So I have started writing a miracusona story. Bask in its complete ridiculousness. Have you basked yet? No? Good. I didn't think you would. Please excuse my stupidity and try to enjoy Magical Girls . . . Kind of.

Magical Girls. . . Kind of

Helen Burns smiled as the midday sun warmed her face. It was a beautiful summer afternoon, her best friend Will was annoying a nearby food vendor about the source of his wares, and she had only two weeks more until school started back up. Tenth grade was going to be really great! She couldn't wait to start her special effects makeup class and completely blow the teacher away with her skills. At least, she hoped so.

As she listened to Will's voice gain anger and volume as he didn't get the answers he was looking for, Helen laughed softly to herself. Some things never changed. Will was actually the reason neither of them were allowed back to the bowling alley, after an argument about how clean the shoes were made the manager mad.

Helen was so preoccupied with listening to Will's argument –they'd have to find somewhere else to eat after this, she was certain –that she nearly missed a little old man hobble along and fall into the path of an oncoming bicycle. But she did see him, so she leaped from the bench and dove toward him, pulling him out of harm's way. The angry cyclist dinged his little bell at them as he pedaled past, but Helen didn't pay him any attention. He should have slowed down!

"Are you alright, sir?" she asked, violet eyes filled with concern. "Do you need me to call someone?"

The man shook his head. "No thank you. That was very brave, what you did."

Helen waved it off. "It was nothing. Anyone would have done the same. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm quite fine, miss. Thank you."

He hobbled off as Will came jogging toward her, two subs in hand. Huh. He must've won the argument after all.

Arion Moore looked at the water and sighed. It was a pity that his parents didn't want him swimming in the harbor. Sure, Crimson Bay wasn't the cleanest city in all of California, but it was better than most! He'd even tried to get a job manning a gondola, but his parents would have none of it. He was only allowed to swim in the public pool, where Wisteria's –Wisty, she liked to be called –swim team held their practices.

"Ari!" said swimmer called from the water below. "Come on! It won't bite!"

Arion shook his head, his black bangs falling into his face. "Sorry, Wisty! Mom and Dad will kill me if I jump in!"

The girl rolled her sapphire eyes. "Your loss," she yelled back before diving under the water.

He watched her swim around for a little while longer, amazed at how fast she could swim. Arion would have happily spent the rest of his day just hanging out with his best friend, but luck would have it that things wouldn't go as planned.

An elderly man stumbled near the edge of the water, threatening to fall in. Arion shot toward the man like a dart, pulling him away from what would have been an awful disaster.

"Sir, are you alright?" he asked as he righted the man.

The elderly gentleman nodded, tearing his eyes away from the water and aiming them at Arion. "I'm fine, thanks to you."

"Seriously, though, are you okay enough to get to where you're going on your own? Because I can help you get there if you want. I don't want you to fall into a canal later on," he insisted.

The man brushed it off. "I'm sure I can get there by myself. Thank you for your concern, though."

As the senior walked away, he left a dumbfounded Arion in his wake. What had just happened? And why did it feel like this was the start of something he wasn't sure he wanted?

When Helen got home that evening, she collapsed onto her bed and groaned. Ugh, she was going to regret staying out all day. She could feel the sunburn already. Time to go find the aloe. After forcing herself to stand back up, Helen noticed something was different about her nearby desk. There was her makeup kit, her model on which to sculpt faces, and her tablet filled with drawings and ideas for creatures. But there was something else, too.

An old box with a red pattern on the top sat among her things.

Curious, Helen picked it up and opened it. Inside rested a necklace with a wing-shaped pendant, five white feathers carved into the black metal. Well, it was very pretty, but where had it come from? Thinking maybe her mother had salvaged it from her parents' antique shop, Helen clasped it around her neck. The most amazing thing happened next.

A pale grey orb of light burst to life in front of her, spinning and vanishing to reveal a tiny bird-like creature with a black mask over its eyes, like a swan. And then it talked.

"You must be my new cygnet!" it chirped happily.

Helen did the only thing she could do in that situation.

She fainted.

When Arion got home, he ignored his parent's plea to come watch TV with them, choosing instead to go to his room. Today had been seriously strange. Wisty had acted like the old guy he saved hadn't even existed! What was with that? She didn't normally pull pranks like this; she usually just put plastic wrap on things he was going to use.

