just want you to know,” she started. “I never saw you as-”

“Ladybug?!” came a call from the bluetooth. “Come in! LB, are you alright?”

“Alya?!” Ladybug had completely forgotten she was supposed to be on comms. “What the hell, girl? Where have you been?!”

“Doing your chores!” Alya said irritably. “Never ask me to cover for you again! I just did a bunch of unpaid grunt work for a Paris Bakery. The only thing I got out of it was a recipe for Meringue...”

“Is that Alya?” Noir asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Is that Adrien?” Alya shouted. “Put him on!”

“I'm not going to put him on,” Ladybug said, pinching her nose. She turned back to Noir. “I told her tonight, I had to talk to someone, it was driving me nuts.

“It's fine,” Noir raised a dismissive hand. “Nino apparently figured out months ago.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Wifi, listen,” she said. “There might be a bomb...”

“I heard the whole thing,” Alya interjected. “I'm looking over the street camera footage.”

“You hacked into the street cameras?!” Ladybug said, shocked. “How did-”

“We'll talk about it later,” Alya said quickly. “The point is, the guy came in from off the street. He didn't even touch the sewers or the subway.”

“He was bluffing,” she told Cat Noir. “What do we do next? Can you... I don't know... Find him with the street cams?”

“I'd need a satellite uplink. That would take at least an hour,” Alya replied.

“Satellite uplink?” Ladybug replied. “Since when did you become this master hacker?”

“I said we'll talk about this later!” Alya snapped. Ladybug knew that tone of voice. For some reason, Alya was scared. “Look... I will need to talk to you about this, but not tonight. For now just come home. Tomorrow we'll regroup. All three of us. I'll do as much research as I can on this Bousquet guy.”

“Okay,” she turned back to Noir. “She wants the three of us to meet up tomorrow to work out a plan.”

“Make it four,” Noir added. “Nino won't want to miss this.”

“We could use him,” Alya responded, Ladybug nodded to Noir. “We'll need every example of Akumatization we can get to understand why this is different. My experience might not be typical. Tomorrow morning, outside of school. Be early.”

Ladybug repeated the information to Noir. “Does that sound alright?”

“Great idea,” Noir said. “Now, I need to get home before dad realizes I'm gone.”

He was about to vault away, but Marinette stopped him. “Adrien...” Cat Noir turned to face him. “About tomorrow... If you need to talk about anything. I'll be there.”

Cat Noir gave her a very sad smile. He knew what she meant. “Thank you,” he said softly. “But I'll be fine.”

Noir vaulted off, leaving Ladybug to look up from the street.

---

The Bandit had dropped the dummy trigger the minute he had leaped away from the heroes. They were going to have to take more risks if this was going to get interesting.

He landed hard on a rooftop, and looked out over the dimly lit autumn night. He took a deep breath in through his pointed nose. He pondered the panic in the streets at the sight of him. The red and blue lights of the police cars. The gunfire that did nothing. The look of panic and shock on the Hawk Moth's face when he realized he wasn't holding all the cards anymore.

What a beautiful night to be alive.

He had told the heroes that he needed a scheme. This wasn't true. He already had one. A damn good one. One that could make the Legion of Doom hide their faces away in shame. He was really getting into the whole “Supervillain” shtick.

The plan came in a five tasks. The first was already in motion. Research. He was still awaiting trial when the Bug and the Cat debuted. He needed to research every point of their history as heroes, and what their soft targets were. It's good to know the guy across the table. And he would, in every sense of the word.

The second task? Recruitment. Long story short, he needed bodies to throw at the two of them to keep them busy. And something to persuade them to come along. That shouldn't be a problem. There was an element in Paris, even if the government hated to admit it. A nice dark underbelly on the city of lights.

Third task. Location. He'd need a big, obvious place. Somewhere everyone could see. Where all eyes could be on him. Someplace that hadn't been done to death, though. A great big Paris landmark that everybody knew, but was under-appreciated.

Fourth task. Procurement. He could only manipulate his reels so much. To hit the jackpot he had to rely on good old Lady Luck. He gave the lever another pull to see what he got. Nothing. This was going to take some time.

Final Task. Punishment. He was going to kill the kid heroes. That much was obvious. But the first thing he wanted to do was break them. Utterly and completely break them. Make them regret the day they ever decided to get into the heroics game. Only after the light of their last hope left their eyes would he finally end them. Because that's how you do it. If you have to just kill indiscriminately you're not having any fun with your work. Crush the mind. Tear the soul. Only then should you break the body.

He looked out over the city, fully prepared to secure his legacy. All of the great comic villains had a tag line... He had already written his.

One-Armed Bandit. The Man Who Killed Paris.

Logic: Huh. Over 250 hits. How many of those are you?

Me: Oh, at least 50, considering how AO3's hit system works. Now shut up and let me start the next chapter.

Logic: Already?! You're not going to give yourself a night?

Me: Nope. Chapter after next is a big one and I want it out before the 14th.

Logic: You mean before season 2 drops and annihilates your worldbuilding?

Me: Yep.

And once again, if you want to see this chapter in a more professional format, check it out on Archive Of Our Own.