"I'm only here in body, visiting." Chase This Light ~Jimmy Eat World

Helpful hint; find a way out!

Chat heard the sound of a window opening inside Marinette's room. He opened one eye and saw the shadow of a woman by Marinette's loft, not looking their way. He quietly snuck his arm out from underneath his princess, before holding his staff tightly as he crawled off the chaise, blending himself into the dark as he noticed the shadow making it's way to Marinette, who was still sleeping soundly, not aware of the woman.

Just as the hand reached out towards her, he shot his staff forward, hitting the mysterious woman in the stomach, pushing her back against the loft. "I'm not afraid to hit a woman who is trying to touch my princess." Chat seethed. The woman held on to the staff, trying to tug it away before Chat shortened the staff, forcing her to stumble towards him. He gripped her shoulders tightly as he began to interrogate the mystery lady.

"What do you want with Marinette?" He hissed as he kneed her in the ribs, having her stumble back. She quickly caught her footing and glared at Chat with bright, inhumane looking eyes, the glowing blue looking straight into his emerald green ones.

"I'm glad you're here. That just makes my job easier." The woman said, completely ignoring his question. She started to run at Chat, a hand raised, but was quickly blocked by his forearm.

"You're a lot quicker than I thought you were."

"What can I say? I've got cat like reflexes. Now what do you want with Marinette?" He grabbed her ankle as she kicked her leg up high, narrowly missing his chin as he tilted his head back to dodge the assault. He swung her around before he released her, having her back slam against a wall as he threw her. He ran towards her, jumping over the leg that swept under his feet. He threw a fist towards her, to which she easily caught in her hand before lifting her knee to her stomach. Chat pushed her knee away with little effort before he heard the sound of Marinette groaning and a pillow hitting the floor. Chat turned his attention back to Marinette for a quick moment, making sure she was still asleep. He didn't want her to see this, she'd be even angrier than she was before. He shivered at the thought of a pissed off Marinette.

One experience was more than enough for his lifetime. If someone got her angry, you might as well already start planning the funeral for them, because they would be lucky if they even survived long enough to see the daylight of tomorrow. He had just narrowly snuck his way out of being her target for her anger with a few dozen apologies, including pleading for mercy on his knees. That and promising to not say another pun to her for the rest of the year.

Let's just say that it was a very long four and a half months for this kitty.

The shadow covered woman took his distraction as a chance as she rammed her head in his gut, wrapping her arms around his waist. Chat winced as he felt something sharp dig into his lower back before grabbing her arm and twisting it over his shoulder, pulling her behind him. He yanked down on her arm and threw her over him. Just as she was about to slam into the window, she disappeared in a puff of sparkling electric blue smoke, leaving behind no evidence that she was even there. Or that she even existed for that matter.

"What the-"

"Did you think she was real Chat Noir? I thought you were better than that!" A cheerful voice of a young male cried out in disapproval. Chat tried to turn to the sound, but was frozen stiff, stuck in his position. A his body felt frozen as the paralysis kicked in, affecting all of his limbs. He felt as if thousands of cold needles were piercing his skin at the same time. "Don't worry! I don't want to hurt you guys just yet! I still want to talk to you!"

Chat heard a murmured sleep, before a baby blue light flashed, before disappearing. The male spoke again. "I have the power of runes, y'know?"

"I don't care. What do you want with Marinette?"

"I just want to run some experiments on her." The boy said with an innocent tone. "You as well." His voice was getting closer to Chat, followed by the sounds of footsteps on Marinette's floor.

"Why do you want her?"

"Why?" the male got up next to Chat's ear. "Because she's careless. And I think you know the answer relating as to how she is."

