"Watch me choke it down so I can throw it up." Sarcasm ~ Get Scared

Helpful hint; work together!

The water continued to pour around the teenagers, spraying them in the face. Water droplets clung to their hair and eyelashes, streaking down their skin. The water that was pooling below them was already a foot or two deep, and quickly rising, catching up to Marinette and Chat Noir.

"Hey Chat, I figure now is the best time to tell you something." Marinette said as they slowly took a step up, their shoes squeaking against the wet wall.

"If you're confessing you're undying love for me, now is really not the time."

Like you have any room to talk. Marinette thought to herself as she kept herself from slipping against the wall.

"What is it?" He grunted out through his gritted teeth as he stayed as steady as he could against the slick wall. His whole body was threatening to start shaking as more of the freezing water continued to shower down on them. He knew Marinette wasn't doing much better as he felt her arms tremble against his. His blonde hair darkened as it grew damp, plastering itself to his forehead and hanging over his eyes, making it hard for him to see.

They muttered another left as they took a shaky step with their left feet, their legs starting to burn as they strained their muscles. Even after all the akumas they fought in the past and having to do all that exercising, it was nothing compared to this excruciating work of climbing up these wet walls.

"I can't swim." Marinette glanced down at the now three foot deep pool below them, having a mini heart attack at the sight of their drop. It was at least ten feet below them. She was doomed if they fell and the water got any deeper than it was right now.

"Come on meow. You don't need to worry about that. I'm here and I won't let anything hurt you. Not even that silly water below us."

"Aren't cats supposed to be scared of water?" She teased, momentarily taking her mind off of the deepening water.

"This cat isn't afraid of anything, purrincess." Chat answered smoothly before they took another step. Marinette's flats slipped against the wall, her body lurching forward from the sudden loss of pressure. With her support gone, Chat fell back as well, his arms swinging wildly as he tried to stop himself from falling.

Marinette screamed his name as she saw the water get closer and closer to her. She could mentally see herself crashing into the deep water, and never being able to break through the sparkling surface the clear water made around her. Her freefall was stopped with a sudden jolt as a firm hold of a leather covered hand wrapped around her thin wrist. He had his feet pressed firmly against the wall, his claws from his other hand digging into the opposite wall.

His body was trembling at the strenuous work as he held both of their weight against the drenched walls. He scrunched his brows together in concentration, his lips pressed in a thin line. He suddenly was thankful for these claws now, even after all those times it had made it harder for him to do simple things as Chat Noir.

"I told you I wouldn't let this silly water hurt you, didn't I?" He managed to grunt out through clenched teeth. He gave a smirk before he spoke again. "But, could you... start climbing up?... This is not the easiest thing to be doing with the two of us."

The water, now at her hips, grew even colder than before, freezing Marinette's lower half as goosebumps traveled up her spine. Her teeth chattered together loudly as she began to climb up his arm, going as quickly as she could without hurting him.

"I am so getting swimming lessons after this."

"I'd be glad to be your teacher. I look good in a swimsuit."

"I'm sure you do, dork, but now I need to think about what to do." Marinette clung to his side, her legs hanging below them as she kept her head buried into his chest.

"Wrap your arms around my neck. I have an idea." She glanced warily at Chat, his body still convulsing from the strain of holding both of them in such an awkward position. She did as he said, inching her way up. Once her arms were secured around his neck, he let his feet drop, his body hitting the wall with bruising force. Pain shot through his throat as it landed awkwardly on Marinette's arms. He heard her wince as her elbows hit the walls but it was better than her drowning.

"What are you doing?" Now that she was on Chat's back, she was raised a little more from the water.

"I'm going to climb up this wall. It's the only way we can do this now."

"You're a cat, not a spider!"

"And this cat's got claws. When we get to the top, I will open the crack." If Marinette was confused at any part of this plan, she didn't show it. She nodded in confirmation as he began to unhook one of his hands from the wall and stabbed them up higher, before repeating the same action with his opposite. He continued the tedious journey, his fingers pulsating as they throbbed in pain. Little by little, he began to raise them out of the rising water, making his way up as fast as he could.

He could hear the sound of the water rushing down the walls, splashing underneath them. He knew, that if he fell now, there would be no way he could carry both Marinette and himself up as they swam. He wasn't even sure if he could swim up, with how much pain his legs were in.

The ceiling became closer, at least within five feet of them. Marinette could now clearly see the small crack, the size of her pinky finger. She would have wondered how he would have noticed it, if she had not been Ladybug and hadn't have known the miraculous heightened all of your senses, and healing as well.

As they grew near, the water did as well, the pace quickening as more water started to flood in from the walls.

