Author's Notes: Stride is an anime that I found that is structured around a sport that is basically a relay/parkour. The fastest relay racers get together to improve speed, endurance, and strength in order to set the fastest records on courses.

I've taken this concept and amped it up and twisted it a little. While Ladybug is known for doing team relays, she is most famous for her solo runs, which will be described later. Her runs are often heavy on the parkour and highly entertaining to her viewers. Alya helps design courses for the maximum amount of challenge while training for expert level courses like 'Inferno.'

"Mon DIEU!" Marinette jumped and immediately stabbed her finger with her sewing needle. She swore herself and quickly sucked on the injury to stint the bleeding as Alya barged into their shared dorm room, red-faced and impassionate.

"Wha's wong?" the raven-haired designer asked around her fingertip. Seeing her best friend excited about one thing or another was a daily occurrence, but to see her so incited was more uncommon.

"They broke it!" Alya burst out, glaring down at her new cell phone. Her hands shook as she continued to scroll through whatever post she was speed reading. Marinette frowned in confusion.

"Broke what? Who?"

"You haven't heard?! How could Ladybug not have heard-"

"Shhh!" Marinette flew out of her chair and quickly clamped her uninjured hand over the ombre red haired girl's mouth. She waited for only a second, her heart pounding in her ears. Once she was certain of Alya's silence, she dashed to their open door and quickly looked out into the hall to make sure no one had heard. There was no one in sight, and she didn't hear any racing footsteps in the stairwell. "Mère de Dieu, Alya! Do you want the whole house to hear?!" she hissed, mixing her French and English together as she shut the door firmly and tested its latch.

"Girl please," Alya rolled her eyes and flopped into the design student's vacated workstation. "You're the only one here, working I might add, on a Friday night! Girl, you're a beautiful twenty-two-year-old college student. You should be living it up and doin' what you love instead of being locked in here all damn day and night."

"Like Stride?"

"Exactly!" the journalism student threw her hands up in the air. "And it's something that you and I both enjoy, and we could be doing some major ass kicking tonight and setting new records-"

"I told you that you could partner with another runner," Marinette reminded her gently, feeling a pang of longing and remorse. "I have to finish this project before Monday morning, and I'm already behind."

Alya raised a slender eyebrow and lazily pointed her thumb to the designer's latest creation. "This is for Prof. Ardenes's class, isn't it?" she asked, a knowing undertone in her voice. Marinette folded her arms defensively. "Girl! You know you're his favorite student. He is forever telling you that he will grant an extension to any of your projects-"

"Alya, do you remember the last time Monsieur Ardenes gave me an extension?" Alya blinked, pausing in her tirade. "I was unable to stay awake for a whole week in his class and fell behind because we were training for Underground. When I asked for the extension, he was so concerned he emailed Grand-mère, and she flew here immediately. With a whole team of doctors! On her private jet!"

Alya shivered, remembering Zyah Cheng quite well. The woman was from a deeply traditional Chinese family and was fiercely over protective over her granddaughter. It didn't help that Zyah's side of the family was not only old but highly respected and had deep pockets. Like, so deep that if she tried to touch the bottom of one of those pockets, she'd fall in and probably never hit bottom for at least ten years. Marinette was Zyah's only grandchild and heir to the Cheng fashion empire, and she was determined to keep her coveted heiress as healthy and perfect as possible. It had taken Marinette getting caught, multiple times, sneaking out before the old bat finally realized that her talented designer protegee was not a tiny child anymore.

During this entire trip down memory lane, Marinette had recounted every single painful detail of the experience that all sparked with Prof. Brown-noser's 'concerned for her health' email.

"Alya, are you even listening to me!?"

Honey brown eyes met summer sky blue ones as Alya held up her phone. On the screen was a black banner with neon green writing:

Cataclysm on Inferno's 2 year Record

Marinette's breath caught in her chest. Inferno was an expert Stride course that she and Alya had trained for over a year and a half to beat, let alone set a record for. Sure their time had been challenged over and over again, and there had been a few close calls, but no one had ever broken it. That was two years ago, she thought as she took the device and pulled up the times.

CHTNR 26:59- Number of Tries: 1

LDYBG: 30:00 Number of Tries: 5

"Mon Dieu," Marinette breathed. "Are you sure?"

Alya nodded, "There was an official ref there to time him. There's more."

"More?"

"Flip to the next page."

Marinette glanced down, and sure enough, there was a neon green cat paw pointing to the right. She tapped it and watched as a video swiftly loaded. A boy with startling sunshine blond hair filled the screen. He wore a black, sleeveless hooded sweatshirt with cat ears sewn on top. They were also lined with green fabric and neon green piping down the sides and around the arm holes. Half of his face was painted black, and it made his green eyes pop out of the darkness. He was peeking up over a pair of dark sunglasses, grinned and winked. "LB, I know you'll see this eventually. I have a message for you." The boy leaned forward towards the camera and Marinette felt her shoulders tense in response. "Eat your heart out."

The video looped suddenly and the clip replayed again, and again... Marinette barely saw it. But she heard his parting phrase in her ears. "Eat your heart out."

Fury slowly started to color the edges of her vision with a red haze. "U-um... Mari...? Can I have my phone back?" Marinette raised her head and realized just how tightly she was gripping her friend's cell phone. The plastic creaked under her grip, making the ombre girl obviously nervous. It wasn't the first time Marinette had broken something with her bare hands. She offered the device back, and Alya snatched it up before the raven-haired girl could change her mind.

"I don't recognize him," her tone was cool and sounded collected, but it made Alya sit up straighter. "Who is he?"

Alya instantly began rattling off the competitor's stats and basic information that she got off of the Stride International website. "His name is Chat Noir; he's twenty-three and a Paris boy if his profile's accurate. He just popped out of the blue! Everyone I've asked so far from Gamer to Climatika have never heard, nor seen him, before this. But with that time... I don't know where he's been hiding, but he's becoming an overnight superstar. The dude has talent, you should see his footage from his run."

Turning to her closet, Marinette opened the squeaky wooden door swiftly and reached into the back of her closet to retrieve a familiar looking workout duffle bag. When she turned around again, she saw that Alya still hadn't moved. "What are you doing?" Honey eyes blinked in confusion as if Marinette had suddenly spoken in Chinese. For a moment, Marinette wondered if she had and recounted her question mentally. No, she was sure she had spoken English. "Wifi, go get changed. We're going out."

Alya instantly brightened and literally jumped into the air. "YES! Scoping out the competition!"

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCK

Though truth to tell, I'm not sure how long... the reason being is that I've had storm upon storm on me (not literally) that has me literally running from one task to another. Work, school, work, work, home, work, family, work, sleep, work, study, study, work, study, try not to be sick... you get the jist.

I am returning to my other fics. But as you know, plots doth run RAMPANT

I hope you enjoyed part 1 of this short story. I'm planning maybe 5 chapters for this one..? Possibly? Not 100% yet, but I will mark it for 5 for right now.

Also, you may note a recurring theme of my Marinette having a strict grandmother named Zyah Cheng. I haven't been able to completely finish this headcanon yet. It's a work in progress and you'll see it used in 'Wished at Midnight' and hear it mentioned in 'Strut for Me my Love'

See you in the pages!

-Kestra