Chapter 1: Part 1 Chapter1: Paranoia is in bloom
"It's totally weird—Marinette, are you even listening to me?" Marinette looked over at Alya. She had been staring at Adrien with a smile on her face. She blushed fumbled with her purse strap.
"What were you talking about?" she asked.
"In the last week, three famous teenagers have gone missing!" Alya said pulling up the stories on her phone. Aurore Beauréal, Mireille Caquet, and a young female model named Deidre Lefevre who had piercing gray eyes and silver blonde hair.
"Do they have anything in common?" Marinette asked.
"Well, they were both akumatized," Alya said, "Deidre just the day before, after she was humiliated at a fashion show, remember?"
— —
It was an exclusive fashion show, and Marinette's parents were providing the food for the guests and make-up artists. Marinette had begged to be allowed to tag along, and was happily passing out sweets dressed in a white dress shirt, light yellow vest, and a pair of black pants.
"Getting in work experience for your future career, Marinette?" Marinette resisted the urge to rise to the bait whenever she saw Chloe was there. Of course she was. Even though this show was being held in Hotel Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel, and not her father's hotel, somehow the blonde menace was still present. Marinette ignored Chloe as she walked away tittering with her terrible laugh.
"I am glad I don't work at the Grand Hotel," an employee of the Pullman said. A maid walking past as Marinette made a return trip to the kitchen to refill in treats shuddered.
"I worked at that hotel for two months and that girl is horrible," she said, "And she also is constantly a target to akuma!"
"Little wonder why," a waitress said as she too loaded up on pastries. Marinette bit back a grin. She returned to the main event in the ballroom as the show was starting. Marinette hovered around the sides as everyone stared at the runway that had been set up and she dreamed about having her own show one day.
It would have awesome music, great lights, and—She snapped out of it when she heard an outraged shriek. She was just so surprised whenever she saw Chloe was the source. So shocked. Really she was. Best Marinette could tell was someone had spilled something on Chloe's hideous yellow jacket causing her to flail and her drink sloshed out. The shriek and the drink was a bad combination as it sent the next model onto her butt. Deidre sat stunned. She'd never fallen before. Ever.
"What a clumsy idiot," Chloe said cruelly trying to get the attention off herself and onto Deidre, and her cruel laughter worked. Marinette was surprised to see a blond head moving through the crowds until she wasn't. Adrien. He climbed onto the runway and offered Deidre a hand up. The other model took it before she tore down the runway crying.
"What's your problem, Chloe?" Adrien said once he hopped down, "Can't you—." Whatever he was asking about her ability to do something was cutoff whenever more screams erupted from backstage. The curtains were blown away whenever a pair of clacking heals was heard.
Wearing a dress that should have been impossible to move in was someone with hair done up in a pair of buns with trailing pigtails, silvery skin, and massive heeled boots that had heels and platforms at least 9 inches tall. Around her neck was a choker with a pendant on it.
"I'm Run-Way, and you won't be able run away from me, Chloe!"
"What does this always happen to me oh-ho-ho-hoho," Chloe sobbed as people scattered away from her.
"Gee, I wonder!" a waiter near Marinette said as they ran for cover. Something she needed to do too. She found a corner to hid in.
"Tikki, Spots On!"
— — —
Ladybug dashed out only to fall on her butt. She saw the other people were in the same dire straights.
"I'd say we're in a slippery situation, My Lady," Chat Noir said from a table nearby. He extended his staff helping Ladybug up.
"She makes the floors slippery?" Ladybug said.
"More like she re-mew-ved the furr-riciton from the ground," Chat Noir said. Ladybug heard a familiar wail and lo and behold Chloe was slipping and scrambling away from Run-Way, who was still walking on those heals as if the ground were normal.
"I believe the akuma's in her necklace," Chat Noir said pointing to the blackened six pointed pendant on the choker.
"What makes you say that?" Ladybug said before they had to avoid an attack from Run-Way via a boomerang shoe. Huh. Didn't see that everyday. Honestly, who throws a shoe?
"If miaow intuition is correct, that is the model Chloe humiliated on the chat-walk, and Deidre always wears the same pendant during fashion shows because it's her signature," Chat Noir said.
"Is the kitty a secret fashion junkie?" Ladybug teased.
"I have many hidden depths, My Lady," Chat Noir said before he blocked a shoe back at Run-Way.
"Hand over your Miraculous!" she yelled.
"No. We'd pre-fur you bring your attacks to a heel if you could!" Chat Noir said.
"ARRG!"
"Nothing more to say? Chat got your tongue or are you going for brevity being the sole of wit?" Ladybug noticed every surface she hit with the shoes became frictionless. At the rate things were going, she and Chat Noir would be out of areas to land.
"Lucky Charm!" she said tossing her yo-yo in the air as the last pair of chairs were hit and sent the heroes to the floor. The light cleared revealing a bottle of dish-soap.
"What can I do with this?" Ladybug said.
