"Do you think Master Fu will like the cookies I made him, Tikki?"
"You're one of the best bakers in Paris, Marinette! He has to love them."
Marinette Dupain-Cheng walked through the nighttime streets of Paris, rounding the corner from her apartment as the streetlights turned on overhead. She passed the park and glanced up at the full moon over the fence, a box of cookies in hand. She'd come to memorize the path to Master Fu's place by now since her last two times there.
I never could have imagined how important that book I took from Adrien was. I thought my day was going to end with Lila walking away from Ladybug, angry that I hadn't made up for embarrassing her in front of him. Who could have guessed I'd been learning miraculous holder history from the guardian of a family of Kwamis? And what makes it stranger still is that there are more than one set of Kwamis. How many are there in that book? In the world?
"Marinette," Tikki's voice snapped her back to reality, "you're daydreaming again."
"Sorry. I was just thinking about everything Master Fu told us when we gave him the book," she turned another corner and started down a long, vacant road, "about miraculous' being here for thousands of years, of HawkMoth being a fellow miraculous holder, of the bee and the fox miraculous yet to find their holders, and even about the missing peacock miraculous. There's so much to take in I'm afraid my head might pop!"
"You'll get it all in time. How about Chat Noir? When should we tell him?"
"Sooner rather than later. We should both know what's going on. We just need to find him and bring him to Master-?"
She slipped behind a streetlight, placing her hand over Tikki's mouth as she peeked around. Three bulky guys with burglar masks over dark sweaters and pants were standing outside a small electronic store, looking into the windows where laptops were being displayed. After a moment they all nodded to one another.
Don't tell me I've stumbled upon a robbery in progress!
Sure enough, one of them pulled out some sort of thin tool and went to work at the door. It was only a few seconds later that the door clicked open, and they were in. Once they were all inside Marinette ran over, crawling under the window rim and watching them begin to bag all the laptops. She placed her finger over her mouth, motioning to Tikki to be quiet.
It's time for Ladybug to bust these baddies before they steal every-
"A-CHOO!" Tikki sniffled before slipping back into the purse. "Sorry, I couldn't hold it back!"
A shadow loomed over Marinette. She looked up to find one of the burglars staring down at her, arms crossed. She gave him a sheepish grin before standing and slowly backing away. "My bad. I was, uh, looking for my," she glanced at all the equipment inside, "…phone?"
Not good, she mentally smacked herself as the three burglars stepped out and blocked her way, how am I going to be able to get away and transform when they know I'm here?
"Looks as though we have a little sneak, boys," the middle burglar cracked his knuckles, "how about we make sure she doesn't give any of our surprises away."
She only had one last option. Slowly she held her box out before them. "Would you let me go for a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie?"
They moved towards her menacingly. "Okay," she nearly tripped backing up into the streetlights, "how about two? Each?"
Thump.
All four looked towards the electronic stores as a dark, caped figure landed on the sidewalk.
…Who on earth is he?!
When he stood she got a much better view of him, though it didn't make him any less intimidating. His suit was a dark, dark blue, just like the feathery cape he wore, wedged at the ends as it hugged his body, making him look thinner and taller. Black mesh covered the eyes of his mask as short brown curls clung to his tan forehead.
"What do we have here," the shorter burglar snickered, "a little kiddie looking to dress up like his favourite superhero? How cute." The three of them approached the figure, forgetting about Marinette as she clung to the streetlight pole. "Show him the ropes, boys."
Just as Marinette was about to make a run for it and find somewhere out of sight to transform, the figure darted towards the burglars. Before the middle one could react he knocked him back with an upper cut and sent him flying. Marinette ducked out of the way as he hit the streetlight and fell beside her, moaning.
"You little punk!" The biggest burglar threw a punch at the figure, who dodged and spun kick him in the gut. Without giving him a second to catch his breath he grabbed the burglar by the shoulders and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming him into the sidewalk.
He's fast-!
"Alright, buddy," the shorter burglar turned to Marinette and aimed a crow bar from his belt at her, "one more move and she gets it!"
The figures stood, staring intently at the burglar; from his throat came the eeriest croaking sound Marinette had ever heard. The burglar shivered. "Fine," he twisted his arm back, "you asked for it!" He whipped the crowbar at her, and from her own voice came the shrillest "eep" she'd ever made.
No time to dodge-!
She threw the cookie box in front of her head before it could it.
Clang!
"…," she opened her eyes to find the figure's cape spread out in front of her, the crowbar slipping down it to her feet, "you deflected it."
The figure grabbed a hook shot from his belt, a long, sharp beak on the end, and aimed at the burglar. Before he could run the beak shot out, wrapping around his arms and tying him up. The figure yanked back on the handle, throwing the burglar into the streetlight beside them and plopping him onto his buddy.
"That was amazing," Marinette praised him as he reeled the hook shot back, "but…who are you?"
The figure faced her. Then he reached his hand into her purse, pulling out Tikki by her antennae and holding the Kwami to her face. As she held Tikki in her hands he stepped back, aimed the beak to the roofs and flew off, vanishing over the shingles.
All without a single word.
That's right, it's a new Miraculous story, and guess who this new hero is based on? Someone a bit batty XD I've just been going with the flow with this one, ever since the fandom found out that there are more than just seven miraculous. It makes creating OC's that much better, thinking about how that can be integrated into the Zagtoon world. Here's hoping you readers enjoy this slightly shorter story, and here's to a new season in 2017!
Until the next chapter!