"Sleep." and black flooded Chat's eyes as he fell into the pit of darkness.

~~~~~

Marinette was the first to wake up of the two. She was pressed side to side with her partner in six by six room, considering the fact that Chat's head was millimeters away from the pure white wall, his black cat ears being pressed down.

She sat up as she looked around. They were in a white room that just white walls, white floors, and a white ceiling. It almost looked like that place Adrien and Chloé got stuck in once. Now that was a horrible memory for her. Poor Adrien, stuck with that insufferable brat.

This thought only fueled Marinette's anger even more than before. She just couldn't catch a break, could she? She was sick of this! All she wanted to do was sleep, and now she's probably stuck in some fucked up shit, after her terrible day with Chloé! And in this bare room no less!

"Why is everything so fucking white?!" Marinette shouted, successfully waking up Chat. He got up slowly, looking above them. The ceiling was at least 30 feet away from them, if not higher.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know, but it's too damn white!" Marinette growled as she glanced around once more. "This is just great. I've had quite possibly the worst day of my life, and now I wake up here!"

"At least you're with me." Marinette said nothing as she leaned against the wall, sliding down until she was sat on the floor. She really didn't want to inflate his ego even more by saying that he was right, it was big enough as it was. Her legs went straight and her head tilted back eyes tightly squeezed close. Chat followed her example and sat next to her. "Why do you think we're here?"

Chat thought about his question, before remembering his fight with the mysterious girl and that teenage akumatized boy. At least Chat thinks he was akumatized... Thinking back on it, he didn't give off any of the evil energy he usually felt around akumas. He felt like a normal human, with something else in the mix, something new. It was a unique aura, nothing like he's ever felt before.

"Experiments..." Chat muttered under his breath. "That crazy bastard."

"What?" Marinette looked over at Chat Noir, his green eyes clouded over with an ominous look she had never seen before on him. "Chat, what happened?"

"This guy... He came into your room while you were sleeping. He has this crazy power he calls runes."

"An akuma?"

"... I think so."

"What did he want with me?"

"He wants to do experiments on us." Chat glanced around the room, once more, looking for an exit to escape through. "We're getting out of here."

"And how are we going to do that?" Chat pulled Marinette up with him, a tight hold on her arm.

"Well," he turned to look at her, giving her a big grin showing all of his teeth, a smile she has only seen once before. "If they put us in here, then there's got to be a way out, right?"

"R-Right." She stuttered her heart fluttering before she gave Chat the game plan. "You have better sight as Chat Noir right?" When he nodded she continued. "I need you to check the walls for any cracks or anything unusual, okay? I'll check the floors."

Chat eyed the walls very carefully, noticing thousands of tiny dots all over them. "Princess, there's dots everywhere."

Marinette got up from her knees to check them out. She squinted her eyes as she neared the walls, staring at the holes in confusion. "Do you think it has to do with our way out?"

"Maybe..." Chat answered before noticing a well hidden and blended in crack in the ceiling. He'd have to remember to thank Plagg for the enhanced sight he got with his suit. Probably with a whole lot of Camembert, that disgusting smelly cheese. On second thought, he really didn't want to. "Princess, I just found our way out..."

"Where?" Marinette moved her gaze off the walls to Chat, to see him pointing upwards. She looked up but saw nothing. "Chat, I don't see anything." Of course I don't. I don't have advanced vision like him right now.

"Just trust me. But the only problem is, how are we going to get up there?"

"Yeah that's a bit of an issue. Wait!" She turned back to Chat Noir in excitement. "Use your staff!" She reached behind his back to grab his silver staff, but nothing was there, she was just swiping at thin air. "Of course, he must've taken it while you were knocked out."

Chat watched as she paced back and forth in the small room, muttering "what do we do" to herself. As interesting as it was to watched her move to and fro, he had to interrupt her so they could get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Um, how about we support each other?"

"What?" Marinette stopped her ferverous walking to turn and stare at him. Chat gulped, scared that she would bite his head off if he said the wrong thing or something stupid.

"Have you ever done those trust excercises before? Where you lean on eachother's backs and try to stand up together?" Marinette nodded as a sign for him to carry on. Definitely hope she doesn't hit me. For such a petite lady, she packs one hell of a punch. "Well, what if we did that, but instead of standing, we walk up the wall?"

"Chat that's-" She cut herself off as her face lit up. "That's actually not a bad idea! Good job kitty!" She scratched behind his leather cat ear, earning a small purr from him.

I almost peed myself holy crap.

"Here you get your feet on the wall first, I'll follow." Chat instucted, hooking his strong arms around hers. He pressed his back against hers, as she shakily took steps up the wall her feet slipping a little bit. Once she was steady, Chat began his ascent on the wall, relying on her as he took each slow step. Once he was at the same height as Marinette, he stopped.

"Right then left, okay? We'll say it together." Marinette instructed as she flexed her arms to have a tighter grasp on Chat's. "Right."

The two each took a step with their right foot. "Left." They continued their way up the walls, slowly making the distance between them and the ceiling closer.

"Yo!" A voice shouted suddenly in a cheerful tone, scaring both Marinette and Chat Noir, almost making them fall in surprise. "It's me Chat Noir! The Puzzlemaker, y'know?"

Chat groaned in annoyance at the Puzzlemaker's flamboyant personality. "If he wasn't evil, he'd be fun." Chat mumbled under his breath, Marinette nodding her head in agreement.

"You guys figured the exit out quicker than I thought you would. This experiment will be exciting!" The Puzzlemaker said in a joyous voice as Marinette and Chat Noir paused their walking to listen to him.

"Oh I have an idea! How bout this? If you can escape, I'll give you Gabriel Agreste and Marinette's friend, Tikki, as a reward. That's fair, y'know?"

"Tikki!"

Father.

"Now let's put you two to the test. Bong, bong!"

"What the hell is with the bong bong you creep?"

Suddenly, water started spouting out of the thousands of holes in the walls, spraying down onto the floor below, the water pooling. Their shoes grew slick as they got soaked, their clothes getting heavier and starting to weigh them down.

"Oh. That was the bong bong."

Marinette felt her grip begin to slip as she began to slightly slide down the wall.

"Chat! I'm slipping!"

"Stay steady!" He straightened his legs, bending his back so Marinette would have more balance against him, stopping her from completely falling in to the quickly rising water.

A joy filled laughter came through the intercom, the Puzzlemaker feeling giddy as his experiment test was launched into action.

"Bye~" The Puzzlemaker said with glee, before Marinette and Chat Noir began to yell at him and curse him at the top of their lungs.

What do you guys think of it so far? I love the Puzzemaker so much. Merry late Christmas!

Word Count: 2,001

Date, December 27th, 2016

Until next time, peace!