"I know!" Chat Noir said, "We need water though." Ladybug looked around.
"Slide over there and use cataclysm on the fire alarm system," she said. Chat Noir nodded before he aimed his staff at the stage and used it to propel himself away from Run-Way's stomp. He hit the wall.
"Cataclysm!" he slammed his right hand into it and while the alarms going off were loud, the desired effect of the sprinklers activating occurred.
"Oh! Like a waterslide!" Ladybug realized and let loose a large stream of dish-soap and aimed her yo-yo at a chandelier to get clear of Run-Way temporarily.
"It won' work! These heels are guaranteed no-slip!" Run-Way yelled.
Releasing her yo-yo from the chandelier once she was in the air and then entangling Run-Way's body and pulling making her fall in spite of her no-slip heels. Ladybug landed on top of Run-Way and ripped the pendant off and snapped it in her hand. She quickly retracted her yo-yo.
"No more evil doing for you, little akuma. Time to de-evilize!" she skid off Run-Way and caught the akuma.
"Gotcha! Bye-bye, little butterfly," she said. She aimed her yo-yo at the bottle and pulled it back to herself.
"Miraculous Ladybug!" she said as she tossed it in the air. Everything was restored and so was Deidre.
Chat Noir held up a fist,
"Air Pound it!" he said. Ladybug smiled,
"Air Pound it!" she looked down and saw the akuma vessel was by her foot.
Ladybug picked up the now silver snowflake pendant. She offered a hand to help Deidre up and placed the pendant in her hands once they were both standing.
"It's not fun when someone ruins things," she said, "Sometimes you have to be the bigger person, even when it's hard."
"Thank you, Ladybug," Deidre said.
"And between you and me, I think you have a great career as a model," Ladybug said.
— —
"Anyone else missing?" Marinette asked.
"Well in the last month four other famous teenagers who were akumatized while in Paris also went missing. There was Raphael Di'Angelo, the famous Italian pop-star who became the "Prince of Pop," that ballet prodigy boy, Marcel Jete who became the "Demon Dancer", there was a popular You-Tube star who should have won the Paris Talent show, but someone had the votes skewed so his daughter won. Anyway, his name was Jean-Louis Dassier and he became "Justice Warrior". Finally there was an Olympic Gymnast, Hector Martin who became the "Tumblr." All missing, all former victims. Not only that but missing persons in general are up in the last month. Close to fifty extra people are missing not counting these seven!"
"Maybe the two aren't related," Marinette said.
"Before we got our own team of superheroes, I might have believed that, but something in my gut is telling me this is something!" Alya said.
"Like when you thought Chloe was Ladybug?"
"You're not going to let that go. This is different!"
"Any other famous teenage akuma victims still in Paris?" Marionette said after a moment.
"None that are traditionally famous aside from Chloe," Alya said, "Nino is potentially a target too, and so am I because we're technically C list celebrities. Me for the Ladyblog and him for his appearances on the gameshow."
"C list? I thought you had bumped yourself up to B-list?" Marinette said.
"After that Lila debacle, I had to post retractions. I can't believe I did that! I acted like some tabloid writer and not the journalist I want to be!" Alya said, "I was a laughing stock amongst the other Ladybug blogs for a week. Ladybug probably thinks I'm a gullible moron."
"I doubt that," Marinette said, "Though, maybe you were a bit over eager to believe her like most everyone else was."
"Next time it's pics or it didn't happen," Alya vowed as she smacked her right fist down on her open left palm.
"Sounds good to me," Marinette said with a smile.
"So, we need to find a pattern among the other people too," Alya said.
"We?" Marinette said.
"Sorry, I mean me," Alya said.
"How many of the other extra 50 are akuma victims?" Marinette said.
"I don't know, but that's a great place to start looking!" Alya said before she ran off.
"Alya! What about class?"
— —
Marinette ate her lunch playing with most of her food. It was troubling to think famous akuma victims were being target. It was even more troubling to think Alya would be targeted too.
"Everything ok at school?" Sabine asked.
"Everything's great, Maman, it's just Alya stuff," Marinette said before she actually ate her lunch. She was starving.
"Don't forget, tonight your father and I are going out for dinner," Sabine said.
"I'll be home on time to watch the bakery I promise," Marinette said, "Thanks Maman!"
— —
"There is no pattern!" Alya said making Marinette jump and scream. They were on the steps leading into the school.
"What?"
"Those other 50. No pattern!" she said.
"No akuma victims in them either?" Marinette asked.
"Not that I could tell, wait," Alya scrolled through something on her phone.
"Are those police files?" Marinette asked.
"Max owed me a favor and helped me get into their server—ah! None of these people are akuma victims. That's puzzling. Why go for seven famous akuma victims and then go for regular people. There's something I'm looking at here but I can't figure it out," Alya said with a frown.
"I'm sure you can do it," Marinette said. Something about this was unsettling for the good luck powered heroine, something she just couldn't put her finger on. She had a bad feeling about this whole thing.