"Hold on tight." Chat warned before quickly flipping over, kicking his feet back as he did so. Marinette squeezed her eyes shut, thinking that they were going to be plunging into the water below them in just a few moments. "Let me use cataclysm."

Marinette opened her eyes to see that he had his feet pressed against the opposite wall, his hands pushing against the wall he climbed on, and that he was facing the ceiling with their backs to the water.

"Chat! Don't!" She shouted, cutting him off from activating his powers. "If you do that, the walls will go and we'll fall to our death! The water won't save us if it's spread out on the ground like a puddle!"

"Well, what do you want me to do?!" He asked incredulously turning his head the best he could to face her.

"Let me try something. Also, I'm sorry, in advance."

"What do you-" He stopped as he tightened his stomach, the muscles hardening as Marinette swung her leg across his abdomen, shifting her weight. "W-What are you doing?" Chat blurted out, his heart racing.

"I'm going to break that crack even more by smashing the hell out of it." She explained as she crawled up from his back, straddling his hips as her legs dangled on either side of him.

"W-Whatever you're doing, hurry up!" Chat stuttered, quickly catching his tongue before he tripped on more words. Marinette did as he said, quickly slamming her fists against the tiny crack, white plaster sprinkling around them, looking almost like snow. She pounded against the ceiling harder as the crack widened, before tearing the plaster apart, creating a hole big enough for her and Chat Noir to crawl through.

"I'm going through." She placed her hands on either side of the hole, the pads of her fingers feeling the smooth cool metal. "Metal?" She hauled herself up, her head bumping against the steel top. She slid on her stomach, army crawling her way through.

"Chat climb in! I think it's an air vent or something."

Chat grunted as he dug his leather wrapped, indestructible claws into the wall, his feet propping him into a squatting position. With a push from his feet, he disconnected from the wall and hung onto the vent, his lower half swinging back and forth.

He climbed in, the water several feet below them. "We need to hurry. This vent is going to slow us down and let the water catch up to us." Chat told Marinette, getting on his forearms and knees.

"You're right. When that reaches us, it's game over." Marinette responded before beginning to crawl further inside the dark vent, her black leggings catching on the little cracks and screws in the vent, tearing the black nylon in several places.

Chat had been right, the water had caught up to the pretty quickly, creating a thin film-like layer of water where they were crawling.

"We don't have much time left." The vent was pitch black, Chat being the only one of the two who could see, thanks to his night vision, which was giving him a not too bad of a view, if he could say so himself.

"Ow!" Marinette yelped in pain as she came to a sudden stop, making Chat bump into her, which would have been quite awkward if not for the situation they were in. She rubbed her aching nose as she looked around in confusion.

"Why'd you stop?"

"I can't it's a dead end."

"What?" Chat looked ahead of her to see, sure enough, a steel wall. He noticed something protruding from the ceiling above her. "Up above you. There's a latch." He said, looking up at the handle shaped latch. Marinette blindly reached for it, each time missing as she swung her hand. "Let me."

He crawled on top of Marinette, his chest pressing against her back, as he reached above her head to grab the latch. He managed to reach the metal bar, pulling it down and pushing it to the left.

"Righty tighty, lefty loosey, right?" Chat mumbled under his breath before pushing against the ceiling of the vent. The trapdoor opened above the two, a bright light shining down on them. Eyes squinted, the looked around the blinding room, getting out of the steel vent they were lying in.

"Phew! Glad to finally be out of that tin can!" Chat whooped as he stretched, raising his arms above his head as he cracked his back.

"I'd like to get out of here too, y'know."

"Oh right!" Chat offered her a hand, which she accepted, and pulled her out of the vent.

"Where are we now?" Marinette asked. Instead of being in a small white room like before, they were in a fairly large room, with what looked like steel walls.

"Hey hey! You made it past level one!" The bubbly voice of the Puzzlemaker shouted, coming from everywhere, bouncing off the walls as it echoed.

"Hey! Shut up and tell us where the hostages are, you psycho!" Chat yelled, turning around in circles as if he could find the Puzzle maker.

"That was really mean, y'know?" The Puzzlemaker pouted, his sorrow clear in his voice.

"You said that if we escaped, you would let Tikki and Gabriel Agreste go." Marinette quoted him as she looked off in one way.

"But you haven't escaped yet! This experiment has only just begun, y'know? Bye bye!~" The room went silent as the two turned to figure out their surroundings.

"That's bull shi-" Chat was cut off by a twist in the game.

Happy late New Year's! What's everyone's resolutions? Mine is to become a better writer. Let's have a good year this year!

Word Count: 2,033

Date, January 3rd, 2017

Until next time, peace!