In the secret hideout, the Magician was internally panicking. She had expected her son to return by now—ten minutes ago, in fact—and with every passing second, her thoughts spiraled further into catastrophe. Instantly, she assumed the worst, voicing her fury aloud as she convinced herself that her idiotic child had been caught by heroes or law enforcement.
"I can't lose my score! I worked so hard to build my reputation! I can't lose it all because of my stupid child!" she shrieked, thrashing everything in the hideout except the money. "I won't let that man who abandoned me have the last laugh!"
All of a sudden, a dark blue feather drifted down and landed delicately upon her wand. The air grew heavy as she formed a telepathic connection with something sinister.
"Magician, I am Vainastro," the voice announced in a dramatic, velvety tone. "You are plagued by despair, fearing that everything you are will shatter—just like the reality you have always avoided. With Mirage Marionette, you shall become the queen of mischief. It will exist entirely under your control. In addition, I will grant you a Quirk known as Chaos Magic, granting you the power of electricity that can harm your enemies or bring objects to life to aid you. In return for these powers, you must retrieve the Butterfly Miraculous from that false hero. Do you accept?"
"Yes, Vainastro," the Magician replied without hesitation.
Her clothes transformed in a brilliant surge of power, reshaping themselves into a majestic, starry-night magician's outfit. Her hair shifted from pale pink to a striking crimson, and her wand pulsed as it summoned her amok—Mirage Marionette, a colossal, snake-like red marionette adorned with bright orange, curly clown hair.
The Magician let out a dramatic chuckle. "It's showtime!"
Suddenly, Mirage Marionette lunged forward, positioning itself protectively in front of her just as an explosion tore through the hideout.
The walls collapsed outward, crumbling into debris. On the other side of the destruction stood Sparrow and Mightyfly, with Mime lingering behind them.
"What kind of walls are these?" Sparrow remarked in bewilderment, surveying the ruins. "Did you set them up? You really gotta reinforce your walls, lady."
He gestured casually, the remnants clearly demolished by a single sticky bomb.
The Magician's glare snapped toward Mime. "I am so disappointed in you," she hissed. "Working with heroes. Betraying me just like your pathetic father did. I hate you just as much as I hate your sister."
Mime lowered his head, guilt weighing heavily on him—until he felt a hand rest gently on his shoulder. He looked up to see Mightyfly beside him, his expression filled with sympathy.
The reassuring look in his eyes promised that everything would be all right, that Mime could still have a proper family.
"You can go," Mightyfly said calmly. "Tell the police everything. I can't risk a civilian casualty."
Mime hesitated, torn by doubt, before finally nodding. He knew he was a liability here. He didn't want to become a burden to the heroes he respected—heroes he had only just begun to idolize.
As he ran, uncertainty gnawed at him, wondering if fleeing was truly acceptable. Still, he forced himself onward.
"Good thing my son isn't here to watch you heroes die," the Magician sneered, aiming her wand at Sparrow and Mightyfly as Mirage Marionette slithered around her, coiling fiercely in defense.
"What in the world is that?" Sparrow asked, staring at the monstrous creature before glancing back at the Magician. "And when did she get a makeover?"
"That's an Amok," Mightyfly replied, earning an understandably confused look from Sparrow. "I'll explain later. But her transformation—and the way she's wielding that wand—there's no way she's akumatized. I have the Butterfly Miraculous."
"Huh?" Sparrow expressed confusion.
The Magician laughed softly. "Thank you for noticing the change. Now die, please—after handing over the Butterfly Miraculous."
She fired her wand, unleashing a crackling beam of electricity. Sparrow and Mightyfly leapt aside just in time—or so they thought. In reality, the beam struck Mightyfly squarely, sending him flying through the air.
Sparrow's confusion deepened until he noticed something far more unsettling—a nauseating distortion in the air, with objects phasing in and out of existence at random.
His gaze snapped back to Mirage Marionette, and realization struck him all at once.
"That thing is causing hallucinations, isn't it!?" Sparrow exclaimed.
"That's right," the Magician replied smugly. "My new powerful minion disguised my earlier attack. So instead of dodging it properly, that poor Mightyfly stepped straight into it. Such a hilarious trick, don't you think?" She grinned with confidence. "Care to see more?"