He was so caught up in his thoughts, in fact, that he barely noticed the box sitting on his desk. But Arion did eventually notice it, and when he did, he opened it up. Inside rested a bracelet with a silver band along the worn leather strap. Carved into the metal were five stylized water droplets, all a royal blue. It wasn't his usual style –of say, no jewelry –but Arion couldn't deny that it had his interest. If it was a gift from his parents, then they were probably saying sorry for the Summer of No Swimming ™. If a creep broke into his house and left it there, then that seemed fairly self-explanatory, however unlikely. Shrugging to himself, Arion tied the bracelet around his wrist. He felt a charge in the air, as if something big was about to happen. An instant later, he realized what that something was.

A blue orb of light, matching the hue of the water drops, appeared before him. It spun and swirled, revealing a tiny floating dolphin-like creature. It smiled –how can a dolphin smile? –at him, making a happy little dolphin call before it completely shattered Arion's world.

"You're my chosen, right? I'm Iniidae, your kwami!" it chittered.

Arion sat down hard onto his bed. This was not happening. This was not happening. This was not happening. There was a tiny flying aqua-blue dolphin speaking English in his bedroom. Well, he'd better go and get his parents to check him into the funny farm; obviously he'd gone off the deep end.

He hadn't realized he was talking out loud until the dolphin thing, Iniidae, responded.

"Oh, please don't go to the farm! I hate farms; they never have enough water for sea mammals. I can't just go around in a fish bowl, you know!"

Arion looked at the dolphin with wide sea-green eyes. Was that thing seriously real? "W-what are you?" he forced between his teeth.

Iniidae blinked his enormous eyes at the teen. "I told you!" he said. "I'm a kwami! I help you turn into a superhero to fight bad guys. Vipera has been turned evil, so the Master decided to give us to new Miraculous Wielders!"

Arion nodded slowly. "So . . . you want me to be a superhero?"

The dolphin nodded. "Yes! Will you do it?"

He thought to himself for a few moments. Well, there were three choices here: he accepted and became an actual superhero, he accepted and later discovered he was delusional, or he declined and never took the chance to become something great. There was really only one choice he wanted to make.

"Alright. I'll be your hero. But do I get a cool name?"

"Cygnet! Please wake up!" a tiny chirpy voice called through the sleepy haze that trapped Helen's mind. "I didn't mean to scare you!"

Cygnet? Who was Cygnet? Forcing one eye open first, then another, the girl stared up at a fuzzy little blob of white. She blinked a few times, clearing her vision. Oh no. So it wasn't a dream.

A tiny swan was flying about a foot from her face, though its wings didn't flap at all. Two stringy feeler-like things extended from where its wings met its body. Did she mention it was talking? Because it was talking.

"I'm so sorry!" it pleaded in a distinctly feminine voice. "I didn't mean to scare you, cygnet!"

"W-who's Cygnet?" Helen managed to ask. Then she mentally slapped herself. Really? That was the first question she asked?

The bird chuckled in a light voice. "Cygnet is what a baby swan is called. I call all of my chosen cygnet, unless they don't want me to. Let's start over; I'm Ollor! I'm a kwami, and I want you to be my new Swan. You'll get to fight evil and be loved by the whole city! But please accept soon; Vipera is getting stronger by the day and Iniidae's calf can't do it all on their own."

"Fight evil?" she echoed. "Save the city? I can't do all that! I'm just a makeup artist!"

"But with my help, you can be more! You can be a hero!" Ollor bribed. "Please, cygnet?"

"My name is Helen," she corrected. "And . . . I'm not sure. I never really wanted to be a hero."

"But you were chosen for a reason! Please, Helen? Do it for your city! Do you really want everyone to become victim to an evil snake?"

Well, if that was all . . . No, Helen already knew what her answer was. There was no choice she could make that would keep her out of this completely, so she only had one real option.

"Fine. I'll do it. But I want to pick my own name."

Ollor gave a happy -yet-hoarse trumpeting noise as she flew around the girl. "Oh, thank you cy- I mean, Helen. You won't regret this!

Helen was pretty sure she already did.

So, there's my first chapter! I've got twenty more planned, so be on the lookout! Also, I wanted to mention something up front: You guys can use any akuma (or colubra, as they'll be called in this fic) I ever create. I know how much I personally hate coming up with them, so if I can save anyone that trouble even once, it'll be worth it. Just don't use any fight scenes I write –those are difficult for me to write, and I'd rather not have anyone plagiarize my work. But go ahead and use as many of my akumas as you'd like. They're free for the taking! Thanks for reading!

~C