To demonstrate, the Magician flicked her wand toward a pile of teddy bears scattered across the floor. Instantly, the stuffed toys twitched, then sprang to life, their stitched faces contorting into manic laughter.
Each of them was rigged with explosives.
"How in the—!?" Sparrow blurted out. "Weren't you just a normal person a while ago!?"
"Fascinating, isn't it?" she purred. "This power—it feels like it's part of me. Vainastro called it a Quirk, Chaos Magic. I rather like it."
"Quirk?"
At that single word, Mightyfly jolted upright. His expression hardened.
The mysterious wielder of the Peacock Miraculous knew of Quirks—something that should not exist in this world at all. Even more troubling, this being was somehow granting villains Quirks through amoks.
Mightyfly stepped forward, his voice cold and resolute. "Vainastro, I know you can hear me through the Magician. Whoever you are, I will find you, and I will get answers! There's no way you should know what a Quirk is!"
The Magician froze briefly as Vainastro communicated with her. Then she turned back with a vicious smile. "Vainastro is confused," she said, "and he says you won't get in the way of his plans. And that I must take your Butterfly Miraculous—whatever it takes!"
"I'd like to see you try!"
The teddy bears charged toward Sparrow. He hurled multiple boomerangs in rapid succession, detonating several of them in fiery bursts. However, two bears remained concealed by the hallucinations.
When one suddenly appeared, Mightyfly dashed past Sparrow and swung his cane like a golf club, sending the explosive teddy bear hurtling straight into Mirage Marionette.
Sparrow shifted his focus to the amok as it hissed at him. He made a snap decision, flinging several more boomerangs, but Mirage Marionette shattered them all with ease.
Unseen, Sparrow delayed the throw of a final boomerang—one capable of automatically plotting its own trajectory. It curved midair and slammed into the amok's head, erupting in an explosion.
"You rat!" the Magician snarled, aiming her wand at Sparrow as electricity crackled along its length.
Unfortunately for her, Mightyfly leapt in front of him, spinning his cane at blinding speed and deflecting the electric beam.
He narrowly dodged a forward strike from Mirage Marionette—only to realize his mistake as the true amok became visible and the false illusion dissipated.
In the next instant, Mirage Marionette lashed its tail at him, hurling him across the sewers.
As Mirage Marionette pursued Mightyfly, Sparrow continued to evade the Magician's relentless electric blasts. He was forced to remain constantly aware of his surroundings as she animated more and more inanimate objects—dodging cannons that fired massive, sticky bubbles of gum and glittering bear traps that skittered after him.
"You're no match for me, little bird!" the Magician cried theatrically, firing beam after beam. "You're completely outclassed by someone with real superpowers!"
Sparrow chuckled, pulling two eskrima sticks from his waist. "You might be right," he said, "but you forgot one thing. I already fought supervillains before."
He pressed two hidden buttons and swung the sticks together. A powerful gust of wind erupted, blasting away the enchanted objects and sending the Magician stumbling back. Her wand slipped from her grasp and clattered across the ground.
Sparrow sprinted toward it.
Meanwhile, Mightyfly moved with eerie precision, dodging Mirage Marionette effortlessly with his eyes closed. He realized that sight only worsened the hallucinations; he had to rely on sound alone. The Miraculous enhanced all of his physical abilities, including his senses—something he had never fully trusted until now.
"I'm sorry," Mightyfly muttered, "but I don't have time for you."
He leapt toward a seemingly random wall. The false Mirage Marionette beneath him dissolved, while the real one snapped into view directly in his path.
Mightyfly swung his cane with devastating force, smashing the amok backward into the hideout.
He sprinted back at incredible speed, skidding to a halt as Sparrow was suddenly thrown toward him. Sparrow crashed to the ground, his clothes scorched and his body wracked with agony. Mightyfly moved to help him, only to dodge another electric beam at the last second.
The Magician laughed wildly, electricity crackling around her arms. "That foolish bird really thinks my power comes from the wand. It's just a conduit for the amok!" she crowed. "I can feel the Quirk pulsing deep within me!"